Cologne

It's been a long time since my last post. I could make an excuse about being busy, or ill, both of which would not completely be a lie, but the truth is that lolita isn't that magical to me anymore. In the last 3 months I only wore lolita two or three times. Maybe it started when my grandfather died. I shortly thought about wearing black lolita to the funeral, but the idea seemed so ridiculous to me. Lolita didn't seem serious and mature enough, as if I was making a joke. I wore pants, and felt comfortable. With Christmas, New Year, and to my concert, occasions which I would otherwise use as an excuse for lolita, or at least a dress, I also wore pants. Doesn't mean I don't like skirts anymore, I definately do. But the lolita skirts and dresses are simply too much. Sure, I still like lolita, but I don't want to dress in it every day anymore. Of course I will not stop wearing it, but I think I will sell some of the dresses I hardly care about anymore, and focus on the few that I really do love. And I want to wear more 'regular' fashion as well. Vintage inspired, with little collars and skirts, lots of hats and gloves and shawls, floral patterns and polka dots, dandy, elegance... Not that different from the lolita aesthetic, but much more practical and less attention-grabbing.
I will keep this blog as my fashion blog, so not only lolita anymore. Expect some pants or not-poofy skirts soon ;)

But, to lessen the shock, here are some pictures of me in lolita, taken when my boyfriend and I went to Cologne for a short holiday. I fell in love with the city (and Germany in general). Definately going there again.

Dress: handmade by me

Blouse, hair flowers, collar: H&M

Tights, jewelry & shoes: offbrand

Spam spam spam, now I'm done :) I'm gonna adjust some of my dresses so they'll fit more sizes, and then try to sell them. Etsy perhaps? I might start a little business...

Oh, just one more picture, to show you how terrible the wind was! I had so much difficulty with keeping my skirt from flying up! Quite Marilyn Monroe-esque.

I'm gonna fly away! Bye bye~

Dress up to cheer up

Last week has been less than pleasant, so I felt really down. I hoped to cheer myself up with a solo dress-up party, because my dresses never fail to make me happy.
I do feel a bit better now, but I'm afraid there are some problems that even pretty dresses can't solve. I haven't tried comfort shopping yet, though, perhaps that might work ;)

My dear Mary Magdalene always makes me feel like a doll. I combined it with a turtleneck instead of a blouse, because it's gotten a lot colder recently.

I finished this dress last weekend. It's inspired by Mary Magdalene, but also by Christian Dior and the New Look, so I called it Christiane in honor of my idol. (I think Dior is really inspiring. I love his designs and the way he brought feminity and luxury back in fashion after the war.)

I said I would try to coordinate Sugary Carnival in a classic way, right? Well, this is the first try. I wanted to keep the sweet aesthetic, because I think it would be weird to just make a classic coordinate and slap a different skirt on it. That would be out of place and unbalanced. This blouse is actually from my non-lolita wardrobe, but I thought the soft pink matched the lavender of the skirt perfectly. I wish I had pink heels, as well.



My eyes get a completely different color when the sun shines in them.

With the same blouse, I tried a coordinate with Metamorphose's Perfume Bottle. It's a gorgeous skirt, the back especially is lovely, but it's surprisingly hard to coordinate. I don't have any gold or pink shoes, so I'm wearing those same white heels again... I always think I have too many shoes, but never the right ones! Sigh.

I guess that was it. Maybe I'm going to make a daily_lolita post with some of these...

Also! I'm going to a symposium about 'cute' Japanese fashion tomorrow, so of course I'm going to dress to the nines~ I think I'm going to wear the Mary Magdalene dress, but I'm not sure yet. Of course 'cute' calls for an overdose of pink, but I don't want to exaggerate... Any suggestions?

Meme

I noticed I was tagged by akumaxkami from Les Fleurs Noires to write 7 facts about myself. So I will! It's hard to think of good ones, though...

1. Despite my obviously 'weird' tastes in clothing and many other things, I still consider myself a normal person.
2. But I haven't always. When I was a child, I was convinced I was a fairy child exchanged for a human child, or a princess of a magical country who had to be kept safe from enemies, so was raised by unsuspicious, normal people. I was also convinced I was the smartest person on earth.
3. I have the terrible habit of waiting with homework until the last moment. Apparently I work best under heavy stress, but I don't like it!
4. I like my feet :3
5. I studied Chemical Engineering for half a year, but it wasn't a great success.
6. I bite my nails.
7. I dream of someday publishing my own book, graphic novel or manga.

Now, I have to get back to studying Modern History! Exams next week...

More news about Japan

I got a phone call from my friends in Japan today. They and their family are all safe and healthy. I was so happy to hear their voices again, I had been so worried! But I feel very relieved now.
They send me a picture from one of their children to cheer me up ^^ "A cute smile for you."

He's so sweet <3
The only thing that still scares them (and me) is the problem with the nuclear reactor. There's a lot of nonsense about it going around on the internet, but it really is dangerous. I hope they will be able to keep it under control.

I have entered the shortlist for a summer school in Nagasaki. There's only place for 10 people, so it's a competition. I'm pretty sure I will make it, my marks and motivation are very good (even if I say so myself...) My friends live in that area too, so I hope I can visit them! When the school is finished I want to go to Tokyo for a few days, and if it's possible, also to Kyoto and Nara (culture & history~ ^^)
This is all wishful thinking of course. If the reactor explodes, Japan might vanish from the earth, and I might study a dead language! Let's hope it won't get to that ;)

Japan's disaster

It's so, so terrible. 10,000 people have died and many are still missing. There's an entire town missing! And even if people survived the tsunami, they have lost everything. You can't even find the spot your house used to stand! And I can't shake the mental image of a wall of water coming at me. You have nowhere to run.
And the problem with the nuclear reactor is very dangerous, too. I really hope that will be alright.

My chest feels tight when I think about all the people in danger. I already donated to the Red Cross, and I'm looking for other things I can do.
I have friends living in Japan whom I haven't heard of yet, and although they live in a completely different area, I'm still very worried.

I can't stand reading lolita blogs now. People only seem to care about problems with the shipping of their items, or if they do care about people, only about the famous ones (Aoki Misako etc.)
And some people even seem happy that the yen will probably lose value! They want to take advantage of other people's misery, how low!

I can't enjoy pretty dresses or other luxuries now, without feeling very guilty.

Fasting

I wonder how many people that are celebrating carnival now, will fast for 40 days afterwards?

My mom told me about the catholic tradition of fasting from carnival till Easter. Her family would eat bread with only margarine, no meat, no alcohol and no candy. I thought it would be a good exercise in gratefulness, keeping measure, and perseverance. It might also make me lose weight (not that that's really neccesary, but still it would be nice). So I’m going to try it.
I won’t eat candy and meat until Easter, and I will drink only water. Avoiding chocolate is gonna be hard, because Easter eggs are already in store everywhere… I also won’t buy any new clothes or shoes. Sewing doesn’t count, that’s eco-friendly ;)
My mother also told me that her parents would quit smoking during the fasting… and that she prayed it would be over soon, not because she wanted candy, but because she wanted her parents to start smoking again. They became so easily irritated!

Hesitance to join the local community

As I've said before, I would love to be part of a lolita community. Sometimes I wish Singapore was closer, their community is so lovely and I've met so many sweet girls there. When I look at the German, Finnish or Swedish community I get the feeling all of the girls there are nice, talented, and dress great. The same can't be said about the community in Holland, unfortunately.
It's true that I've never met any of the girls in the community, so I might've gotten the wrong impression, but from what I've seen on their forum, youtube and various other sites, I've formed a very negative image of them.
There is a shop in Holland that sells lolita brand clothing (for twice the original price... -.-) and it's seen as the centre of the community. I get the feeling that the girl who runs the shop sees herself as the Queen of Dutch lolita, and that all the other girls are like her ladies-in-waiting. I don't like that.
Besides that, I've only seen two Dutch lolita's who dress themselves well (chokelate and ludivine).
The rest wears JSK's with nothing underneath it, skirts that are way too short, bare legs, or do nothing with their hair... In short, I think they look sloppy. Of course, there might be very well-dressed lolita's that just aren't active on the internet. But it's logical that I haven't found them yet, then.
There's a forum for Dutch lolita's, but I'm not a member there. I know it would be a good way to get to know the local lolita's better, but I have many objections against it. First, I don't like the site. It doesn't look good, and there's a lot of bad grammar and badly spelled words. Somehow that's a huge turn-off for me.
Furthermore, you have to send in some sort of application first, with a lot of personal information and a picture, and the shop owner (who also runs the forum... like I said: Queen Bee) has to approve of you before you're allowed to join. They say it's to prevent creeps from joining the forum, but I see it as a way of selecting 'ladies-in-waiting'.

I don't like all of this. I wish there were nice girls in pretty dresses, with whom I could go to conventions, have high tea, have a photoshoot at a park, etc. Girls with the same fascination for beautiful clothes as I have.
But I guess I won't find girls like that in my country. And even if there are nice lolita's, I might have offended them gravely by this post...

My goals and resolutions

A new year has started, and because everyone and their mother is writing about their resolutions, I will do that too. I do have a few, though some are not neccessarily related to lolita.

1. Get to know at least one local lolita. I'm a little prejudiced against the local community, but I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm sure there must be nice lolita's in my country. So maybe I'll join the national forum, or go to a public meetup, or comment on a blog... I don't know yet. 
2. Get a new haircut. My current hair is brown, straight and long. It reaches my bottom, and although I love long hair, it does get a little inconvenient. I dye it in a different color once in a while, but it's getting boring. I've had this haircut since I was 15, and now I'm almost 20! It's time for a change.
3. Stop biting my nails. I have this one every year, and I've broken it already, but I will still try! I want to be proud of my hands!
4. Sew more. I have so many ideas for dresses and jumperskirts, my sketchbook and fabric stash are overflowing! Hopefully I'll have time to sew a lot in this new year.
5. Draw more, and post more drawings. I sketch a lot of designs for dresses, but I haven't made a real drawing in a long time. I also want to post some of my art on tumblr and on this blog.
6. Be an active lolita blogger! First I have to announce this blog on daily_lolita and egl. I don't have any followers yet, which is not surprising because no one knows about it yet! Then I have to post regularly, and about interesting subjects. I want to write about more than just the latest brand releases. I just hope people will like what I write...

Well, I hope everyone will have a very good 2011, and will be able to keep his/her resolutions! I'll do my best to keep mine.

An introduction

I've started this blog to practise my writing, and is there a better way to do that then by writing about something you love? I realize there already are numerous blogs covering lolita, but I feel that none of them look at the fashion from my point of view. There are not many blogs I like, and even less covering classic lolita (I know only 2 or 3 good classic blogs. If you know more, please tell me!)
Although English is not my first language, I hope that my grammar, spelling and structure are okay. I also hope that people are interested in my view on lolita. I plan to write mostly about lolita clothes and lifestyle, but there might slip some Japanese, literature, or my view of the world in.

Now, something about me: I am a girl, currently 19 years old, and I live in the Netherlands. I'm studying Japanese language & culture and I love wearing lolita. These two do not necessarily relate to each other; I would still love Japan if it didn't have lolita, and lolita if it weren't Japanese. I like reading and drawing and I love to sew my own clothes. Most of my lolita wardrobe consists of dresses I've made myself, that's something I'm very proud of. I don't own many brand items, but I do have a few favourites: Victorian Maiden, Mary Magdalene, Alice and the Pirates and Innocent World are my main inspirations. Most of my 'dream dresses' are AatP ones in ivory.

I am at the moment not part of a lolita community, although I would like to be. It'd be lovely to have picnics, do photoshoots or go to the theater together, but we'd have to like each other, too... I know there are some lolita's in my country, but I'm not too enthusiastic about the ones I've discovered thus far (thanks, internet). I just hope there are many nice ones I haven't met yet. But I dont really need lolita friends anyway; I am very happy with my non-loli friends.

I hope you will enjoy my blog!