AYWi30C #29 - To suit a particular hairstyle

For a while now I’ve wanted to do an ouji look within this challenge. In acknowledgement of that small part of my wardrobe, but also because the challenge never specified what type of coords these have to be. We presume lolita to be the default, when it doesn’t have to be. And since my hairstyle ideas already went towards the XVIIIth century sort of area, why not give the dandy lads some representation?

| Fan+Friend Alice Knight pants | Infanta Swan Lake blouse | Metamorphose Swallow Tail Jacquard jacket | MuFish tights | Deary heels | handmade tricorn | offbrand brooch and rings | Puvithel Crystal Heart ouji brooch | vintage neckerchief |

This is very much the sort of coord that I had in my mind when I first bought this jacket. Maybe not with some changes in the hair and hair accessory department, but the rest is pretty much there. All that I was waiting on were these shorts, so now that I finally have them, the time was right to unleash this look upon the world. And what better excuse than this challenge, right?

You need some go-to's to make your life easier. This blouse is my ouji go-to and however repetitive it may sometimes feel to me, it is making my life easier.

Though I'm still perplexed by the choise of cherry lace with such a classy design that's called Swan Lake on top of that.

This Infanta blouse is such a trusty one in my wardrobe and it’s definitely grown into my go-to ouji blouse. The neckline and the sleeves are too perfect not to. Part of me feels guilty of such typecasting, while part of me regrets not getting it in more colours to round up my ouji wardrobe a bit more. It feels excessive to do that now, given that my wardrobe spreadsheet has something like 60+ items in the blouses tab… but if any blouse would be worth it, surely it’s this one?

This jacket is an absolute sensory joy. Part of me is tempted to get it in other colours, even though I can't necessarily justify that...

And how could we talk about this coordinate without talking about this jacket? You know, I somehow always struggle with ouji coords to figure out which is the main piece, the bottoms or the tops. Logically it’d seem like it’s the bottoms, since the same rules apply as with skirts and you can have a great ouji coord without a jacket or a waistcoat. Yet at the same time, with how elaborate jackets can get, it feels weird to not hold them at the level of main pieces, you know? This one is a fabulous jacquard and I am head over heels in love with that swallow-tail, it’s so fancy and the fabric’s texture is beautiful to the touch.

To me ouji is an incredible opportunity to show off legwear. Which is ironic because the hem length in lolita is pretty much the same. Yet ouji relying less on prints with main pieces leaves more room to display fun legwear.

These trusty tights have seen many a coordinate through and this one is no exception. A lace-up design is never really a bad idea, it’s neutral enough to match any substyle and great to balance out the colours a little bit better. Since this photo was taken, I’ve actually put a hole through them by accident, so let’s hope that MuFish doesn’t have plans to stop stocking this design. Or that if they do, that someone else fills in the gap in the market.

Damn, I still love that dumb curly heel design overall.

I remember the time when I was practically obsessed with these cabriole heel shoes. I still low-key am, but my stance on design replicas has changed, so despite knowing that I could get some from Sosic Shop, for example, I’m no longer comfortable doing so. But I hold onto these because I do use them quite often and it’s better than just getting rid of them. It makes me wonder whether the original AatP design is also as comfortable to walk in as these (though I seem to recall some opinions that it’s not).

Thankfully the texture of the jacket offers so much depth in the coord already that the coord gets away with fewer accessories.

To me ouji fashion, or even menswear in general, is about carefully selecting the accessories that go into a coord. Of course, that same attitude could easily apply to lolita, yet womenswear somehow feels able to carry off maximalism and OTT-ness through accessory overload, which to me could make masculine styles look tacky. I’ve no doubts that it can be done tastefully, maybe as a counterpart to OTT lolita, but for the most part I feel that it’s better to have fewer accessories that fit the outfit better for ouji. Just like with classic formal menswear it’s the small details (e.g. the pocket square, the tie, the socks, the cut of one’s shirt collar etc.) that make for the overall impression.

You can literally see how I made it on this photo. Tricorns are super simple.

Starting with this tricorn. Please, excuse how it’s covered in random fluff, I remembered to edit it out on the selfie and detail shot, but not on this and I still haven’t replaced my lint roller. But back to the topic at hand - sure, I could’ve easily adorned it with some extras. I have a lush ostrich feather, I have some other brooches that would work, I could probably even attach a necklace to it somehow. But that felt like too much, especially for this outfit. Just a simple tricorn with the gold braid trim is enough for a fancy ouji. And tricorns were one of the most formal head attires for men at least at one point in history!

When your charity shop purchases combine to create a new accessory.

Even though the blouse has a decorative collar as is, a jabot felt like a good call to add. Even if this isn’t a proper jabot, it’s just a small vintage silk scarf/handkerchief that I crumpled into the appropriate shape and fastened with a brooch. (Coincidentally, both of these were charity shop purchases.) I keep looking for more silk scarves when I go charity shopping, though since my goal is to go more Tudor ouji than XVIIIth century ouji, I probably won’t be going too crazy. But hey, if you want tips on adding fancy jabots for little money - look into vintage silk scarves to crumple up into jabot shapes with a brooch!

Do I still have regrets about not getting a necklace in this colourway? Yes, I do. But at least I have the brooch.

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to have an ouji coord without Puvithel’s ouji brooch. I’ve done some myself, including more historical ones. Counterpoint: I already own this ouji brooch, so why wouldn’t I use it? A bit of sparkle never hurt anyone.

Just a bit of extra sparkle...

And, of course, back to some trusty offbrand rings. Again, menswear and masculine looks lend themselves perfectly well to outfits without rings. This particular one would look just as good without them. Yet having that small bit of extra sparkle just seemed to add the right touch. I was already going sparkly with the brooches, suggesting that this particular ouji is quite a fancy lad himself, so let’s play into that.

Subtle details are incredible.

Seeing as these shorts are unprinted, there aren’t that many detail shots to include. Especially since their most striking feature, the voluminous legs, aren’t really coming across on photos, certainly not as well as when worn. But I guess this is also part of the charm of masculine looks: that cuts speak volumes, followed by fabric choices. This is the appeal of oldschool lolita too and whilst, of course, printed and patterned ouji sets exist, there is still that same degree placed on cuts and trims, which contemporary printed lolita pieces seem to be foregoing more than they used to. And Fan+Friend did very well with these. The velvet fabric is luxuriously soft and, as I found when wearing them in summer months (though nowhere near heatwave weather), not as hot as I’d expect. Maybe it would’ve been different if I wasn’t just lounging after taking the photos, but the silkish polyester lining kept my legs cool. Though I also feel like they would keep me toasty enough in cool weather, particularly with tights underneath. And the trump buttons are done in a very classy way. Card trumps are very low on my motif favourites list, but in here they are so inconspicuous and tasteful that I actually like them.

A special hello to this one curl that did come out perfectly and is saving the look.

It wouldn’t be a coord around a particular hairstyle without a selfie. Taking a selfie so that these damn curls would show up proved harder than I imagined it would. Granted, they weren’t the neatest things out there, but they came out well, so hopefully that comes across well enough. The rest of my hair I simply tied back into a ponytail and despite toying with the idea of curling the ends, laziness won. It’s not like there’s a picture of the back of this anywhere, so does it really matter? Some men in the XVIIIth century had straight hair and not everyone could be bothered to curl everything all the time. And the blessing of ouji is that it really lets you get away with the most minimalist of makeup, the sort of just enough to work for the camera. It’s been too long since these photos were taken, but from what I remember this is just a touch of very natural blush (including some on my lips for some contrast) and a bit f eyebrow pencil. Maybe mascara, I don’t remember, but I doubt that. Which, all in all, made for a seriously comfortable look, I did spend the rest of my day in this after the photos and videos were all done.

It's actually quite funny how despite being the same pair of shorts, the stylings and the colourways give them such distinct vibes. The right coord looks so much more youthful than the left.
From left to right these are from: July 2021 and August 2021.

Welp, here’s the thing: this look was the first time I ever wore these exact shorts. But I also own the very same pair in black. So whilst they’re technically different, like two colourways of the same print would be, they’re also the same. In other words, to prevent this section from looking so bare, I’ve included both colourways of these shorts. Interesting how so far both of those were used for historical sort of ouji looks. Of course, the velvet fabric and the cut of these lend themselves perfect to that type of styling, but in the future I would like to push them into other directions as well.

One thing I wish that I had for this video is a fancy walking stick. That seems like something that would add at least +10 to the aesthetic value of this lookbook. Though what in the name of Mana would I do with a walking stick afterwards?

On another note, this leaves but one more prompt for the Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates challenge: “To suit a particular make-up look”. And as it happens, to help me decide on what that would be, I asked people on my Patreon to come up with suggestions. The plan is that I will go with whichever one gets me the most creatively excited, so if you have any ideas, why not join?