The Ultimate Dream Dress

Let me be the first to say I am so ridiculously sorry for this (several month) delayed post! Excuses excuses, I know, but it's my last year of college and I only just moved into my first apartment. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some posts here and there!

Now I know the subject of wedding lolita dresses has been talked to death over at EGL. It's an important subject for a lot of girls; marriage has been crowbared into their heads since childhood. My rant on how marriage is simply an industry and is in every practical sense useless can wait for later, but it's because of those views on marriage that I never really cared to think about a wedding. Therefore, I have never thought about my perfect wedding dress.

The moment I saw Chemise a la Reve for regular sale at Candy Violet, I knew that if I were to ever get married, it would be in that dress. And despite the lack of pink in my regular wardrobe, it would have to be with the pink sash. This dress just appeals to all of my tastes; three quarter sleeves, a healthy amount of ruffles, delicate materials, historical value, similarity to things I've seen Keira Knightley wear, and an overall dreamy appearance? I would be all over that in a heartbeat if I had the money. The white fabric matched with the modest cut really make it ideal for a wedding dress, though.

I wonder if this is how brides-to-be feel when they see the dress of their dreams? Though this one isn't worth a mortgage payment and a half. I won't go into the subject of wearing lolita to a wedding, whether you're an active participant or merely a guest, but it is fun to imagine an entirely lolified ceremony. The fun thing about our time is that people feel the need to customize their lives, and that includes things like weddings. All sorts of dresses are being used now, why not a lolita one?

So what dress do you think you could see yourself getting married in, lolita or not? Right now all I can think is that I need to find a boy who will marry me just so I can buy this dress!

My Own Hat Collection

Sorry for the delay in posts! I'd love to give some excuse but the fact is I was lazy. Yesterday I finally dragged my stuff down from temporary storage and took photos of my most beloved hats.

This hat is the only brand hat I own (so far), from BABY the Stars Shine Bright. I bought it used from Closet Child, and I'll just say that I really love their service. This hat looks like a cross between a homburg and a fedora, with a thin netting covering the entire surface and trimmed with a delicate lace. It's endowed with a large bow on the back, a trailing veil also trimmed with lace, and my personal favorite - the dangling chains and crystals. The chains are removable, which is great because they weight down one side of the hat quite a bit. This hat is actually much larger than I thought it would be, but I really do love it. I hope to buy more of BABY's hats in the future.

This is a cloche hat that I bought for $7 on clearance at Target. I really love cloche hats, as they're one of the very few types of hats I can happily wear without looking silly on a daily basis. They are excellent for a sophisticated but casual look. I have another one in a dark red, and I'd love to keep expanding my collection. The best part about them is that they can go for quite cheap! One day I'd like to put together a casual coordinate with this hat.

I'm in love with these hats! I can't wait for the day when I can wear them with the perfect sailor or pirate coordinate. I commissioned both of these mini tricorns from Sakurafairy, and I'd love to get more from her. They are so darling, with adorable details and the perfect shape! I desperately wish I had something to match them with. I think I'll order another one from her in all black, though I believe that navy blue and dark red are the best colors for pirate lolita.

This is my sole mini top hat, a steal at $5 from Forever21. I love all things black and gold, so I thought this might be an inexpensive but handy addition to my wardrobe. It came with a feather but it seems to have fallen out, but it's really not much of a hindrance. I still haven't thought of the right coordinate for this, though.

This is the latest addition to my collection, a large black velvet tricorn from Rainy Pass Trading Company on etsy. I fell in love with it from the moment I saw it. The only thing that bothers me is how small it is. It barely fits on my head normally, but with a wig it's simply a matter of balancing it on my head. I'm not even sure a hat pin would help. But I love it so, I should see if there's a way to expand the circumference of a hat. It would be perfect for a dark pirate coordinate. The large feather and fluffy trim are so dramatic, I wish I could wear this hat every day!

Head Coverings and You

I love hats. I love them beyond a shadow of a doubt. The are functional and (can be) adorable. And for lolitas, they add a great interest piece to a coordinate. In the land of bows and headdresses, a hat can be a welcome breath of fresh air.

Mini Top Hats
These are probably the most common form of hat in lolita. You can find them pretty much anywhere; Forever 21, Claire's (for our American viewers), overstock.com, Bodyline, and various legit brands have sold their fair share. Go to any craft store and I'm sure you can find a plain one to be decorated at your discretion. The only problem with mini top hats is that construction means everything - a hat covered in bad/mismatching lace and under qualified fake flowers will torpedo any good coordinate straight to ita-ville. There are many great places to buy them though, if you're willing to comb through a lot of muck. (Hat shown is from Victorian Maiden)

Tricorn Hats
My personal favorite. Tricorns go with a lot of styles, mostly classic and pirate. I have seen bubblegum pink tricorns used very effectively in sweet coordinates, however. They have a regal flair that can be attributed to their use in royal fashions throughout the centuries. I'm very fond of their naval ties, and I've never seen a pirate in a tricorn I didn't like. Either mini or full-sized, these hats can make a lot of coordinates very dramatic. I have a lot to say about tricorns, so I might just save it and do a whole post on them. (Hat shown is from Alice and the Pirates)

Bonnets
Now I know these don't necessarily fall under the "brim" of hats territory, if you'll forgive my awful pun. However, they do tend to cover the full head, so I thought I'd lump them in here anyway. A bonnet is a strange beast, one that can be either very demure and simple, or dramatic and demanding of attention. A lot of it has to do with the size of the brim and the accessories and trimmings. I've seen a lot of bonnets dripping with flowers and delicate laces, pleats, and even wildly patterned fabrics. They can be very stunning and are suited for just about any lolita style. Certainly not for the faint of heart. (Bonnet shown is from Mary Magdalene)

Mini Crowns
Again not really hats, but a head covering other than a head bow. These are particularly popular among sweet and gothic lolitas. A crown made of pastel beads or small crystals? Perfect for a lovely hime coordinate. A crown swimming in spikes, black feathers and constructed of real leather? Gothic all the way. Crowns are just as versatile in style as the different types of hats, and they can add a little fantasy to an outfit. Try to stay away for the more costumey types though, as you can end up looking like you just got out of a Burger King. (Crowns shown are from Suppurate System)

Cake Hats and Other Head Sculptures
This is a much-discussed area of lolita head coverings. What is too much? What makes a hat part of a costume? What's just downright ugly? Even though I can't wear these things myself without feeling really odd, I love OTT masterpieces that people put on their heads. Full carousels, cups of tea, and full cakes piled onto an already massive hairdo? Sounds fantastic! My favorite hats in this style are always handmade ones. (Cake monstrosity shown is from Angelic Pretty)

So there's my very bare-bones overview of several styles of head wear suitable to lolita! I hope that I can soon show off my own collection and share some great places to buy gorgeous handmade hats, as well as offer up some suggestions for less popular types of hats.

Just Be Yourself: The Body

Hello, internet. Today I'm going to share with you some personal information. I'm 20 years old, 5'4" tall, weigh 171.5 pounds, and my measurements are 39/30/40. That's who I am. And I can't be anyone else.

Recently there's been an onslaught of Lolita blogs writing about one big issue; body image. My favorites are this lovely and thoughtful post by Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm and Miss Lumpy's very personal post. So I thought this might be a good opportunity to do another post in the Just Be Yourself series.

There is one thing in this entire world that lets you enjoy fashion of any kind. One thing that, if you didn't have it, you wouldn't be able to even put on a shirt. Obviously I mean your body. The reason we enjoy fashion is to decorate and flatter our bodies, not to starve and mutilate the very things that let us live. And yet we do it anyway. Constantly trying to push ourselves in a direction we were never meant to go down. Telling ourselves that we're not beautiful/sexy/cute/small/good enough for anything we want. Personally I've been in this rut for a while now. I think a lot of women are very good at ignoring or debunking compliments directed at them, thinking they're patronizing or pitying, even though the vast majority of them are certainly sincere. But we transfix our imaginations on the image of the perfect body, an everlasting goal that only gets harder and harder to reach with age.



Women come in a lot of shapes and sizes. To compare yourself to one of the starlets in a movie or magazine cover is near suicide, but unfortunately those images are bombarding us at ever hour of the day. But I've noticed that more often, I'll be envious of the bodies of normal women. They don't have the money or time for personal trainers and strict diets, but they look perfectly fine. Why can't my tummy be that flat? Why can't my arms be that thin? That woman over there probably knows how to handle her body. But the truth is, you'll never know what that woman goes through every day. Her body is not the same as yours. She could be thinking the same thing about you at that very moment. Why aren't my boobs that big? Why don't my calves curve like that? Why is her butt so cute when mine isn't?

I sat down last week and just wrote out the things I like about my body. I had spent so much time thinking about the things I'm not satisfied with that I didn't even bother with my positive attributes. It turns out I have at least two and a half pages worth of good physical characteristics, and I'm sure most girls could think about that much if they tried. It made me realize that a lot of what I'm focusing on isn't a big part of me overall, it's just the negative part. The list of things I want to change is much smaller.

Being a big comic book and movie fan, I recently read an article about the new Jonah Hex movie coming out. In the article, it was mentioned that Megan Fox wore a corset during the filming that brought her waist down to 18". She said that during action scenes they loosened it because the crew was afraid she would faint, and that when she took it off her midsection ached and deep grooves were imprinted into her skin. I'm personally a big fan of corseting, I think it's a fun and lovely way to achieve a beautiful silhouette, and it can sure make you feel sexy. But I don't think an 18" waist is safe in the slightest for someone who hasn't trained her body for it. Megan Fox is already incredibly skinny, I can't understand why anyone thought it would be even sexier if she was that unnaturally thin. I'm at least glad that her pain was brought up in the article though, rather than just a bunch of people oohing and aahing at her tiny waist.

So internet, what will you do now that you know my heavy secret? (and that pun was intended) I feel pretty fierce. And I know sometimes I watch what I eat more carefully than others. And I try to work out an hour every other day. But what I really want is for my body to be healthy. And if my textbook hourglass figure is what my body considers healthy, then I am more than happy to oblige it. If you listen, your body talks to you a lot. Mostly it's just telling you to just be yourself.

Style Icon: Keira Knightley

This month's theme on EGL is style icons. Who inspires you? Whose look do you try to emulate? Who do you admire?

If I could pick one woman in the entire world to be like, it would always be Keira Knightley. Not only is she an immensely talented actress, she is also incredibly beautiful, sharp, and can hold her own against any man. But strangely enough, whenever I tell most of my male friends that I adore her, all I get in response is an "eh." They don't find her beautiful. But I do. I think she is the most beautiful woman in the world. And one of the things I love about her is that she just doesn't care what other people think.

She's most well-known for her period films (and the amazing costumes in them). I know it's not a big favorite, but the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice is the movie that made me fall in love with her. Before that I'd obviously seen Pirates of the Caribbean, and most recently, The Duchess (weep). I think The Duchess is her most extravagant film in terms of fashion, and the first image in this post is my favorite outfit I have ever seen her wear. Brass buttons and military-style coat? Check. Large brown curls? Check. HUGE dramatic hat covered in fox fur? Check. There is nothing about that outfit I do not love.

She isn't afraid of her body. She isn't afraid to play a tough role. She is charming, funny, and fierce. I have never admired someone more in my life (aside from Conan O'Brien, but his fashion sense involves purple pleather suits and rhinestone-studded jackets, so I won't say he's a style icon for me). I think she's extraordinary.

And besides, how could I not love a woman crowned Pirate King?

Lolita Snap - June 16, 2010

My dress arrived! You remember, the one I posted about months ago. I ordered the dress and blouse from Qcute, and their service was really fantastic. The dress is adorable, I'm so glad I got it. The details are fine and it's so soft. I'm hooked on Taobao. It fits like a glove, a factor that always worries me when I buy online.

I'm also wearing a wig, because my hair is fairly thin and IMPOSSIBLE to curl. I'll do a review on wigs soon, since right now it's a bit of a hot topic.

JSK and Blouse: R-Series
Socks: BABY the Stars Shine Bright
Shoes: Secret Shop

Lolita in the Sky With Glitter

Today is another art day! This was a piece I did for the Lolita in Wonderland show in London back in February. It murdered me, but I was so happy to get it done. I was determined to draw a black lolita, wearing black and gold. Which is a pain in the ass, but I had to do it! I really want to make a post about race and lolita, because it is an important subject to me. In any case I hope you like this, since my entire heart and soul went into it, and I had plenty of homework to do at the time too.

Sorry about that moon, though. It was very last minute and very silly looking.