Lolita 52: Nails to match my favourite looks!

I'm so sorry for the silence on my end, it's been a while! I see a couple of new followers (possibly from Florida Supercon?), welcome!

Today I wanted to write a little bit about the topic I drew today--nails to match my favourite looks! This past year I wanted to make more of a point to play with nailpolish, and I am really glad I sat down and gave it a try, because now I have some awesome pictures I want to share!

Lolita 52: Best places to wear lolita!

I have been absolutely terrible with keeping up with my Lolita 52 posts, mainly because I wasn't sure if it was really keeping people interested or not. @3@ But lately I've been feeling terrible for keeping my blog quiet (I have good reason for this, I promise!!), so I thought I'd whip up a Lolita 52 post just to show that I am still alive!

I think I drew a really fun topic this time, "Best places to wear lolita." I'm the type of person who does not take most dress codes seriously and always pushes the limits on what to wear, so I had like... 5 billion places I wanted to share with you, but I tried to narrow it down to my top 5 favourite kinds of places.

It was really nice using mostly old photos throughout this post, I was able to dig through some memories stashed away in forgotten SD Cards and also pass the time!

1. Historical houses. I've visited quite a few dressed in lolita, but my favourite is a tie between Vizcaya Gardens and Ringling Museum of Art! They both have beautiful gardens and fantastic back drops for outfit shots.

Eep, this photo is so old! It's from the last time I visited Vizcaya, circa 2011. The whole place is built using coral and re-used materials! James Deering was ahead of his time when he built this mansion in 1916--it was super eco friendly!

2. Theme parks! Especially ones with fun carnival rides~ It just seems so nice to run around dressed up among all the lights and decor that come with great theme parks. Of course my favourite is DisneyWorld.

Meeting Mulan at my most recent visit to Disney! She asked me questions about my Oswald hat and told me to "listen out" for Mushu and report to her if he's causing any trouble.

3. Conventions. Okay, some people may not agree with this, but I love convention atmosphere. I'm already a ginormous geek, and then on top of that I can be around other people dressed up really cool who won't even question what I'm wearing! Not to mention you usually end up running into other people dressed in alternative fashion you never knew about, so it's a chance to make more friends! It's also the perfect occasion to wear that super impractical and over-the-top coordinate you've stashed away in the back of your closet.

I would probably never wear a coordinate like this anywhere else, but it was fun doing a super over-the-top raver-inspired get-up using a piece by Atelier Pierrot! This is myself and the fantastic Scoper Monstar, who quickly became an awesome friend. =D

4. Teahouses! This is a big cliché among lolitas that I whole-heartedly grasp. I love tea and the fancy foods that come with tea. You can also get cute photos with the china cabinets. Bring it on!

Another old photo from a meet-up from around 2011 sometime. The tea house I went to this time was so endearing, although a bit pricey. I recommend it to anyone in the area, it's called The Tea Room!

5. Instead of tacky tourist, be a lolita tourist! Wearing lolita when you're going to a new country or area is really great, at least from my experience. Tourists tend to be some of the friendliest people you can be dressed up around, they always are polite and ask for photos with you and it's fun if you don't mind the adverse attention. (Of course, upon discussing this with friends, this may have a lot to do with my loving conventions and being a frequent attendee at them. I'm much more used to people asking for photos than most of my friends.) Just keep in mind, sometimes lolita is really frowned upon in certain places, so you want to make an intelligent decision. I usually tone down my coordinates or make sure I am not insulting a certain culture or belief by wearing a more over-the-top fashion. I've heard of lolitas being turned away at Versailles before since the fashion was considered too "over the top" and disrespectful. Be careful!

Another old photo from my first visit to Sweden years back! We were taking a ferryboat from our hotel in Stockholm. I spent most of my time in Malmö though. =D I realised I tend to pose really similarly throughout the years, haha! I need to be more dynamic!

I will be revealing a few more projects and sponsored reviews in the future, I've been really behind on posting about them. @3@ Remember to check out the previous Lolita 52 topics over here. Hope you all are having a great day!

Lolita 52: How lolita has changed me.

Sorry for the late 52 post! I got caught up at work and only realised it's Wednesday in the evening and I had nothing lined up for the day, oops!

This week I randomly drew topic #52, and it is a very heavy one. "How lolita has changed me." (I guess my need to pose with food hasn't changed much at all though, haha!)

It's safe to say lolita has changed me in a multitude of ways, and I think a lot of the friends I've made and the experiences I have would just... Have not happened if I never got into lolita.

For one thing, I had a lot of body issues as a kid. I was underweight for as long as I could remember, and was very short compared to... Well everyone I knew. This led to a lot of criticism from both peers and my parents--always forcing me to eat more or making fun of me for my gangly figure. I wore children's clothes well into high school, when most people had already graduated to "trendier" adult fashions. I was still running around wearing Limited Too stuff (I think now the store has been renamed Justice)!

I only filled out in the last year for the most part, but until then, I struggled to find clothes to fit (don't even get me started on my bra-shopping meltdowns), and hated how I could never get that "sexy" look that most girls aspired for.

When I saw the sizing for most lolita brands, I was stunned. My first response was, "Whoah, clothes made for someone short and puny like me... Clothes that remind me of Cardcaptor Sakura!" And the rest is history.

Finding pretty clothes that fit also led me to really care a lot about myself and embrace my girlier side. Up until that point, I was a huge tomboy who had no interest in wearing make-up or looking pretty. Really, the only thing "girly" about me was my long hair (although thanks to a couple hitches in the road it ended up being short against my will from time to time). I also just had zero confidence.

Really stepping out of my comfort zone and wearing something that I both liked and made me feel beautiful really helped me develop as a person. My first time really going out and wearing lolita in every day life (not including anime conventions) was my freshman year in college. My parents (even somewhat to this day) are not really supportive of my hobbies, so, finally being out of the house with a little bit of my own money to spend, I commissioned a replica of Angelic Pretty's Loving Princess one-piece from Fan+Friend. It's an eyesore now, but I loved it then. It was everything I ever wanted in a dress!

I had two non-lolita friends who supported my fashion choices and cheered me on, and my first trip was to the mall with both of them. We had a great time, and to put the cherry on top, a bunch of kids dressed in scene/punk recognised the style and screamed from nearly half-way across the mall, "LOOK, a gothic lolita!!" We exchanged Facebook URL's after hanging out for most of the night, and it was such a great experience. Thankfully it was a good experience, or my shaky confidence would have probably made me turn give up immediately.

Oh my goodness, I actually found a picture of the outfit from within the depths of my Facebook. @3@ It's a bit embarrassing to look at now, haha! I remember pouring hours and hours of effort into the crown I wore here. Wowowow, 17-year-old me.

But lolita has really changed me--I have more of a "no fucks given" attitude, and I met so many great friends through the fashion that I am still in touch with today! I guess being so open with your "weirdness" really gets you some long-lasting friends, and I'm thankful for that.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the month! I'm finally going back home and next week is going to be packed! I have a photoshoot and a lot of meet-ups planned for next week, hopefully you will see the fruits of all that in the future! I use Instagram and Twitter pretty often, so check me out there for more real-time updates.

Check out my other topics under the "Lolita 52 Challenge" label!

Lolita 52: My first meet-up.

This week's topic for the Lolita 52 Challenge is #17, "My first meet-up."

The only reason I know when the meet happened is because I have one photo dated "April 4th 2009." I wish I had more photos of it, but I actually organised my first meet-up. I wore a pretty terrible outfit (I was attempting hime-lolita by wearing open-toed shoes and elbow-length gloves) and it was completely off-brand. Most of the meet-ups were really far away from my school campus, and I didn't drive at the time, so I tried to arrange something at the mall near me.

If there were any photos, there would have been very few because a security guard approached us and requested that we stop taking photos at the very beginning of our meet-up... What a shame. =| We went to a candy store, shopped around at Forever 21 (especially after one of the girls mentioned that their coordinate was mostly from there), and of course, ate lots of delicious food. I think that's actually when my love affair with Forever 21 started! Up until that point, I had given up on finding anything I'd like in local stores.

But really, the memories are great. I met some awesome girls, Aviva, Wendy, Le, Luci, and a lot of them I still keep in touch with to this day! 

Looking back on it, I was only seventeen when this meet-up happened, a freshman in college! Time has really flown by... It looks like the 4th anniversary of my first meet-up is fast-approaching too! This makes me want to do a little transformation timeline. *A* Alas, I am not at home right now with access to all my photos, so that is going to have to be saved for a later date.

Lolita 52 Challenge: The ways in which I fit (and don't fit) the cliché.

(I couldn't help myself, this topic can come off as pretty special snowflake-y haha!)

This week's Lolita 52 Challenge pulled up topic #42: the ways in which I fit the cliché. I have been involved in lolita fashion for such a long time now, I have trouble determining what is even considered cliché because it seems like everyone involved in the fashion has different opinions--and I very rarely tend to not speak too much about the fashion in depth with people who are coming in with a pretty clean slate--most everyone has already established an idea of what lolita is to them and are wearing it relatively often.

So I chose to define the cliché in this case by looking at what anime and some popular movies make lolita appear to be--which is some weird mishsmash of Kamikaze Girls/Shimotsuma Monogatari and Rachel Alucard from Blazblue with a dash of Stocking from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.

Lolita 52: Describe my style is 5 words?

Tomorrow I'll be leaving my home (again), this time for a law internship in Maryland--so bear with me since it seems like the filler posts will have to continue for another couple of weeks. =(

The topic I drew this week for the Lolita 52 Challenge was "5 keywords that describe your style." I really suck at picking pretty unique words for this so this may be pretty boring--so I decided to spice it up with some photos of things in my wardrobe that fit that word!

Since I was a kid, the word "dream" was a real source of inspiration to me. I wanted to take the things I dreamed about (both awake and sleeping) and make them a reality, create soft silhouettes and crown everything with wings.

This is something that I think only really started to make an appearance in my personal fashion in the past year or two. Although most of the things pictured here I had for longer than that amount of time, glitter used to be something I found tacky or just garish. But lately, soft glittering accents have really pulled me in!

Looking back at my advice for buying a versatile piece for your wardrobe, strange colour combinations and outlandish ideas have really been at the forefront of my wardrobe. I really like the idea of taking something most people find ugly and just having fun with it! I guess that's why "aomoji-kei" is such a turn-on for me.

The older I become, the more I want to tip my hat to the things that made me who I am today, whether it's the Power Rangers or Cardcaptor Sakura. There are things I never really stopped loving that I always want to bring into every coordinate!

Last and certainly not least, is adding a little reminder of loved ones, family heirlooms, and "lucky" items. They end up sneaking into my coordinates one way or the other, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

How would you describe your style in 5 words?

Lolita 52 Challenge: Let's talk about parasols!

Today's Lolita 52 Challenge is topic #46: Parasols, vital or frivolous?

I was one of those weird lolita appreciators who got into the fashion mainly for the accessories first. I loved the shoes, jewelry, and bags that went with the aesthetic, and fell head over heels in love with Victorian Maiden's gorgeous lacy, decadent, parasols long before I found a dream dress to lust over. It was this one in particular:

It's a shame I couldn't find a photo of the underside of it--that was just as gorgeous as the top! It had lace stretched across the inside so you had a beautiful view from any angle. Of course, these guys sell for around 200-300 dollars, so it was way out of my price range, but a girl could dream!

So I'll be a bit biased when I say that I do think they're vital. It's so hot walking around with all the layers in lolita, and portable shade is never a bad thing--especially when you're trying to combat heat fatigue. But I also have a much more practical reason for considering them vital. This particular Victorian Maiden parasol isn't waterproof, but the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright one that I own and is now a staple in my closet is!

It rains quite suddenly (and in buckets!) where I live, with little warning. Umbrellas are mostly unsightly little contraptions when added to your lolita coordinates, so brands putting out gorgeous waterproof umbrellas was just what I needed! The best thing is, they have a curved handle so its easier to carry around. I have no idea why, but most of the umbrellas that stores sell nowadays don't, so it's such a pain to lug around those umbrellas since you need to constantly have a hand occupied holding it.

Given where I live, (where it's both extremely hot and wet), parasols are totally vital for me. Not only are they gorgeous additions to any coordinate, they can keep you cool and dry! I definitely recommend not using a brand parasol in higher winds though, they tend to break very easily. ;___; I've already had that experience once with a handle bending almost at a 90 degree angle! Sometimes you can find some really pretty umbrellas that are durable as well (Victoria's Secret had some really cute ones a few years back) that are probably a good alternative to some really bad weather.

Check out my other Lolita 52 Challenge topics!

Lolita 52 Challenge: The hardest part of my wardrobe to attain.

47. The item in my wardrobe that was the hardest to get.


To those of you who have known me for a while, the simple answer to this question is Magical Etoile. It took me years just to find someone selling it, and then the person who was selling it said that they were currently in a payment plan with someone else. Almost two months later, they contacted me saying the sale fell through, but at that point in time, the dollar had dropped so badly the dress had literally increased in cost by USD 200! I could have cried, but I still wanted the dress so bad and really scrounged up some money to just get it in my closet.

I'm really happy to finally have the dress, I wore it to DisneyWorld this week (yeah I totally went again) and got a lot of compliments! It's such a comfortable dress too, I feel like lolita dresses that released afterwards don't quite fit the way Magical Etoile does.

So basically it took me almost a year after its release to realise that I do really like this dress, then it took me over four years to find someone selling it in the colourway I wanted, and then I only received it in the mail in October of last year~

The photo above is of me packing Magical Etoile for a recent trip~ You can see Magical Etoile neatly folded in the background. That being said, if anyone has questions for how to pack lolita for vacations, I will gladly fill you all in~ I've been getting the question pretty often so I may just make a whole new blog entry for it.

Check out my other entries for the Lolita 52 Challenge! I basically post a random topic selected from a pool of 52 once a week, so by the end of the year I should be finished with this challenge! I'm really excited to see my blog grow as a make it a point to post more frequently. =) Hope you all have a lovely Sweetheart's Day tomorrow!

Lolita 52 Challenge: How people react and how I respond in return.

Okay, this is probably my favourite topic I have ever pulled for the Lolita 52 Challenge, I really love talking about things like this!

44. How strangers react to my clothes, and how I react to their reactions

For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, I do wear alternative fashions as a whole pretty often, even if it isn't necessarily lolita. If I'm leaving the house to do something other than go to the bank/post office, I try and dress up in something unique. For that reason, I've pretty much had a whole slew of responses to what I wear, but thankfully the bad responses aren't too severe. (Although there is this one time.)

I get anything from "are you part of a play?" to "you look like a princess!" or even general comments of admiration like, "wow, that's so cool you dress that way." If people ask a question I usually just respond with "this is a Japanese street fashion popular among some groups of young people," and they're usually just happy hearing that.

But I think the biggest (negative) thing I get are people blatantly pointing and staring at me to laugh or take photos. I usually just turn to them, smile really largely, and say "hello," and that terrifies them into submission, haha! I guess they expect no one to actually call them out on their rude behaviour, especially with kindness. I've realised that if they're around teenage age, they tend to be the meanest, especially where I live. Kids get away with too much here. D= If they're younger or older you tend to get generally positive comments, and old ladies are probably the funniest.

I also get "Lady Gaga" a lot, to which I grimace and say I have no intention of looking like her, but it is a Japanese street fashion--and then they laugh and say that's cool and move on. Most of my reactions don't last longer than a couple of sentences.

I've realised that just being nice to the people who are rude to you tends to rectify things faster than being rude. I've been with girls who would yell at them or glare and it just makes them want to poke fun at you more since they know they're getting to you. Just stay positive, or even goofy!

Previous topics:

6. My favourite lolita brand.
10. How I first found out about lolita.
14. Lolitas I would love to meet.
20. How satisfied I am with my current wardrobe.
26. How I get out of a wardrobe slump.

I'm currently traveling right now, so I won't be responding to comments as quickly as I normally do! Hope everyone is staying safe and having a good time. =)

Lolita 52 Challenge: My favourite brand.

My favourite brand--this is such a hard question for me to answer. I know a couple of years back I would have automatically rattled off "Alice and the Pirates or H.Naoto!" But considering I still haven't been able to dish out money for some H.Naoto of my own and I haven't been drooling over Alice and the Pirates as much as I used to, I really have no idea what my favourite brand is. It doesn't help that not as many strictly lolita pieces have been tickling my fancy anymore, my taste has been drifting to Cult Party and Mori mostly.

Buuut if I had to sit down and pick a favourite brand, I'm going to have to say Angelic Pretty right now. I'm surprising myself saying this, but I have so many different pieces from them throughout the years (my oldest piece is probably from 2001/2002), and they always are willing to play with different aesthetics rather than get stuck doing one thing. You can get something beautiful and otome-like like Chocolate Rosette or something absolutely sugary sweet like Jewelry Jelly, or even a beautiful retro in-between like Fantastic Dolly!

After the release of Misty Sky especially, I have been absolutely taken aback by how beautiful some of Angelic Pretty's pieces are, and how they don't necessarily scream "LOLITA" all the time too, which I'm okay with honestly. I have about 10 of their pieces in my wardrobe, not including my socks and headbows, and I couldn't be happier with them. Even though a large portion of my "Dream Wardrobe" consists of things from Alice and the Pirates, in the past two or three years, nothing they have been releasing has really been screaming "BUY ME" right now, and I realise I just end up adding more Angelic Pretty as time goes on--even though I am largely graduating from super-sweet lolita.

A close second for my favourite brand is Metamorphose Temps de Fille. They rock some really strange ideas, and I like that! After that is Milky Ange, which I feel is largely unappreciated. Their clothes are so versatile and have so many pieces to them! I feel like they haven't been introducing many new designs though, I hope they become more active again. =)

Just for fun, I photographed some close-ups of my two favourite Angelic Pretty pieces I have at the moment--Magical Etoile and Misty Sky.

For the next week, I will be going on a cruise, so I have some entries queued up to post while I'm away, so forgive me for not answering my comments immediately! I hope everyone is doing well, and thank you for reading!

Lolita 52 Challenge: How I first found out about lolita.

By the time this posts on my blog, I'll probably be half-way through my three-day drive across the country back home. My blog will definitely be more active once I have some time to sit down in my apartment, but I feel like until March my life is just going to be way too busy. Just to keep my blog active, here comes the next entry in my 52 Week Lolita Challenge!

10. How I first found out about Lolita.

A lot of the details surrounding what happened when I first got into Lolita fashion 5-6 years ago is already fuzzy, and it doesn’t help that I found out about the fashion a good three years before I actually took the plunge and started purchasing pieces for my wardrobe. All I remember is that when I was 13 years old, and a freshman in high school, I had met a close friend of mine who introduced me to Japanese street fashions in general. Both of us had met at an anime convention (you could bet I was in my full-fledged fangirl phase—it’s a little embarrassing thinking back on it), and I wasn’t too big on dressing myself well or really just caring about my appearance in general.

My friend used to dress in Visual-kei type fashion back in the day (she’s graduated to largely 80’s grunge), but when she showed me some photos of her favourite bands, members wearing big cupcake-dresses with lots of frills and lace immediately caught my attention. I grew up watching Cardcaptor Sakura, and pretty much every aspect of my life was directly influenced by the show, and I always wanted to wear Sakura’s beautiful dresses that Tomoyo lovingly made for her, but could never find anything like it in the store. I even designed a couple of my own dresses that I had seamstresses make for me when I was in middle school which were really quite nice too! I only had a few select dresses handmade by some aunties that fit the aesthetic, and I literally wore them to pieces. I started to do more research, a friend later showed me Fan+Friend, and the rest was history!

I think my initial influence from Cardcaptor Sakura is a big reason why I'm so big into "anime-kei" now and always love to mix in some Magical Girl influences into most (if not all) my outfits.

Of course I had a pretty terrible ita failure somewhere in between, but I was dead set on wearing shiro Lolita, since to this day I’m not a huge fan of how pink looks on me (at least the straight pastel pink normally used), never liked any shade of blue, and wanted to control my spending by only buying things in my two favourite colours; white and lavender. Back then lavender wasn’t a very popular colour in the fashion (that has, of course, changed), so I settled on just straight shiro.

Since then my style has fluctuated and changed and I'm still trying to put together that perfect coordinate that really embraces all the things I love about fashion into one big ball! I love pastels, but I also love Cult Party kind of silhouettes and fabrics, but not straight sweet lolita... Who knows what I like.

These two coordinates are probably the closest I've gotten to that perfect sweet spot!

What are your stories about coming into the fashion? Was Lolita the first Japanese fashion you were interested in, or were you introduced through another fashion?

Previous entries:

14. Lolitas I would love to meet.
20. How satisfied I am with my current wardrobe.
26. How I get out of a wardrobe slump.

Lolita 52 Challenge: Getting out of a slump.

(Photo credit: Colodio)

This week I selected #26, how I get out of a wardrobe slump! I kind of cheated this time because I technically picked #38 before, but I thought it would be nice to do an accompanying hair tutorial with that topic, and realised I don't have the means to do that where I am currently, so I'll save it for another time.

Lolita 52 Challenge: Lolitas I would love to meet.

Today's Lolita 52 challenge is pretty straight forward. It's about lolitas I would love to meet! Judging by how there is another criteria for "lolitas I have met already," I can't sit around lovelorn saying I miss some of my friends who I have met before, haha. And believe me, that was very tempting to do since I haven't been back in my own apartment for some time now.

Please check out the previous Lolita 52 challenge I have completed!

14. Lolitas I would love to meet.
20. How satisfied I am with my current wardrobe.

Noor (sugarnoor)

I've been a huge supporter of her wearing hijabi in fashion since she first posted a couple of her outfits on daily_lolita and received a lot of criticism for it. She is really a sweet girl, who has improved so much over the years, and her smile is absolutely radiant! She's all the way in the UK though, one day we will be able to meet, I'm sure of it. ;A; We talk relatively often, and we plan on putting together some fun matching outfits someday!

Ruth (Princess Peachie)

Another girl who's style I have watched grow and fluctuate, she is one of the few lolitas who post on Tumblr who really let her personality shine through what they post. I've only spoken to her a couple of times, and she has always treated me kindly. Not to mention we have similar taste, and we can probably talk for hours about the things we love.

Caro (F*** Yeah Lolita)

When I recently joined the Lolita Blog Carnival, I was able to speak to her every now and then, and she seems mature, intelligent, and really knowledgeable about the fashion. I have always been in awe of how in-depth F*** Yeah Lolita has been, and she seems to know so many things. I really had no idea who was behind F*** Yeah Lolita since I only sporadically read it before going ahead and using my abandoned Blogspot account. Now that I have more insight into the type of person she is through Facebook, I really want to meet her!

Zeruda (Zeruda's Wonderland)

Zeruda doesn't dress in lolita fashion anymore, but I thought I'd include her in this list anyways since we've known each other since before she decided to leave the fashion. When I asked if we could be penpals, she happily obliged! ;A; She has inspired me for years, and we always chatted a little bit on the side, but not as closely as we do now. Next time I'm in Sweden I need to see her, distance is nothing when you have some stamps and paper!

Lolita 52 Challenge: Satisfaction with my current wardrobe.

Happy new year everyone! Hope you were able to spend it with your loved ones, if not, I wish you and your loved ones a prosperous new year. =)

With the new year, I wanted to try something new for this blog besides the Lolita Blog Carnival topics I normally write about. As if she read my mind, lovely Caro (the person behind F-yeah Lolita!) came up with this great challenge! She has the full list for the year on her blog here, check it out!