How I Got Interested in Lolita Fashion

I have an ultra old folder on my computer simply titled "JAPAN". It's at least 7 years old and has been transferred from computer to computer. This folder is what started my journey into J-Fashion and eventually to lolita (this story is what this week's Lolita Blog Carnival is for!) I created the folder in 7th grade when I saw my first image of japanese fashion: a photo of a beautiful model by the name of Tsubasa Masuwaka .

It's weird, I didn't see her clothes or anything, but I instantly fell in love with her hair and makeup. It took me a bit of research, but I managed to find out that the style was called gyaru. It was all about trendy fashion, dramatic/enlarging eye makeup and beautiful hair. I loved the look of it! I spend so much time looking up video tutorials for the hair/makeup and following blogs of these beautiful girls like ChaiGyaru and Xiaxue.

Left: Xiaxue
Right: ChaiGyaru

I never actually pursued gyaru fashion because I grew up in private school. Uniforms were worn 5/7 days a week and I didn't really go out with friends on the weekends. Yet I still browsed through the pictures and blogs every day and started researching other Japanese street styles; this is when I discovered the websites Japanese Streets and Tokyo Fashion. They introduced me to Decora (a little but too much for me) and Fairy Kei (super cute and pastel but not quite for me either). One day while checking the day's street snaps, I encountered the following picture:

Source: Friday June 18, 2010

The photo was simply captioned:

STUDENT, 17

Style: Lolita

Wig – N/A

Dress – BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT

Shoes – Angelic Pretty

Lolita fashion instantly had my heart. I spent weeks crazily scouring the internet looking for photos of other girls dressed in Lolita fashion (more specifically, Sweet Lolita) and could not help smiling at every picture. The one blog I remember spending hours on was Aesthetic Lolita's blog (no longer up unfortunately!). I seriously loved the fashion. By this time, I had just turned 17 years old: still in private school, still no social life. I didn't see the point in, once again, pursuing a style I really liked and eventually it faded from my mind again.

The blog that permanently pulled me back, in my last year of high school, was Lolita Charm (now known as Parfait Doll). She wrote such fantastic articles and fashion guides! Again, I'd just spend HOURS browsing the blog and especially loved her monthly style tips. This time I was permanently hooked.

Victoria Suzanne from Parfait Doll (formerly known as Lolita Charm)

How did you discover Lolita?

Was it through another Japanese street style?

Other cuties talking about this:

Alice in Lolitaland
All Sweet Indeed
A Sweet Lolita's Disney Life
Gothic Strawberry
Hello Batty
Her Lumpiness
Northern Star
Oh Velveteena
Pretty Little Habits
Sidhe Banshee
The Bloody Teaparty
Wild Jackalopes

Review: Bodyline Shoes152 in Black (Positive!)

I had been dying to own a pair of lolita shoes! I felt like all my coords looked incomplete because the shoes were almost always off (I usually would coord with black flats). I had been eyeing these shoes for a while after seeing a great picture of them worn. I know there's a few others out there, but another one wouldn't hurt :)

A Date at Green-Wood Cemetery

On Saturday I spent a crisp, autumn afternoon at the lovely Green-Wood Cemetery. "Founded in 1838 as one of America’s first rural cemeteries, the Green-Wood Cemetery soon developed an international reputation for its magnificent beauty and became the fashionable place to be buried. Crowds flocked to Green-Wood to enjoy family outings, carriage rides and sculpture viewing in the finest of first generation American landscapes. Green-Wood’s popularity helped inspire the creation of public parks, including New York City’s Central and Prospect Parks."

I felt like this would be a nice date to wear some Gothic Lolita to!

Outfit Rundown:

♥ JSK - Bodyline ♥

♥ Everything else- Offbrand ♥

This cemetery is such a beautiful day to spend just exploring and walking around. It's full of beautiful views and foliage. So many different kinds of birds reside here and fly about. At one point we were walking on the perimeter of the cemetery and we saw the NYC skyline and the Statue of Liberty! Such a nice afternoon ♥

♥ And of course a picture of me and my boyfriend since this was a date ♥
We accidentally matched!

My Perfect Lolita Themed Halloween Party!

I absolutely adore Halloween even though I never do anything for it. It always manages to land smack dab in the middle of the week and NYC during Halloween is not exactly the safest place to be... I still love wandering the stores smiling at all the decor, walking down the residential blocks and seeing the houses that display their carved pumpkins... It's such a wonderful time! It also makes me wonder, if I could throw my own Halloween bash with friends (the cute way) how would it be?

Rundown:

♥ Dress - Bodyline ♥

♥ Shoes- Bodyline ♥

♥ Earrings - Glitter Bandits ♥

♥ Ring - etsy (lost the link :c) ♥

♥ Tights - ebay ♥

Guilty. I've been dying to own one of Bodyline's adorable maid dresses! I'd never wear them out as regular outfits but they would make such cute and easy Halloween costumes! This new sailor-style maid dress is off-the-charts cute! I coorded it in a way to be like a vintage diner or ice cream parlor waitress. The pink is so sugary sweet and this costume just makes me think of sock hops and soda pop!

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My party would be all sweets, sweets, and sweets! Lots of spooky cookies, cakes and candy! If possible, I'd bake them all myself. I've been really getting into baking lately so this would be super fun for me! (If you click the source links above, they will take you to some tutorials on how to make the treats in the pictures!) Also I noticed I'm a big fan of spider decor during Halloween (not so fond of the Wolf Spider my boyfriend lost at his house. Nope, they haven't found it)

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I'm a huge fan of Martha Stewart Halloween decor (as you can plainly see haha). I love that classy, bright, cute type of Halloween decor. There would be LOTS of jack-o-lanterns and candle light and cute cutouts and probably some hanging bats and ghosts around there as well! I'm super crafty so I'm pretty sure I'd go overboard haha.

Would your party be dark and spooky or cute and bright?

Other cuties talking about this:

Dollhouse Diaries

Elegant Poupée

F Yeah Lolita

Hello Batty

Her Lumpiness

Lace a la Mode

Northern Star

Suns in our Hands

Bodyline's L329 JSK (in black) Review~ Positive!

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Hello lovelies! I recently purchased this lovely JSK in black! Let me tell you that I am head-over-heels in love with it! It's a nice, heavy JSK with lots of super cute details. If you're interested in this dress definitely click on to read the review!

My Favorite Print Theme in Lolita

I used to not be a very big fan of prints. Most of my inspiration pictures used to be beautiful solid colored dresses with special details in construction. In recent years, though, some goooorgeous prints have been released and man... I can't help it! I've fallen in love!

The theme that makes me go weak in the knee is, if you haven't guessed yet, CATS! They're not my favorite animal, I don't have pet cats (and never have), they're too aloof for my taste and I'm mostly allergic to them... For some reason, in print form, I fall in love every time! In fact, Cat Tea Party is my dream print!

Innocent World's Cherry Cat JSK is another gorgeous print that is to-die for! The art on it is so lovely on this. The colors complement each other so well, the creamy white of the cats' fur is so warm and pairs well with the pink and sax. (You should definitely go check out the sax colorway. It makes me want to cry!!)

Baby's "Cute Meowing Friend" is another super sweet print. Watching a cat play with yarn has to be the most "awwwwww"-inducing thing in the world!! The artwork is nice and soft and dreamy and I just love it so much!

Lastly, Angelic Pretty's Cinema Doll! It's not exactly cat themed but the cat on it is beautiful! This is another of my dream prints. It manages to strike the perfect balance between cute and elegant. Every single colorway is perfect, something I rarely think print dresses accomplish! I can't wait to one day get my hands on it~

What's your favorite print theme?

Other cuties talking about this:

Daily Fuc*ery

Lace a la Mode

Lolita Glamour

Miss Milly's Boudoir

Pink Lace + Glitter

Smithsonian

Starry-Eyed Lolita

Under the Parasol

New York Comic Con 2013!

Click any image for a larger version!

Ahhh Comic Con, a place where you can enter with your "strange" hobbies and interests and feel perfectly at home. This was my second year at Comic Con (first time while wearing lolita!) and I had such a fabulous time!

There were so many cute booths this year packed full of plushies, stationary, pens, accesories and more! I couldn't decide what to buy for soo long!! In the end I bought from the 2 cutest booths in the con.

The first booth I saw was by Qmomo! Their booth was Alpacasso heaven, I swear! They had the key chains, plushies, hats and backpacks. They also had several other famous kawaii character plushies. I bought an Alpacasso ID holder/ coin purse and it's soooo cute! (Pics later in the post)

The second booth was by Kawaii Gifts! Their's was my favorite since I'm such a huge stationary hoarder. They had any current San-X character you could think of! They had tons of Rilakkuma, Mamegoma, Sentimental Circus, Piggy Girl and loads others. For such a small booth they were packed to the brim with anything you would want to add to your stationary collection including: memo pads, stickers, deco tape, pens and notebooks along with a few plushies.

The best part? They had a special offer going on where they were selling kawaii grab bags. You could pay $10 for a small one that included a pencil, a memo pad and stickers. The large one was for $20 that came with 2 memo pads, stickers, deco tape, kawaii eraser, a letter set, a folder, a pencil and a special item (and this one would come in an adorable tote bag). Of course I went for the large one!

• Super cute poodle tote
• My Melody Notebook (I traded my folder for it with a friend haha)
• Puffy stickers
• Seal pin
• Tsuginohi Kerori memo pad
• Rilakkuma memo notebook
• Rilakkuma memo pad
• Rilakkuma pencil
• Halloween letter set
• Gingham deco tape
• Hello Kitty pen
• Ramen eraser
• Mamegoma halloween notepad (I bought this one separately from the grab bag because I couldn't resist haha)

The Alpacasso I bought at Qmomo. It's both an ID Card holder and a coin purse!

What I wore:

• JSK: Bodyline
• Purse: Hello Kitty (Gift from a friend)
• Alpacasso: Qmomo booth
• Everything else: Offbrand

Of course, a trip to Comic Con would not be complete without running into a few lolitas! I didn't see as many as I would've liked to, but the ones I did see were adorable and so sweet!

I only managed to recognize the lolita in the first pic (SanrioPalace). If you know any of the others, let me know!

I had such a great time this year and was able to see so many cute girls, cosplays and booths! It made me feel even more comfortable in lolita and has encouraged me to maybe go to a lolita meet in the future (thanks to the lolita in the last picture who convinced me)!