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Monday 28 October 2019

Hiatus again

Hey readers, once again life has brought me to a point where I need to take a little break from this blog. Unlike my last break, I won't be posting the monthly blogpost roundups or outfit posts.

This is kind of a very useless post, because I don't really have much to say, but just didn't want to disappear for a while without saying a temporary fare-thee-well.

Wednesday 9 October 2019

AYWI30C #19: Based around a particular top

When I came up to this prompt in the challenge I literally stood in front of my wardrobe and thumbed through my blouses. I wanted to work with one that was an interesting piece, rather than a neutral, and also something I hadn't used in this series. I tossed around a couple of different ideas, but in the end decided to base the coord around my Angelic Pretty Petit Patisserie cutsew.


And I am so glad I chose it, because one again this challenge led me to a coord I can say with certainty I would never have come up with otherwise. Why? Because it turns out this cutsew really doesn't match anything I own!

But by this point I was committed to the idea and decided I was going to make it work with my Lyris underbust JSK. Even though the JSK is a more classic piece, it's not overwhelmingly classic and the cutsew is simple enough in cut that despite the sweet print it kind of goes. I just had to make the rest of the outfit tie it all together!


First I raided my sock drawer and discover that there Met OTKS were perfect - they matched the cutsew in colour, and the JSK with the more classical ivory motif.


Then I brought in a little more sweetness with this Angelic Pretty cookie necklace (which is seriously so freaking cute!). The rest of my jewellery I kept quite understated - partially to avoid going to sweet for the JSK, but mostly because I actually don't have much sweet jewellery that goes with brown!


My headwear, which I didn't take a close up of, was chosen to once again straddle the sweet-classic line, as well as carry through the different shades of brown (the chosen pieces are a closer match for the JSK).


Last of all, I thought that going with pink shoes (also, new shoe alert!) and bag really cemented the look, emphasising the cutsew print and also adding a bit more of a playful touch.

In the end I really love this outfit I came up with. Like I said, I would not have gotten there without this prompt challenge but I really think I made this sweet look work despite using a more classic JSK. Do you think the outfit works, or is there too much contrast between the different elements? Let me know!

Friday 4 October 2019

Review #53: Bodyline

It feels like such a ridiculously long time since I've ordered from Bodyline. According to my blog history, it was late 2015 that I last bought form them directly! Of course, I don't religiously blog literally every purchase, and something tells me that I bought a bunch of shoes one time and never posted about it, but who knows. Regardless, it's definitely been a while.

Full disclosure, this actually all came in last month but I wanted to get the rest of my Tokyo posts up first!

Anyhow it was early September aka Mr Yan's Birthday Sale time! I haven't been tracking Bodyline's prices, so I have no idea how "on sale" these items actually were, but oh well. Along with lolita things I ordered cosplay items both for me and James, and I'm not going to review those. But on the lolita front I bought two pairs of shoes, two dresses, and a cutsew - a decent little haul ^__^

In shoes I bought a new pair of red flats in the style formerly known as S522. I love these shoes, and used to own them in both brown and black - my brown ones wore out and my black ones are probably following soon. Being the newer listing of these shoes, sizing is now S-LL and apparently my size, 25.0, is exactly a L. I also picked up some new brown flat shoes with the product code "ACSH-0074Y", again in a L.


The shoes are usual Bodyline quality, which is to my mind pretty darn good and better than shoes I've bought for various Taobao stores. But, and this is a big but, the new sizing is inaccurate. These are not the equivalent of a 25. Here's a comparison to my black pair.


So that was disappointing. I decided to bite the bullet and have actually reordered the shoes (well, slightly different shoes) and will be selling these pairs off. But yeah, if you're going to buy any Bodyline shoes with the new size chart - size up!

Speaking of new items, I'd been debating buying some of Bodyline's new pieces anyway, so I decided to just go for it. One of the new cutsews, with sheer sleeves and lace on the neckline (LGCT-0036X), seemed right up my alley so I bought it in the black colourway, size 2L. On paper, with a width of 97cm it's way too small for me but cutsews tend to be stretchy so I was optimistic.


My optimism was well rewarded! It is a bit too snug for me right now but I'd saw it could definitely fit up to a 110cm bust. It's also really cute! It's not super high quality but it's sturdy and nice - for sure a solid Bodyline choice.


I also grabbed the new sailor collar cutsew dress (LGOP-0275X), once again in black and 2L. It super cute, again fits larger than advertised, but oh my goodness. It's so short!


I knew from the Instagram photos that it was a shorter dress but honestly it's a shirt on me. If you're shorter than 160cm it'd be a cute minidress but for me at 167cm it comes halfway down my butt. Having said that, I'm actually not complaining at all because I don't own any cute long sleeve shirts so it's actually kind of a win for me!

Lastly, I finally bought their classical sailor JSK (costume839) after years of going back and forth on it. I'll admit, part of my reasoning is that I'm currently talking to a photographer about an ocean theme lolita shoot and realised I don't have anything typically marine-ish, but I do like the dress and kind of wanted a standard sailor piece anyway ^__^

I picked this up in navy, size 4L, fully expecting it to be too small for now but somewhat optimistic because Bodyline sizing is all over the place. Unfortunately, my optimism was not rewarded this time and also my photos of the dress didn't turn out right so all I have to share is a length comparison to the cutsew dress. But oh well, I'm finally actually starting to make weight loss progress so it won't linger unworn too long, I hope. It's a really nice piece too.


So my Bodyline haul was kind of a mixed bag, but overall I'm pretty happy. I'm so keen to wear the cutsew dress in particular, just need to figure out what the rest of the outfit should be ^__^

Oh and PS today is my birthday lol ^__^