Lolita 52: Best places to wear lolita!

I have been absolutely terrible with keeping up with my Lolita 52 posts, mainly because I wasn't sure if it was really keeping people interested or not. @3@ But lately I've been feeling terrible for keeping my blog quiet (I have good reason for this, I promise!!), so I thought I'd whip up a Lolita 52 post just to show that I am still alive!

I think I drew a really fun topic this time, "Best places to wear lolita." I'm the type of person who does not take most dress codes seriously and always pushes the limits on what to wear, so I had like... 5 billion places I wanted to share with you, but I tried to narrow it down to my top 5 favourite kinds of places.

It was really nice using mostly old photos throughout this post, I was able to dig through some memories stashed away in forgotten SD Cards and also pass the time!

1. Historical houses. I've visited quite a few dressed in lolita, but my favourite is a tie between Vizcaya Gardens and Ringling Museum of Art! They both have beautiful gardens and fantastic back drops for outfit shots.

Eep, this photo is so old! It's from the last time I visited Vizcaya, circa 2011. The whole place is built using coral and re-used materials! James Deering was ahead of his time when he built this mansion in 1916--it was super eco friendly!

2. Theme parks! Especially ones with fun carnival rides~ It just seems so nice to run around dressed up among all the lights and decor that come with great theme parks. Of course my favourite is DisneyWorld.

Meeting Mulan at my most recent visit to Disney! She asked me questions about my Oswald hat and told me to "listen out" for Mushu and report to her if he's causing any trouble.

3. Conventions. Okay, some people may not agree with this, but I love convention atmosphere. I'm already a ginormous geek, and then on top of that I can be around other people dressed up really cool who won't even question what I'm wearing! Not to mention you usually end up running into other people dressed in alternative fashion you never knew about, so it's a chance to make more friends! It's also the perfect occasion to wear that super impractical and over-the-top coordinate you've stashed away in the back of your closet.

I would probably never wear a coordinate like this anywhere else, but it was fun doing a super over-the-top raver-inspired get-up using a piece by Atelier Pierrot! This is myself and the fantastic Scoper Monstar, who quickly became an awesome friend. =D

4. Teahouses! This is a big cliché among lolitas that I whole-heartedly grasp. I love tea and the fancy foods that come with tea. You can also get cute photos with the china cabinets. Bring it on!

Another old photo from a meet-up from around 2011 sometime. The tea house I went to this time was so endearing, although a bit pricey. I recommend it to anyone in the area, it's called The Tea Room!

5. Instead of tacky tourist, be a lolita tourist! Wearing lolita when you're going to a new country or area is really great, at least from my experience. Tourists tend to be some of the friendliest people you can be dressed up around, they always are polite and ask for photos with you and it's fun if you don't mind the adverse attention. (Of course, upon discussing this with friends, this may have a lot to do with my loving conventions and being a frequent attendee at them. I'm much more used to people asking for photos than most of my friends.) Just keep in mind, sometimes lolita is really frowned upon in certain places, so you want to make an intelligent decision. I usually tone down my coordinates or make sure I am not insulting a certain culture or belief by wearing a more over-the-top fashion. I've heard of lolitas being turned away at Versailles before since the fashion was considered too "over the top" and disrespectful. Be careful!

Another old photo from my first visit to Sweden years back! We were taking a ferryboat from our hotel in Stockholm. I spent most of my time in Malmö though. =D I realised I tend to pose really similarly throughout the years, haha! I need to be more dynamic!

I will be revealing a few more projects and sponsored reviews in the future, I've been really behind on posting about them. @3@ Remember to check out the previous Lolita 52 topics over here. Hope you all are having a great day!

Renaissance Faire Meet-up.

I am finally starting to go through all my photos on my two SD cards, although totally out of order. The next massive photodump I am going to do on this blog will be for things that happened a couple months prior to this event! My whole timeline is screwed up, aaugh.

I try to go to a Renaissance Faire every year, and this is my second year at this particular one! It was a total blast. It's a bit on the smaller end due to the venue, but I absolutely love how everything is so shady and covered with trees.

But first off, what I wore! (Just a quick sidenote, you'll see that my hands are always obsessively touching my hair... That's because I was just not able to find the pins I needed to secure the hairstyle that morning but I stubbornly went to the meet-up anyways with the impractical 'do. So in pretty much every photo I'm trying to redo it or just holding it in place, FFFFF.)

With this, my LookBook folder has gone around full circle with its dates! The first photo I posted for my LookBook was dated for April 5, 2012, and this photo was taken a year and a day later! Time has flown. I wore one of my most elegant pieces in my wardrobe with elf ears and a crown! I ended up looking totally different by the end of the day because I had glitter splashed on my face by a fairy, horns that I purchased from that same fairy, and then I ended up getting my hair braided.

Saitam Photography x Starlight Deco Dream!

I got to work with two of my favourite people on the internet, Saitam Photography and Starlight Deco Dream! I'm super thankful I was offered this opportunity. Here are the results of our effort together! Everything is styled by myself, retouch and photography done by Saitam, and the gorgeous wigs and jewelry supplied by Starlight Deco Dream and their wig line, Mahou-kei!

The first outfit has been in the making for almost a year now! I posted an inspiration board for it here last July! The moment I received this beautiful puffy split wig from Mahou-kei, I absolutely knew I had to try and replicate the split with my shoes! It's like fate shined down on me because I found my favourite pair of lolita shoes in mint in my size on sale soon afterwards, and then I squirreled this coordinate away, waiting for when I could do the photoshoot with it.

Another outfit that I have been impatiently waiting to wear. I was inspired by Sae, Takulu, and the other Angelic Pretty clones to make a coordinate using Mahou-kei's beautiful blended wig and the only full set I own--Magical Etoile! Saitam Photography did a fantastic job editing the close-up shots!

The last outfit I wore had a totally different feel to it--this time I went for a Cult Party-kei outfit coordinating the new guro faun tights I ordered from Ophanim. I highly recommend her tights to everyone! They were thick and comfortable, and the subtle print really displays the red splashes beautifully! I am also in love with Starlight Deco Dream's heart wing earrings here.

I hope I get to do more collaborations with them in the future! Please check out their businesses and show your support!

KIRAMEKI Mag + Date night.

I am sooo sorry for the lack of updates--my life got so busy and I completely forgot to queue up some posts to fill up the empty space. ;A; Hopefully now I'll be back to the usual groove and will post some catch-up stuff in the future.

Until then, I have a really exciting announcement to make! One of my newest friends, the amazing photographer behind Saitam Photography, has given me the fantastic opportunity to be a permanent staff writer and designer behind his new magazine, KIRAMEKI! It is a magazine hoping to focus on alternative fashion and lifestyles, with a Japanese twist~

I was put in charge of the "Fashion Showcase" section, which is very similar to the street snaps in Kera and Gothic & Lolita Bible mooks! We're accepting all kinds of fashions from all corners of the globe, so if you want to share a photo, make sure it is 300 dpi and large enough to be used on 8.5" x 11" paper and send it to kiramekimag@gmail.com! We're hoping to have all our submissions in by mid-May so we can release the magazine in mid-June!

Since this is our first issue, we are looking for anyone who is willing to contribute graphics or editorials to the magazine. We are all just pouring our passion and time into this magazine, so we cannot promise any sort of reimbursement at this time.

If you own a company that you are interested in advertising, we are willing to let you advertise for FREE in our first couple of issues! All we require is an ad that is 8.5" x 11" sent to the e-mail provided above. C=

Lolita 52: How lolita has changed me.

Sorry for the late 52 post! I got caught up at work and only realised it's Wednesday in the evening and I had nothing lined up for the day, oops!

This week I randomly drew topic #52, and it is a very heavy one. "How lolita has changed me." (I guess my need to pose with food hasn't changed much at all though, haha!)

It's safe to say lolita has changed me in a multitude of ways, and I think a lot of the friends I've made and the experiences I have would just... Have not happened if I never got into lolita.

For one thing, I had a lot of body issues as a kid. I was underweight for as long as I could remember, and was very short compared to... Well everyone I knew. This led to a lot of criticism from both peers and my parents--always forcing me to eat more or making fun of me for my gangly figure. I wore children's clothes well into high school, when most people had already graduated to "trendier" adult fashions. I was still running around wearing Limited Too stuff (I think now the store has been renamed Justice)!

I only filled out in the last year for the most part, but until then, I struggled to find clothes to fit (don't even get me started on my bra-shopping meltdowns), and hated how I could never get that "sexy" look that most girls aspired for.

When I saw the sizing for most lolita brands, I was stunned. My first response was, "Whoah, clothes made for someone short and puny like me... Clothes that remind me of Cardcaptor Sakura!" And the rest is history.

Finding pretty clothes that fit also led me to really care a lot about myself and embrace my girlier side. Up until that point, I was a huge tomboy who had no interest in wearing make-up or looking pretty. Really, the only thing "girly" about me was my long hair (although thanks to a couple hitches in the road it ended up being short against my will from time to time). I also just had zero confidence.

Really stepping out of my comfort zone and wearing something that I both liked and made me feel beautiful really helped me develop as a person. My first time really going out and wearing lolita in every day life (not including anime conventions) was my freshman year in college. My parents (even somewhat to this day) are not really supportive of my hobbies, so, finally being out of the house with a little bit of my own money to spend, I commissioned a replica of Angelic Pretty's Loving Princess one-piece from Fan+Friend. It's an eyesore now, but I loved it then. It was everything I ever wanted in a dress!

I had two non-lolita friends who supported my fashion choices and cheered me on, and my first trip was to the mall with both of them. We had a great time, and to put the cherry on top, a bunch of kids dressed in scene/punk recognised the style and screamed from nearly half-way across the mall, "LOOK, a gothic lolita!!" We exchanged Facebook URL's after hanging out for most of the night, and it was such a great experience. Thankfully it was a good experience, or my shaky confidence would have probably made me turn give up immediately.

Oh my goodness, I actually found a picture of the outfit from within the depths of my Facebook. @3@ It's a bit embarrassing to look at now, haha! I remember pouring hours and hours of effort into the crown I wore here. Wowowow, 17-year-old me.

But lolita has really changed me--I have more of a "no fucks given" attitude, and I met so many great friends through the fashion that I am still in touch with today! I guess being so open with your "weirdness" really gets you some long-lasting friends, and I'm thankful for that.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the month! I'm finally going back home and next week is going to be packed! I have a photoshoot and a lot of meet-ups planned for next week, hopefully you will see the fruits of all that in the future! I use Instagram and Twitter pretty often, so check me out there for more real-time updates.

Check out my other topics under the "Lolita 52 Challenge" label!