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

Great Lakes Lolita 10th Anniversary Tea Party!

Hello lovelies! As promised, I attended the tea party my state's comm was hosting for their 10th anniversary. I'd like to pre-face the longer post by saying it was a great time. It was my first lolita tea party (I'm not a big tea drinker, though I did have two cups at the event) and I felt very fancy. Ha ha. So my friend Ginny and I came down from Northern Michigan, almost three hours with the bad traffic. The meet was at the Historic Holly Hotel in Holly, Michigan.

As per usual, we were late and the last ones there. Whoops. I swear I'm never late for anything! The second I have a petticoat on I forget everything and my to-do list gets thrown to the way-side. Maybe some day I'll be able to dress cute AND be on time! (Yeah right.)

We signed in when we arrived and received our free gifts (there were door prizes, tiaras, pins that were customized for our community, and more!) We found our seats and waited for the meet to really start.

We were served fruit, a main course, and a dessert on top of the endless tea. It was more food than we expected for the ticket price! I'm a vegan so my food was different than most people's. I was on the fence about going until it was announced that the venue would work to make sure speciality diets were taken care of. For the fruit I was given a different dip, my main dish was quinoa and veggies and a few other small options, and my dessert was cherry sorbet made locally!

There was a coordinate contest as well. I opted not to enter after seeing the outfits some people had arrived in. I was very proud of my coord and worked hard on it but I was so in love with some of the coords there that I knew I had no chance! It was totally fine though because I enjoyed seeing all the amazing outfits. The contest was separated first by style (sweet, gothic, and classic; every other style was asked to pick the closest). Then the finalists went head to head for best coordinate over all! There were the winners of each category and classic won overall:

We did photos by table and then individually. I will post my individual photo on Facebook when I receive it! There was a drawing with amazing prizes and Ginny won one! (Congrats again!) Lastly there was a small swap meet. I sold a few items and bought a purse (which I will probably show to you all in a later haul post). Then we had to wrap up the party and leave. Unfortunately it was sprinkling when we left and Ginny & I had left our parasols in the car like dummies. We speed-walked to the car (as many others were as well because who wants to ruin a $400 dress, honestly).

Virginia (Ginny) and I had pre-decided not to attend the "official" after party at the restaurant the comm chose. The reasons for this were multi-faceted but mainly it was 1. a very very long drive home and 2. on the way we have to go right past our favorite sushi joint! We took some coordinate shots outside of the restaurant.

Outfit Rundown:
Dress, bow, wrist cuffs, jewelry: Angelic Pretty
Shoes, blouse: Bodyline
Everything else: Offbrand

Outfit Rundown:
Dress: Cloudberry Lady
Blouse: Glittertale
Socks, shoes: Bodyline
All hair bows: Innocent World
Accessories: Chocomint, A Gato Designs, Offbrand
Everything else: Off brand
















We always get the same order when we are there but I've included photos anyway. I get their miso soup and sweet potato tempura rolls. It is one of the few places I've found where BOTH are free of animal products. AKA, they're my favorite kind of people. The place is called Fuji Sushi in Midland, Michigan (in case anyone is curious).

Our last stop was Target. We don't have one by us but there is one right by the sushi place. I love Target but rarely get there. Surprisingly, I barely bought anything there but we did take some silly pictures. We also had an employee take a full body photo of us together. So thank you random Target employee! You went above and beyond for us.

Since the tea party I have made use of the items I received. I got some glitter nail polish that is a new favorite. Virginia and I have implemented "Tiara Tuesdays" at our place of employment and started it off with the tiaras we received at the event. I had a ton of fun and everyone really looked amazing. The coords were extremely inspiring and I can't wait to see everyone again! I don't know when my next group meet up will be unfortunately.

Coming up, either late this month or early next month, I will have a haul and a review coming of some new items I've obtained recently. Please stop back for that!

See you next time,
Kayla <3 

Lolita friends and bonus outfit!

 Hello lovelies!

I recently went on a friend date with someone I work with who has gotten into lolita over the past few months. She is the same one I went to the museum with. We went out for lunch, did some shopping, and then took some photos by The Tridge in Midland, MI. It was a really fun day! I love having someone local I can do lolita with since meet ups are often way too far for me.

This is my friend's outfit. She went simple and is still working on this coord and others. The skirt was made by her! I believe the blouse was thrifted.

We did precarious climbing to get this!

Make up close up.

My dress was designed by me and produced by A. Gato Designs, as mentioned in a previous post. My blouse is custom from Glittertale. For more details on the blouse check here! Everything else I'm wearing was either made by me, thrifted, or is off-brand.

I'm still doing some work on this coord and will be changing it up some in the future. Black is fairly new to my Jfashion wardrobe so I am working quite a bit with pieces from my normal clothes.

As a bonus I'd like to show you guys an outfit I wore for a concert I attended earlier this month. I wore it throughout the day so my hair and makeup are not really done. I did special makeup for the concert and, since I had to do it on the fly, I didn't bother with makeup for the rest of the day. I have a long ways to go on this outfit but I'm getting there!

My shoes broke so just socks! Whoops!

Blouse is Glittertale again and the dress is another I commissioned from A. Gato Designs. My socks and wrist-cuffs are Bodyline. Everything else is thrifted or off-brand.

My friend and I are attending a tea party next week for our community's 10th anniversary. The attendance list is large and there are lots of free goodies and contests. I will be making a full post on that next month so please look forward to it!

Love always,
Kayla