2017 Goals, Wish List, and Predictions!

Hello lovelies! This year, which has been QUITE the year, is winding down now. Each year my lolita wardrobe and experience grows. I was very lucky that I got to wear lolita quite often (by my standards) this years. Hopefully that trend will continue into next year! As the title suggests, I wanted to go over my goals and wish list for this coming year, as well as what I think may grow in popularity. Please remember that this is just my opinion on what trends have been coming forward lately that may gain acceptance and that I have no reason to believe in these other than my own limited observation! Thank you for understanding. <3

GOALS!

Firstly, my goals for the year.

In this coming year I want to continue my goal from last year of posting at least once a month! With this post I succeeded for this year I am happy to announce. I would like to update even more than that but of course whether or not I have content I wish to share drives my frequency!

I want to repair the lolita items I have damaged over time. Some of my shoes, one blouse, a few purses, and some jewelry really need some love to be usable. I have already started on some of this but I really need to take the bull by the horns, as they say, and get fixing!

I'd like to attend at least 3 meet ups in this coming year. I live far away from most of my comm members, as some of you may know, so most of my lolita time is spent with just one or two close friends. Meet ups are a refreshing change so hopefully I can attend a few in 2017.

~~~What are your goals for this coming year? Let me know in the comments!~~~

WISH LIST!

My wish list for this coming year is going to be quite small, truthfully. I am trying to save up for a trip in the fall so lolita has to take a back seat to that unfortunately. There are, however, a few stables I am going to try to get ahold of this coming year!

Gold and Black shoes! I coordinate with gold so often it is honestly a crime I haven't been able to get my hands on a pair yet. I have black flats that I wear with darker coords but I personally feel like they sort of ruin otherwise decent outfits by being far too casual for my taste.

I would like to get ahold of 1 or 2 more blouses this year! Glittertale is probably where I'll end up ordering from since they really did impress me with my other order. The main blouse I wear right now needs some serious stain removal and a button sewn back on. Having a few backups would be nice but it is difficult to find blouses in my size that I both like and can afford.

Brown wrist cuffs are something I've been wanting to find for a time. I know they are readily available but finding exactly what I'm looking for has proven to be a failure! I'm hoping this next year will have them come to me.

A 3-way heart bag! These have fallen out of style but I still love them. I'm hoping as they diminish in
popularity I will be able to find one on the cheap, second hand.

There are no specific dresses I have in mind for the upcoming year. Don't be surprised if I obtain one though! I hope to find something I absolutely love, but my wallet hopes I hate everything this year, haha.

PREDICTIONS!

Last year was the first time I tried making a guess at what may be popular in the future! I thought it was quite fun and was excited to see some of what I thought had come true. So here are a few ideas for what we may see more of soon!

Old school: I think old school is starting to make a bit of a comeback, though altered to make it fit more in with the current aesthetic. How do you feel about old school? Let me know!

Holographic: I saw tons of holographic art at Youmacon this year and I know there has been a release of some shoes in the lolita community as well. This could continue into other aspects of the fashion! I don't think we will see any full dresses but bags, accessories, and maybe even a print are something to possibly look forward to.

The Return of OTT Sweet?: This past year was all about OTT (over the top) classic and, to a point, goth. I loved this! I think there may be some backlash by the return of sweet to popularity. I think classic OTT will probably continue into the next year as well, especially if brands keep releasing the sort of dresses they are now. Evidence of the sweet style making a comeback can be seen in AP releases like Baked Sweets Parade and Strawberry Garland from this year!

Religious Iconography: Or lack of. Religious prints and accessories were all the rage this year and in 2015. Brands have released dress after dress with crosses and angels and they have sold! I think, similar to the decline of horse and cat prints this year, in the coming year we will finally see a move away from religion imagery in lolita.

Head Bows:The last year or two has seen a decline in the use of head bows, once a staple for lolita fashion. Hats, veils, and ornate head pieces have ruled the scene for some time now. 2017 may be the year that head bows finally come back into style, though I think they will be a bit more than just your classic Alice bow.

Statues/Classic Art/Etc: This one I have very little to work on besides a gut feeling and the recent imagery Ap has been using, but I think we may see more prints with statues, sculptures, beautiful architecture, and decorative interior pieces. These highly detailed print details would lend well to the elegance of lolita.

So there you have it! This is what I think 2017 will be all about for me and for the community. Let me know what YOU think is going to be popular in the coming year. I'm sure some of you have much clearer ideas. What do you wish would gain momentum, even if you don't see it happening in the near future?

I will talk to you all soon.
Love always,
Kayla

Youmacon 2016

Hey everyone! It has been a few years since I attended Youmacon but this year I was lucky enough to be able to go on Saturday with my friend Ginny. I decided to finally finish a head piece I'd been working on for about a year (start to finish) to go with a dress I haven't worn in quite some time. I'm very happy with how the head piece turned out, as you will see in a minute. There were a few issues with pinning, balance, and a pesky spot the head band insisted on pushing in to but overall it wasn't too bad to wear and I received many compliments and requests for photos because of it! I felt honestly so flattered and amazed that people seemed to like it as much as I do.

I took some still photos that I will be sharing here but mostly I focused on filming. I will link to the vlog I've put together at the end of the post! Most of the stills here were taken at the annual con meet up.

I'll start right off with our silly group picture. We are all beautiful and amazing lolitas. Such class. Such elegance. #Kawaii

Photo Credit: Indigo Carr

Photo Credit: Indigo Carr

I want to start by showing you individual pictures of some of the amazing people who attended the meet up. I couldn't grab everyone's coord but hopefully you can see most of them in the group photos. Unfortunately I don't know everyone's names so I will not be including any, for consistency. Sorry!

I ran into this group at the dealer's room as well!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Kristel from the Toronto community. We had a nice long chat and her outfit was honestly amazing.

This cute shop girl was wearing an Angelic Pretty skirt as well! I really loved her art and style and everything! It was totally my aesthetic preference and she hit onto so many of my fandoms. Perfection, honestly. You can scope her Insta here.

Now I want to show you mine and Virginia's coordinates! We didn't get much sleep but we managed to still get dressed and to the convention at a decent time. I was exhausted but the sheer power of cuteness propelled me through the day.

Ginny!

Ginny's main piece is the Day Dream Carnival Salopette by Angelic Pretty. She made most of the pieces in her coord, including dying her own socks!

Lastly, here is my coordinate photos and breakdown. I hope you guys see the love and time I put into this one.

Early morning makeup selfie!

Ignore my petti. OTL I fixed it.

You can actually see the whole boat here.

Nails were done by my friend Amanda.

Dress: AatP replica
Blouse: Glittertale
Shoes & Socks: Bodyline
Headdress: Hand Made
Everything Else: Offbrand

BONUS

I hope everyone had a wonderful Youmacon this year and hopefully I'll be able to attend again in the future! Thank you so much for reading and if you want even more, I'll finish this with a link to my vlog from the con. I am not going to embed it because Blogspot crops the video in a weird way. I hope you understand. I'll talk to you next month! Everyone have a great holiday and see you soon. <3

YOUMACON VLOG

October 2nd Meet Up-Art Prize

Hey lovelies! This month I attended a meet up in Grand Rapids with a few friends for Art Prize. Normally I spend a whole weekend at the festival every year but, due to the relocation of my best friend, that was not possible this year.

Honestly, I was kind of underwhelmed with Art Prize this year. Many of my favorite locations were lack luster or completely closed! It was kind of disappointing; nothing blew my mind, though I did enjoy some of what I saw.

For most of the meet up it was just my friends and I and the host, Amanda. A few more people showed up about half an hour before we had to leave for our other plans for the day, which were time sensitive. Unfortunately, when we got to our car it was totally dead! It took over an hour, a security guard, and some handy work on my part, but we got the car up and running again. We had to run to get to the mall before it closed though, because there was an item I needed to pick up. It is almost a 3 hour drive there for us and if I didn't get the item before 6 (we left the parking garage at 5:30) I wouldn't be able to get it without driving all the way back! Luckily we made it, though we had to cancel some of our other shopping plans.

I didn't take many photos, especially not compared to my usual binge photography. Ha ha. I'll share my outfit and my favorite art pieces from the day though, plus a few candids of the other attendees! We also grabbed a group shot (which was taken by Tracy and I just stole for this post. Thanks Tracy!). I'm sorry but I forgot to note the artist's names so I don't have any art credits or websites to send you all to. Please forgive my forgetfulness!

Here are some of the outfit shots taken of me throughout the day (by Amanda F. and Ginny.)

Right after this I got called a princess

And lastly here are a few shots of other lolitas from the community!

Ginny! 

Host-Amanda

Group shot (minus Amanda F)

Dress/Service Review & Day Out-Chess Chocolate (replica)

Hey lovely readers! Today I wanted to talk to you about a dress I recently acquired. I would like to post-face this blog with the fact that I know the replica debate is never ending, I know why people hate replicas, etc etc. Please waste someone else's time trying to fight them over replicas. Inflammatory comments will just be deleted honestly.

Now on to the post!

Chess Chocolate in mint has been my holy grail dress since I first started lolita. I love it. I love everything about it. I wasn't 100% a fan of the cuts offered though and have never been a size that would allow me to wear the actual Angelic Pretty dress. I waited years and years for it to turn up on the second hand market in my size and it never did. I finally caved and ordered it straight from Oo Jia. Now, we all know Oo Jia I assume, but in case you don't, she is well known for making custom sized replicas of popular lolita prints (mostly Angelic Pretty).

My experience with her was not great honestly. She was VERY slow to respond to my messages, took much longer than promised to make my items (though, in her defense, she was making me a custom hat in a style she had never tried before and apparently had some difficulty with it), took much longer than promised to ship my items, and honestly, they aren't exactly what I wanted. I did a custom style of JSK that doesn't exactly match any of the options AP had. I asked for a beret and a head bow. The beret sits a little strangely? I have a weird shaped head though and it could very well be a result of my head and not the hat itself. I'm really not positive. The dress is MUCH too short and I'm not really sure how that happened. In order to wear it as proper lolita I will have to invest in an underskirt at some point. In the mean time I have worn it a few times in more casual outfits that are much more "inspired" by lolita than....actual lolita. I can't put a petticoat under the skirt because it is so short (I probably could if I had a short petti but my petti is the size of most of my skirts, i.e. slightly below my knee.) It fits a little strangely around the arms and in the chest as well. Other than those details I am pretty happy with it, it just isn't what I wanted.

Now that the rant is over let me show you some close up details of the dress and accessories!

The actual print is fairly crisp, though the gold is smeared in many places. It isn't hugely noticeable however. The bow near the top is not removable. There is this gold lace around the sleeves that is quite itchy if not worn with a full coverage under-shirt.

The lace is beautiful, though obviously not true to the original design.

There is a SMALL built in petti underneath. It doesn't give much poof at all but it does allow for a nicer shape than it would have otherwise.

Here are the accessories I ordered as well! The beret had the small bow attached to it but it looked strange and the bow is not nicely shaped so I took it off. I tend to wear it with star clips or pins instead.

I went out with some friends of mine in this dress and tried to make a more "proper" lolita outfit for the occasion. This was the sole time I tried with a full coordinate (minus the petti) and, while I was happy with how the outfit looked, it still didn't feel right to me. I prefer this dress worn more casually because I really CAN'T do a full coord.

A bonus photo featuring my friends and I at the Tridge in Midland, MI.

Overall I would give my experience working with Oo Jia 2/5 for communication, 3/5 for speed, and 4/5 for execution. I hope this review will be helpful to someone, though I really really do recommend buying replicas second hand if you are going to purchase them at all.

Have a wonderful September and I will update you all again next month!

-Kayla <3

Restyle (Lolita Collective) Haul & Review!

Hello everyone! I recently made a purchase from the Lolita Collective. I've ordered from them a few times in the past and they're pretty straight forward as far as lolita sites go. They always have an amazing selection of items, including some that are custom sized! This time most of what I ordered was from the brand Restyle. They're not strictly a lolita brand but quite a few of their items are loliable. I've been looking for a few items for a coord I'm working on and they had EXACTLY what I was looking for! There were a few other items I couldn't resist as well. Most of this is stuff I will wear outside of lolita but I think, for the most part, they'll work with lolita as well!

To save time reviewing each item, which I don't feel is necessary, I will just say that, overall, every single item exceeded my expectations by a mile. Everything is heavy duty and sturdy. With the exception of the lavender bow ring, all of the jewelry I received is metal! The preview images made them look plastic so I was very surprised (and delighted) to realize I was mistaken. The purse I bought has removable straps and multiple ways to use them. Now on to the items!

The Restyle logo zipper above is very sturdy and has a nice weight. The bag is PU (faux leather) and seems sturdy. I have not had a chance to use it yet.

Do you see the skull? The band has the moon phases on it as well.

The moon phases!

Sorry for the blurry photo!

All of the above items are from the Restyle brand. This last ring is not! I do not remember which brand, if any, it came from. I am still trying to get lavender items together for a coord though and couldn't pass this by for the price! It IS made of plastic but the plastic is thick and sturdy. The band bends slightly that allows accommodations for larger fingers.

It is about 3x bigger than I expected. OTL

The last item I ordered was a set of lolita art postcards. They are on wonderful paper and came to me in much better shape than I expected. I have a wall that I decorate with cute art and letters so I bought these for that! They look adorable as decoration. You can buy a set like I did or individual cards.

I hope this was informative for you. I highly recommend LC after several orders that have always exceeded my expectations.

Thank you so much for reading! 

-Kayla