November Coords Roundup

Does anyone else feel like November just flew by? Well actually, it’s not just November. Now that the end of 2020 is physically in sight, I feel like the entire year flew by - and dragged at the same time. It’s all that lack of differentiation between days. The only way I know that the days were different is thanks to dressing up (and my weekly meal planner).

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Coord 1: Back at the Office

| Innocent World White Double Braid Tartan skirt | Axes Femme cutsew and brooch | Innocent World Fleurs Checkered OTKs | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand shoes and necklace |

Urgh, I forgot how hard it is to get a good selfie with indoor lighting only.

When I bought these socks, I thought I'd get a lot more wear out of them than I ended up getting. So when I do get a chance, I really go for it because I still like them a lot.

Not permanently back, just for one week. My work decided that since reception was opened, we should have one person from the office join the receptionist, for when she goes on lunch or gets particularly busy. Thankfully the rota assigned me a generally quiet time, so whilst it was a chore to be back at waking up early after seven and a half months of working from home, at least I wasn’t there when it was really busy. I decided to use that week to test my commitment to dressing up for work like I have at home. And whilst for practical reasons my coords had to be toned down significantly (and the photos aren’t as nice because it’s November, there’s no natural light by the time I’m back home), there are definitely things that I’ve discovered that I could incorporate in a post-pandemic working life. This particular coord was deliberately simpler, since it was a Monday and extra energy conservation was required. I liked the brown and black combination, that’s very toned down and won’t scare the few normies still around. Overall, it’s not a major outfit, but definitely one that would get reworn to work again given how comfortable and low-key it was.

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Coord 2: Library is Open

| Song and Temple Fairytale Library skirt | Yilia Lolita blouse | Putomayo socks | offbrand shoes | Haruhi Clover headbow | Patisserie Pink Bookshelf brooch |

Pro tip: lip tints don't rub off your masks like lipsticks do.

Have you seen two pieces more perfect for each other? (Well, probably...)

I couldn’t wait to wear this brooch and what better to pair it with than this skirt? The two actually go SO WELL together, they may as well have been made for each other. The outfit itself was simple, in a good way. Each element added something of value, it was perfectly preppy and office-appropriate without losing any of the lolita part. In an ideal world I probably would’ve gone with different shoes, but I’m not mad at those ones. And considering that this blouse, despite its polyester non-breathability, was actually alright to wear for my commute, this also stands a chance of being re-worn in a post-Covid world.

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Coord 3: Red and Pink

| Metamorphose Classical Sister OP | Axes Femme cardigan | Red Maria tights | handmade headbow | offbrand shoes and earrings |

This headbow has seen so much wear since I made it, I'm impressed.

They're not exactly the same, but near enough to count as a match.

In trying to make this OP a little more office-friendly (even though it’s already very office-friendly), I mainly considered adding further layers on the top. This led me to trying it with pink, because red and pink would surely work, whilst offering something different. It was a little bit of a gamble, since I just went with it and didn’t try the two pieces on until I actually got to the office, but thankfully it worked out really well. It’s a really simple coordinate, yet no less effective - everything is understated by design without losing on detail. I actually had other pieces that I ended up taking off because they were just clutter.

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Coord 4: Vintage Chill

| Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK | Millefleurs Georgette blouse | Red Maria tights | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | vintage hat and brooch | offbrand rings and choker | Gravelvet Iridescent Princess necklace | handmade sash as belt |

I was REALLY feeling this look, I have some silly amount of selfies of it and couldn't dedice on one.

Wearing a sash as a belt was interesting, I might try this again.

Vintage hat, vintage brooch and vintage style curls. Yes, yes and yes.

There’s no way around this - I love this look! Mainly because the Hair Gods have been extremely kind to me. I tried a different, more intentional curling pattern and it really did what it was supposed to, even with my limited styling skills post-taking the rollers out. It worked so well with the hat too, it just turned out exactly how I wanted it to and I was definitely feeling myself that day. It was the Sunday at the beginning of my 9 days off work, which I planned to spend intensively creating content, cooking/baking and catching up on films, all three of which were performed that day. I felt really accomplished by the end of it and putting together a coord that I was 100% pleased with was the perfect start to a hopefully productive week!

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Coord 5: Filming Day 2

| Mary Magdalene Paulina JSK | Chess Story The Secret Key of the Elves blouse | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | Imperial Fiddlesticks headbow | offbrand flower clip and jewellery |

I want to say that irl these leftover curls didn't look so frizzy. But the reality is that the difference wasn't quite so big.

Love me some unassuming rings. Despite also loving stupidly big ones. We do extremes in this house.

Carrying on with the theme of “churn out content during my week off”, I tried my best to preserve as many of the previous day’s curls and got dressed up again. Whilst normally I would’ve gone with a lighter blouse with this dress, I really wanted to use this one, which was doable once I approached the rest of the coordinate as if this were an OP. This allowed me to adjust how I achieved colour balance and made for a coordinate that I am overall pleased with. I don’t love it as much as I loved the previous day’s one, but I like it a lot. I also decided to go with the Vivienne Westwood heels instead of the navy blue ones I’d normally go for to change things up a little. After all, they both photograph as just dark, and the strappy design was really calling to me that day.

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Coord 6: Second One of the Day

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK and headbow | Primark blouse | Angelic Pretty Drained Cherry OTKs | Bodyline shoes | offbrand earrings and necklace | handmade bracelets | Chocoming and Once Upon a Cookie Treat rings |

I love the aesthetic of cherries so much, don't even know why.

Also shoutout to that Primark blouse being such a trooper, it realy does the job when you need simplicity and comfort.

The first coord of that day was for the next Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates post, so you’ll have to wait before that gets unveiled. After a quick recovery break after that I changed into this coord, which I filmed more stuff in. The red may seem somewhat shoehorned when looking at the coordinate only - until you realise that I created the coord around an apron I remembered that I owned and worn for most of the video. It makes a lot more sense there, though I’m not mad at it like this either.

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Coord 7: Retro Red and Pink

| Bodyline L262 JSK | Lazy Oaf top | offbrand tights and shoes | handmade headbow | Big Pink Boutique earrings | vintage necklace | Twinkle Kitty Boutique and Star Glazed Delights ring |

It's incredible how a retro makeup can pull a simple ponytail to look retro too.

These earrings revived my love for earrings in general.

Do you ever have a point to make and feel that unless you exemplify that point as best as you can, you won’t be taken fully seriously? This is what happened with this outfit. My energy levels were not quite up there for a more elaborate retro look, but I needed to make a point about retro lolita - so I looked around for the most casual version of it that I could quickly pull together and landed on this. And I do like it. It’s a shame that the layered tights don’t read as such. I had pink ones, exactly the same colour as the cutsew, under the sheer-ish black ones, but the black ones just made it all too dark, certainly not helped by how light works in my photo corner where everything skirt down reads as darker than it is. But even with that in mind I’m happy with the overall outcome. Happy enough to potentially return to this idea in the future and improve on it.

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Coord 8: Casual Craft Meet

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky Casual OP | Innocent World Ribbon Lace Millefeuille bolero | offbrand tights | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Star socks | Sosic Shop heels | offbrand beret | handmade choker |

Funny how this beret (an awkward shade of blue) is the best match I have for this dress (another awkward shade of blue). Why do blues be like that?

The ribbon cloud might be my favourite one in this print.

Rachel, who hosted the last crafty meet, stepped up to the plate and delivered us another one. And once more I brought my own project to work on while everyone else did their thing. After an almost full week of filming (with two breaks for other activities), I was ready for a more casual outfit, which led me to this coord. An OP, bolero, tights and beret is such a lazy combination, which works precisely for days like this. I was comfortable and ready within minutes, exactly what I had hoped to achieve. The meetup was super small, only four people myself included, which probably reflects everyone’s post-Halloween tiredness and/or November’s low energy. So whilst others made felt brooches, I focused on embroidering felt. The final pieces may turn into hair clips or shoe clips, I will certainly look into ways of making them be both because versatility. And later, after I’ve eaten I finally put up my Christmas tree. Truth be told, I didn’t really have the energy for it, but I knew that having something festive would cheer me up, so I ignored my tiredness and did it anyway. Thank you, past Paulina, for sometimes doing the right thing and not the lazy thing.

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Coord 9: Impromptu Unboxing

| BtSSB Secret AIR MAIL from Sweet Kitty JSK | vintage blouse | Haenuli Secret Garden tights | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | offbrand beret with JSK’s detachable bow | Patisserie Pink Bookshelf brooch |

Being back to working from home means at least being able to combine indoor lights with natural light for selfies.

Hello, are you now officially my new favourite brooch?

Although I did have this outfit on the back burner for sometime this month, I got to wear it sooner as my L’Esprit de la Noblesse order arrived. One day wait was already long enough to open it, as I really wanted to have an unboxing video for it, as well as a review, both of which will come later. It was odd, doing an unboxing after my working hours, however, I’ve filmed some stuff before using non-natural light without it being disastrous. Maybe this will encourage me to film more in the evenings instead of waiting for spare mornings and hope that the weather will hold enough to provide sufficient natural light. The coord itself was comfortable and cosy. It’s still similar to what I’ve done before in terms of the tricolour scheme, but with slightly different elements and combinations, making for a look that’s overall different enough to feel new to me.

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Coord 10: Cosy Goth (?)

| Haenuli Just One Bite JSK | offbrand cutsew, shoes and brooch | Axes Femme bolero | Angelic Pretty Crown Ribbon OTKs | Metamorphose Grande Couronne necklace |

I tried to recreate the wrap ribbon hairstyle, but for my own hair I'd need a narrower (and preferably textured) ribbon. So I braided it in instead, but you can see it better on the full-body shot.

These big crown necklaces from Meta are so good, I may be tempted to get more in the future.

Well, not really. Cosy goth was the initial idea that I had, something I wanted for a working Friday, but the execution ended up more classic simply because of the pieces that I have available to use. Though I’m not mad, it’s just a label, the outfit still did its job of being cosy and comfortable. So comfortable that I even ended up baking a cake in it after work (no All Frills Baking of that one though since it was your standard “mix everything together and bake” kind of thing).

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Coord 11: Blue for the Board

| Resailan Jewelry Box JSK | Infanta Moon Elegy blouse | Innocent World Ribbon Lace Millefeuille bolero | Angelic Pretty Harlequinade OTKs | Deary heels | offbrand beret | Celestial Castle hair clip | Gravelvet Iridescent Princess necklace | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

Was a dangly hairlip above my ear a smart choice to go with a headset? No. Did I take it off after the photo? Also no.

This crystal heart is one of my favourite details in this print.

Honestly, I almost forgot about my resolve to frill up for all the Board meetings. Fortunately, I remembered in time (the night before) and I was in a mood to dress up anyway. Though I really need to rethink where my Christmas tree is, although it’s pretty there, it’s affecting my photo spot in ways I’m not quite so keen on. The coord was nice though, I’m surprised I haven’t yet actually worn this dress with sax blue given how much of it is on the print.

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Coord 12: Not-Steampunk

| Angelic Pretty Fantasy Theater Gilet JSK | Axes Femme blouse | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Carnival OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Imperial Fiddlesticks headbow | Milkribbon Misako brooch | Wonderbox Designs brooch | Innocent World Chiffon wrist cuffs |

The more brassy gold of this JSK's buttons is what made it work with brown.

Most embarrassing behaviour was me not doing much work that day. So, appropriate, I guess.

We all know that this isn’t really steampunk - but if I ever get a chance to take this coord more in that direction, I would like to. I was originally going to try to wear this dress with mint, but I wasn’t liking the outcome. Then in a flash idea I tried brown and it stuck quite well. Not much more to say about this one, really. The most notable thing that happened was that I impulse purchased a ticket to the Angelic Pretty Paris virtual tea party and now I’m having a mini-meltdown as to what to wear. I don’t even know how much energy I’ll have for that tea party, I’ve packed my December full, as usual, but it’s too late now. It’ll be my Christmas present from myself to myself.

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Part of me tried to preserve dressing up energy this month, so that I’d have loads of it for December when I plan on doing my own coord challenge. The other part was dead set on making sure that I wear each main piece three times this year, and having pre-allocated some of them to December, I pushed myself to wear the remaining ones this month. For no other reason besides getting obsessively stuck on this completely meaningless target I decided to tick off the imaginary list.

However, thanks to my one week off, the month overall was so much more tolerable. Being able to spend a whole week doing nothing but creating content, making things that made me excited and that I felt productive and accomplished doing has been extremely emotionally refreshing. If even a sliver of that energy carries over into December amidst all that festive cheer I plan on cultivating, then I’ll be very happy indeed.

I hope that Black Friday sales haven’t drained you of those crucial funds - or that at least you got things you really wanted and are excited for. I did what I could avoiding Black Friday sales out of self-preservation because brands have already been tearing me apart with their releases. I really need to find a better paid job if I want to indulge in this hobby with less of a heartbreak, as BtSSB practically won Christmas before it even started and Meta has been knocking it out of the park consistently for the last 2 years. So it looks like it’s either a career change or starting Only Fans - or both? Only time will tell...