Shinku Rose Tulle Overdress review

Although this has already featured in an outfit post, I’d like to do a more thorough review of Shinku Rose’s Tulle Overdress. Indie brands need all the rep, they are amazing and the world deserves to know that!

Ordering Process

The overdress was a made to order and the pre-order period was between June 12^th and July 12^th, which is a very generous time frame; I placed mine on June 18^th. While I provided most of the measurements, I was asked for a few extra ones to ensure that the overdress would fit well.

I did not hear again from Shinku Rose again until August 6^th when they told me that my overdress is being made now. Ten days after this I received the postage notification, but it was actually already waiting for me when I got home on the same day (domestic shipping). As far as I’m concerned, everything was on time and given that this was a handmade item, I’m more than satisfied with this!

The Overdress

While I didn’t take any photos of it when it arrived, it was packed in a pretty large box. Inside it was wrapped in multiple layers of tissue paper to protect the delicate fabric from snagging on the cardboard. I can’t remember now whether there was any plastic to protect it in case of rain, however, as it was a recorded and insured first class domestic shipment (sent at the back end of a heatwave), it probably wouldn’t have been needed anyway.

A refresher in what it looks like since I don't have any other photo of it.

As you had the chance to see from my coord photo, the overdress is absolutely gorgeous and fits very well. It is absolutely billowing with tulle, light and fluffy as a cloud – I can only imagine the feeling of drowning in tulle when sewing and hemming this. The skirt part feels like an entire full circle of fabric, which it may well be (I’m not a seamstress, so can’t tell). Similarly, the sleeves are made with a very generous amount of tulle, so that they float nicely over the clothes and I reckon you could probably fit a medium-sized bell sleeve underneath it.

The overdress is finished to the highest possible standard. It is adorned with lovely satin ribbon above the ruffled tulle and where it opens it features gorgeous floral lace. Elastic at the waist and neckline ensures a good fit, regardless of how many layers you wear underneath; on the Alice and the Pirates JSK I wore the waist seam sat almost exactly on the waist seam of the dress. It closes with hook and eye fastenings, which I found are best done up bottom-up. This is slightly unnatural for me as I’m used to buttoning things top-down, however, when I do that I find that some of the middle hooks open when I try to do the bottom ones – it seems like this is because of the loose fit rather than a design fault, so just keep that in mind. The neckline is scooped fairly low, leaving plenty of room to show off either collar details or some gorgeous jewellery.

Detail of the lace at the neckline covering the elastic.

Detail of the lace at the opening.

Detail of the satin ribbon and ruffled tulle at the bottom.

Detail of the hook fastenings.

Final Thoughts

Shinku Rose have been incredibly responsive and kept me up to date throughout the process. A little under a month has passed between the preorder window closing and my order arriving. While I ordered a pretty standard overdress in ivory, they did have something like ten different colour options to suit a variety of styles. A made to order and to my exact measurements, to an exceptionally high standard of finish, the price of £110 + postage was more than reasonable. Do remember that this overdress is made out of tulle (not the easiest fabric to work with on such a large scale) and a cubic bricktonne of it too. I would 10/10 order from Shinku Rose again and encourage you all to do the same.

You can follow Shinku Rose on Facebook and Instagram, as well as keep an eye on their Etsy store. Absolutely recommend them and if they ever open preorders for this overdress, you should totally get one!

About Buying Brand - Again

Whilst I didn’t envision myself returning to this topic, I am going to talk about buying brand new some more.

Photo by magicprincess707.

In response to the poll on Lolita Amino about whether brands should introduce sizes, I created another poll asking the community how often they purchase Japanese brands new. Although at the time of writing both polls are still ongoing, the results are already pretty interesting. To save on writing, I put them into the two pie charts below.

 

*

* For reference, poll 1 results are out of 188 votes and poll 2 out of 165 votes.

The first thing you notice is that while nearly 60% of participating Lolita Amino users agree that brands should offer more sizes, over 2/3 of them only purchase brand new once a year or less. Now, I cannot stress enough that this is a very simplistic comparison and as a piece of research holds no reliable value. For one, poll no 1 assumes a common definition of brand without specifying one, while poll no 2 separates brands by country of origin. For another, poll no 1 focuses on clothing (because it questions sizing) and poll no 2 is open to all purchases, clothing, accessory or otherwise. Thirdly, although the polls are from the same platform, that doesn’t mean they share exactly the same sample. Lastly, on their own neither poll goes into details about the reasons (although some were given in the comments) and it would also be interesting to analyse these results against the users’ Lolita Amino rank or, better still, years actively wearing the fashion.

However, until an actual study of lolitas’ shopping habits is carried out, let me use these two results for the sake of a slightly ranty commentary. Assuming that the answers from Lolita Amino users reflect the overall trend of the whole community (or at least of the Western community), this shows either great ignorance on how business works or great sense of entitlement within the community. On the one hand, lolitas expect brands like AP and Baby to cater to their needs, such as size. On the other, that same lolita community only purchases brand new items from Japanese makers once a year or even less often than that. I almost want to write this in caps, but will resist and put it in a separate paragraph for emphasis instead:

Regardless of what motivates your lack of brand purchases, no business will alter its stock or influence its future releases based on a community 70% of whom hardly make direct purchases at all. No, they will focus on regular customers. And at the moment the majority of those are based in China and, you guessed it, don’t require different sizes.

Yes, when we talk about Angelic Pretty specifically, then they do have some insight into Western market demands through their branches in San Francisco and Paris. They are able to see which releases sell out during preorders and which end up being sale stock, as well as look what kinds of cuts are popular. The information they get from direct purchases from those two branches (and let’s reinforce that: direct purchases!) is how they gather market information which influences their decisions regarding future releases and what Western lolitas want from them.

And let’s be quite objective here for a second: Angelic Pretty already is doing more to accommodate a wider range of sizes (probably as a result of feedback from their overseas branches, but that I can’t be certain of). Between 2016 when AP Paris opened and now, there have been at least 25 releases of shirred tops (1 cutsew, the rest are either fully or partially shirred blouses). There were also at least 16 releases of cutsew OPs, which tend to be a little bit more forgiving thanks to the more stretchy nature of the fabric. And while we may bemoan the high waist cuts, they often feature full back shirring, which in turn can accommodate up to 100cm bust and usually up to 85cm waist (not exactly a large plus size waist measurement, but thanks to the higher seam placement it can fit more like an underbust, so as long as your underbust/ribs fit that, you should be good to go).

The gist of it is (again) that if you want your favourite brand to cater to you, you need to buy from them. Not own their stuff – that will only get you flattery points at meet and greet with the designer – actually put your literal money where your metaphorical mouth is and purchase from them. You want more shirred OPs or skirts? Buy the one you like that was just released. You want a lower waist JSK cut to come back? Buy that when you see it! You want them to keep making fully shirred blouses? Frickin’ buy them! You can send messages asking for more of this or that all you like, but it holds no actual worth unless you (and a whole load of other people) actually buy that later on. If you can’t afford to buy brand new items regularly, then buy them whenever you can, by shopping during sales and saving for longer. Encourage your friends to do the same, because the more of us buy from a brand, the clearer our opinions and needs are heard. If you don’t see any main pieces you like and still want to support the brand – buy their smaller bits: socks, wristcuffs, jewellery, novelty items, whatever you can.

And if you genuinely can’t afford brand new purchases
and genuinely don’t like anything that’s being released,
and genuinely can’t fit into anything they release without alterations you’re not prepared to have done,
then at least don’t complain that your ‘favourite’ brand caters to all the nouveau riche standard size lolitas from China instead. That’s just how capitalist businesses works. And if all of the above is true of you, then the brand you complain about probably isn’t really your favourite.

Rant over. I wish you all a lovely day and promise to write about Dublin as soon as I have more photographs to share with you.

Create a Coord Under £100

The Lolita Blog Carnival is back with another round of the coord unde X prompt. The original did say $100, however I’m amending it to be £100 instead. In the past I set myself additional challenges, such as not using Bodyline or literally going for the cheapest things I own. This time I’m not adding any extra hurdles – it’s simply a coord that cost me less than £100 of actual money I spent.

| Bodyline L262 JSK (£22.50) | New Look blouse (£8) |
Metamorphose OTKs (£18) | Bodyline heels (£20) | Cutie
Creator headbow (£7.52) | offbrand rose clips (£1) |
Madillustration brooch (£14.95) | After Midnight necklace
(free) | offbrand rings (£1) |
TOTAL = £92.97

As you can see, I did go for a Bodyline dress, my very first lolita dress no less. Every time I do one of these cheap coords I like to use a different piece to show that there is variety to be had. When I purchased this dress, the exchange rate was much better for me, although it was cheap to begin with, couldn’t have been more than ¥2999.

When looking through what I have, to try and get something nice, I remembered this top I got from New Look during sale. Pink and red is such a romantic colour combination and it gave me an idea for this Sweet-Classic coord. Definitely something I’d wear with my hair curled and some more pinky-nude makeup with a softer red lip (maybe using a tint rather than lipstick).

 

Maybe half of the accessories used here were bought offbrand and really cheaply. One of the rose clips was a gift, while the other I got in Korea in Naughty Cat, which is like very cheap Korean Claire’s, on some kind of 3 for 1 offer. The necklace was a Secret Santa gift and the rings are from Primark, which were purchased as a pack of 5, which works out at something like 50p per ring.

The socks and the shoes were the most expensive part other than the dress. Well, for a pair of lolita shoes that lasted this long, the £20 or so that I paid isn’t actually that much, it’s just that on a budget like this it works out as 5^th of the whole price. And the socks were purchased brand new directly from Meta during their sale.

 

In my opinion, even when you’re on a strict budget, there are some things that make a big enough difference to justify spending a little more on. It’s all about how you dress it. So if you’re going for a cheaper main piece, especially if it’s very popular and recognisable like Bodyline prints are, spend a little more on accessories. You can wear a Bodyline dress like everyone, with plain tights or Bodyline’s knee high socks, or you can spice things up by picking up nice printed socks or tights from brands during sales. Similarly, even if your base set is all common items from Bodyline, jazz it up with jewellery and hair accessories from elsewhere. Just because you’re dressing on a budget doesn’t mean that you have to look like you’re on a budget.

Looking at this, it’s definitely an outfit I’d wear out. It kind of gives me Valentine’s Day vibes with those colours and the romantic styling, plus it’d be easy to layer up for February, so maybe then? Might not be able to wait that long though…

Want more ideas on coords for under $100/£100 mark? Check out what the other participating bloggers have done!

Gravelvet
 The Bloody Tea Party
 Gyokuro and Orchids

Goya Hogarth Exhibition Meet

Another weekend, another meetup. Actually, all of a sudden there were loads of things happening last weekend – like the Rose Marie Seoir tea party in London and the Sheffield Film and Comic Con. However, since I knew about this meetup for much longer, as well as thought it best to do something a little more chill the weekend before Dublin, off I went to Manchester to see the exhibition of prints by Francisco Goya and William Hogarth.

| Alice and the Pirates Rosier Fleur JSK | Infanta Swan Lake blouse | Shinku
Rose Tulle Overdress | Alice and the Pirates Arabesque OTKs | everything
else is offbrand | 

Kept my makeup very natural, although I did wear false eyelashes (not that
this photo shows them off in any way).

My initial idea was to try a gothic coord in all-white. In the process I realised just how much white gothic relies on cuts and that everything I own is either too classic or too sweet. So instead I decided to put together all the pieces I haven’t worn out yet: the AatP Rosier Fleur JSK, the kokoshnik headdress and the tulle overdress from Shinku Rose. This was also the first time in literally years when I had my hair left straight and parted in the centre, like it naturally wants to do – in general. Normally this would make me feel super anxious, but with the kokoshnik on I just felt ridiculously connected to my Slavic heritage (even though kokoshnik is a Russian headdress, not Polish) and even jokingly said that if someone asks why I’m dressed like this, I’d tell them that I’m a Russian mail order bride.

To be honest, when I put this coord together, I wasn’t thinking much beyond this. However, the response I received already on social media (Instagram and Closet of Frills) has been so overwhelmingly positive, that I’m genuinely shocked. Reading the lovely comments that people have left was both elating and humbling. If you were one of those people – thank you so much! It will probably be some time still before I’m truly over it (although I don’t want to be over it).

The meet itself had a bit of a rocky start. Before I even set off the organiser said that she couldn’t make it as she fell ill, and then another person said the same thing. However, there were still a few people marked as going, so I set off. It takes me about an hour on the train to get to Manchester, which isn’t the worst journey (it was a direct train too), but the gallery was on the opposite end, so I decided to catch a bus. It wasn’t until then that my phone caught some 4G and I could see that a handful of people went somewhere else to eat – and not until I actually got to the gallery that it turned out they weren’t coming to the gallery at all! Luckily, in the few minutes of indecision it turned out that one other person was already at the gallery too, and another one soon joined us. And when I messaged my boyfriend in that fleeting moment of anxiety at being the only one who did what they were told to, he offered to come to my rescue, which was incredibly sweet of him. So all in all, it was good in the end and having spent few hours in fantastic company, I can now move on from the trauma of that first half hour in Manchester last Saturday.

The exhibition was absolutely fantastic! My knowledge of Hogarth was literally non-existent and I know only one painting by Goya, The Third of May 1808, which I learnt about in school. The exhibition focused more on the prints, etchings and engravings by both artists, which were often heavily political commentaries and criticism of the world around them. It was fascinating to see how both artists had absolutely wild imagination (especially Goya, his art was often more paranatural, whereas Hogarth’s leaned more into caricature) and also how relevant many of their works still were. Granted, none of us had much knowledge of art and art theory, so we amused ourselves by narrating what was happening on these prints, nonetheless I found many pieces that I genuinely liked and have a newfound appreciation for William Hogarth in particular.

This one I dubbed 'The Afterparty. By William Hogarth,

By William Hogarth,

I feel like I've seen this one before, though wouldn't have
been able to identify it as Goya's on the spot.
Also, I promise I took other photos of his work, but they
all turned out blurry.
By Francisco Goya.

Me being amused that in 1763 Hogarth had a pug named
Trump. It was ugly too.

The 'I Said No Portraits' pose that all lolitas know too well. By William Hogarth.

Goth kitten is goth. By William Hogarth.

After this we decided that food was in order and went to the gallery café. The food there was definitely nice, albeit definitely on the artsier/more artisan and therefore pricier side. After realising that a bowl of soup and a slice of brownie would set me back £7, I very quickly opted out of a hot drink and stuck to water, which was free. Having said this, the weather was pleasant – overcast, but warm – so we sat outside and chatted about anything and everything. It later turned out that for one of them this was her first lolita meet ever, so I’m all the happier that she had a good time (and it wasn’t even my meet!). After this we took some photos and casually strolled down Oxford Road, continuing the chatter, until we reached Oxford Road train station, where we parted ways.

As someone who’s used to large comm meets, I’m always grateful for the opportunity to take part in a smaller, more intimate one. It’s a shame that the rest of the people decided not to go to the gallery in the end, but I had lots of fun with the two other girls. Hopefully I’ll see them both again soon.

For now, all my attention is directed towards Dublin! Though now that this meet’s outfit set the bar so high, I am worried if what I planned for this will live up to expectations. It’d be just a tad awkward when your ‘I want to wear new things’ outfit beats the one you spent months planning and prepping, and aiming for that tea party OTT level, wouldn’t it? :P

Summer Sales Haul

Summer sales and bargains are still going on in many places, but fortunately they have decided to give me a break for now. This is all the lolita stuff that I purchased at the end of June/beginning of July and am very happy with it all. But now to really chill on my spending because this time next week I'll be in Dublin, getting ready for Myths of Our Own (the wait is almost oveeeeeeer!).

Patience is a Virtue

A fair warning: this post may seem a little ranty. It is not aimed at giving advice, if anything the intent is more of a commentary on things I’ve observed in the lolita community.

If you were to compare a lolita who started their journey in the fashion six months ago with one who has been actively participating for six years, what would you notice? First would probably be a difference in quality of their coords – very few newbies, if any, achieve the level of depth and detail of experienced lolitas. Then you’d probably notice a difference in attitudes, of which lack of patience is one of the common traits amongst newer lolitas.

Patience and perseverance allow you to achieve your goal.

Now, this is very much a product of the times we live in. Even if we take a newbie lolita who’s 18 years old – they were still born in the year 2000. With few exceptions, like countries that are now catching up in terms of technological and infrastructural development, they would have been brought up with internet being common part of your house equipment, at times of fast foods and fast fashion. But from the point of view of someone like me, who had to find things out on their own (once I learnt to read my parents even stopped answering the “What does word X mean?” questions, pointing at a dictionary instead), this is both puzzling and frustrating.

Puzzling because as people who have grown up with Google (created in 1998) I would expect newbies to be much better at researching the fashion for themselves before asking the typical, searchable questions you all know. After all, whatever question you might type into Google’s search bar, chances are it’s already been asked before multiple times, even the weird ones that you see in memes (“I hate it when Hitler steals my Nutella” anyone?) or the depressingly sad ones (“Why am I alone?”).

Frustrating because in a niche community whenever someone does display this lack of patience, it sticks out like a sore thumb and it feels like it’s happening disproportionately often. In reality it isn’t. It’s just that three people asking the same question over three weeks on a platform of 13 thousand members feels like much more than on a platform of 1.3 million. That’s 0.02% and 0.0002% of the platform’s user population respectively and in smaller communities like lolita there’s simply no room to hide.

Curating your perfect wardrobe takes effort to plan and time
to execute.

What annoys lolitas with more experience under their belt about the impatience of newbies is that many of them remember their own beginnings and know how much easier it is to join the fashion in 2018 than it was in 2008. What’s more, they also know that they didn’t create their wardrobes overnight. Posts such as “I can’t wait to wear the fashion” and “OMG, I want SO many dresses, but can’t afford them, how do you guys do it?!” and “I know I don’t have a full coord yet, I just couldn’t wait to wear out this dress” and “I want this print for the next tea party, but it’s no longer in stock, where can I get it?” etc. all fail to acknowledge the time commitment that all lolitas have put in at some point. This is not fast fashion, so a new release will take months to be produced (possibly years once you account for the designing time). Very few of us are rich and our collections were built over years of careful spending and tracking down second hand sales, as well as anxious checking of tracking updates because even EMS postage isn’t Amazon Prime’s next day delivery. We all tried on the clothes as soon as we received them, but we don’t usually go out in them unless we can put together at least a simple, cohesive coord.

And most importantly – the time we couldn’t spend on wearing or buying the fashion we dedicated to finding out more about it, to learning and trying to start off as we mean to go on. Or at least not far from it.

The fashion isn't going anywhere, whatever clickbait articles
might tell you. Slow down, appreciate where you are now and
enjoy the journey.

Dear lolita newbies! Patience is a virtue. Moreover, lolita fashion is about quality, which costs both time and money. We want you to be able to enjoy the fashion and be a part of it – learning to curb your enthusiasm a little in order to wait will be a valuable skill. While you wait to accumulate enough savings, while you wait for your order to arrive, while you search for complimenting pieces for your coord, while you research more about the fashion so that you can be better sooner.

Dear experienced lolitas! We are not excluded from displaying patience. As frustrating as it may be to see a person after person ask the same basic question – you are not obliged to answer. Unless you are a mod/admin/mentor of that community, you can literally scroll past and ignore it. Unless you know that you can answer that question patiently and be helpful, instead of sounding frustrated and sarky, just move on. This will be kinder both for the newbie and for your own mental health.

Remember all: patience is a virtue.