So, I'm in Japan now.

Hey everyone :)

It's been a long time since I wrote! I've had lots of matters other than fashion to deal with, but now I think I've settled and I'm ready to start blogging again.

As I've said before, this October I started studying at the university of Nagasaki. I'll be here for one year. It's amazing so far. It's been a little more than 3 weeks now, and I'm finally starting to feel at home.
Well, this is a fashion blog, so I won't write about studying or my personal life. But there's more than enough fashion to talk about!
I am amazed by the style of the Japanese girls here. My teacher said I shouldn't expect Nagasaki to be like Tokyo, and that people here don't wear fancy clothes much, but he was not completely right. Of course, the numbers are fewer than in Tokyo, but I've seen very many super stylish girls, and also a few lolita's, goths and punks, and hime-gal. I've only been here for a short time, so I can't say for sure yet, but I do think alternative fashion is not very uncommon here.
Also, I think the regular fashion is great. Skirts with pleats, blouses with round collars, old-fashioned shoes, pocketwatch-necklaces, flowers, lots of lace, brown, wine red, beige and dusty pink... I love it! It's exactly the style I want to move into after lolita.  It has the same aesthetic and the same old-fashioned romanticness -is that a word?- as Classic (which I still love!), but it's simpler and easier to wear. And the greatest thing is- all the girls here wear it, and they all like it!

I don't have any fashion-related pictures yet. So meanwhile, enjoy this picture of a Japanese dancer :)

Moving on

Hey all,
It's been a while. I think it's official now: I've left lolita.
The last time I wore a petticoat was at the Fly Away Fashion tea party, and that was the first time in months, too. Although I met some nice people there, and had fun, I didn't really feel at home in the clothes and the community.
I like toned-down steampunk and Dolly kei, and otome style, but I don't think I'll wear a petti on a regular basis anymore, like I used to last year. I like 'normal' clothes better now.
I was in Paris last week, and when I realized my hotel was close to the Baby shop, I decided to take a look. When I browsed through the racks, my thoughts were among these lines:

"This is seriously overpriced, the quality isn't that good."
"This is just plain ugly."
"What idiot would wear this?"

Maybe, if it had been VM or Innocent World, I wouldn't have thought that, but I think it's clear. I'm over it.
(I hope no Baby fans are insulted now... I don't mean to insult the fashion, it's just not for me anymore.)
When I look back at some of the photo's on my Facebook account, I cringe in shame, and hope no one ever looks at them. Already I deleted the tags on many of them.

So much has happened to me, I feel like I'm becoming a different person. My boyfriend broke up with me a month or two ago, but already two other guys expressed interest in me. It's strange because I never had the feeling that I'm popular, but now my self-confidence is blooming. Ironic that I needed a break-up to gain confidence...

And, to make things complete, I will leave for Japan in September and start a year of studying at Nagasaki University. I'm very excited and also scared, but I hope and trust it will be an amazing experience.

I'm going to a tea party~

In a previous post, I complained a bit about the local community, but I got some comments from other Dutch lolita's who convinced me to give the community a try.
So... I just registered for Fly Away Fashion's tea party!

I really hope I'll meet some nice people there, who can take away my prejudices. Are any others going? I would love to meet the girls who commented on my blog :)

It'll be my first tea party! I'm pretty excited, actually :3

(I also discovered my account on the national lolita forum has been de-activated because I never posted... Ah well.)

Dolly Kei (a.k.a. TASSELS)

Because Lolita isn't really doing the magic anymore for me (except OTT classic, but try riding a bike with that...) I'm trying out other styles. Otome has already become a favourite, I'm totally in love with Emily Temple Cute and Shirley Temple and Jane Marple and brands like that. It's also closer to 'normal' clothes, so I feel a bit more confident in it.
I love the dreamy, fairytale-like look of Mori girl as well, but I don't like the loose and baggy style. I prefer a defined waist, because I end up looking like a bag of potatoes otherwise... -.-
So, that lead me to Dolly Kei. I'm not one for creepy accessories like doll's hands or heads on a necklace, and I must say sometimes it looks like the Grimoire girls are wearing Persian carpets, but there is one thing that really convinced me: TASSELS. As BELTS. Or, just as good, NECKLACES.
Yes, caps were totally neccessary for that.
I love tassels. I forgot the word for them for a while, which didn't really help, because searching for 'curtain-upholder-fringey-thing' doesn't deliver a lot of results. But now I at least remember the English word. Still don't know the Dutch one, though...

Anyways! One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday morning is strolling the textile market. And there I found them... TASSELS!
(maybe I'll continue writing that word in caps. Just to express my enthusiasm for them.)
For now I only bought one, to try it out. It's a light brown/ beige one. But they have many more colors: wine red, black, gold, brown... All very suitable colors for Dolly Kei ^^

So I went experimenting with it immediately. Of course going for a 'normal' or 'simple' look is a bit impossible if you're wearing a TASSEL as belt, but I still tried to keep a relatively simple style.

Oh, and after buying the TASSEL I also bought a rather fabulous hat. My father said his grandmother had one just like it, on a picture from the 1940's. I like that.
So I combined them.

And with one of my handmade dresses, that I've been neglecting for too long...

In Lolita, I would not have worn black tights with this dress, but beige or brown. But Dolly calls fior a somewhat harsher, stronger look, so I thought the black was okay. Otherwise it would've been too much brown... I'm also wearing golden leaf earrings and a golden leaf headband, but they're kinda invisible on the pictures :(

Dolly Kei also gives me an opporunity to wear scarves! I have this really pretty one from Claire's with a deer on it (not that you can see the deer when I'm wearing it...) and it fits right in ^^

Well, because this is an outfit-spam anyways, I'll also show you a Steampunk-inspired outfit I wore a few days ago.

That's all folks!

Japanese festival

Hi guys & gals!

Last sunday there was a small festival in my city, to celebrate the visit of the Japanese emperor some years ago. Ever since that visit, the local Japanese museum holds a a yearly festival filled with Japanese art, food and other cultural aspects. Some friends of mine performed a dance, and a lot of my classmates were there as well. I ate some delicious things, met many nice people (and a few annoying..), and had a lot of fun :)
On my way to the city, I encountered a group of lolita's in the train, the 'elite' of the national community. They were, of course, decked head-to-toe in brand and attracted a lot of attention. Of course all of them were wearing OTT Sweet. They were talking with a Japanese lady, and because I was sitting in the same train, I overheard their conversation. It was funny to hear them talk about Japanese things, and realize how little they actually knew. Of course knowledge about Japan isn't obligatory for lolita (in fact you don't have to care about Japan at all and still be a fabulous lolita) but it's funny when people pretend to be experts when they are really ignorant.
I was not wearing lolita at that moment (although I did wear a rather fabulous hat), and it was strange to see these people that I knew from the internet, knowing that we shared so many things and yet they didn't look twice at me.

At the festival, after I changed into lolita as well, I saw them again. They were posing for pictures a lot. One of them notice my Baby skirt and smiled at me. I smiled back, but that was all.
Would they realize I have encountered them numerous times before? Once at the Animecon, twice at the Elf Fantasy Fair, and probably more times. I always recognize them because they're 'famous' and blog a lot, so I know their face from pictures. But would they know me? I wonder...

I still don't think I'd fit into the national community. It would be nice to have some friends with the same interest, but I always get the feeling I wouldn't really get along with those girls. Of course I won't know till I try...

Anyways, here's what I wore:

I went for a casual, summery look. It was very hot and I really wanted to wear pink. Summer always makes me want to wear sweet (or classic-sweet or country or whatever it's called). I doubted between this and Sugary Carnival, but because I knew the 'elite' would be there I didn't want to wear a replica. That's actually kinda funny because I didn't wear socks or anything, so if they are real snobs they'll still call me ita. Oh well.

Talking of ita's... There's always SUCH a clear distinction between the 'elite' and the 'ita's' that I feel a little lost in the middle. Here again, there were a few girls with fishnets, bad lace, bad replica's and horrible wigs, the usual ita-tastic things like cat ears etc. And then on the other side there's the elite. But what about me, where do I go? I don't feel like I fit at either side...

19-05-2012

Oh, I love shopping when I actually should be studying. But the weather is sooo nice outside, and I -really- needed some clothes, so...

An outfit with some of my new additions :)
It's actually inspired by a girl I admire a lot. She seems perfect in every way: beautiful, stylish, unbelievably sweet and very musical. It's hard not to be jealous! I tried to imitate her style.

I got a Lookbook account :D If you have one too, please tell me! I'm looking for people to follow.

My awesome new shoes:

New hair

So yeah, I went to the hairdresser and got my hair dip-dyed pink. I guess that's all there is to it. I hope people will like it (judging from the speed with which I now recieve Facebook-comments, it definately triggers a reaction!)

Picture time! (you know, this blog is really an excuse for me to just dump a whole lot of pictures of myself XD)



 Does anyone else have those discussions with yourself when uploading pictures?

"On this one my face looks really good, but you can't actually see my hair..."

"Well it IS about the hair, so I'd better pick the other one, even if I don't look perfect on it.."

"But my nose looks so red, and I have a double chin on it! I can't post that to the internet!"

"Can't I photoshop that?"

Elf Fantasy Fair 2012

I've been 'out' for a while, due to various reasons... But I've come back to show you some pictures of my Rococo costume that I wore to the Elf Fantasy Fair a few weeks ago.

I made the dress all by myself, and the vest and coat for my partner as well. I also put feathers on her hat and caps on her boots. (And I almost died of stress because of it).

It was quite cold that day, so I sneakily wore a white cardigan underneath the bodice. The gloves and pearls are vintage, I got them from my grandmother. Next time I make a rococo dress, I will definately put boning in the bodice, because this one started wrinkling right away. But I simply did not have the time to figure out boning for this one.

Due to rain the grounds were very muddy and my skirt got dirty...

That's quite a nice castle... It's not Versailles, but it will do, for now.

My partner's cane is vintage as well, she borrowed it from her grandpa.

It was SO much work to get my hair up like that, but a friend helped me and thanks to her it turned out really well :) And I loooove my little boat <3

We participated in a costume contest, but we didn't win anything. Not suprising, because there were many truly amazing costumes. We were the very last ones to enter the stage... Just when it had begun to rain again :( So we (and our clothes) were a little worn out when at last we stood before the jury...

But I had a lot of fun! After all the stress about finishing the costumes on time, it was worth it.

test-drive rococo hair

"Si les paysans n'ont pas de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche."

If the peasants don't have bread, let them eat cake.

At the upcoming Elf Fantasy Fair, I will be wearing a Marie Antoinette-style dress (all handmade... so much work!). This was a test to see whether the boat would stay in my hair, and whether I could get it up in a bouffant using "donuts". This looks nothing like the final product though. At the Fair I will have 2 "donuts" underneath the bouffant (here I'm wearing 1) and my friend will help teasing and curling my hair (here it's straight and not teased at all). So I hope it will be EPIC.

Here's a sketch of my entire outfit:

The textiles I'm using are dark and light green with golden details, and a white underskirt. I'm so excited! Too bad the weather forecast is really bad. I would be sooo disappointed if it were to rain and my hair would die... And my dress get wet... And my make-up run... And all the pictures turn out dark and gloomy... And the picknick ruined... So keep praying to the weather gods!

Oh, and it's not meant to be completely historically accurate. I know some people take great pride in reproducing 100% correct historical dresses, but I just want something pretty.

If you happen to be at the EFF and see me (a green-clad rococo lady with a matching rococo gentleman, in a group of all other kinds of costumes and 'normals'), don't hesitate to say hi! :)

We're also planning to participate in a costume contest. There are unbelievably awesome costumes each year, so I'm pretty sure we won't win anything, but it will be fun!

Spring is getting closer...

With the sun coming out, I feel like wearing something simple but fancy, cheerful but elegant. This lead me to otome. I've never seriously considered this style, but it's such a lovely alternative for lolita now that I long for a simpler silhouette. On schooldays, or while traveling, or when I'm meeting people I don't know too well, I feel very comfortable in this cute, casual style. Of course, for 'normal' people, this style is anything but casual, and I got a lot of compliments on my clothes yesterday. It's within the range of acceptable for the 'normal' public, but still cute and elegant enough for my taste ^^

In short, I think I'll wear this style very often!

  

 Skirt: Shirley Temple

Lace collar: hand-crocheted by my mother

hair/hat clip: Paris Kids

everything else: offbrand

When wearing this, I was compared to a flamenco dancer, a geisha, and an English schoolgirl. And they were all meant as compliments :) People also seemed to excessively like my hat: one guy even said that seeing me walk in with that hat made him 'very happy'. Too bad he's kinda awkward...

Casual for college

Just a quick one for class. We had Classical Japanese which is maybe even harder than Calculus, so I figured I'd wear something cheerful. Plus, it's getting just a little bit warmer here which already put spring in my mind...I think I'm getting my love for lolita back a little, mostly thanks to these two lovely ladies: http://imperialfiddlesticks.tumblr.com/ and http://fannyrosie.tumblr.com/ They made me realize again how beautiful Classic Lolita really is.
Also, I can never not love Mary Magdalene. I still can't believe I actually own a Mary Magdalene dress, and fit it too! <3



Hmm, maybe I shouldn't try cutting my own fringe anymore...
I have a setting on my camera that's called Portrait and makes my skin look super smooth and perfect. See the difference between the two close-up photo's? I think it looks nice, but almost too fake. I don't want to seem like a girl who Photoshops everything...

And I dearly love that lace collar. My mom hand-crocheted it <3 She's teaching me, I can already make my own potholder XD