Old-School Haul and Ramblings

I went to see an old friend Elisabeth over the weekend before the Drake tea meetup. Elisabeth and I met years ago via livejournal and she used to live in my hometown when she went to the local university. Since moving closer to the Chicago area, she had moved on from lolita fashion, which is a little sad seeing how long she was involved. I don't really blame her for her choice. Sometimes people get disillusioned by the cattiness of the communities and/or feel like they can't keep up with the on-going trend-train. As in Elisabeth's case, sometimes she can't feel like she's able to connect with other lolitas due to different interests, and I can understand not wanting to hang out with people just because of a shared fashion style. It would be pretty superficial and be a fairly lonely existence.

 Fortunately, I'm not too bothered by the cattiness and maybe it's because the way I see it, that sort of thing happens among the vocal minority, and maybe I'm also not as bothered because I've seen that sometimes theatre people can be worse (kind of ironic though - one would assume that artists would be more supportive of other artists, right?). I do have similar sentiments about feeling left behind on trends: I own very few prints and the ones I own are pretty out-of-date (I'm a sucker for bold fruit prints), I don't feel comfortable in OTT coordinates, or bought into trends and micro-trends on tumblr, but none of that really bothers me. I like seeing other people get go nuts, even if it's not my style, and I adore seeing other people wear prints in person - it really makes me wish I had jumped onto reservations sometimes. I'm sure someday I'll find prints I like the most (the ones I want are hella hard to find - anyone selling Clockwork Tea Party Lumiere in navy?).

I don't completely long for the EGL days (though I do miss what EGL used to be like). I'm quite happy seeing that the fashion have grown in popularity (which means more lolitas to hang out with!) and after doing a research thesis on Harajuku fashions, I've come to accept that it's simply natural for street fashions to have multiple trends, sub-styles, in a short-time frame (especially with the help of the internet)- no matter how silly or gaudy; we all look crazy to most people anyway. I think my favorite part of lolita's evolution is seeing the silhouette become more defined and less frumpy (even though I often adore the charm of a frumpy silhouette) and having hair and makeup be a more integral part of coordinating an outfit.

My style is inspired from "old-school" looks that swing between sweet and classic. I've learned the hard way to stick with jewels and avoid pastels (black, red, and navy are my mainstay). Like a lot of lolitas, I'm a fan of Fanny Rosie's vintage looks; I love how her outfits are wearable for a day-to-day basis and how effortless her lolita coordinates are, and I hope I can achieve such a versatile wardrobe I hate the idea of owning pieces that I'll only wear once in a while, and a small part of me wants to be able to wear lolita on a weekly to daily basis, even if it's totally impractical in retrospect . Sometimes I worry about being too basic by lolita standards and have to remind myself that at least I'm not a hot Milan*o mess. It always surprises me when I attend a meet and people appreciate the old-school vibes from my coordinates, and I'm glad to know that there is even a community of people who long for the days of clunky platform Mary Janes and super-absorbent maxi pad headdresses.

I guess my reasoning to sticking to older styles is because they were the looks that I had fallen in love with when I had started the fashion, and now that I'm more experienced and have a larger disposable income, I can buy the (good) lace monsters that I've admired from afar (and thankfully, I've mastered using J-auctions and people want to get rid of them for cheap!). I also like the durability and focus on construction in older pieces (I'm a sucker for pin-tucks, embroidery, and ruffles). I've noticed that Baby is selling a bunch of their classic pieces, but I'm honestly a little reluctant to purchase from them again due to the quality of their garment construction (which really sucks since I see my dream dresses there - even if there are some slight variation from the original; I'm looking at you Flower Cart jsk). I had bought the Crown Embroidered School Sailor jsk in navy over the summer and was disappointed about its lack of bodice lining and some sloppy finishing (the ends of the white stripe of fabric along the pleats are frayed). It looks cheap compared to my Rococo Bouquet jsk (circa 2008) and I had spent about $40 on that!

As much as I want to be on board with recent lolita looks, Elisabeth was in the middle of selling off her wardrobe and I just had to get these pieces:

Btssb Headdress

Bodyline Headdress.
It snowed hard in my part of the world and I spent a cozy couple of minutes modifying it while it snowed. The smaller ribbons originally are meant to be tied into bows, but I had trimmed and sewn them down for a cleaner look. I might sew in strips of fabric to slip a headband through. 

Innocent World knee highs. I'll probably wear these with muggle outfits.

Bodyline OTKs (I wore this for the tea last weekend)

David Bowie is wearing a Chantilly headbow

Metamorphose blouse. Best part: I bought all of these for $40!

Are you a lolita from Christmas past? What were you favorite things about older lolita looks? Least favorite? Do you have any vintage dream pieces? (I'm also hunting for AP's ribbon switching - tartan and in red, btw) Have you acquired any older pieces recently?

Thanks for reading!

Another Fun Weekend: Round1, Tea at The Drake Hotel, & Road Side Antiquing

On November 14th, I joined the Chicago community for afternoon tea at The Drake Hotel with Lauren and Hailee. I get invited to go to their fancy tea meets at The Drake (as well as at Russian Tea Time and The Palmer House), but haven't gone until now and so I was really excited to make one more trip to Chicago before winter sets in. We stayed at Helen's place over the weekend, but couldn't hang out due to her having to work and prepare for her trip for Taiwan. Hopefully she'll be able to take my suggestion to visit Alice is Coming in Teipei to make up for missing out on the fancy tea meet with us.

Friday night, we did the most touristy thing ever and went to Portillo's, and then we HAD to go to Round1 because Lauren had never been there before. For the unfamiliar: Round1 is an awesome entertainment chain featuring Japanese arcade games, karaoke rooms, and bowling alley; they unfortunately don't have DDR or Para-Para-Paradise at our state's location, but they do have purakura machines which never fail to make me laugh and have unrealistic beauty expectations.

Aw. I'm sorry it's blurry. Let's just pretend it's an instagram filter. Yeah.

And because we're a bunch of weeaboos, we also had to stop at Too Cool, a chain selling relatively overpriced anime and kawaii mascot goods. I've been to a few in our state, but so far, this one (at Stratford Square Mall) has the best inventory; there was so much stuff to look at, but very little time to shop. I didn't want to leave empty handed and got a set of Rilakkuma stickers and a Rilakkuma button for a friend's stocking stuffer. 

The way of the Kuma

You can't have a Japanese arcade without UFO machines! Hailee snagged a Korilakkuma plush and I got a Hello Cammy plush (Sanrio+Street Fighter collaboration) on my second try. Unfortunately, even with our help, Lauren went home without a plush friend (there was a Rilakkuma she wanted, but the guy after us got it instead  ಥ_ಥ ). I guess it means we'll have to go back! 

On Saturday, we got dolled up to go to The Drake and had met up with our friend Kim in front of Union. I rarely take cabs in a city because they're so expensive, but we didn't want to take another 30 min trip (via CTA) just to get to our final destination (probably not a good idea to take city transit while in lolita anyway). I always forget how crazy cab drivers are on the road. I asked him to drop us off at Water Tower place where we briefly checked out the American Girl Place (I've honestly never been before) and intended to go next door to Lush, but it was hella crazy and packed in there and we decided to stop by after tea, hoping that foot traffic would die down then. After returning my clothes at Uniqlo and visiting Ghirardelli's (which was also packed), we realized that we had taken the wrong turn, but somehow made it to The Drake before most of the other guests have arrived. Our hostess handed out hand-written thank you notes to each guest.

The Drake was absolutely gorgeous, but like a convention center, the fancy lighting made our pictures look like garbage which really sucked because you could have a photo-op in just about any where in the vicinity - and with this in mind, I apologize for the lack of photos! It was so lovely seeing new and familiar faces and everyone decked out in their finest - even the boyfriends looked sharp! There were two weddings going on at the hotel, but even then, without meaning to, the lolitas somehow took attention away from the newly wedded! 

We had about 30 or so people who attended and we had to break up everyone in groups. At first, I was feeling a little odd about sitting in a table away from the main group, but quickly found myself satisfied for not having to squish in a booth of petticoats. It was also nice to be seated in our own bubble because it made it easy for everyone to mingle after eating and being away from a few bridal/baby showers going on. Our time block was a little late, but we were able to catch the live harpist. 

I knew that ordering alcoholic beverages was an optional part of our RSVP, but I had just heard about pre-ordering tea blends, and so I don't know what the other tables got, however, our table of eight had two sets of the Big Ben English breakfast tea, 7 Citrus Oolong, and Tropical Garden. 

Top: mini lemon poppyseed loaves, red velvet macarons, lemon petit fors
Middle: egg salad, cucumber & tomato on white bread, lobster & shrimp salad on a brioche bun
Bottom: goat cheese & pomegranate mini quiche, smoked salmon-herb crème fresh & arugula, English scones

The tea service was lovely. It seemed as if the service was well timed for us to be allowed to eat in peace and receive drink refills. The price is a bit steep, but what made up for it was the quality of the food, atmosphere, and service, and that they offer food refills, but I was already loaded with carbs to ask for another bite; I honestly didn't feel hungry again until we got back to the suburbs at 9pm. 

Naturally, after the meal, we took a lot of photos.  

Strangely enough, the bathrooms have wonderful lighting.
Jsk, headbow: Angelic Pretty
Blouse: Off-brand
Wristcuffs: Taobao (unknown brand)
Otks, shoes: Bodyline (yes, those are super frilly socks! Not bloomers!)
Necklace: Payless
Purse (lol, y u open?): Evil Live via Lolita Collective
Wig: Lockshop via Lolita Collective

Once again, I apologize for the lack of photos. I'm afraid I don't feel terribly comfortable sharing photos that don't belong to me. Looks like I'll have to get myself a new camera in the near future 

(◕‿-)

Lush was still crowded as it was in the day, but we still made it a point to stop inside and get some Christmas shopping taken cared of. I didn't feel like buying anything in particular and I think that I'm usually like that when I go there because there are so many products to try and I just want to get them all! Does anyone else have this issue too?
After we finally got back to Helen's, we ordered Lou Malnati's to go with some wine I got for Hailee (she had turned 21 recently).  The bottle is called Freak Show and while it's really bitter at first, it does have some lovely notes afterwards. I honestly bought it because the bottle was too cool not to get, and I thought it would make up for missing on their performances at the local Rocky Horror Picture Show - which was circus themed! 

We could have stayed longer on Sunday, but had a lot of errands to do once we got home, however, we still wanted to do one more fun thing before we did and ended up pulling into an antique mall just off the high way. I'm so glad we did because I've always passed by the place every time I go up to Chicago-land and it's got some amazing stuff. 

Like this cat pitcher!
For more photos, check my instagram page.

Another wonderful weekend gone by. With winter coming into view, it'll be a while until I can visit my sister community, but I can't be sad too long with winter lolita day coming up! As far as I know, we're going to move our meetup for Sunday (instead of the usual first Saturday) and make holiday cards. What are you winter lolita day plans? 

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a good rest of your day!

Things I'm Thankful For - Lolita Edition

Hello! I hope your October was spooky! Every November, everyone and their grandmother blogs about what they're thankful for, and so I've decided to jump in the bandwagon and share some of the things that I'm thankful for - as a lolita.

1) My family...
for being cool with my silly and frilly hobby.

2) Having lolita friends who are also friends outside of lolita

3) Old-school looks making a comeback
It pleases me to see Baby's classical lolita line, and even though many people still foam at the mouths over the latest prints, I'm happy to see older pieces sold on the auctions for super cheap.

4) Lolita fashion became more available
Shopping services were rare and there were only a handful of English sites when I first jumped into the fashion, and so many of us who admired the fashion from afar had to make due with finding off-brand loliables, digging through questionable eBay stores, and hand-making pieces, but now our niche market is nearly saturated with shops!

5) Being an "older" lolita
It feels nice being able to afford the fashion I admired in my teens, and it's also nice knowing that I've gained experience (good and bad) and have seen the fashion develop over the years.

6) Knowing how to sew
I'm no professional and I usually run out of patience behind my sewing machine, but it is a useful skill - you'll never know when your blouse's button pops off!

7) Autumn weather
I can finally wear lolita comfortably.

8) Modern beauty and care products
I think other fans of the lifestyle aspect would also appreciate that lead, lye, and arsenic aren't common components of a lady's toiletry anymore.

9) Online communities
They're a boon and a bane, but as far as I've seen, it's quite comforting knowing that there are other people with the same weird obsession with poofy dresses.

10) Shirring
I can't breathe without you.

What are you thankful for? Feel free to share your thoughts below. Stay warm northern hemisphere lolitas. And as always, have a good rest of your day!



Listening to: Beach House - Myth