June Coords Roundup

Not to be confused with the upcoming Half of 2020 in Coords post! That one will talk about some wider trends in my outfits over the last 6 months, whereas here we’re doing plain ol’ whiz through everything I wore this month.

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Coord 1: Casual Sailor

| Metamorphose Sailor Tiered skirt | Fi.n.t. cutsew | Tutuanna socks | Naked Lace Company barette | handmade bracelets | offbrand shoes and earrings |

That hairstyle became such a go-to for me.

Every time I think about more sailor coords, I feel the urge to buy more anchor-shaped accessories.

Ok, so technically this is still from May as I’ve worn it literally on the last day of the month. But I wasn’t going to battle Blogger again just to add this for the sake of chronology. That week we’d been having gorgeously summery weather, hot, but not too much so. It has inspired me to wear more sailor lolita, particularly once I saw the weather forecast saying it wouldn’t last long (predictably for the UK). So I quickly jumped into this for the day. I also wore that the day after because I couldn’t be bothered to think of another outfit, though I skipped the accessories or makeup there. Having recently made a comment on Instagram about my sailor ouji coord and how I’d like to genderbent twin with myself, I also put together this quick collage. It’s not an exact twin, more of an exact opposite with a common theme, but it works alright, don’t you think? Once I build my ouji wardrobe more, I will try to do more of this sort of stuff!

Be your own sibling. I have no choice, I am literally an only child.

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Coord 2: Dots and Stripes

| Metamorphose Polka Dots skirt | Angelic Pretty Candy Fun Fair OTKs | Bodyline shoes | offbrand cardigan and bandana | vintage necklace | handmade choker |

Because I was really feeling these photos.

One day I will perfect these front rolls. They're alright, but I'm not 100% happy with them.

I love these socks, but AP, why can't you make a scalloped design that doesn't want to slice my leg off?

True to my word I had started to use a random number generator to pick my next main piece. I decided that it was a creative way of making choices and pushing myself out of the box with my outfits. Whether this particular one is that much out of the box is up for debate considering how I love mixing blue with red and retro styling. But I am usually not one to mix patterns quite like this. And I will say, I think this one came out really fun. The hair accessory was giving me a bit of grief until I realised that it doesn’t have to be lolita. I would like to find a hairpiece in that shade of royal blue at some point, just for a little bit of variety. . Not too bad for another day spent working and cursing every single email coming my way

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Coord 3: Summer ILD

| Metamorphose Classical Sister OP | Shinku Rose Tulle Overdress | Enchantlic Enchantilly The Crown of the Rose Princess tights | Irregular Choice Total Freedom shoes | handmade (not by me) headdress | offbrand necklace and earrings |

After that was, of course, Summer ILD. I have already written about this coord separately, so here I’m merely dropping the picture so that we get everything from the month in one post.

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Coord 4: Reposing

| Baroque x Sakizo Repose of Queen Teatime Dress | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Enchantlic Enchantilly The Crown of the Rose Princess tights | offbrand shoes | After Midnight half crown | offbrand flower clips | My Inspiration necklace |

God bless second day hair, because even if it's gone completely straight, at least it retains a bit of volume and movement.

Roses everywhere!

I wasn’t planning on dressing up the Sunday after ILD. However, I felt a little guilty about my very lazy morning and decided to not stay in pyjamas all day as I previously thought I would. The night before I checked which piece random number generator would pick if I were to dress up now and since it picked an OP again, I decided that that day was as good a reason as any - and that this  lolita OP was as comfortable as my Axes Femme ones. Everything else seems to have cooperated too: my hair still had a bit of volume from the up-do the day before, bar one (edited out) spot my skin looked good, the dress doesn’t need ironing… So it all fell into place. Pairing this print with wine red had been on my mind for a little bit and I like how it came out. I feel like there’s potential to make this a really dressy, OTT outfit in the future (maybe with the same up-do as my ILD one). But for now this casually elegant look satisfies me. In a nod to the print’s name, I wasn’t doing much besides reposing - although I did manage to finally finish editing one video which had been taking way too long.

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Cord 5: More Dots and Stripes

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring Pinafore JSK | Promised Land Creations necklace | Big Pink Boutique earrings | everything else is offbrand |

At this point I'm going to have to add this top to my wardrobe spreadsheet, aren't I?

Joelle showed me these earrings she got and I loved them so much I had to get a pair myself!

The random number generator seems to like Meta - and I seem to have gotten a thing for dots with stripes. I can’t even tell you how this outfit came about, it was so organic and such a free-flowing process of taking it one step and one item at a time. Not much that I can say beyond the fact that it was very comfortable and that I enjoy wearing this JSK as if it were a skirt.

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Coord 6: The Non-Lolita One

| Button In Retro skirt | Axes Femme blouse | Fi.n.t. cardigan | Uniqlo leggings | Hush Puppies boots | Madillustration brooch | Claire’s Accessories earrings |

Truth be told, this cardigan is a little bit more scratchy than I would've liked. Hopefully this will go away after a few washes with a fabric softner because I still love it to pieces!

I think every time I've worn this skirt I also wore this brooch. More teacup accessories needed?

At this point including some non-lolita outfits that I felt were cute enough to document is a tradition for these roundup posts. The style separations within my wardrobes are disappearing more and more, so even if not directly relevant to this blog, these outfits at least provide a glimpse into how I use pieces across different fashions. That was a Friday that I expected to spend translating, as I had gotten some work my way (I sell my soul and free time for some JPY), but it ended up being far shorter than I was originally signed up for. And I went out to my favourite Polish restaurant to pick up my dinner. After my parents caused some cravings the weekend before that, I was so happy when Platzki had the very soup I was craving on their weekly click & collect offer! It would have been daft to only get soup though.

Platzki are sensible and won't reopen now, even though they could, but I still wish I could go and sit in. Once I can, I will fully go for a three course meal, even though I'd burst!

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Coord 7: More Otome

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme blouse | Cutie Creator headbow | unknown necklace | offbrand socks and shoes |

I wear this blouse a lot outside of lolita, but somehow not very often with it.

True story: I first saw these socks being sold by Axes Femme and almost bought them, but the SS fees for just that weren't worth it. And then I saw that they were being sold on AliExpress for less, so I bought a pair. They're more beige than I expected them to be, but I still love them.

This is the first time that I’ve gone against the random number generator in June. Truth be told, I wasn’t going to get dressed at all that day, but the weather surprised me by turning warm and sunny, which brought some extra energy with it. The random number generator actually landed on Haenuli’s Lovely Memories JSK, but as I struggled with the zipper, I decided that it was too much effort for the miniscule gains and I switched things up for this skirt. I would like to get the zipper in that JSK replaced for a non-invisible one, which will hopefully fight me much less and make that dress easier to wear. For the rest of the day (or most of that) I wore this, no petticoat because my tiny one that this skirt can fit isn’t that comfortable and because I wasn’t doing anything major in particular. I blogged a little, changed my bedding, watched some Netflix, made iced tea… It was a much needed chilled Saturday.

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Coord 8: Regal Pegasi

| Angelic Pretty Crystal Dream Carnival Tiered JSK | Sentaro blouse | Innocent World Union Flag Lame OTKs | Deary heels | Vierge Vampur bonnet | offbrand necklace | offbrand rings | Star Glazed Delights ring | Brightlele wig | Lola's Lashes falsies |

I tired to do a bit of blue on my lower eyelid, but struggled with symmetry. But hey, I'm just prancing around in front of my own camera, not taking part in BBC's Glow Up (I think season 1 may be on Netflix? Watch it if you enjoy makeup drama, but in a competition form and without people being nasty.)

At least I have some good magnetic false eyelashes now. There will be more makeup looks with lashes now that I don't have to sacrifice my laziness for the look.

Vierge Vampur were due to be a vendor/guest at the Imperial Garden event in Brussels. Hopefully they will still make it to the rescheduled one (and hopefully I will) because this bonnet is just *chef's kiss*

After that previous one my energy/willingness levels dropped for the week, as did my desire to stick with the random number generator. This particular coord was a combination of rediscovered appreciation for this dress and my wanting to wear some of the new things, namely that bonnet, as well as the false eyelashes. I finally have a wine bonnet and while at first I thought it wasn’t quite wide enough on my head, having worn it with this wig I am now ok with it not being as wide as my other bonnets. I put this on to film a video because why not, I had an idea and motivation, so it’d be a shame to waste that. Sadly, the wig cap I wore under that wig started giving me a headache towards the end of filming, so I ended up taking the whole thing off afterwards. Nonetheless, it got worn and documented not only on pictures, but also on video, so this counts.

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Coord 9: All the Sweets

| Bodyline Sweet Macaron JSK | BtSSB Shirring blouse | offbrand beret | handmade headbow | Angelic Pretty Ice Cream Parlor OTKs | Bodyline tea parties | handmade bracelets | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | Jule et Lily Popcorn brooch | Angelic Pretty Fancy Soda ring | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

I honestly love the shade of blue of this beret - as much as I hate that it matches precisely nothing else.

No two sweets in this coord are the same and that's ok. If none of the blues are, then why should I hold the sweets to a different standard?

I wasn’t really planning on getting dressed the day after. But as I approached another busy time with work, I wanted something to look forward to and thought about what coords I could wear that are comfortable and not too much. Random number generator selected this dress, though somehow it all went from saving it up for Friday’s meeting to wearing it straight away. I really wanted to wear these socks and sort of coordinate around them, although they are a bit painful to wear. Honestly, AP, why can’t you make a scalloped design that actually stretches, why are you so keen on cutting off everyone’s blood circulation? Overall I was happy enough with the look though. It’s not my favourite, the trillion shades of blue bother me, but I do like that beret with that headbow in particular. All I did was stay at home, call my parents and chill, so it’s not like my colour matching or not made any difference, and the outfit did its job of being comfortable enough to chill at home (except the socks).

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Coord 10: Belated Midsummer

| After Midnight First Semester JSK | offbrand blouse, socks and shoes | Kaneko custom headdress |

Recycled braids for maximum laziness.

I paid good money for that headdress, so I will wear it whenever I feel like it. And also because it's gorgeous.

In this episode of “dressing up sort of just happened”, our protagonist decided that if warm weather agreed with midsummer that was the day before, then why the heck not dress appropriately. And that headdress did cost a fair amount of money, gotta wear it! She also still had her hair in the same two braids as in the coord before and pinning them up was an easy way to save time in the morning. Sadly, although she looked and felt cute af, work hit hard and dampened the spirit. Tune in next time to find out if there will be more compensating with cute clothes for tiring times at work!

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Coord 11: Cloudy

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky OP | Angelic Pretty Dolly Chiffon headbow | Sosic Shop heels | Gravelvet Iridescent Princess necklace | offbrand socks |

Don't let your tired face stop you from dressing up. Let's validate and popularise being imperfect and without makeup whilst in lolita. It's just clothes after all, right?

Being my own blue sky with fluffy clouds.

In a new tradition I started during April’s round of Important Work Meetings, I have decided to lift my spirits up by dressing up during this round of Important Work Meetings. That entire last full week of June has been awfully tiring, clocking overtime from your own home is not fun, even less so during a spell of truly summery weather. I wanted to go out and enjoy the sun, not run spreadsheet after spreadsheet, inputting mark after mark for hours on end at my kitchen table. So although that Friday the weather was stormy with only hints of blue skies here and there, wearing a dress with blue skies and clouds made me feel better. And thankfully the first of the series of meetings went better than expected.

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Although June may not have been bursting full of documented outfits, I am very happy with the ones that I wore. It was nice that I didn’t entirely miss the opportunities to dress up during sunny weather, as well as that I was able to wear some of the new pieces so soon after receiving them. Not being in a rush to prove a point to myself has meant less self-imposed pressure to keep dressing up. At the same time, although the change of pace and breaks were undeniably needed, there were days where I felt at a loss. If I wasn’t going to wear lolita, then what would I wear? I am not yet at a point where my vintage wardrobe could do what my imagination suggests and I’ve been feeling somewhat uninspired with the rest of my clothes. No doubts I am in need of a more thorough overhaul, though now isn’t really the time for it. So we’ll see how things go. For now I’m simply hoping that nice weather will continue and that I’ll be able to catch some of it at a less stressful time in my life, to really enjoy. As much as I agree that it is too soon for the UK to be easing lockdown further, having discovered a park near me I am very tempted to try a socially distanced picnic - or just something so that I see people who aren’t total strangers and in 3D vs on screen!