BREAKING: Novala Takemoto's First Solo Collection, Lecture and Tickets to the Fashion Show!

Hello everyone! This just in!

I was contacted by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and asked to please give some exposure to some really exciting news! Novala Takemoto's first solo fashion collection, appropriately named "Novalar's", will be debuting at the SGMS: Mechademia Conference, and you can buy tickets to this incredible event!

Here's a little of the information I was given about what you can expect:

On September 26, Novala Takemoto will be giving a public lecture on the development of Lolita Fashion at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This event will take place at 7:00pm.

On September 27, during SGMS: Mechademia Conference's annual fashion show, Full Fashion Panic, Novala Takemoto will debut the "Novalar's" collection, which was in the message I received described as the "next generation of Lolita". Oh, and Novala will be playing a piece of Nana Kitade's music on the guitar during the runway show! (How cool is that!?)

Tickets can be purchased in advance here and are $15 per person, or at the door at the day of the event for $20. This ticket covers both of the events. 

Some information for those of you who're unfamiliar with Novala Takemoto's work and his influence on the Lolita community:

Novala Takemoto is a musician and author who has written many influential essays on Lolita fashion, which made him practically the patron saint of the Lifestyle Lolita. His essays are published online, and can be found here, translated into english. And of course he wrote Kamikaze Girls, a novel that was turned into the movie that continues to be THE defining piece of media of the Lolita world, and which, like his essays, continues to be an inspiration for any Lifestyle Lolita (and a good laugh for the rest of us, who can nod in recognition as Momoko continues to struggle to stay "maidenly" )

I can only say: Check it all out!
The essays and the movie were a personal source of empowerment for me when I first got into Lolita, and I return to all of it time and time again, both in nostalgia, but also because both his essays and the story of Momoko and the yanki Ichiko continues to charm me. It's genuinely beautiful.

His most recent work includes the novel, "Emily", which could turn out to be the next "Kamikaze Girls". I haven't had the chance to read it myself, yet, but of course I'll have to! Especially since it's done in collaboration with Kira Imai, the great Lolita artist, who did the cover art!

He's also coorporated with punk Lolita icon Nana Kitade to form "Nananova", a punk/electric duo, in which Novala Takemoto plays the guitar and ms. Kitade is chanting and DJ'ing. You can hear an example of their magic right here!

Novala has also done plenty of work which has gotten him featured in both the english and japanese Gothic Lolita Bibles wearing his trademark androgynous clothing style, and he's collaborated with Baby, The Stars Shine Bright on the clothing line titled "Pour Lolita".

The "Novalar's" line will, however, be his first solo clothing line, and I'm so sad that I cannot be there, but I hope that some of my american readers can! Oh, and please post some pictures of the event below! I'd love to know that you got the chance to go (and I'm so very curious!)

So, will any of you guys be going? Hurry and get your tickets!

(A heartfelt thank you to Frenchy Lunning of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for contacting me and letting me bring these exciting news!)

Bodyline Release: The Mr. Yan Bodypillow!

This is just a quick post about a.. situation online that was shared by one of my acquaintances on Facebook.
Apparently Mr. Yan and Bodyline is (legitimately!) planning on releasing a, possibly real-size, bodypillow with Mr. Yan on it, due to popular demand. 

If you're dying to get your hands on one of these, check out the event that Bodyline has made and let your desire be known!

Personally, I find this to be hillarious. I do, of course, not condone any harm done to young women by older men, but I am not picking sides when it comes to the controversial situations with Bodyline, the models who might've been sent home without their stuff and all that (look this up on EGL or google if you wanna know more).

I just find Mr. Yan as a comedic figure in Lolita to be hillarious. 

The whole idea of Mr. Yan as this overly dramatic dude believing himself to be much more desired than he is, who hosts unsuccesful modeling contests in his just as unsuccesful hunt for a wife and ridiculous "Mr. Yan so (blank)!" sales where nothing is really on-sale..
Come on, the guy is a caricature! And I might need a pillow with his face on it!

New Release: BTSSB/AATP and Disney Collab!

Picture from baby-aatp.blogspot.com

Recently, Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates did a collaboration with none other than Disney and their Alice in Wonderland franchise in celebration of Disney's 110th Birthday! I know it might not exactly be news to everybody anymore, but since I love especially Alice and the Pirate's take on this collaboration, I thought I'd talk a little about it anyway! I would say this series is pretty good for people with slightly larger measurements, but the pieces are still a little on the short side. 

This collab was released exclusively in Japan, but that doesn't prevent you from keeping an eye on Mbok and Yahoo!Japan anyway, or taking contact to a Shopping Service! 

Now, onto the pieces!

Picture from babyssb.co.jp

Baby the Stars Shine Bright has released a jumperskirt, a one piece (Though only for sale at Disneystore Japan) as well as a very simple skirt for this print. The print is available in colorways appropriately named after characters from Alice in Wonderland: March Hare (ivory), Cheshire (pink), Alice (sax), Queen of Hearts (red) and Hatter (black). The little scenes of the borderprints are printed in color so they look a bit like stills from the animated movie. In a sense I think it is very appropriate for a collaboration like this, but I'm not a big fan of the look, as the colors of the print doesn't match well with every colorway, even if they have adjusted the background color a little bit. The greenish background color of the print looks especially out of place in the pink colorway! My favorite colorway is the red one. I think that the brown accents of the print contrasts compliments the deep red color, and the beautiful design of the print on the bodice and upper-skirt part is not as washed out as on the pink one. I love the striped straps on the JSK and the little charm on the satin bow! (It is though a little unfortunate how not-symmetric the waist-bow looks)
I don't have much to say about the OP. I find it to be a very classic Baby the Stars Shine Bright design, though I do love how it looks like you're wearing a blouse under the OP! The Peter Pan collar is adorable and I like the bustle at the back of the skirt-part. It is quite OTT, but in an old-school sort of way.

Picture from babyssb.co.jp

Alice and the Pirates' has released 2 JSK's and a simple skirt for this series. One of the Jumperskirts, however, can only be purchased from Disneystore Japan. Their take on the collaboration looks, though drawn in the same style as the animated movie, a bit more like storybook illustrations as they chose to leave out the colors. The crowns are a very beautiful touch, and impressively detailed, and they seem to me to be classic Alice and the Pirates',which I personally love! I think the icy-blue colorway of the JSK on AATP's own website is very interesting and contrasts well with the use of black corset-lacing and ribbon-detailing on the bottom of the JSK, though the deep navy colorway comes in as a close second. I'm not a big fan of the rounded cut of the bodice, however. I think it looks a bit awkward on some of the photos, though it might look better in person. The little striped bow is a very cute and fitting detail! For the Disneystore JSK I think the bustled skirt is very cute, though I'm not a fan of the lace on the bodice. It is a very elegant cut, though.

Picture from Disneystore.co.jp

While is doesn't look like Baby or AATP released any specifically Lolita accessories for this line, they did collaborate with Disney and a company called Crystal Ball to make a line of pouches, totes and wallets in an Alice in Wonderland style print (also only for sale at Disneystore Japan). Personally, I think they would have looked a lot better without the light-brown Crystal Ball logo and details (but I understand they have to put the logo somewhere), and of course with more frills!

Personally, I like Alice and the Pirate's version of the print better, and will definetely be keeping an eye out to see if I can find it on the second hand market! The crowns kind of sold it to me.

So, what are your thoughts on this collaboration? Are you gonna try and see if you can snatch a piece up somewhere too or is it not worth the trouble? 

AATP New Release: Cock Robin~Mother Goose~

I must admit, that when I saw the name of this series and then took a quick glance at the pieces, something did not seem to match up to me. Alice and the Pirate's new release named "Cock Robin~Mother Goose~" is a very dark series that is inspired by the old nursery rhyme "Who Killed Cock Robin?" or just "Cock Robin", a rhyme apparently attributed to the imaginary author Mother Goose. I had never heard of this rhyme before, but after reading it, I understand the feel of this series much better. The rhyme is surprisingly macabre!
With this release, Alice and the Pirates stay in their niche of making prints inspired by old litterature, though it's the first time I've seen a print inspired by a nursery rhyme!

Reservations started this Friday, October 19th. 

 This series is a collection of goodies for both people who enjoy boystyle and lolitas! Also, I think that according to the sizes, a lot of taller and plus-sized lolitas are gonna be very happy with this series! I might just hunt a piece down myself!

Your choices of colorways are bordeaux, navy and black. 

In this series we've got two JSK's, just named Jumper Skirt I and II, and a corset skirt. Pictured above is JSK I, which is my personal favorite piece of the series because of the nice, corset-like fit (it even has corset-like panels!) and because of the skirt part! I love how the skirt is ruched up a little bit. It is a very elegant detail. Also, I like the glittering chiffon-layers at the bottom (though the material looks a little.. stretchy to me?) I think the layering at the bottom has a bit of a gothic feel to it and matches well with the Lacy Fairytale blouse (see below). JSK II has a more simple skirt, with the chiffon-layering at the bust area instead. To me it looks like the neckline sits a little low and the design is too simple for my taste with the only detail being the layering at the neckline, chiffon trimming at the hem and a ribbon around the waist. Personally, I'd go for JSK I because of the elegant cut!

The series has two blouses, and I find this one in particular to be very unusual and interesting! At first I thought the see-through lace-sleeves looked a bit odd (I think they'd look much better on a person!) but when you remove the cravat you see a very charming sweetheart line on the bust, which I think kind of ties in the lace-parts of the dress and looks very charming! At first I didn't like the blouse much, but it's growing on me! The other blouse is a little odd with the one ruffle running down the front of the blouse, but I think the finished product looks a lot better than the drawing did. It would look pretty good in the boystyle coord!

Now for some goodies for the boystyle lovers! Alice and the Pirates have released a pair of short pants and a printed vest for this series. The pants are the ones pictured above! I think the cuffs of the pants look very cute, though a tad oversized. They have kind of a punky feel to them because of the belt details, which I think gives them a nice edge. I guess they could look very cute in a coord with the awesome vest to make the top-part of the coord match the busyness of the cuffs, because as it is now, it looks a little unbalanced to me. Also, I think it's a little strange that the pants have Alice and the Pirates written on the butt! It reminds me of those sweatpants that have "Sexy words" printed on the back. Is that just me? All in all, I think the boystyle pieces have the potential to make an awesome and flashy kodona-type coord!

The accessories for this series include a cameo-adorned bow, a very pretty headdress (I like the use of feathers to match the rhyme!), a tie (see below) and a simple rosary necklace, but instead of socks, we get printed tights! I think the tights are very unusual in themselves, as we usually see socks and OTK socks in any new series. The print is a simple ribbon running down the back of the tights, and with little crosses up the front. The print is very crisp and incredibly detailed! The tights are available in black and white.

Since close-ups of the print have yet to be released, the tie is what gives us the best indication of what the print looks like up close! It looks like frames or gravestones with verses from the rhyme written on them, and signs above a fairytale or forest-like landscape and a lodge among the trees. The print looks very detailed and gives off the feel of old book illustrations.

I think we have reason to look forward to some very elegant boystyle and Gothic lolita coords with this series! And I look forward to seeing if they continue on this poetry and nursery rhyme inspired route.

What do you guys think of this series? What other poetry or rhymes would you like to see turned into a print?

All pictures in this article belong to Alice and the Pirates/Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Infanta and the Dolly House

Not too long ago, Infanta entered the sweet lolita market with their Sweet Dolly House series, a series that is obviously inspired by many of Angelic Pretty's recent pastel-toy prints. Infanta is a well-established Taobao brand that has for a long time been more focused on classic and kodona styles, but has now branched out to the more sugary-inclined. Even though their series resembles many other OTT-sweet prints, they still put a very unique spin on the design of the dress, in my opinion. The series features a One Piece, a JSK, a skirt, a head-bow, a half-bonnet and something very unusual: A series of bow clips! 

Picture borrowed from Clobbaonline

I am very partial to their OP, even though I usually prefer JSKs. I find that even though mint is not an unusual color in itself in sweet lolita, this particular mint colorway is very unusual, in that it leans more towards a greenish kind of color than a pastel blue. It is a very bright color, and I think it showcases the print the best out of the three different colorways. The scalloped neckline is a very unusual detail, and I really like the corset lacing! It doesn't look overwhelming and is a refreshing nod to more old-school styles. The yellow colorway has pink polkadot ribbon for the bow on the neckline, which I think is a very charming touch! 

Picture from Clobbaonline


The pink and yellow colorways of the JSK has nice lace at the bottom that looks a bit like chiffon, whereas the mint has an unusual kind of lace that to me looks very soft, and might be venetian lace (correct me if I am wrong), but to me it makes the JSK look kind of shredded at the bottom in an "I was chased through the woods" kind of way, haha! I think that the randomly placed bows at the top of the JSK could have been placed better. A small bow at each of the straps would have been enough.
The skirt is very cute and simple with more randomly placed bows that I am not a fan of myself, but otherwise, the skirt looks very full and nice, though a tad on the short side.

Picture from Clobbaonline

I really like the fluffy look of the half-bonnet (though I'm not so sure about the quality of the lace), but the headbow really stood out to me the most. The way it lays flat on the head usually doesn't look good to me, but with this one, I think it looks absolutely adorable, if the bow had just looked a little less like it badly needs to be ironed. I would love to see some more of this kind of bows in the fashion!The cherry hairclip that she is wearing is part of a $10 dollar set that also belongs to this series (though I don't see how cherries and strawberries go with a toy-themed print. Meh, they are cute anyway!)

None of Infanta's dresses can be custom-made right now, so some of us will have to keep our fingers crossed that they give us that option sometime in the future! None the less, I look forward to see what they will come up with next! I really like what we've seen so far!

This series can be purchased at: 
Clobbaonline
Qutieland
Infanta's Taobao Shop (with a shopping-service)