Sunday, April 23, 2017

52 Weeks of Lolita - My first meetup

Hey there everyone!
Sorry for the late post again. Work makes it hard for me to find motivation to write orz.

Anyway, this is Keiko here with another installment of the 52 Weeks of Lolita challenge. This time around I will talk about my first-ever meetup!

My first meetup was actually a swap meet. I was in Washington D.C. doing a 'semester abroad' at the time, and I had just gotten in contact with the local lolita community. I was at a loss of what to wear. I'd never seen other lolitas around before, and I felt a bit intimidated. Would they judge my outfit? Would they be too busy catching up to include me in the group? I remember being super nervous!

In the end, I decided to bring a 'wow' piece with me to the meetup. I settled for Honey Cake, bringing also with me the rare pancake mix bag for extra points. I unfortunately didn't take many pictures, even though it is one of my favorite coordinates so far. Here's one of the few I did manage to take:

Excuse the mess. I was sharing a tiny dorm room with two other girls.
I took the metro (subway) for about an hour to get to the station closest to the host's home, all the while nervous of going so far away in an unknown city by myself. Fortunately, it all worked out and I was able to get there unscathed. 

The meetup itself went very successfully. All the lolitas were quite talkative and friendly, including me into their group almost immediately. We had sweets, talked about the fashion, and admired each other's coordinates before setting up shop for the swapping part of the meet. We then went outside to set up our wares on blankets in the yard under the pleasant D.C. weather, and the trading and buying began.

I remember selling quite a few things because I needed the money, but not really buying anything myself. It's been almost a year since that happened, so my memory is a bit hazy. But that's all the important details, anyway :)
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Have you ever been to a meetup? What was your first meetup like? Were you nervous? Feel free to share your story below!

Keiko out~!

Friday, April 14, 2017

52 Weeks of Lolita Double Feature - Lolitas I'd Love to Meet & 3 Things I wish I was Told When I Started

Hello everyone!
Sorry it's been a while!

It's Keiko here with a double feature post since I missed last week's entry. It was for good reason, I promise ;)!

Today's entry I will tell you about the lolitas I'd love to meet in person and talk to you about three pieces of advice I wish I'd been told when I first got into lolita. Without further ado, let's get this started!

Lolitas I'd Love to Meet

There are so many lolitas I'd love to meet in person! However, I managed to narrow it down to five lolitas who were not brand models (Misako, Midori, RinRin, etc)

Nokecha - Finnish Lolita whose sweet style is an inspiration for me. I looooove her princess coordinates and use of color.

Vysanthe - Australian Lolita behind Deerstalker Pictures. Not only is her classic style gorgeous, but I think it would be really interesting to talk to her about cinematography and the ups and downs of documenting and entertaining the lolita community worldwide.

Lemontree11 - Lolita from the U.S. I love her art and wish I could keep a journal like her. Her coordinates have this fluffy air to them.

Marie Dauphine - Gothic lolita from the United States. One of the few people who I think pull of OTT gothic flawlessly every time. She's also a taxidermist!

Melva Yan - A sweet lolita living in Sweden. Amazing outfits --I follow her lookbook!

There are, of course, may other talented lolitas whom I'd love to make their acquaintance. However, the list would go on and on if I did not set my foot down on just five :)

On to the next topic!

Three things I wish I was told when I started Lolita

When I first got into lolita, I made sure to research the fashion and read as much as I could in order to not look like an ita. At the time, there were many posts online complaining about people who did not take the time to read up on the styles and just jumped in without the nuanced knowledge on how to put together a coordinate. Even though I tried my best to inform myself, are just some things that don't get said enough or even at all. The following are three pieces of advice I wish had been emphasized more.

1. Don't buy things just because they are cheap - Cheap does not necessarily mean good quality. In fact it's often the opposite. Even if you get lucky, however, blindly buying cheap quality things does not mean that your wardrobe will be cohesive. I ran into this issue when I bought items I thought I liked due to price and ended up not being able to coordinate them together.

2. Make sure to buy all the basics first - I ran ahead and bought multiple dresses without ensuring I had blouses, shoes, or even a petticoat! It is easy to get seduced by the novelty and excitement of main pieces, but it's super important that all the basics are covered before you buy main pieces so that you can actually wear them.

3. Learn how to use Japanese secondhand sites and Taobao - I wish I'd heard about this more. Though I became acquainted with mbok fairly early, I wish I'd know more about Mercari, Fril., Yahoo Auctions, etc. I'm still in the process of learning more about Taobao, but I feel like beginners can have better luck looking for cheaper dresses on Taobao and get more of a bang for their buck that way.



That is all I have for you today, friends! Please feel free to leave a comment below on who you'd like to meet in person or any pieces of advice you may have for lolita newbies.

Keiko out~!

Saturday, April 1, 2017

52 Weeks of Lolita - Lolitas I have met in real life

Hey, everyone~
Keiko here with another installment of 52 weeks of lolita!

Today's topic is talking about Lolitas I've met outside of the internet.

Naturally, I thought I'd start with some of the basic ones: Misako, Midori, Asuka, and Mana-sama.

Just Kidding!
Happy April's fool day, friends!

The only lolitas I've really met offline are from comms in the areas I've been in. I had the opportunity to meet some D.C. lolitas when I was there for a semester, and I'm acquainted with part of the Minnesota Rufflebutts community.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any pictures, so all you get is a lazy blogpost ;)
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Have you met any famous lolitas? Or have you run into lolitas from other comms? Please feel free to share, and have a great April's Fool's day!

Keiko out~~!