[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.

[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.