Lolita Blogpost Roundup: March 2019

Where did March go? Serisouly, it was February, and now it's a month later and I'ms tanding ehre wondering what happened. It was a very busy month for me - my Love Live group had our first two public performances and I got really sick for a bit over a week. But throughout it all, I still had time to read a lot of lovely blog posts ^__^

In which she shares a cozy crafty meetup… from Make Lovely

This is the cutest casual lolita coordinate I've seen in ages - I want to steal her sweater! Always #goals for casual lolita ^__^

Coords: I Need More Gobelin from Cynical Neo-Princessism

Yes, yes, and more yes. Gobelin is seriously one of my favourite fabrics so this cute coord with the edgy old-school photos is totally my jam.

White Linen Tea House Meet-up! from Aries Kitsune

Is there anything better than reading simple posts about meetups with great food? That's right, I didn't think so ^__^

The garden of live flowers – Ciudad de Victoria, Bulacan from Sanakanin

I honestly have sever garden envy right now. And hat envy. I want to swam around a lovely series of gardens in an opulent rococo coordinate and take beautiful photos!

The Art Of Taking Tea & Frolicking In Flowers from The Bloody Tea Party

If you were looking for the quintessential lifestyle lolita post...that was it.

LBC: Winter to Spring Transition Coordinates from Teeny Travels

I love the Lolita Blog Carnival not just for the fun and varied prompt, but because it brings new blogs into my world. I may not have participated in this topic, but I found a new blog to follow!

So that's a bit of a snapshot into what I read in March! As always, if you have a lolita blog yourself or know of one that I don't seem to follow please drop me a link int he comments because I am always keen to discover new content creators!

Guess who's going to Tokyo!

That's right! In a bit over a week James and I will be packing our bags again, this time for a week in Tokyo. We are planning to do so. much. shopping. And some sightseeing. And a bunch of photoshoots. I'm so excited!

Stock photo from Pixabay ^__^

For someone who tends to over plan I actually haven't worked everything out quite yet, so if you have any must-do suggestions or want to give me any tips I'm all ears! We're staying in Shinjuku and in particular would appreciate any suggestions for gluten free dining.

So things will be a bit quiet on the blogging front for the next few weeks, possibly the next month, but never fear because of course, I will be blogging all about it once I get back! In the meantime if you want to see me being excited about everything in real time please follow me on Instagram ^__^

AYWI30C #13: Inspired by a historical era

This prompt called for a bit of research! I won't bore you with the details, but in the end I put together a look (very loosely) inspired by Western 1780s fashion. The dress I chose, Innocent World's Classical Bustle, is highly reminiscent of a dress style known as the robe a l’anglaise, which was popular at that time...as well as years prior and after.

The only thing I do not love about this coord is that the colour scheme of primarily brown and ivory does not capture the luxury of the fabrics you see in pictures of the royal and rich of the time. But I wanted to stick with this colour scheme so I could use this Innocent World bolero because of the lush lace at the neckline.

I did still manage to work in a little colour in the hair accessories and the socks. Socks were a bit of a hard choice to make, since obviously the legs were not part of the outfit in the 1780s, but I decided to use them to bring in just a little colour.

Then I ran with that colour to the max with hair accessories! Admittedly, a big fancy hat would have been the absolute best for this outfit, but alas I do not own one.

In terms of other jewellery and accessories I kept it simple, and very much not period appropriate! but it was nice to use my Peppermint Fox brooch and I thought the choker necklace was a good touch in both colour and style.

All in all I liked this outfit! Unlike some of the other coords I've pulled together for this challenge there's nothing really new here for me, but it's still a nice coordinate and it was fun to deliberately try and pull historical influences together into an outfit.

Lolita Blog Carnival: Why Do You Think Photoshoots Have Been So Big in Lolita

Oh man, this is my kind of topic. I really enjoy thinking about the "why" of things and it just so happens that this one is right up my alley. Overall I think there are five main factors that have contributed to photoshoots being such a big thing in this subculture.

By the way, this is written by someone who was modelling and doing photography for years before getting into lolita. Photoshoots came before frills for me, so I am maybe a little biased in my massive love for photoshoots ^__^

It's a visual hobby
First of all, being a fashion-based subculture lolita is a visual thing. Therefore pictures are inevitable, and the more you take, the better you get and the more interested in photoshoots you get, and before you know it you're posing for photographers and creating amazing art together.

My 2018 Christmas photoshoot was in lolita!

Photo by The Enthusiast <3

We love the Internet
Similarity, the other half of the visual coin is that since lolita has a global community, we share our coordinates online. Which again means photos and I still hold that the progression continues from taking snapshots of outfits to participating in full-blown photoshoots. We also can get inspired by seeing what other people are doing with their outfits and photos, and that leads to the cycle. Basically, photoshoots are like Pringles - once you pop, you can't stop.

Like attracts like
Furthermore, like with any alternative subculture, many of the people involved in lolita aren't only into lolita. Creative types tend to flock together, so you're likely to get to know various photographers, amateur and professional, as you participate in this fashion. Doing photoshoots is not difficult so it's more likely than not that you'll end up doing some in your time in lolita.

I mean, sure, you can levitate wearing anything but lolita is the best!

Photo by The Enthusiast <3

Lolitas are pretty
As we are very well aware, lolita is a gorgeous and varied fashion. And a lot of photographers, especially those who focus on more creative and artistic work, love having that in their portfolio. This again feeds into the fact that it's easy to do a photoshoot - if there are some Amaterasu photographers looking to build a creative portfolio in your area, you can likely get free photos in exchange for the photographer using them too. We're a natural creative photographers dream, whether we're in regular coordinates or if we've done something flashy and themed just for the shoot.

Photoshoots are fun
Last of all, photoshoots are a heap of fun! You get to create something cool and get fun photos of yourself. You may get to know new like-minded people in the process too. Sure, sometimes there is a lot of effort involved and sometimes the photographer's vision may not match yours but overall they are enjoyable, and that's why we keep doing them!

Photo by Phocal Photography

I mean, you could boil this down to three points. Photoshoots are big in this fashion due to the subculture's inherent interest in documenting and sharing our looks, the fact that they're enjoyable, and the fact that it's a look that lends itself well to photography.

Read more from other bloggers:

Cupcakes and Unicorns
The Bloody Tea Party
Vanilla Bear

AYWI30C #12: Inspired by another lolita

This prompt, while fun, took me a lot longer to figure out than I thought it would. I admire a lot of lolitas that I see online, but when it came to mimicking their style I either found I didn't have the right items to even come close or it would just come out looking much like what I normally do.

In the end, I decided to make a look inspired by Megan aka Make Lovely. I've always really enjoyed her style, especially her take on casual lolita and I figured I could do a good job of taking inspiration from her style.

The first thing I did was trawl through her blog and take some notes of recurring features in her outfits. I discovered she tends to use plainer legwear (frequently textured tights or stripy socks), outfits with contrasting colours and unexpected pops of colour, lots of offbrand or handmade items, simple accessories, and not too many border prints. Armed with that information I got to work and came up with a very interesting coordinate!

This outfit is so very not what I normally do, and I completely love it! I'd love it more if my beret and shoes were the same shade of lavender, but you can't have everything ^__^

I'm just so happy to bust out my lavender bibs and bobs and that I managed to work them into an outfit that otherwise doesn't feature the colour. It's not something I'd ever thought of doing, but now that I have, I love the idea and it opens up a lot of coordination possibilities for me.

I also got to pull out some things I don't normally use since I don't normally do lavender! This necklace for example, as well as one of my Angelic Pretty rings. It was fun to try and be pretty monochromatic with accessories rather than running with my normal pastelly assortment that I use with sweet looks.

However, I will say that working in a new colour to a coordinate in this way is not something I'm sure I could make work if the base colours of the outfit were not black and white.  In a sense, black and white are almost invisible in terms of colour, so you can make just about anything work with them.

But the end result is that I came up with a coordinate that I really, really love and that is totally outside of my usual style. I can, with complete honesty, say there is no way I would have had this idea if I wasn't deliberately looking at Megan's style and trying to take inspiration from it. So I'm completely over the moon, and cannot wait to wear something like this soon!

Coordinates from January - February 2019

Are we two months done with 2019 already? Time really does fly! Here's a retrospective of the couple of lolita coordinates I wore over the last two months.

First of all, I wore lolita in January when James and I went with a friend to was the Aquaman movie, which I thought was actually pretty decent and rather better than I expected. I decided to wear lolita, and ran with a simple coord with one of my handmade skirts of comfort.

Skirt: Handmade

Cutsew: The Black Ribbon

Shoes: Metamorphose temps de fille

Bag: Innocent World

Brooch: Peppermint Fox

Everything else: Offbrand

Then my second coordinate of January was also to see another movie - this time James and I went to see Glass. I'm still not sure what my opinion of that film is! But one thing I know is that is really love the slightly OTT sweet outfit I wore for it ^__^

JSK & Shoes: Metamorphose temps de fille (Teddy Chocolatier)

Blouse: Bodyline

Bag (not pictured): Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Everything else: Taobao/offbrand

Aaand that's it. February was a bit of a crazy month for a number of reasons, and I felt off balance most of the time. But oh well. More month and more coordinates to come!