March Coords Roundup

I can’t really think of anything special to say for this part – so let’s not delay any further! Enjoy March’s assortment of coords.

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Coord 1: Granny

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ Apron JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Belle Epoque OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Cutie Creator Maiden’s Prayer headbow | offbrand shawl, earrings, and necklace | handmade necklace and bracelets | Bow and Crossbones bangles | Folk and Fortune Kukuryku brooch | Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings |

I don't know what I did differently from any other time, but that hair actually stayed pretty well for most of the day.

Robert the Rooster keeping it together.

The first meetup of the month was this very chill one that I organised. A new place opened in Manchester called Gran T's Coffeehouse, which aims to create a cosy space where you'd feel like having a cuppa at your grandma's. I contemplated something more granny-ish, but in the end the pull of Polonaise Brillante was too strong, so I didn’t bother resisting. After all, a floral dress and a shawl is very granny-appropriate. The venue was a lot more modern than I would've expected from the vibes description (and the very modern playlist that flung between millennial hits such as Usher's “Yeah” to more recent ones like Dua Lipa's “Levitating” clashed with the granny vibes even more), but the drinks and food were delicious and the whole space was very cosy and inviting. It was also pretty busy too, so it took us a little while of waiting, ready to pounce on a couch seat, but then we stayed until the place was literally closing. And it was a good meetup too! Sometimes all you need is the basic “place, date, time, just bring yourself”, no planned activities kind of thing.

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Coord 2: Spring-like

| Haenuli Lovely Memories JSK | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Pinky Girls cardigan | Roji Roji OTKs | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | offbrand hair clips | Angelic Pretty Charlotte Bear brooch | Felfira Moon Designs brooch | Risu Rose ring | Japanese indie ring | Banned Retro Bella belt |

To further prove the point made above,this is the same hair on day two. A little bit more messy, but still undeniably wavy.

Ever since geting this ring I'd been waiting for the right opportunity to wear it. This coord may not be quite it, but I was done waiting.

My icy fingers very loudly protested any notions of it being spring-like, but sometimes manifesting and being delusional are indistinguishable from one another. I had an unusual these days work from home Monday and really wanted to capitalise on that. The main reason was not having worn this JSK since July of last year - there was one attempt when I couldn’t zip myself up. And it does fit differently now than it used to, but not quite so badly. My initial ideas revolved around doing something with red, but I wasn’t into any of them. Meanwhile sax and yellow is a very cheerful combination. So even though the themes of the accessories are a bit all over the place, even though I was still cold (and layered underneath this), and even though I have to rethink how I wear this dress a little bit, none of this dampened how happy I felt in this coord. Simple as that.

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Coord 3: Dotted Letters

| BtSSB Secret AIR MAIL from Sweet Kitty JSK | Laura Ashley blouse | Haenuli Secret Garden tights | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand hair clip | Kreation Studio earrings | Metamorphose Rose Letter necklace | Melty Wish necklace | Sweet Dolly House Cookie Bon Bon ring | handmade ring |

Yay for normalising a ponytail and no makeup in lolita.

When all your post arrives on the same day.

Gosh, working from home is feeling more hectic than I remember it being. Somehow though, I still managed to get dressed and that very fact has been lifting my spirits through the stresses of working from home. There wasn’t that much thought put into the coord itself: it’s been a while since I’ve worn this dress, what haven’t I worn with it yet, what am I feeling like, what practicalities do I need to consider, just that. But sometimes that is all that you need.

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Coord 4: Errands Day

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme cutsew and cardigan | Metamorphose Heart Ladder Lace OTKs | offbrand shoes, hair clip, and necklace | XKawaiiCutieX earrings | Folk and Fortune Romance Book Club Book Stack brooch |

The joy of now having more glasses that match more of my outfits is almost overwhelming.

This brooch is getting tonnes of wear, both in and out of lolita.

I was actually supposed to go to the library to pick up a book the day before, but it turned out that the library closed earlier on Fridays than I thought. So whilst that outfit wasn’t lolita, it still centred around this brooch, and I really wanted to wear it for that particular task, so this look happened instead. I adore this brooch so much, I’m tempted to get the Spicy Book Club one too, but maybe after next payday. And seeing as I was already out during the day, I did a few other bits and bobs (maily drop off a bunch of old glasses for recycling and do my grocery shopping). All perfect things for a casual outfit like this.

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Coord 5: Brown Tones

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | Axes Femme blouse | Innocent World Fleurs Checkered OTKs | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | Physical Drop headbow | handmade earrings | Folk and Fortune Ruby Hilt Dagger brooch |

When I bought this headbow, I had a moment of guilt, knowing that I was impulse buying. But given how frequently I've reached for it, I now feel that I should've gotten it in more colours.

My other recent brooch love. Although this one is not as easy to slot into multiple outfits as the book stack one.

First of all, I'd like to say that I write my coord roundups as they happen and this one I wrote on my phone. The fact that predictive text got pretty much that whole list of items down with barely any prompting from me is actually nuts. Am I that predictable with my styling choices? My phone seems to think that this is my template.

As for the actual coord, it was a working from home day and my main thing was that I wanted to wear this incredibly badass brooch from Folk and Fortune. I couldn't go too fantasy because of time and other practical constraints, but when has daggers and gobelin not worked together like a dream? Once again, wearing an outfit all in shades of brown with some gold touches had me reevaluating my entire wardrobe and the choices within it. I won't jump ship, don’t worry, but it is incredible how intensively the thoughts of adding more brown keep coming back.

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Coord 6: Double the Doll

| Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK | offbrand cutsew, tights, hair clip, and earrings | Innocent World Original Lace Millefeuille bolero | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Promised Land Creations necklace | Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Manda Rin Designs brooches |

An attempt was made at curling my hair using hair straighteners. Every time I think I understand how that works, reality proves me wrong.

The inspiration vs the art. Manda Rin did such an incredible job with these Cinema Doll brooches.

Two Cinema Dolls!

When the Vintage Home Show came to Manchester, and to Victoria Baths no less, I signed up as quickly as I could. Looking for fun home decor stuff and checking out the venue for The Queen is Dead? Yes, please! At the previous CLAM meetup it also transpired that both Jo and Gee, TQiD organisers, own Cinema Doll, so since we decided to combine the event with event planning, we decided to triplet that too. Unfortunately, Gee couldn't make it in the end, so tripleting turned to twinning. The leather jackets were probably the most coincidental part of this twinning because we both needed a practical layer and we both would've worn ours anyway. The vintage home show was nice, nothing quite to my taste (or price range), but lots of fun kitsch things to look at nonetheless. Wandering around Victoria Baths and seeing how it will all come together for June was infinitely more fun and I am already so hyped for all the cool photos that will come out of that.

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Coord 7: Kind of Minnie

| Bodyline L262 JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | offbrand tights, hair ties, and earrings | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto necklace | AatP Tulle Lace wrist cuffs |

So many dots!

A somewhat... I guess uncomfortable?, detail shot - but definitely an honest one as that was one of the big feature points of this whole outfit.

There’s kind of no way to wear a red and black look with lots of polka dots without giving off a Minnie Mouse vibe. And that’s OK, Minnie’s style is iconic and recognisable worldwide, so within the comfort of my own home I can do that. I was actually looking for something vaguely retro to wear to see My Beautiful Laundrette at the theatre that evening, as well as something that’d be appropriate for working from home, and this managed to do both.

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Coord 8: More Spring

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Pinky Girls cardigan | Roji Roji OTKs | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | Pink Up Fanny’s Dressing Table hair clip | Candy Kitsch earrings | Folk and Fortune Late Night Diner necklace | Folk and Fortune Romance Book Club Book Stack brooch | Trixie La Fleur Milkshake brooch |

It's a bit of a shame that the glasses, as great as they are, hide the fact that I toned down my usual blue eyeshadow with a layer of sparkly green one that made it more minty and matching the dress better.

Another ecclectic choice of accessories, some there to match the print and some just to match the colours.

Oh yes, this very much is the same cardi and socks base as earlier this month. These are my only big yellow pieces, so there’s no avoiding some level of repetition. That being said, by this point March was well into actual spring and the blue skies with sunshine warranted something appropriate. Diner Doll is such a bright pastel print that makes it perfect for spring and the outfit sort of came together all on its own. The only thing that I’d change if I could is the hair accessory. I love me a big bow at the back of the head, but I feel this would be better suited either to some clips right where I pinned my hair back or a small headbow. How long have I had this dress? Clearly for long enough to know that I should invest in a few more mint bits. Also, that same evening I went to the supermarket - I was going to change out of this coord because I didn't have the energy to deal with the attention, but I also didn't want to change fully just to go out, so I bit the bullet and just did the thing. And I am very glad that I did because a mother with a daughter (around 7 years old maybe) stopped me to compliment my outfit and the daughter said that I looked like Barbie and she likes Barbie. My heart melted, my eyes watered, it was so worth it just for that one moment.

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Coord 9: Pre-D&D Filming

| Lady Sloth Slavic Bestiary JSK | Lady Sloth Glitter Mesh blouse | Angelic Pretty Crown Ribbon OTKs | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | Folk and Fortune Fleur-de-lys earrings | Risu Rose necklace | Folk and Fortune Ruby Hilt Dagger brooch | offbrand corset |

Some days you just embrace a big sticky-outy bow on top of your head.

These earrings are just as sparkly as the photo makes them out to be.

Was filming before a D&D session when you've woken up with a sore throat a sensible idea? No, probably not. But I was determined to film and had this planned for a while, delayed by something not arriving in time, so I applied all of the precautions I could to minimise the impact. This outfit was one that needed to be put on before I could see that it'd work. The Whering flatlay was all over the place with colours, but once it was on, I knew exactly what to add and how to style it. Sure, I'd have loved to do something more OTT with this concept, but the whole coord was yeeted off the moment I was finished filming, so there was little point in going too hard for a video. I'll just shelve the ideas for later.

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There was a bunch of coords that were due to happen whilst still in March, with it being Easter and all, but at this point I don’t think that they will happen as I fell ill right before that. So if anything does change about that, I’ll just add it to April’s post. This here is still an interesting assortment of coords and colours for March, probably one that has the fewest looks that are fully 'template me' so to speak. There are elements of my template in most of them, but inevitably with a twist. It’s definitely what kept me more interested at a time when the transition between the seasons, the unpredictable weather, and the boredom with the designated autumn/winter pieces can get me down. Once the wardrobe switch takes place, I imagine there will be a bit more of a typical me assortment of looks, at least initially. Or maybe not – I’m excited to see either way!