IMVU Parasol Dream

Last time we spoke I mentioned I had done some designs with a friend for IMVU. These are full lolita sets that we produced and put out into the world. The person who did the illustration and texturing is my close friend Amanda French. You can see more of their art here. Their username on IMVU is 7289 and the store associated with that account is where you can buy products from our brand.

The brand is called Parasol Dream or ParaDream for short. The dream is, of course, to eventually be able to print the fabric and produce real garments. It isn't in our budget now or the near future, but hopefully one day. So enough talking! I will now show you the preview images for our sets. We currently have 2 sets out.

We design our previews to look like spreads from magazines! I hope you enjoyed this peak into our designs.

IMVU Lolitas

Hello friends! Today I wanted to talk about lolitas on IMVU. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a client game based around socializing. You get an avatar and then use in-game money to dress your avatar however you please. The users design the clothes so there is a huge variety of items available, including lolita! These designers are called "devs". 

There are some lolita devs that are well known on the site; These include Alicehimechan, Pharmacist, and Prota. There are also lesser known devs and small collaboration brands, like mine and my ex-roomate's, Parasol Dream. I intend to do a separate post on PD in the near future. <3

The wide variety of options means there are literally 100s of lolita dresses on there and 1,000's of accessories. The coords on there can be just as unique and well constructed as those we see in real life. It is a great way to try things for free you might be afraid to try in person. It allows you to own holy grail dresses you might never be able to have in reality. Many of the lolitas on there are not lolitas in their day to day lives for a variety of reasons and they fit in perfectly with those of us who are. If the site peeks your interest it is definitely worth checking out! There are even lolita dedicated chat rooms.

I thought I would share my current lolita coords from IMVU with you. I made a handy graphic of all of them. I'd like to update it every 6 months or so because it is always changing it, but here is what I have now:

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different take on lolita fashion! Have a wonderful day and until next time. <3

Sweet Lolita Day!

I decided to wear sweet lolita today. I got a new dress so I figured why not? I had to work and run some errands but everything is more fun when you're dressed up!

Where I'm living right now the closest lolitas are 3-4 hours drive away. That means all my lolita days are solo events at the moment. The reactions in such a small conservative town are priceless to be honest. So here are the photos of my coord! Most of these pictures were taken by my dad right before we had to run out the door.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I wanted it to be a bit more OTT (over the top) but just didn't have time. Next time! Also sorry about the wrinkles in my dress, I didn't notice them until later and don't currently have an ironing board! <3 I hope you all like the outfit too. Concrit is of course always welcome. Stay lovely and have a wonderful weekend.

Quick informative post!

Hey everyone I just wanted to update you really quick and share some videos with you. First for the personal details! I've got a new skirt here and two dresses on the way. I'm hoping to wear some lolita coords soon with these new pieces. I'm in a tight spot with the skirt right now because my blouse got ruined. It still works under dresses but not with a skirt so my coord with that will not have a proper blouse. I'm still looking to get one. I will probably have to just bite the bullet and get one custom made since I can not find one in my size that I like. I'll let you know if I get one custom made!

The skirt I had made by a small indie shop and I will be doing a review of the experience when I put an outfit together with it so you can look forward to that!

Now on to the videos. These are videos I think would be very good for beginners to see or for people who don't really understand lolita (like your parents or uncle Jimmy) to get a quick grasp on the fashion. These are both made my Deer Stalker Pictures 2 over on youtube.

Why is lolita called lolita?

The history of lolita!

Both of these videos are really informative and even people who've been around for a few years might learn something new!

Talk to you all soon. <3

2015 Purchase Plans!

I made a small "to buy" list last year. I unfortunately didn't get much off of it. :< I did get quite a bit of lolita this year (by my standards) including my first piece of brand! It wasn't for not trying though, several of the items continuing from last year's list I searched far and wide for. So I thought it'd be fun to make another one to reference for this year!

So these are the items I'd like to purchase in 2015. Wish me luck!

Any brand parasol similar to this

Mint Chess Chocolate replica with border print

Yellow Milky Planet JSK replica

Loris present star bag in pink

Angelic Pretty tea pot cookie necklace in pink

Baby Doll Blouse with Removable Sleeves (2012) in white

Shirring Princess JSK & Head Bow Set in Pink or Navy

I'm also planning to get a new blouse or two, brown shoes, and brown and white wrist cuffs. So what are you hoping to get this next year! Comment below to let me know, I'd love to hear. <3

Early December Coord

Hello lovely readers! I recently obtained a new dress. I'm waiting on a skirt right now and then I think I'm going to do a recent purchases post since over the past two months I've bought quite a bit of new lolita stuff. So the dress I got was a replica of an Alice & the Pirates dress. I put together a pirate themed coord to go with it. I'll show you that in a second.

In unrelated news there will be a Baby tea party at a con near me. I'm trying to decide if I should go. It'd be a huge financial strain but it would be awesome. I'll definitely let you guys know if I opt to participate. Now on to my coord photos!

Thank you for stopping by! This is my first outfit with a JSK instead of a skirt and I really am happy with how it turned out. I was very excited to finally get to use my treasure chest purse. ^_^  See you next time!

Predictions for 2015!

I thought it might be fun to make some predictions about what will be trending in lolita in 2015. Every year we see trends emerging. 2014 was filler with peignoirs, religious imagery and accessories, and the emergence of OTT (over the top) classic.

One item we are already seeing come into the scene is head chains. I've seen these around the internet for a couple years; they're very popular on a shopping site I use. I was wondering if they'd ever make their way into jfashion because I think they'd work really well in lolita and dolly kei so I'm a little shocked it took this long.

Short hair! I have seen more and more acceptance of cropped hair in lolita over the past year and I predict it will become "trendy" at some point in this coming year. A lot of people are moving away from the hassle of wigs and I believe a death toll for pastel wigs has begun to ring. So, with the more natural hair options coming into the fashion, I think we will see short hair more.

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Indie brands are pretty popular right now but I predict in the next year they'll become even bigger and we'll see more starting up. A lot of people are tired of the main brands in lolita because they have such limited sizes and tend to rehash and reuse the same trends over and over. Indie brands tend to be a little more original and interesting. Some of these brands are making a real splash in the lolita scene and perhaps that splash will become a tidal wave soon. :)

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I'm going to make one last prediction, this one without much basis besides my personal feelings. I think we're going to see an outbreak of the less common substyles. I think Gothic will make a strong comeback. Country lolita is already seeming to come back slightly so I think that will continue. I also think we might see cyberpunk lolita, mori lolita, and punk lolita make small comebacks. I hope we see these being done by people who really know what they're doing since these styles are often associated with newbies and itas. I'd like to see that change and I'm hopeful in 2015 we will!

Thank you for reading! I'm very much looking forward to what the rest of this year will bring and I eagerly anticipate a new year of lolita fashion.

-Kayla

Love & Hate

Hello! I was inspired to do a post about what I love and hate about lolita. I'll be doing 5 of each. So I'll get straight to it!

Love

1. Skirts! I love how skirts look in lolita (instead of a JSK or OP). I like the other options as well but there is just something about the balance of skirts in an outfit.
2. OTT (over the top)! It doesn't matter if it is sweet, classic, gothic, etc I love when an outfit gets taken into OTT. The attention to detail and the way it all just comes together is wonderful in my opinion.

   

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       3. Indie designers are something I love about lolita. Though I'm reasonably drawn to the big      name brands I think that some of the Taobao and handmade designs are even more wonderful. I'm glad to see these gaining momentum over the past few years. 

       4. Inclusive areas of the community. Whether its feministlolita, gorgeouspluslolita, or colormelolita (and there are TONS more) these blogs are an awesome way to get inspiration and to feel included if you aren't what many consider the "ideal" lolita. So these are great.

       5. Shirring! I don't own anything with shirring right now actually but I really love it. It is great for us plus size lolitas but it also makes it so pieces have a lot wider audience. That leads to a bigger variety of coords and I think that is awesome! 

Hate

       1. No petticoat coords. I know everyone and their mother says this but I really really can't stand how an all around great coordinate gets ruined by a lack of a petti. It just looks so frumpy and it doesn't have the silhouette that is staple to the style.

       2. Hate communities. Confessions blogs, behind the bows, parts of cgl, get off egl, etc. A lot of these have thankfully been disappearing over the past year but they still exist and they promote really negative behavior and attitudes.

        3. The price! I love brand and indie brands but they are so expensive. I know the quality is worth the money and all that but it still makes me a little sad every time I relinquish a wad of cash for an item. Usually that is forgotten when I receive it though to be honest. I think most lolitas who pay for their own clothes can relate to this.

        4. Costume lolita. I will never be mean to someone because they chose to wear a cosplay type lolita coord but I just don't love them. That being said, I've seen some REALLY great ones. I've seen some that I thought were just amazing and did a spectacular job. Most of them I see though are not well thought out, cheap looking, or badly coordinated. Nothing against the people who wear them, just not my thing. Here is one I actually liked.

        5. The last and the one I hate the most is Fancy Box (and similar prints). These are popular prints and I have seen some nice coords with it but honestly I just hate it. This is my least favorite print out there. I can't even fully explain why I dislike it. It is almost an irrational distaste for it. The repetitive rows, the colors, the bears, all of it is just terrible to me. I even hate the straps. 

Thank you for reading! These are just my personal opinions and everyone is totally free to disagree with them. Have a wonderful week and a great Thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate it. See you soon. <3

Art Prize Coord!

I recently went to Art Prize in Grand Rapids. This is an annual trip for me. Coincidentally there was also a lolita meet up happening the same weekend in the same location. A great excuse to dress up and try some new ideas I've had!

We agreed to meet at this cute art gallery but unfortunately it was closed so we went to the GRAM instead. Everyone looked great! We got our picture taken several times. When we were finished at the museum we agreed to go to Spoon Lickers for Froyo since they had vegan options that catered to our mixed diet group.

It was wonderful overall and it felt great to be among a group of lolitas again since it had been a while since I've done any kind of Jfashion circle.

Here are some of the photos from the meetup!

About half of our group! We got separated for a bit.

Close up to show make up. 

This ring broke :< One of my favorite accessories though.

My full outfit!

Photo credit Alex Brand

2014 Purchase Plans!

We all know there are certain items that your wardrobe just doesn't feel complete without. I want to try and get some of the more attainable ones off my list in this coming year. Some of these have been on my want list since I first found lolita and some are to fill out my wardrobe. 

Feel free to comment below which items you want to get this year!

So here are mine:

Replica of Chess Chocolate Mint (with border print)

A white pagoda parasol similar to this.

Replica of Milky Planet in Yellow.

Pink mermaid sandals. 

Pink Loris star bag.

I'm still alive and wearing lolita!

Hello dear readers! I know I've been bad about updating. A multitude of things have led to that but I'm back and I'm going to try and update more regularly. 

I've worn lolita several times lately but the time I'm going to write about was a few weeks ago. I wore sweet lolita to a Steam Powered Giraffe concert celebrating their made up holiday Yulemas. :) There were 2 wonderful shows, a meet and greet, and a tea party. I attended all of it and wore lolita for most! The band and other fans complimented my outfit several times and I was very flattered.

So here is what I wore!

The last has some Yulemas pressents from my friend Elizabeth in it. There were a lot of fun times and great photos taken that weekend! It was really amazing. 

-Kayla

Mori Lolita

Mori (which means forest in Japanese) is a Jfashion style of its own. The style focuses on layers, creams, whites, beige, browns, crochet, ect. and basically having an over all feel of being natural, as if you just walked out of the forest. It is associated with natural kei and when searching for it you may want to try mori, mori girl, mori boy, and mori kei. Here is a translation of the "mori girl checklist" which will give you more information and some guidelines. Well some genius people decided that lolita and mori would look together. They were totally right.

So the idea here is that you take the layering, colors, and general aesthetic of mori but add a lolita silhouette and elements. It is a style I'd very much like to try myself someday. I do both lolita and mori, though I post only once in a while about my lolita outfits and never about my mori outfits (because this is a primarily lolita blog). What better way to explain the style than to show you? Here are some of my favorites:

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Personally I'd really love to see more and more of this in the future. I want to see like, 100s of mori lolita outfits. :)

-Kayla