What's on my Mannequin? - January

What's on my Mannequin?

 I put together a coordinate on my dress form for the first time in four months or more. What does this mean for the blog? It means that, after what feels like a million years, I've finally posted a What's on my Mannequin entry!

To celebrate my return and the month of January, I picked my favorite dress of all time: Honey Cake!

Here is what I put together:

As you can probably see, I could not pick between integrating brown or red. So I did both! I got the parka off egl_comm_sales when I first started wearing lolita and only had the honey cake skirt. It was sold off to me by a lolita in Malaysia and took a long time to find me. It almost got lost in the mail! You can't really, but it has a bear-ear hoodie with an inside polka dot pattern in white and red. The collar shown is actually a red blouse with the same polka dot pattern underneath.

The beret is the Princess Drop beret from Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. I got it on the New York site and it was the last one in that color! I felt super lucky. The cherries clip is from a taobao store, and the necklace is from a seller from etsy.

This Rilakkuma bag I got on Lacemarket. It was pretty cheap, so the quality is not so good. I decided to incorporated anyways because I love Rilakkuma and I was partly recreating one of my first coordinates with Honey Cake. I had worn the skirt, the top, and this bag, to my first US convention after I moved here. It has a nostalgic feel to it, but I think I will retire this bag to daily wear soon.

Here is a close up of the pancake necklace. I really want a red and white gingham blouse to match the tiny ribbon. Pancakes are some of my favorite food, if you didn't already know. That's where the name of the blog came from!

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That's all I have for you today, my people. I have been laying in bed sick for the past two days but finally kicked my butt in gear to prepare for the week and do this post. I hope you are all doing well and that your week treats you kindly. See you next weekend!

My top 5 Style Influencers

Hello everyone! Long time no see!

Miss Lillith made me want AP's Gloria 

I was watching Lovely Lor's video What Influenced My Style?, and it got me thinking about where I get inspiration from --and who I think of when I try to picture what I want my ideal coordinates to look like. Though I had not consciously thought about it in a while, I was able to come up with a list pretty fast. There are just some lolitas that really left an impression of me. Here are my top 5 style influencers in no particular order:

5. Miss Lillith - Miss Lillith is a video game design student who loves otome games- a genre she is planning to add on with her own game. She no longer wears lolita often but, when she did, she wore gothic with a somewhat sweet touch. I picture her when I think of the word 'Koakuma' (Little Devil) because of her dark but doll-like aesthetic.

Marie Dauphine serving gothic looks

  4. Marie Dauphine - Speaking of gothic, Marie Dauphine is a gothic queen. She seems to be inspired by historical mourning wear, and blends her interest in taxidermy and the natural world with lolita. Her impeccable taste and ability to put together coordinates with different kinds of textures simply blows me away.

  3. MintKismet - Mintkismet has a mature sweet style. She has been dressing more in classic coordinates lately, but I take inspiration mostly from her sweeter side. She runs a shopping service in Japan. You can see her blog here, but she mostly posts on instagram these days.

My favorite MintKismet coord

Noke's coords are #goals 

2. Choconokecha (Noke): This Finnish lolita has flawless coordinates. Whether she is wearing an outfit for a big event or dressing down for casual errand running, Choconokecha's looks are put together with great attention to detail. She is also a fantastic illustrator and has a tumblr and a twitter. You can find her amazing art here. 

  1. Milkyfawn: This lolita has been gone from the fashion for quite some time. She starred in several of Deerstalker Pictures 2's videos, and garnered a lot of unwanted attention. As a result, she moved on elsewhere on her fashion journey. It is difficult for me to explain why I like Milkyfawn's style. It is not that I like specific coordinates, or that her blog hits Rilakkuma, chocolate, and pancakes --all of which I love. I believe that I am mostly a fan of the feeling that her coordinates evoke in me. 

I miss her quite a bit sometimes

I was fairly new to lolita when Deerstalker Pictures' videos were coming out, but I remember distinctly seeing how she behaved like a person in lolita as opposed to a perfect doll. She was depicted as unapologetically surrounded by what she loved, and I admire both that and her vast collection at the time. I also remember being quite sad when she left the fashion, but I am grateful she left up her old blog for coord inspiration and a trip down memory lane. While today I find some of her coordinates to be simple, I feel nostalgia for that simplicity. It was simplicity found not only in her coordinates but in my outlook of lolita in general. But more on that on another time. For now, I will leave you some questions:

Who or what do you draw inspiration from? 

What about them is special for you?

Thank you all for sticking around, and hopefully I'll see you all soon ^^!

- Keiko