Lolita Blog Carnival #15: Favourite Indie Brands

Hello everyone! I'm still not quite in my apartment just yet, so my DisneyWorld update won't be up until a few days from now when I'm back home from visiting family. =) To fill in the gaps, I wanted to do another Lolita Blog Carnival topic: my favourite indie brands (and I have many)!

As someone who has always loved the creativity and the dedication that goes into smaller companies sitting down and making beautiful designs for lolita fashion, a good portion of my wardrobe is packed full with indie brands. There are just some designs that are either ahead of the trends or impossible to find anywhere else, and I'm happy to share the ones I like the most!

Lily of the Valley

I have seen their gorgeous series, "Forest of the Unicorn" floating around lately and completely missed their reserves. ;A; I hope to have a chance to find the dress second-hand somewhere, because I absolutely love the old, medieval air the border print gives off. It's a really great dress for otome styles, not to mention it fits in perfectly with one of my pretty serious New Year's Resolutions: collecting more Elvish/Viking-esque pieces.

Their other pieces have a beautiful, lady-like vibe to them that is just great for someone like me--who feels like I'm getting a little too old for the whackier sub-styles. *A* I definitely recommend checking them out!

Krad Lanrete

Now this is an indie brand that has recently been receiving a lot of hype because of their newest print, "Mozarabic Chant." The jewel tones and vivid print detail is absolutely enchanting. I think you can totally see that I have a thing for waist ties with a separate print detail on them. They were a brand that had usually fallen under my radar until now. This print is a great balance of classic and gothic as well, I can't wait to see what else they release!

Baroque

Baroque has a long history selling to overseas customers since one of the designers used to work under the now-dissolved brand, Lief. Lief sadly had a lot of falling out with the community due to bad fabric-printing errors and construction problems, but Baroque was founded to bring better quality to consumers! Definitely a brand that has gorgeous prints, I'm not a huge fan of the weight of their fabric though, and hope to continue to support their brand since I have Baroque's Pearl Drops on Dry Flowers, Lief's Sacred Night, and Aster Café. The details in the art work is unparalleled, and their non-print fabrics are absolutely gorgeous.

These next three brands play a really important part in me getting into lolita fashion, since they were spotlighted in those old English-translated Gothic & Lolita Bibles years ago. Their websites were even included in the spreads, and they have been in my bookmarks for nearly five years.

Cornet/Shotgun Wedding

This brand has no discernable webstore, and I'm not even sure if they still make new clothes or not, but if you do a simple search on mbok! or Y!Japan Auctions, you will occasionally find a beautiful dress from this brand. I first found out about them through a listing on Fairy Angel, my favourite second-hand lolita store, for only 4,000 yen! I procrastinated on purchasing it, and then totally found Unnnu wearing it in a photo next week, saying it was her new dress! I don't know why, but she's been my idol for years and I'm glad I let it go because she was really able to do it justice. I finally will be adding a Cornet piece to my wardrobe that I purchased from my lovely friend Rune. =)

Choco Chip Cookie

I immediately fell in love with this brand because of its simplistic materials and designs, tastefully arranged in a way that mixed classic tones with a sweeter silhouette. It always reminded me of the clothes I would wear as a child, or see drawn in my favourite books, (Little House on the Prairie anyone?) and I knew they were a favourite. It's getting easier and easier for me to pick up items from indie brands in Japan nowadays, so hopefully I add something from them to my wardrobe soon!

Pina Sweet Collection

Another brand that was in my very first copy of the English Gothic & Lolita bible. When I initially got into lolita fashion, I always thought that I would have a full shiro wardrobe since back then, lilac wasn't really a main colour in lolita fashion (that's changed now!) and there were no other colours I really liked enough. Pina Sweet Collection always made the most delicate white/cream dresses though, and hopefully one day I'll have one of their pieces.

And Romeo

If you're into really nice, old-school, kind of dresses, And Romeo has some fantastic pieces, and they don't hurt the wallet. I found this brand relatively recently and am totally in love. I may have to stock up on a couple of their pieces when I run into more money, especially their sailor stuff.

Pink Macaroon

This beautiful brand closed down May of 2012 before I could purchase their designs, much to my dismay. Their clothing had the most beautiful unicorn themes, and the colours were a perfect balance of bright colours for lolita! Normally I find bright neons a bit unflattering, but the designers for this brand just did such a great job. They also made gorgeous unicorn bags, and even made a Giganticorn! I really hope they decide to open up shop again.

Now that my favourite indie brands have been put aside, now for a couple of must-have items I am getting my hands on in the foreseeable future~

Lusty 'n Wonderland

This is a gorgeous brand that I had mostly forgotten about over the years because they stopped making designs similar to this one, Rose d'Encre. Yet again, when this dress released, it was during my shiro/guro phase, but only a few were made, and reserves closed before I could even blink. But I found a seller for it (ironically the same girl who initially posted photos of it that made me want it soon after reserves ended), and I can't wait to finish my payment plan and have it in my wardrobe!! Their other designs are gorgeous, but not quite as beautiful as this particular dress.

HMHM

I initially didn't really want to spotlight this brand as "indie" since it was probably one of the most popular Taobao brands a few years back, but it seems like their store has been a bit quiet lately and I haven't seen as many people wearing their things. This dress I have absolutely fallen for though since it reminds me so much of Cardcaptor Sakura with the colour scheme and shape of the collar. I hope I can afford it soon!

Check out the other lovely entries from this week's Lolita Blog Carnival! Hope you all are having a happy 2013 so far~

Darkly Darling ★ Geisha Baby ★ Jessie Dresses Up
Pop Princess ★ Angelic Nostalgia ★ Suns in Our Hands
Tangled Lace