Lolita Blogpost Roundup: March 2018

Can you believe that we're a quarter of the way through the year already? Yikes...it is going so fast! And interestingly enough, this post marks exactly one year's worth of roundups. It does not feel like that long!

It’s Time for a Change (Goodbye Rufflecon, Thank You for the Lovely Memories!) from Rosie Darling

I was really sad to hear that Rufflecon is no longer a thing. I mean, I was probably never going to be in a position to go overseas for an alternative fashion convention, but still! This post was an interesting retrospective about the reasons contributing the to demise of this event, and the role that the lolita community (or at least part of it) played. Sigh. Why can't people just play nice?

Bodyline vs Taobao Which is Better for Beginners? from Cupcake Kamisama

Oh I love me some analysis! Ratings in categories make my heart flutter, and I also happen to agree with the thoughts and results! Things are changing and I wouldn't really recommend Bodyline much for beginners anymore, and that's something I didn't think I'd ever say!

How The Western Lolita Community Is Failing Chinese Brands from Crimson Reflections

If you're in any of the big online lolita communities no doubt you already saw this post. but I'm sharing it here just in case because it's an important read, to my mind. 

Retrospecting Last Year's Resolutions from RuffleCloud's Adventures

Just a simple little post reviewing the author's goals. For some reason it just made me really happy to read!

How to Identify Lolita Clothing from Buttcape

You have to have your head in the sand to not recognise certain lolita items, but a lot of information gets lost to time. So this guide is super helpful for tracking down what, exactly, something is!

Deluxe Wrist Cuffs Opening! from In Love With a Dream

This is a very brief post but I wanted to share because indie brand reviews always warrant sharing! Also, the wristcuffs are very cute ^__^

New Year Swap Meet and Other Recent Finds: Emily Temple Cute, Metamorphose and More from Pastel Peggy

First of all, is her outfit not decora lolita perfection? I love that someone is still wearing this style, it is so cute and fun and all round amazing to see! And I love the haul as well, it makes me almost wish my style was this colourful!

As a final note, since this does mark a full year of these posts...do you like these? Do you not? Give me your opinions!

AYWI20C #3: Something OTT

First of all...apologies for the pictures being kind of dark and yellow. It was a bad day for it but I was excited for this outfit and wanted to do it anyway.

And yeah, I am legit excited for this look! I was trying to channel the OTT sweet era, though it's probably still not OTT enough.

You can't do early 10s OTT sweet lolita without Angelic Pretty, so I had to use Wonder Party for this coordinate...and as much other AP as I could manage. The OTKS were a natural match and since I own the same shoes in black and pink it was only natural to do the mis-matched shoes! It'd be perfect with a black and pink split wig with the colours on the opposite sides to the shoes, don't you think?

I love the clashing patterns of the stripes on the socks versus the stripes on the dress. That kind of pattern mixing really helps push the coordinate further up the OTT scale.

And yes, the shoes. I am so pleased with the shoes! I have never worn OTT lolita like this, nor done the mis-matched shoes, but now I'm actually really excited to wear something like this (or maybe this exact outfit!) some day.

I also love how pretty all the accessories are together. I would maybe even add more bows to the hair, depending on what the hairstyle is. Just...all the bows...

What I like most about having so many little bows is that I can put in tiny hints of colours that are in the print, like mint. I can also match the blue from the OTKS which isn't featured anywhere else. OTT is the best for matching all the colours...because you can use all the colours ^__^

Wonder Party is such a great print for OTT, it was really fun to pull this look together. And I am super keen to do something OTT now!

I'm think I'm going to be a lolita bride

Did I get your attention with that blog title, lol? But it's true! Currently my plan is to be married in lolita ^__^

At first I felt a bit pretentious blogging about this but then I thought, hey, it's on topic for the blog and also I am super excited! And if I can't spray my excitement all over my own blog where can I? So there will be a few more wedding related posts over the course of the year. Consider yourselves warned.

A bit on the wedding a a general concept first. James and I are going to get married overseas, with our two best friends as witnesses. No actual wedding, just going to a registry office before continuing straight on to the honeymoon portion of being abroad. We'll celebrate with our family and friends once we return. But, being us, we still want to dress up nice and have lovely photos taken on the day.

My problem was that nothing really felt "me". I never wanted a big white confection of a dress, or anything conventional...I've modelled a few wedding dresses so I know that they're generally not me. I didn't want to go in a more Victorian steampunk direction because much as I love that aesthetic it felt costume-y to me. I toyed with the idea of something lacey and vintage styled, but lace is really expensive, and I was coming to realise I wasn't keen on spending lots of money on a one time only dress. Then one day at work I texted James just to tentatively float the idea of me wearing lolita for the big day. His reply (see why I love him?) was, to quote: "Fuck yeah!!!!!! We should totally do that!!!". So enthusiastic, much cute, wow. And it was decided; I am going to be a lolita bride!

I won't say I didn't look good, but I didn't look me!

Next I scoured the internet, looking at other people's bridal coordinates (both from their actual weddings and just wedding themed) and thinking about what dress I might like to wear both for the wedding, and afterwards. I'm not sure exactly when, but I saw Angelic Pretty's Dramatic Rose JSK in ivory, and decided that I'd found it. James likes this dress, it's one I've liked for a while (more in lavender than ivory, but ivory was my second favourite), and it's something that I could see myself wearing again. So I started scouring secondhand sites to find it for a decent price, so when it popped up on Mercari for 16k yen, with the matching canotier headdress no less, I leapt on the chance to snatch it up. In fact, I legit pumped my fist in the air and exclaimed "Fuck yeah!" which gave James a bit of a scare ^__^

<3

I have a bit of a haul, including my future wedding dress, on it's way to my shopping service and will of course share it all when ti arrives, but I wanted to post about my intentions sooner rather than later. Because I'm excited! Getting married in lolita is just so me and I am really keen to start pulling together my entire coordinate. I'm going to have a veil, of course. And amazing flowers...and lovely shoes...and...and...and all the bridal things! I am so hyped!

Honest talk here for a moment, before I finish this post. I do have to lose as bit of weight before I fit into Dramatic Rose, and even then I may not like how it looks on me and may go in search of another dress. There's a slim chance I may even find an actual wedding dress that I love and that is affordable. But for now, I've found my lolita wedding dress and can start planning my entire coord! More posts on that to come ^__^

PS If you wore lolita for your big day tell me about it! I'd love to see pictures too! Lolita brides unite!

Review #48: Me Likes Tea

At the end of January I saw a beautiful thing pop up on Instagram – Me Likes Tea’s limited edition golden anniversary petticoats. I wanted to get a new a-line petti anyway, and these were so pretty that I figured why not just do it now and tick that item off my goal list? So that’s exactly what I did! Then, because I wouldn’t be me if I bought just one item, I also ordered a pair of bloomers and a set of hairclips.

The petticoat was made and ready to ship, though the other items had to be custom made. Shipping was a bit of a bitch, price-wise, so I went with Airmail rather than my preferred EMS. All in all I placed the order on January 30th and received it on March 13th, which is faster than I was expecting! I had the wrong email linked to my PayPal account so I didn't get any updates, but I didn't mind. Tai (the owner) was quite responsive to emails so I'm sure I could have asked for an update if I'd cared to.

 Within the shipping satchel was this pretty package.

Within the pretty package each item was separately bagged and labelled.

As far as reviews go, let’s start with the star of the show, the petticoat. I’ve been saying I want a better a-line petticoat for a while now, since my current one is from Leg Avenue and is not particularly noteworthy. However, since my existing one has done the job for so long this never seemed like a pressing concern…until I realised that it’s also actually too short for Berry Stripe! And if it don’t work for one of my current favourite dresses then it don’t work for me! So I was actually planning to be proactive on getting a new petti this year and it just so happened to happen earlier than expected!

And oh my goodness, this petticoat is just wow. Like, I almost have no words for it. It is gorgeous. I was amazed. James was amazed! It has a waist ribbon and the lace on the hem is gorgeous and beaded. Can I say a petticoat is a work of art? Because if so, it is! Seriously, this thing is beautiful and I am probably going to get some good use out of it as a skirt for creative photoshoots on its own!

On a slightly more actual serious review kind of note, the petticoat also seems to be a great product - I see why a lot of people swear by their Me Likes Tea pettis! It's very well made and has a lot of poof. It's exactly what I needed. The only downside, and this is an inevitability rather than a flaw, is that the metallic lace is scratchy. But like I say, that's just what you get with metallic lace.

The bloomers (pintuck long style) were not quite an impulse purchase, but certainly not something I truly badly needed. However, they are handy to have and I didn’t have a longer white (ivory, whatever) pair so these were a sensible buy. A sensible buy that turned out to be pretty amazing!

All that gushing over the petti? Let's just repeat that with the details changed. These bloomers are severely nice. Probably the best bloomers I own, and I do own one Innocent World pair! The only downside is that now I have a good pair that properly fit I have no excuse to go around bloomer-less...which I have been doing...ooops...

Last of all, the hair clips (Carola's Tea Ties) actually fill a wardrobe gap as I didn’t own anything small and black and white, so I’m really happy to have them. Not much to say about them really except that, like everything else, they are well made and accurate to the stock pictures!

All in all I am very impressed with the items I received; they are accurate to the stock images, well made, and overall very nice. A random note that I'll mention now is that everything smelled good! Normally new items smell a bit harsh and new...but these smelled like they'd been nicely laundered. So nice.

In conclusion I am really pleased to have bought from another indie brand, and strongly suspect that if/when I need another new petticoat (which may be soon, the lining has started to rip on my Classical Puppets bell petti...) I'll be a returning customer to Me Likes Tea.

Lolita Blog Carnival: What Has Become A Staple Piece In Your Wardrobe And Why?

As soon as I saw this LBC prompt I knew what my answer would be – my two Jillian cutsews from the Black Ribbon.

Basically, ever since I bought these cutsews I have worn them, and worn them hard. I have worn lolita 21 times since receiving these, and have worn one of them for 6 of those outfits. A full quarter! That's a lot! And a very good testament to how good these have been for me.

Some of my outfits with them...I'm wearing skirts so much more since they came into my life!

What I really like about these tops is that they are made for lolita but are very toned down. No weird details, no clashing colours, just simple niceness. And given that I tend to wear fairly simple coordinates that makes them perfect for me. I know for a fact that without these I would not be wearing lolita to work anywhere near as much as I have been, and probably not as much lolita in general. So they are definitely my most noteworthy current staple!

Love the subtle details ^__^

Of course, other items are staples as well; my handmade cherry skirt gets worn a lot, as does Berry Stripe and Bodyline L417. I practically live in beret and lace topped ankle socks. I don’t know where I’d be without all my little hairbows. Nearly every time I wear black I wear by Bodyline flats and often when I wear brown I pull out my handmade brown bolero. I definitely have a number of pieces I reach for more readily than others that are true staples of my wardrobe and it was fun to have a bit of a think about what they are.

But yes, these cutsews are my current number one staple ^__^

Read more from other bloggers:

Petite Tomoyo
The Bloody Tea Party
Dollhouse Diaries

AYWI30C #2: Something casual

I almost tripped myself over with this theme, because nearly everything I do is casual! So it stumped me for a moment to try and come up with soomething that was new and casual, without lookng like jsut another flatlay like I usually do.

What I ended up doing was coming up with something that is causal in the sense of comfort and ease of wear, but that still is rather detailed due to the pieces used. That's something I really love about lolita; because of the details inherent to basically ever item you use in a coordinate you can wear very easy pieces and still look really well dressed!

I haven't actually worn the tights used here yet (which is why they actually look nice laid out like this) but now I'm very excited to. In fact, I'm keen to wear this exact outfit! Which makes me happy, because I struggle a little to get excited about this skirt I made.

I also really enjoy how well the Axes Femme boots and bag match. I mean, it's not surprising given that they're from the same brand and bought at the same time, but still. The gobelin bag is an especial favourite of mine because I love how it gives a mis-matchy vintage vibe to any outfit that it's used in.

And this cutsew is just love! The lace is so pretty and it's just so simple and lovely. I really enjoy cutsews, almost more than blouses I think. Have to resist the urge to buy more...

For this look I'd go super simple with accessories; the matching headbow and a flower clip for colour balance, and a few little bracelets. It's enough to keep things interesting without adding too much.

As I said at the start, I actually really love this outfit. It's casual but so pretty, and I hope to wear it later this year!

Coordinates from January - February 2018

What's that? March isn't over and I'm already posting a coordinate roundup? Well, the truth is that I've actually been wearing lolita even more regularly so far this year so I'm posting early to avoid this getting really, really long! So I guess I'll just do these posts whenever they're needed...which bugs my organised side, but oh well. It's a good thing that I have enough outfits to share already!

I started 2018 off well, by spontaneously wearing lolita to an unexpected household brunch on the third of January. As the whole things was very impromptu, I ran with something that works...and coincidentally is the same dress and bolero combo as my first outfit in 2017. What can I say? It's a good fallback!

JSK & Shoes: Bodyline

Bolero: Handmade

OTKS: Innocent World

Hair accessories: Taobao

Necklace: Kitten D'Amour

I also asked James to try and get a photo of me with Panda, but as usual the furbaby did not cooperate...

I next wore lolita on the first causal Friday once I returned to work because I got my new Angelic Pretty socks in and had no choice but to wear the red crew socks in one of my typical black x red casual berry outfits. No choice. Also they are the best. I didn’t realise how badly I needed them until I had them.

OP: Metamorphose Berry Stripe

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Hair accessories: Offbrand

I don’t have much else to say about this outfit – it was cute and comfortable and fast becoming one of my standard outfit variations. Though two of my colleagues (from the young, nerdy half of the office) both complimented me on my beret, which was nice. I also posted a selfie and shoe shot combo to Instagram, which was cute ^__^

The Sunday of that weekend, as you may have read about, was the RinRin Doll High Tea in Sydney. which was awesome! Of course, I have written a pretty exhaustive blog post about this already so I’m just going to drop a link then focus on the outfit. A big thank you to Sam for snapping this for me!

JSK: Bodyline (modified)

Blouse: Lady Sloth

Shoes: Taobao

Brooch: Kitten D'Amour

Stockings & flowers: Offbrand

Next I wore a casual lolita outfit to work on a Friday again at the very start of February. Not too much to say about this look, except that I liked it! I feel so much more me wearing lolita than I do usual work clothes so I’m glad I can do it. Though I may not be able too for long…my bosses are a wee bit bad at communication and we were recently reminded that on casual Friday’s we’ve still got to represent the company well and not look “grungy” so who knows what that means (because no-one wears anything actually grunge to work so it’s a bit baffling). But unless I’m specifically told not to come to work on casual days in a puffy skirt I’m going to keep doing it!

Skirt: Handmade

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed I'm starting to posts more selfies and shoe shots...I actually really liked my shoes shot of this outfits so I'm sharing it.

A couple of weeks later I again wore one of my trademark black-and-berry outfits to work. I tried to do something a bit different with my hair, which I liked, and also wore a new necklace! I like how the pearls on the necklace match the pearls on the socks. I also like that the necklace was around three dollars on eBay… ^__^

Skirt: Handmade

Cutsew: The Floral Notebook

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Accessories: Taobao/offbrand

I also got James to snap an artsy photo for me to show off my hair accessories and necklace a bit better.

The next day James and I went engagement ring shopping! For him, that is ^__^ I wanted to wear lolita because why not, and I chose to wear Rose Birdcage because in light of discovering last year I've really only been wearing black and brown (and having done so this year up to this point) I wanted to make sure I got some variety in!

Skirt: Metamorphose Rose Birdcage

Cutsew: The Floral Notebook

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Taobao

Everything else: Taobao/offbrand

I snapped a quick selfie as well to show off my hair accessories a little better as I really liked what I did with them. I actually really liked this outfit overall, it was cute and comfy and it was really good to deliberate stretch myself by wearing something a little different to my default.

So those are the lolita outfits I wore in the first two months of 2018! All in all I'm pretty pleased with myself ^__^

Good news, everyone!

I'm engaged ^__^

That's right, James and I are going to get hitched this year! As is our usual way of doing things, I don't have a fancy romantic engagement story. We talked about it (we don't even remember exactly when we decided to make this year the year) and then spent some time finding James the perfect engagement ring before announcing it today. I am using my mum's engagement ring, which I really like, both aesthetically and sentimentally.

We're planning a late August elopement (well, not exactly, since people know, but we're going overseas with our friends Nat and Luke and that's it) which I'll post about when the time comes ^__^