Lolitaloppis 2011

So Tenna and I got on the train early, and I mean really early, Sunday morning to get to the Lolitaloppis in Stockholm. The train ride was long, so we tried to get some extra sleep.  Finally, we were in Stockholm, now we only had to find the right street and even though we'd printed out a map, it proved to be a bit difficult, because the map wasn't detailed enough.

Our outfits for the day.
We took these outfit photos by a church close to the Central Station. It was such a beautiful place.

When we got to Tokyo Stop, naturally, there was a line. It actually wasn't as long as I'd expected, but it still took forever for us to get in. I think it was around 1pm or so when we got in line and it was 4pm when we got out of Tokyo Stop after having spent about 15 or 20 minutes inside. So yeah, it took a while. -__-
I don't actually mind waiting in line for events, but we hadn't eaten since 9am (when we ate 'lunch' on the train, lol), so we were very hungry and it was really cold. Obviously, we didn't wear the most practical shoes, but still. Lastly, the two girls waiting infront of us were really, really annoying. Like. I can't even. Mhm.


After the loppis Tenna snapped this photo of us in a mirror/window. Notice our bags of brand, yay! :D

Inside Tokyo Stop it was super crowded which is to be expected when you shove a bunch of frill-butts into two tiny rooms, but it was a bit disappointing, because it didn't leave that much room for taking photos. I got a few that are for Starlight Magazine, but I would have liked more.

Tokyo Stop were having a sale on their Lolita items. They were marked down by 40 % which sounds like a good deal, except their original price was almost double the retail price. So even with the mark down it was a bit more expensive than were you to buy from Japan. It was such a shame, because they had Meta's Blooming Garden JSK in the colour and the design that I wanted, but with the mark down it cost 200SEK more than what I'd brought.

It was then that I started to feel a bit panicked, lol, having come all this way and waited in line for so long and then I couldn't find something to buy? Then I saw this burgundy skirt hanging behind some other dresses at one girl's stand and it turned out to be this skirt:

Atelier Pierrot

It's the Romeo and Juliet print and it is so luxurious! The fabrics and the design - it's all so beautiful *__*

So I bought it, even though it's too small for me, but it came with waist ties, so I can let it out a bit ^^

I love the chiffon bustle in the back <3

Tenna bought the long and dusty mint version of IWs Christina JSK (the one I have in plum/short) so now we can twin. And it is just so gorgeous in that colour <3

I also bought this cute tote bag and a necklace.

Afterwards when we'd gotten something to eat (thank you 7eleven!), we went into one of the many H&Ms. I bought a hat like the one Tenna modified and wore for the day. It's sold out in most stores around here, so that was neat, hehe.

Next we took our outfit shots by a church and then we headed back to the train station.

The ride back home seemed longer than out, but we had fun with listening to the music from A Very Potter Musical and the audio book of the Philosopher's Stone. We had to switch trains in Lund and on the train to Copenhagen, we entered the overly tired hyper mode, lol. It was a lot of fun, though I felt a bit bad for the other few passengers. Tenna showed me her troll face:



Still lolling XD

Altogether it was a good trip, but a really long day. It was fun, but I feel it cost a bit too much to get there compared to how it was. If I were to do it again, I would definitely do it differently, like spend a weekend in Stockholm and get a chance to see some of the beautiful things there too.

Daily outfit

Classic Lolita with a bit of a dolly-kei twist.

I really need a pair of warm and off-white lolita appropriate shoes. I would have taken my outfit shot outside, but after I came home from a trip to a harbour far away, I was too cold to want to go outside again.

Today's outfit

Two new dresses, Tivoli & outfit shots

 Sorry for the inactivity lately - Between being busy with work and sick for a couple of weeks, I haven't had much time to be frilly. That hasn't stopped me from shopping frilly things, though, so since my last entry I've gotten two new dresses:

Red Riding Hood from Btssb in ivory:

I had only just decided for myself that after almost buying it several times on closetchild or on the sales community, but then deciding not to afterall, that the next I'd see this dress up for sale, I would go for it. Then it popped up again on the sales community and I went for it. The seller even threw in the matching bag (although a bit damaged) for free.

Sleeping Beauty from Aatp in black:

One of my dream dresses. I almost bought it on reserve, but then changed my mind at the last minute and I've regretted it ever since. I've wanted to buy it for a while, but it's almost always so overpriced on the sales community. Then I found it on mbok and used Japonica as my SS. Didn't think I would, but I actually won the auction. =D

Then yesterday I met up with Tenna and Stefanie. We went to Tivoli to see all the Christmas decorations. Everything was beautiful, there were just so many people there. So after a candyfloss, which I haven't had in years, and churros we decided to find a cafe outside of Tivoli to get some hot chocolate.

Then on a whim we decided to go to the cinema and watch Harry Potter 7 and drink hot chocolate in the cafe at the cinema. I've seen HP 7 three times now and it's still awesome. ♥

Afterwards we took outfit shots infront of the Narnia display window:

(In case you're wondering, those are ivory tights, not bare legs).

My hair was curly when I went out the door, but after hours of walking in the frosty and windy Copenhagen, I guess, they kind of went away. ;)

Dress: Aatp

Blouse: H&M

Bag: Lace Residence

Boots: Don't remember the store name

Headbow: Homemade

After the movie Tenna and I went back to my place and watched Sense and Sensibility until we fell asleep (well, one of us did anyway *points finger at Tenna*) :P

This morning we went to the mall and then seperate ways. It's my parents' wedding annivesary and we're going out to dinner later, so I dressed up a bit:

Hmm, I should get some new poses, huh? ;)

Dress: Innocent world

Blouse: H&M

Bag: Lace Residence

Headbow: Homemade

Necklace: Miss Selfridge

Since you can't really see it in the shot, here's  close up of the necklace:

I saw it on their website and it's like it was made for this dress, no? ;)



OOTD and sales

Yesterday's outfit - sorry for the lack of smiling, but outfitshots are seriouz businezz ;)

Also I'm selling some of my Lolita clothes and shoes over here:

---->LINK TO SALES THREAD ON THE DANISH LOLITA BOARD<----

The site is in Danish, but if you're interested in anything, feel free to ask =)

Lastly, don't forget to vote on my poll---->

Oh, Gertrude ♥

Yes, this beauty is on its way to me in the mail - woohoo! :D

Can't wait for it to arrive! I tried using a shopping service this time in order to avoid customs, I seriously hope it'll work, because I, man, customs are insane in Denmark there's the 160DKK fee and then 25 % of the item's value in tax! Even when sender's mark down the value and put it as a gift, I usually get those letter's from the customs people asking me for an invoice. I think I'd buy a lot more brand if the customs weren't so insane. Just saying :/

But I really like how this dress is simple, yet rich in detail, and I tried going with the long version this time. Should be interesting to see if it'll suit me :]

I did a polyvore coord to see how I'd wear this JSK and I tried using items that already have or look like something I have ^^

Gertrude outfits by savage_lilly featuring black shoes

Dream outfit

La Vida Frills and The Weekend Lolita both blogged about their dream outfits recently, so I thought I'd join in with my dream outfit (at the moment).

Cathedral Dream by savage_lilly featuring high heel sandals

I've mentioned it before, but this dress is awesome :D I want it so bad, haha :3

My favourite prints

I was a bit bored earlier, so I made this list of my favourite prints (in no particular order):

Forest Harvest from IW

This is so cute with the small animals *__* I loved this print in all three colours it was released in..

Sleeping Beauty from AatP

I love fairy tales, especially Sleeping Beauty, so this was an instant love.

Vampire Requiem from AatP

I'm a huge vampire lover too, haha :D

St. Mephisto's Cathedral from AatP

This is my ultimate Dream Dress! It is everything I want my style of Lolita to be. The combination of classic and sweet is totally my thing and the purple colour is to die for <333
Cat print from Meta

Big cat lover XD This was actually one of the first prints I really liked. It's that darn black cat that charms me, hehe, it's so cute :3


Swanlake from Meta

Meta really outdid themself with this print *_*

Cinderella print from IW

I actually like the brown version of this print the best, but I couldn't find a good picture of that. This is a dress where everything just works.. for me anyway ;)

Just another outfit..

Went shopping today and then went to the harbour in Rungsted.

My hair is kind of bleh, but I didn't have time to do more today.

Outfit:
Jsk: IW
Cardigan: H&M
Tights: H&M
Shoes: Still Body Line ;)

Here are a few shots from today.

Hehe, speed 8D

Yay, boats :]

Quack, quack?

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.

Homemade skirt & stuff

Today is the last day of my vacation. I go back to work tomorrow. Unfortunately, my friend was ill most of the time while visiting, so I didn’t get a chance to see her that much nor did we get to do a lot of photo shoots. So that was a bummer. She did bring me this sweet gift, though. A haul of jewellery from claire's.



On the plus side, I had time to finish sewing my Lolita skirt. I started this project several weeks ago, but didn't have time to finish it. It’s the first thing I’ve sewn in my entire adult life and also the first wearable thing I’ve sewn. Ever. It’s far from perfect, but totally fine for those semi-casual outfits. I used this tartan fabric for it:

It’s a very basic skirt with a full elastic waist band and the type of lace that is called ‘feston’ in Danish.

And here is a picture of it worn:

I really like this coord and I wore it today when I went shopping. I found this purple pumps on sale:

I think I only have one item to coordinate these with, but I just had to have them.
I also bought some fabric for the next skirt I intend to sew soon. Some black fabric with small white dots:



The tartan skirt has a circumference of four meters, which I found out is just a bit too excessive. So this time I’m going to make it just three meters.

I’ll leave you with these pictures of my Innocent World dress. I wore it the other when my friend had cancelled, because I had already curled my hair for a photo shoot, so I couldn’t resist dressing up in this dress. I felt so decadent, because I only went to the mall and back home and watched Disney’s Aladdin. Haha, I love Genie.

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