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.

Review: Qutieland, Rose Melody, Infanta & DollscroPs

I received a package from Quiteland earlier this week and decided to do a review for those interested.



The package contain three orders:
Order placed on November 29th
Rose Melody JSK: http://qcute.livejournal.com/22191.html#cutid1
Rose Melody blouse: http://qcute.livejournal.com/20736.html#cutid1
Order placed on December 9th
Infanta skirt: http://www.qutieland.com/product.php?id=396
Order placed on January 12th
DollscroPs skirt: http://www.qutieland.com/product.php?id=386

As you can see, I’ve waited a long time for some of these items and not all have been worth the wait.

Let’s start with Quiteland:
This is my fourth time dealing with Quiteland and it almost feels redundant to praise to them, as they were as always excellent with communication and generally pleasant and polite to do business with.
They notified me at some point about the blouse that the manufacturer had run out of the original lace. They sent me a photo of another type of lace and asked me to ok it. I did. Then a few days later they emailed me and said that the manufacturer had found some of the original lace and would be using that.
I wanted to combine the shipping on the first two orders which explains why it took so long to get my first order. The Infanta skirt was really the item that took the longest to make. I inquired about the status of my order in the middle of January and they replied that the embroidery was taking longer than expected. A few days later an email was sent out to all who’d ordered it.
My orders were shipped on the January 31st and I also received a shipping refund for the DollscroPs skirt. I finally received my things on the 17th after it being held in customs for twelve days.

Summing up: Excellent service on Qutieland’s behalf.
9/10


Rose Melody JSK







The construction of this dress is very nice and overall I’m happy with it. It’s fully lined and all the seams are perfect. The only thing that’s bothering me is the bodice of the dress. The white fabric is detachable which is a plus as it looks a little ridiculous, because it sits so high up on me. I would have liked the bodice to be a couple of inches longer, so it would have taken me in at my natural waist. But then again that’s how I feel about a lot of Lolita dresses, but even more so in this case, because it doesn’t really sit as an under bust design on me. It cuts me off half way up on my boobs, which looks a little unflattering to say the least. However, this probably may be solved with the right blouse underneath.
Altogether, I’d say, while the dress is exceedingly cute, I do think it will look best on someone within the standard size. With my 97cm bust and 80cm waist, I’m not in the standard size range that Rose Melody uses. But it looks nice with a white blouse underneath it.
5.5/10



Rose Melody blouse



This blouse was the most disappointing item that I ordered. I guess the fitting is all right, besides the sleeves. They could have been a bit longer, because once I start moving my arms a little bit they ride up. Just for the record I provided measurements for my shoulder, wrist, upper arm as well as arm length (and of course waist and bust).
Two things bother me greatly about this blouse:
1. The lace. I can’t really complain much about this, because I was sent a picture of it during the process, however, I’ll mention it anyway. The pattern on the lace is made with blue thread. I didn’t really think about this when I saw the picture of the lace, I thought it was just the light, but it looks blue in real life too.
2. The fabric. I was expecting a soft cotton and while it is made from cotton, it’s the kind of cotton ITS used for some of their skirts and F+F sometimes uses. This type of fabric is fine for skirts, but for blouses, not so much. It’s much too stiff a fabric to look flattering on you and it makes me look at least 10 kilos heavier. Maybe it’ll look acceptable under a JSK, but I’d really hoped to wear it with skirts too.
Besides those issues, the blouse is well made and has many cute details.





3/10 (If It wasn’t for the fabric it would probably have gotten an 8.)

DollscroPs skirt




(Seems a little rushed at the waistband.)



This skirt is so cute. I love the colour and the appliqué. It’s fairly well sewn and check out the lining.


That was a surprise. While the colour doesn’t really fit with the skirt, I do think it’s a really cute fabric for lining. It has detachable waist bands and bow.
8/10

Infanta skirt




This one’s a real gem. The embroidery is exquisite and so is the make; very well done. I absolutely love the lining. It has nice soft tulle lace at the hem and the string of pearls is detachable. It also comes with a large bow, where it’s supposed to go, I don’t know, but it’s cute nevertheless.
It was rather mystifying when I unwrapped the skirt and I found a piece of the lining sewn on to the front of the skirt.


I don’t know what is written on it, but it’s a little sloppy to send out such a thing in my opinion. I managed to remove it, but it left its traces in the velvet – an indented line. It’s only noticeable upon close inspection, though.
One thing to consider is how the design of the skirt is doesn’t go up as high in the back as in the front. This means that you can’t really tighten the skirt from your natural waist and up to your under bust. It’s not a big deal and the skirt looks fine when worn, I guess, I just like to be able to super fit the skirts ;)







9/10

So overall a bit of mix, huh. I hope some of you could use this. Feel free to ask if you have any question or want more details.