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...

Recent loliable finds

Recently I've felt the need for some retail therapy, but have still been trying to keep my actual expenditure low. So I turned to eBay (and later Kmart) to get my fix while not spending too much and since I'm pretty impressed by what I managed to find I thought I'd do a quick offbrand lolita haul post.

First up, my miscellaneous stuff from eBay: two collars, some pearl hair decorations and the same bag in three colours. I already had the faux fur collar in brown and thought that white would be a nice wardrobe addition. I may end up changing the ribbon to a white one but for now I like the contrast the black one has. The mori style lace collar is very pretty and it was only around two dollars so I couldn't resist getting it even though I'm not sure how much I'll use it. The hair decorations are the ones you stick into updos, which are going to be great for photoshoots and lolita alike.

And the bags. My goodness, the bags. The bags are so cute! I haven't used any of them yet but they seem quite sturdy for a cheap eBay bag and are just the right size for carrying around your phone, wallet and a couple of incidentals.

Also from eBay (and excuse the awful photo, my phone just couldn't cope with today's sunlight) were these two tops. Neither are brilliant, but they're not too bad either, and I'm hoping to work them into some more casual lolita looks. The only issue is the the green lace top is no finished on the hems, the lace has just been trimmed. But I'm thinking of getting some velvet ribbon or something and binding the edges, though I'm not sure how well that will go since the lace fabric is stretchy. We'll see, and if any of my readers have any tips for how to finish those edges advice would be very much appreciated!

Lastly, my finds from Kmart, and yet another photo where my phone just gave up. The pink t-shirt was exactly what I was looking for for casual lolita coords; the lace pattern makes it interesting but the overall cut is very simple. They have it in other colours and depending on how much use I think I'll get out of it I may go back and get more. The two-way flower clips I already have in two colours and decided to get in every other available colour. They're not the best quality, but they're cheap and give me more options. They'll be very good for bulking up hairstyles when mixed with my better quality clips from taobao.

So there you have my most recent lolita wardrobe additions! Do you have much offbrand in your lolita wardrobe?