Lolita Blogpost Roundup: April 2017

I really, really enjoy reading other lolita blogs, so I thought I'd introduce a new post type here - a monthly roundup of some of my favourite posts from other bloggers! Also, feel free to use these posts to show me a link to your lolita blog if you have one, I'm always keen to have a look at new content.

Drill Weekend Means a Lolita Weekend from Vanilla Bear 
A cute refreshing post about the blogger wearing lolita for the weekend to see friends and just be herself. Bonus; includes a great coordinate and some fabulous derp photos.

Innocent World's Bouquet Doll OP from RuffleCloud's Adventures
I keep thinking I follow all the active lolita blogs that I like, and then occasionally I find something new. I found a link to this blogpost on tumblr, and now have a new adorable blog to follow! Double win ^__^

A shopping day in Harajuku! from Ruban Rose
Have I ever mentioned that shopping for lolita in Japan is one of my dreams? So I get a lot out of living vicariously through other people's travel and shopping posts.

Fabric scraps and the art of omiyage from Life's Sweet Essentials
A muse on gift giving and some cute crafts - a really sweet post and one that makes me want to start hand-sewing. I won't, because I hate hand-sewing, but you know you've reading something nice when it makes you want to engage in activities you know you don't enjoy!

The New Ouji Overview Part 1: Terminology from Buttcape
Buttcape is re-starting the Ouji Overview series...I will never use the term "kodona" again.

Barcelona day 2: Omnia Vanitas event from A Season in the Sky
I followed the photos people posted from Omnia Vanitas eagerly on instagram, and then this gorgeous posts popped up with even more lovely photos. Like lolita shopping in Japan, attending a big event like this is something I daydream about so I really enjoy seeing other people's posts.

Easter Coordinate with Angelic Pretty's Cotton Candy Shop from Pastel Peggy
This post is just a really gorgeously adorable sweet lolita outfit. Sweet lolita just makes me so happy to look at!

Recent Outfits- Late Winter/Early Spring Comeback Edition from Luna Rain
And more outfits! And in the last outfit, she uses the same straberry headband as I own. Now I'm inspired to do my own "berry maid" look. I do own an apron so maybe I will!

Red Riding Hood lolita from Frillycakes
I love lolita photoshoots - both seeing them and doing them - so it was cool to see the professional photos in this post, as well as the more casual snaps. The outfits are adorable too!

Of course, there are a lot of other posts that have crossed my dashboard in the last month, but these are just a few that really stuck out! To be honest, I was sort of thinking I'd be only featuring four or five posts, because it feels like there aren't that many active lolita blogs but that's obviously not true! I'll post another roundup at the end of next month as well, I think I will be continuing this roundup series for the foreseeable future ^__^

As a last note, if I've featured your post here and you don't want it to be, please drop me a comment and I'll take it down.

A garden of pink; Flower Bottle outfits

I love this skirt. It’s cute, simple and adorable. And, with the full shirred waist it’s also pretty comfortable!

It is also very pink! Much as I love pink, I don’t actually tend to wear it much (except pink x black combos, because pink x black is amazing). So even though I wouldn’t call it a challenging piece to coordinate, it’s certainly one of the most distinctly sweet lolita pieces that I own and therefore a bit of an oddball.

Given how typically sweet it is, for my first outfit I simply ran with that and pulled together a very traditionally sweet lolita outfit…and a very Metamorphose one, with the blouse being from them as well! Their lucky packs have truly served me well over the years. This would be worn with white ankle socks as well.

The second look also features a Metamorphose blouse… what can I say, it’s just how these turned out! For this coordinate I wanted to go over the top with pink. All the pink! I will honestly say that I don’t think I would ever wear this, but at the same time I think it’s pretty adorable. Just...so pink...

For the third and final look I came up with something I absolutely adore. It’s quirky, bright and so very, very me. Unlike the last outfit I would 100% wear this. I think it’s unusual, but not in a way that’s too weird or jarring.

I have to say, I love simple skirts like this. They are easy to wear, give lots of coordinating options and are quintessentially lolita. And, in this case, they are also pink, sweet and adorable ^__^

How much have I spent on lolita?

There was a thread recently on CGL about how much you’ve spent on lolita, including most expensive item, best deal and the cost of your wardrobe overall. I don’t have much of note to say on the first, have already covered the second but the third point caught my interested so I sat down to do the maths. As a note, prices are inclusive of fees and shipping and are in AUD. And as another note, though I say “I’ve spent” there are gifts included in this: I didn’t personally spend every penny that was spent on my collection, in fact quite a few pieces were bought for me by my lovely boyfriend. Anyhow, with those two points covered…

I don’t tend to track prices, but I know I tend to buy cheaply. Therefore I’m assuming each dress, skirt, blouse and piece of outerwear cost an average of $60. I have 11 pieces of outerwear, 19 blouses and cutsews and 24 main pieces for a total of $3240. Then I would add an extra $250 each for Anniversary Rose and my Lyris Design JSK as those were the two most expensive items, so we are now up to $3740.

My two priciest lolita dresses.

I would count shoes, petticoats and my fawn fur collection as costing $50 per item and respectively I have 18, 3 and 6 which brings the total here to $1350.

Brand OTKS I would average out to being $20 a pair and I have 22, so add $440. Offbrand legwear I’ll factor in at $5 a pop and I have somewhere around 33 pairs (though I’m not 100% sure how many pairs of ankle socks I own, since I wear them pretty regularly) so that adds another $165. So my legwear total is $605.

I love pretty socks!

Headwear I’m going to count as $5 a piece so 83 pieces brings that total to $425, and then the bulk bows were around $50, so the final count here is $475.

In miscellaneous items I have 6 pairs of wristcuffs at $10 each for a total of $60, 2 pairs of bloomers that probably cost $30 combined, as well as $20 worth of each AP and Rouge Aerie jewellery. All my other jewellery is not lolita-specific, though a lot can be used for it, so I’m not counting any of it. Then I also have 10 bags which had massively varying price points but let’s say an average of $30 each for a total of $300. So in miscellaneous items I have probably spent $430 overall.

A few of my accessories in a favourite colour scheme.

Combined, that brings my current lolita wardrobe to a nice, round, total cost of $6600, based off some perhaps slightly sketchy maths. For the sake of my “better safe than sorry” mind, let’s even round that up to $7000 to account for anything I may have forgotten to include and for things like shipping and fees that I may not have factored in correctly. For my international readers, that’s around $5400USD,  €5000 or ¥608,000 at the current exchange rate.

This was an interesting thing to do, because it really makes me think about the value of my wardrobe. I love it – I think I have a great, versatile collection which can suit a range of styles and occasions. Lolita has also brought me a lot of joy over the years, and will continue to do so. It’s given me a new creative outlet in the form of this blog, and has improved my grasp of fashion overall. I love lolita as a fashion, and I feel like having a 7K wardrobe after 5 years is pretty good. Yes, my wardrobe isn’t very impressive by brand standards but it is well curated and above all it’s exactly what I want.

Thinking of the value of my wardrobe makes me want to go a little further – I feel like I’ve probably bought and sold almost as many main pieces and blouses as I currently own, so let’s say I spent another $3000 over time and sold things for $2000 (or have them sitting in my to-sell pile, but let’s count that a sold). That’s another $1000 I’ve spent that isn’t present in my current wardrobe, so in 5 years I’ve spent $8000 on Lolita or an average of $1600 per year. That’s almost $135 per month which really, with the maths of my wardrobe, isn’t that much – it’s a blouse and a skirt, or a pair of shoes, two pairs of brand OTKS and a few offbrand accessories. Yes, that is still a lot of disposable income channelled into a fashion, but it’s not an excessive amount.

I was surprised by how much I've spent because on the one hand that's a lot of money, and on the other its not what I expected...though I'm honestly not too sure what I expected! But this was a good exercise to do, even though it is based on guesstimate maths so I could be out by quite a bit,. However, it seems pretty much right and I'm comfortable with having spent that amount on my wardrobe over the years.

Do you know how much you have spent on lolita in the time you've been in the fashion? Do you look at that amount and think it's big or not so much?

Lolita 52: 5 inspirational fictional characters

To be honest, I’m not much of a one for “inspirational characters”. I don’t get inspired from fiction, really. I enjoy things, and do find certain qualities endearing or insightful in particular characters, but this is a surprisingly challenging question for me, especially when trying to answer in something of a lolita sense.

However, I can answer with these characters:

Adora Belle Dearheart (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld). She is severe, smart, well-put together and all in all a wonderful, vaguely intimidating, stylish woman. Hashtag goals.

Lirael (Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom). A shy, quiet, misfit of a bookworm (sound familiar? Except I’ve never really been quiet…) does what she must to make things right in the world. Also she has a Librarian’s waistcoat and a somewhat mysterious sword.

Sara Crewe (Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess). The book, not the movie. Though this is a kids book, I love Sara’s determination to “be a princess” when a princess is someone who is good and brave and just regardless of what life throws at her.

Pamde Amidalla (Star Wars). Especially in the novelisations, where you get a little less Lucas and a little more depth than the movies, Padme is a powerhouse. And her outfits are some pretty amazing eye-candy.

Captain Janeway (Star Trek Voyager). Voyager is the only Star Trek series I’ve watched to completion, and I actually do admire Janeway something fierce. I also enjoy her change of hairstyle each season.

It may not read like it but I really struggled putting that list together. Like I say “inspirational” isn’t really a word I apply to characters. “Enjoyable”, certainly and they all are. “I found the overall message of this book/movie/show inspiring”, also yes. I feel like this list is wrong, incomplete, but also like it’s too long and also kind of fake.

I know that’s a bit of a downer to end a blog post, but regardless of the empirical goodness of my list, I hope it gives my readers a little insight into my taste in books, TV, and movies!

Dots and berries; Chocoberry outfits

The really fun thing about these flatlays is I get to try new things with pieces that I honestly tend to wear in the same way over and over. Bodyline's Chocoberry skirt is just one such piece - black top and red beret is my go to look. I mean, it's a good look, but it's nice to try something new!

So I decided to steer clear of my standard coordination and try a few more interesting things.

First of all I decided to go with pattern mixing and I love the result! One the one hand, this is kind of a simple look, but on the other the stripes with the dots makes it quite loud...and I like that!

For the second look I decided to tone down the black as much as possible and instead highlighted the pink. In retrospect, I feel like I should have included some black up the top to balance it out, but all in all I rather like this look.

Lastly, I went in the other obvious direction that isn't black...red! I have to say, I really love this cutsew, it is so good for casual looks! Our of the three outfits, this is probably the one I'd be most likely to wear, it's just very me!

Do you have any pieces in your lolita wardrobe that you tend to wear in the same way?

Closetchild mini haul

It’s funny to think that in all the time I’ve been a lolita – which is coming onto five years now – I have not once ordered from Closetchild. Until now, that is.

Two items that were on my list of wardrobe goals came up for sale at the same time, and I decided to go for it. I also eyed off a number of other things (cutsews and OTKS, mostly) but in the end kept my purchases to a minimum and got only what I needed. So, which items where these from my list? An ivory short sleeved bolero and a pair of black wristcuffs.

I’ll be honest, after shipping costs kicked in I had a moment of regret for buying these. But even though it’s harder to get excited about basics they are things I needed for my wardrobe, and I am pretty proud of myself for not buying additional items to make myself feel better about the cost of shipping.

Overall I found Closetchild pretty straightforward to order from – their how-to guide for international customers was handy and everything was simple enough. I ordered and paid on 19 March, received an email that the order was received on the 20th, it shipped on the 22nd and arrived on the 27th. And yes, I am aware this review is a bit late but hey, better late than never. All in all Closetchild provided a good service and I will happily buy from them again.

Onto the items! First of all I got Innocent World's Ribbon and Pearl Short Bolero in beige, which is super pretty.

It is unfortunately too small on me - it fits, but it looks too small. I am going to hang onto it to see if it gets better as I lose weight or if it's just a problem with my big Western shoulders. It's a really lovely bolero though, the details are just gorgeous. And it is NWT!

Then I also got some AatP "wristcuffs". Why the quote marks? Because they're actually sock toppers...

And it's entirely my fault! The listing said sock toppers, but I wasn't really aware they were a thing, and given how Closetchild listings have been a bit haphazard lately I assumed it was a case of mislabelling or bad translation. But it wasn't, and so now I own some sock toppers and don't really know what to do with them...

So all in all, despite the experience of ordering being fine I'm not all that excited about my actual purchases. But ah well, you win some, you lose some. And at least now I have ordered from Closetchild so I'll be more comfortable doing so in future if something I want pops up.

Coordinates from January - March 2017

In keeping with my 2017 goal of wearing lolita more often, I've decided to post an outfit round up post every few months. Sometimes, like for the first quarter of this year, I may not be posting too many outfits, but I'd still rather for a regular, smaller round up than waiting for ages or even than posting each outfit individually.

So, in the first three months of 2017 I wore lolita twice. Which isn't a lot, but given that 2016 saw me wearing it only four times it is definitely an improvement!

In January James and I went out to buy eggs and I decided to dress up a bit for it. We also ended up hanging out in a local park for a little bit playing Pokemon Go. It was a short outing, but I was pleased to wear lolita for it.

JSK & Shoes: Bodyline

Bolero: Handmade

Bag (not pictured): Taobao

Everything else: Offbrand

The other time I wore lolita was when I went to the Sydney swap meet in February! You may notice, seeing these two outfits in the one post, that I like casual brown outfits ^__^ What can I say, brown or black tend to be my go-to colours...

JSK & bow clips: Rococo Soul

Bolero: Handmade

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Taobao

Everything else: Offbrand

So yeah, not too much lolita for the first part of the year but still off to a good start!