RuffleCon News Part 2: Lolita Designer Guests & Events

A few months back I wrote about RuffleCon an alternative fashion conference, and I'm back for round two with all the exciting news that's come out since then! When I first wrote about RuffleCon, it was only just announced, and in the past few months we've had a lot of really exciting announcements. One of the most exciting of which is that a few of the special guests for the premier year are Japanese Lolita brand designers!

Fumiko of Enchantlic Enchantilly (formerly known as Chantilly) will be be attending and her brand will be sold in the marketplace. Chantilly is known for their lush Gothic designs in bold jewel tones and delicate metallics, as well as their larger range of sizes. They are definitely one of my favorite Gothic Lolita brands and it's very exciting to get the chance to see their clothes in person and meet the designer!

The other Lolita designer special guests are Kaie and Babi, the designers behind Triple Fortune. This is incredibly exciting news because this will be Triple Fortune's first event in the US! Their clothes are notoriously difficult to get a hold of online, as they mostly sell at events and you usually have to be lucky enough to stumble across something secondhand or through their very limited Kera shop. While Triple fortune is most known in the US for their elaborate bonnets, they also release gorgeous dresses and corsets too! Getting to meet the designers and be able to purchase their items is a rare chance for Lolitas outside of Japan!

Of course, these aren't the only Lolita brands being represented at RuffleCon's marketplace! There is a wide assortment of indie Lolita brands that will be attending, you can check out the currently announced ones here!

Even just beyond designers and shopping, there are a lot of things for the Lolita to do at RuffleCon! We have a number of panel rooms featuring panels and many of our special guests will be presenting panels. In fact, we still have about a week until panel applications close! There will also be quite a few main events including a fashion show (featuring the above brands and then some!), a couple different coordinate contests, and a masquerade with live music. So far it's really gearing up to be an amazing event!

You can check out RuffleCon here:

☆ Website ☆ Facebook ☆ Tumblr ☆ Twitter ☆ Facebook Discussion Group ☆
If you happen to register for RuffleCon, add my name as a referrer ;D

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright to Open New York City Store!

If you're friends with anyone on Facebook who happens to live anywhere even remotely close to the US east coast, this is probably old news to you by now, but if you haven't heard yet: Baby the Stars Shine Bright is opening it's first store on the east coast! The news came alongside the news of the re-opening of Tokyo Rebel, a NYC shop that carried a number of Japanese brands, including Baby. In fact, Tokyo Rebel and Baby will be opening side-by-side. The most exciting thing about this is that it isn't happening in some far-off unspecified future, but it's happening in a month.

This is incredible news, and not just for Lolitas who happen to live in and around NYC! This might be the first brand shop to hit the east coast, but it's the second Baby to hit the US, and one of several Lolita shops. Lolita fashion is definitely on the rise in popularity and it's incredibly exciting to see actual brand shops opening up, not just once or twice, but multiple times, outside of Japan. Just as Miss Lumpy pointed out in her post about this news, even if this new shop isn't local to you, with each brand shop to successfully open outside of Japan, it increases the chances of more brand shops opening all around the world! 

As an east coast Lolita, I've often siiighed with envy at all the exciting events that happen for all the west coast Lolita brands, and here's to hoping that with the opening of this Baby store we'll be getting similar events here!

You can keep your eyes on the Baby NYC website for more news about this exciting opening, as well as the twitter and facebook. I would also suggest keeping an eye on Tokyo Rebel and their blog for news as well!

Invent 5 New Lolita Holidays To Celebrate

I haven't had the chance to do a Lolita Blog Carnival post in a while, but this week's was just too fun to pass up! The topic is invent 5 new Lolita holidays to celebrate. Every good Lolita knows that every year comes with, not one, but two International Lolita Days as an excuse to get together and have some meetups, but what about the other 363 days of the year? Now's our chance to fill the calender up with more excuses to wear Lolita!

January 26th

January 26th just so happens to be Novala Takemoto's birthday, and what better day to have a Lolita holiday on? Maiden's Day is an excuse to completely indulge in the lifestyle of Lolita. Put on your laciest Old School Lolita dress, sip your most expensive tea, and watch Kamikaze Girls for the millionth time in your life. The best part about Maiden's Day is that you don't necessarily need other Lolitas to celebrate it with, because who needs things like friends?

March 19th

March 19th is already a familiar holiday for a lot of Lolitas, as it's Mana's birthday! What better day to recognize Gothic Lolitas than on his birthday? World Gothic Lolita Day is an excuse for even the sweetest of Sweet Lolitas to goth it up in some black clothes. Take a cue from Mana's Visual Kei roots and put on some Shironuri makeup and go totally OTT with your Gothic coordinates!

Second Saturday in August

This comes a couple months after the summer ILD, in what is usually the hottest time of year, a time when people just generally don't wan to wear Lolita. Come August, most Lolitas probably realize that they haven't worn the fashion in a while! Let's change that with International Casual Lolita Day! Everyone shows up with their favorite Otome-inspired blouseless JSK, big straw hat to block the sun, ruffly ankle socks, and meetups are chosen based on places have the best air conditioning.

October 13th

Wearing Lolita in October is sometimes more annoying than it should be because it's so close to Halloween that people tend to assume there's some sort of Halloween party going on that they weren't invited to. OTT Day is a chance to go all out with your Lolita, regardless of your style, and do it in a big meetup group. So now when people ask if there's a Halloween party going on, you can tell them "No, as a matter of fact, it's Over-The-Top Day, just wait till you see our Halloween costumes!"

December 28th

Who doesn't love Christmas parties? But the real shame is that once Christmas is over, you have to wait almost a whole week before New Years Eve parties! With Lolita Christmas, the holiday doesn't have to be over so soon. In that awkward week of resting between Christmas with the family and spending all New Years Eve partying we can easily fit in a special holiday just as an excuse to bust out the green and red velvet Lolita dresses you never have a good reason to wear the rest of the year! Ruffle-Butt Christmas is, basically, exactly like regular Christmas, only it's just for Lolitas. You get all your Lolita friends together for one last Christmas party of the year and exchange presents of brand novelties, bake up some cute pastel sweets, and finally get to incorporate tinsel into your coordinates!

Check out these other blogs participating in this week's Lolita Blog Carnival!

✦ Northern Star ✦ Lace Tea Pot ✦ Hello Batty ✦