[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

[meetup] Baby the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party at Ikki-con's 10th Anniversary!

I was able to attend Ikki-con in Austin, Texas for the New Year's event and had purchased a ticket to the tea party with special guest, the CEO and designers of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. It was an amazing experience and such an honor to meet these important influences in lolita fashion and mingle with lovely fans of lolita fashion as well. I had fun at the lolita games panel hosted by the Austin lolitas, learned some things at the Japanese Fashion panel, was very impressed by the models for the Baby fashion show, and even helped make food for the tea party. It was a busy weekend for me, since I almost never attend all 3 days of a con, but I enjoyed what the Austin lolitas had planned for us very much. The theme of the party was inspired by the Japanese legend of the bunny of the moon, in light of the new year and also Baby's bunny mascot, Usakumya!

The menu was planned by my good friends, actual chefs and patissier, so everything was made with love. The tea was served by butlers from the con's maid cafe. Look at those adorable sugar cookies!

Here are photos of my coord, a cute steampunk aviator rabbit ouji sort of ensemble, with different booties at the actual party. Yeah, I'm wearing my sports anime wig, lol. Aviator cap, shirt, jacket, wrist cuffs and pants are all Alice and the Pirates. Vest and tights are Hot Topic, bowtie from Meta and booties from Innocent World.

Me with the designers and CEO of Baby the Stars Shine Bright in the ballroom. They were absolutely adorable and tried to answer questions, despite their tiredness, what troopers!