AYWi30C #19 - Around a Particular Top

I was going to say that blouses are one of my favourite things about lolita fashion, but then I probably say that about every coord element. Nonetheless, it’s true that I enjoy buying blouses, having a variety of blouses and using them to create a variety of looks. Given this, it was hard to decide which blouse to use for this prompt - so instead I decided to bend the definition of “top” just a little bit.

| Haenuli Just One Bite JSK | AatP jacket | Inocent World Shanti OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Violet Fane The Apotheque brooch | Strike a Pose pin | Enchantlic Enchantilly ring | everything else is offbrand |

When I bought this jacket (and subsequently had it altered), this was one of the coord ideas that I had for it. Often I plan the outfits for the Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates posts ahead down to most accessories, but this was one that I only had the skeleton of and completed on the day. Because I know that I lack the pieces for what I actually envisioned, I needed to see everything worn first in order to fiddle with it and make whatever changes necessary. In other words, this isn’t the final form of this jacket and dress combo, but as I really wanted to use them for this prompt, it’s the best that I could do for now. And I’m still pleased with the result, it gives off very much the vibes that I wanted it to.

This jacket was love at first sight on Mercari and I am glad that I decided to get it and have it altered.

Just look at that sleeve! That should clear any doubts one could have about why I needed it in my life.

Even on a flatlay the bottom is laying down so nicely, really framing the skirt and accentuating how voluminous it is.

So let’s talk about this jacket, shall we? It’s from Alice and the Pirates and I bought it cheaply in a set with the matching trousers off Mercari. Despite being a men’s size, it was still too small, so I used the trousers to have the jacket altered to fit me better. Since I want to pursue Tudor ouji as my main aesthetic in boystyle, this was the perfect match for that - just look at those sleeves! Of course, this being velvet, it clings on to every tiny speck, so closeup photos aren’t quite as flattering as one would hope, but it does let you see the depth of detail. The overall shape of the jacket is so perfect to wear with either dresses or trousers. The pointy edges will lay straight over pants, but won’t squish the poof, framing it nicely instead to in a way that accentuates the waist and hips in a very flattering way. Definitely a worthy purchase (I think the set cost me around £60 + shopping service fees) and as this is the first coordinate I’ve actually worn the jacket with - a worthy outfit to start its life with me on!

On the one hand it bugs me that yet again I've put these socks and boots with this dress. On the other, they really are the best match that I have right now.

Maybe I should cave in and buy those boots in black, if I ever find a pair? They are good boots, can't deny that.

On the flipside, there isn’t much that I could say about either the socks or the boots. They’re two of the elements that I will change in the future that did the job for now. Given what I own, the red boots were the most appropriate, both for gothic lolita and for this witch monster huntress persona that came to be in this coord. This also led to further introductions of reds throughout the coord. My original idea was to keep the entire outfit black and grey/silver, hence the socks. I’m hesitant to obtain any black x silver tights because already I don’t wear these socks much, so getting anything more risks both items gathering dust even more. At the same time, I can’t deny that those Teja Jamila tights would be perfect in this coord. As would those typically gothic strappy buckle shoes/short boots, but again, I don’t own any. For now the black x grey socks and the red boots fit the overall theme well enough and stick to the colour scheme, so they’re fine.

This is quite the eclectic mix, even by my standards. Hopefully it creates the story that I wanted it to.

There are several schools of thought when it comes to accessories. Some people pick things that match in colour, others focus on matching the theme, some do both. Whilst usually my preferred method of accessorising focuses on colours first, this time I ignored pretty much all of that and focused on theme in the sense of almost “what would this character wear”. This outfit went through phases of being a witch hunter, then a witch, before finally settling on a witch monster huntress, so I wanted to include elements that represented that. If mixing metals offends your eyes, you may want to look away and skip until the dress closeups.

Honestly, even on this closeup the hat doesn't look like I paid as little as I did for it. Very impressed.

The only reason this coord ended up being witchy in any way was because I had no other appropriate head accessory. The very wide brim of this witch hat was too cool to not include, and by being velvet it matched the jacket well. The hat actually has a purple ribbon around it, which if I had more purple things, I would’ve run with that colour scheme instead, but for now covered with a red scarf. It sort of gives me video game character design vibes like this? Which I’m not mad about.

The gem was glued wonky to begin with. But what else do you expect for something from an AliExpress knock-off?

Back in the day I preferred silver to gold, however, not much of my jewellery from that time remains and I now firmly prefer gold. This limited what I could use, but luckily this necklace ended up working quite nicely. It’s one that my Dad bought off AliExpress back in his day of reselling geeky-themed jewellery and as far as I remember this one was meant to be Lord of the Rings themed. Though whether they were going for Galadriel’s light or Arwen’s necklace, whoever made it failed quite badly. It’s still pretty in its own right as a generic fantasy-inspired necklace, so I used it as such. It could either be a talisman or a tiny vial of some magical potion to use at the most desperate hour.

These earrings have kind of renewed my appreciation of gunmetal.

As you’ll see later on, in the worn version the earrings kind of disappear. Still, I wanted to include them. Even if they’re not always seen, to me they add to this coord, even if only very subtly. The gunmetal-ish ones are the right balance of elegant and generically fantasy-like, as well as dark enough to work with the gothic colour scheme. And the crosses one... Well, the most honest answer that I have is that it’s dangly, which appealed to me at the time, so it went in. Is there a more appropriate stud in my collection, be it in theme or colour? Probably. Does that bother me? Not at all.

So edgy. And so extra. But honestly, if I'd get a chance to get more armour rings, I would.

The rings may be one of my favourite parts here. Particularly that claw. For the life of me I cannot remember how I ever came to own it. My best guess is that during my wannabe goth phase and peak obsession with fantasy my Mum found it at some car boot sale or something for cheap and bought it for me. Or I did? Or someone gifted it to me? Either way, I’ve had it for donkey’s years now and never really used because it’s just a little bit too big, so it slips off unless I have my finger bent. But it’s insanely cool in that mid-2000’s-style edgy kind of way and makes my teen self very happy that it finally got used. Because having armoured fingers says that you mean business, right? Once this was on, it was painfully obvious that my other hand was bare, so I picked the next best two options. The silver ring, which belonged to my late Grandma, is there because it’s silver, while the book one is to represent the magic tomes and to symbolise having mystical knowledge. After all, this is a witchy coordinate we’re talking about, and witches equal arcane knowledge.

Golds and silvers in the same coord? I'm not as bothered as some, even if I do generally avoid doing so.

In this outfit’s final form there will be a real sword (as well as some armour pieces) included. Until then I had to make do with this sword pin from Strike a Pose. (It has now been over a year since that, I miss lolita events so much!) On a flatlay it sticks out like a sore thumb by being this warm gold, but when worn it kind of tones itself down a bit against the black. That one pin alone wasn’t enough though, so I also added the wooden brooch from Violet Fane. Every monster hunting witch should have a selection of potions at her disposal, be it to heal or to deal some damage, and this was mine.

What sucks is that I used to have a leather pouch which would've arguably looked more authentic, but I got rid of it. Having said this, it was much too small to fit a botthe inside.

Bonus accessory: a tiny pouch at my hip. I used the longest necklace chain that I had to use as a belt and suspend the pouch from, then filled it with a fancy perfume bottle that looks like a magic potion. And the pouch itself? It’s actually from the Love Letters game. No-one would know unless it turned round to the other side, where the game title is embroidered, and it just adds to that fantasy feel the outfit has.

I do prefer Snow White's dress in this print than the iconic Disney version.

We stan including the print's name on the piece.

And then we come to the dress. I know that this entire coord is supposed to be focused on the top (in this case: the jacket), but there’s no point lying, we’re here for the dress at least just as much. I will never forget when I first saw Haenuli’s previews and how the medieval woodblock print style illustration and the dark take on this classic fairytale really stuck with me. I wonder what would 2016 Paulina, who was so adamant about not wearing gothic lolita, think about the fact that I own this dress now. Probably that I’m regressing to my wannabe goth days, but elevating them somehow? Which isn’t that far from the truth.

The fact that this print includes Death adds another layer of darkness. Because even though we know that Snow White only fell asleep, having Death stand there makes you wonder "what if she took a bigger bite".

Lace further bulked up with a ruffle is a simple, yet elegant finish.

That eerie print and the medieval woodblock print style really made this dress perfect for the witchy theme. And the level of detail in the print is simply astounding, you can genuinely stare at it for hours and still not see every element. Like how it took me until now to notice that some of Death’s teeth are decaying or even already gone.

Forget Grumpy, Bashful and Sleepy. These dwarves are out for blood.

Grab your torch and pitchforks!

And let’s not forget the dwarves! There is so much movement captured in this illustration, how the dwarves are rushing to save Snow White from her imminent fate and stop her from taking the apple, yet ultimately they won’t make it. Each of them is truly an individual, not only wearing different clothes, but with distinct facial features, expressions, personalities. They feel closer to dark fantasy dwarves than Disney ones, rougher, but also more willing to fight for Snow White (I mean, they are literally drawn with weapons in their hands) instead of all soft, passive and crying over what happened to her. The story on this print feels so much more realistic thanks to how Haenuli drew it and is why this piece stuck with me all these years.

The only actual bit of red that the dress ever came with.

Although the linework makes the trees look quite textured already, the jacquard adds yet another layer of depth to this print.

Just One Bite was available in two fabric choices: lighter and smoother chiffon or textured and slightly drapier jacquard, which is what I went for. It’s a much subtler texture than some of my other jacquards, but when the light catches it right, it adds even more depth to an already heavily detailed print. This is particularly helpful over the background print, as it keeps the upper portion of the skirt from looking too bare with just the tree trunks and the occasional leaves. For years I’ve lived with this false memory that the print was grayscale with just the apple being red, so it was quite the awakening when I got my hands on it and realised that that wasn’t the case. The detachable bow clip with an apple charm is the only bit of colour on this dress, and whilst normally it sits at the top of the bodice, in this coord I moved it to the waistline by pinning it to the bottom of the jacket, to keep the reds as evenly distributed as possible.

The reality is that this wig needs some serious TLC, but I have neither the know-how nor the patience to do it. However, I am extra hapy with how the makeup came out!

Just like figuring out the exact details of this coord was a drawn out process, so was the hair and makeup. In the end I went with the grey wig, which I braided (you don’t want hair flying around when you’re hunting monsters), and a purple-and-silver halo eye. It’s been a while since I wore my circle lenses and the slightly creepy look they add seemed perfect for such a dark coord. I also figured that larger eyes would see better and further, which is what every witch huntress needs. So whilst part of me would’ve wanted to do something that I haven’t done with this dress before, I can’t deny that this wig and dress combo simply works. On the day I realised that the grey hair and the story I created in my mind for this coord inadvertently have some inspiration from The Witcher, so I put on the Wild Hunt soundtrack whilst I was getting ready, which definitely helped in nailing that makeup down.

This unexpectedly turned out to be a nice range: something more elaborate, something more casual, and something more experimental.
From left to right these coords are from: October 2019, May 2020 and September 2020.

It’s only been a year that I’ve had this dress in my possession, so there aren’t too many looks to feature here. Having said this, I do like how they are all still different enough from each other. Without a doubt this is only scratching the surface of what I could do, but as I don’t wear gothic that much and am not always in the mood for it, this dress kind of gets the short end of the stick as a result. Which is a shame, as it deserves more. I would love to showcase its versatility more, as well as explore more looks like that blouseless one, the more elegant and classic/ero ones as opposed to true gothic. It might be easier for me to accomplish that too, so we’ll see what happens.

As you can tell, I tried to amp up those witchy vibes as much as possible. There is even a filter on the video clip to add to the mood, which I’ve not done on one of these lookbook videos before. Although we are now in November, for some Halloween is all year round and some people out there are actually witches, so this one is for them. To show that you can be your best spooky, witchy self anytime. Though I admit, as fun as this look was to wear and however much the conceptual nature of it helped in figuring out how to film it, it will be good to resume my regular non-gothic looks soon.