Lolita 52: Favourite hair style

This one is an easy one! Plaits and braids are my number one go-to hairstyle. I mean, aesthetically I love half updos with loose curls, victory rolls, hime bumps, and all of that but as far as a hair style I actually like to use it is plaits and braids all the way. I have very fly-away hair and things tend to get messy very quickly if I don’t keep the main restrained! Of course, just natural loose hair with lolita is something that I really enjoy as well and what's great is I recently go my hip-length hair chopped to shoulder blade level so I can do this again without becoming Cousin It!

My most common lolita hairstyle is simply two plaits, generally with bows at the end. It’s simple, looks nice and most of all – it’s easy to do. I don’t have a lot of patience with my hair! Plaits like this were especially good when I the purple balayage because it showcased the colour nicely...and now that it's shorter their cute because they frame my face nicely!

Me with my purple glory.

Another variation I enjoy is a crown braid, though for this I used to cheat and just wrap two plaits around my head. It’s only in the last couple of years that I had long enough hair to do this easily and I loved it... but I'll be going back to actually braiding now!The only downside is that having the hair up, given that I don’t tend to go for very large hair accessories, my head can sometimes look a little small compared to my petticoat inflated skirt with this style!

Lastly, a style I’ve only worn out once but that I intend to again if my newly shorn hair can manage it is looped braids. Unsurprisingly, this also starts with two plaits but looping them up is super cute and a bit doll-like. It’s certainly an old-fashioned kind of hairstyle and I really like how it look with classic outfits. And hey, if I can't do it with my natural hair I can do it with a wig!

Do you have a favourite, go-to hairstyle for lolita?

When in doubt, wear red; Tartan Check outfits

I will admit that over time I've come to appreciate Baby, the Stars Shine Bright as a brand more and more. The pieces I have from them are just so very lolita, if that makes any sense at all!

Recently I put together three new coordinates with my delightful Tartan Check "Mini Sleeves" JSK from BTSSB. I completely forgot to take a close shot of the fabric, which is how I typically start these kind of posts, so let's get straight into the outfits!

The first direction I took it is in a bit eye-hurting, I'll admit, especially because I would wear pink tights with this too! I enjoy the combination of pink and red quite a bit, and I think this particular look turned out really cute. In your face, to be sure, but cute.

This next look is also very bright, but I feel not adding pink keeps it a bit more restrained despite the excessive amount of red. I would so totally wear this outfit though - I love how vibrant and casual it is, while still being very lolita.

Lastly I tried to tone it down rather than embrace the colour, and though this coordinate is nice (and uses some new wardrobe additions!) I'm a bit ambivalent towards it. I feel like this JSK needs to be worn in either an oldschool or a gloriously quirky way to really shine - in this outfit it's jsut coming across as a little bland. Still nice though, don't get me wrong, just not exciting and I'm at a point where I like these flat-lays I come up with the be at least moderately exciting!

Project 333 Take 3

Believe it or not, I've been working on this hypothetical Project 333 inspired lolita capsule wardrobe since I posted the last one. Speaking of that last one, I wasn't so pleased with how versatile it turned out - yes, it was thematically diverse but not in terms of colour or even really style overall. So this wardrobe was a long time in the works as I tweaked and tweaked and tried to come up with something that was varied in theme, colour and style...and in the end, I think I did a pretty good job!

For this wardrobe I really made myself relax and picked things that worked together on colours while not focusing on theme so much. Buuuut...I ended up going fairly floral again, though it wasn't really intentional! Mostly I just tried to have thing be cohesive rather than matching, and tried to work in some quirkier pieces to make the wardrobe feel like it could go in unexpected directions and wasn't just same old, same old. Things like having the pair of ouji shorts and that epic Axes Femme gobelin jacket really helped lift this wardrobe up, I think.

And naturally, I had to put together some outfits for each main piece to show everything in action and honestly I think this is my best attempt at a capsule wardrobe yet!

See, I can do non-florals! Both the print and underbust cut made this JSK a bit of an outlier in the wardrobe, which I thought was pretty good. And these outfits provide both colour and seasonal variety.

This JSK allowed for even more variance in the coords. I really loved using the bowler hat - it gives a bit of otome-style quirk to some of the outfits! But as you can see in the two right-most coordinates, you can really vary what you do with this JSK in this particular wardrobe.

Style-wise, this wardrobe is on the sweeter end of classic for he most part, and this is definitely the sweetest main piece of all! So mostly I ran with sweet looks overall here. I actually really love the wintery look on the bottom left - so cosy!

This Innocent World OP I chose because, even though it's not OTT, it is a bit out there with it's very Victorian sleeves. This gives me such strong Anne of Green Gables vibe to be honest - puffed sleeves! But still, it can be worn in a few ways, from otome quirk to full blown lolita to fairly simple.

For this wardrobe I also tried to not depend so heavily on JSKs, though I still think they are the best and most versatile style of main piece, so here we have a second OP - this time plain and short sleeved. It can be dressed up or down, and the colour makes it both simple and noteworthy. I know, I know, cream is not really the most wearable colour but I think that's what makes this dress a really valuable inclusion to the wardrobe - it's a non-obvious statement piece that relies on colour, rather than cut or print.

Next, we have something that is really a stretch for me - ouji (or kodona, whatever...let's perhaps just call it boystyle). I figured if I really wanted to make this wardrobe as diverse as possible, they warranted an inclusion. Boystyle is pretty freaking cool, and the simple inclusion of this one pair of pants gives the hypothetical wearer something casual and comfortable and different to wear.

And then last of all some outfits featuring the lone skirt. This skirt is simple, but still quite elegant, and it certainly lends itself to a good range of outfits from super toned down to very lolita.

I think where I managed to succeed in this wardrobe is that though it is very versatile and you can get a range of looks from it, there aren't really any statement pieces (except, perhaps, the gobelin jacket). You can pull statement looks, to be sure, but even the cream OP that I called a "statement piece" doesn't make you go "wow", though some of the outfits might! Of course, to some this may make this wardrobe seem boring but to me it makes it really exciting. There's no "this is the OTT dress that can be worn to be super fancy" or "this is the casual skirt for relaxed outfits" - to differing extents each piece can be worn in dressier or more causal ways by virtue of the accompanying pieces rather than the main pieces themselves. And that's what I love in a lolita wardrobe!

Lolita 52: Something that’s not my style, but I love anyways

Two things immediately pooped to mind for this: regular sweet lolita and EGL! Neither are something I’d be comfortable wearing outside of a photoshoot but that I really, really love to see on other people.

By “regular” sweet lolita I mean basically anything that is pastelly with cute motifs. Dark coloured sweet, including things like chocolate prints, is fine, as is pastels in floral themes. Also oldschool sweet is something I’m fine with. But adorable AP pastel vomit? Silly cutesy Metmorphose prints? Circa 2008 OTT sweet? Early noughties simple sweet where white blouses and lace topped OTKs dominated? I adore those aesthetics but they are so very, very, very not me!

GLB scan from http://devoncuppycakes.tumblr.com

EGL doesn’t need much explanation as to what I mean, but the reasons it’s not my style is because I have this weird inability to do goth, in any of its forms. I own a lot of black clothes, and many pieces that are typically goth, I really enjoy a lot of gothic styling and aesthetics, and I think I have a pretty good grasp of coordinating outfits, lolita and otherwise but goth…just eludes me! I really don’t know what it is so any variation of gothic fashion, including EGL, remains something I try to pull off for photoshoots, but that’s it. And even then I don’t tend to look very goth-y, just like I’m wearing black!

Mana in all his glory.

This post made me realise once again how much I love lolita. I adore the huge range of substyles we have to choose from and how that, though there are certain looks I don’t feel comfortable in there are plenty that I do. And what doesn’t work for me works for lotsof other girls so I get to live vicariously through those who can enjoy what I can’t! 

Cream and brown; Classical Bustle outfits

As your surely expect of me I've put together three flat-lay outfits with my newest main piece; Innocent World's Classical Bustle JSK in brown.

This JSK is really, really beautiful. It's definitely a fancier piece than I tend to buy, but it's good to have at least one dressy dress! I like how it's a bit old school, but not in a limiting kind of way. There is a lot of detail to it - the bows, the laces and or course, the bustle at the back as well as the open-style front.

First I went with a very straightforward look - more cream, brown and floral themes. Also, this is the most IW coordinate I can pull together, I even included the two-way clip that I got at the swap meet for extra IW points!

Next, I wanted to go a bit more casual, inasmuch as you can with a JSK like this. Can I just point out here that I am now even more chuffed with the new BTSSB headbow than I already was - it matches my other burgundy items! I am all for versatility, but I also love having good matching base sets, so to speak, even if I don't always use them as a set. And this headbow just elevated my burgundy base quite nicely!

For this last outfit... first of all don't ask how I managed to mess up the photo... I don't even know... what is composition?

On the coordinate itself, I thought peach was another good option, and it is. I would wear this is solid dark brown tights and beyond that I don't have much commentary on this outfit. It's certainly nice, but it doesn't quite spark my interest the way the other two do.

February auctions haul

I know that it seems like I’ve been buying a lot of stuff, with this being posted so soon after my Lolita Desu lucky pack review, but that was technically ordered in December so I’m not really that much of a shopaholic…right? But anyhow, here is a little haul I’ve made recently from Yahoo Japan via Buyee. This actually arrived last week before I went to the swap meet, but I wanted to post about the meet first!

One of these things is not like the others…

I got a lot of little things this time around, and it turned out to be a very Angelic Pretty focused sweet lolita haul…

Starting off with the thing that is the most unexpected; AP jewellery (and a Milk hairclip)! Part of me loves sweet loves Angelic Pretty plastic jewellery but unless I become a heck of a lot richer it is not something I would ever buy new, or even at most secondhand prices. But I won this set at 1400 yen, which was not unreasonable at all (though still a bit frivolous, I admit, especially when you factor in shipping and fees on top of it). It is a bit ridiculous, I know, but black and pink is one of my favourite colour combinations and I have absolutely nothing like these pieces in my jewellery collection.

Then we have the pieces that started it all, Candy Fun Fair OTKS and a Melty Chocolate headbow. Even though I really don’t need them, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a pair of OTKS to match Jurassic Party, and since I like pairing that skirt with pink these seemed like a good option. And the headbow was cute so I figured why not? Admittedly, from the sellers photos I couldn’t tell if the headbow was pink and black or pink and brown, though I eventually figured from stock photos it was the former. But I’d have been happy with either so it wasn’t a big deal that I couldn’t tell!

From socks to more socks I also bought a bulk lot of assorted OTKS. In the end I am only keeping the Metamorphose Sweet Cherry pair and the Jane Marple ones on the far right...though how cute are the Baby and IW pairs?

Then from socks to…even more socks? That’s right, I am vaguely obsessed with lolita OTKS. This pair, Angelic Pretty’s Ribbon Ribbon Going Out OTKS, was just too cute to pass up!

At last, we have something not sock related, but still distinctly in sweet lolita territory like nearly everything else in this order…two pairs of Angelic Pretty wristcuffs! One pair is Melty Chocolate (I’m really on a theme here, aren’t I?) and I’m not sure about the pink pair but they sure are adorable. Since I did have adding pink wristcuffs on my 2017 goal list this was certainly a fully successful purchase ^__^

Continuing the sweet theme but heading back to bittersweet, this gorgeous AP bag was a bit of an impulse purchase but like I repeatedly say – I like black and pink. It’s quite an old piece, as you can tell by its label, and is in really great condition for that! There are a few minor marks on the outside, but you can only see them if you look for it.

And finally, the biggest piece of the haul and the only non-sweet item; the Classical Bustle JSK from Innocent World. At 4000 yen this was the most expensive item in my haul, but at that price how could I not buy it? It's really, really gorgeous and I can't wait to figure out some good outfits for it.

So there's my recent haul!