Coordinates from September - October 2018

The first part of September swept by in a bit of a blur. After we got back from New Zealand we had a bit of settling in to do, and it wasn't until towards the end of the month that I actually got my lolita wardrobe organised and properly accessible. But when I did...I was back!

Literally the day that I reorganised my clothing I wore lolita for the first time in what felt like forever. I called James over to look at how prettily I'd arranged my racks, and said "hey, would you care if I wore lolita while assisting on your photoshoot this afternoon?" (because it's not the most practical of clothing to move lights and furniture around in, so I like to be considerate and check) and his gratifying reply was "I insist that you do!"

So I did ^__^

JSK & Headbow: Rococo Soul Jam Paradise

Bolero: Handmade

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Baby the Stars Shine Bright

I was so ridiculously happy to be wearing lolita again. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it, and how the lack of it was just one more factor in me feeling not-quite-settled in our new house. It was such an instant mood boost to wear something cute and fluffy again! I also got lots of compliments (including from the cashier with cute round glasses at the chemist we ducked into before the shoot) and James and I went out with the friends we were shooting with for a drink afterwards. All in all a great day and an outfit that I really enjoyed.

Also click here if you want to see what we shot that day, since it's quite a contrast to how I looked! It's Facebook-friendly but not quite safe for work, FYI.

And then, just like the start of September the start of October vanished into the abyss...because I got sick. Again. Bronchitis followed by a lung infection this time. Sigh. I took six days off work in a row, I was that sick. Grateful I could do that (and not have to do anything like move house or travel internationally) but I was so frustrated to be sick again. I was the sickest I've been since I met James to be honest, and it sucked.

But after getting my birthday haul in I decided I had to wear one of my new dresses before my birthday month ended, so in mid-October I once again got dressed up (in Teddy Chocolatier this time) to help out on another photoshoot. I ended up sweating horribly for part of the day, then getting rained on but hey, I looked cute!

JSK & Shoes: Metamorphose

Bolero: Handmade

Bag: Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Everything else: Offbrand & taobao

Last of all I wore a lolita Hufflepuff outfit for Halloween at work! I felt very cute and got many compliments, even from strangers on the way to the train ^__^

Skirt: Victorian Maiden

Blouse: The Floral Notebook

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

So I didn't wear lolita that much over the past two months, but that's okay. I enjoyed it when I did wear it, and I feel like I'm starting to get a bit more...I don't know...personal style? I'm just feeling more and more comfortable in lolita, and feel more "me" in it. Which is awesome and leaves me feeling pretty good about it all ^__^

AYWI30C #7: As sweet as you can go

This prompt was so much fun! I’ll admit, I could possibly go sweeter, but what I wanted to do for this prompt was doing something very quintessentially sweet lolita and that informed all my coordination decisions for this outfit.

I’m trying to not re-use main pieces in this challenge (or at least, not this early on in the challenge) so that ruled out some of my typically sweet items. So I decided to instead run with a common sweet theme – chocolate! Or at least, sweet food things in brown with my Rococo Soul Jam Paradise JSK and BTSSB chocolate cardigan.

As brown can also read as more classic, I tried to move the coordinate back into properly sweet territory with the rest of the styling, such as my using the matching headbow. I also kept it sweet with the brown-and-pink wristcuffs and cute bow-and-biscuit ring. I apparently don’t have any sweet jewellery in brown other than that ring, so the coordinate is a bit sparser in terms of accessories than I’d like but what can you do? I also realised while typing up the entry that I should have included some of my biscuit hair clips as well. Ooops.

The thing I love about this coord is how warm and cute it is. I mean, just look at that layering! Isn’t it just cosy and adorable?

I also love these socks with this coord. Because of the cardigan featuring so much offwhite as well the colours are still balanced, and there’s just something about socks with bow patterns that to me is so very typically sweet lolita.

Have I ever gushed about how much I like these shoes? Because I really like these shoes! Such a good staple, and they work for classic as well as sweet. And I also love this bag! Since buying it I realised it’s an Innocent World replica, which I’m a bit bummed about, but oh well. When it dies I’ll buy a non-replica to replace it but in the meantime it’s pretty and practical, which is my favourite combination of attributes.

So I guess in the end, this coordinate is very quintessentially sweet lolita for me. It’s not as OTT as I can go, but in terms of substyle purity it is very much as sweet as I can go.

Coordinates from October - December 2017

The end of 2017 started strong with wearing lolita, and then rapidly tailed off as the Australian summer came around. The heat, paired with my December malaise of "I need my time of work and I need it now", meant that lolita took a distinct back seat towards the end of the year. But still, I wore some great outfits this quarter and am keen to share them below!

One the second Sunday in October I attended another Newcastle meetup, which I wrote about here. Since we were going to Coco Monde, a chocolaterie café, I wanted to go with a chocolate vibe so I fixed up my handmade chocolate JSK ready to wear. But alas, since I gained a bit of weight since I made it the JSK didn’t fit, so I came up with a sweet coordinate using Jam Paradise instead! Same vibe, different dress. I wanted to go a bit over the top (by my standards) with accessories; several things in my hair, wristcuffs as well as bracelets, and I even wore my Pastel Skies ring! Though in the end it doesn’t look all that OTT…

JSK & Headbow: Rococo Soul Jam Paradise

Blouse & Shoes: Bodyline

OTKS & Wristcuffs: Angelic Pretty

Accessories: Offbrand/Pastel Skies

I’m a bit unsure about how much I liked this outfit, in the end. I felt super cute wearing it, but I think the socks didn’t match the blouses well enough in colour and the petti I chose is a bit too large for the dress. I also feel I needed more prominent legwear to balance out the accessories up top, or alternatively needed to tone down the hair a bit. I’m actually not completely sure what it is but this outfit doesn’t quite hit all the right notes for me. But regardless of that, it was super fun to wear something some utterly cute and push my own boundaries of OTT lolita.

I next wore lolita when James and I were invited to meet some new people over dinner to hash out a creative collaboration. Just a quick, easy outfit because I had to get home from work, get changed, and go, but it felt very me and I liked taking the chance to dress up.

OP: Metamorphose temps de fille Berry Stripe

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Angelic Pretty Milky Berry tote

Everything else: Offbrand/taobao

I also had fun spicing up this photo… gotta love Meitu filters and I finally downloaded one of those square blur apps for the background!

On the last Friday of October I wore lolita to work again, and I actually rather liked this outfit. Obviously still in the very casual end of the spectrum but I enjoyed working in hints of white and felt like it was a well balanced outfit. Though excuse the bunched up hem lace...did not notice it was happening!

Skirt: Handmade

Cutsew: The Floral Notebook

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

And then I got to wear mori-inspired lolita for my Halloween wood witch shoot with James! I really adored this look, and wearing lolita for photoshoots always gives me the freedom to not worry so much about coordinating properly and just do something that looks good! Making it a 10/10 outfits for a miniature witch rather than a 10/10 lolita fashion coordinate was loads of fun and I am so excited and happy with how both the look and the photo turned out.

JSK: Bodyline
Cape and OTKS: Innocent World
Hat: Handmade
Boots: Offbrand decorated by me
Wristcuffs: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Bracelets: Offbrand

I also wanted to share a behind the scenes shot that shows of my handmade hat really well!

This was a great Halloween shoot to do and I've got to give massive credit to James for making the final photo so ridiculously cute! Therefore I am pimping his photography page...he does good stuff and you should check it out  ^__^

On the second of November my work had a belated Halloween/Day of the Dead party and of course I had to dress up! Lolita is my go-to for work dress ups as I like it and it’s easy, so this year I went as a cute deer. I didn't manage to get a full body photo, but this shoe shot and selfie give you the general gist of it.

JSK & Shoes: Bodyline

Blouse: Lady Sloth

Headdress: Sweet Dreamer

Socks: Offbrand

I did plan to wear a fawn collar and my new shoe toppers as well but the collar was uncomfortable to wear all day and the shoe toppers didn’t work with flats so I was a bit more toned down than I intended! Regardless, I liked the outfit.

And then that was it for me for wearing lolita in 2017! I am so happy I achieved my goal of wearing the fashion more and have really enjoyed sharing my coordinates here ^__^

Coordinates from January - March 2017

In keeping with my 2017 goal of wearing lolita more often, I've decided to post an outfit round up post every few months. Sometimes, like for the first quarter of this year, I may not be posting too many outfits, but I'd still rather for a regular, smaller round up than waiting for ages or even than posting each outfit individually.

So, in the first three months of 2017 I wore lolita twice. Which isn't a lot, but given that 2016 saw me wearing it only four times it is definitely an improvement!

In January James and I went out to buy eggs and I decided to dress up a bit for it. We also ended up hanging out in a local park for a little bit playing Pokemon Go. It was a short outing, but I was pleased to wear lolita for it.

JSK & Shoes: Bodyline

Bolero: Handmade

Bag (not pictured): Taobao

Everything else: Offbrand

The other time I wore lolita was when I went to the Sydney swap meet in February! You may notice, seeing these two outfits in the one post, that I like casual brown outfits ^__^ What can I say, brown or black tend to be my go-to colours...

JSK & bow clips: Rococo Soul

Bolero: Handmade

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Taobao

Everything else: Offbrand

So yeah, not too much lolita for the first part of the year but still off to a good start!

Sweets for the sweet; Jam Paradise outfits

I really enjoy food-related sweet lolita pieces in brown colourways, or at least that feature brown prominently, though currently I only own a single one of that nature: Jam Paradise by Rococo Soul.

It's a really lovely dress with lots of cute details that I enjoy wearing casually, and in my last taobao haul I picked up the matching headbow and two-way clips. Which means it is my only lolita piece where I actually own the proper matching accessories. Of course, I put them to good use in the flat-lays below!

First, a quite casual outfit that is something that I would definitely wear for a more laid back occasion. Given that the print is quite eye-catching I don't really feel the need to make the rest of the outfit too dramatic (at least, not this time!). This look would include lace topped offwhite ankle socks too, insert usual rambling about my current pairs not looking good laid out here.

Next, since the first look was quite casual, I wanted to run with a very typically lolita look. This is the first time I've used the shoes James got me for my birthday in a flat-lay, I really do like those shoes. A definite improvement over my previous cream pair!

Lastly I wanted to do something a bit more interesting colour-wise, so I whipped out one of my new cutsews, which I think matches really well! It's not the same shade of red as in the print but with the OTKS to tie it in I think it worked quite well. You may (or may not) have noticed but in this outfit I didn't use the matching headwear, even though I have it. This was partially just because I wanted to stretch beyond that, and partially because this outfit, I think, works best with the dress as a standalone piece in that print, and with more focus on the accompanying pieces.

Talk to me about matching headwear in lolita in general, and in your wardrobe as well. Love it? Hate it? Super neutral?

Strawberry jam outfits

New dress means new outfits for this blog. That's just how it works around here. So please welcome to the page, Jam Paradise by Rococo Soul!

This print is adorable and, as you can see, has a lot more colours to it thank just the obvious brown and red. However, I found the shade of brown tricky to match as it's quite light. All my brown blouses and boleros were too dark, as was my red blouse. However, I still managed to put together my standard three outfits exploring different looks and I also have some new blouses on their way to me which will increase my coording possibilities.

First up is a very straightforward look look. I'd probably do two braids with the blue bows on the bottom for a hairstyle for this. I like how this look is really towing the line between sweet and classic; the elements are sweet but the styling is more classic leaning.

And then there is this outfit, which I adore! I would wear this in a heartbeat. There isn't any pink in the print, but I still felt like it matched really well. This kind of casual lolita is totally my jam (haha, see what I did there?).

Lastly I wanted to take a more otome path. I'm not 100% sold on that cardigan: I bought it from an op shop and it's been sitting in my "to modify" pile since it's too long for my tastes. I pulled it out because I thought it'd go great with this dress (which, as far as colour goes, it does) but I'm honestly not sure how much I like it as a garment and I'm still debating whether it's worth the effort of shortening it. Have any of my readers ever shortened a cardigan and feel like giving me an opinion on it?

All in all this JSK has a lot of coording potential. There are so many colours in the print that it goes with pretty much anything and because of its cut it can run the range from full lolita to full otome. In all honesty I'm probably going to wear it in a casual way most often but it was fun to have a play around with it and explore a few possibilities.

Rococo Soul Jam Paradise JSK

I'm back! Work has been keeping me busy and going from lazy student to productive full-time worker, with a commute and everything, has been quite the lifestyle change and has left me with neither the time nor inclination to blog much. But I have a couple of posts scheduled after this so hopefully I won't vanish for six weeks again.  And one of the pluses of proper employment is increased disposable income, so there will be two new reviews soon as well as the other posts I have scheduled and even if they are short posts I'll try and share any purchases etc. so basically what I'm rambling about is that my hiatus is broken and I'm planning on keeping this blog going, even if I only post once every week or two.

Anyway, onwards to the actual post! Recently a girl in the Australian facebook lolita community posted the Rococo Soul JSK in brown for sale, amongst other things. And since I now have the aforementioned disposable income and liked that dress since I first saw it I decided to go for it. The transaction went smoothly and last Tuesday I came home to a package full of dress.

This isn't exactly a review, since I bought this secondhand and the previous owner has apparently worn it twice. But overall it's a really nice dress, and it fits and suits me well. The fabric is nice, the ribbon trim is nice and the construction seems both sturdy and neat. The waist-ties are thin and detachable and the straps are adjustable.  Style-wise, it's straddling the border between lolita and otome and I like that it can be toned down or dressed up. One thing that really doesn't come across in photos is that there are lots of colours in the print; red, blue and cream are the most obvious but there is also yellow and a couple of different green shades too. And for someone like me, who loves clothes with lots of colour coordinating options it's just perfect.

There are only two downsides to this dress for me. The first is just a personal taste thing and that's that the fabric has the print so that no matter which way you face it some of the label will be upside down, and I honestly would have preferred the fabric to face the other way up. The second issue is that due to the full back shirring the dress wrinkles at the side. The shirring makes the bodice bunch up, if you know what I mean? I'm not maxing out the measurements but I am at the larger end that this dress caters for, so I'm not sure if that's the reason but whatever the cause, it is a bit annoying.

Those two points aside I will re-iterate that it's a very nice dress overall and now that I know what Rococo Soul is like I will definitely contemplate getting their future releases. They are a pricier Taobao brand, which is why I'd never bought from them before (I like my Taobao cheap, thank you!) but I think the quality is definitely well in line with the pricing.

As a last note, I played with some outfits while after taking the shots for this post, but those will be in another post...