1 Dress 4 Looks Take 13

It’s been over a year ago now that I got Diner Doll (and subsequently kicked myself in the butt for panic-preordering when I could’ve waited literally one month and gotten it on sale). For someone who claims to be into Sweet Lolita, I don’t actually have that many pastel things, mainly due to my aversion to pink and only just getting into other pastel colours like mint and lavender. Not that this will stop me from loving this dress in every inch of its pastel food glory!

Look 1: Biker Chic

| AP Creamy Shirring blouse | IW Lauretta OTKs |
the rest is offbrand |

Ever since I realised that my normal leather jacket doesn’t clash with this JSK, I wanted to create a look around it. There are some great Diner Doll x leather jacket coords out there, especially in cute pastel colours, but since I don’t have an actual need for a new jacket, I tried working around what I have. And although the length of the jacket doesn’t quite blend with the dress’ waistline, I like the attitude this outfit is exuding (as much as an inanimate thing can exude attitude). I’d like to try wearing this out somewhere and if life ever allows for it, a pastel mint beret and different boots would be the way to improve the outfit.

Look 2: Casual Lavender

| offbrand cutsew | AP Diner Doll headbow | Metamorphose
Lace-up Bouquet OTKs | Bodyline tea parties | offbrand
earrings |

Mint and lavender go quite well together, so I wanted to try merging them here. Since there is no lavender in the print itself, the outfit could do with a few more lavender accents such as a brooch or a cardigan. At the same time, I like how the dot pattern on the JSK’s lace trims is reflected on the cutsew, that helps bring the coord together a little bit better. Just something laid back, maybe for a casual meet.

Look 3: Chocolate Chip Cookie

| Magic Tea Party blouse | Cutie Creator headbow | Taobao
chocolate clip | AP Diner Doll OTKs | Amavel bag | Sosic
Shop shoes | offbrand bolero and jewellery |

Although the print has cookie ice-cream sandwiches instead of chocolate chip cookies, the outfit still reflects the food theme and mint goes quite well with browns. Whilst it would’ve been better with lighter browns, closer to beige (and I do have a cardigan in that shade – but that could make the other browns stand out too much since they’re darker), I think it’s a fun coord.

Look 4: Cherry Milkshake

| Metamorphose lucky pack blouse | Bodyline L553 bolero |
AP Drained Cherry OTKs | Bodyline heels | AP Diner Dollheadbow | offbrand hair clips and necklace |

Although the print features cherries quite prominently, they are hot pink, not red, which is a fairly strong contrast against the pastel tones. On the other hand the reds are kept to a minimum, two accents at the top and two at the bottom, and of those four only one is not cherry-shaped. And while not particularly visible, the cherry stems on the socks are mint, so we have all three colours: mint, white and red distributed fairly evenly across the top, middle and bottom of the coord. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is very much my style and I can see myself wearing it somewhere.

You may have gathered that already, but I tried to avoid the obvious options when putting together these outfits. This is partly because I want to stretch and challenge myself and going for something I’ve already done wouldn’t allow me to do that. On the other hand, my wardrobe is definitely not pastel and mint and pink are colours that feature in it the least, so I had to improvise a little to create four outfits that would be visibly different from each other, as well as would avoid repeatedly using the same few mint pieces that I have. After this I realise that I probably could do with one or two more bits, like a mint beret and maybe another pair of mint socks, but we all know the plight of finding perfect colour matches, so it may be a while before that happens.

Do you have a dress that’s a definite standout in your wardrobe? How do you go about blending it with your other items without spending tonnes of money on things to match that one dress? Have you found yourself doing similar outfits with it or have you tried thinking outside the box?