December Coords Roundup

Happy New Year, everyone! I deliberately put off publishing this post until after 2022 was over because I deluded myself that I would wear more frills in the last few days of the year. Still, it goes well with my theme of slowing down.

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Coord 1: Christmas Kick Off

| Lady Sloth Winter Spices skirt and necklaces | Stroje.pl blouse | offbrand socks | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | bows from Haenuli’s Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | Sweet Dolly House Cookie Bon Bon ring | Beckie’s Kawaii Charms ring |

I should probably look into getting more bow clips like this to wear for more casual looks.

It makes me very happy that everything you see in this photo except for the ring was made in Poland.

Gotta ring in the festive month with an appropriately festive look! And seeing as Winter Spices is currently my only Christmas print (even if not the most obnoxious one compared to other Christmas prints), let’s give it as much time to shine as I can. Starting with this coord inspired by the colour scheme, cosy feelings, and repping that Slavic culture hard.

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Coord 2: Winter ILD

Photo by @zixizel
| Baroque Repose of Queen OP | Lady Sloth Glitter Mesh blouse | AatP Arabesque OTKs | Angelic Pretty Elegant Doll boots | offbrand boot toppers, capelet, crown brooch, and rings | vintage hat and snowflake brooch | vii earrings | Le Petit Four bracelet |

As happy as I am with the outfit as a whole, it's those earrings that are making me the happies.

Tiny crown hiding in the hat.

This year the Sheffield comm organised the Winter ILD tea party, which combined with their 10th anniversary as a comm. My coord was partly inspired by the season and partly by the theme of ‘celebration’. Choices were made to sacrifice comfort for the sake of the look, but I survived the meetup and the travel there and back. And the meetup itself was absolutely wonderful! I saw people whom I haven’t seen in person in years, chatted to some new souls, received a present from Santa himself, laughed and cried (with joy) at how great the vibes were, as well as at the zine that the comm put together for the occasion. Honestly, it was pretty close to a perfect tea party - it would’ve hit that mark if it was a little bit longer. Two and a half hours flew by and because of the travel back to Manchester (which was additionally affected by delays), I probably spent more time on the train than at the meetup. Though it wasn’t all so bad because I had wonderful travel companions, so the train journey was almost like another meetup.

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Coord 3: CLAM Christmas Lunch

| After Midnight The First Semester JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Resailan Jewelry Box tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | offbrand beret, hair ribbon, and earrings | Two Days Slow hair clips | vintage necklace and brooch | Star Glazed Delights ring | red ribbon and bows from Haenuli’s Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | gold bow from Dear Celine’s Magic Book OP |

This hairstyle came out so cute, you're going to see it again.

A little shoutout to the days when a portrait picture was my detail shot. All to get the Christmas tree in.

It’s been an entire week before frills happened again, but what an occasion to save frills for! I organised a Christmas lunch for the Manchester comm - not an afternoon tea, but an actual three course lunch of festive gluttony, to be fancy as well as merry and well fed. Shirring was mandatory and when reviewing what I had that was festive and good for eating meets, this dress won. The coord was actually put together via a live coordination session with some friends on Discord. It started out completely different, totally different vibe, but I don’t own enough to make that other vibe happen just yet. In the process this somehow manifested itself and once it did, the journey was to completion very smooth. The meetup also turned out to be a success, not just in terms of everyone having a great time (though that also happened), but it actually pushed me fully into feeling festive as fuck. Up until the day I’ve been surrounded by festive things, but not really feeling the festive spirit. Being with the lolita community, enjoying the time we get to spend together and the overwhelming positivity and support that we share was the key missing part of Christmas. Because that’s it, the holidays aren’t about the gifts or the decor, but about the people we spend our time with. Putting in the time to make something lovely for my comm paid back dividends in festive cheer and I should probably stop here before I make myself cry with all this gushing, though that doesn’t make it any less true. So let me leave you with a quick snap of what I included in everyone’s goodie bags and the food.

Everyone got a colouring page (art by Gloria Copetillo), a gingerbread house tealight holder, a Christmas-scented tea light, a Salted Caramel Lebkuchen tea, and a cute pen.

I'm afraid that I did not manage the whole thing, but it was scrumptious. Hand for scale, of course.

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Coord 4: Christmas Break

| The Black Ribbon Konbini Market JSK | offbrand top, jacket, and hair clips | Irregular Choice High Score shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto beret | Melty Wish necklace |

All that Y2K revival around has somehow slipped into my life too. I tried to do my makeup as I remembered doing it in the 2000s, but this is definitely way better than what I did back then.

Been itching to pair this JSK with this necklace (and with the shoes) ever since I purchased the necklace in Germany.

It was both a break from Christmas (dressing) and day 2 of my actual Christmas break. I took the opportunity to film a video that will hopefully be out in January, so a non-festive look was required to avoid unnecessarily dating the video. That and I just had this idea in my head ever since this dress arrived and was glad to make it happen. I’m sure I could’ve pushed the idea further, but with what I own this came together really well. My hair was freshly washed and resistant to being worked with, though at the same time it gave me some 90s/00s vibes, so I leaned into those with the more minimal makeup. After the filming was done I spent the evening watching cheesy Christmas films on Netflix to bring the break from the festive stuff to a close. It was still December, there was only so much allowed for rest from being festive.

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Coord 5: Postal Elf

| Metamorphose Gold Braid Tuck Pinafore JSK | Stroje.pl blouse | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Bodyline shoes | offbrand beret | Melty Wish earrings and necklace | Violet Fane brooch | handmade ring |

Told you this hairstyle would be back.

My friends and I have this running joke of "Postmen Bear when, Meta?" because of our shared love for postal motifs and Meta's prints featuring Bears Doing Jobs That Bears Should Not Be Employed To Do.

When I watched Dodo the Extinct’s lookbook with coords inspired by elves with jobs at the North Pole, my mind went to the elves who sort Santa’s post. Which then materialised itself as this outfit. This JSK is back from alterations and is now super comfortable - enough to be worn for a whole day without issues as I went shopping and took myself out to dinner. It was a fantastic day and I enjoyed putting a sweeter outfit with this dress for its return to me. But yes, Postmen Bears when, Meta?!

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Coord 6: Christmas Eve

| Alice Girl Velvet Cake OP | Resailan Jewelry Box tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Ebony & Ivory hair clip | Puvithel Crystal Heart earrings and necklace | Le Petit Four bracelet |

Ah, winter... The time of trying to work around awful indoor lighting and trying every trick in Meitu's arsenal to edit the photos after to a bearable and somewhat accurate standard.

Not so fun fact: of the 5 Le Petit Four bracelets I bought, 2 need repairs already. Which is sad because they are amazing and whilst the repairs aren't major (tightening the links or, in case of this one, replacing the lobster clasp), it makes me more worried to wear them in case I damage or even lose them. That I didn't lose this one on the way to the Christmas Eve dinner is just divine intervention.

After sitting in the bag it came in since May, this dress finally got an outing. I have been sort of saving it for Christmas, since velvet is both warm and fancy, whilst it being an OP would just make my life easier on the day. Of course, indoor lighting after sunset is never flattering, so the photos went through a hefty filtering process with Meitu to get it to be somewhat close to reality, though at least the elegant vibe came through.

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Coord 7: Pointless in the End

| BtSSB Soirée of the Beginning of My Memories JSK | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Innocent World Original Lace Millefeuille bolero | Peacockalorum underskirt | Innocent World Belle Epoque OTKs | Sosic Shop shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand necklace | Fluffy Tori Tea Party Hard pin | Le Petit Four ring |

I did all this to my hair, filmed, went grocery shopping, and then chopped my hair that very same evening. Absolutely true story.

I may not party hard, but I like to think that I tea party hard.

It sounds harsh to call this coord pointless because it is a really nice look and it was nice to finally wear a coord that I’ve first put together last year. But the reason I dressed up was to film a video - which I did. And when I transferred the file to my computer I realised that I filmed that exact video only 2 weeks prior in the Konbini Market coord. Big facepalm moment. Still, the coord was lovely and a good one to wrap frilling in 2022 up on.

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To be completely honest, I thought that I’d wear lolita more in December. Not that seven coords is bad, but I thought that I’d have the energy for more. Which was foolish of me because I am old enough to know that at the very least the combination of end-of-year tiredness and working more days at the office is not conducive to frills. With the cold weather snap, getting used to being new-job-tired, and simply prioritising other kinds of clothes during the month, the fact that I managed seven coords is enough of an achievement. So I will celebrate that instead of dwelling on what the expectations were. Hopefully you managed to wear some outfits that you were really proud of over the course of 2022, whether just one or dozens, and here’s to another year filled with this glorious, ridiculous fashion!