New formula?

Sometimes I get a little bored looking at Lolita outfits that all have the same formula. It's always the same kind of shoes with the same kind of socks, the same kind of jewelry with the same kind of hair accessories and so on.
I feel the same way when I'm putting my own stuff together. I have so many of the same kind of necklaces for example. You all know it: The kind Accessorize sells; the ones that look like they were made to go with Lolita clothes. They're pretty, but sometimes I just a bit tired of all my outfits having the same kind of vibe.

So I spent some time putting together these outfits, taking two dress from Baby the Stars Shine Bright and pairing them with stuff mostly from highstreet shops for what is hopefully a slightly more mature look and fresh feel.

Black & White

Dress/Baby the Stars Shine Bright - Bolero/House of Fraser - Shoes/Sam Edelman (Asos) - Headpiece/Tequila Star - Socks/Miss Selfridge - Jewelry/Topshop

Pink & Red

Dress/Baby the Stars Shine Bright - Tights/Debenhams - Shoes/Boohoo - Jewelry/Topshop - Hairband/New Look - Blouse/John Lewis

What do you think?

I would love to wear both of these outfits. Though, the black and white one is my favourite, I really love those pink shoes too, haha :D

Btssb Lucky Pack

This is my outfit from last weekend when Tenna came over for some sewing and Harry Potter movie watching.

Dress+bag: Baby the stars shine bright
Cardigan: Vero Moda
Shoes: Deichmann
Jewelry: H&M
Hairaccessories: Accessorize

I wanted to do something new with my hair, so I tried this do. I received this dress in the mail recently. It's Baby's Blooming Snow White print which I also have in pink. I was so happy when I found this dress, because it was in the colour that I originally wanted. :3

I've been doing some more shopping lately. I bought one of Baby's lucky packs :D It's my first lucky pack, yay. I figured it would be safe enough seeing as I liked all the colours available and the sizes were listed. The shipping price was insane and when I picked up the package on at the post office, I saw why. The box it came in was huge, at least twice as big as what would've been necessary. The lucky pack came in a pink tote bag, but haven't taken any photos of that, but here are the contents:

The headbow

The bag. It's cute, but really tiny, lol

The blouse. It's so adorable

The dress

and finally the socks.

I was so thrilled when I opened the tote bag and saw that it was this colour that I had gotten. As I said earlier, I liked all three colours, but I was really hoping for this one. I love this tartan red with the white lace. It's reminds me of old school lolita and also one of Momoko's dresses in Kamikaze girls.

The fabric of the dress is so lovely, thick and comfortable, with lots of cute details like Baby's dresses usually have. How to know it's a lucky pack dress? There's no zipper, which I guess makes sense, as the manufacturing process would be more expensive then. But the whole back of the bodice is shirred, so there's no trouble putting on the dress. :)

Here's my outfit for today:

Dress, bag  & headbow: Btssb
Cardigan: Louise
Shoes: Bodyline
Necklace: handmade (not by me, though)

I've just been at home today working on my stuff for next issue of Starlight Magazine. We have a "Nerdy Lolita" theme coming up, so I've been doing some Harry Potter stuff. And Tenna and I have also talked about doing a Supernatural/Lolita shoot on Sunday. Should be interesting, yes? ;)

One last thing: Teaparty shoes. I've always been fascinated by all the lovely colours they're made in and how when you see other Lolis' wardrobes some have a pair in each colour. They're pretty cute. I've been wanting to get some for a while, but I've been worried that they would be too Sweet for my wardrobe. But when I saw that Secret Shop only had a few pairs left in stock in my size, I couldn't resist getting them. 

I wrote Clobba online to inquire when they would restock the other colours and if more colours would be made. They replied and said that they wouldn't restock for a really long time, maybe never for some colours. I don't know, it seems a little unrealistic that they should never make these shoes in the larger sizes again, nevertheless, I went and bought two pairs:

Pink

Lavender

I'm looking forward for the weather to get warm enough to actually be able to wear these outside. It'll probably be a while ;)

Lastly, I'm closing in on 100 followers and would like to announce that I will hosting a big giveaway when I reach 100 (or when my next taobao order arrives, whichever comes first ;)).

Finally in the frills again

Jsk: Baby the Stars Shine Bright
Blouse: Vila
Shoes: Deichmann
Collar: Kidsyoyo
Hair-thing: Rococo's Soul

Today Tenna and I met up to do a little location scouting for two shoots we're doing for the next issue of Starlight. We pretty much walked all over Copenhagen, so my feet are more than a bit sore now. I don't want to reveal too much about what we're planning, but I'm very excited about both shoots. They're for the December issue of Starlight and they're based on two classic Christmas fairy tales.

Speaking of Starlight Magazine, the 5th issue came out a couple of weeks ago. Read it here.
My photographic contributions can also be viewed at my photo blog: Flights of Fancy. I also have a FB fanpage now, if anyone should be interested in that ;)

It's been so long since I've updated this blog, I know. It's also been a really long time, since I wore my frills more than just a casual work outfit. So when I had the opportunity today, I took forever picking out my outfit and basically just hugging all of my dresses. ;)

I originally planned to wear my Red Rid(d)ing Hood jsk from Baby, but I have to be honest with myself, if fits me terribly, so I took it off again. It makes me so sad, because I absolutely love that dress. It's so gorgeous and it pains me that I don't wear it much. I think I need to consider selling it, even though I hate the thought. I've decided to sell my Atelier Pierrot skirt that I bought at the Lolitaloppis in May. It doesn't fit either and I don't dare to try to alter it. So that one's definitely up for grabs.

I have this upcoming week off from work. Yay. I needed a break so badly, especially before all the Christmas madness starts for real. I'm probably going to spend most of my vacation sewing. Yup. I have to sew so much for the Christmas shoots. A skirt, a dress, a cape and then I have to make some wings. It's going to be busy, that's for sure ^^

Oh yeah, I wrote guide to Casual Lolita for the latest issue of Starlight. I'd be happy to translate it, if anyone are interested. Then I'll post it here on the blog.

Outfits and lolitaloppis

My outfit from last Friday: 


Dress: Btssb

I tried doing a fishbone braid for the first time (succesfully anyway).  Then I wore that off white shirt which is made from this soft light weight cotton with dot embroidery. I really wanted something comfortable and fit for the country, since I went to my parents' summer cottage and just felt like going for a walk and taking some photos. It was a very summery day ^^



On Saturday I met up with Tenna at the Central Station in Copenhagen to buy our train tickets to Stockholm for the Lolitaloppis :D


The tickets and the dress I plan on wearing on Sunday.

Then we went back to my place and spent the day sewing while watching Supernatural. Gooood times =D

Tenna taking apart her AP skirt :O Turned out awesome though!

And my outfit from that day:

There is this blue-ish green in the embroidery, so I thought I'd try to coordinate it with this bolero.



I spent the day sewing a black dress. It turned out all right, but I still need to add a collar and some cuffs and then take it in a bit...somehow in the back. So no pictures yet.

But yeah, Tenna and I are going to the Lolitaloppis on Sunday. We have to get up ridiculously early to catch our first train, but hopefully it'll be worth it. I'm definitely looking forward to it :D

Outfits from this weekend

 

Bodyline skirt

Btssb JSK

Chocolate & fairy tales

Sorry, I’ve been neglecting this blog so much lately, I feel kind of bad, especially because I’ve actually had plenty of loli related times lately.

I had those two weeks off from work and I basically spent my time relaxing, sewing and taking photos. I made these two skirts and a matching headbow for one of them. I am planning to make one for the green skirt too. When I saw these two colours of this fabric, I just couldn’t resist buying it. I was planning to use these two at work, but I don’t know, I wore the blue one the other day and it just gets too dirty.

I got some red fabric too and I made cape for a photoshoot, I did a few weeks ago. I don’t have any photos of it to show you yet, because the photos are for the Danish online magazine for Lolitas which isn't released beofre April 11th.

I also bought some light dusty blue chiffon fabric for a JSK, but I haven’t started sewing that one yet.

Tenna invited me to a chocolate festival a few weeks ago and it was quite delicious. She owns Bodyline’s Chocolate Biscuit print in two colourways, so I borrowed her blue skirt, so we could twin this very event appropriate print :D

We met up with Tenna’s friend Keon there, so for once we had someone to take a photo with the both of us in it.

(Shoes: Monki, jewelry: Accessorize, headbow: handmade)

The moment we got inside and took off our coats, we were jumped by two event girls in hot pink poofy dresses, who complimented our outfits and gave us free chocolate! See?! Lolita pays off sometimes :D

We stayed for a while – until all of our free chocolate ‘coins’ (which came with the ticket) were used up and we were getting a bit nauseous from too much of a good thing which included chocolate and macarons :D

Afterwards we went to Baresso to recover :D A wonderful way to spend half a Sunday ^__^

This is my newest purchase: Baby’s Alice’s Portrait JSK in black. I love this print combined with the stripes and I’ve been searching for it for quite some time now. The pink and blue versions are all over the place, but I wanted the black or the red one. Finally I found it on mbok.jp and I really love this place. It gave me the Sleeping Beauty JSK, this one and Meta’s Swan lake skirt is one its way to me.

The photoshoot I mentioned before is themed ‘Fairy tales’ and I had three of my friends and colleagues model for me. I’ll save most of the talk of this shoot for my photoblog, I just want to share this photo Tenna took while I was setting up:

(Photo curtesy of Tenna)

I just want to say that is was a wonderful day, I had the pleasure of looking at three beautiful fairy tale characters and idyllic surroundings all day. More days should be like that ♥

Lastly, I want to share my outfit from last Saturday. I wanted to take some photos to submit to the magazine, but I’m too far from satisfied with the result, so I’ll just share one here and maybe more later at my other blog.

Dress from Retroscope Fashions. This was actually the first ever Lolita dress I bought three years ago and this is the first time I’ve really worn it. For real. It’s mid-calf length and a size too big, so I never liked it. But I gotta say, after this shoot, I’m loving this so much, haha. During this shoot which lasted for about thirty minutes, I experienced cloudy and sunny weather, and snow. It was ridiculous! Hehe..

OOTD

Today I went shopping with a friend. We went to our local mall and then to Strøget in Copenhagen. It was so nice and Christmassy downtown. We've been getting a lot of snow the past couple of days and it's been snowing all day today as well.

I actually wore my hair down when I was out, but put it when I got home. I don't usually wear my hair up like this - for Lolita or daily wear, but I kind of liked how it looks with this outfit.

I've actually found a red bolero that looks almost the same as this pink one. I would have worn that one today, but I'm planning on wearing that tomorrow when I'm going shopping for my mom's gifts when my dad.

                                              

Dress: Baby

Bolero: Saint Tropez

Tights: H&M

Hairflower: Accessorize

Headbow: Homemade

Jewelry: Miss Selfridge & Zygomatics

On another note, my new coat set is waiting for me at the postoffice according to the tracking number. I'm just waiting for the customs letter, so I can go pick it up. Hopefully it'll arrive on Monday. =]

Sweet & Sunny

Actually managed to get an outfit shot today. I went to my parents' summer cottage for a bit of relaxtion and fresh air. The sun was blazing so it wasn't exactly ideal photo conditions (which also explains my *serious* facial expressions). ;P

Outfit rundown:

JSK: Baby
Cardigan: Føtex
Shoes: Body Line
Tights: New Look
Parasol: nana_jun
Jewelry: Gina Tricot, Miss Selfridge
Hair acc.: Accessorize

The flowers, the bracelet and the earrings, all of which you can't see clearly in the pics, are my three favourite accessories at the moment, so here are a few closeups (shamelessly taken from my pupe collection, hehe):

(Accessorize)

(Gina Tricot)

(Miss Selfridge)

Should post more interesting entry soon, huh 8]

Rococo? Yes, please!

(Painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard).

I watched Kamikaze Girls for the first time a few weeks ago. I don’t know what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. Momoko’s infatuation with the Rococo era was a wonderful reminder of the origins of Lolita, something that I find is often drowned out a bit by the present busy prints and generally OTT sweet dresses. It also reminded me of my own love for al l things Victorian and Rococo – and basically the reason why I got into Lolita in the first place.

I find I often get sidetracked by looking at really Sweet dresses and I sit and ‘Uh’ and ‘Ah’ at these colourful prints, but in reality I don’t think they would fit me. The same goes for Gothic dresses, I love them and their lovely elegance, but I’m just bored out of my mind by having had so much black in my wardrobe for so many years. I need a change now. So I’ve started to organize my style and purchases.
Classic Lolita was my first love and I need to complete it more. I also want to soften my look more. Like I said, I’m tired of coordinating so many outfits with black, so I’m focusing on getting some brown and off-white items. I want my closet full of romantic dresses in lovely soft colours.

The black in my hair has also got to go, but that’s a bit slower process. It’s only been growing out for a year and a few months. I’ve been dying the roots with semi-permanent dye, but I’m letting it wash all out now and then I’ll try to dye it a dark brown instead until I get back to my old dark blonde self. And then, maybe I'll want to go lighter :3

On another note, I decided to give repairing the lace on the Blooming Snow White JSK a go. I didn’t think I would be able to do it, until I saw someone else who’d repaired a similar lace on their dress. It actually looks okay now. I put the ribbon back on, but I won’t use tighten it – it’s only going to be there for decorative purposes. It’s actually only upon close inspection that you can see some of it is a little stretched. I repaired it all the places where it had been ripped completely.



At the same time as when I was thinking of buying Blooming snow White, I also had the opportunity to buy Meta’s Pintuck JSK in lavender. I’ve always loved the simple design and versatility of the dress, but at that time Blooming Snow White won. Then around the middle of March the dress popped up again on the sales community and I immediately snapped it up. It arrived almost two weeks ago and I absolutely love it. The colour is so gorgeous.



I can't wait to wear it. I'm planning on wearing this dress and the Blooming Snow White for the Copenhagen Sakura Festival on April 17th-18th.

I tried to really pace myself and be patient for the Spring lines of the taobao brands. I’m happy I did, because I knew it would be worth the wait.
I love this Classic dress from Infanta. It was just the sort of thing I was hoping for:



And while I'm waiting for more Spring/Summer dresses, I'm trying to decide on one of these two beauties from Innocent World:




I'm leaning towards the Forest Harvest Festival, because of the many options for colour coordinations, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Orders & outfit

So today my good friend through many years is coming over and I’m really excited as I haven’t seen her since July when I visited her in Wales. She’s in town again for the next week and I’ve taken some time off work, so I can hang out with her. Today we’re going to catch up and plan the following week. Then we’re going to go do a photoshoot. I’m not sure yet what we’re going to be doing for the shoot, but we’ve talked about several themes and some of the shoots we’re going to do in the next week are going to be Lolita related. Yay. Maybe I should mention this: She’s studying Photography at university in Cardiff.

My outfit today is a bit casual, because I know I’ll be changing into something else for the shoot, but still I wanted to dress up a little, since I’ve been wearing nightwear and been bedridden for the past week due to the flu. Also, I wanted to show off this skirt that came in the mail earlier this week. I love this print in this colour, so I was really happy when I got a chance to buy it on the sales community.

The t-shirt with Emilie Autumn is the casual part, haha. I got it in the mail (yes, I received so many things in the mail this week) a few days ago. It was a Christmas present from my parents that took a really long time to get here, because it was apparently being ’stalled’ in Germany for some reason or whatever. It was part of a gift set with EA’s new autobiography, her Opheliac album and a tote bag. We’ve been waiting for so long for this to arrive. The book so far is very fascinating. My friend and I are going to her concert on Wednesday. It's going to be awesome. :D

Like I said a lot of things came in the mail this week. I also received my Blooming Snow White JSK and my Innocent World dress. Both are beautiful. Unfortunately I will also need to alter both of them.

For some reason, the shirring on the dress from Innocent World is completely weird. It seems that some of the strings in the panel are tighter than others which mean that instead of stretching to make room for my bust, the dress is pulled tighter over that area, resulting in major squeeze-age. It’s so off, because according to their measurements on their site, I’m within the range and when you stretch out the shirring there’s plenty of room. The dress just doesn’t do it by itself, except for over the waist, where the shirring works perfectly fine. My mom’s going to take out the elastic and replace it with one that’s looser. Hope it’ll work.

Now for the Blooming Snow White JSK: I was very unhappy to see when I received it that it wasn’t in as good condition as the seller had described. The lace on the back was torn in several places. Here’s a picture:
It’s a shame, really. I can’t repair or replace it, so I’m planning to clip off the loops in the lace and then just wear it with no ribbon to lace it up. Alternatively, I’d have to sew on some new loops for the ribbon and I’m not even going to go there with my poor sewing skills.
The seller and I are working things out, negotiating about a partial refund, so that’s good. And besides the damaged lace, the dress is so beautiful. I absolutely love it and can’t wait for the weather to get warmer around here, so I can wear it. At the moment we’re getting a lot of snow here, which is a little annoying when you want to strut your Loli Stuff.

Welcome to the circus!

I love seeing new interesting takes on Lolita, or maybe I should say, takes on Lolita that are less common than the most popular styles. It’s a breath of fresh air when someone pulls off an ass-kicking Steampunk outfit or a really chilling Guro ensemble. One style or theme, if you will, that pops up once in a while and which I think is really intriguing is Circus Lolita. I think I can count the times I’ve seen it done on one hand, however, it’s a theme that seems to occur more or less frequently in art. There must be something fascinating about the circus to Lolitas. Several brands have even put out circus prints. I think it’s because, similar to the Lolita style, the circus is a little piece of magic come to life. Inside that arena the audience knows anything can happen. Artists fly through the air, breathe fire and juggle strange things. Maybe there’s a magic show, perhaps the tightrope artist, definitely clowns doing silly things. It’s all about being different and having a good time – something I’m sure many Lolitas can relate to.

Let’s have a look at some of the prints that brands have put out featuring circus themes.

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright:

(Alice and the Pirates also put out that Clown themed set, but let's not go there *wink*).

Angelic Pretty:

Innocent World:

Besides the business of the first two prints, there aren’t really much of a common style to them in my opinion, which I suppose makes sense, as Circus Lolita isn’t really an official sub-genre or style of Lolita.

I’d say that there are two ways to pull off this circus look. Either one can wear a dress or a skirt with circus related prints like the above or one can put together an ensemble reminiscent of a character typically found in the circus; Something fun and playful, maybe with a bit of authority like the ringmaster. I’ve put together some outfits on polyvore that you’ll perhaps find interesting.

FIRST OUTFIT:

Circus Lolita #1 by savage_lilly featuring 1928 jewelry

A black & white striped look. I don’t know, there is just something very circus-y about stripes to me for some reason. I really love those eyelashes and I’ve had the thought of using them in a Circus coord for quite some time. I’ve thrown in a little whip in this outfit. Maybe that’s a bit weird and can feel a little costume-y, but it’ll probably be all right for maybe a meet up or a specific event. Just try not to whip too many people – they get a bit uncomfortable. ; )

SECOND OUT FIT:

Circus Lolita #2 by savage_lilly featuring Betsey Johnson jewelry

This one is a fairly basic red & black outfit. I think the waist cincher, the strappy boots and the eccentric top hat makes it circus-y, and then with some cute accessories you’ve spiced up a classic dress; made it unique and playful, while still retaining a sense of elegance.

THIRD OUTFIT:

Ciscus Lolita #3 by savage_lilly featuring Juicy Couture accessories

Another red & black outfit, but this time I chose to use a few brand pieces, just to show how it could look using a circus print in a themed coordinate. I’d actually love to wear this. The cool thing about this skirt is that there are so many colours in the print, so you could use other that just black and red to coordinate it. You could try to accentuate the light blue or the pink for a completely different look.

The trick to not making the whole thing look or feel like a costume is, as with Lolita in general, to make sure it looks elegant and you feel comfortable wearing it. Granted, a Circus outfit may not be what a Lolita will wear to the grocery store, but rather something more suitable for special events like, for example, meet ups or maybe a birthday party.

This isn’t really meant as a ‘how to wear’ post on Circus Lolita, it’s merely intended to be perhaps a source of inspiration and encouragement to explore this theme further, maybe it could catch on the way Pirate Lolita did. :3