International Lolita Day Winter 2013

A very fast 6 months has past since my last International Lolita Day post! Unfortunately, I can't attend any of the Houston Lolita Community meetups on the actual date of I.L.D. since I have to study for finals (have you noticed I've been writing a lot in the last few days? That's the power of procrastination.), so I decided to celebrate a little early by myself.  At the same time, I discovered (by accident) that Metamorphose was holding a coordinate contest with the theme of "Metamorphose Party Christmas." I didn't have any specific coord ideas in my mind, so I went with that.

The main requirement is to wear Meta, but I only started buying Meta pieces this year, so I don't have very much in quantity. Unfortunately, all of them are black which doesn't really scream Christmas party at all. Then I just kind of made something up...I mean I interpreted the party theme a little oddly. My thought process went a little like this: "Christmas is in winter, right? A Christmas party could technically be a winter party. Winter means being cold, so I need a jacket and more to keep warm. Scarves keep people warm, alright. ???. Profit."

Originally, I wanted to do ouji, but I don't have any pants from Meta and I didn't want to wear one of their competitors' items, so lolita it was. 4 out of 5 of my main Meta pieces happened to be military style, so that's what I worked with. Since it's a dark style, I decided to name this coord "Meta's Rebellious Party Crasher." I ended up putting "Winter Soldier" as my theme because I don't think anyone would understand party crasher as my description. Plus, I made the description short, so I could (google) translate it into Japanese easier. I saved the wall of text for this post.

I couldn't wear the jacket as a jacket otherwise it would squish the the skirt oddly. The solution was using the jacket like a mantle (although I do wish I had the actual mantle from the set). The epaulettes were added to give an impression that the jacket is keeping me warm since you can see a lot of fur during this season. You may be wondering why am I wearing a sleeveless blouse in winter. It's because I live in southeast Texas and don't know what a real winter feels like, so I totally faked this. I was actually sweating in this outfit. Coincidentally, after I finished taking photos, a very chilly cold front came to Texas. Since there was limited time, I only did makeup on one eye and slapped the eyepatch on the other. That saved me a good 15 minutes because I'm actually extremely slow with makeup. To be honest, I was hesitant to use this coord because of the extremely controversial symbol on the hat, but I figured out it was removable, so now I don't have any worries thankfully.

That's enough rambling for now, so now for my actual entry. I'm entry number 32 and would appreciate it if you checked it out! If you happen to want to vote for it, you can press like on facebook! You can totally tell that I'm the oddball out, haha. Thank you in advance to everyone who does like it! You can view all of the entries on Metamorphose's official facebook account. The voting period ends on December 13 at 17:00 Japan standard time.

I hope everyone has a cooler I.L.D. than I do! I can't wait to see all of the pictures.

Hat, jacket, eyepatch: Metamorphose D. Walkure
Skirt: Metamorphose x Macross Frontier Sheryl skirt
Socks: Alice and the Pirates lame chandelier socks
Boots: Metamorphose tassel boots
blouse, gloves, bracelet, scarf, epaulettes: offbrand

P.S. "buttcape さま (buttcape-sama)" was totally their doing, not mine. Thank you for making me feel cool, Meta!  

LBC: Who Inspires You in Lolita Fashion?

This is my first official post for Lolita Blog Carnival! LBC is a group of lolita bloggers who write blog articles about the same subject and on the same day. It's nice to read everyone's opinions and promote each other since lolita fashion is a very close online community. This week's topic is "who inspires you in lolita fashion" or as I like to call it, "frillspiration."

My inspiration mainly comes from visual kei since that was the first alternative fashion I became interested in. When I'm feeling more adventurous,  I pick elements off of anime and video game characters. There are too many awesome people to name, so I'll only list the top ones out of my head.

Listening to Versailles Philharmonic Quintet was actually how I discovered lolita fashion, so naturally they're one of my inspirations. These guys showed me the world of big eyeliner, big hair, and modern day fanciness. Although I don't listen to their music anymore, visually they're still very inspiring. They led the way to my next inspiration...

Matenrou Opera. They've been my favorite band for a few years now and going. I take very subtle ideas from their stage outfits. Probably too subtle for anyone to notice, but I haven't "debuted" most of my inspired outfits. I also thank them for my 95% black closet.

I didn't want to use their pictures without permission (procrastination orz), but this spot is dedicated to the three fellows who I met on livejournal aka my senpai: Saku (neogrotesk), Victor (amor_fati), and Elliot (technotropism). I stared at them for awhile when I was a newbie! Saku was the first Western ouji I ever saw and I thought he was so cool (he still is). Sadly, he doesn't wear ouji anymore. Then I saw Victor's black aristocratic elegance and it sucked me into a black hole. Now he has me buying too much Atelier Boz. Elliot of Deerstalker Pictures is always fabulous; he just is. He's always experimenting and that's good! This fashion needs more variety. The combination of all 3 of them plus some others made me want to come to the princely side.

And last, but not least, my newest source of inspo. That black closet I mentioned above is probably going to start turn colorful in 2014 thanks to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. JoJo characters are known for their obnoxiously bright lipstick, dazzling outfits, and back-breaking poses because they're based on big name fashion brands, one being Gucci. I only got into the series this year, but I have so many JoJouji and JoJolita ideas! Makeup artist Tadashi Hara's JoJo exhibit is an example of how character elements can be incorporated into real life fashion. 

There totally should be more on this list, but I'm pretty brain-dead with final exams coming up next week. My ouji folder alone is over 3000 pictures, so that should you give an idea about my magnitude of interest. My personal tumblr's archive shows a very broad summary of things I enjoy as well. Who is your top inspiration? Do we share any in common? Where are my JoJolitas at? 

See the more of the Carnival and their inspirations: 

Elegant Poupée  ✦  The Cute Lifestyle  ✦  Breiðholt  ✦  Northern Star  ✦  Sweet Indeed  ✦  New Vogue Children  ✦  Dreaming about the frills...  ✦  F Yeah Lolita  ✦  A Little bit of This... a Little Bit of That  ✦  Oh Velveteena

I Want to Be Chocolate Too

Way back when I first got interested in lolita fashion, I actually started out as a sweet lolita because of my sweet tooth. I quickly learned that the way of dresses wasn't working, so that's how I migrated to the more masculine styles. During that time there was a severe lack of information about ouji let alone sweet ouji.

The vision of sweet ouji has been in my head years; who knows how long, I've lost track of time. When the Chess Chocolate print was released, it was the sign to go. The main roadblock is figuring out how to work with border prints. Usually when brands decide to release print vests or pants, the prints are tiled prints rather than border prints. Border prints work in lolita because the skirt has a lot of fabric, but in ouji there's less fabric to work with unless the design is a big coat.

The first trial! I tried to avoid black for the longest time, but I gave up finding brown pants that would fit me. Of course, this isn't authentic, but I am interested in obtaining an original when my sewing skills improve. If I used an original at the skill level I am now, I'd only be left in a pile of fabric and tears.

Here's hoping I did alright for a first time.

Crown: spica (modified)
Jabot: Innocent World
Blouse: bodyline
Vest: Oo Jia
Wristcuffs: Pumpkin Cat
Sash: Black MiQuri
Star Clip: Chocomint
Bow: Royal Rabbit
Pants: Dear Celine
Belt: f21
Socks: Angelic Pretty + f21
Boots: bodyline

By the way, I also started ouji-specific twitter and a tumblr! On the twitter, I tweet about some purchases, secondhand/auction finds, and some daily toned down outfits. On tumblr, it basically supplements this blog, but I'm planning to some post original content and possibly release info. Currently there are no plans for reblogs.