Blogspiration: Juliette et Justine Fashion Shows, An Indie Lolita Design Contest, Lolitaopoly, and some upcoming Conventions!

Look at that! I managed to make another one of these link roundup posts in considerably under 6 months. I have a few random things to share with you all, in addition to some neat stuff I've stumbled across online, that I didn't want to bother with a whole new post with, so why not more blogspiration posts?

The UK Lolitas have a pretty large and active community, adorably called the Tea Party Club, and a few months ago they were lucky enough to get the chance to host a Juliette et Justine fashion show. They pictures are just now hitting the internet and you can check them out here. Juliette et Justine is such a stunning and opulent brand, so it's really amazing to get to see so many dresses from them all in one place, and done up so elaborately for a show like this! I seriously wish I had a local community that was able to pull off a feat like this!

If there are any aspiring designers and artists out there, the indie brand Pop Princesses is hosting a contest that is open for just a couple more days, that allows artists to submit their portfolios for a chance to work on an upcoming print with them! Check out this post for some more info on it. It could be a great chance to work with a skilled seamstress and make those burando dreams come true!

So, I was going to make this post earlier today, but I got a bit lazy and I'm really into MST3K and Rifftrax, so I kinda slacked off today because it was frozen and snowing out and watched a bunch of old Rifftrax, but I am really glad I held off (not just because I got to watch those Rifftrax) because I stumbled across this completely amazing project by Misirlou, of a Lolita version of monopoly called Lolitopoly. Seriously, check out this post! It looks completely stunning and hilarious. I want to be able to play this game so bad, it looks like a complete blast to play!

I absolutely have a soft spot in my heart for old school styled Lifestyle Lolita lists of cute ideas, so I was pretty pleased when I stumbled across this list of Princess Tips: 25 Spring Lifestyle Ideas. Spring is actually a lot further around the corner than I want to even think about, but these ideas are still really adorable, and a lot of them are really appropriate for any time of year, provided you're into the Lolita Lifestyle.

I actually stumbled across this post, It's Cosplay, Not C******, on an otaku culture blog I am particularly fond of, and it's about Cosplay vs. historical costuming, but I feel like a lot of what she says is very relevant to the Lolita too. Obviously the major difference between Cosplay and Lolita, is that Lolita isn't always, or even less than 90% of the time, a costume but more of a "Yeah, this is just what I wear" thing, but it's still a very interesting read and definitely something a lot of us have heard before coming from other people who dress outside what is considered "normal". I'd like to share the following quote from the post:

"It doesn’t matter if you play a character who was a queen 400 years ago, or you play one who will be queen of future Tokyo in a millenium. What matters is this is a hobby people are drawn to for their own reasons. As long as they’re having fun and not harming anyone, lets knock off the elitism and let them have their fun. It’s a big enough sandbox for us all to play with our toys together."

In F Yeah Lolita news, I've added an extra, and hopefully helpful, page to the site! Blogging Resources is a one-stop page for, you guessed it, resources for bloggers. I have been hoarding a lot of useful sites for myself to reference now and again, so I figured I would share them with the rest of you. The sites linked range from helpful blog coding sites, to Lolita specific memes, to blog posts others have written about being a blogger, to just sort of useful kawaii images. I'll be adding some new stuff as I find it, so if you're a blogger, you might want to check back now and again!

My final "OMG, guys, check this out!" is some fun news for me! It's just about convention season and I've managed to snag a couple tables at some upcoming conventions.

The most recent convention is actually only a couple of weeks away! The third year of U-con at Uconn is coming up on February 16th and 17th. U-con at Uconn is a completely free convention that's put on by our state's college. It's a small-ish 2 day con that has, I believe, between 700 and 1,000 people in attendance for the previous years. It's free and it's fun, and I'll be selling some stuff in the dealers room and just generally hanging out and doing con stuff. If you're in the area, stop by and say hi!

 The next con is actually a few months away, at the end of May, but it's one of my absolute favorites of the year, Anime Boston. I just got the news that I will get the chance to have a table in the Artist Alley this year, and I'm very excited for it! I have no idea where I'll be yet, or even what sort of stuff I'll be selling, but I just know I'm happy to get the chance to go back. I absolutely love the Lolita events that go down at Anime Boston!

I'd also like to mess around in this post a bit with link parties. If you're unfamiliar with the term (and you probably are unless you lurk around a bunch on craft blogs like I do!) it basically just means you get the chance to add your link directly to this blog post!

Victorian Beauty Secrets for the Lolita

The Victorian times have been over-romanticized pretty much ever since the era ended, and those decades definitely weren't all scented gloves and garden tea parties. It's important to know that and understand the difference between taking a few cues from the lighter sides of the romanticized Victorian life and believing that these cues are the be-all-end-all of Victorian life and judging others harshly for not living their life like you choose to live yours. We've all heard this said from another somewhere or another before: "In the Victorian era, ladies didn't do _____, so Lolitas shouldn't either". Well, Victorian era ladies generally wore skirts that covered their knees (and shins, and ankles) and refrained from wearing pirate hats and head wear that looks like melting ice cream, so maybe we don't need to take every lifestyle cue from the Victorians.

However, the Victorian era has undoubtedly been a major influence in the Lolita fashion, and even lifestyle. While most Lolitas are content to keep the Victorian limited to their wardrobe and maybe decor choices, there are those that are interested in living a little more historically accurate. Personally, I'm very interested in beauty routines and recipes from the past, particularly of the Victorian era. I find them very interesting, and they're generally a very unobtrusive way to add an element of the Victorian to your life without having to change the way you act or invest in some majorly expensive antique furniture. 

One of my favorite beauty gurus of the era is Mrs. Harriet Hubbard Ayer, who wrote a book simply called Harriet Hubbard Ayer's Book. As someone who enjoys digging through old beauty books (thank you, the internet and pre-1923 copyright laws!) I'm familiar with the dry and often times ridiculous sounding beauty routines from the era, so I was pleasantly surprised to find Mrs. Ayers book, published first in 1899, not only very readable, but I enjoyed her particular style of writing and personality, and I also found her beauty routines to be very modern sounding, realistic, and generally most of them were not dangerous or even very weird (ok, so maybe baby head-gear to make sure they don't grow up with big ears is a little weird).

The majority of Mrs. Ayer's recipes were something along the lines of a cream, lotion, or fragranced oil or powder. Wax, oil, talc, fragrance, scrubby crushed nuts, rose water, and glycerin are commonly found ingredients in Mrs. Ayer's recipes. Not very different in composition from the multitude of recipes for homemade body butters and scrubs you can find by the hundreds on Pinterest. Personally, I don't even think it's necessary to go strictly historically accurate with these recipes, as the modern home recipes are similar enough (mostly, you're simply going to find a lot less sperm whale fat in modern recipes) so that your best bet would just be to find a modern home made soap, lotion, or whatever it is you feel you could use to suit your needs.

If you're looking for some more in-depth looks at beauty advice from around this era, check out The Gibson Girl's Guide to Glamor, a blog that focuses on beauty tips and recipes from about 1890-1915, and includes dozens and dozens of real-life applications and adventures in recreating the recipes found in these old books!

If you want to do your own hunting and searching, there are a number of old beauty books available for free online at Archive.org. Below are a few of the ones I have found and enjoyed digging through. However, there are dozens more available, just search around antique book archive sites for keywords such as "ladies", "beauty" or "toilet" and you're bound to find some!

• Female Beauty: or, the art of human decoration (1874)
• The Ugly-Girl Papers: or, hints for the toilet (1874)
• Manners, culture and dress of the best American society, including social, commercial and legal forms, letter writing, invitations,etc, also valuable suggestions on self culture and home training (1891)
• Woman’s Own Book of Toilet Treatments (unknown date)
• The Arts of Beauty: or, Secrets of a lady’s toilet (1858)
• Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to ladies from a lady doctor (1886)
• Practical Hand-Book of Toilet Preparations and their uses. Also Recipes for the Household (1889)
• Harriet Hubbard Ayer's book; a complete and authentic treatise on the laws of health and beauty (1902)

If you do plan on attempting any of the recipes or advice you find in any of these old books, please use common sense and a bit of Googling to see if what you're about to do is safe! Not every practice from the past is a safe "old timey home remedy", ladies of ages past (as are ladies of the current age) are often infamous for doing dangerous things in the name of beauty. Many of the recipes and advice in such books are only good for interesting reading, not necessarily for slathering all over yourself and ingesting.

Do you have any particularly Victorian inclined beauty routines? I'm trying to get more into making my own beauty products and going a bit more natural with the ones I use. I sort of really love Lush products and have been lurking around the internet for recipes that are similar to the products I love so I can make. I've already made a ton of different salt and sugar scrubs (and prompted used them almost all up!), as well as a dry shampoo. I want to step it up a bit for my next attempt at a recipe and try making something like a lotion bar, or that witch hazel cold cream!

Lolita Blog Carnival: If I Had A Lolita Themed Cafe...

This week's Lolita Blog Carnival was one I was really looking forwards to! This week's topic is...

Ok, so my graphic is worded a little bit differently than the actual topic because I managed to completely forget the name of this week's theme as soon as I opened up Photoshop, but they say about the same thing!

If I had my own Lolita themed cafe, the theme would be a bit of a mix between Classic and Gothic. Think the deep jewel tones with some hints of dusty pastels and lots of antiqued gilt of Classic, but with some of the more morbid motifs of Gothic.The cafe itself would have a couple separate areas to it, but would generally be small and cozy, but with enough room to get around in petticoats!

The main area would be the actual cafe. It would contain about half a dozen round bistro tables with fancy cast iron legs and a dark wood table top and similarly designed chairs. There would be a small Victorian styled sofa or love seat off to one wall, upholstered in a jewel toned velvet or brocade and would be decorated in a way that practically screamed "This is the perfect place to take our outfit shots!". It would be, of course, a very well lit sofa. The walls would be papered in dark Victorian styled wallpaper and sprinkled heavily with art and prints from girly pop surreal artists and a few antique photos and prints thrown in for good measure.

There would be a small boutique area as well! It would mostly stock indie brand pieces, ranging from unique jewelry to accessories to even dresses and skirts. The smaller pieces would be mostly under a glass display case, or arranged artfully on the counter, while the clothing items would be hung up on a round clothes rack with a half-dress makers dummy decked out in on top of it.

The menu would feature gourmet teas and coffee and would include some thematically appropriate blends, like the kind of teas offered by Grey Brews. Besides tea and coffee the cafe would offer a rotating menu of small pastries and other treats that go well with tea and coffee. To take a cue from the EGL Comm's blog about this topic, food and drinks would be served in dainty, but miss-matched, tea cups and saucers.

The staff would, of course, wear matching uniforms! I've always loved the button-on aprons and this particular Maxicimam set is perfect! The black bows on the front and extra details and buttons on the apron of it make it a little less pure Sweet Lolita than Angelic Pretty's more popular version of this type of dress and apron. To Gothic it up a little more, it would be paired with black shoes, these particular harlequin socks, and Antique Beasts famous bat/cat maid headdress. The outfit would be further sprinkled through with red accessories, each waitress adding her own personal touch in this way. Bloomers are an absolute must in this case! 

Want to see more hypothetical Lolita themed cafes? Check out the rest of the participating blogs! And while you're at it, click the tent above to check out the LBC's Facebook page.

♡ Sweet and Simple ♡ EGL Community ♡ Geisha Baby ♡ Lace Jail ♡ Lace a la Mode ♡ Beyond Kawaii ♡ Sunshine In Our Hands ♡

Lolita52: How Lolita Has Changed Me

I've already managed to slide into laziness with the Lolita 52 meme and get my second question in on what is technically the last day of the 2nd week! However, I'm excited to see that the other bloggers that are participating in this meme aren't being as lazy as I am and I'm really enjoying seeing the topics pop up on blogs.

This week's prompt out of the jar-o-questions is "How Lolita has changed me". Questions similar to this end up on a lot of Lolita memes and questionnaires, but usually they're in the form of "How have you changed since you first discovered Lolita". Personally, it's been a long time since I discovered Lolita, so that's a pretty difficult question to answer. This way, I thought it was a little more direct. 

Lolita has changed me probably too many ways to count, and a lot of this probably does have to do with that whole "discovered Lolita back in the dawn of time" thing, and it is a bit hard to tell in which ways Lolita has changed me, and in which ways time has simply changed me. But let's take a look at some of the major ways that Lolita has changed me!

Shopping

The most major change Lolita has done to me is the way I shop! I no longer really feel the need to pick up random items for a cheap price just because. Since I got heavily into Lolita my major concern when adding items to my wardrobe is "Can I wear this with my Lolita wardrobe?" and "If I'm buying this now, is it going to prevent my from buying Lolita later?" If the answer is "No I can't wear this with my current Lolita wardrobe, and if I get it I wont be able to get Lolita later" there's a 95% chance I'll put it back. I make very few non-Lolita related "I want this just to have it" purchases now.

Does that mean Lolita saves me money? Haha, oh gosh no. That just means I save all those gotta have it, don't know what to do with it purchases for when I'm lurking the sales communities.

Crafting

I love doing various crafts and Lolita has definitely changed the way I craft. While I've obviously picked up a ton of new crafts because they help me add things to my Lolita wardrobe, there are adversely a number of crafts that I think are cool, but will most likely never end up bothering with because they're not Lolita crafts. Now, this isn't to say I have some sort of weird Lifestyle Lolita urge to only do Lolita appropriate historically accurate crafts, just that they're things that look neat to do, but I can't figure out any way to make them produce things for my Lolita wardrobe.

I recently discovered Random Tutorial Generator, a site that lets you press a button to get a new random craft tutorial. This is such a cool site and it shows you so many awesome tutorials you may have never found (and also a really obnoxious amount of baby related tutorials. I am pretty thankful that I don't need to know how to make cloth diapers or whatever a burpee is, but pretty annoyed that sometimes I have to press that big red button close to a dozen times before it decides to stop it's romp through babyland) and I love to spend a good chunk of time just clicking around to find new ones. However, every time something like, say, a spiked friendship bracelet pops up, I get super excited because it looks so fun to make and I have all the supplies, but oh, wait, when am I ever going to wear a spiked friendship bracelet? Never, because they totally clash with my grandma couch floral print dresses.

Friends-ing

Lolita has also definitely changed the friends I have and how I make them! I can't even imagine how weird getting together, and in some cases traveling pretty far, to hang out with people you have never met before to talk about clothes would be outside of Lolita. I was looking through my phone's contacts for something the other day and it struck me how many people I have in my phone that includes their internet handle because that's what I know them by most of all!

Through Lolita I have made a ton of great friends, and the social nature of Lolita often pushes me to go out and do something social when I would otherwise just be hanging around avoiding doing social things. Even just in online communities, where I am typically inclined to just lurk, I'm now more willing to actively participate because of the positive experiences I've had in online Lolita communities.

What about the rest of you? In what sort of specific ways has Lolita changed yourself? Do you find that Lolita just so happens to line up perfectly with your own personality and habits, or has it changed you for the better, or perhaps even the worse?

For those of you who want to check out the other topics in this weekly meme, check out the original post on it, or keep an eye on the Lolita 52 tag!

Lolita Blog Carnival: 1 Piece, 4 Seasons

This week's Lolita Blog Carnival is themed 1 piece, 4 seasons and the challenge is to take one dress and make 4 different coordinates for the 4 seasons with it!

For the challenge I chose Baby's Marie Antoinette dress in blue. I chose it because it's one of my favorite Baby dresses and a version of it was recently re-released in Baby's Memorial series!

Winter Princess

 

Most winter coordinates are, honestly, going to be hidden under a coat, so I tried to make this one look wintery even without  coat. I think the best way to do that is with copious amounts of faux fur! The bonnet with a rose or two to match the dress adds an extra element of opulence. Thick textured tights, Lolita boots, and a few pieces of icy blue jewelry finish off this elegantly inspired coordinate.

 Spring Cutie

I  tried to add some more cute elements for spring for this dress. Despite the elegance this dress exudes (or at least, that's how I feel about it!) I think the cut is so classically Lolita that it can be accessorized to match just about any sub-style. So an overall theme of bows, a cute heart purse, OTKs and dainty gloves push this into the realms of kawaiii. The lacy shawl brings a little bit of elegance back, and is a cute addition in the Spring time, when the sun is warm but sometimes the winds get a little chilly.

Royal Summer

The best part of a dress like this is the sleeves are very versatile, as they are of an in-between JSK and OP length and are intended to look just as nice without a blouse under it as with one. This coordinate is a little bit on the Hime side, which is something a dress like this can lend itself well too. Go  sockless and open-toed in the warm weather and accessorize with some complimenting jewelry and matching nail polish. A few slightly more envelope pushing Hime elements are the bloomers with the bow garters and the Angelic Pretty lacy arm warmers. Chokers can nicely complement dresses with the crisscrossing ribbons on chest, and this white Moi Meme Moitie choker looks like it would make a cute addition the the coordinate.

Autumn Dolly

   

This coordinate was a little bit difficult to do because I wanted something slightly warmer looking for Autumn, but a blue and white dress is going to inevitably look very cool. I warmed it up with some cream colors and more Dolly Kei inspired touches, such as a longer lace skirt worn under it (this is something I do with my wardrobe but doesn't exactly work so well with Polyvore! I have a pretty nice lace skirt that's about 3-4 inches longer than my Lolita skirts that I wear under them. It looks completely silly with a petticoat under it by itself, but it adds a nice length to skirts it's worn under.) and an interesting collection of jewelry. Lace tights and a wicker purse add some more texture to this outfit, as well as an antique touch.

Want some more ideas on how to stretch a single piece into multiple seasons and styles? Check out the rest of the gang that participated in this week's Lolita Blog Carnival!

❖ Suns In Our Hands ❖ Papillion de Nuit ❖ Tangled Lace ❖ Make Lovely ❖ Wait Till My Father Hears About This ❖ Lemontree ❖ Minimalist Lolita ❖ Sparkling Girl ❖ Fashion Fairy Tales & Sewing Secrets ❖

Lolita 52 Challenge: A Lolita Topic a Week!

There are tons of blogging challenges floating around out there, but very few Lolita specific ones! So to kick off the new year and a fresh set of 52 weeks I came up with my own list of 52 questions. These range from simple preference questions, to advice, to lists, to questions that might have a more in-depth answer.

  

If you feel like attempting to tackle this list with me, there are a few ways you can go about doing it. You can either just go down the list at one question every week until the end of the year, or you tackle in all at once like a survey, or you can do what I'm going to do! If I see a list like this I'll see questions on it that I might not feel like answering at the moment, for whatever lazy reason I have, so I will just dread doing it and give up, so what I'm going to do is write down these questions on little slips of paper then put them all in a jar. Every week I'll pull a new one out and answer it! For me it will be a physical reminder to complete this challenge.

1.  5 pieces that every Lolita wardrobe should have, regardless of style
2.  5 movies for Lolitas
3.  What my own Lolita lifestyle is like 
4.  Favorite thing to put on my head
5.  My wardrobe turnover
6.  My favorite Lolita brand
7.  Why I wear Lolita?
8.  Why don't I wear Lolita more often?
9.  5 keywords that describe my personal Lolita style
10.  How I first found out about Lolita
11.  3 trends I wish would come back
12.  Combining other fashions with Lolita
13.  Lolitas I have met in real life
14.  Lolitas I would love to meet
15.  3 things I wish I was told when I was a new Lolita
16.  10 facts about my Lolita wardrobe
17.  My first meetup
18.  Trends I thought I would never get into, but I now love
19.  Trends I thought I loved, but now I'm not too keen on
20.  How satisfied I am with my current wardrobe
21.  Plan for a trip! A week's worth of Lolita outfits I can fit in a small suitcase
22.  How I accessorize
23.  What influences my Lolita style
24.  What's in my makeup bag
25.  Best places to wear Lolita
26.  How I get out of a wardrobe slump
27.  Purses that I love
28.  Bloomers or no bloomers?
29.  Lolitafying things in my everyday life
30.  How long it took me to build a complete wardrobe
31.  Impulse buys that were totally worth it
32.  My best deal
33.  Something that I made
34.  Wardrobe blunders! Things I bought that I ended up regretting!
35.  What I thought when I got my first real piece of Lolita
36.  Nails to match my favorite looks
37.  Something that's not my style, but I love anyways
38.  Favorite hair style
39.  Most versatile Lolita item I own
40.  5 inspirational fictional characters
41.  Fondest meetup memory
42.  The ways in which I fit the cliche
43.  The ways in which I do not fit the cliche
44.  How strangers react to my clothes, and how I react to their reactions
45.  Something that was a gift
46.  Parasols: Vital or frivolous?
47.  The item in my wardrobe that was the hardest to get
48.  My "signature" outfit
49.  My favorite Lolita print
50.  What's in my closet, but I haven't worn yet!
51.  Predict the next Lolita trend!
52.  How Lolita has changed me

Considering it's a whole new year, now is as good as a time as any to start this. The first week's question that I pulled was:

Something that's not my style, but I love anyways

Over the years I've come to the realization that, despite how much I might love something, if it's not my style I'm probably not going to feel comfortable wearing it, and I'll eventually just start to dislike it. I've learned that it's okay to like a style without feeling the need to wear it.

One of my major "Oh my gosh I love that, but I'd totally never wear it!" items are Baby's Rococo styled dresses from about 2007-2008... in white.

I love everything about these dresses! I love the frilly open fronts, the giant bell sleeves, the massive amounts of ruffles and lace, and I think that in white, they're even prettier. They remind me of the even older Old School trend of "Angelic Lolita", only even more over the top.

However, as much as I love looking at these dresses, and seeing other people in them, I simply can't imagine myself ever wearing one! Besides the fact that they're usually a few hundred dollars out of my price rage, I would be too paranoid to ever wear an all white outfit for any extended amount of time, and I can't really imagine any of them would look very flattering on me. Most of all, they're probably the exact opposite of the styles that I feel comfortable wearing, so I can only imagine wearing one of these gorgeous dresses would probably be an incredibly awkward and uncomfortable experience!

What about the rest of you? Anything out there you love, but you just can't imagine every actually wearing it?