Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to invest in more wardrobe pieces that could be worn with lolita as well as with my daily style. Discovering the shoe company Bait Footwear helped immensely with that transition. I got my first pair of Iones (in Fairy Pink!) in the spring/summer of 2015. They quickly became a staple of my lolita wardrobe since the pink color went well with the majority of my dresses.
Another reason that I love Bait is because the majority of their shoes are vegan friendly and it’s stated very clearly on the item description. For years I was always buying cheap shoes at Payless or small chain stores at the mall since those tend to be vegan. You do get what you pay for and those shoes never lasted very long, weren’t very comfortable, and didn’t come in a large variety of styles. Bait offers a huge assortment of shoe styles and many of the shoes come in a large array of colors as well. I find myself wearing the Ione and Ida shoes quite often since they come in many pastel shades that work well with my wardrobe.
Bait shoes may not look like traditional sweet lolita shoes, but I think they can work well with the lolita aesthetic. There are a lot of styles that work particularly well with less sweet leaning outfits, like the shoes below.
I’ve accumulated a good collection of Bait shoes over the past 6 months and I’m very happy with the fit and quality of all the shoes. A few of the older styles I’ve tried have run small but all the newer ones fit true to size. I think the most comfortable shoes for me are the Ione and Roberta. All of my Bait shoes have stood up well to daily wear. I’m not always the most graceful and I did manage to scrape a decent size piece of patent off of my pink Ione shoes, but it’s hardly noticeable after fixing it with some pink nail polish. I’ve had those shoes the longest and probably wear them the most so I think they’ve stood up really well to what I put them through!
Bait Footwear shoes can also be found on other websites such as ModCloth, Doll Me Up, and Unique Vintage. I like ordering straight from Bait since they have the fastest shipping (especially if you’re located on the west coast). Sometimes they will be sold out of the style or size I want though so it’s nice to check the other websites to see if they have any. There are stockists in other countries too, so I’d suggest looking around if you want to order some but don’t want to pay high international shipping prices.
Now that you’ve seen a lot of examples of my outfits incorporating Bait shoes, what do you think? Are they good with lolita fashion? Do you think you’ll try them out in a lolita outfit?
You can see more of my outfits with Bait shoes on my Instagram. And if you already own some Bait shoes, be sure to tag Bait Footwear on your Instagram posts and use the hashtag #baitfootwearbabe!
I’m often tempted to buy BAIT shoes for lolita, especially since I also wear pinup clothes, but honestly I don’t trust US shoe sizing. I love your Dolly Cat coord though. 🙂 I reliably wear 25.5 in Japanese shoes and 41 in Euro/Chinese sizes–I have no idea what size to get because the few US shoes I own range from 8.5 WW to 10M…most are 10s but sometimes I find I really need a 9/9.5!
I usually wear a 26 in Japanese and 42 in Chinese sizing and almost all BAIT shoes fit me in a size 10. Their listings usually say if they run small or not and that has been pretty accurate for me! For the most part only older styles have run a bit small for me. Hope that helps!