In Praise of Lolibrary

I picked up a lavender headbow from Closet Child when I was in Japan - quite literally on my first day ever in the country. It was perfect - a nice light lavender with a simple gold pattern and a pearl-and-star decoration. Detailed but still neutral enough for my tastes.

The headbow in my first ever IRL Closet Child haul.

Recently, I was wondering what print series it's actually from. So, as any good lolita would, I opened up Lolibrary and set the following filters.

Category: Hair Accessories
Brand: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Colourway: Lavender
Tags: Stars

This search brought up a single page of results and there it was. It is the Full Of Stars “Bright Starry Night” Ribbon Head Bow from 2014 and I found it, thanks to Lolibrary, in under a minute. After almost three whole years of owning it ^__^

Armed with this new information, I decided to look into the full series (by keyword searching the name) since it was a print I hadn't heard of. Or at least, has never paid much attention to.

And oh my goodness, aren't the JSKs from this series just gorgeous?

I mean, I know they aren't really something I'd wear much, but they are definitely on my "if I see it cheap" list now. I am aware that I probably won't ever get my mitts on them with how little I'd want to spend, but a girl can still admire, even if it's from a wistful distance.

There's not much point to this blog post, other than to remind you all that Lolibrary is fantastic. And that there are more wonderful lolita clothes out there than you probably realise ^__^

3 Looks: Teddy Chocolatier

I honestly don't know where the time has gone. If you asked me when I did the last post in this series I would have thought it was a few weeks ago...not a few months!

But oh well. The time did pass but I am here now with three fresh coords with Meta's Teddy Chocolatier.

Teddy Chocolatier has really cemented itself as a favourite piece of mine. It's sweet but not too saccharine, detailed but not overwhelming. It's comfortable to wear and has a lot of coording opportunities. In short - I love it.

For my first coord I wanted to really emphasise the lavender in the print, and came up with a sweet country coord that I absolutely adore. I can't wait to wear this (or something very like this) in the near future.

Cutsew: Metamorphose temps de fille

Socks: Offbrand

Mint bow clip & lavender bracelet: Closet Child

Hats, shoes, wristcuffs & brown/ivory bow: Taobao

In the second coord I wanted to run fully into the chocolate theme. It would be more chocolate-y if I owned chocolate theme socks (that aren't those ankle socks from the previous coord) but I think it's still very on-theme. I also love how it's a much more muted coord despite the theme, and it feels like it would be amazingly cosy for colder weather.

Cardigan: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

OTKS: Metamorphose temps de fille

Shoes: Bodyline

Bow clips: Taobao

Beret & bracelets: Offbrand

Finally, I wanted to run with a very mint coordinate, and it ended up being a very Angelic Pretty-heavy coord. And I'm not complaining about that! I think this coord is adorable, but I do feel like it's missing something...not sure what. Perhaps it's more of a styling thing, because in my head I can see this with a mid-2000s twintail hair style, and I think that would make all the difference. 

Bolero, headbow, OTKS & necklace: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Mint bow clip: Closet Child

Small bow clips: Offbrand

All in all, I love all three coords I came up with. They are all very distinct from each other and don't reflect how I've worn the JSK so far. I mean, I've worn it with the mint bolero before in a kind of similar way but still. I consider these different enough that I am very, very happy.

Also - I did film my process of putting these coords together, so if you think that sounds interesting please watch below (and you know, please like and subscribe and all that jazz). ^__^

Coordinates from January - February 2022

I have one word for you - summer. Or perhaps two - ugh, summer.

I wanted to wear lolita over my Christmas break and when I started back at work (thanks to Omicron, still working from home) but the heat and humidity killed me. Fortunately, I got enough of a break in the weather to wear a coord at the end of my first work week back...a coord I'd had sitting out since the Monday, waiting to be worn but languishing due to the awful weather.

Skirt: Bodyline

Wristcuffs & Headbow: Angelic Pretty

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

I like that I started to year off with some sweet. This coord felt very cute, very me, and it made me happy to wear it.

And then it won't surprise anyone to hear that I didn't wear lolita for almost an entire month. In my defence, we had a lot of very hot and humid weather, and I was also quite sick (not the Rona, thank goodness) for about three weeks. So, you know.

So my next coord was for rather late in February, worn to work from home but primarily because we had tradies coming over to fix a broken step. People = wearing not-pyjamas so why not lolita?

JSK; Metamorphose temps de fille Teddy Chocolatier

Blouse: Glitter Tale

Headbow: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Necklace; Angelic pretty

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

However, it had a bonus side effect of actually making me really happy. Between the weather and the sick I'd been pretty down and feeling un-creative, and this coord really helped put me back into a better mindset.

PS How do you like my new hair? It probably won't be around for long because technically I can't have coloured hair for work, but while we're still WFH I figured why not just do it! I'll either cut it off or dye over it when I get back to the office.

Given how good that coord made me feel, I decided to continue it and wore lolita the next Monday. Nothing particularly exciting about this coord as it was honestly chosen for comfort and ease of wear, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. Shirring Princess is the best ^__^

JSK & Socks: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Wristcuffs: Handmade

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

The next day I defaulted to working in PJs, but on Wednesday I dressed up again. It really has been helping my mental state!

JSK: Metamorphose temps de fille Rose Stripe Shirring

Blouse: Glitter Tale

Socks & Headbow: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

Wristcuffs: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

This coord was entirely brought about because I wanted to wear classic, dammit. And it dawned on me, as I tried to put something together, that I don't actually have any properly classic main pieces that fit at the moment. Ever since I got rid of my handmade green skirt there's really only my Victorian Maiden skirt that's truly classic...and I don't really do classic in black! So this coord isn't as classic as it could be, but I still enjoyed it. And now I potentially have sewing plans...

And that was it for the first two months of 2022. As the weather gets more tolerable I do hope to wear lolita more frequently and I am getting a lot of joy out of it right now ^__^