Strawberry Meet Postscript

     I originally wrote this as part of my post about the strawberry picking meetup, but decided it would be better on its own.

    The same day of this meet was the day No Kings protests took place across America, including here in Chicago which ended up being home to one of the biggest No Kings crowds in the country. I do hold regret for choosing a fun day of fashion instead of heading downtown and joining in, and have resolved to keep an eye on protester bail funds and support the cause with my wallet since I wasn't there in the flesh. On the way to the farm I passed a smaller, secondary group of protesters congregating by the road, their voices strong and their signs held high. They stayed on my mind for the rest of the day.

     Sitting at a corn-shaped table, climbing on a tractor, and buying canned goods and homemade pie inside a refurbished barn definitely made me feel connected with one aspect of American culture, but more than that, it blended with what I knew was going on at the same time. I do not know, truly, if I like America as a country. But I love the land itself, I care about the people who live on it, and the Midwestern culture I have spent my life steeped in is something I have a great affection for. Public dissent on behalf of vulnerable people is community care, and so is bringing an extra large casserole so people at the potluck go home with leftovers for tomorrow. The size of the marches yesterday demonstrates that more people care about each other than not. That fact, I believe, is something worth loving. 

Strawberry Meet

    This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a lolita meet one of my comm members organized at a pick-your-own-fruit farm outside of town. Right now strawberries are in season, so we all dressed accordingly. I had never gone strawberry picking before but it was a true pleasure to crouch there on the ground, searching beneath glossy leaves for the perfect berries to fill my admittedly overpriced little plastic bucket. I've never tasted a grocery store strawberry so flavorful.

 

    Looking at these lush plants really activated my inner grandma sensibilities. I couldn't stop thinking of strawberry tablecloths, strawberry wallpaper, embroidered strawberries, percale sheets in the guest bedroom with little strawberries printed all over them...

Siiiiiiiiiigh.

 

The fruits of my labor.

 

Meeting of the corn council.

 

The corn council adjourns.

 

Here's what I wore! I couldn't decide which headpiece to use, so I chose both. 

JSK: Freshly Picked Strawberries by Angelic Pretty 

Bolero: Nile Perch

Hat: offbrand

Headdress: Little May Bells 

Wristcuffs: Wax Poetic

Shoes: Cotton Candy Fantasy 

    I had a fantastic time picking berries, eating lunch, and taking silly photos with my comm. The farm also had a store where I bought some pickled carrots, a pie, and some creamy spinach dip that I can't wait to crack into; if it's half as delicious as those carrots I'll be very happy. Although having depression takes a lot out of me, spending time idyllically with friends in the fashion I love is truly rejuvenating.

🪻See you next time!🪻

  

Recent Looks

     Hi y’all! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? Though I have no delusions of a mass audience waiting with bated breath for my return, I do feel I owe the readers I have an apology for disappearing for so long. 

    There are a number of things I’ve wanted to write about—The Great Lace, my new indie “brand” Garden Relic, upcoming sewing projects I want to tackle, the experience of owning a dream dress—but this time, I thought I would take things slow and simple and just post some coordinates from the last few months that I’ve been proud of!

OP: Sugary Carnival by Angelic Pretty

Sweater: vintage  

Wristcuffs: Enchanted Dream Couture

Headbow: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Hairclip: unknown indie brand

Shoes: FILA 

Skirt: Handmade by me

 Blouse: Yilia/Xilia (I've seen it both ways?)

Headband: Unknown indie brand 

 Necklace: BB and B 

 Wristcuffs: Wax Poetic 

 Shoes: Doc Marten 

 

I wore this coordinate to Universal Studios during the holiday season and met these dolls who were part of their cast of Christmas toys. They were all wonderful to talk to and loved my clothes; if you can stand the heat, I highly recommend going to Universal Studios in lolita. I was getting compliments all day...

Some from places you might not expect.

 

JSK: Trois Ribbon by Enchantlic Enchantilly

Blouse: Uncle Wall

Cardigan: Modcloth 

Hat: Uf (bought through Atelier Pierrot)

Socks: Enchanted Dream Couture 

Shoes: Doc Marten 

 

 

Skirt, Blouse: Axes Femme

Bolero: Xilia/Yilia

Shoes: Bodyline

 

JSK: Sugar Pansy by Angelic Pretty

Blouse: vintage

Headbow: Elegy

Necklace: BB And B 

Socks: Angelic Pretty

 Shoes: Cotton Candy Fantasy

I bought this dress from a friend's closet cleanout sale and months later found out it was a brand sample! I can't help but wonder if it was used for stock photos? There's something fun about the idea of pointing to the photo in the Lolibrary listing for this piece and going "That's my dress. THAT dress, SPECIFICALLY."

 

 

JSK: Axes Femme x Coca Cola

Blouse: Uncle Wall

KC: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Wristcuffs: Enchanted Dream Couture

Necklace: BB And B

Shoes: Doc Marten 

 

JSK: Magical Horoscope by Angelic Pretty

Blouse: Atelier Pierrot

Headdress: Junyvette

Necklace: handmade by me 

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Bag: Mahoubu

 

Skirt, Blouse: Atelier Pierrot

 Corset belt: Neverland Lolita

 Horn clips: YORU

Choker: Antique Beast

Rosary: Neant Glass

Bag: Moi-Meme-Moitie 

Shoes: Cotton Candy Fantasy 

That Moitie bag was another UNBELIEVABLE thrift store find. If I said the price I bought it for, a lot of people more goth than me would be furious. 

 

 

OP: Avenue Denfer

Socks: Angelic Pretty (Modified from tights)
 Headdress, Wristcuffs: Handmade by me

Shoes: Cotton Candy Fantasy

  

🪻See you next time!🪻

J-Fashion Thrifting and the Rogue Lolita

     There's a post on Tumblr that goes around every now and then, about characters who are never directly seen in a story, but the world around them feels the impact of their absence. This isn't about that. It's about something a lot sillier. 

SOMEBODY KEEPS SELLING ALL THEIR LOLITA AT MY LOCAL CONSIGNMENT SHOPS AND I DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE.

    "Aster," You may say, "It's pretty common practice to take old pieces to thrift or consignment shops when they won't sell on Lacemarket." But I don't think this person is on Lacemarket. I'll explain my reasoning later but for now, put a pin in that and trust me. It started two years ago when a local comm member posted a photo of an Amavel set they found at a store in my neighborhood.

    Cute, lolita adjacent, a fun oddity that made me wonder where it came from. A few months later, somebody else went to that same store and found a Bodyline Blouse and some Liz Lisa and Ank Rouge. Another comm member saw a Nile Perch sweater at another store in town. This surprised me a little since I went to my local store often and had never seen any J-fashion there. But the next time I went...

And a couple months after that...

(I did end up taking this one home with me!)

    I also kept finding offbrand and Taobao blouses. At first, I thought there must be a lolita in our comm who was offloading some stuff they couldn't sell online, but wasn't active enough in our online chat to see that I had found their things. I brought the idea up at meetups; nobody knew who it could be. After a while, I stopped seeing things at that store. 

    But then, this spring, things changed. I was in decora, attending a "thrifting crawl" organized by a kawaii influencer from my city, and one of our stops was the sister location of the store where lolita had been popping up. When we arrived it looked like someone had dumped their entire wardobe there. Pair after pair of shoes, loliable blouses, and a total of six JSKs from assorted Taobao brands. There was even a knockoff Kumakumya. At the next store we visited, the rogue lolita had struck again with two pairs of adorable shoes that were sadly too small for me. (I was very happy for the newer lolitas at the event though, what an incredible day!)

    My theory changed. Since most items were Taobao pieces of inexpensive quality that were in great condition, perhaps somebody had gone through a lolita phase and sold everything once it was over. (It would explain the crappy fake Kumakumya too.) They went to different stores to sell things that the others wouldn't buy, and because those stores had so much stock, they were simply meting out these big sales by a few items at a time. It made sense to me. After a few months though, I don't know what to think any more, and it's all because of THIS.

    THE Axes Femme Coca-Cola dress, and it wasn't even a replica. Needless to say I took it home with me, but it kind of rocked me. The blue colorway hasn't been rereleased ever since its debut in 2017, so it's unlikely for a newbie to just stumble across it somewhere, but any lolita veteran worth their salt would know its secondhand resale value is way too high to just dump it at a neighborhood store that wouldn't give you more than ten bucks for it. This is why I don't believe they're in any comm or on Lacemarket.

    I don't really... know what to think any more? Who is this rogue lolita and where did they come from? How are they getting their clothes? Can they join my comm? I've literally never seen another lolita just out and about in my neighborhood. If you have any theories, let me know in the comments because I'm at a loss for words. 

🪻See you next time!🪻

Weekend Skirt Build

     So, I got Covid.

    Thankfully the symptoms aren't as bad as they could have been, but when I started throwing up on Thursday, I knew I was going to be home from work for a while. Unfortunately I'm the type of person who starts to get twitchy and guilty when they aren't being "productive" so I had to find a low-stress, low-strain project to work on while I was out. 

    Enter: two and a half yards of fabric I had bought for a skirt years ago and then gotten too bogged down in commission work to ever start on. The trouble with having two sewing jobs (tailor for a costume company and independent fursuit maker) is that by the time you've sewn all day at work, and then come home to sew all evening for a client, your motivation to sew for yourself is more or less gone. But this skirt was something I'd wanted for a while, and I had a few days of nothing to do ahead of me, so I thought "sure, why not?"

(pictured: testing out the shape with scrap elastic and my old flat petticoat, surrounded by mine and my roommate's random cosplay paraphernalia)

 

(How ADORABLE is this pocket? The crochet lace in the middle was taken off some vases after a wedding, and the red piping was gifted to me by my grandma, who also made that little pink pincushion! We have a lot in common. Did you notice the little cherries on the lace around the edge?)

    Here's the finished product! In the end it only took me an evening and a morning to make, and I'm very satisfied with how it turned out. It ended up being the perfect thing to idly work on while watching Fantasy High, and I have just enough fabric left over for perhaps a couple accessories. I'm excited to wear it once I'm all better.

🪻See you next time!🪻

Logging my Wardrobe's Colors

    When I was studying theatrical costume design in college, one of the most unexpectedly valuable things I learned was the importance of a good spreadsheet. At first, I approached the idea with a groan—weren't they supposed to be teaching me exciting things, like color theory and clothing history? But I soon discovered that not only was the creation of a solid spreadsheet a tidy way to organize information for a production team to work from, it was also easy and approachable to apply to my lolita wardrobe!

 

(Above: Some of my old homework, a sourcing document for an imaginary production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Still would love to actually work on this play one day! Try to read or watch it sometime if you can; it's a comedic look at post-9/11 race relations through the lens of wrestling.)

     The above style of spreadsheet is fantastic for planning things like coords you want to build for conventions and other large events, or for tracking items you plan on buying. But what if you want to keep better track of the clothes you already have? The horizontal rows of color separating out each actor gave me an idea.

BEHOLD, THE WARDROBE COLOR GUIDE!

    This spreadsheet logs every main piece I own and every color they contain. There are three "levels" a color can have: Main, if it takes up half or more of a dress; Secondary, if it's the main color of a print but not the background; and Accent, if there are only small amounts of the color on the dress.

As an example, let's take Royal Princess Alice's Witch Academy OP in Wine:

 

    The main color here is wine red. It's one of two colorways this print has and is probably the first color you notice when looking at it. Next is the secondary color, black. Black takes up the second-highest amount of space on the dress, and it's the color of the lace and the large bow on the front. Then come the accent colors, white and gold, with a smaller but still noticeable presence. There are a couple other colors visible if you look closely, like the pink inside the cats' ears, but I don't consider them prominent enough to include on the spreadsheet.

    So, how do we use this information now that we have it? One way is to figure out how many dresses you can coord an item with when you're trying to decide if it's worth buying. For example, if I want a pair of navy shoes but don't know if they'd be a worthy investment, I can consult the spreadsheet. Right now I have seven dresses with navy in them. That gives those shoes a pretty decent usefulness score, even before I consider pieces like my Shirring Princess JSK, which is solid ivory but could be coordinated with navy accessories in the right context. You can also use the sheet to help find new ways to wear your pieces if you find that you keep wearing them the same matchy-matchy way every time.

Here's an example of a simple coord using the Witch Academy OP without any black or red.

    The Antique Beast headdress nods to the bat wing collar and the cats' ears at the same time, so it matches  in more ways than just the color. I love seeing boots coordinated with school-themed outfits so I chose these gold boots from Meta. To complete the look I opted for these white crew socks from Putumayo. They keep the youthful feel of the coordinate and the exposed leg gives the dress's print room to "breathe" without risk of being overpowered by white. You could also add a gold academic-style bag like Cotton Candy Feet's Frilly Academy bag for even more of a magical schoolgirl vibe, and I think this coord would really shine with dark brown or black hair if you're a stickler for balance.

    I guess this concludes my first post! Eventually I might make a follow-up logging all my accessories by color, but that's a far bigger beast to tackle. I hope you found some use from these tips, and if you have your own different way of organizing your lolita pieces, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

🪻See you next time!🪻