Friday, November 23, 2012

Lolita Blog Carnival: 5 Themed Meetup Ideas

The Lolita Blog Carnival challenge of the week is come up with 5 themed meetup ideas. I've had a lot of fun coming up with these meetup ideas. I tried to make them so that a large variety of lolita styles could participate and so that a wider variety of lolita wardrobes could participate. I've only listed a few examples for each theme due to time constraints, but I'm sure that each one could be taken much further than my limited listed.

1. Forest Theme

The forest can be the land of fairy tales to some people with small woodland creatures frolicking through clearings. It can also be a place of darkness and fright, terrifying as you run through it in the night.

I feel like a number of pieces then could fit the forest theme. For classic lolita, the first print which came to my mind was Innocent World's Lotta print. With prancing deer, frolicking bunnies, soaring birds and delicate butterflies, I feel like this print embodies a fantastic view of nature almost straight out of a Disney film.


Moving more to a sweet perspective, many sweet lolita prints are also populated with forest animals and nature motifs. One particular piece which comes to mind is Angelic Pretty's Milky-Chan the Fawn. Though this fawn seems a bit more into leaping into a pile of presents than prancing through the woods, I still feel like the print would work well for a forest theme. 


My final presented idea for a forest theme relates back to the dark, dank view of forests. A print which I really felt lent itself to the theme was Lady Sloth's Winter Cemetery print. Featuring eerie snow covered trees along with the somewhat desolate image of an old cemetery, I think this skirt would go well with a gothic lolita coordinate.


2. Over the Top Theme

Sorry to go for lower hanging fruit but I couldn't help but think an over the top theme would be easy and fun to coordinate an outfit for. 

The most common OTT style I see is OTT sweet lolita. Loads of star hair clips, candy necklaces and ice cream scoop rings abound. The picture below is a model in Angelic Pretty's Decoration Dream series. I feel like the picture sums a lot of the elements of OTT sweet. 


With classic lolita, I often see a different approach to going OTT than in sweet. Headwear will typically include bonnets and rather than having many accessories, the print of the dress will often be of a famous painting. Juliette et Justine often has dresses catering to this aspect with their La Danse de La Dame pictured below.


Gothic is a final sub style I thought up examples for an OTT themed meet up. Though gothic is a style I'm less familiar with, I've seen OTT gothic with tall lace up style boots, giant black headdresses with cameos in the center and skeletal hand hair clips. I've seen accessories which could go with this substyle even at Claire's with their two finger cross rings and cross finger tip rings also. 

Claire's Online, Y U So Bad At Photography?
3. Casual Lolita Theme

Flowing from the opposite of over the top lolita, casual lolita is the next theme I'll explore. I think many lolita wardrobes could handle this more toned down style. Most of the coordinates I see for it are a simple cutsew, skirt, tights, shoes and bam! Done.

I have seen Bodyline carry a number of cutsews which could accommodate this substyle. In particular, their Joli Petit Faon cutsew could fit a sweeter style easily.


A number of punk coordinates I see also make use of cutsews and more casual elements such as hoodies. Putumayo has a number of pieces for this substyle of lolita, and one piece I could see working would be their Butterfly Frill OP. 


I've also seen brands such as Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Innocent World put out cutsew OP's made out of comfortable material. An example is Innocent World's Annette OP.


4. Day In the Garden Theme

Flowers blooming while dainty ladies sitting about having their afternoon tea! What a romantic theme to imagine for a lolita meetup. 

Classic lolita with an abundance of floral print would be easily able to match up with this theme. Pictured below are Innocent World's Emmelina along with Bodyline's L479. Many offbrand socks which I've seen at mainstream stores such as Forever 21 and Delia's could also compliment this theme. 


Some sweet lolita prints also depict garden type scenes or at least grassy motifs. The first example I thought of was Angelic Pretty's Happy Garden.


5. Night at the Ball Theme

The fancy and lovely nature of balls I figure would be a perfect match up with lolita style.

Bodyline's Cinderella Bunny print directly taps into this theme. 


Hime lolita is a substyle which I felt would be very well suited to a ball theme. Embellished with pearls, crowns and other royal motifs, the style would fit perfectly with the elegant theme of a ball.



Ultimately, however, I felt like this theme was the most open to interpretation by the individual. What do you consider formal enough to dance the night away? What makes you feel like the bell of the ball? I would love to see the many very personal interpretations of this theme. 

Well, that's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to check out the other posts by the Lolita Blog Carnival on this topic which are linked to below. 


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Lolita Blog Carnival Acceptance



I'm very excited as I write this! I've been accepted to the Lolita Blog Carnival. If you haven't seen the posts around lolita blogs yet, it's basically a group which focuses on lolita bloggers which are all given the same challenge to write a post on said challenge. Then each participant links to the other blogs links so that readers can get a feel for what other girls did for the challenge.

While I may not be able to write much right now at the tail end of the school semester, I'm looking forward to the challenges and joys of being apart of this group.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Thrift Store Fairy Kei/Spank! Success

I've been wanting to expand my fairy kei wardrobe to be able to withstand the colds of Alabama winter. This basically means light jackets and sweaters most of the time. While lolita generally uses heavier coats and boleros, I've generally seen fairy kei use light pastel jackets which I've been having trouble locating. Inspired by Skiteanna Sweet's post on top places to buy fairy kei and my desire to explore more secondhand friendly spank! fashion, I decided to check out my local Goodwill thrift store to see if I could find anything pastel. 

I was surprised at what I was able to find. My first discovery was a basic white frilly skirt. I've been pondering doing a tie dye project for a while, so I filed this item away in my future project area. 

My second find was a very cute Grape Crush shirt. Not my photo below, but it exactly resembles the item which I found:




I love the softer purple coloring of this item along with the vintage feel of the logo.

My final find was my favorite. Remember how I mentioned preparing for winter? Well, I was able to find a pastel rainbow colored sweater.  ヽ(*≧ω≦)ノ

I coordinated the outfit below to be my first spank!/ 80s pastel outfit. I'm pleased with the results:

Sweater: Thrifted
Skirt: Delia's
Earrings: Darling Deers
Necklace: Forever 21
Socks: Target
Shoes: Bodyline
I was pleasantly surprised with how this outfit came out. I also messed with my hair, going for something more akin to an 80s top knot like I've seen in a number of photos of girls sporting the fashion. 

Also, for once, my wallet wasn't crying out in fear. I managed to snag all of the pieces for about $7 with tax. Pretty good deal to me.

The lesson of this story? Give your local thrift store a try. You and your budget may be pleasantly surprised. 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Got My Gothic Lolita Wig!

I've been having a field day of getting items in the mail lately. The most exciting of my orders has been my purchase from Gothic Lolita Wigs. Below is the way the wig is pictured on their website:

Spiral Lolita Collection - Pinkie
While I don't think I nearly approached that level of awesome in the wig, I was very pleased with the results.


Wig: Gothic Lolita Wigs
Shirt: Tasty Peach Studios
Skirt: Justice
Tights: Sweetie Cakes
Shoes: Bodyline
Bag: Bodyline
I'm not really sure what to call the above outfit... I was inspired by fairy kei, but I also wanted to add in a number of the black bittersweet lolita elements in. The result is... dark fairy kei? Bittersweet fairy kei? I'm not sure. While I like pastels, I oftentimes yearn to add some black in with fairy kei to add contrast.