Enchanted 1: preparation

My preparation for Enchanted

It's been three weeks since Enchanted took place and I wanted to write about it but first I wanted to share things I'd made for the event. 

My preparation for the event is why I ended up neglecting my blog, I had so many things to do.

My coordinates

For my Saturday coord I had chosen to wear a vintage skirt that I bought from the sales comm. it's a music themed print and it's the same as the one Hitomi wore on the Grimoire blog so I decided quite a while ago to wear it since she was going to be a special guest.

I wanted a big headdress and inspired by one I saw by Triple Fortune I decided to create a round headdress with a veil and hat netting.

I added a miniature violin, harp and musical themed ribbon to tie it in with the skirt.

for Sunday I wanted to wear my dream dress, Mary Magdalene's Antoinette Fleur. 

It was a late decision to wear it and I was going to wear JetJ but snagging my dream dress made me change my mind. 

I decided to make a tricorn hat with a ship, I bought a cheap party hat but it turned out to be rubbish quality so I had to completely cover it in lace and fabric. 

I spray painted my ship and added tulle and flowers.

Things I made for my friend.

My friend asked me to make her a headdress to match Angelic Pretty's Honey Cake.

I decided on pancakes from the start and then planned the headdress based around the print

I wanted to add a bear honey bottle but I couldnt find one that was suitable so in the end I used Sylvanian Family bears :) 

I added cherries, fake whip cream and syrup and butter on the pancakes.

My friend was going to be wearing Angelic Pretty's Holy Lantern in ivory for the Sunday tea party, I offered to make her a headdress because I sold the dress to her and I had a few things I'd bought to make a headdress to match it. It has bows, flowers feathers, stars and a chandelier.

I also made gifts for Minori and Hitomi as well as some jewellery

I will show these on my posts about Enchanted soon.

Andie

x

52 week challenge 3 in 1

So I'm a behind with my posts, this is mostly due to my preparations for Enchanted for which I'll write a separate entry.

I'll cover three topics in this post:

How I found lolita

Bloomers yes or no?

Nails to match my favourite looks

How I found lolita

I had been a fan of gothic fashion for years and it was my love of gothic clothing that led to my discovery of Lolita. 

I was browsing the internet looking for clothing when I came across a picture of a Btssb coat back in 2006.  As soon as I saw the style I fell in love. The shape, the details, everything was perfect. 

I bought a coat and a JSK from some eBay auctions, luckily I never bought anything from the Chinese sellers who use stolen stock photos. 

The JSK turned out to be a Meta replica but I had no idea at the time. I tried it on but I was clueless and did not have a blouse so it looked awful. I didn't bother with the style for 10-12 months until I found the livejournal community EGL. I learned so much and now I'm very comfortable in lolita and I know what I like.

Bloomers yes or no? 

I have to say yes, I feel a little underdressed without them on.

Why?

You never know when I gust of wind will blow your skirt up.

They protect your modesty when bending over so you reveal nothing ;)

They are a safety net if you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having someone lift your skirt up (this happened to a friend) 

Nails for my favourite looks. 

So, I'll admit it,  hopeless when it comes to my nails and even for big events they usually just get a quick coat of nail varnish and maybe some glitter. 

My friends make amazing nails!

These are my favourites

Thanks for reading ^__~

London Lolita meet up for afternoon tea

Time for afternoon tea again!

A few weeks ago I went to a London meet up at a nice hotel for afternoon tea.

The theme was a valentine meet.

We went to the Royal Park Hotel 

I went with my friend Jen, we don't get chance to go to London meets that often living so far away in the midlands. 

Jen wore her Juliette et Justine st Valentin to go with the theme and I wore my new Innocent World grazia crown OP.

It was a very windy day and we looked a bit windswept when we arrived, haha.

Everyone looked amazing! 

I had a special veggie selection of sandwiches and cakes which were very nice and the host gave everyone an envelope with a cheesy lolita themed chat up line and a chocolate.

Mine said 'you make my heart all melty chocolate' 

After we went for a quick drink with a few of the other girls before heading home.

It was really nice to see people I rarely see and to meet new lolitas as well. 

Andie

x

5 key words to describe my lolita style

5 words to describe my lolita style.

This is quite difficult!!

Ecclectic

I'd label some of my style as ecclectic because I like to mix things up a bit sometimes by wearing lolita influenced by other Japanese fashions such as Mori Girl, Dolly Kei and Cult Party Kei. 

I'd like to think I do these crossovers reasonably well but I know they are fraught with the possibility of looking ita or not looking lolita at all. I guess its all down to how you define lolita, there will always be those who think longer length dresses aren't lolita or even brands like Juliette et Justine but I'd like to think that lolita style has a broad spectrum and that it can acccomodate some more original styling. 

Elegant

For me looking elegant is really important if I'm going to wear lolita, as an older lolita I don't want to look silly so plush bags and rainbow pastel styles are a no no. 

Everyday cute

My everyday style is toned down classic or Otome which I wear quite a lot. My dresses by Emily Temple Cute are my most frequently worn items. This style is quite different from my classic style and is more cute looking but its not like sweet lolita. 

This is a typical casual otome coord I'd wear. 

Classic

My main lolita style is classic, I love it!

I would say my key looks were almost always classic lolita so its only right that classic describes my style.

Creative

It was hard to think of another key word so I thought of creative because I like to make things to wear with my coordinates. I love making headdresses and little things although I have made dresses before too. 

I hope I've given a good picture of my style here just from these few words.

Andie

x

52 week challenge: why I don't wear lolita more often

why I don't wear lolita more often

I have the clothes in my wardrobe so why don't I wear them more often? 

First of all I think many items I own are a bit too much for everyday! I own some otome brands which I wear more regularly but the more elaborate peices get saved for meet ups and events. 

I try to wear lolita once or maybe twice a week when I go out at the weekend and in the week if I meet with friends. Even after years of wearing the style I'm not very likely to wear it of I go out alone, although it depends where I'm going and I'd probably wear it if I was going somewhere different than my home town. 

Lolita isn't the most practical fashion, all the layers and petticoats get in the way. When I'm home I like to wear comfortable clothes and if I'm crafting or cooking I don't want to spoil my Lolita clothes.  

This has made me think about lolita aprons :)

I love the idea of wearing lolita with an apron whilst crafting.

Metamorphose used to make a lot of dresses with aprons like this:

Its very cute, I'm not sure if I'd swap my comfy clothes or not. Perhaps if its fully shirred then it would be very comfortable but I like to wear fluffy socks around the house and they would look silly! 

I think what job you do can be very restricting when it comes to being able to wear lolita at work, I can't think of any job I've had where it would have been possible either due to having to wear a uniform or simply for practicality but I can imagine some jobs would be fine but I've never had such a job sadly. 

I wish I could wear it more often but I do get to wear it so I'm happy with that. 

Andie

X

52 week challenge: why I wear lolita

Why do I wear lolita?

I guess it stems from my long term love for alternative fashions. I started off as a goth years ago and while I still identify with goth lolita has had a big impact on my taste and personal style.

This is the sort of style that attracted me to lolita in the first place, all black, chunky platforms and the Lolita silhouette. 

I first discovered Lolita through searching for gothic clothing and as soon as I saw it  I just knew I wanted to wear it. For me the silhouette is what I love the most, the full skirts and fitted bodices are very flattering I think. 

Now I wear all sorts of styles and not just Gothic lolita. I love the clothes so much, and in a way I've not felt with other styles of clothing I’ve worn in the past.

I'd say I wear lolita because I love the clothes so much and I like how they make me feel. 

Why do you wear lolita? 

Andie

X

Taobao mori girl haul and review

Taobao Mori Girl haul

Just before Chinese new year I put an order in with Taobaospree for a few mori girl items.

Taobaospree were very good and responded to my request very quickly. 

Communication was great throughout the order process and always timely.

My experience was very good and I will continue to use them for future orders. 

I ordered 6 items, most of them were from Slxi as well as one item from ForestGirlFans.

I'll start with the items from Slxi

layered knitted cardigan

I've wanted a loose knitted cardigan for a while and when I saw this one I thought it was exactly what I was looking for. 

It comes in beige, blue and brown. 

I would have bought beige but it was sold out so I ordered it in brown. 

item link 

As you can see the front has layered lace and jersey which make it quite good for the layered look of mori girl without actually having to wear lots of layers!

The quality is good but my only negative is the lace ties at the front look flimsy and I can imagine them pulling off easily while wearing it, 

my rating 4/5 

Patchwork cutsew

I always seem to be short of basic long sleeve tops so one caught my eye when I was shopping on Slxi's site. 

Item link

I'm really impressed with this, I thought it was just patchwork but it has a double layer and inner layer is trimmed with a lace hem.

 I love how the top layer hangs over the lower one. 

I'd give this one 5/5 it great for the price and I might get one or two other tops now. 

Patchwork scarf

I have a few scarves and a love one I bought in my last taobao order but its lightweight and I wanted something a bit thicker to keep me warm in the windy british weather.

Item link 

I really like all the colours and textures in this, its really big too but its not as thick as I thought it would be. I wore it the other day and its quite warm but not up to very cold winter days. 

I'd give it 4/5, its nice but its only made with fine knits. 

Lace trim skirt

I have too many skirts but I couldn't resist this one because of the length and the nice layers of lace. 

item link 

The lace is nice and soft and the waistband is elasticated  so its comfortable to wear.

It looks nice with the layers at the side or at the front. I'm sure I'll get lots of wear from this because I always wanted a ruffle skirt to wear with tunic tops.

This skirt gets a 5/5 from me, a great item for any mori girl wardrobe. 

Skirt belt/shawl thingy

I'm usually quite careful when I shop on taobao, I'll save bookmarks and then whittle them down to a few items I really want. This skirt thingy just made me want it because it looked so different and it appealed to my love for CPK  so I added it to my order form. 

Item link

On the page its shown worn as a shawl, as a skirt over jeans and other items, I'm not sure yet how I'll wear it but its certainly wearable as a skirt and would maybe look nice over a longer one.

I'm not 100% sure about the colours either, I don't like the big block of brown that much but that's just me.

I'd give it 3.5/5

I don't really regret buying it but I could have bought something else more wearable instead. 

Cat sweater

The last item is a cute cat sweater from ForestGirlFans

I had to have this because of cats...

cat link 

I'm so glad I bought this, its adorable!

The cat is an appliqué that carries on around the back of the sweater and the little fish are made of crochet.

The inside is all velvety and soft so its lovely to wear. 

5/5 I love it!

I hope you liked my review

Andie

x

Lolita 52 week challenge: Part 6 My favourite brand

This week its my favourite brand!

My top 3....

From looking at my wardrobe I know its dominated by three brands

1) Emily Temple Cute

2) Innocent World

3) Juliette et Justine

I love all these brands as well as Jane Marple,  Angelic Pretty and Moi meme Moitie.

Emily Temple Cute makes things I can wear regularly which is important to me  as does Innocent World but I have to say Juliette et Justine takes the spot for my number one favourite brand.

Why Juliette et Justine?

They consistently make things I like.

I like both old and new pieces.

Some are fancy yet others can be quite simple and easy to wear. 

They have a more mature look which I like as I'm an older lolita. 

The quality is always great. 

Here are some of my wishlist  pieces by JetJ

Here are dresses I currently own by JetJ

Cadre du Chat

Marie Antoinette

Confiseur du Lapin

Parfait et un menage

Le Cachet Sculpté du Bouquet JSK

on its way

on reservation

 If I had a bigger budget I'd own more, haha!

Whats your favourite brand and why?

Andie

x

Birthday part 2

My little birthday get together

For my birthday I went for afternoon tea with friends.

The hotel was amazing, it had a moat and a little bridge. 

It reminded me a little of Hogwarts only much smaller 

Inside we had a reserved table and it turned out we had a whole room to ourselves complete with blazing fire place. 

The food was a traditional afternoon tea with sandwiches, cakes and scones. 

The food was nice but not as good as La Suite west in London the day before. 

My coord for the day was Jane Marple's royal order mini OP.

Photo courtesy of streetstylesnaps.com

It was a really good day, it was followed with a sleepover and my friend finishing off a cat scarf she made for my birthday.

Andie

X

Birthday weekend 1

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I went to London for the weekend before my birthday with my partner.

I wore lolita both days I was there, sadly I didn't take a coord shot on the first day. 

On the first day I went to the V&A, Camden and to a vegan restaurant called Saf.

My favourite things from the museum were the stained glass and religious exhibits as well as an art installation in the courtyard. 

The installation had lots of little ceramic figures hidden in the rocks. 

On the second day I went for a special afternoon tea at La Suite West hotel, I wore my new Moi Meme Moitie royal gate OP. 

The food I had at La Suite West was so tasty!

I do love going for afternoon tea! 

I went for more on my birthday too xD

Lolita 52 weeks part 5

Favourite things to put on my head! 

What I wear on my head depends largely on where I'm wearing lolita

If its for a meet up then I like more over the top head wear and if its for everyday I'm very minimalist and will only wear a flower, small bows or berets 

Over the top!

I've mentioned before that I love bonnets!

Triple fortune's are my favourite and I'd love to own another one someday

 I also love their hats, I don't have enough hats. 

I'd like to get more hats this year, brand or offbrand.

Headdresses

I like making crazy headdresses 

I made one for and event last year but I ended up wearing it for a different meet up.

I love this but its so heavy!!

I'm quite proud of this one, I love how it turned out. 

My everyday headwear

Despite my love for OTT headgear I actually feel quite self conscious with things on my head mainly because most people don't wear hats which I think is a real shame. 

I usually wear small flower corsages or simple head bows.

some examples of my everyday coords and my simple hair accessories

A simple Innocent world JSK coordinate with a cream flower & bow headband and an additonal black bow.

Another casual IW coord, this time I have cream hair accessories on each of my hair buns.

One is a bow I made and the other is a small cream flower. 

What do you like wearing on your head?

Big head eating bows? hats or something else?

Until next time....

Andie 

x