Imperial Garden Online Event Report

Imperial Garden Online has now truly come and gone, as last week I received a package with everything from it: a purchase for a friend, my raffle win, a prize from the scavenger hunt and a bunch of extras. And as much as I was looking forward to the IRL version of this event, I am glad that I attended the online one. So many other events are still up in the air, their fate unknown, so to have something materialise was great. And then it turned out to be a genuinely fantastic event too.

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ Apron JSK and OTKs | traditional blouse | Hush Puppies boots | Kaneko headdress | offbrand earrings | handmade necklace |

I’ve talked about the coord already when doing the May Coords Roundup. This is what I had planned on wearing to Imperial Garden IRL and I saw no reason to change that for the online event. This coord is comfortable, it was quick to put on and I feel absolutely incredible wearing it. I used to think that I hadn’t reached my final form yet, you know, the coord that’d make me feel like I’ve peaked and that I’d happily have be my ghost outfit - this one might actually be it.

Imperial Event - My Report and Opinions

Prior to the event taking place the organisers, Holy Trinity, did offer every ticket holder a chance to opt out. Those who did received a full refund, whereas those who still attended got half of their ticket price back. As I had a VIP ticket, this meant something like £45 back. And I do feel like £45 for a VIP ticket to an online event was reasonable. This is the sort of price that I’d expect to pay for a very fancy afternoon tea somewhere in the UK, though seeing as this was a stay-at-home affair, early access shopping, exclusive reservations and items, and a big chunk of exclusive programming with the Japanese guests felt like enough to justify the price. Maybe I would’ve felt differently if I had to pay that planning for an online event from the very start, rather than deciding whether to accept a full or partial refund on something I had already paid for. It’s likely. But I feel like I got my money’s worth, so to speak.

The only other ‘proper’ virtual event that I have attended was the Angelic Pretty Paris tea party in December 2020, so cue in a bunch of comparisons. Which all boil down to the fact that Imperial Garden was a much nicer event. I’m going to overlook the lack of technical difficulties, because no-one can ever really predict those and the AP Paris team did work hard on resolving them as best they could. But everything else I feel that the Imperial Garden did better. There were fewer attendees, roughly 40 including the invited guests vs approx. 100 at the AP Paris tea party, which immediately made the event seem more intimate, whilst still large enough to feel special. This in turn made it easier to socialise, to chat and feel like a part of the group instead of an anonymous face in the crowd.

But the biggest difference is that we got to have actual and enthusiastic interactions with the invited guests. Everyone on team Enchantlic Enchantilly, that is the designer Kawamura Fumiko, Tenchou-san and Mr Tani Takuma who performed a few songs, were literally up in their camera smiling, waving, chattering at and with us, projecting excitement beyond just their sparkly filter. And the BtSSB/AatP guests, whilst a bit more reserved, were still full of smiles and when not answering the questions sent in advance, but the impromptu ones sent via the chat, seemed eager to answer as best they could. That made for a much more welcoming atmosphere, which enabled people to feel comfortable asking questions such as “will there be other plus size releases from BtSSB/AatP”. On the other hand, when invited to make comments on the Angelic Pretty fashion show presented at the tea party, I didn’t feel like my “will any of these have full back shirring” was the sort of feedback they were looking to hear.

You could easily call them Team Adorable because that's exactly what they were.

I will say that my perspective as a VIP attendee definitely skewed my opinion of Imperial Garden towards the favourable. Thanks to my ticket I had access to the entire event, which comprised:

• singing performance by Mr Tani Takuma
• mini-scavenger hunt event over the lunch break
• Q&A session with BtSSB/AatP guests
• a presentation of upcoming BtSSB/AatP releases, which VIPs could also preorder in advance on the day
• presentation of the Best Dresser Competition prizes
• group photo
• and raffle.

The segments between lunch and the Best Dresser Competition prizes were VIP-exclusive, but they amounted to pretty much half the time of the whole event. Had I been a regular ticket holder, I probably would’ve felt like I missed out on the most fun/interesting parts. Having said this, based on who I saw during which part of the event, it seems that the ratio of VIP to regular ticket holders was around 70:30 or even 80:20. Which is both nice, since there weren't that many people who missed out on about 2 hours, but at the same time that wasn’t enough to warrant the organisers preparing something special for them. I believe that they were in a separate breakout room of the Zoom call during that time, so hopefully at the very least they got to socialise amongst themselves.

Q&A with BtSSB/AatP

From left to right the guests were: Haru-san (BtSSB/AatP HQ store staff), Cathy-san (AatP designer), Tachibana-san (BtSSB designer), and Kano-san (BtSSB designer).

I didn’t transcribe the whole Q&A session with BtSSB/AatP - partly because some things were answered at other times (like the designing process and time frame, that’s a question that always comes up) and partly because not every question seemed that interesting. So below I’ll paste a snapshot of the questions and answers that I did make a note of that I felt were interesting and new to me.

Q: Will BtSSB/AatP start including pockets in their designs? If no, why not?
A: Some designs can’t accommodate pockets without a negative impact on the design itself. Where possible, they will consider adding them in the future.
My comment: I wonder whether they understood that the question meant in-seam pockets rather than the more visible ones.

Q: Will BtSSB re-open its branch in Paris/open a European branch again?
A: There are no plans for doing so, but the designers were happy to hear that people wanted one. They would love to do so one day if they have an opportunity, but right now they don’t think that there is one. Additionally, Haru-san, the BtSSB HQ staff in attendance, says she welcomes lots of foreign visitors at the shop and is looking forward to doing so again once restrictions ease.

Q: Will there be new mascot characters like Captain Chris?
A: Cathy-san from AatP said that for now they plan on simply making more outfits for Captain Chris and concentrate on him before creating someone new.

Q: Where are BtSSB/AatP clothes made: still in Japan or are they also made in China nowadays?
A: Kano-san answered this one by saying that this depends on the schedule of release and the technical details of the dress. Some are made in Japan, while others are made overseas. The brand tries to use Japanese factories for most things that they make and employ certain techniques that are only found in Japan, but this won’t apply to everything.
My comment: Although it was a much more vague response than we would’ve hoped as a Western audience currently concerned with how ethically our clothes are made, it sounded as if the answer came more from a place of concern with quality control than ethical production. Whilst it’s nice to feel that BtSSB/AatP still take their quality seriously, it did expose how complex the whole situation is, since there may be a ‘Made in Japan’ tag on a dress that nonetheless includes an element produced elsewhere that wouldn’t be disclosed. So if this is something that you care about, your safest bet is to stick to buying second hand.

Q: Will there be more plus size designs that could accommodate something like a 110cm bust?
A: They have some shirred designs in plans, including some in the near future.
My comment: The designers only kept saying “designs with shirring”, but that seemed to imply full body shirring. This seems to be the most that they are committing to doing right at this moment, at least there was no mention of Meta-style plus size range coming.

Q: What do you keep in mind when designing new pieces?
A: Kano-san from BtSSB narrowed her answer to ‘treasureability’. She wants BtSSB clothes to be special and to have the ability to brighten our days, particularly now, but in essence they need to be something that someone will treasure and that will bring them joy. Cathy-san from AatP referred to the brand’s concept which is basically “what if Alice dallied with pirates or became a pirate herself”, so she always has that ‘backstory’ in mind when thinking of new designs. She also wants people wearing AatP clothing to feel like they are part of that world and that story themselves.

Q: What things would you like to design that you haven’t had the chance to yet?
A: Tachibana-san from BtSSB couldn’t think of any, though she said she loves designing tea party exclusive gifts. Kano-san also from BtSSB mentioned wanting to design more interior decorations and was welcoming ideas. Cathy-san also couldn’t think of anything, but mentioned that she likes to travel to gather inspiration (and that she’s never been to Europe, so she was really looking forward to Imperial Garden IRL) and asked people for suggestions.

Final words

Group screenshot 1.

Group screenshot 2

As already mentioned, I had a great time attending the Imperial Garden Online event. The atmosphere was relaxed and everything ran smoothly, which enabled everything to run according to plan. The guests all seemed eager to interact with us, which means that even those who IRL would’ve been too shy to come up and ask a question felt comfortable to do so via chat, for example. It was just the right length to feel like an event without letting us all fall into the pits of Zoom fatigue (though some of that is kind of inevitable). Whilst the regular ticket holders didn’t get as much bang for their buck compared to the VIP attendees, I hope that they were able to make up the lacks in programming with extra socialising via the Zoom breakout room. And, probably most importantly, seeing Holy Trinity handle Imperial Garden Online so competently, doing all these fancy things such as breakout rooms and handling international orders etc., gave me confidence that when they do organise an in-person event in the future, it will be even better. So I look forward to that.

This one here is my more personal review of the whole event. I also wrote a broader and more generic one for Wunderwelt Libre, which is already up and you can find it here.