[survey] from the metroplex community facebook

Just wanted to fill out a survey!

1) Do you still have your first Lolita piece?
-handmade, yes, I made it into a petticoat lol. brand, no, sold it last year

2) What is the oldest piece in your wardrobe?
-2006 IW chemical lace jsk? some things I never found the release date

3) What is the newest piece in your wardrobe?
-AP Antoinette Decoration one piece, 2016

4) What is your cheapest main piece?
-AatP navy babydoll jsk, $71

5) What is your most expensive main piece?
-AP Antoinette Decoration one piece, over $400

6) What is your favorite item?
-Meta Dreaming Goldfish

7) Which item do you wear most?
-Meta Heart Leopard, since it's not really a poofy lolita shape, I wear it casually

8) Which item do you wear least?
-I don't really wear items more than twice, since I don't want to be seen by the peasant masses to rewear anything 

9) Anything you haven't worn yet?
-most of my recent purchases (7, not counting 2 on the way)

10) What is missing from your wardrobe?
-pastels, a better hime/curly wig, princess sleeve blouses, casual cutsews and skirts, more ouji items

11) When will your wardrobe be complete?
- never, but I guess if I move and my closet is smaller then I would try to sell before buying more stuff

12) What was the last Lolita item that you sold or threw away?
-Black Peace now jacket

13) How many OPS do you have?
-3, 1 on the way, not counting 2 handmade costumey pieces

14) How many JSKs do you have?
-17, 1 on the way, not counting 4 still decent handmade pieces

15) How many skirts do you have?
-7, not counting 3 handmade

16) How many petticoats do you have?
-3

17) What do you plan to buy next?
- a plain purple skirt, headdresses and jewelry to match my latest purchases, also see answer to question 10

18) When you first started wearing Lolita what did you want your wardrobe to be like?
- classic and gothic, no sweet

19) What is your wardrobe currently like?
-classic, leopard print, steampunk, some quirky fantasy prints, some ouji and sweet-ish stuff

20) What would you like your wardrobe to be like in the future?
- the same as it is now, but more extravagant, historically influenced pieces that are not racist or too culturally appropriating. a little more ouji, some more unique handmade pieces just because I can 

[coord] Style Swap - OTT Sweet!

The Metroplex lolitas had their second Style Swap meet, in which we dress in a style that is different from what we normally wear. I did OTT hime lolita last year (not exactly different from my usual lol), but this year I went all out and put together an over the top sweet coord which was totally different because even though the dress is pretty tasteful for a sweet dress, the pink twin falls wig was definitely not my usual.

JSK, headbow, black socks, bracelet, ring: Angelic Pretty; purse: Innocent World; shoes: Bodyline; bow ring: Chocomint; mint socks: Daiso; everything else: Forever 21, Claire's, handmade.

I bought Angelic Pretty Fantastic Dolly jsk and headbow in ivory/mint from a local lolita at the new year's meet, right after I won the prize for best niche style which happened to have mint accessories and fake nails. Then over the next 10 months, I added more and more pieces, including the pink/gold wig, more jewelry, the socks and rocking horse shoes. Two days before the meet, after I was physically and emotionally wrecked by the results of the US election, I finished decorating the nails and making the ribbon hair clips. I ended up wearing the coord on the right because I just wanted to wear the rocking horse shoes, the matching socks were actually white than ivory so I wore the green socks instead lol.

Here is a close up through several beauty cam filters. I wore glitter make up and so many hair clips.

The nails, base made by a local lolita, I added more rhinestones and stickers to match my coord.

Anyway, I was the most impressive this time, but that's because we don't have a ton of OTT fairy kei sweet girls in Dallas, everyone is more classic or country because...  well, Texas, lol.

[coord] Arabian Nights but with no accessories lol

I've been selling dresses and clothing items that I am not able to wear or don't want to buy all the items to coordinate with, and so far I managed to sell a few things I have worn once but didn't love enough to keep or things that just didn't fit because I underestimated how much my chub has increased over the years lol.

JSK: Souffle Song; blouse: Fanplusfriend; headdress: Alice and the Pirates and handmade; tights: Haenuli; shoes: Innocent World; jewelry: Forever 21, Daiso, H &M

This lilac Fanplusfriend blouse I bought on clearance for a character themed coord (red and purple) but I decided the color was too pink to match. Also it was a little tight. However I felt the price point would be too much for folks, so I made up this coord to try to utilize it at least once. The jsk is a simple version of Chinese brand Souffle Song's Arabian Nights in purple, which is one of their better colorways (black is also good, blue, too). Now the simple jsk package did not include the large headbow or the bonnet, just a small hair bow clip, so I reused the base headdress I made for the AatP's 1,001 Nights. (Yes, I love the Arabian theme prints lol.) I might have done better to use a black blouse here, but there was enough purple going on in the print and lace trim to match. Those Haenuli tights are a lucky combination of pink, purple, cream and black, so they filled a gap in my wardrobe and also looked great with elaborate jewel/floral prints such as this one.

Anyway, since the dress is slightly off center and a weird shade of purple to match, I wanted to sell it and get a centered version like the fancier JSK, but at the same time, I'm fine with keeping it since it is a pretty print in one of my favorite colors, and also no one locally has it.

[coord] Mad Hatter Baker coord with hat!

I decided last minute to attend a local meet at the Mad Hatter Baker, which had a theme of "wear a hat!" I never got to wear my Alice and the Pirates Flim Flam Band jsk out, so I thought this was a great opportunity, since it's an Alice in Wonderland themed bakery. And since also it's Alice and the Pirates, I took out my pirate hat I bought years ago for a Musketeer costume and decorated it to wear with feathers and a rosette and some chains as well as the waist ties from the dress. People thought it was burando! But it's not, it's just me working on a budget.

JSK: Alice and the Pirates; blouse, bowtie: Metamorphose; corset: Fanplus Friend; socks: Innocent World; hat, shoes, jewelry: off-brand and handmade

The socks weren't the best match, but it was hard to find that shade of burnt coffee brown in my wardrobe, and I felt the card suits on the socks at least matched the concept. Should have worn the Alice tights now that I think about it. Regardless, time to cross this jsk off my list of to-wear!

[coord] Anime-fest ouji

For Anime-fest I made a quick last minute ouji coord based on the mini top hat I received as a party favor at Anime Austin. I wanted to be comfortable to walk around downtown Dallas with out of town guests who did not drive, but I ended up forgetting my boots and wore my Keds sneakers anyway lol.

I didn't get a coord photo back then so I took photos of alternate outfits some time later, here they are!

The hat was originally black, offwhite and beige, but I really wanted to wear this Alice in Wonderland waistcoat from Hot Topic so I added a red rose and black flower pin to the hat. My original outfit was like the pic on the left but without the red cravat.

Hat: handmade; blouse: Innocent World; cravat: Fanplusfriend; waistcoat: Hot Topic; shorts: Axes Femme; socks: Putumayo; jewelry: handmade, Forever 21; shoes, bowtie: offbrand (jacket: Alice and the Pirates).

It's a little low-budget-appearing, but it's always good to work with what you have, and while I would never pass as a boy with my chubby cheeks and thighs, I still enjoy branching into ouji.

[coord] cheapest or handmade coord challenge

I finally got some free time to wear this otome dress I made a while back when I was first getting back into lolita after a hiatus, and I decided to go all out budget lolita and wear the cheapest things I owned. It was pretty fun! I even wore the cheapest makeup I had, too, lol.

I made this dress from toile cotton fabric I bought from a friend, decorated a hat with ribbon and fake flowers, wore a blouse I commissioned, got out off-brand everything else! Here is the breakdown!

Hat: Daiso, $3

Flowers: Michaels, $5

Ribbon: Michaels, $2

Hair flowers: Forever 21, $2

Wig: Daiso, $6

Necklaces: Forever 21, $12

Bracelets and Rings: Daiso, $6

Blouse: commissioned, $20

Purse: TJ Maxx, $7

Socks: Yesstyle, $2

Shoes: Bodyline, $25

Dress: handmade (fabric cost $15, about 3 hours at the most to make, so $75?)

$165 for a complete head to toe outfit! That's how much I pay for a secondhand brand dress lmao

Here is the coord with the hairbow I made, wishing I had more light blue accessories. The wig is very fluffy, more like doll hair than real hair, but works just fine for lolita. And short sheer socks are starting to grow on me, I always thought they make your legs look stubby, but perhaps with a shorter skirt like here. Now, your turn to make a complete coord with the cheapest possible items!

[resources] Style and Fashion and Sewing Blogs

For my own reference, here is a list of style blogs I currently follow that have updated within the past 6 months, since a lot have been abandoned probably permanently and I keep forgetting which ones. 

Blogging is hard work and I have nothing but admiration for every blogger out there working on a single topic blog, keeping them updated at a reasonable timetable, especially females who are criticized for having "opinions" or who are also raising a family but continue to pursue their hobbies somehow. Even if it seems like easy work to write about something you love and that you are sometimes fortunate enough to make a little money writing about, it is equally easy to fall off schedule due to real life or run out of things to talk about or get overwhelmed by critical comments or other things. I hope these fashion bloggers continue their posting, because I personally appreciate long and thoughtfully written posts with information and opinions and links just as much as I appreciate a series of beautiful photos, if not more. I mean, Instagram and Twitter have their uses, but I follow just enough people (on Twitter anyway) to not know where I stopped reading my feed if I miss even one day. Who knows how many insights and updates I never saw. A blog is something easier to catch up on... especially if updates are like twice a month lol.

Lolita: Sewing

http://dixmacabre.blogspot.com/

http://lefashionablecupcake.blogspot.com/

http://lotvdesigns.tumblr.com/

http://lifessweetessentials.com/

http://mylolitahandmade.tumblr.com/

Lolita: Style

http://buttcape.blogspot.com/

http://marietuonetar.blogspot.com/

http://sanakanin.tumblr.com/

http://shadow-walk.tumblr.com/

http://fannyrosie.tumblr.com/

Hime/Gyaru and Western Style and Cosplay

http://emiiichan.blogspot.com/

http://www.extrapetite.com/

http://cationdesigns.blogspot.com/

[coord] Bribery Bakery and High Tea with Emma

We drove to Austin the other weekend to visit my friends, eat at a fancy small bakery as well as watch Emma at the Alamo drafthouse during their high tea event! It was a very hot day, as all summer days are in Texas lmao, so I ended up wearing a short sleeve peter pan collar blouse and over the knee socks instead of a long-sleeve or high neck blouse and tights like I planned. But I still wore a long wig and dark colors, so welp, I sweated anyway. Here I am rewearing Angelic Pretty's Cameo Window!

Angelic Pretty: JSK and bonnet and socks, Innocent World and Metamorphose bows, offbrand blouse, Taobao shoes and purse, Forever 21 and H&M jewelry.

My favorite part about this look is rewearing the bonnet and JSK but with a darker color scheme (chocolate brown instead of cream) thus creating a very different look. The socks were a pretty good match (from the Regimental series) that I was going to save for another coord. Anyway, I thought this was one of my better coords, I wish I hadn't sweated the heck out of the blouse and socks and dropped lemon curd on my skirt, doh.

[review] taobao and Chinese brands in general

Taobao and group orders from Chinese designers have only been a recent thing for me. Before, in the early days of yore, you were advised against anything coming from China, for fear they would be cheaply made copies that barely looked like the stock photo (which was most likely stolen or edited), or replicas with ink that would run at the slightest dampness or faded colors or backwards writing. I had been content buying from the Japanese brand sites, or official American/English-speaking resellers of Korean and indie brands. (Technically most of the above are probably partially made in China anyway.) Bodyline was my closest contact to mainland China for a while lmao.

Last year, I bought replica shoes and petticoats from a Canadian reseller and an English site, and I have made a successful purchase through Aliexpress, which lists some Taobao shops in English instead of Chinese. Everything went well, the shoes looked great and fit fine, the price plus shipping was a reasonable 50% off buying the brand shoe. Shoes are a no-brainer, though, as long as you measure your foot precisely, the stock photos can't really be misleading of what you're going to get.

I then ordered off English version sites of Chinese brands some blouses and dresses and a corset. Customer service was excellent, the value was reasonable, shipping not too bad. The items were as described, and came with a free necklace and extra handmade bows, as well as an empty cookie wrapper (which I guess a packer was snacking on lol.) Definitely would order again from these sites, in conclusion.

This year, I dared to do a group order from Taobao with some local lolitas using a shopping service for things other than shoes, although I did order more shoes lol. The process was much like using a Japanese shopping service at first, for example, ordering the thing you want in a language you did not know after much painful searching and trying to google translate everything. Putting in the order with the shopping service. Getting an estimate. Paying up. Waiting for the order to arrive (and for custom orders to be made.) Getting an estimate for shipping, which almost always had to be EMS. Paying up for that with much wincing and regret. Then actually getting the order, hoping against hope it won't be damaged or stuck in customs. Finally, in this situation, getting the items from the person who arranged the order with the shopping service. A much longer ordeal than buying directly from the brand or their official resellers, even without the language barrier. I had been in no hurry for these items, of course, but the months of waiting was gnawing at the back of my mind. The items I got looked as described, but within 1 day of wearing them out, a button fell off on a blouse and a piece of the sole of a shoe broke off as well. Finally, I was made subject to the adage of "you get what you pay for" or "buyer beware." (Which, to be honest, applied to many items bought from the actual Japanese brands, too.) I also felt like the shipping was unusually high, even for EMS and heavy items, but I was aware that overseas prices had increased by a lot, so I was ready to bite the bullet for it.

Did I feel like this group order was worth it? To be honest, no. I much prefer the customer service of brands especially the ones with stock in the country, or the cheapness of shipping from secondhand sellers in America, or the ease and timeliness of ordering from an English version of the Chinese brand. There are plenty of amazing Taobao only Chinese shops with custom sized dresses and unique prints and accessories, but I am not willing to wait months and pay out the nose for shipping for any of them when I could potentially find secondhand brand for the same price and much faster, from someone who speaks the same language. I'll just make my own accessories, honestly.

I am currently in the middle of another taobao order for some aristocrat jacket and a Mucha print dress. How will this shake out? We shall see...

[event] Anime Austin Tea Party

I went to Anime Austin's debut last weekend and attended the tea party on Sunday for lunch! I was in Austin mostly to visit my friend Cat, (who visited us in Dallas a lot) and also to hang out at the artist alley, hawking these charms that need selling lol. I brought a simple lolita coord for the tea party, which was unfortunately not very well advertised and thus not attended to capacity. However, I thought it was a pleasant setting with solid lunch food instead of the usual tea party fare lmao, the maids made great conversation and a few seemed quite interested in starting lolita if they weren't also cosplaying, and I personally got a lot of freebies, so not bad for the ticket price.

Here was my outfit for the day, except replace the blond wig with the long brown wig and no hair flowers and Meta socks instead of tights. (Too lazy to retake the photo.)

Lief Stella JSK, Innocent World blouse and bolero and purse (not pictured), Metamorphose bow, Grimoire tights, offbrand shoes, tiara, accessories. I won best-dressed at the con for this coord and got a Rilakkuma kigurumi and 2 cutesy shoujo manga volumes! 

A pic of the table setting, which was super cute Alice and bird-themed.

And of course the most important part of any tea party, desserts!

I hope to visit again next year and that Anime Austin continues to grow. For a small first year con, it felt very organized, so I wish it the very best!

[coord] A-kon Tea Party - Masquerade

I posted a pic of my tea party coord earlier, but here is the final outfit photo with the mask I originally wanted to wear but could not fit into my suitcase lol. Also the shoes I wore at the tea party managed to break a heel piece, so I'm wearing glitter gold shoes instead.

Alice and the Pirates 1001 Nights jumperskirt and wrist cuffs, Baby the Stars Shine Bright headdress, Taobao blouse, Grimoire tights, offbrand shoes, jewelry, Hot Topic purse, handmade veil.

The "plague doctor" mask I got from Target a while back! I tried to fit it on my head, it does not work that way, lol.

Here is an outfit pic with an Etsy coronet and more off-brand/handmade jewelry and hair pieces. I finally trimmed this wig, which is a lovely combination of 3 colors that unfortunately do not look so good with my skin tone. It only looks acceptable here because I messed with the levels lmao.

Anyway, if you are interested, I have a few items up for sale at lacemarket:
http://www.lacemarket.us/author/insomniel/

Plus a Hell Bunny steampunk vest on ebay!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201613386791

[discussion] Summer Hairstyle Ideas

[disclaimer: I am not a professional hairdresser by any means, these are merely my observations based on experience and reading a bunch of Japanese fashion magazines, obviously you can do whatever you want and shine on in your particular style, just dooo it]

Hey all, this is a lolita hairstyle overview post for all of you people who wonder if there is anything else you can do with your hair besides the prototypical blunt straight across bangs with varying lengths of curls. Especially in the south, where it is so hot and humid you can bake cookies and fry eggs on your car, lolitas start looking for options to wigs + hair accessories + drowning in sweat.  If you are not dedicated to wearing a short bobbed wig or attaching the perfect fringe to your natural hair, or if you're a lifestyle lolita and just want to wear your own hair with lolita once in a while, please keep on reading for tips and example photos of hairstyles that have apparently been approved by the designers and editors (for better or worse lmao.) Some of these are excellent options to style natural hair without bangs, and some are creative ways to make an updo for natural hair and wigs, with or without bangs, to keep hair off the back of your neck and stay cool.

The latest trends include textured flattened fishtail braids with ribbons and flowers, very popular with gyaru and larme kei the past 2 seasons and also showing up in Western styles. Also you can see here various asymmetrical and symmetrical styles: centered symmetrical hair accessories such as maxi pad style headdresses or centered hairbows look ideal with symmetrical hairstyles (mostly with bangs), but that is just a guideline, side swept hair can still pull off symmetrical hair accessories if you believe enough.

I also highly recommend these youtube tutorials from lolita-tips, especially for natural hair! http://lolita-tips.tumblr.com/post/24798938231/a-guide-to-lolita-hair-tutorials

If you have very long hair with no bangs, Fanny Rosie has tons of coord pics with perfectly styled hair. Unfortunately no tutorials. (Wait she just posted some lol) 

http://fannyrosie.tumblr.com/

For very short hair or ouji, I do not have as many reference photos from the magazines or official sites. Outfits for ouji tend to include hats, which aren't exactly hot-weather items, although styles that are more gothic and visual kei/punk have a little more variety. Faux hawks, colorful extensions and braids, shaved hair are often seen with Black Peace Now, Putumayo and H. Naoto. Otherwise, mostly hats if anything, maybe some flower crowns or mini crowns or bobby pins.

I personally have straight flat hair, no bangs, that does not lend itself to curling or styling, so I am in the group of lolitas who wear wigs no matter how hot. But for casual outdoors events, I do wear a hime gyaru half-updo with a headband and various flowers and hairpins. If... I care that much anyway lol.

Whatever you do, do not pull your hair back into a plain ponytail unless you are wearing Meta's poodle skirts from a while back. Even a bun would be better. While some people may disagree, especially if they're lifestylers, I still believe that a lolita dream dress you spent hours working to purchase deserves at least 5 minutes of hair styling, even if that 5 minutes consists of you brushing your hair and putting on a hat. 

Anyway, if you have good photos or links to share, feel free to comment!

[events] A-kon 27 Lolita Tea Party and Japanese Fashion Show!

I am so pleased that despite some last minute issues, A-kon's first official Japanese fashion programming went off with overall success! I am proud to be chosen by the team to staff and model in the show. Much thanks to Lolita Collective, Mossbadger and Belladonna for being our first brand guests and Minori coming from Japan as our guest of honor. (No coord pics yet, since the zippers broke on 2 of my dresses that I was planning to wear, as they do, and a shoe broke and one of my buttons got undone, as they do.)

The entire staff with Minori at the fabulous tea party, catered by the Hilton Anatole at the Verandah Club! I was wearing my newest acquisition, AatP's 1001 Nights jumperskirt in black (actually this dress survived, surprisingly)

The staff after the fashion show! Here I'm wearing the steampunk ouji outfit I posted in the previous post as a model for the fashion showcase part.

Anyway, the 2 main events were so impressive, I am not sure how we can outdo ourselves besides you know, getting things done more than 30 seconds before we were set to go, lmao. Besides those events, I ran the Japanese Fashion social, but unfortunately my dress malfunctioned, we didn't have our rooms, it was raining and we didn't get the cash bar as expected so it was extremely not fun, but at least I finished the giveaway. I also peeked into the Iron Lolita panel, and that turned out to be entertaining and fun, as they usually are. Can't wait to see what the staff will do next year! (If we get to do anything next year per budget anyway lmao)

Now for some links! Please visit all of these incredible sites, and purchase if you can!

Lolita Collective Shop: https://the-lolita-collective-usa.myshopify.com/
Mossbadger Fashion: http://mossbadger.com/
Belladonna Fashion: http://belladonna.storenvy.com/
Minori: http://www.minori.co/

[coords] Other Japanese fashion styles besides lolita

Even though I have been interested in lolita for the most consistent amount of time, I also enjoy the other Japanese fashion styles. Back in the old days, I admired young Japanese people for trying to break out of the mold that society has built for them through fashion, even if just for a little while, it was pretty inspiring, no matter what the style. As mentioned some posts ago, I got into lolita through visual kei, so I liked visual kei, gothic and punk styles a lot. I got into the Fruits magazine through my friends, though I was never much of a decora person myself. I also admired the lavish princess materialism lifestyle of hime and gyaru that I would see in anime/manga. Everything was cool to me, especially compared to the alternative fashions in America which were just not as cute and flattering and quality-obsessed at the time. (Jnco anyone?) I think the quality of alt fashion in America has only improved by now because of ability to get things overseas lol.

Here is a hime gyaru coord focusing on a Liz Lisa one piece I got in a lucky pack on my trip to Japan in 2014. I never wore it because pastels in this combination don't look so great on me, and the long-sleeve but short-skirt combo in a synthetic chiffon material felt weird. But I gave it the good old college try and I thought it looked actually nice in the end!

Liz Lisa onepiece, Forever 21 jewelry and hair accessories, and off-brand crown, hairclip, purse with Guess platform sandals.

Now the thing I love most about Jesus Diamante and Liz Lisa are the shoes, but I could never justify the price/shipping from Japan for them since I never wear heels. But yep, shoes covered with roses and puff-balls and feathers and crystals, the dream. I think big sparkly deco gyaru nails and short frill white socks would make this outfit better, but I'm too lazy to get those. My inspiration for hime gyaru style is of course, emi-chan, I highly recommend her blog for constant updates on the state of Liz Lisa releases, larme-kei and all things gyaru.

Here I did 2 ouji outfits in a burst of motivation one night, and then was too drained to follow through lmao. All coords were made using items I never really wore or had been trying to sell but no one ever bought, and I just wanted to give them some loving.

Fan Plus Friend blouse, Putumayo socks, Innocent World shoes, Alice and the Pirates shorts, Spin Doctor vest, offbrand hat and accessories.

The reason I never wore this blouse was because of course, the shade of red didn't match any other red item I owned, annoying but not surprising! I think a black jacket would have made a good addition, maybe lessened the mismatching blacks/reds, but the two I had were frumpy looking and I didn't want to mess with it at the time.

Alice and the Pirates blouse, Fan Plus Friend corset and hat, Zara jacket, Baroque x Sakizo tights, offbrand shorts, shoes, handmade accessories.

My inspiration for this look was my friend Tiffany, who lived in Japan for a year and always comes up with great unique coords, especially mori kei style. I love the look of mori and dolly kei, but by the time I finish putting on all those layers, I'm sweating buckets, so I went for a natural-kei ouji look here, like a woodland fairy prince. At least my legs were cool-ish. Those Sakizo tights needed wearing, anyway.

I had intended to give dolly-kei, mori-kei and fairy-kei a try, but 1) I didn't have enough clothing pieces to make a full cohesive outfit and 2) it was hot and I was lazy. Which is pretty much the limiting factor for everything I do in this world! But soon, I think I might have enough for OTT sweet lolita and then possibly fairy-kei/cult-party kei. Keep an eye out for those in the summer!

[coord] redo for a high tea

For a birthday meet / high tea at the botanical garden with some lovely lolitas, I finally completed a halfway decent coord with the pharmacy jumperskirt, the Florence dress from Baby the Stars Shine Bright. Seeing my past failed attempts, I was able to formulate a better plan to work with all the weird details of the dress. I think this was a successful result of the planning, although a few things could always be better, but you have to stop somewhere, lmao.

JSK, hairclip: Baby the Stars Shine Bright; blouse, purse: Innocent World; socks, alice band: Metamorphose; shoes, jewelry: offbrand

I didn't have any matching brown shoes, sold the last pair, otherwise this would have been a little more balanced colorwise, but I didn't care at this point, it looked pretty good overall.

Also, I found a way to work in the barrette, which I find always slides out of my hair/wig hair because of its size/heaviness. For this hairstyle, I didn't want to wear it down since it would look boring and ratty and also it would be hot on my neck while I was walking outside in the heat. I looked up some tutorials on Youtube, and settled on a combination of two from Inky Rose: https://youtu.be/6e21cBj_OoQ

You can't see the side-fishtail braid (from a Misako video) in this particular shot, but I really liked how styling it, even if it turned out messy, made the hair accessories stay put better and just gave it a polished and sophisticated look. Like I said before, most lolitas, at least the ones I've seen in real life so far, style their cosplay wigs with incredible artistry, but generally wear their lolita wigs in 1 of 3 ways: down, high/low pigtails, or buns. Granted, it's hard to justify elaborate hairstyles when you're not going in for a pro photoshoot and just wanna eat and walk around the mall, but I think working in braids and trying updos is a genius way to freshen up a tangled old wig and add new style to a previously worn coord.

Anyway, be prepared for some really awesome coords at A-kon in the beginning of June. By awesome I mean awful. I have no more meets planned until the convention, but I bought a few dresses and accessories that should come in by then, as well as a new Otome no Sewing, so I might pop in with a handmade creation or a test coord! Once all this cosplay is done...

[update] A-kon's first official lolita and Japanese fashion events!

I am fortunate to be working on staff with some go-getter girls in the Dallas Fort Worth area who will be debuting A-kon's full Japanese fashion lineup of events!

I have actually worked as A-kon staff before for lolita panels, events and unofficial tea party back in the good old days, but after Japanese fashion has gotten popular (or as popular as it can get) in the United States at several big conventions in the past five years, our group is trying to get it recognized as a legitimate addition to A-kon's current line up of anime, gaming and cosplay/fandom activities.

We will have fashion vendors, such as Lolita Collective and Lockshop (no Baby, though) as well as Minori starring in the fashion show! So... if you're in the area at the end of May beginning of June, check it out!

Here are some facebook links:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1600819833573138/ (for the tea party)

[coord] Leopard Print and Tea

The day after my birthday was a tea party at a friend's parent's house, so it was like a birthday party, too! Everyone was dressed up beautifully and brought delicious handmade food and teas, and I took out one of the handful of leopard print dresses that I own, salon de the minette in ivory/brown leopard print.

Here are some test coordinates I did a few days before.  I was trying to coordinate it with white so I could use that fur collar, but I ended up using off-white instead since I only have plain white knee socks. I thought these turned out rather well despite the massive bling, but I prefer the final outfit with the golden leaf tiara.

Jumperskirt: Baby the Stars Shine Bright; blouse: Innocent World; cardigan: Alice and the Pirates; purse, socks, jewelry, hair accessories: off brand, Forever 21, handmade; heels, boots: Secret Shop.

(Final outfit: Metamorphose socks and blouse, Claire's and H&M jewelry and hair accessories)

Anyway, I really admire those who rewear their dresses but still manage to make a completely different looking outfit each time. That's my goal, but on the other hand, I love to buy newer and ever tackier dresses, too.

[coord] a simple Kuro-lolita

I just put together a quick comfortable outfit for selling fanart at an artist alley (for the first time, yay!) No jewelry to get caught up anywhere while drawing, and flat tea party knock off shoes for transporting my suitcase into the hotel conference room. (I had an evil megane glint in the first photo, lmao.)

Metamorphose jumperskirt, Innocent World blouse, Bodyline shoes, off brand hair accessories and fuzzy socks. Not pictured - black peace now jacket

All black is the way to go: a lot of people said I looked nice, and black matches a lot easier than any other color, that's for sure. If I were wearing this out to a real meetup, I would add my black Innocent World purse and some black jewelry.

[coord] redoing a previous outfit

Sometimes I go back to my older outfits and see if there is anything I can do to improve them, whether with new accessories or shoes or jewelry, to create a better and more cohesive look. No one starts off perfect in lolita fashion, not even if you buy an entire top-to-bottom coord from a brand, because something might be off with the fit or the hair or shoes, and it takes a little time to see what can be done to improve.

So here is my original outfit from last year; not offensive, but not particularly flattering either. The socks were off-white and gold, which only matched the pearl/gold crucifix, which itself wasn't the best accessory for such a simple look. I later wore space-themed socks with white calf-high boots, but even then I felt it made me look chunky.

Here is my re-wear (to a recent J-fashion staff meeting), capitalizing on the comfort of the baby doll style of the dress, with 2 slightly different looks.

Alice and the Pirates jsk, Innocent World blouse, Angelic Pretty barette, Bodyline shoes, Forever 21 socks and hairclips, Metamorphose necklace, off-brand purse and rings

I wore a new pure white blouse instead of the now ruined off-brand blouse, but kept the same bow tie and purse. I added plain pearls and a couple of barrettes to decorate the beret, and switched to cute nautical socks and shoes that made for a cute, almost sailor lolita style. I even contemplated wearing the sailor hat I made, but it falls off my head and didn't want to look too costumey at a staff meeting, lol.

For this outfit I wore the rose clips on top of my head instead of clipped to the jsk, and also a thrifted jacket (which I brought anyway because it was cool and rainy). I forwent the jewelry at the actual meeting because seriously, who am I impressing lmao. But I like how this coord appears classic/sweet instead of just sailor. Anyway, it turns out even though the shoes fit my foot and are the size I normally order from Bodyline, my toes felt pinched and cramped after walking just a little bit, so I think new shoes a half size up may be in the future...

[coords] dressing up with skirts

I think skirts are an essential part of a lolita wardrobe, but a little trickier to coord with today's lolita trends. With a jumperskirt or one piece, you throw on the dress and 75% of the work is done, but with a skirt, you have a lot more areas to pay attention to, at least if you are going for a full coord and not a casual outfit (which is what I usually use my skirts for.)

Some of the more in-depth lolita guides emphasize a detailed pretty blouse to make the top half of your coord interesting, and of course, they address the eternal question, to tuck in the shirt into the skirt waistband or not. (Personally, I usually tuck, but some blouses have frilly hems that are meant to go over the skirt and some skirts just have plain shirred waistbands that should be covered, however, I must be too short because doing that never looks great on me.) Furthermore, jewelry, accessories, vests, jackets and boleros can be contemplated if you just don't have a very interesting blouse to wear. Otherwise, go full casual and wear a t-shirt or cutsew or tank top lmao.

Here is my latest attempt at a coord using items I haven't worn yet. I got a new hime wig in a chestnut brown color, but it doesn't look much darker than my previous wig, lol, at least it was only 10 dollars. Probably not the best hairdo ever, but I think the rest of the outfit worked pretty well, trying to use a lot of gold and off-white and pink. That knit sleeveless top is somewhat difficult to work into a typically accepted lolita outfit, I've never seen anyone wear it out anyway, so I'm proud of that!

Metamorphose skirt and knit top, Secret Shop shoes, offbrand purse, jacket, blouse, tights, jewelry.

Anyway, I like this challenge and will be trying to coordinate the rest of my skirts in the future, in both casual and not casual way like in this post.

[discussion] Mana and the Gothic Lolita Bible

If you haven't heard the news, Mana recently posted on his blog/twitter that he will no longer be in the Gothic Lolita Bible. I told my brother (who knows only a little about the fashion) and he said it was the equivalent to not mentioning God in the actual Bible. Because it pretty much is! Mana was instrumental in both the creation of the GLB and popularizing gothic lolita (and aristocrat) with his brand Moi Meme Moitie back in the early 2000s, and he has featured in every single issue since.

I wish I knew more about the reasoning behind this. Was Moi Meme Moitie no longer popular or profitable? Did they really find someone better than Mana to represent the style? Is he getting too old and frumpy? Was he asking too much money? Arguing with the staff? All of the above, I imagine there could be no lesser reason to cut him out.

As I've mentioned, I got into this fashion because of Mana and his brand, and I felt that the Gothic Lolita Bible is now going into territory that personally makes me feel unwelcome and old. I don't want to sound like some decrepit J-fashion hipster from the FRUITS-era, but welp, that's exactly what I am, lmao. I feel like the lolita fashion is now an industry meant to make money, and not so much to foster imagination and freedom and personal style. I do love the prints and release hype of the big brands, but that's not what I really love about lolita. I actually admired how Mana kept his style, however weird, in spite of the changes of the other lolita brands. That's the stubbornness I like!

Models come and go, and even though it hurt to see my favorite musicians no longer in the GLB, at least I have Mana, I thought. Wrongly. I didn't want to see him go out with a whimper like that, he deserved more, like idk, a big farewell photoshoot or something.

What will lolita be like now that Mana and his brand have left the Gothic Lolita Bible? Isn't it strange how Baby went back to their classic old-school roots with their new line, but somehow the GLB won't feature Mana anymore? Do you think Moi Meme Moitie is irrelevant these days? Do people dress in aristocrat anymore outside of Japan? How has the music scene changed in Japan from visual kei to idek, post-grunge and did this affect the GLB's decision?

Just... nothing about this makes sense. Someone who has more info, please let me know!

[coords] Black x Ivory Innocent World

Here are some latest coords from a couple of private meetups this weekend. I didn't attend the community's Valentine's/birthday meet up at the Brazilian steak house because I had other stuff to do for Chinese New Year and also didn't want to pay that much for food if my pals wouldn't be there. But heck yeah, I would have loved to gorge on endless meat with lovely girls!!!

Finally wearing this cute striped IW dress, lmao. The black is a little faded and the ivory is a little darker than most ivory colors, but from a distance it worked! I keep telling myself that.

Innocent World dress, socks, blouse, Angelic Pretty purse, offbrand hairbow, jewelry, jacket and shoes

Since this was the next day, I rewore the socks and shoes, lmao, but it made a much better look for this IW apartment dress.

Innocent World dress, socks, blouse, Angelic Pretty purse, offbrand hair accessories, jacket, shoes and fur collar

Wanna see the first time I wore it? It looked pretty bad, bleh legwear, non matching purse, I'm so glad I improved since then. Practice makes almost perfect, so just gotta keep on trying!

[review] Baby the Stars Shine Bright sale purchases (San Francisco store)

This is my first unboxing type of post, I don't really do them, but figured if I have a lolita blog, I should write about at least one! I ordered (for the first time) from the San Francisco USA branch of Baby the Stars Shine Bright which had a sale going on during January. I didn't have anything in mind after spending for my ouji outfit for Ikki-con at the Japanese webshop, but I did find some pleasant surprises on sale and thought why not lmao. The online purchase and EMS shipping progressed smoothly and on time with no damages, so no issues there.


I bought the Florence Medicine Chest Louisa jumperskirt in ivory with matching ivory barette, Alice and the Pirates brown/ivory stripe socks and Pirates cuffs in off white.

A photo of the package contents, complete with free Baby logo sticker (sorry for the blurry camera phone nighttime shots)

close-up of the print on the bottom of the dress. I'm not so fond of the scallop hem or striped ribbons, the one-piece and the other jumperskirt looked better in that regard, but both were just too over the top for my tastes. But I love the antique bottles of medicine and statue of Florence Nightingale here, it's not often you find a pharmacy-themed dress.

close-up of the pirates cuffs, which unfortunately had every single snap button loosely sewn and about to detach. I'll have to re-attach them if I want to wear them without them falling apart. I guess that's why they were on clearance? 

test coords of the dresses while trying to justify re-wearing this hime wig again. As with my numerous brown/tan/off-white/ivory dresses, it's difficult to find items to match perfectly in color. I tried my best with a light and dark outfit, but I feel like I'd wear neither one out, there are too many shades of brown and ivory and tan to work with, so it looks busy and blocky. (Also that wig.) I'd say the one on the left looks best, maybe an ivory jacket and shoes would pull it together better?

Well, let's take a look at the sample coord from the brand, see how they did it!

Yeah... even using pink and off-white, that's not much better. I wish the chest and skirt bows were detachable, then we wouldn't have to worry about the dark brown stripes and just concentrate on the lighter shades, but there's all that dark wood on the bottom of the dress, too?

Anyway, I'd say this was an all right purchase. Except for the cuffs which need to be fixed, everything was of a decent quality and reasonable sale price for new, in season items. However, I think I may want to find the rest of the Florence accessories (tights, possibly necklace and bracelet or crazy nurse hat) to make this coord even somewhat cohesive. Buuut... that's probably impossible, I'll just have to make do like I always do.

[meetup] New Year New Lolita 2016 meetup

The local community had an open potluck meetup/swap at a library conference room for new and veteran lolitas for the new year! The weather was projected to be extra cold and wet, so I wasn't eager to leave my warm bed, but with tremendous effort I made it there only a little late. It was the most lolitas we've seen in a while so I hope everyone had fun. Many teas were made, lots of food, buying of clothes, also a contest. I wasn't expecting to win one of the prizes since I rewore an old coordinate that never made it out into public and figured someone else out there would have done an even better job, but I sure was an example of steampunk lolita! Even without wearing my clock bag, lmao. I won a cute neutral themed prize pack with accessories from the local lolitas, so I bought like a complete outfit to use them with. (Advice: do not do this, do not buy a complete outfit to match your socks or jewelry, not recommended.)

Metamorphose "Wheel of Time" onepiece, choker and socks, Fanplus Friend hat decorated by myself, Innocent World purse, thrifted shoes, off-brand jewelry. I still am not happy with the socks, but I think I'll never find the ones that match completely, so whatever.

A group photo of the winners before we froze. Too precious!

[discussion] 2016 EGL community annual wardrobe post

(Apologies in advance for the giant image post, I tried to put everything into as few images as possible for that reason.) Anyway, I've taken photos for the annual  January wardrobe post at the livejournal EGL community, but never posted publicly because... I don't care that much lmao. But I do like looking at people's themed wardrobes and all the cool, rare, old stuff they may have collected. But... really this is for insurance purses, when my enemies track me down and set fire to my house in a futile effort to kill me, I can attempt to persuade the insurance people that I lost this much valuable stuff while planning my vengeance.

Below are just brand lolita-specific items, including a few from Chinese and Korean designers, like Fanplusfriend and Lief and Haenuli. I forgot like 5 things that were new and/or going to be sold but I'm too lazy to pull everything out and photograph again.

All my one piece and jumperskirt dresses, starting from the top left:

h.naoto Frill, Mary Magdalene, Meta, Innocent World,

Meta x 3, Innocent World

Meta, BtSSB, Innocent World, Innocent World

Alice and the Pirates, Haenuli, Lief, Alice and the Pirates

Alice and the Pirates, Meta, Angelic Pretty

Some skirts, starting from the top left:

Meta x 2, Emily Temple Cute

Fanplufriend, Bodyline

  

Some pants: Alice and the Pirates, Axes Femme

Brand blouses: Alice and the Pirates, Meta, Innocent World

Innocent World x 3

Brand boleros: Alice and the Pirates x 2, Emily Temple Cute

Brand jackets/coats: Alice and the Pirates, Meta, Black Peace Now

Brand cutsews/t-shirts: Angelic Pretty, Innocent World, Meta, GLP

Brand socks and hair and wrist accessories: Innocent World, Meta, Angelic Pretty, Baby/Alice, Sakizo's World

Brand and knock off purses: Liz Lisa, Innocent World, offbrand

Brand and knock-off shoes: the only brand shoes are Innocent World, everything is Bodyline or knock-offs