Manchester Christmas Markets

When it comes to Christmas markets, the Manchester one is one of the best and biggest, certainly in “our” area if not even the country. I missed it last year and didn’t want to skip it again, so I got my Mum involved, found us cheap train tickets and off we went!

| Bodyline L262 JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Metamorphose
Dressy OTKs | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand boots, boot
toppers and ear muffs | Bodyline L460 coat | DreamV bag |
BtSSB Parasol |

My goal for the day was to look festive, but still be comfortable, warm and not have to worry about anything getting ruined (you never know when someone’s had too much glühwein and might accidentally spill it on you), so I went for the old and trusted Bodyline. I wanted to wear red shoes, but unfortunately the weather forecast for Manchester was rains and snow, so I needed to wear something more practical at the expense of matching. Though I still felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

What’s great about the Manchester Christmas Markets is that there literally are several scattered across various locations in the city centre. They sort of form a trail, although if you don’t have a map and don’t know the area too well you wouldn’t always know where to go for the next area. Luckily, the maps were available to download for free and there were a few people here and there offering free information, which made things a lot easier.

As you’d expect, everything looked Christmas card festive and there were loads of stalls selling pretty much everything, from food to decorations and potential gifts. Many sellers had stalls in several market locations, so if one was too crowded or you had left before deciding you actually wanted something chances were that you could still get it without having to go back.

Since we went on Saturday and got there around 2pm, we hit some of the busiest times going. I’m not a fan of crowded places, I find crowds incredibly annoying, although I still managed to enjoy the markets. For anyone wanting to visit, but who really cannot deal with crowds, the website offers some information on quieter times to visit. Very useful for individuals and families who, for whatever reason, need to avoid busy, loud places and times, I thought that was a nice way to be inclusive.

Although my favourite part has to be the mugs. The Christmas Markets are running a scheme where all stalls selling drinks have to do so in actual glasses and mugs. These incur an additional deposit cost of £1 per glass and £2.50 for mugs, but it was far more environmentally friendly and meant that the markets were mostly free of rubbish which otherwise would’ve been everywhere. Afterwards you could return your mugs and get the deposit back or keep them as a souvenir (although I think this applied only to the mugs, not to the glasses). I absolutely love the idea and between Mum and I we got both designs: black with a snowman, which was for alcoholic drinks, and white with Santa Claus for non-alcoholic beverages. They’ll be great to use during the Christmas season and a seriously nice souvenir for any lover of hot drinks!

Photo from the Christmas Markets website because our mugs
are in the dishwasher.

While I kind of want to go again at a quieter time, to have time to enjoy it without being annoyed at the crowds, we have visited everything and enjoyed the whole experience thoroughly enough to not really have the need to. I’m also stocked up on Spekulaas, which I love with all my heart (and stomach) and will do my best to make them last, so I genuinely should be doing other things to satisfy my need for festive cheer. There will be other markets to come and next weekend is the Winter ILD, so this should be enough. December looks as busy for me and as filled with Lolita as November has been, so while my introverted self cannot wait for the Christmas break to have some lazy rest, I am very excited for all that’s still to come.

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? Have you been getting ready and in the mood? Any plans for ILD next Saturday? I’d love to hear all about it! 

Wunderwelt Haul Review

Normally I would’ve done this in a video, but since light is terrible these days and my weekends between now and the end of year are all pretty busy, I’ll do this review in a standard text and photos kind of format.

Dim Sum Meet

While meets that involve simply gathering together to eat seem to be the most common kind (usually focusing on afternoon tea), I find that my comm doesn’t have them that often. Which is odd since we all like to eat and like good food. When this Dim Sum meet was initially announced, it clashed with Doki Doki, but then got rescheduled – and there was no way that I was going to miss out on yummy dumplings!

| BtSSB Sugar Bouquet Shirring Princess JSK | New Look cutsew | Bodyline
L553 bolero | Cutie Creator headbow | Baroque tights | offbrand heels and pearl
necklace | Milkribbon Misako brooch |

Nothing like cute stickers to cover up a random
person behind you.

This meet demanded one thing: full body shirring. I’m lucky enough to have three fully shirred dresses, as well as one fully shirred skirt, but somehow I decided to go with Baby’s Sugar Bouquet. The whole outfit was aimed for comfort and, ever so slightly, for warmth. I was surprised by the positive reactions to that Bodyline bolero (as if you needed further proof that their stock photos are awful) and to how well these Baroque tights held up (no need to pull them up despite walking a fair share that day). And the Labiotte lip tint – it’s a novelty wine bottle thing, but it survived all those dim sum the whole day and some of the following day even!

Whether it’s because we’re a big comm or because dim sum is a great thing, the meet was well attended with eleven of us (including myself) attending. It was nice to see some people whom I haven’t seen since London, as well as meet a couple of new faces (to the newest group member: if you’re reading this, I hope you had fun and that you will come again, even though it must’ve been a very intimidating first meet to be in a large group of people who already know each other and with an age gap).

The place we went to was called Crown Buffet which, although technically is in the city centre of Leeds, I wouldn’t have been able to find it on my own as I would’ve started doubting myself just before getting to it. It’s in quite an awkward area that looks deserted and just like dead space between busier roads. However, it was well worth visiting: the dim sum selection was big and reasonably priced, with the cheapest being around £3 and the most expensive around £4.20 mark, as well as pretty tasty. There were some that were a miss, like the mixed veg dumplings (which looked like something out of Blue Planet and, to be honest, tasted like that too) or the beef balls (I didn’t have them, but the friend who did was defeated by how dense they were). But for the most part we enjoyed the food and the atmosphere, just being able to chat about anything and everything, from the most random to the most serious.

Those were just the first few dishes that arrived!

Love me some gyoza!

Because I have to get plain rice - forgetting that Chinese rice
isn't the same as Japanese rice. Still nice though.

After filling up our stomachs (and waiting a little before actually being able to stand up) a group of us headed for the Christmas market which had just opened in Leeds recently. This is also where we took advantage of the last of the daylight. However, by the time we were done with the outfit shots, we decided that the wind had picked up a little too much and we’d rather go for a hot drink and cake. We ended up in a bubble tea place where all the cake had finished, so we just had tea (which was probably for the better as I wasn’t exactly hungry, so just tea and no cake was better on the waistline). You know that time after the official meet has finished and there’s only a few of you still about, just chatting? These tend to be my favourite parts of the meets, everyone’s a lot more relaxed then and feel that sense of trying to keep the good time going before we all go back to our daily routines. Some really good meet ideas were thrown about there, which would be incredible if they happened, so let’s hope that one day they will.

Where we were was more fun fair than market.

Still looks cute though. All my other photos
turned out blurry. :(

It was so pretty, but ended up so blurry.

Upon regaining energy we all ended up going to Lush – mainly because I needed to go, but there were others whose ears pricked up at the sound of the word “Lush”. It was on the way to the train station anyway, so why not take advantage of the convenience? I wish I could say that the £66 I dropped there was all for me in a serious bout of Treat Yo’ Self Syndrome, but most of it was presents for other people. Still very satisfying to carry a Lush bag this heavy with goodies. Our last stop was Wilko, where I picked up some plastic gift bags – and a friend bought the biggest pink plush unicorn I’ve ever seen for a mere bargain of £30! All Despicable Me references were very much appropriate and the way I see it: we all wanted to buy whatever toys we wanted when as kids we thought of what our adult lives would be like, so if someone’s actually living that, then I applaud that!

For all of that fun I managed to return home at a reasonable time, just past 7pm, although since it’s November, it was dark for good three hours prior to that, making it feel as if I returned very late. The next meet will be Winter ILD, so having something more casual just before that was absolutely lovely and very much needed. And it just felt nice to say “Goodbye! See you at ILD!” to people. ^^

Have you had any nice casual meets recently? Or a genuine need for full shirring to be able to handle all of the delicious food? It’s fine though if you’re hibernating because November can be a bit miserable – what do you do to keep the frill connection at a time like that?

Miel Magazine Review

If you follow any of the Lolita Updates, you probably know by now that there’s another Lolita and kawaii fashion focused magazine on the Japanese market called Miel. It was officially released this Monday, November 13^th, and I got my hands on a copy, so let’s see what it’s like!

Lolita takeover of Doki Doki Manchester

As anyone who knows me will be aware of, I’m not a massive fan of manga or anime. I’ve read/watched something occasionally and I’ve nothing against these or people who like them, they’re just not a major part of my life and have little to do with my interest in Japan. This translates onto avoiding most Japan-centred cons and events, since their dominant target group are manga and anime fans and otaku, however, last weekend I made an exception and attended Doki Doki Manchester.

Since C.L.A.M. was going to have a table for Lolita and other J-fashion, as well as do a little fashion show, makeovers for charity and even a fashion panel, I thought that this would be a fun thing to do. It just happened that my boyfriend had the weekend free, so he joined me and I took advantage of his closer location to Manchester and his car to bring the two things together that weekend.

| Angelic Pretty Sweet Cream House round collar JSK | Axes
Femme blouse | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Sosic Shop
heels | Amavel bag (seen in a later photo) | Taobao hairclips |
Milkribbon brooch | Etsy/Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings |

Closeup of my accessories.

As I’m on a quest to wear the pieces I haven’t worn in a long time (or at all yet), it was time to whip out AP’s Sweet Cream House round collar JSK. Although this cut is super not boob friendly and I can only wear it with the corset lacing taken out and when wearing a sports bra, I can’t help but love it, I feel it’s a flattering cut for my body shape. This was the closest I’ve ever come to creating a chocolate coord and I will reluctantly admit that I enjoyed being all chocolate-y for a day. I keep fluctuating between expanding my actual Sweet wardrobe and wanting to go more Classic and florals, so I end up getting more Sweet-Classic/mature Sweet/light or even pastel Classic pieces and having a wardrobe that straddles the two styles. And AP’s recent releases aren’t helping me make up my mind, but that’s a topic for another day.

The doors for Doki Doki, which was held in a literal sports hall at a local sports centre, opened at 10am and we got there around 11:30am. This was still early enough that we could see and do everything on the schedule that we wanted, but didn’t have to get up at the break of dawn (although I still had to wake up earlier to get ready). Sadly, shortly after entering I must’ve lost one of my hair clips whilst taking my jacket off, which I didn’t realise until a little later. RIP, little chocolate clip, you are dearly missed (especially now that I discovered that the Taobao shop I got it from no longer stocks it).

I must say that I was positively surprised at the variety of activities and stalls available to the visitors. You had your usual, more weeby stuff like the anime merchandise tables, a maid café and lots of cosplayers and a cosplay contest (which we didn’t stay to see). But there were also plenty of artists, not all of whom worked exclusively with the anime style, there were some kawaii clothing and accessory shops that could be used in a variety of J-fashion styles, Black Candy Fashion with their cosplay wig range (which is a shame, I totally would’ve bought a wig from them if they brought more natural colours), but also stalls for the Japanese Railway Society, Aid for Japan, groups and apps for learning the language and kanji, as well as live performances of taiko drummers and traditional and modern singing. The modern singing wasn’t particularly good, it sounded like a bunch of cats in pain, but taiko drummers, who must’ve had an average age of around 60, were great and fun to watch (biased opinion as I love taiko drums and music played on them).

We eventually located the C.L.A.M. table, where I got to catch up with my friends and look at some dresses sent by Baby Ponytail, which were meant to be featured in a fashion show, but they sent sizes that fit hardly any of us and sent it way too late for any of us to prepare. I also signed up to do the J-fashion show, which was super fun – very different from modelling in a proper fashion show, but more like the cosplayers show where you just have fun showing off what you’re wearing. We even got little goodie bags as a thank you, which was incredibly sweet!

Overall, we probably spent maybe 2-3 hours at Doki Doki, when we’ve managed to have a wander round, buy a few little bits, get some really nice Japanese food and comment on what other people were wearing. I didn’t stay for the J-fashion panel, which I regret a little, but at the same time we were done a bit too long before the panel started and we didn’t fancy waiting around. For the pre-booking price of £10/person, this was not a bad con. Especially if you were the type to spend the whole day there, it works out a good value for money. For us it was sort of just about right, although I doubt that we’d do Doki Doki again unless there was something either of us really wanted to do.

Look at the cute mini-cakes!

Look at them!

Very lovely katsu curry with some jasmine tea.
The taste brought me right back to Japan!

Strawberry shortcake. Coincidentally it's also
the Japanese Christmas cake, so extra festive
points there!

After this we had a quick stop at Domino’s (because my boyfriend didn’t fancy any Japanese food), then at Archie’s for a milkshake (they’re seriously great milkshakes if you’re ever in Manchester or Liverpool area) and then decided to go to the cinema to see Thor: Ragnarok. We must’ve caught some sort of special offer because the tickets were only £4.99 each – usually an adult cinema ticket costs around double that, so it was a nice icing on the cake. For anyone interested, Thor was great fun, it stays within the style it set in the previous films, i.e. very funny and laughing at itself, although it probably had a bit more of that. But more importantly, there were no unnecessarily prolonged bits, it kept an even pace and we did not find a single boring moment. So if you were on the fence about watching that, I’d say go for it, although equally you won’t lose anything by waiting for it to come out on DVD.

Oreolicious and Mango Madness.

After this we headed home – although by that point my feet started hurting a bit and felt as if they wanted to cramp, but didn’t really, so the walk back to the car was a bit slower than what I would’ve liked. Still, it was a fun day and I’m glad we went, even if I don’t feel like I’d go to Doki Doki again.

Last but not least, here’s my little haul. I probably would’ve bought more, but since the other bits I wanted were Sweet-appropriate rings, which I feel like I have enough of, I stopped at these two. So it ended up being a very tiny and cheap haul, as the rosette cost £10 (it’s from a friend, she tags her shop with a #wonderboxdesigns on Instagram, but I can’t find a shop link anywhere) and the necklace from Bubblegum Emporium cost £6. And since I sold a blouse for £15 at the con, I essentially only spend £1 – because wonders of logic!

Sorry for the naff photo, November is shit for
taking any photos after work.

Have you been to any good cons recently? What are your local ones like in terms of balancing weeby stuff with less weeby stuff? Or are you not one for cons at all? 

DIY Brooch Display Stand

In the last instalment of my Lolidrobe Reassessment I added an extra goal for the rest of this year which was to craft a brooch display and blog about it. And lo and behold, this is what’s in store for you today!

How to Coordinate OPs?

This is something that I have struggled with since the beginning of my journey with Lolita fashion. As someone looking for versatility and who enjoys making it look like they’re wearing a new outfit through clever coordinating, OPs were problematic for me. However, I also recognise that they’re comfortable pieces and would like to get more of them for lazier days. Some people have simply accepted that you can’t do as much with them as you can with a JSK or a skirt. But for those more like me, who would like to get into OPs, but want to avoid always wearing it the same way, here are some tips that I’ve picked up through my trials and errors, as well as observing how other people do it.

*

Splurge or Save: Lolita Edition

Although the general understanding of Lolita fashion amongst newcomers tends to be a lot better than in the past, certain themes of questions remain the same. To answer some of these I created this little guide called Splurge or Save: Lolita Edition (inspired by a Splurge or Save video made by Cherry Dollface).