Casual Saturday

It is most certainly getting to the stage where I will dress up in lolita for the most mundane of tasks. It’s not even that long ago when the thought of being on my own in frills to go to Primark would’ve made me too anxious to do it. Yet here we are – my boundaries of what I consider a casual coordinate have been pushed.

| AatP Sheherazade ~ A Thousand and One Nights ~ JSK I | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Tulle Lace Millefeuille bolero | Enchantlic Enchantilly The Crown of Rose Princess tights | Innocent World shoes | Ebony and Ivory hair clip | Angelic Pretty Rose Princess wrist cuffs | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace |

This little tassel is so soft and added the touch of Lunar New Year decorations feel I wanted.

I'm also very happy that I was able to do a red and gold eyeshadow look that's still quite casual.

These wrist cuffs, however, are obscenely large.

For a long time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to wear. I kept going back and forth with different ideas, not quite on board with any of them. In the spirit of my breaking pieces out of being stuck to certain seasons, I wanted something that I wore last in spring or summer. And then I remembered that Saturday was Lunar New Year, which led me to reds – which led to this. I love how these tights look with this JSK, though I wish the colours were a saturated as when the tights are unstretched. Instead of one of the same headbows I always wear with this I stuck to just a hair clip, especially as the tassel reminded me of those on Chinese lanterns. It was comfortable, if not necessarily the best choice for the weather, that’s all I can say really.

I set off with an ambitious plan of going shopping in Manchester city centre. It didn’t take me long to remember that I actually dislike shopping in Manchester city centre on Saturdays, though since I was already there, I bought what I came for. Or rather most of it, as I opted to avoid going to Lush as it felt like too much after Uniqlo, Primark and Aldi (yes, I am now officially that girl who goes to Aldi in frills – this wasn’t even my first time doing so!). However, my reward for sticking this out, as well as the motivation for going out in the first place, was a late lunch/early dinner at Shoryu Ramen. I’d been craving some ramen for a while, so since I had to go out to get it, might as well get other bits done, right?

Despite my hate for the crowds at Manchester's Primark, I'm glad I went because I spotted these tops. They're £10 each at the moment and the polyester mesh is quite stiff (though I reckon a fabric softener wash could help with that). However, I think I might buy them later (if/when they go on sale).

All the rameny goodness. Exactly what I needed as a pick-me-up from the shopping and just the right kind of food to eat slowly enough to make it until the 4pm ticket release.

As it turned out, and as I learnt on my tram ride to town, the event tickets for Gothic & Lolita Festival in Moscow would drop at 4pm on that day (7pm Moscow time). This certainly gave me an added sense of urgency to get the shopping done asap, since I set off a little late. Whilst ideally I would’ve gone back home to buy the tickets, I managed to time it just right so that I was at Shoryu Ramen at the time of the release. It had a decent enough connection that I was able to buy my tickets on my mobile (which I really don’t like doing, so thank goodness that everything went smoothly). Not that I needed to worry or panic, as apparently the ticket sale wasn’t quite the bloodbath we expected given that Mana is the guest of honour. But that doesn’t matter – what matters is that my friends and I all managed to get our tickets and the squad will reunite in Moscow in April. Well, provided that we get our visas, which is the next big hurdle, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I'm not that keen on meeting Mana, I'm happy to just wave at him from a distance. It's an interesting price distribution compared to other events I've been to - the main event is significantly cheaper than what I've seen elsewhere, while the tea party is pretty much on par with other events I've attended. Just an observation.

And so ended my fairly uneventful Lunar New Year casual Saturday. Or rather the more eventful part of it. I wanted to get some cake from a patisserie, but it turned out to be closed, so I went home empty handed in the cake department. I ended up having just some dark chocolate with my tea for watching season 2 of Sex Education, which was just as good a snack as any.

This whole outing does make me wonder though – what will be the next step in my lolita evolution? Wearing frills demands less energy from me and I feel more confident just going about my daily, boring business in lolita, so what could be next? Will I completely forget what the word ‘casual’ means and will grow more at ease wearing more OTT coords for my trips to Aldi? Or will I go more in the daily lolita direction, to the joy of my office colleagues? (They’re already getting some of it, as I will happily wear my lolita shoes with work clothes, which are mostly Axes Femme.) I guess we can only wait and see.