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!

LBC: Historically Inspired Coordinates

For this week's Lolita Blog Carnival the theme was to create a coordinate centered around the historical aspect of Lolita fashion. If you've done even the teensiest bit of research, you'd be able to recite the eras that inspired Lolita fashion if you got a crash course in your sleep. Rococo, the victorian era, the 50's..
My first thought was to do a Regency inspired coordinate, but well, I already did that back when we were all doe eyed with romance at Valentine's Day. So this week I'm diving into another era that I'm very fond off- The Tudors and the renaissance.  

For this coordinate what came to mind first, was brocade, and then Metamorphose's "Dim Light" print. I originally wanted to center my coordinate around a very simple brocade JSK, resembling the one that Jane Seymour was wearing for the portrait that I picked as my icon for this post, but I went with the Metamorphose JSK because of the simplicity of the cut, and the oppulence of the print. 

I wanted a very simple JSK with a square neckline, that would let me stack on the jewelry without getting overwhelmed! This coordinate is obviously very much about all the bling!
I chose a simple black blouse, but with giant sleeves, like the ones the royal ladies used to wear back in the day. I wanted something light, though, to make it a little less "heavy". I don't think a kneelength dress would be able to justify giant, heavy sleeves the way a floorlength gown would.

I decided to go on Etsy to find some Tudor-inspired jewels, and as you can see from the coordinate, I had plenty of luck!
I found some really interesting little artisans on there.

The huge gold and burgundy jewelled necklace is from After Dark, who also stocks a pair of matching earrings!

The beautiful girdle is from RecycledRockstah, and the Anne Boleyn pendant is from Moon Garden Designs.

I think that for this coordinate, I think you could keep your hair straight, or you could actually wear some good oldfashioned curls and bangs! Both could do.
Last but not least, I stumbled upon a pattern for the Tudor headdress from TheTudorTailor, so you could actually make your own! For this coordinate, I'd make a black one with red gemstones and white pearls.

That was it for this week, folks!
Want some more historical inspiration to inspire the nerdy Lolita in you?
Check out the links below!

Breidholt
Sidhe Banshee
New Vogue Children

What to keep in mind when joining a Lolita community

Spring and summer is upon us, and as usual, this is the season where online Lolita communities are seeing a huge influx of new Lolitas who want to join in on the fun. Many new Lolitas use these communities to seek assistance from the more experienced members. Sometimes this works out just fine, but more often than not, the "Noob Season" is a season of a little bit of.. frustration for the community. The experienced members sneer at the newbies, and the newbies go off in a huff because of the "elitists".

All of this could easily be avoided. This is not a matter of elitism or stupidity. I think it's more a matter of thoughtlessness, and forgetting that there are actual humanbeings on the other side of the screen, as is way too often the case on the internet. 

So, you may be a new Lolita who want to join EGL, "Daily Lolita Coordinates" or a local community? I suppose you want them all to welcome you and to make friends, or at the very least have a pleasant experience. That means there are a couple of common mistakes you want to avoid.
Here is what you'll have to keep in mind.
But first and foremost, keep in mind that this is meant to help you, not criticize you.

1. The Community is not Google

So you've joined the community and you want to ask for some advice. You assure everyone that you've already done a ton of research, and you think you have. You've read everything about your chosen substyle, how you need a petticoat and a blouse. But where do you get a blouse? Well,
Google it. A simple google search for "white Lolita blouse" brought up "My-Lolita-Dress", a trusted reseller, as the third result. I know how it is to want to make sure that you do everything right from the beginning, but some things you can easily figure out for yourself. It seems lazy and rude if you expect other people to google it for you.

2. Treat the Community like a Friendly Stranger on the Street
(Or lurk for a bit!)
When joining a new community, if you are too excited to just lurk for a while without posting to figure out the "local way of conversation", for gods sake, be polite! Do not write your post as if you were writing a message to your best friend on Messenger! Write exactly as if you were asking a stranger for directions. This means using "please" and "thank you!", because just like that stranger, these people are taking time out of their day to read and respond to your post. And just like you wouldn't use random japanese phrases or terms of endearment when asking for directions, don't use them here. 

3. What type of community are you joining? Read the rules and description!
Lolita has a ton of different, connected online communities, with very specific purposes. We've got "Daily Lolita Coordinate" communities, where you can show off your coordinates, we've got sales communities for selling different clothing by specific brands, for specific locations and so on. Pay attention to what community you're joining, and what is meant to be posted there! This will keep you from making an irrelevant post that people will respond negatively to. Scroll down the page a bit too, just to get a glimpse of what people tend to post in there.
Also, a local community is very different from a global one, in terms of what will be tolerated. Introduction posts are usually fine on a local Facebook group, but tends to seem selfcentered on EGL, a community with thousands of members who don't know, or want to know, each other personally.

Here's a small list of communities that you can use, and what they specialize in!

EGL
The largest Lolita community. Primarily a place of discussion of new brand releases, aspects of Lolita culture and life, and Lolita related events. Questions can be asked, but keep in mind that your question has probably been asked a billion times before. Check the memories and tags, and google it first!
If you'd much rather join a local community, check out if one exists on Facebook, or check this list for one near you.

The Lolita Community Sales
This community is for buying, selling and trading only!
Buying and selling can also be done in brand-specialized or local communities on Facebook, or in the big Lolita Sales in English group.

Daily Lolita Coordinates/Closet of Frills
Two communites meant for showing off your coordinates, and asking for constructive criticism on your outfits.

Lolita Fashion Mentoring
If you really need to ask a bunch of questions and or is in need of some guidance, then I recommend joining the above community. I still recommend you google your questions first, but the Lolita mentors will gladly help if you're unable to find the answer this way, or need some advice on how to coordinate or are in another Lolita-related pinch. 


That was my tips for joining a Lolita community. Again, this is not criticizm of new Lolitas. I love when people join the Lolita community! I know the joy and excitement that Lolita can give, especially when you first join in and everything is still fresh and new to you! But I've also witnessed these common mistakes being made time and time again each year. 
If you just try and avoid them, however, there's no problem at all, and the community will be more than happy to help out! Even without tearing out any well-styled hairs!

So, there's only one thing left to be said:
Welcome to our community! 

LBC: A Casual Coordinate for a Quiet Day

This week's Lolita Blog Carnival was all about assembling a Lolita outfit for a casual, quiet day. I went even further, and decided to try and create an outfit that would be appropriate for the type of quiet day where you don't even want to leave the house! Therefore, this outfit even features slippers!

I know that once in a while I haven't worn Lolita for a while, but there's no meet-up going on and I'm not going anywhere, but I still want to dress up for myself. On those days, I tend to go all the way, anyway, but to challenge myself I still threw in a little bit of laziness in this outfit.

 For that reason, I made sure that the outfit above features both casual, lazy elements and still some detail to make it feel like a treat to the wearer.
The fuzzy slippers are a little bit of both, I think! They're a luxurious type of cliché, I think, and carry connotations of spoiling yourself. The same goes for the beret- It's fancy, but an easy way out, and you can easily dress it up with a few clip-on bows. If the hat gets too warm, throw on a fluffy headbow instead.

The skirt has minimal poof, because I know I don't want to deal with a giant petticoat when going about my day in the house. I can knock stuff over when I'm out. I don't want to do it at home, haha! The t-shirt is comfortable and casual, and can be concealed a bit with a cozy knit bolero.
I chose the cherryblossom necklace and ring as a hint to the cherries on the crewsocks, and because it's finally spring!

So, there you go! An easy coordinate for a day of lounging about the house, baking or reading by the window in the cool spring breeze.
Because why should you forego Lolita, just because you're not going anywhere?

Thank you to LBC for convincing me that I should dress up in Lolita today! I was kind of sad because the meet-up this afternoon was cancelled, but why should that ruin my Lolita day?

Forgotten what casual looks like in the sea of OTT? Check out some links below!

Elegant Poupée

Whimsical Adventures of Me
Beyond Kawaii
Helado de Cereza
Make Lovely
Edible Rainbows
Sleeping Sweets
New Vogue Children

Very Impressed Closet Child Review!

So this last Friday I decided to treat myself to a really good deal off of Closet Child's online shop. I haven't bought anything of Closet Child before, just because I haven't really loved anything they put up on their site before (I'm pretty picky with my purchases), but for some reason I just fell instantly in love with this specific print, Alice's Doll House, when I was browsing their website. Do you know that feeling where you can just immediately imagine yourself wearing a dress? This was it for me!
I had to have it!

I know that it is generally recognized that Closet Child is a decent secondhand seller, but I think it is important that people keep coming out with reviews now and then so the information is up to date, but I also wanted to share this experience, just because I was genuinely impressed with them!

As usual, I'm gonna give one total rating, based off individual ratings, which in this case will be in these categories! My rating is a number out of 5.

Communication
Shipping
Ordering Procedure
Website

Product

And then a total rating.
As the dress is not actually a Closet Child product, I'm not gonna do a review of my dress as such, but I will let you know what I think of the state of the dress, compared to how Closet Child rated it. The dress was cheap, but also got a rating of 2/5 on their website. I've heard that Closet Child tends to be very nitpicky, and the tiniest of spots on the lace will be enough to pull down the rating a lot. 

I guess I'll have to see for myself!

So, here we go!

7th of March
I made my purchase at some time before noon, danish time, and received an automatic confirmation email, with plenty of information in easily understandable english. It told me that they'd check up on whether or not my item was actually still in stock, and then they'd get back to me. As Closet Child has many physical storefronts, it is understandable that they need to check if the item has already been sold in a physical store. As the 7th of March was a Friday, I didn't expect them to get back to me before some time next week. 

9th of March
I noticed that I used the wrong email address when ordering from them. I didn't use my paypal email, which I was sure could cause some trouble. Oops! I sent them an email letting them know I made the mistake, and put in plenty of information for them so that they could identify my order, including item, order number etc. 

11th of March

Closet Child gets back to me really early in the morning, letting me know that my order was in stock, and they've already invoiced me (on the wrong email!), but in the email it tells me that if I want to pay from a different email, I can do that. The information about how to proceed is easily understandable. I pay for my dress, including the information they ask for.
Right after that, I leave, as I have to get to my lecture of the day. Around an hour or so passes, and I open my computer before my lecture starts, and wow! An email tells me that Closet Child has received my payment, it is confirmed, they apologize for not getting to my email sooner and.. hold on.. my package has been shipped, and I can easily track it with my tracking number! All of this within a few hours after them telling me that my dress was still available!

12th of March

My dress is in Denmark already! It's going so fast that it's unreal!

So, all in all, I'm ecstatic when it comes to Closet Child's service.

Communication: ♠♠♠♠

Not perfect grammar or anything, but very easily understandable! No issues at all!

Shipping: ♠♠♠♠♠

Fast and easy. I didn't have to lift a finger. They use EMS!

Ordering Procedure: ♠♠♠

If you have a guide to help you through, it's an easy to use, standard shopping cart system. It's in japanese, though. 

Remember to check your email if you use paypal, and follow the instructions!

Website: ♠♠♠♠♠

No problems what so ever. Easy to navigate. Everything has a category and is in place. It seems to update very quickly when people purchase something. I couldn't find my dress as soon as I'd purchased it, at least!

So far, so good! 

From here and on, it was up to the danish postal service, and this is where things slowed down a little bit, but not a lot, actually. It arrived at my post office on Friday, and I picked it up today!

The dress in clear plastic, straight out of the box.

The dress came in a nice, big cardboard box. No dents or anything. The dress in itself was put in a clear plastic envelope, and had apparently been tapped to the bottom of the cardboard box.
The tape had let go, however. Or else it was the customs people who had taken the dress out of the box to examine it.
As soon as I opened the box and laid eyes upon the dress, neatly folded in it's plastic bag, I knew this could not go wrong.

Even if the dress looked very, very sad and wrinkly on their website, I thought a good iron and a little love could fix it right back up. It turned out even better than that, as I hope you can see from my photo!
Straight out of the bag, the dress was ready to wear. No wrinkles. Nothing. The dress is perfect! Whatever made them give it a 2/5 rating, I have not been able to find.
I wish I'd saved the Closet Child stockphoto so that I could show you the vast difference between that and what I actually received.

My rating:

Product: ♠♠♠♠♠
Obviously better than the website showed, and great for the price!

Closet Child's Total Rating: 4,5 out of 5 spades!

This was the most pleasant experience I've ever had while shopping for Lolita clothes, and I'd recommend it to anybody! I hope they make a separate english order form. That's the only thing I could reasonably ask for them to improve on. I'd never expect them to get fluent in english.

I hope you found my review to be useful!
(And now I'm off to stare some more on that new dress of mine!)

LBC: The Most Challenging Substyles, and How To Pull Them Off

For this week's Lolita Blog Carnival, the topic is to really challenge ourselves and make some really difficult stuff work out in Lolita's favor.
And why go the easy route? I've been working hard on this styleguide for a couple of days, and so I choose YOU:
Sweet Punk Lolita! 

We barely ever see punk Lolita done with sweet elements. It's usually your typical gothy, mainstream-punky substyle of Lolita, but I really like the idea of sweet Lolita being combined with some more kickass elements. Because why do you have to be gloomy to be tough? And this comes from a big admirer of the dark beauty that goth represents, mind you!

So how do I think you can balance sweet with rough'n'tough in a way that won't clash, or seem unbalanced? In my opinion, it's not enough to just throw on a leather jacket and call it a day.
Let me give you a couple of pointers, before I present my idea of a sweet punk outfit to you.

1: Think about what look you're going for!
What image do you want to convey with your outfit? A cute biker? A punk-style magical girl from one of your favorite mangas or comics? Do you wanna go more "torn fishnet" or more "leather", or a combination of the two?

2: Balance your elements!
You want to have an equal amount of punk and cute in your outfit. If you're gonna go for torn fishnet socks, choose some cute dolly shoes. If you wanna wear skull bracelets, try to incorporate some bows too. 

3: Follow the rules!
(or guidelines. Whatever you prefer to call them)
I know, I know, punk wants to be a rebellious style, but if you want to combine it with your Lolita and still be able to call it that, keep the guidelines in mind! This is especially important when you attempt something as experimental as punk Lolita. Punk is all about everything that Lolita is not- The torn, things falling apart at the seams, the rough and being "Ready to Fight for Freedom"! Lolita is pretty much the polar opposite. You can see how combining the two is walking on a thin line, but following the quidelines should help, if you also keep in mind to balance your elements. 
At least keep your ankles covered, keep the full, knee-length skirt, cover your shoulders and wear something on your head, until you're sure you know exactly what you're doing.


So, let me present to you my ideas for how you could put together an outfit..

For my very basic outfit above, I chose a Lolita biker as my style inspiration. I chose this particular JSK because of it's typical pastel elements, but it also has a bright color, the vibrant pink, that I could play up with the jacket. I wanted the jacket to really stand out as a focal point. I chose a pair of elegant fishnet tights and practical boots, but to keep it from straying too far into non-Lolita territory, I seperated the two with a pair of typical kneehigh socks. Also, to balance out the pink with a bit of blue.

Hairband by Babydoll. 

For hair accessories, I'd pick a spiky headband, with some cute pink touches, like the one above, positioned in front of a pair of fluffy, playful twin buns! A playful hairstyle would be important for this hairstyle, in my opinion. You could add a couple of bright pink bows to the buns, too.

From pinterest.

By Nile Perch and Swimmer

To spice up the jacket, I would add a couple of cute pins. Since punk is all about rebelling and standing up for what you believe in, I'd probably pick buttons who supported women's rights or animal rights, but you can also go another route and just choose cute buttons with cupcakes or other sweet things to your liking!

Necklace by Bandai.

To go further into the "Girl Power!" territory, I'd put in some girlpower elements like Magical Girl accessories. I love the magical girl concept, even if I don't watch a lot of animés myself.

They were a great part of my childhood, and I still refer back to these memories when I feel lacking in the confidence department. I chose a relatively simple silver pendant, as I felt it suited the colorscheme of the coordinate the best. I'm debating whether or not it would look good with a pink leather collar too. What do you think? I'd wear multiple bracelets with this coord. A mix of pearls, bows and leather bracelets.

To wrap this up, I want to show you guys a gorgeous leather jacket I found, that I think would look amazing with a vibrant sweet punk Lolita coordinate!

This UNIF jacket, which I found on "Dolls Kill"! I think it's absolutely gorgeous, with just the right amount of crazy pastel madness that has been to typical of Angelic Pretty over the last couple of years. Grab it before OTT goes out of style completely! I know I want to, if the price didn't make my wallet groan in pain.. 

That was it for this week, folks! I hope I inspired some of you guys to explore your more hardcore, girly side.

Want to receive some more advice on hard-to-pull-off Lolita looks? Check out the blogs below!

Breidholt
Lemon Tree
Sparkling Girl

Daily Fuckery
Fire Extinguisher
Sleeping Sweets
Alice in Lolitaland
Hello Batty

LBC: Coordinates for a Themed Vacation!

This week's Lolita Blog Carnival theme was one that I found quite difficult- "A Themed Vacation"?! I've never heard of such a thing before! Themed parties, yes, but a vacation with a theme!?
I don't know if I quite caught the idea of it all, but I felt suddenly inspired as I sat there, grumbling to myself about what this "themed vacation"-deal might be all about.

The outfit below was the result!

I decided to name this outfit "Lolita with a Seoul"- My theme was modern korean fashion! This is what I thought a Lolita might wear while shopping in Hongdae, if she wanted to wear Lolita, but in an appropriate and fashionable way!  From what I've seen, most korean fashion tends to be very romantic and girly. Bows, lace, elegant shoes and pearls and cute fedoras tend to be very popular. This mixes very well with Lolita. I wanted to play up the lace part even more, and chose a pair of shoes that are neutral, and has a bit of a dolly look too. Long necklaces are popular in korean fashion, and I chose an oldfashioned pendant to incorporate an oldfashioned flair. A nudge towards Lolitas victorian roots, and pulls the lacey elements in the same direction. 

Now I'm looking forward to seeing, how the other girls understood this week's "assignment", and if I'm totally off-target.. I had fun, no matter what!

The Nostalgic Future of Lolita Communities

The Lolita Community is like a "pocket society" within the larger world community. It seems like the Lolita community exists on it's own, like a small town on the outskirts of the big city of "Modern World", and has it's own set of values, it's own customs, habits and even language.
But I've found that it's not quite so. Through the last couple of years, the Lolita community and fashion has changed tremendously! The change is moving at an incredible speed, maybe because our community is as small as it is. I think it's moving even quicker than the broader society, actually.

This post is me reflecting upon the change of the Lolita community that I've observed over the last couple of years, and why I think it's moving in the direction it is.

When I first got into Lolita, about 3-4 years ago or so, the global Lolita community really was Global with a capital G. The community was connected through huge communities, like EGL, and once in a while a new community would be born to knit Lolitas from around the world even closer. The communities were active and thriving, with multiple new posts pretty much every hour. People would start discussions about various aspects of Lolita culture, share fun experiences in Lolita and they would eagerly ask other people to share their stories as well. It was not just this social aspect of Lolita that the communities thrived on, but also the sharing of drawings, sewing creations and the like.
As many of us know, the EGL community seems to be slowly dying out. I think this shows a very interesting change in the mentality and social life of Lolitas in general.

From my observations, this decline in activity within the global communities has happened slowly, but it really dropped within the past year, reaching it's current low-point.
Reading through the Gothic and Lolita Bibles from the early 2000's, Lolita started out as a very personal thing, or a local, small-group hobby. Lolitas would gather in their local communities to do crafts together and whatever we do at meet-ups today. Then the global communities happened, and they grew.
It seems that currently, Lolita is moving backwards towards the situation we had before this globalization.
I think Lolitas simply got fed up with the global community, and the inevitable "Global Hierarchy" that happened along with it. With the global community we got a lot of interesting discussions, but at the same time it meant a situation where Lolita was no longer just your business. The "Rules" were established, as the Global Community were established, and it meant that everybody had to conform to certain standards. It's a natural part of group formation, I think, and it took away some of the romance of Lolita life.
Having to live up to the expectations and tastes of an entire world became too much of a burden, and so, the Lolita community broke up to go back to the old days where you could participate more freely.

Apart from being a symptom of the Lolita community getting "fed up", I think it's also part of a movement in society at large. I see more and more people deleting their Facebook accounts and putting their phones on stand-by for longer periods of time. The idea of going offline is gaining momentum.
At least where I'm from, the idea of the "simple life" is trending.
Making your own stuff and buying local produce is "in", whereas big corporation and globalization is losing it's charm.

I think it's a symptom of nostalgia. Everybody want to regress back to a state of closer connections. Closer connections to the foundations in life, from food to the people around you. From virtual connections to eye-to-eye contact. From global communities to local communities.

Lolitas have left the global communities and moved on to Facebook. Not to discuss the fashion in all it's aspects, but to use it as a simple tool for arranging meet-ups with the people who matter. Tumblr has become a thing, but mostly as a tool for inspiration. Only rarely do we see real judgement. Gossip blogs spring up, but they die out quickly. Tumblr is more like a virtual quick-fix magazine.
The real talk and gossip goes on around tables at tea houses or picnics in the real world.

Small-town drama will always exist, but it's a lot easier to deal with than "Behind the Bows".
Some Lolitas might be lucky enough to have the support of friends within their local communities. Even if they don't, it's a lot easier to just shut the door on a judgemental community after a bad meet-up, than knowing that what might feel like a million strangers is judging you on the internet.
Those mean comments will follow you around because of the internet's constant presence.
Mean gossip dissapears into thin air, and so you can forget and let go.

My point is, I think Lolitas are longing for that closed knit community that was at the roots of our community, back in the day. Also as a way of rekindling the magic of Lolita as a personal way of life. Fashionwise, I think this will change the fashion as well. When nobody has to live up to the judgement of strangers, nothing will stand in the way of free experimentation. I don't think the shared idea of what Lolita is about will die out, but everybody will have their own way of painting within this canvas.

This global evolution of fashion will not be for us to see, though.
The only Lolita-volution we will soon be able to follow will be our own, and as we move towards that future, it becomes more and more clear to me that our own is the only one that matters.