Quarantine coord planning

Okay, so I'm not actually in quarantine, just working from home and practising proper social distancing so I only go out for groceries at the moment. But it makes for a snappier title!

Anyway, I digress. As you would have seen from my coordinate roundup posts, I'm taking full advantage of currently working from home to wear lolita. I've been doing it in a very regimented way and thought that is might be interesting to share my methodology.

As a starting point, I already had a spreadsheet of my main pieces. There are two pages, one containing items that currently fit and one with those that don't. Each sheet is sorted by the date I last wore the main piece, from oldest to newest. While I don't usually let the dates here influence me it is still a good source of information, and does sometimes influence my choice of main piece.

This handmade skirt gets worn a lot, and I keep wearing it despite that frequency!

But as soon as I realised I'd be wearing lolita five times a week for who knows how long, I decided I wanted to make it an opportunity to wear everything and not fall into a rut. So I copied the list of main pieces into a document and split them up - never worn, last worn 2017 or earlier, last worn 2018, last worn 2019, and worn this year already. Then for each main piece I jotted down the main ideas for an outfit, trying not to just stick to the obvious coordinates.

Then I started working through wearing said coords. I didn't strictly limit myself to the exact order they were in, but I did try to wear the pieces I'd worn the longest time ago - or not at all! - sooner. Which was a really good feeling! I do feel a bit guilty having beautiful things I don't wear so this method took care of that.

Once a coord was worn, I shifted the main piece to the bottom of one of two lists in the document - Comfortable and Not Comfortable. I'm a realist, and I discovered that some things were just not good to stay in for eight hours at a stretch so I wanted them off the rotation. Still technically wearable, so not removed entirely from my planning, but not front and centre.

Queen Cat - gorgeous but a wee bit too tight to wear for eight hours!

For every main piece listed under Comfortable I jotted down an idea for a different coord, once again trying to go a little beyond the obvious, and not be too repetitive of the outfit I'd just worn. And then, once I'd made my way through each main piece and separated them into Comfortable or Not, I worked my way through the Comfortable list.

As I say, under normal circumstances I'm not too militant about what main pieces I wear. But with it being likely that I'd wear a lot of coords in relatively rapid succession, I wanted to force versatility on myself. With that said I wasn't too strident about keeping an exact order, but I have been trying to keep up a good rotation.

It's been fun to wear a little bit of everything!

At time of posting, I'm still working from home and working through my lolita wardrobe - like I say, it's probably going to extend until at least the end of June, which means around seventy coords in total! I'm not even sure if I've worn lolita much more than seventy times so far all up!

But it has been fun, and it has really motivated me to take better care of my health - I want to fit everything better, dammit! It has also helped me identify gaps and items that would really be useful for my wardrobe...I really need a pink bolero! I may blog about that as well since it has been rather eye opening.

So that's been a little bit about how I've been choosing what to wear while in "quarantine". Have you been wearing lolita (or other fun things) during this time?

Lolita Blog Carnival: Top Tips for Managing Your Wardrobe

A chance to ramble about wardrobe management? Yes please! In this post I'm going to talk more about the contents of your wardrobe, rather than the physical management of taking care of garments and storing them.

If you've been on my blog for a while you'll know that I'm very into what we'll call wardrobe theory, for lack of a better term. I tend to ramble on and on, so I'll try to be brief here and just share a few of my go-to tips for managing what's in my wardrobe.

Know what you wear
What we think looks good and what we think looks good on us are often two very different things. Especially in a fashion like lolita, where collectability is a thing and fads come and go, it's easy to end up with items that are desirable and that you like but that you just don't wear.

I wear a lot of casual, comfortable skirts.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with the collector aspect of this subculture, but I'm all for having a wardrobe that you actually can wear. So that means removing pieces that you don't like on yourself for whatever reasons - perhaps it's fit, colour, style or something else. It also means being realistic about the situations you wear lolita for - there's not much point in having five OTT dresses if you only wear a fancy coordinate once a year, but if you wear toned down lolita to your office job owning five Innocent World solid JSKs is probably a very sensible thing.

Figure out why
To aid with the above, when you wear a lolita coordinate think about how each pieces makes you feel, and why.

As an example, recently I've realised I'm very meh towards my handmade green skirt. When I asked myself why I discovered that it was because it's boring to wear. It's nice enough and is comfortable, but it doesn't bring me any excitement. So I'm going to try and wear it in more adventurous coordinates to see if that changes my feelings. If it doesn't then it will probably go into the sales pile...or maybe not, since it's just a simple handmade piece. I may hang on to it as a nice handy "it can get ruined" piece or try to building up more options in my wardrobe that go with it.

Keep a wishlist
Now, I'm not really big into dream dresses (though if you are, great!) so when I say wishlist, I mean more of a needs list. As you refine your wardrobe you will learn to see the gaps in your supporting pieces, and your main pieces too. The more you wear lolita the more you know your coordinating style - for example, I don't wear much jewellery so there's not much point me growing my collection beyond what it is. But I do love boleros and find myself wanting more colours than I have.

Wedding bolero FTW!

This post is a bit incoherent, but I suppose overall my opinion on wardrobe management can be summed up as "be mindful". Learn who you are as a lolita, what influences that, and plan accordingly. It's as easy - and as hard - as that.

Read more from other bloggers:

The Bloody Tea Party
In Love With a Dream
Alice in Lolitaland
Bibelot Rose

Remote Twinning with Cupcake Kamisama

Recently I had the pleasure of remote twinning for the very first time with the always lovely Paulina from Cupcake Kamisama! Feast your eyes on our adorable sweetness!

My twin from the other side of the world!

I'll admit I was a bit nervous about this whole thing, given that I've never actually properly twinned before. I did do a photoshoot with a model friend, but that was just me dressing us both up in matching dresses with different styling, not actual twinning with a fellow lolita.

Turns out that we only had one print in common, this Bodyline one. Once we decided on the main piece, Paulina put together some flatlays for me, I made a flatlay to match one of hers, we hashed out a few more details (like adding pink wigs and matching brooches) and shoot ideas and we were ready!

Tea is the universal uniting force, regardless of space and time.

Paulina took her photos first then I attempted to match, and I think all in all we did a very creditable job! It was fun pairing our photos together, though I have to say that the artsy one below was all her work, not mine!

All in all my first remote twinning was a wonderful experience! It was very fun to collaborate with Paulina (and seriously, if you don't follow her blog you absolutely should) and since I'm lucky enough to have an awesome husband I can rope into taking lots of photos for me it was pretty easy too.  I also enjoy that this coordinate is probably not quite what I'd have done on my own if we weren't trying to match - and on that note I think we ended up matching really well! 10/10, would twin again ^__^

PS I'm also adding this selfie because I wanted to wear my glasses for the shoot, but also needed to do make-up, so I did my makeup practically blind (-10 vision y'all) and amazingly I ended up with even eyeliner. It's a miracle!

PPS How cute is this wig? It's my favourite wig and it was fun to wear it with lolita for once!

Coordinates from 1 - 15 April 2020

NSW is in full lockdown mode, or whatever we're calling it. It's the "seriously, don't leave your house except for essentials, and going to the beach isn't essential, you idiots" phase of things, and regulations are in place until 29 June unless the situation drastically improves. As mentioned in my last coord round up, I'm trying to wear lolita every weekday for as long as I'm working from home due to the pandemic, so you're going to see more coords from me than usual! Hence why this is being posted mid-month. Can't have too many coords in one post!

Anyhoo, continuing the WFH coords from the day I left off in that last post, on Wednesday we wear wa lolita, apparently. Well, not really a proper wa coordinate, but I'd had the idea to match this haori with this JSK for a while and was glad to try it out.

JSK: Innocent World Icing Cookie

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Vintage/Taobao/Offbrand

Unfortunately, I didn't really like this coord, and I've realised I am going to sell this dress off after all. I do love it the print, but the cut is bad on me. I also didn't wear a petticoat, isn't that naughty? Aaaand I took my headbow and haori and shoes off most of the time while I was working but hey, it's the thought that counts!

I decided to wear something very comfortable on Thursday, as I was starting to feel a bit tired of dealing with clothes that weren't quite right. So out came my handmade cherry skirt in an excessively cherry themed coord!

Skirt: Handmade

Cardigan: Banned

Shoes & Socks: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Again, I did a naughty and didn't wear my shoes, petticoat, or headwear until it was photo time ^__^

Now, technically Friday is not a work day for me at the moment. In a money-saving effort my company has just closed on Fridays now. But I'd made an agreement with a colleague who is also a writer - we'd both continue to work on Friday on our respective fiction projects and check in in the evenings.

I did allow myself the luxury of sleeping in, but once I was up I got dressed in lolita, ready to write! In the end James and I also ran some errands (the checkout chick at Coles was very complimentary) and I was back in my PJs at 3PM with only 100 words written but hey, I needed a mental health day apparently and 100 words is still 100 words.

Skirt: Metamorphose temps de fille Flower Bottle

Blouse: Bodyline

Brooch: MadIllustration

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

I utterly adored this coord. So cute and quirky and casual! Totally me! And that's the joy of just dressing up to stay at home, I can try stuff like this. Wouldn't probably wear it to a meet, and I don't think I'd have come up with this outfit if I wasn't deliberately trying to stretch my coording possibilities while being relaxed about the outcome.

It actually felt weird not dressing up over the weekend, and I wore a coord I've had in my head for a while to start the next week off. I like how it turned out...though I entirely forgot to put a petticoat on at all. Forgive me!

JSK: Metamorphose temp de fille Rose Strip Shirring

Bolero: Lyris Design

OTKS: Innocent World

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Tuesday it was back to berries with my trusty Chocoberry skirt! Unfortunately though the skirt fits it is a bit too tight, so I changed into my PJs at lunch. Oh well, I was cute for a while and then I got to be warm and cozy...it's a win-win!

Skirt & Shoes: Bodyline

Cutsew: Angelic Pretty

OTKS: Jane Marple

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Ahem. So yes, I wore my cherry skirt last week and I wore berries yesterday, but I made the headband I'm wearing and posted about it on Facebook without a photo. Naturally, several people requested a photo so I decided I'd wear it properly! Buuuut I didn't get a proper outfit photo on the day, so have a selfie I took to show off the headband and a flatlay ^__^

Skirt, Headband & Wristcuffs: Handmade

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

I really liked this outfit! It's casual and quirky, just my style. It's also super-offbrand, which makes me very happy on principle.

Related question - should I post a tutorial on how to make this headband? It was literally a twenty minute make ^__^

Thursday and Friday turned into pyjama days for me so flash forward to Easter Monday, when I dressed up for all of half an hour for something exciting! I'll post a little more about it in it's own post, so for now just have an outfit rundown.

Skirt & Shoes: Bodyline

Cutsew: The Black Ribbon

Headbow: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Wristcuffs: Angelic Pretty

Brooch: MadIllustration

Everything else: Offbrand

On Tuesday, I woke up after a really bad night sleep with lots of aches and pains, and it was really cold too! I almost wussed out of wearing lolita because I wanted to stay in my dressing gown, but instead made a coord purely so I could wear my fawn fur cape, which was almost as warm and cosy.

Skirt & Headbow: Handmade

Cutsew: The Black Ribbon

Cape: Sweet Dreamer

OTKS: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

My last coord from this time was also influenced by me being cold! It was also my first try as taking my own coord photos, everything else has been courtesy of my wonderful husband ^__^

JSK & Capelet: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

OTKS: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

Hat: Vintage

Bracelets: Offbrand

It has been really weird and amazing to wear lolita so much. I've been loving how it's stretched my wardrobe out - several of these are outfits I wouldn't have worn if I was wearing lolita "normally" aka not much. I've been trying to not get in a rut, and my wardrobe does still lend itself easily to certain styles (black berry prints much?) that do feel repetitive when worn frequently so I've made an effort to avoid that. I've already worn more lolita coords this year than all of 2019 and I really like that.

So that's all for now...and by that I mean for a couple of weeks until I post the next roundup!

Lolita Blog Carnival: Share A Bit About Your Favourite Piece & How You Acquired It

LBC is back! I really missed this so buckle up and let me tell you about my favourite piece...

Ahem.  That requires defining "favourite", which as you might know, is a bit tricky for me. Rather than agonising over it, I decided I'd just share a few pieces I love and a bit about how they came into my life, featuring some flatlays taken over the years.

First of all - Bodyline's Chocoberry skirt in black. This was one of my first lolita pieces, ordered way back when in 2012, and after many years it's still very "me". I have no memory of what prompted me to decide to order this but I'm glad I did as black based berry prints are very much a signature look for me now, and I have no idea if that would be the case if I hadn't owned and loved this skirt for so long.

Meta's Flower Bottle lucky pack skirt was, you guessed it, from a lucky pack - my first lucky pack, in fact, and I'm pretty sure my first brand as well back in 2014. Though at the time I didn't love this skirt, it has really grown on me over the years and now I wouldn't part with it.

Another favourite, and this one more recently acquired, it also Meta - the shirred JSK of Teddy Chocolatier. It was my 2018 birthday present to myself (well, one of!) and it was actually quite the impulse purchase. I just saw it, thought it was cute, and bought it! And I'm so glad I did because it's a beautiful piece, and quite different from the rest of my wardrobe. For a while my wardrobe felt kind of limited in terms of themes and colours, but from around this time it started feeling versatile again. I'm not crediting this JSK for all of that, but it certainly helps!

So that's a little glimpse into some of my favourites and how I got my mitts on them. How did you acquire your favourite piece of lolita?

Read more from other bloggers:

Alice in Lolitaland
The Bloody Tea Party
In Love With a Dream

AYWI30C #20: Based around a certain accessory

Like with the last prompt, to determine my starting point for this prompt I rummaged through my accessories. More specifically, I took a close look at my hair accessories - I once again wanted to pick an interesting piece as my starting point and honestly my jewellery and other accessories are still not particularly impressive. But I do have some interesting hair things!

Also, I do want to mention that I could have picked "fawn fur" as my accessory of choice and done something super fluffy, but that felt like a cop out and too easy, so I didn't. But yes, my fawn fur accessory collection is pretty spectacular!

In the end, I decided to make a coordinate based around my black and rainbow Mickey ears that I got at Tokyo Disneyland last year.

And this is what I came up with! I ran with two main ideas when putting this together - rainbows and circles. I'm not entirely happy with the colour balance as I feel there should be a bit more white up top, but otherwise I really like it! I'd wear it to Disneyland, that's for sure.

I really love these ears, they're kind of understated (as much as Mickey ears can be) despite being so blingy. And of course, black and rainbow is very, very me ^__^

In the interests of keeping things Disney I pulled out this Monsters Inc tee shirt instead of a blouse. It was actually a last minute decision but I feel it really pulled the coord together, planting it firmly into casual territory, which helped (in my mind at least) forgive any imperfections, like the colour balance.

I also enjoyed just messing around with the polka dot theme. On the one hand, it's kind of tacky and all the dots are different sizes so it's a bit mis-matched. But on the other hand, it's so fun having so many dotty things!

For accessories I kept things pretty simple, and of course rainbow hued. I know they're not typically lolita but I love my pastel jelly bands, they're just the right blend of cute and casual.

I really loved pulling this coord together. I don't often use an accessory item as a starting point so it was a new experience for me, and one that I'm glad I did!

Coordinates from January - March 2020

Well, this year has progressed in a very unexpected way, hasn't it? But here, on my blog, we will have regularity, and that is my coord roundup post. Here goes!

Let's start with a confession: I very nearly didn’t take any lolita clothes with me to Japan in February. But in the end I packed some simpler, versatile items and I’m glad I did because I wore lolita twice!

My first lolita coord of 2020 was worn to go out in Harajuku. It’s a very simple outfit, but I liked working tiny bits of pink into the otherwise straightforward black x white outfit. Shirring Princess is an odd dress for me, I don’t really like it very much but it feels good every time I wear it!

JSK, OTKS & Bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright.

Bolero: Maxicimam

Shoes: Bodyline

Necklace: Angelic Pretty

Other accessories: Offbrand/MeLikesTea

We went to Harajuku Zooland this day to see all the cute animals, so have a couple of bonus pictures of adorable furry things!

Then when we were in Kyoto I decided to dress up to visit the Railway Museum. James bought me this Drug Honey hoodie earlier in the trip, and it’s one of my new favourite items of clothing. Can you believe that I was actually telling him not to buy it for me?! Good thing he didn’t listen ^__^

JSK, OTKS & Bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright.

Hoodie: Drug Honey

Shoes: Bodyline

Beret: Offbrand

Bow: MeLikesTea

James also took a shot of this coord with my new Instax camera! I’ve wanted an Instax for years and finally have one (I also may blog more about it in my Japan Highlights series, because there’s a bit of a story to getting it!) which is so much fun!

Once we came home we were meant to not do much for a while, but of course life had other plans and on March 7th James and I attended our first event with the Newcastle Steampunk Community - a tea duel! I had intended to wear a steampunky lolita coord, but didn’t quite like how everything was working so switched out my skirt for these overalls (another Japan purchase) and I honestly think it works as a casual ouji coord!

And I mean, even if my outfit could be argued to not be ouji at all, I was still going to share it because I also wanted to share James’s outfit! I love it when we dress up together and I think he makes a very handsome ouji accessory ^__^

My Coord

Overalls: Punyus

Blouse and beret: Offbrand

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

James’s Coord

Vest & shorts: Lyris Design

Shirt, tie & boots: Offbrand

Socks: Angelic Pretty

I really love how James coords his ouji outfits, it’s never what I would do myself but it always works so well! Also, have a cute shoe shot I took of him…

Speaking of shoes, my Bodyline ones finally gave up the ghost that day. RIP shoes, you were good to me for many years.

That was going to be it for the month, as I was keeping it quiet since I'm still recovering from the 2019 burnout. But then COVID-19 happened and at the end of March I found myself working from home. And I decided I was going to take full advantage of it and dress in lolita!

My first WFH outfit was pretty simple, but quite cute and made me feel all pumped up to get to work!

OP & Necklace: Lady Sloth Verrry Berry Picnic

Bolero: Banned

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

After my first day of working from home I actually sat down with a list of my main pieces, sorted from last worn to most recently worn, and came up with an outfit for each of them. I'm not a morning person, so having the thinking part done beforehand helps me get ready! So at the start of my first full week for working from home, I wore a piece I hadn't worn yet at all - Queen Cat.

Skirt: Enchantlic Enchantilly Queen Cat

Cutsew: The Black Ribbon

OTKS: Metamorphose temps de fille

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Again, it's a simple outfit, but I liked it well enough (though I eventually want to do something dramatic and OTT with this print!) and it was very satisfying to more this skirt from "never worn" to "most recently worn". It is a bit tight on the waist though, so I did change into my PJs after lunch (shhhh don't tell my manager!).

My last outfit for the month (but it was Tuesday, so mid-work week) was once again pretty casual, but definitely sweet this time and I loved it! Besides, I think we all know by now that casual I just how I do it ^__^

Skirt & Shoes: Bodyline

Cutsew & Headbow: Angelic Pretty

Everything else: Offbrand

I am really enjoying starting to wear lolita again, and it looks like I'll be wearing it a lot for a while due to the whole self-isolation thing. If this keeps up, I'll be sharing my next roundup quite a lot sooner than usual so stay tuned ^__^