[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