Friday, 24 June 2011

Otome and Fairy-kei

Now I really love wearing lolita but it's not really practical for everyday wear, I'll get more than my fair share of stares on the train wearing classic lolita (and that's without a headbow and petticoat). This is quite uncomfortable for me as I don't even like making eye contact with people on the train :D but I really love wearing loli so I decided to focus on some more casual (Otome) styles as well as fairy-kei today.

I know these styles are also quite bright and eye-catching but they seem to be styles that are also reflected in current fashion trends today. For instance the colourful trainers (sneakers) you can find in many shoe shops, it's a big trend in Japan currently (according to this weeks episode of Tokyo Fashion Express). I recently purchased some colourful trainers from Swimmer, a kind of novelty Japanese shop that sells cute things such as home ware and clothing.

These trainers are quite bright and colourful but you can also find similar styles in western shops such as Pastry and even customise your own colours at Nike. I've seen lolitas co-ordinate these sneakers with jumperskirts and skirts, mainly sweet lolita prints such as Milky Planet and Milky Berry. It seems to work really well especially with OTT sweet lolita and I guess they are more comfortable to wear than tea-parties ;-)


I think the sneakers also works well with Otome style because it's quite casual. I  purchased the strawberry pair to wear with my Emily Temple Cute Tea Party jumperskirt and I think the colours work really well with the print. I also co-ordinated the jsk with a kitsch cherry print blouse, I don't know if this is too much print overall :S I'd appreciate any ideas ;-)
Headbow: Angelic Pretty
Blouse: Henry Holland @ Debenhams
Jumperskirt: Emily Temple Cute
Trainers: SWIMMER

I love the peter pan collar blouse, it's quite retro and a trend also very popular in lolita. The print of the jumperskirt also features cherries but you have to look very closely to see them. I haven't worn the full co-ordinate out yet but I'm planning to soon, minus the headbow because I feel it might be a fruity overload and the white is too bright to match the jsk. I might have to sell it in that case since I don't own any other AP Sheep Garden items (I really wish I did though >_<). I also hope to team the outfit with a cute bag, I can't afford any brand right now so I ordered a teapot style bag from Loris, a Taobao shop. I think the teapot shape is quite quirky and cute.

Also I want to mention Fairy-kei, alot of elements have been incorporated into lolita recently, such as the new Angelic Pretty print - Dream Sky. A lot of lolitas have mixed feelings about this combination, personally I find it quite refreshing. It's very colourful and similar to OTT sweet but allows room for more variation. I had a look at a fairy-kei store called Nile Perch, they have some nice cutsew style tops that would work well with sweet lolita. Also pretty baby doll dresses that would go well with colourful sneakers.

Thursday, 23 June 2011

A few new things

I haven't been up to much lately aside from work so I haven't had much time to follow recent lolita goings on but I decided to check egl this morning and noticed that the Meta Lucky Packs were up, now I'm not really fond of many meta prints (apart from Blooming Garden which I really love^^) but the skirt lucky pack looks quite lovely so I decided to take the plunge and order one. Fingers crossed I get something similar to the pack below, I love the scallop detail on the Princess Crown Bouquet skirt so I would be quite happy to get it, the other print featured is the skirt pack is Fairy Playing Cards which is quite nice too.
Fairy Playing Card skirt
Another nice thing about the Meta lucky pack is that is quite affordable compared to others, 10,000 yen for the skirt and 15,000 yen for the jumperskirt lp which is not bad considering you get undergarments, a blouse or t-shirt, socks, a bag and some other little accessories as well as the jsk or skirt.

Right now Im really looking forward to Hyper Japan, it's in just under a month so I cant wait^^ My friend Kandee has decided to enter the Kawaii Star of the Year competition. It's a competition organised by HJ to find the new cute ambassador for the UK and the final will take place at this years Hyper Japan event. My friend has to send in some photos as well as a 60 second video about why she would like to be the kawaii ambassador for the UK. I helped her to do a little photoshoot and Im gonna say I was thoroughly impressed! She looked so beautiful like a real life doll! Making the video clip was a little more tricky, I think she became a little camera shy hahaa but we eventually got enough material to make a little video *hopefully*

The full coord, minus the boots
Here's a run down of the co-ord:
Blouse: Etsy
Jumperskirt: Innocent World Lauretta Rose - Misty pink
Tights: New look
Boots: Jane Norman (not featured on the shoot)
Hat: H&M, added pearls and corsage
Close up of the lace
Hopefully she will make it into the final, I know that would be a great experience for her and even more amazing if she won it! I hope people will find her classic style really cute and vote for her ^_^