Theme Catchup - Budget Lolita

There is no denying that Lolita is an expensive hobby. You can expect to spend £100 on a dress, minimum. £20 on one hair accessory or one pair of socks. Then there's your handbag, and shoes, and of course underthings!
However, there are ways to save money, the most obvious being: buy secondhand.


The Sales Comm on LJ is a good start here, you can buy things directly from other girls who don't want/dont fit/otherwise can't keep some of their lolita belongings. with patience, you can find some very nice things appear on there for very reasonable prices.
But be careful, try and find out what the retail price for an item was before buying it on Egl_Comm_sales, because some people sell things for the same price as it would be new, even though it's second hand. And some popular or 'rare' prints and older items can be much much more that they were new. This is because of their rarity though.
The next step would be to buy things on Auction.
Yahoo Japan auctions (or Y!J), are full of lolita items. But you will usually need a shopping service to handle it on your behalf.
I personally use Crescent Shop, I've found them very easy to use and communicate with. However, their fees can be quite steep and I was looking at other options. Crescent Shop currently have plans to re-vamp their system, and according to the email with details on it, the "Grand Opening: Sep 28(Tue) at 9:00am". They will no longer take an up-front deposit before you can bid, and other shipping options will be avaliable. This is quite good news, considering EMS is expensive. And I know from the time I moved home from japan, SAL is a great, cheap sevice to send large parcels.
So, perhaps once we see what the new site and system is like, I'll decide what to do.
Other auction services include Celga.com and Rinkya.com, but having never used them I can't say what their service is like.


A word of warning. Auctions can be addictive. It's very very easy to rack up a huge bill on several "very good deals!". So just, plan your budget, and be careful :)


But what about out there in the offline world? What if we live in places not lucky enough to have physical brand stores? Offbrand loliable items can be found just about anywhere. And as luck would have it, floral and lacy items are very fashionable at the moment. (Okay, not to the Lolia extent, but it makes offbrand shopping much easier).
Cute socks, hair bows, jewlery and even simple blouses and skirts can be found in high street shops. Although they can be a little too short, or thin, sometimes to wear on the outside I've found offbrand ruffled skirts that make great underskirts or modest petticoats :)
It's all about finding things that 'work', you're never going to pass off a lace-paneled shirt and floral miniskirt as Lolita. Buut, the high-collared shirt, the slightly longer floral skirt and the lace knee-skirt underneath it.. and you might have a passable everyday, casual-lolita look.


Last but not least, second hand AND offbrand, Charity Shops/Trift Stores.
Charity shops are an absolute goldmine of vintage, retro, or just downright unusual clothes. Of course, for very low prices. However, it will take patience and trial and error to find rare beauties in these shops, because of course they have a lot of things packed in.
Going through things in charity shops can be fun, you never know what you'll find. I've made more than a few finds in my local Oxfam shop, including two velvet bowties, a monocle and my absolute favourite skirt.
The plan was to take pictures of these things individually to show you them... but where's the fun in that? Here's me modeling them all at once:

(this is not supposed to be a serious co-ordinate :p)
These things are more boy-style or dandy than lolita, but you get the idea. Those bowties are such great acessories, and they need not be worn exclusively around your neck. They are quite versitile!
And the Skirt:

(best photo I could get, sorry)
That's black velvet brocade over green silk. This skirt is quite long, although not as long as it looks in the photo, that's due to the high angle. It's deffinately suited to a classic/almost aristocratic style though. And I adore it!


Nearly my entire lolita wardrobe is secondhand or offbrand. In fact, I have... 2 items bought new, a skirt and a bag (both on sale at the time).. everything else is from LJ sales or auctions, or offbrand stores.
Happy shopping!

Theme Catchup - Bonnets

I've missed a lot of the Monthy Themes on the EGL comm this summer. For no good reason, to be honest, other than I was posting about other things. But the themes are fun, and I for one think they're quite a nice addition to the community.
So here's my catchup from a few months ago: Bonnets.

Bonnets are something that I really like, but never really find the occasion to wear. They just seem "too much" sometimes, which is rediculous considering how outlandish the rest of the fashion looks as it is. Maybe next years resolution will be to pluck up a little more courage and wear bonnets regularly.


This is my newest bonnet, it's solid off-white. I bought it a while ago through Quitieland to go with a summery dress I had plans for, then it took 2 months to arrive and It doesn't go with the dress anyway! Drat! On the bright side, it will be perfect with some of my other outfits.


This Bodyline half-bonnet I got on the sales comm to go with the Meta skirt I have of the same pattern. They make an amazing set.. it's just a very sweet set. As you can see, the tags are still on it (lol), but it's easily my favourite and I want to wear it with the skirt sometime soon.
probably in a mostly-red as-classical-as-possible co-ordinate.


My first ever bonnet. A Black BTSSB one, also purchased from the sales comm. It looked so cute in pictures, but I don't think it sits right on me. Maybe I'll end up selling it, or trading it for a differently shaped black bonnet, this one just doesn't sit the way I hoped.
In fact, it reminds me a little of a dilophosaurus:

See what I mean? :p

Sweet Kodona comes true!

This, is the beautiful "aliceisaninja" (LJ username), "letsgomyfriend" on Tumblr.

She recently got in touch with me to say she'd tried out Sweet Kodona style, as I'd written about it a while ago!
Of course I was interested to see it, and colour me impressed... she suits it so well.
Lets start a Kodona revolution.. maybe pastels are something I do need in my life.

The original post is here:
http://gothlolitafun.blogspot.com/2010/07/milky-star-dandy-magician-boy.html

The Hair Dilema. Short or Long?

hair, hair, hair. Hair style is every bit as important in any fashion as the style of your clothes and makeup. Fortunately, most hair types can be made to suit most styles.
But what about lolita? for most people, it just doesn't look right if you don't have long hair. A lot of people insist on having a fringe (bangs).
In fact, the wearing of wigs has become immensely popular in Lolita fashion over the last while, probably because of the ideals of long curly hair, that most people cannot achieve naturally.

Now, I don't wear wigs. Thats not to say that I dislike them, or think people who do wear them are somehow wrong. I just don't like the way they feel on my head.

Also, I like short hair. My hair suits me short, or so Ive been told, it's easy to wash, dry and style. But it does that annoying thing that all hair does: grow.
My hair grows fast, and because I keep it short, it's more obvious when it does grow out.
The other day, I discovered that my hair has grown long enough for pigtails:


Okay, I admit, they're short and scruffy pigtails, but a braid is a braid and it shows that my hair is getting long again.
So, every few months I have this dilema. Do I get it cut again, or let it grow?
Will it suit me long? If I grew my hair out, would I get annoyed with it?
But I am a little bored of having the same hair style.

Usually, I decide to try and grow it out, then about a month later I get irritated with it and have it all cropped off again.
But what do you think? Grow it out, or cut it short?

What do you prefer in lolita fashion? Is long, lovely hair a must? Or does it just depend on what suits the individual? Does Lolita need more short haired girls?
What's your favourite style? Or dream hairstyle?

While we ponder these things, here's an outfit run down of what I was wearing that day:

Mary magdalene headband,
Innocent world OP
offbrand socks
anna house bloomers.

Hime Gothic

I've been inspired a lot recently by Hime styles, and wanted to incorporate the Hime aesthetic in with my own gothic lolita style.
Fortunately for me, I already had a little tiara that I got a long time ago (in the 90's, when they were fashionable briefly.. lol!), and I kept it. All it needed was a little polish, and thanks to some good avice from a friend I discovered that toothpaste polishes up tarnished metal beautifully!



Here you can see my little tiara, and matching bejeweled necklace. Sorry about the expression, haha, I was aiming for Cute and got Slighly Mad! Oh well.

Here's the full outfit:


my old favourite bodyline skirt, once again!
Emily Temple Cute cardigan
ASDA under-dress.
And glass slippers...



GLASS SLIPPERS! (purchased on ebay) I am rediculously excited about these shoes, and they give the whole look a fairytale effect.

I wore this outfit last weekend to go out and celebrate my brother's birthday.

Usamimi Headband

A relatively recent japanese trend is the Usamimi (rabbit-ear) headband. It is not widely accepted as a Lolita trend, and it falls more into gal(?) or other japanese fashions I think.
But I think they are just adoreable! And Baby The Stars Shine Bright recently brought out a lolita version of this type of head band (shown abouve). However, it's a bit.. much isn't it?

So, with a little reserarch I found Violet LeBeaux's tutorial on how to make your very own usamimi headscarf!

http://violetlebeaux.com/2010/04/tutorial-making-a-bunny-hair-scarf/

It's so simple.. and I already had all the items. Odd sock, check, wire left over from sculpture class, check, scissors and thread and sewing needle, check.
So i followed the tutorial exactly, and made this:

bunny bunny <3

Now, I'm no seamstress. In fact, this is the first thing I've successfully sewn. Ever! And it took me five hours.. on and off.. of mistakes and getting annoyed with it... to eventually finish it. But I'm glad I did!

Here's the outfit I wore it with after making it:

(sorry it's not at all clear, I was having a bad-photographer-day or something!)
This is just to illustrate the combo of stripey socks with stripey usamimi.
Is that overkill? I have a weakness for stripes...

Anyway, I hope you like my Usamimi Hairband, and deffinately check out Violet LeBeaux's tutorial, it made it so simple, and it's so cute <3

We're off to the shows!

This weekend was the Glasgow Shows weekend. So, a couple of friends and I met up to go and spend the day out at the fare!

It's a big event, that takes over the entirety of Glasgow Green and is comprised of several sections, all with different displays and things to do or see. Fortunately, the weather held up all afternoon and only rained when I was already on my way home!

To get to to the green, there was a free Vintage Bus service;


Once there, we saw the whole place full of people and stalls and tents and animals. Dogs are welcome at the green, so many pople had brought their pets along which was great, but made me a little sad that I couldn't have brought my own dog, Paws.

Anyway, amoung the showa we saw, there was a Mini Cooper stunt-driver (yikes!).
We saw a dog show, in which border collie puppies who were just learning to heard had to heard a gaggle of ducks over various obsticals.. it was so adoreable!
There was also the 'Rockin Horses', a stunt-horse-riding group who did their acts along to rock music. That was truely amazing.

We got to meet Titan, the robot:

He was really impressive, and sang a lot of songs for the crowd.

In the Animal Zone, there were highland cows.

They were a bit stinky.. but that's okay, because they're so friendly and cute. This one is a mother, her calf was hiding behind her and I couldn't get a picture with him in it aswell as his protective Mama :)

There was a display of retro service vehicles too. (We referred to this as "find a fireman corner ;))
Here's me modeling a retro fire engine:

Lol!

It was such a busy and exausting day, and so much fun! Unfortunately we didn't win any cuddly toys at the games, but thats okay, I never know where I'd keep a giant teddy anyway.

Here's something I haven't posted in a while; a Strange Drink! Since coming back from japan, everything's been quite normal to me, but my fascination with oddities continues so here's some Rose Lemonade;

(I technically had this the day before going to the Shows, but nevermind that).
This drink was delicious, rose and lemon is a good match.

I wanted to wear my favourite colour for going out, RED. Here's an outfit run down;


OP and Headbow - BTSSB
Satchel - Vintage (it was my mum's schoolbag.. awwww!)
Shoes - Bodyline

The dress I bought recently for a rediculously low price on auction. It was love-at-first-sight, despite it's obvious sweet-ness.



I went with simple pale pink eyeshadow to go with the hearts and diamonds on the dress.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure to the Glasgow Shows!