1 Dress 4 Looks Take 4

It took me quite a long time to finally get round to doing this post. By setting myself a restriction of doing those in the order in which I acquired things, I reached this OP a lot sooner than I otherwise would have – and because I know that I struggle to create a different look with it, that mental barrier was a tough one to overcome. But here it is, full four looks with AP’s Merry Making Party OP in yellow, and not a single one has been recycled from either the Easter coord or the Loliversary post, although some themes/inspirations may remain.

So without any further ado, let’s get straight to it!

Look 1: Simple Summer

| BtSSB Bird Cage Parasol | offbrand socks, shoes and
flower clip | Etsy (Imperial Fiddlesticks) headbow |

As it is an OP, and a yellow one at that, going for a summery look is the easiest route. All it needs is socks, shoes and a couple of accessories. If I had a straw hat, I’d probably substitute it for the headband, although there’d still be room for the flower. I’m showing off my brand parasol (I finally have it!), although this would really benefit with some white tea parties – my only white shoes are either boots (which would be too warm and would hide the socks) or non-Loliable pumps, and this was the next best thing.

Look 2: Warmer Sax

| Infanta Moon's Elegy blouse | AP Ribbon Ladder OTKs |
Bodyline S522 tea parties | Etsy (Celestial Castle) double
bow hair clip |

I’ve paired this dress with sax so many times before as it’s the only colour on the print which I actually own (I’m telling you, that fuchsia shade of pink is hard to match things with). However this time instead of throwing a cardigan over the OP, I tried putting a long sleeve chiffon blouse underneath it. Honestly? It looked ok in person, but seemed to photograph a bit awkwardly, and in the end I’d probably have to put it on myself to really see. But it does seem to work – should a spring be chilly one year, this is one way of wearing that dress without sacrificing too much warmth, I guess.

Look 3: Navy Autumn/Winter

| offbrand cardigan, shoes and pearls | IW Pearl RibbonOTKs | Etsy (The Naked Lace Company) bow barette |

I received these socks recently and since yellow generally works well with blue, I attempted a more navy coord. I’m not sure if it tones down the print or accentuates it, but it works. I wish I had a pair of cute short boots in black or navy, as the cardigan is very thick and so the boots would make the whole outfit feel even more autumn-y/wintery. But even now it looks quite cosy (that OP is very comfortable thanks to the back shirring), it’s one way of making a very spring/summer kind of print work for other seasons of the year.

Look 4: Little Red Riding Hood

| Bodyline capelet (from the Poppins Classical Cape L460
coat) | AP Drained Cherry OTKs | Bodyline S274 heels |
handmade bracelet and hair clips | Etsy (Cute Craze Cafe)
ring |

This is probably the look I’m most happy with. It started with me putting a red bow against the OP to see if it’d work, and it went from there. It’s a fun little coord, not really meant to be taken seriously, just going along with the sort of madness that’s common in Sweet Lolita. And the cherries! Yeah, I am a little obsessed, but who cares.

I’m not going to lie, I look at each of these outfits and I see so much room for improvement. However, the issue is that said improvement would have to come with items that may not necessarily work with the other items in my Lolidrobe. This OP was an impulse buy during my trip to Closet Child Harajuku and it shows. I looked at the other cuts and colours, and the only one I can see working better for me would be the collar JSK in navy, even though from what I’ve seen around it’s more like royal blue. Both hoarder instincts and sentimentality make it very difficult for me to part with this dress, but at the same time I don’t think I’d be willing to commit that much more time, resources and money in order to get accessories that’d work just with this one dress. I keep going back and forth on the idea of trading it, yet what I’d be most happy to trade it for, i.e. Innocent World’s Revival Sweet Teddybear JSK in blue, my dream dress, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, not even used (I’ve seen it in brown, pink and even the original release in black, but never in blue), so before committing myself to a Want to Trade post I’d have to make sure that I would be just as happy trading it for something else, potentially including the same print but in the navy collar JSK cut.

That was a lot of rambling just to say that this OP makes me so torn. :P I hope that you enjoyed the outfits above, imperfections and all, and if you have suggestions on how to better integrate this dress with my current sax/navy/red/wine/ivory wardrobe, let me know in the comments, please. All help will be much appreciated!