[coord] Happy Balloon by Meta

Hmm, I have no readers of this blog, but oh well, it amuses me to write the entries, so I will keep doing so. Last weekend, I did a test coord of this Happy Balloon jsk I got in a lucky pack. Instead of that ouji coord from early summer lol. While I didn't mind getting this print and style and colorway, bright blue was not a common color in my wardrobe and I didn't want to get new accessories and jewelry just for it when I have a fellow local lolita who loves ducks.

JSK, hairbows, blouse, socks, necklace: Metamorphose; shoes: Bodyline; rose pins: ShoujoMonsta

This pink wig I got at a con actually looks really awful on my skintone in real life without heavy filters, but I just wanted to wear it one last time before I attempt to sell it. This is a simple mostly Meta coord, with a lucky pack blouse I may also try to sell. I think I could have abandoned the pink wig and socks and went for more red and gold and white to bring out the colors of the balloons and clouds, since I don't own a lot of bright blue stuff. But as it is, it's not too bad. 

[coord] Rose Leopard casual-ish lolita

I wore this coveted Metamorphose Rose Leopard piece a while ago for dim-sum in Austin but was too lazy to get a photo, so here it is now while it's fairly warm but not too warm, lol. (One day when it's cold I'll do my ouji coord.) The only difference since the last time I wore it is that I found the matching hair-bow clip on Wunderwelt, so there are a few more accessories than before. Thus not as casual as it could be, but due to the cut, it still feels pretty casual and ready for sleepwear than most lolita dresses.

Dress, hairbow x 2: Metamorphose; purse, ring: Angelic Pretty; boots: Bodyline; tights, necklace, mini hair clips: Forever 21; bracelet, ring, necklace: off-brand, Bling-up

Again, I don't really like baby-coll or sack cuts since they don't appear as flattering as they should be, but the huge bonus is that you can eat a lot and not feel restricted as much except by your tights or petticoats and that's worth looking dumpy! Anyway, I love leopard print, and Rose Leopard is by far the prettiest print Meta has released, even if it's the oldest. I just wish the hairbow wasn't so awkward clipped onto my real hair, oh well!

[discussion] Lolita Blog Carnival - 5 Things That Didn't Work

Sorry, it's been too hot in Texas for me to want to rewear my A-kon ouji coords for proper outfit photos and rundown. So here is a belated lolita blog carnival topic that I chose to do, 5 plans that didn't pan out!

1. Fairy kei - I like pastel colors in general, and cute motifs and retro mascots, but on me, fairy kei style doesn't look good, sadly. This coord below was a really fun outfit to plan because I love going over the top with accessories, but the wig wasn't the most flattering shade of pink to my skin tone in real life with no instagram filters, rocking horse shoes felt weird to wear, and I was uncomfortable trying to project a cutesy fun attention-grabbing aura that wasn't my usual personality. Even with this Angelic Pretty Fantastic Dolly getup with a lot of black polka dots and classy French make-up motifs mixed with the kawaii, it was not something I want to wear again. So I sold the dress! Though I still have the jewelry I bought lmao... I guess I have hope someday of pulling a casual fairy-key look off.

2. Boleros - I bought a handful of boleros and cardigans with the intent of wearing them for layers or warmth over a blouse-less jsk outfit. But they look really shapeless and old-grandma on me, never fitting smoothly over puff-sleeve blouses or ruffly bodices, or mismatching in general. Basically, they have been more trouble to coord than they were worth. I think structured military jackets fit my personal style better, because they are thick enough to squish down puffs and frills for a smooth silhouette and also I can wear them every day in real life. Multi-use, hell yeah!

3. Princess Sleeve Blouse - also something I thought I would like. They look good on other people, but I would end up dragging my sleeves in food or get them caught on velcro or chains. Princess sleeves I think don't look so great on someone with extra small arms, they are an overwhelming feature. Perhaps a slimmer not as dramatic ruffle would have looked better on me. I sold this blouse, too.

4. These Bodyline shoes - shoes are always a source of regret for me because my feet always hurt even in comfortable old grandma sneakers but that's more me getting old and having nerve pain, not the shoes' fault. I bought these shoes because they were cheap and had an interchangeable crown panel that would have been cute for a steampunk look. But somehow this brown was difficult to match with my wardrobe at the time, and I decided in the end I didn't want to relive the 90s clunky block-heel shoe look and go for a slimmer (but more painful) heel instead. Lol.

5. Meta Lucky Pack blouse - I gave this blouse away because I felt like wide ruffly peter pan collars were not for me. Smaller sized round collars look best on me, no one has told me otherwise, but this particular cut was too baggy for my tastes.  Notice a pattern here? One day I will get a blouse in a Meta lucky pack that I will like!!! 

Anyway, I have a lot of regrets and plans that didn't work out. I am not a perfect dresser by any means. But hey, you learn from your mistakes, you try to teach others, and keep trying to improve or at least not get worse. Everything you buy has value then.

[event] Project A-kon and tea party coord!

I was on J-fashion staff again this year for Project A-kon, and sure enough, things were suuuper hectic with the new venue in a new city and only our second year running a full program of events, with even more guests! But despite the last minute changes and constant chaos, what I saw of the programming was as good as it got. I hope we can learn from the gaps, expected and unexpected, and do even better next year, I'm like pretty sure of this, lol.

First of all, I had no part in this, but everyone in the community was super jazzed for our guests, Haenuli and Miss Octopie and Atelier Pierrot, who had apparently come to A-kon years ago but didn't have a great time, and a cameo from Minpha of the J-rock band, Pentagon (Japan.) I don't think we could have had a better lineup from overseas guests and local guests, good job to the higher ups who managed to get them to come to Texas. I hope they had a good time!

The panels this year covered both the basics and advanced topics of lolita, as well as a few other fashion styles. I wasn't able to make as many as I could due to work, only my own ouji/aristocrat panel, not even the fashion show, which was a bummer. But of course I had to put in work for the tea party! It took place in the Hilton, while we were packing and checking out, which I had to do for our room, lmao. We packed and distributed the cute tote bags with amaaaazing goodies, and we did my attempt at a parlor game, the shiritori game but to go with the "travel" theme. Raffle and prizes were done, and gifts for the guests, including these huge tacky Texas gift baskets from guest relations, lol.

Anyway, onto the important part of my post, my coord for the tea party. I was going to wear Atelier Pierrot, but the skirt I got was a mini-skirt, so I wore it Friday and rewore my Enchanted Fawn dress instead. I had grand plans for a completely new coord, but scaled plans back because I had to work on my ouji panel and a simple cosplay instead.

So here I am with Nunu, who said I was her deer princess, aww. Don't we look perfectly radiant? Anyway, I'm too lazy at the moment to rewear this outfit for a proper coord shot, so let me describe it quickly.

JSK: Haenuli; socks: Metamorphose; shoes: Secret Shop; blouse, horn headdress, jewelry, glasses, scarf: off brand, Forever 21, Daiso, H & M

I made the headdress from a set of golden horns on a headband I got from yesstyle by sewing Daiso and vintage lace and flowers on, then decorating one of the horns with wire strung with pearls and acrylic beads. Only one because I ran out of time to do the other one, lol. I also hung gold tassels on the horns and tried to elegantly drape this Pier Imports scarf over the back of the horns for a sort of mori-kei look. Overall, I really loved how everything looked so different from my previous coord, even though my glasses from cosplay were too shiny, lol, I had to wear them because I didn't get good sleep so I wanted to cover my red and puffy eyes. Here is a close-up!

Ouji outfit and panel info coming up next!

[coord] Wa-lolita and Ero-lolita mashup

I bought an Atelier Pierrot skirt from Wunderwelt for something a little more casual to wear for A-kon since they are one of the guests. Of course I love kimono prints, so I was excited to work out a coord for this skirt. Upon wearing it, it felt a little short, and so I decided to combine with an ero look as well. I'm not sure I succeeded fully, but hey, it's comfortable for the summer!

skirt: Atelier Pierrot; bustier: Hot Topic; tights, gloves: Forever 21; shoes: Bodyline; jewelry: Forever 21, off-brand, Daiso, handmade; hair accessories: handmade, Daiso; parasol and purse: Daiso too

Anyway, another outfit purchased mostly at Daiso lmao. I bought the googly eye fish purse and parasol for the Dreaming Goldfish dress, but since they were red they worked for this coord too. I was lucky to find a few flower kanzashi pins from Daiso's Japanese product line, because before that, I made the large flower headdress using some using mums from Michael's and weeping plum blossoms from Daiso. I'm not so sure about the wig, I was planning to wear the bob wig but it looked a little rough lol. Also still unsure about the lace choker, I think it pulls the lace bits together better, but also the laces are different shades of white/cream, so maybe I will make a new choker from cream colored lace to match.

If I cared more and wished to wear more layers, I was going to wear a lace high neck blouse I got from YesStyle under the bustier. Another time, I will add some lace sleeve ruffles, but I'm feeling lazy and out of sorts for this convention, so time to work on the other coords and cosplay!

[event] Project A-kon 28 J-fashion Events in Fort Worth, Texas!

I am very excited to be part of the J-fashion staff at A-kon this year again! We have lots of cool events planned in a new and even bigger location, so I hope you are able to join us. On Saturday, there will be a Japanese street-fashion showcase with various styles as well as models wearing clothing from our esteemed guests, Atelier Pierrot and Haenuli. There will be plenty of interesting panels covering a variety of fashion topics throughout all 3 days, and of course Sunday afternoon tea, with games, prizes and delicious food!

I will not be modeling at the fashion show due to work commitments, but I will be hosting a panel on ouji and aristocrat fashion Saturday night at 10pm at the Hilton with Christian, a very talented local ouji and aristocrat expert. Please expect an informative (hopefully not boring lol) slideshow, followed by a fun activity with a nifty prize set!

[discussion] Summer Hairstyle Ideas part 2

Piggy-backing on last year's entry, I made a new collage of slightly more current hair styles for spring and summer! Just like last year, I focused on hair styles that could potentially be done with natural hair (although I'm sure like half of these are wigs). For example, hair without bangs/fringe, side parts, natural/curly hair, or braids and updos that can bring hair off the back of the neck for a breezy summer look. As quintessential as the dolly look of blunt cut bangs and long ringlet curls is to the lolita aesthetic, sometimes you want options to stand out from the rest of the crowd, or fix up your own hair on an extra hot day when you would rather not wear a wig. I gathered these looks from various Gothic Lolita Bibles, Kera magazines and photoshoots for current release dresses from the brand sites. Hope this is of interest to you!

I am really liking the thick braids, ribbon braids, and puffy twin buns. I kinda wish we could see the back of the head for the up dos in the center!

[coord] DreamHack Austin Japanese Street Fashion show

This was the second year Dreamhack, an e-sports and gaming event, took place in Austin, Texas, and my good friend had volunteered to take care of arranging panels for the attendees to do when they're not gaming or watching others gaming. Since the programming didn't advertise early enough and thus get a lot of panelists coming, it was time for a few Japanese street fashion things! Some of the videogames were made in Japan, so it was relevant, lmao. I volunteered to mod the panel rooms, do one panel, and also walk in the fashion street with my ouji stuff because no one ever wants to do ouji. One of the DJs playing the event wanted to MC at the last minute, and it turns out he had modeled for visual-kei styles and vaguely knew what Japanese street fashion was about and thought my outfit was cool! Yeah, feels good to be validated by someone more famous than myself!

Jacket, hat, bowtie, rose pin: Alice and the Pirates; sarouel pants: Putumayo; butt-skirt: Black Peace Now; socks: Heart E; badge: Metamorphose; blouse, jewelry and boots: off-brand, handmade, Claire's (was not wearing glasses at the fashion show)

Notice that I am rewearing my jacket from Ikkicon 2 years ago, but I bought the matching hat on 50% clearance from the San Francisco shop finally. The matching pants haven't been seen for sale, lol, so I got a pair of Putumayo x Tales of Xilia shorts because they were relevant to videogames and matched, and added the half-skirt from a pair of Black Peace Now pants for a similar punk look. Anyway, not sure about the baggy harem pants look on me since I'm short, but I think it was a good experiment into a more goth punkish ouji style.

[coord] Nasher Sculpture Center meetup

This was a last minute event, I had to bring socks to someone who I missed at previous meets lol. But I've never been to the sculpture center, so I saw cool sculptures, met some new-ish lolitas, used my selfie stick, caught a lot of new pokemon, so all was well. Here is my redo of an old gothic coord, sans lipstick.

Blouse, purse: Innocent World; skirt: Bodyline; socks: Angelic Pretty; shoes: Sosic Shop; collar: Hot Topic; jewelry, crown: Etsy, H&M, Forever 21

I was happy to show off the rings and bracelet, since the longer sleeves tend to hide those details. This wig is a nice color/texture for its price, but alas, it shed constantly, I hope the museum janitor doesn't find a nest of my wig hair in the statues lol. Anyway, while not perfect, I think it worked pretty well overall!

[coord] "Gal-entine's Day" wine meetup

We had a meetup at a wine bar for a Valentine's Day and someone's birthday event! It was a potluck style with finger foods and cake along with delicious sweet and sparkling wines, and afterward we walked around and had coffee and pizza. I decided to wear something red with a few cute handmade accessories with comfortable shoes.

Salopette: R-series Take the Crown; blouse: Metamorphose; socks: Ergi by Piratessen; shoes: Bodyline; purse: offbrand; hat, badge: handmade; jewelry: Daiso, Forever21

I had been planning to wear the gold glitter shoes, but decided something flat for walking around in and not falling over while drunk was the wiser choice. And it was. The salopette was a little looser around my waist than I would have liked, but that tends to be the silhouette for them, so it wasn't bad. I quite liked how my badge and hat turned out, close up pics coming! Again those socks are not an exact match, but I felt great finally wearing them out, lmao.

[discussion] 2017 EGL community annual wardrobe post

Hello, I've actually had this lolita blog for over 1 year now, because here is the second annual wardrobe post I've made! We made it! The actual 2017 post is on my livejournal, but I will repost it here. Sorry in advance for the large images again. Anyway, I'm really proud of this wardrobe, got a lot of animal print, cute socks, a good variety. I don't really have a lot of things to add, but I would love it if these darn blouses and socks and shoes match the dresses better. Anyway, time to get to wearing these in public at least once this year before I buy new stuff.

Original LJ post: http://insomniel.livejournal.com/941645.html

Main Pieces: 24 brand and indie dresses! 3 Innocent World, 1 Moi Meme Moitie, 7 Metamorphose, 5 Baby/AaTP, 3 Angelic Pretty, 1 R-series, 1 Haenuli, 1 Mary Magdalene, 2 Taobao brands

Skirts: 6 total, 2 more Bodyline and 1 Meta, Shorts are the same from last year

Jackets/Coats: added a Dear Celine white jacket

Vests/Boleros: added steampunk stuff

Blouses: some Taobao additions, 1 Meta luckypack blouse

Cutsews: added 2 more, forgot to take a pic of the punk top

Hair Accessories and Jewelry: some handmade stuff and indie brand included!

Purses: added 2

Shoes: got a new pair of gold and brown heels, brown boots, those pink Rocking Horses I'm not sure about lol

Socks/Tights: so many... some I haven't even worn yet lmao

[coord] New Year's Community Meetup

The local community had another annual New Year meetup for the whole area last weekend. I wasn't sure I could make it since the theme was stars and I didn't finish a new headdress for my star-themed dresses. But I went ahead and wore my grandest dress, Angelic Pretty's Antoinette Decoration just to impress everyone and assert my alpha male dominance. Which I learned does not actually exist in wild wolf packs.

One-piece dress, bonnet, tights: Angelic Pretty; jacket: Zara; shoes: offbrand; flowers and hair accessories: Forever 21, handmade; jewelry: Forever 21, Daiso, Claire's

Since I bought the set from Angelic Pretty USA, there was not much else I needed to do to make it impressive, lol. I wore the jacket because it was chilly and wet outside, and since I wore my gold shoes recently, I brought out the cream heels for a more understated look. I added an ostrich feather to my bonnet and some flowers and head chains to give it a richer and more sumptuous feel, similar to Triple Fortune bonnets. But my favorite part of this coord is the braided bangs that I told myself I'd do for years and finally did on this old wig I bought for a cosplay that didn't work out. The wig had ringlet curls in the back but untrimmed parted bangs in the front, so I brushed the bangs to the front and braided them to the side to avoid cutting them wrongly. Anyway, I was impressed by myself so... yeah, lmao. I think my wrists looked bare without the jacket, I did have bracelets to wear but I put on super long deco nails and gave up trying to put on bracelets after that lol. Next time I will finish making some lace wrist cuffs and bell sleeves, another project I have yet to start on.

[coord] Ikki-con Tea Party with Baby the Stars Shine Bright

This year (last year a little bit) I headed down to Austin again to help out with the j-fashion staff for their lolita events! I came in on Friday night and helped out with the fashion show clean-up on Saturday, but most of my time was spent getting ready for the tea party on Sunday afternoon. Despite the difficult circumstances that came up last minute, I think we pulled off a fairly good event, I hope everyone, guests and staff, agreed!

The theme for the tea party was "fairy tale" and to match with the gorgeous centerpieces Cat designed for the tables, I bought an older Baby dress from takoyaki co, the Opale cut of the Sweet Jewelry Princess print, and made my own headdress to match.

JSK: Baby the Stars Shine Bright; blouse: Innocent World; neckbow: Metamorphose; tights: off brand (wearing Meta socks in this pic lol); shoes: Taobao; necklace: Forever 21; corsage, headdress: handmade; wig: Daiso 

I had wanted to buy a similar round flower headdress from the American Baby shop but they didn't have the colors I wanted, so I made my own using a large Daiso rose and smaller flowers I had lying around from Michaels, pastel ribbons from my stash, and some jeweled tulle and raschel lace from Joann's bargain bins because this Joann's will never call my number so I couldn't get the nice tulle cut. I might just go to another Joann's or shop online or something lmao. Anyway, I rather liked the look of the asymmetrical headdress even though the veil part was kinda oversized ooops. Another successful attempt at making my own accessories!

[coord] Tacky Christmas Sweater coord

We had a White Elephant and general gift exchange party with some local lolitas. Alas, the tea place we wanted to meet at did not take reservations and had a two hour wait due to the holidays, so we met up at a Bucca di Beppo and had a solid Italian meal in our lolita instead lmao. I promised to wear a tacky Christmas sweater so here it is!

Skirt: Metamorphose, tights: Grimoire, boots: Bodyline; jacket: Dear Celine, blouse: off-brand, wig and reindeer antlers, crystal pendant and bracelet: Daiso, stole and necklace: Forever 21, flower wreath and necklace: handmade

This was another budget outfit with Daiso items, handmade and offbrand items. The only true lolita brand was Meta, a lucky pack skirt from 2 years ago. But I was glad to coord this vest that my Australian family gave me, as well as the jacket and stole. Overall, it was a good attempt, I'm proud of myself.