AYWI30C #24: Using your least worn main piece

For this prompt I wanted to work with my Innocent World Princess Rose JSK, as it's one of several pieces in my wardrobe that I have actually never worn.

But, to be completely honest, this outfit just...didn't work for me. I don't know why, since it does match quite well and on paper it's nice but it just doesn't excite me at all. Which is a pity, because every individual piece is gorgeous. Perhaps it's a matter of shifting tastes, since I did approached this wanting to do something very classic, and I've really been more on a casual sweet kick lately.

Oh well, at least when I do these coords I do take close-ups so we can enjoy the good aspects of the coord. Like my wedding flower crown, which I still love a lot.

And this Innocent World book bag, which I felt matched in aesthetic if not in colour. Bags are one of those things that I really want to get loads more of, but I know I don't need them and really shouldn't. 

Innocent World is an interesting brand, in that what matches Innocent World best is nearly always more Innocent World. Other brands I find I can mix and match and it's all fine but when it's Innocent World I just drift towards matching it with more of the same.

Though, like my overall opinion on this coord, it could just be a bit of a classic thing. Even though my wardrobe is a bit of everything, it definitely skews more sweet than anything else, which could be why I find Innocent World goes best with Innocent World. 

But regardless of the substyle, I do love working in some offbrand accessories into pretty much everything. This two-way clip is gorgeous but I never seem to wear it! So it was good to bring it out for this coord.

So yeah, this coord ended up being a bit of an odd one, but it was still good to try a new outfit with something I haven't yet been able to wear. I've definitely got options for when I drop a dress size or two and can fit it ^__^

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!

July lolita haul

Recently I ordered a little haul of secondhand lolita items. I ordered a burgundy Angelic Pretty cutsew cardigan, finally got my hands on a brown Millefeuille bolero from Innocent World (it was only 3k yen!), a black and pink AP cutsew, and two pairs of strawberry patterned socks.

Then, of course, since I had an open order with Japonica I kept browsing. I soon added a white Bodyline blouse since my current white blouse is not a good fit. After that I found a cute Metamorphose cutsew cardigan in lavender and since I'd been wanting to get a lavender top I leapt on it immediately (I was at work at the time and did a sneaky).

So overall, my modest haul ended up becoming quite a decent sized one! Not that I'm complaining ^__^ Though I'm totally sad about the fact that I was this close to getting Country of Sweets in white but Japonica wasn't fast enough...

Everything arrived to Japonica by July 14, I paid for shipping on July 15 and it arrived July 18 - not bad at all!

I'm really happy with everything! While nothing except the lavender cutsew blouse is a new thing in my wardrobe, they are all welcome additions in their own ways.

First of all, I need to emphasise how over the moon I am to finally have a Millefeuille bolero! The lace is absolutely to die for and it's just a beautiful piece. However, it's actually a very dark and cool shade of brown (the left side of the picture if probably most accurate in colour) so I'm not actually sure how useful it's going to be in my wardrobe!

On the flip side of the usefulness coin, however, is this AP cutsew! It black and pink and cute, so obviously it's perfect for me ^__^

Strawberry socks are also an insta-win for my wardrobe. I mean, these were a pretty frivolous purchase given that I already have ample black and red berry socks, but hey, I like them! And actually, I super love the stripy Crown Label pair - it's such a unique design!

This AP cardigan is actually a new item type in my wardrobe - I didn't own any plain lolita cardigans! I had real trouble getting the colour right, and it's still not quite there, but it's a pretty piece. Possibly a bit too plain for my tastes after all but we'll see how much wear I get out of it.

On paper the most boring part of this haul is this Bodyline blouse - but I really love it! It's pretty, comfortable, and definitely one of the nicer Bodyline blouses I've ever owned. It has the buttons for detachable sleeve but the sleeve are nowhere to be found but that doesn't bother me one bit ^__^

And the final piece of my haul, and the bit I was actually most excited about - the lavender cutsew! Something that wasn't evident in the listing photos (and isn't all the obvious in mine either) is that the collar and sleeves and buttons are actually all a very fine gingham cotton! It's such a beautiful and unexpected detail and this top just makes me really happy. Is that weird to say about clothes?

Anyway, these are my newest wardrobe additions. I'm very happy with all of them and am keen to trot them all out in outfits soon ^__^

Coordinates from May - June 2019

Ahem. Apparently I went through all of May without wearing lolita once! I just…didn’t get around to it at all. Oh well, these things happen, though in retrospect it makes me feel rather odd that for the first time in ages I simply haven’t worn lolita for an entire calendar month.

And then, for the first week of June the trend continued! There were just no lolita opportunities...and the weather was very cold. But then one day, James and I ended up going on a spontaneous dinner date (which we sorely needed and hadn't realised) so I took the opportunity to frill up for it!

JSK: Innocent World Icing Cookie

Bolero: Maxicimam

Socks: Metamorphose temps de fille

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Badge: Madillustration

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Food was yummy and it was great to have a date night! We also ended up going to the arcade in the shopping centre the restaurant is in and I got to show James such gems as the whack-a-crab game that I spent my late teens playing too much of ^__^

Bonus selfie to show off my necklace and (kinda) badge ^__^

I had also intended to wear a steampunk lolita outfit to the Friday of Sydney Supanova at the end of June but ran out of time to get it figured out and packed. Hashtag sad.

Aaaaand that was that. It feels really weird to be posting this with only one outfit over two months but oh well. I like to be consistent with my posting schedule even if what I wear is anything but. I think things are calming down a little bit now in my life, so hopefully that means more opportunities for lolita in the next two months ^__^

Lolita Blog Carnival: Create A Coord To Best Fit The Season

Here down under, the current season is Autumn. But before you start thinking of crisp, chill days and gorgeous foliage let me disabuse you of the notion that our current Autumn is nice. Some days it's freezing, some days it's hot and sunny, and all in all it's not a picture perfect Autumn.

Buuuut I think this coord is pretty picture perfect, don't you? ^__^

I wanted to run with something classic and brown, because that feels super Autumn-y to me. But I wanted to avoid using my usual brown-and-fawn-fur combo so my new BTSSB capelet came in handy!

The vibrant red really brightens up the outfit, and I'm glad I stumbled onto this combo by virtue of avoiding one of my more common coordination options. I kept the accessories pretty simple since the pattern on the Innocent World onepiece is quite busy.

I did, however, bring in a tiny bit more colour with this Yumiyumyum Illustration brooch. I just liked the idea of bringing in some subtle floral elements into an Autumn coord - a hint of burgeoning warmth while things in the current world are getting greyer by the day.

Read more from other bloggers:

Ruffle Road
The Bloody Tea Party

Lolita haul from Tokyo!

You have to have known this was coming - how could I not go to Tokyo and not visit the lolita shops?

In the end, as well as visiting the stores in Shinjuku's Marui Annex and the Laforet building in Harajuku, we went to the Shinjuku Closet Child once and the Harajuku branch twice. I'd have loved to have visited the Ikebukuro branch as well, and dropped by the Shinjuku Closet Child a second time, but in the end we had exactly zero baggage space left on the way home so I'm glad we didn't!

That intro may make it sound like I bought hardly anything, but that is very much not true! For the purposes of this post I've photographed things together on an aesthetic level, but when I blog about the whole trip that'll have the details of what I bought where an when, just in case any of my readers care about knowing that much. This is also just the lolita items I bought - I got as much general fashion stuff as well, which I'm also insanely happy with.

So, with no further ado, allow me to introduce my newest wardrobe additions!

First up, the edible themed items! I was surprised to find this Innocent World JSK in both pink and blue at the Harajuku Closet Child, both new with tags. It took me a while to pick which colour I wanted, but I figured the pink was the safer bet. I'm not 100% sure how much I love the cut on me, but we'll see how I go wearing it. The Angelic Pretty cutsew was super cheap, so I had to have it, and the Peace Now bolero is a bit frivolous, but also cute and cheap so again, I just grabbed it ^__^

The Icing Cookie print is never one I really paid attention to, but like so many lolita prints, after seeing it in person I'm in love. It's really adorable, but a little more subdued than say an Angelic Pretty print on the same theme. Very excited to start putting together some coordinates with it!

The other main piece I bought was Enchantlic Enchantilly's Queen Cat skirt in black! It's missing the sash ribbon, but I do not care at all. I also grabbed this super cute BTSSB capelet because how utterly Little Red Riding Hood is it? I mean, except for the fact it doesn't actually have a hood...

But in all seriousness I'm so over the moon with Queen Cat! I tend not to talk too much about things I like but don't see myself buying, and Queen Cat one of those things. I thought it was an amazing print when it came out, and have admired it every time I've seen it since in all cuts and colours. So when James turned around from browsing the skirts at Closet Child while I was looking at dresses and held this up I just had to get it! It was a bit pricey for a secondhand skirt missing a piece, but hey, I had the husband's seal of approval so I didn't think twice!

Speaking of James finding me great things he also discovered these two Axes Femme coats on different days in Closet Child Harajuku. They're both a bit small for me now, but they were both around ten dollars. How could I not at that price? The green one in particular I really adore, even though it doesn't match anything I own.

I did also buy a few items new! I really wanted to get some direct from the brand socks, so I visited AP and Baby. Silly me didn't check the length on the lavender socks though, but oh well. Forced versatility in my sock collection! The floral canotier is from Dangerous Nude and to be honest, it was more expensive than I like, and I kind of bought it because the owner was so utterly lovely that I wanted to buy something! All that aside, it's really gorgeous and I like having an opulent classic piece so I'm still happy.

Following the trend of headwear, on our first visit to Shinjuku Closet Child I went a little bit nuts on accessories. All but the top headbow are from that night! And though the top one has tags, it was also from Closet Child, just later on ^__^ I'm particularly happy with the dusty pink and the lavender x gold bows, as they were on my wishlist.

I also bought all of these accessories at the same time, except for the Angelic Pretty necklace. I even already wore the pink necklace in one of my Tokyo coords, and I'm just really happy to have bulked up my jewellery collection with some more loltia specific pieces.

Throughout our trip we went into a couple of Claire's and also Paris Kids and I picked up so cute little things that will be good for lolita as well as being generally cute ^__^

James also found me three Axes Femme skirts for about five dollars each in Closet Child but my photos of them really don't do them justice. They are all varying levels of brown and floral and all a tiny bit small for me at the moment, but I couldn't pass them up. Two will be great for casual classic lolita - one is a damask-y type fabric in a beige/tan and the other is a brown and mustard floral - while the other will be lovely for mori kei or fairy kind of looks.

So there you have it! All my new lolita items direct from Japan! I'm really happy with everything I bough and am so excited to start incorporating everything into my coords ^__^

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.

AYWI30C #8: As classic as you can go

As soon as I started thinking about the coordinate I'd put together for this topic I knew I wanted the base of it to be Innocent World's Anniversary Rose and my long sleeved IW blouse (it has floral lace!). From there I just wanted to make it as typically classic as I could, which informed all my other decisions.

My favourite part of this outfit actually ended up being the fur hat thing! I'm not even sure what this is called, it belonged to my fashionista of a great aunt back in the day and I really love it. To me, classic lolita (and to a lesser extend gothic) is the best style for incorporating actual vintage pieces. And of course, because I'm me, I added some flower clips as well.

Then in the interests of having some cohesiveness I added my Axes Femme boots with the faux fur trim. The furs don't exactly match, but given the distance between them I figured it would work out okay.

My accessories for this look were quite minimal - other than the headwear just a few bracelets and a small necklace. I also enjoyed that the majority of this outfit is all Innocent World - more than any other brand (in my not-exhaustive experience) I find that Innocent World always works best with more Innocent World.

Speaking of the accessory choices I just wanted to highlight the necklace I chose. It's not a particularity high-quality piece, but it exemplifies the fact that I'm really trying to expand my jewellery collection and I'm proud of how far I've already come in that regard. Is it weird to be proud of buying things?

So there you have a coordinate that is a classic as I can go. I feel it's very perennially classic lolita; simple, a bit mismatched, feminine and vintage, elegant but still a little cute.

August lolita haul

After a while of not making any lolita purchases (except for my wedding coordinate, but that doesn’t count) I found myself browsing Mercari and, in browsing, put together a small wishlist of things that were reasonably priced and that I really strongly wanted. I’d been having a very tough time since June (if you want to know more details, read this post) and ended up making the purchase in the interests of retail therapy. Then, having an open order with Japonica Market I naturally browsed a little more (venturing onto fril.jp as well) and added some other things to my order. So in the end, I got quite a decent haul in!

But oh my goodness you guys I think I need to do a wardrobe cull, it’s getting really full. And I still have stuff from the last cull I haven’t sold…

My package arrived on the 6th of August and with great glee I opened it up and welcomed my new wardrobe additions with open arms. However, as you can tell by the date of this post, I did not have a chance to take photos until the latter half of September! But I finally did it, and regardless of the lateness of this post I've really enjoyed having these items in my collection.

The item that really made me pull the trigger on this order is this adorable short sleeved red bolero from Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. I figured it would be a valuable addition to my collection, given how much I do fall back on black x red for my easy-to-wear coordinates. And oh my goodness, was I right! It's a darker red, though not a burgundy, so I like that it reads a bit more classic. It also seems to be a larger size, which is great for me, and overall I just love it a lot.

I also grabbed some more Metamorphose socks, because socks are amazing and I will never have enough. I just really love the Cherry OTKs (and for real, given how much I honestly do rely on the berry subsection of my wardrobe, it’s not frivolous to get more options) and can you believe they are from 2006? So cool! They're just perfect for my berry pieces. The pink Heart Ladder Lace pair are also super cute...and the bow part of the pattern is sparkly gold! The blue version is as well, but I don’t do blue so they’re off to the sell pile.

The next item I kind of spent more money on than I wanted to but I decided it was worth it, and that is one of the Tokimeki necklaces from Angelic Pretty. I have loved these glittery bow pieces forever, I get decent use out of the matching bracelet I already own, and my jewellery collection definitely needs building up. So even though I don’t like spending twenty dollars on a necklace I think it was worth it!

And then…I bought bags. Several bags. A beautiful pink Enamel Heart Bag and a big white one that I can’t identify from BTSSB, and a Rose Lace Book Pochette from Innocent World. I had been wanting a neutral pink bag for a while, and a brown one, and a bigger white one, so finding all of these under ¥2000 each was amazing. With these, I’m pretty sure my bag collection covers all my bases pretty perfectly! And they are all really gorgeous (and the white one is massive) so I'm super happy.

Continuing with my earlier red theme I also picked up a cute unidentified cutsew from Metamorphose…isn’t it adorable? A bit of a frivolous purchase, I’ll admit, but it was really cheap and I think I’ll get good use out of it. And if I don’t, it can go into the ever growing sales pile ^__^ I don't have all that much to say about it, actually, other than that it's really sweet.

The next item is probably the one I was most excited by, because I was not expecting to ever find this for sale at a price I was willing to pay. But I did and am now to proud owner of a Baby Sweet Fawn Cape! Like seriously, one of my dream items and now I own it!

How cute is that lining?

I was so worried someone else would buy it before Japonica could get it for me but it didn’t happen, and now this beauty is mine. It’s missing the pearl chain that’s meant to be on the bow, but I don’t care about that at all. It came to me stinking of smoke, which meant the first thing I had to do was wash it, which was a terrifying prospect, but it came out fine!

Last of all I took a gamble because it was cute and comfortable looking, and bought an adorable cutsew dress from BTSSB. In typical BTSSB fashion it has a super long name (Sweet Fruit a la Mode Print Tart Cutsew OP) and is very cute! It is a quite worn, which the listing noted, and I’m okay with that because it means I can wear it casually and if it gets ruined oh well. I mean, it was a little more worn than the listing made it seem, so I'm a but bummed, but again it means I don't have to care about it at all. This also smelled bad and got an immediate wash, but it was less scary to do so due to the wear it already had.

So these are my most recent wardrobe additions, along with my wedding coordinate, which I will be reviewing shortly as well. I'm really happy with how my lolita collection continues to grow ^__^

PS Because it'd be weird to post and not say anything, today is my birthday. Officially "late twenties" now lol.