[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...