Monday, October 14, 2013

Monday, October 7, 2013

[Outfit Post] In the Key of Zelda


JSK: Metamorphose Temps de Fille
Bolero: Bodyline
Shirt: Gap Kids
Socks/Hairbow: Innocent World
Necklace: The Pixelsmithy




Saturday, October 5, 2013

[Lolita Blog Carnival] 3 Trends You Could Never Get Into

Finally, another Lolita Blog Carnival post! This week's topic is three trends you could never get into. It was actually rather difficult for me to think of anything, since to me, a lot of things I don't happen to wear just happen to be things I don't wear, rather than things I would categorize as "can never get into." However, I did manage to find three trends that I do not follow.

1. Food Prints

Even as a beginner Lolita, I had some very strong print theme preferences that I still have now. I still love anything related to music, literature, and ballet. And I still feel weird wearing, or thinking about wearing most prints featuring food. It's not that I dislike those particular prints, and in many cases I actually think they're really beautiful, but whenever I think about wearing pictures of food all over me... I just feel weird. So it has always been a conscious decision when cultivating my wardrobe, that I did not buy print items with food as the primary theme.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="420"] Photo: Angelic Pretty[/caption]

I was extremely tempted to buy a "Jewelry Jelly" skirt when Angelic Pretty came out with it, I just thought the lavender colorway was perfect. And I literally came within inches of clicking the buy button, and then my instincts kicked back in and I didn't. And I still have never gotten it even though I still admire and drool over it whenever I see a friend wearing that print. It's beautiful, and I adore it, but I just don't do food prints!

I think there are only two things in my wardrobe that are "exceptions" to my no-food decision.



I do own the "Forest Harvest Festival" print from Innocent World, which technically has jam jars on it. However, when I bought it, I decided they were just one of many things in the print, and incorporated enough that I didn't feel like I was wearing FOOD, since my main focus was on all the cute animals and the autumn aspect in the print.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="340"] Photo: Angelic Pretty[/caption]

I also caved in to temptation and bought "Sweetie Chandelier" from Angelic Pretty, which technically has gummy bears and cupcakes on it, but I felt like they were sufficiently incorporated into the chandelier aspect that again, I don't feel like I'm wearing OMG CUPCAKES but rather chandeliers, which happen to have colorful bear-shaped and a few cupcake-shaped candles on them.

2. Wigs

The long wig with big pigtail clip-ons has become fairly standard in Lolita fashion, particularly within the past few years, and particularly amongst sweet Lolitas, who I see wear them in all sorts of awesome pastel colors.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="339"] Photo: Gothic Lolita Wigs[/caption]

This was something that I saw on other people and thought "Aww, how cute, now I want a wig like that!" I think they began to become more common a couple of years after I got into the fashion, and coincided right when I really started accumulating more of a wardrobe and trying to get better accessories and stuff to match. So I figured, hey why not, thy look so cute! However, after trying an actual full set (wig + pigtails) once, maybe twice, I decided it's not for me. Not only do I not really look particularly good with so much hair, but it gave me horrible migraines and was just plain uncomfortable.



I even tried just the clips with my own hair, or just the long wig without the clips, but even that was not exactly awesome. It looked better, but still gave me the headache. I saw everyone wearing the beautiful long fluffy crimped wigs that have become popular in the past year or so, and thought I'd try one on... Too much hair for my face/head. The only wigs I've found that both look decent on me, and don't induce a headache, are shorter bob styles. So if I ever want to have different length/texture than what my hair naturally does, or colorful hair, that will have to suffice.

While for many people, wigs are an easier alternative to wrangling with their natural hair, I actually felt they were more of a nuisance for me, because I'm very blessed to have natural hair that does not tangle easily. So I would spend hours having to detangle wigs, which is something I wasn't used to having to do with my hair. As I developed my tastes in Lolita, I also found that I tend to prefer simpler hairstyles, and don't really go OTT with head accessories, so natural hair just looked better for fitting that aesthetic. Since coming to that realization, I've mostly stuck to using my natural hair for Lolita, whether for daily wearing or for fancy big meetups, and keeping my wigs for costuming and cosplay purposes.




3. Painting Dresses

These dresses featuring classical art prints seemed to generate quite a frenzy when Juliette et Justine first released them. I'm sure dresses featuring classical art existed before then, but they suddenly popped up on the radar after JetJ got into them. I actually can't remember the exact timeline, but it felt fairly recent, within the last couple of years. Everyone seemed to be talking about them, and everyone wanted one.



Since then, JetJ has continued releasing more and more dresses with classical art. For a while it seemed like every set of new releases had one. People started getting their own fabric printed and sewing their own, even Bodyline seems to have finally tried dipping into this trend.



While I love classical art, I just have never really gotten into this print trend. I've seen some dresses of this theme that do look very elegant, but other ones suffer from awkward image placement, or just look like a haphazard collage of classical paintings stuck on a dress. Overall, it's just not something that I am very interested in wearing (I don't need Queen Elizabeth on my butt, or cherubs on my chest), and not a trend that I see myself getting into.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="344"] Photo: Juliette et Justine[/caption]

So there they are, three trends I could never get into - one thing that has always been a conscious choice from the beginning, another that I tried once or twice early on and decided just did not fit my aesthetic preference, and a third that is more recent and something I have never actually tried because I just never found it fitting to my tastes.
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 Make sure to check out all the other blogs in the carnival who participated in this topic!

~ Lemontree111Alice in Lolitaland | Hello Kitty Loves Disney | Ice Age | Pretty Little Habits | Lolita Glamour | Dollhouse Diaries | Under the Parasol | Her Lumpiness | Lace a la Mode | The Bloody Tea Party | Starry-Eyed Lolita ~

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Discovering Russian Pointe



Over the past spring and summer, I became increasingly dissatisfied with how my pointe shoes felt on my feet, and how that was impacting my pointework. The narrower size of Grishko 2007 felt better width-wise on my right foot, but was tighter-fitting overall than I preferred, and it still didn't feel very nice on my left foot. The narrower box actually accentuated the twisting problem I have with my left foot in any pointe shoe I've ever worn. The shank has a tendency to twist off to the side, resulting in a very unstable feeling whenever I go up on pointe. I stopped by Motion Unlimited and had myself re-fit for pointe shoes, and ended up getting Grishko 2007 in size 4XXX (so, up one size, but down a width). While that did feel a little better, it was still not really ideal.

In search of a better-fit pointe shoe, I decided to try Russian Pointes. Luckily, I decided just in time to get an in-store fitting just before their flagship store closed down. The lady who did my fitting was very nice, and did a very meticulous job. Unfortunately, my twisty left foot defied all of her fitting efforts, and she had to call in some additional consultation. I tried on every single model that they had, some in multiple sizes and widths. Finally, we did find one that felt good, and had the least twisting on my left foot: the Dolce! Unfortunately... that is the model they just discontinued... I bought the one pair in my size/width that they had left in the store for a huge discount, just to try it and see if I really wanted to keep using them.

After about a month of wearing those, doing more pointework than I had been before, since I was taking variations and partnering classes all of July, I decided that the Dolces were definitely the new preferred shoe. Miss M thought they definitely looked better on my foot, and that I looked more stable on pointe too. Cue scouring the internet for dance supply stores that still had stock for my size and width. All of the sites I found had them on clearance sale, which was good news. I snagged two more pairs, which hopefully will last me for a while yet. After that, I will have to resort to finding either a European, Japanese, or Russian shopping service to get my Dolces TT_TT

The first pair lasted me all of summer, and I started in on the second pair about two weeks ago. The pointework load is even higher now though, so I'm expecting the second pair to wear out faster. The first pair is actually still usable, so I've been rotating the two pairs in hopes of prolonging use of both of them. *crosses all fingers and toes*