Packages through the mail #1

Yesterday, while at work, I received a notice for 2 packages. But it was so stormy outside that I didn't see them. My landlord was kind enough to bring the notices inside this morning. So I went to get my packages with a big smile on the face. I was expecting earmuffs and 2 dresses. I didn't know which one I received this morning.

The first package was the BTSSB earmuffs I bought from Fairy-Angel website.

The second package was the Dollhouse OP from AP. It is really gorgeous, but I was sad to find out damage at the back that weren't mentionned in the auction on EGL. I'll find a way to repair it soon, it's not that big of a deal.

It's a perfect fit! I'm really happy since it was a dream dress of mine and I always thought it was way too small. The measurements on HelloLace are not always exact it seems! And no there is no stain on it, I think it's only the lighting that gives this strange effect.

 

 Next post will be about the tea party I attended that same day... and yes I wore this dress! I couldn't make up an elaborated coord though since I had to go get my chinchilla and ended up having only 15 minutes to get ready.

See you soon!
*Kinerai*

Lolita Styles : Sweet Lolita

In the next days I'll talk about each lolita styles. The first one I chose to talk about is, of course, Sweet lolita! You can probably guess form the title of this blog that it is my favorite style and the one I chose to wear the most.

What could best describe the sweet lolita style? Well, the pastel colors and cute prints!
The colors used are mostly pink, sax, lavender, mint, white, black and red. There are some exceptions of course.

You can see here the same print (memorial cake from AP) in various pastel colors from the ones mentioned above.
I own the black one and I must say that it's absolutely gorgeous!

 

The prints in the sweet style often represent cute animals and sweets. The toys and stuffed animals themes come back often too.

The Milky-chan of the fawn jsk and applique version from AP are good examples of a prints with animals.

The Merry making party jsk is a print full of sweets.

 

 And the Toy parade print is... well you can guess by the name!

Usually, the sweet print dresses are accompanied by cute headbows and other accessories. It's easy to make great coordinates in the sweet style since there is often a whole set around each print released. The headbows and accessories are often very cute and extravagant.

Picture taken from Libellule's blog.

 

Lyrical bunny headband, bangle and ring from AP.

 

Milky-chan headbow with ears and Little bear's cafe headbow from AP.

 

In the sweet style you can also carry a cute stuffed animal bag or a more regular looking purse with cute features.

 

Wristcuffs are also a nice addition to a sweet coord. They come in various colors and style of lace. The brands one are really nice, but I came across a few talented artists on EGL that make great quality ones.

Those are all handmade by chiichick on Deviantart.

There's also an infinity of socks you can match with your outfit. They often have cute animals printed on them or sweets and cute patterns like the dresses. I personally prefer to wear tights since I,m quite tall and even OTKs  aren't long enough to cover my knees.

And the last but not least, the shoes! There is a ton of cute pastel colored shoes to choose from. But often they are not very comfortable. You cannot walk for a long period of time with those on.

Like I said in my previous post, the main brand I suggest for sweet lolita is Angelic Pretty. But there is also Btssb, Metamorphose and others who make sweet styled dresses of great quality.
My next post will be about the classic style. But I may post something else a bit before since I,m expecting a sweet package from the mail soon!

Thanks for reading, see you soon!
*Kinerai*

Brands

The big question about brands would be : Is it worth it?

While there are mixed answers, in my opinion I do think it is worth it. Of course paying 400$ for a single dress without any accessories is too much. If it comes in a set, then I'd say it is a nice deal since it's pretty hard to find all the pieces of a set separately and can take years to get everything in the right color.

The Merry making party from Angelic Pretty would be a nice example of set.

 

 If you read this I'm assuming you already know some things about brands, but for those who don't I'll try to explain what they are exactly.

Lolita brands are companies specialized in the fashion. They produce various series of dresses, blouses, accessories, shoes, etc. The difference between offbrand and brand is the quality. I had the chance to compare both next to the other and there is a huge difference for some dresses. I'd say that offbrand pieces are perfect for casual coords and closet filler though. You cannot always spend that much on lolita clothes! 

Brands are so expensive because they are mostly handmade and the concepts are made by a designer.

Let's take a look at the different brands. I won't put the history of each one since I think you can go check it out on wikipedia anytime if you wish to know more.

My favorite brand would be Angelic Pretty, created by Maki and Asuka. I mostly own dresses from them since I really like their cute prints. They specialize in sweet lolita, but produce some other styles from time to time. They always have alot of accessories for each of their sets, which can come in handy when you try to make up a coord.

Next brand would be Baby the star shine bright, also known as BTSSB. They also offer some sweet prints, but have a more classical look most pf the time. They also produce great quality dresses with lots of details.

They also have an affiliated company that goes by the name of Alice and the pirates (Aatp), which produces more pirate styled pieces that look very elegant. I fiond they also have a lot of choice in boystyle/kodona.

 

 Metamorphose temps de fille is also a well-known brand. They offer a large variety of styles, mostly sweet and classic. Their designs are a bit sober than Angelic Pretty and more elegant too. I never owned any pieces from them but I heard often that they also are of a great quality. Some of their dresses are larger than other brands.

Innocent World is a brand that specializes in classic lolita style. Not too much frills and just enough details to be beautiful.

 I know there are more brands then the ones listed, like Victorian Maiden, Atelier Pierrot, Mary Magdalene, Putumayo, Juliette & Justine and Emily Temple. But the last one I'd like to showcase is Moi-même-moitié.

Mana is the creator of this gothic lolita brand. Most of the prints are really rare and expensive. The quality of the prints is always stunning but unfortunately they only offer really small sizes that are not accessible for every lolita. There would be much more to say about the creator himself, but let's stay at this for now.

While I did not extend a lot on each brand, I will eventually make a post for every single of them. Here I just wanted to showcase them briefly. In my next post I will probably talk about the different lolita styles.

See you soon!

Wearing Lolita Outside

I think this is an important event for every lolita in the world: The first time you wear lolita outside your house and actually face the reactions.

I'm not sure if I remember the first time I ever went outside wearing lolita. I think it was for the winter meeting last year, a bit more than a year ago to be more precise. Wearing my first brand piece, the Milky-chan polka-dot applique jsk from Angelic Pretty, I took my first step outside in lolita from head to toe. And yes, I was wearing the Milky-chan of the fawn headbow with the fawn ears on. But being extremely shy and afraid of people's reactions, I removed it for the subway ride.

Going outside in lolita is always special. But here are some things to keep in mind and also some tips on how to react. This is not the absolute truth, it is only according to my own experience in the past year.

1. People will stare at you, no matter if it's one that says 'you are beautiful' or one that says 'you look like a freak'. Just keep ignoring them; what you wear is your own business, not theirs. If they don't like it, they should just ignore you too.

2. You will get asked a lot if you are wearing a costume. Don't ignore them, just calmly explain the best you can the lolita fashion. Most of the time those people only think your dress looks good and want to know more about it. Some will also ask for pictures or just take one without your permission. Being asked for a picture is quite flattering most of the time.


3. You will sometimes get insulted or laughed at. Again, it'd be best to ignore them and walk away or just continue what you were doing. But I must admit that sometimes it would be funny to reply to them.

4. Going alone in lolita is harder than with a friend or a group. When you are alone, you are more at risk of being laughed at or insulted. Being with friends makes you powerful, people will rarely insult a whole group.

5. If you are too afraid to go outside in lolita the first time, you can begin to slowly incorporate sweet accessories to your regular clothes and eventually make up a casual coord. Black usually don't get noticed much so you can try a white blouse with a black skirt. Then when you get more comfortable, you can begin to add more color and accessories.
 

I hope this will be helpful to some fellow lolitas! I did not follow those myself at the beginning. I did go out the first time in a full sweet coord and completely alone on the subway. You can guess that it was a big challenge. But I'm very proud I went. It was a great meeting and I had a lot of fun seeing the community members for the first time. Once I got to the appointment spot and saw all the other girls in their beautiful coords I was so happy! I completely stopped feeling looked at and just enjoyed myself the whole time of the meeting.

To finish this post on a sweet note, being called a princess by the children is certainly one of the most heart warming thing about going out in lolita!

How and why did I became a lolita?

I've always been a little bit different from the other girls, at least in my opinion. When I was very young, my mom used to make me every single piece of clothe I owned. She was mostly sewing cute frilly dresses. I think it is the first thing that influenced me.

They often looked like this.

I didn't really get any influence from middle school. I was really tomboy and looked like a walking skeleton. My mother told me I encountered some periods of anorexia, but at least I can say I'm healthy now. I had another period of that in my first year of high school though. My mother took care of me and I could be happy with my body again. I think it's really important in lolita to be happy with yourself. Self-esteem is what makes you look beautiful!

With my new self-confidence I was able to be happy throughout my whole high school experience. Feeling different and not fit for the modern fashion, I always tried to add little cute accessories in my hair. We were wearing uniforms so I couldn't really build a new wardrobe during that period of time. I came across lolita a couple of times on the internet. I knew I wanted to try it, that I would be very happy wearing those dresses all the time, but a voice inside was keeping me from trying. I knew I didn't have enough confidence yet to bear the judgement of others.

I was often expressing my girly side with cute purses, especially Hello Kitty ones.

The summer after my first year of college (I was around 19 years old), I went to my first cosplay convention. It was one of the greatest experience of my life. It changed my visions of the world completely... I was not alone anymore! There were actually a lot of people like me in my own city. I was so happy even though I had come alone to the event.

The event is called Otakuthon, this was the year 2009 edition.

While waiting in line for the mascarade, I encountered a man who was taking pictures. We soon began to talk and eventually gave each others' email addresses. What I didn't know was that he knew a lot of stuff going on in the city about Japan culture and communities who loved the country and fashion.

The line was huge so we talked a lot.

Later on, I finally got the courage to try lolita. But then I couldn't find anything in the local shops. I asked that same guy if he knew of some shops that could sell lolita clothes here. He told me about a community where I could find some answers that was based in Montréal. I went to the forum, which you can find here:

http://qc-harajuku.top-forum.net/

It's all in French, but almost everyone can write in English.
So I went there and posted a skirt I had bought in a gothic shop (for 100$! D:). I soon received comments saying that it was too short to be lolita even though it was inspired by the fashion. The girls were very nice to me and soon taught me what to buy or not and most importantly where to buy.

I soon bought my first lolita dresses. They were from Bodyline of course. I was so happy when I received them.

And from that moment on, I was officially a beginner sweet lolita. Looking back at those pictures, I see how much I made progress in a single year. I went to lolita meetings when I could (school was getting in the way most of the time) and made a lot of friends. Around other lolitas in my frilly dresses, I feel like I can finally be myself.

Introduction

Hi!

I've been reading a lot of lolita blogs lately and decided it'd be a good idea to start one myself. Since I'm still a beginner in this fashion and lifestyle, you'll see me improve throughout the posts. 

 This blog will basically follow my quest to become a greater sweet lolita and illustrator. I'll share tips and experiences acquired during my long journey in the hope of helping other fellow lolitas in various situations. From time to time I'll also post some of my work. It's not particularly lolita themed, but I love to draw cute things and share them ♥

Let's finish this small post with a cute picture I drew around a month ago :3