Whoo! Double-posting because I don't feel like going to the gym today!
I do not have any plans to host meet ups until the fall because many of the more anticipated meets happen in Chicago in the late spring through summer, including a Downtown Abbey costume tour and tea party, Anime Central and Midwest, and the Midwest Mega Meet. I've got several job interviews lined up recently, so I don't know if I can make plans for summer lolita day (hopefully I can get the jobs with weekends off), but fortunately, a friend in the Quad Cities is looking to host a meet at a newly opened bakery in her area which features a private party room for reservations.
She wants to encourage people to wear their sweetest coords which I do not do, but at the same time, I feel excited to participate in since it'll be outside my comfort zone and I could use some experimenting with my coords. I'm thinking about wearing the black Marchen ribbon jsk I recently acquired via Closet Child (I can't believe I've been in lolita this long and haven't bought anything from there until last month) to match Miki, the Milk-Chan pochette. That jsk is probably the sweetest item in my closet, but it seems so tame and more on the otome spectrum compared to iconic/typical sweet pieces like Sugary Carnival and Jewelry Jelly. I also have the My Tart jsk from Lief which I've worn quite often already, but would probably match the bakery better (maybe I could get pastry themed jewelry to match?).
I know that lolita is meant to be a fashion and not a costume, but sometimes I feel a little self-conscious about wearing a main piece more than once, even though it'll be coordinated differently. Maybe it has to do something with the numerous outlets and constant bombardment of "outfit-of-the-day" posts. Maybe not. It's sort of something I'm accustomed to seeing in spite of the current rate of posts, but it always seems like people tend to wear a newly acquired main piece every meetup. Do you feel this way sometimes too?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last month, I found someone whom I thought was from my area, but is actually closer to and is a mod of the Saint Louis area lolitas, and we talked about the possibility of having a downstate meet for the Illinois and Missouri communities. Unfortunately, there are very few half-way points that are interesting AND lolita friendly.
Last night, I remembered that many years ago, some lolitas upstate have done meetups at Bed and Breakfasts.
Meetup 1
Meet up 2 (sorry for the broken/missing images :< these were eons ago)
And then I thought, "If we're going to travel so far, we might as well stay there." This lead me to my discovery of the Park Ave. Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Saint Louis. The neighborhood shops may not be the Midwestern flagships for Lolita brands (seriously, when is Chicago getting their own brand boutique?), but the mansion and neighboring grounds are heavenly!
It sucks that there are only four available rooms (two people per room), so you can't exactly cram a lot of petticoats, but I imagine it being practically the perfect place to stay for the weekend (at least around these parts). There are several other B&Bs in the city, but this one seems to be my favorite because of the amenities (uh, tea service, hellooo?) and the atmosphere. I imagine it being fun meeting up with the STL lolitas and having a picnic, a stroll, and all of the photo ops at the park across the street. The cozy library would be perfect for a couple of rounds of Lolitas Against Humanity, and I wouldn't turn down starting my day with breakfast in the garden.
I wouldn't say it's my dream meetup, but it's quite close!
My ultimate lolita dream is to be able to afford to travel all around the world and meet lolitas in their respective communities. For years, I've seen videos and pictures of different communities around the world, and it's really interesting to see how much the fashion has grown and what each community offers.
What's your ultimate lolita dream?
No comments:
Post a Comment