Outfit Double
I have returned from my trip to
Belgium, half refreshed and half tired (a lot of sightseeing and a lot of
catching up with long-unseen friends don’t make for a lot of sleep), and I’m
all ready to resume business as usual. Despite taking only a small suitcase for
a 12 day trip, I manage to pack two Lolita dresses and my Classical Puppets petticoat – packing skills acquired as a
student came incredibly useful here, but they did require a little bit of magic
as well.
However, although I had enough
things to wear a few different outfits with what I brought, I only ended up
wearing Lolita twice: on date night with my boyfriend and then on a visit to
the Royal Gardens in Brussels. I had packed for a slightly warmer weather, but
I’m still happy that I managed to wear both dresses out.
I hope the mirror selfie isn't too poor. | BtSSB Sugar Bouquet Shirring Princess JSK | IW bolero | IW Rose and Diamond OTKs | Bodyline tea parties | offbrand jewellery and hair accessories | |
Our date night involved going out
for a curry, so I pounced at the opportunity to wear something fully shirred
and elegant. And it indeed turned out to be the perfect choice as I felt
dressed up enough for a date, yet could have all the curry I wanted (still not
managed to finish it, but I enjoyed it all the same). A pair of heels would’ve
looked so much better with this outfit, but having packed all my stuff I only
had enough room for one pair of shoes so opted for these as ones that go with
both dresses. I love how many detachable parts are there on Shirring Princess, the dress almost
never looks the same. Next time I’ll definitely do something a bit more well-rounded
and suitably Classic.
Now, you may wonder why I wouldn’t
wear Shirring Princess again, since
the Sugar Bouquet print would fit the
theme of visiting the Royal Gardens. The answer is that I needed some fresh
shot in Angelic Pretty to submit with my modelling application for DMC and out
of all AP that I own Diner Doll felt
the most wearable in a slightly more casual way. With the friend whom I was
visiting, who also wears Lolita, we actually came up with two different
versions of this coord before deciding on this, the third one, which mixed
elements of the other two. As I didn’t bring my matching cardigan, I wore my
leather jacket over this most of the time when not being photographed and
discovered that it actually kind of goes (it’s a mocha/light brown biker-style
jacket, which fit both the 1950’s diner aesthetic and, surprisingly, the
colours) and I’d love to try something more in that direction at some point.
After the gardens, having walked so
much throughout my entire stay, we deemed that cake not only was appropriate,
but necessary and turned to TripAdvisor for some suggestions. As that was
Easter Monday most places were closed, significantly narrowing our search.
Mostly at random we picked this place in Etterbeek, just outside Brussels,
which is called Au Vatel and we were totally stunned with how utterly divine
their cakes were! And this was number 18 on the list of best
bakeries/patisseries in Brussels too (probably because it’s not actually in
Brussels, so fewer people would’ve reviewed it). If you’re in the vicinity I
wholeheartedly recommend this place – the cake pictured here totally blew my
head off, I melted, died in a rich chocolate-y nirvana and never wanted to
return to any kind of reality.
I won’t go into detailed accounts of
my trip to Belgium, I’ve done so much and this blog is intended to be about
Lolita fashion. Overall our focus seemed to have been fashion (we visited three
separate fashion exhibitions and would’ve been to a fourth similar one had we
not missed the opening hours), food (duh, waffles, chocolate and fries!), strolling
around the cities and finding all kinds of weird and wonderful things in each
of them (we’ve been to Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, Hasselt, Brussels and very, very
briefly to Namur and each was charming and amazing in its own way) and
reminiscing about Japan (which is where we met on an exchange programme). I
honestly can’t pick a favourite place of these, I’ve seen too little of the
French-speaking part of Belgium than I would’ve liked and as I said every city
charmed me with something different, though as a total city rat craving city
life and luxuries I could imagine myself living in Antwerp – and then
travelling around to revisit all the other lovely places!
And there it is – very brief outline
of what I’ve been up to this past week, where I’m so happy I’ve managed to
squeeze Lolita in. Usual blogging will resume (this trip gave me quite a bit of
inspiration, for general posts as well as for getting stuck with some crafting)
and I’ll speak to you soon!
Didn't know you would come to Belgium for a few days! Glad to read you liked all the different places. Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges are my favs out of the bunch ^_^ You looked great in both outfits and I prefer the casual style of Diner Doll especially paired with the cute hairstyle!
ReplyDeleteThose were definitely my favourites, but all for different reasons, so I could never pick just one as *the* favourite. Even though it's so pastel and bright, Diner Doll is probably my most casual dress. I'd definitely like to do something casual with it again, maybe play with the 50's theme a bit more.
DeleteBoth outfits are super cute, but I think I like the first one most! Glad you had a good time in Belgium too :)
ReplyDeleteI really want to improve on the first one, the shoes bother me a little. And it was definitely a good impulse purchase, this dress is so lovely and comfortable!
DeleteThat diner doll coord is so cute, and the accessories match perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I don't have that many pink or mint accessories, so it was quite lucky that what my friend and I had complimented the dress this well. :)
DeleteThe first one is my favorite, it is more simple.
ReplyDeleteThe simplicity of it really lets the JSK shine.
Delete