Angelic Pretty Noël Online Tea Party

Don’t ask what came upon me. It was most likely peer pressure. I saw so many of my friends say they bought a ticket and decided to treat myself as a Christmas present from myself to myself. The idea of seeing the upcoming 2021 collection only hours after being shown at the Tokyo Tea Party was very enticing, as was attending something fancier at times when all events have been cancelled. So I bought a ticket and I attended.

The Coord

| Angelic Pretty Crystal Dream Carnival Tiered JSK and ring | Shinku Rose Tulle Overdress | Metamorphose Snow Crystal OTKs | Angelic Pretty Elegant Doll boots | Resailan Jewelry Box headbow | Baroque overskirt | Peacockalorum hand muff | handmade wing clips | vintage hat and brooch | offbrand earrings, necklace, ring and boot toppers |

Whilst I had a wig prepped in case my hair didn't cooperate, I was glad to not have to use it. And I picked up the earring stacking idea from Joelle's Coord with Me livestream.

Seeing as I have two pairs of those wing clips, I was set on using them both.

In a manner quite unlike myself, I was Naked-chan until literally a few days before the tea party. As someone who usually has something planned as soon as the event is announced, this was a stressful position to be in. While the tea party was subtitled “Fairy Snow Party”, officially the dress code was simply “your favourite Angelic Pretty coordinate”. I knew that people would be pulling out their most Christmassy outfits, but the AP pieces I have don’t lend themselves to Christmassy styling. I also didn’t want to completely repeat coords, even though either the November Cinema Doll one or the October CDC one would be quite perfect. Until in a flash of inspiration I thought: what if I wore my Shinku Rose overdress under my JSK, as a blouse and an underskirt? From there the rest flowed together, ending in something of an amalgamation of the other two outfits, but still new and super fancy. All the fur bits hinted at the snow and thanks to my wing clips it would work for the fairy part, which satisfied my need for matching the theme.

The Tea Party

I woke up earlier on the day because in order to enter the Best Dressed and Best Decoration competitions, you had to submit pictures to the designated folder in cloud storage by 2pm Paris time, which meant 1pm for me. This meant having to get ready quickly to allow enough time for photos. But as the Zoom room didn’t open until 3pm my time, it meant good 2 hours of being dressed in very OTT gear afterwards: too OTT to risk doing stuff like prepping dinner and not much else to do. I killed the time by playing some tablet games and listening to the Hamilton soundtrack (having only watched it the night before, I feel like I’ve finally caught up on an important part of culture). Truth be told, getting dressed and then having to wait so long didn’t sit well with me. I’d much rather have the tea party earlier and not sit around for so long in an OTT coord, which wasn’t the heights of comfort. I guess this is the reality of events online: being torn between knowing that you’re at home and wanting to follow your routine, and knowing that I’ve signed myself up for attending a tea party which runs on its own schedule. Had this been an actual event, the wait wouldn’t have been so noticeable and the discomfort could’ve been ignored by socialising - at home, with no-one but myself, it wasn’t quite so fun.

Waiting to be let in.

What the world saw...

... and what happened outside the camera's view.

And a better look of my snacks, with sweets courtesy of Bisous Bisous again via Deliveroo this time.

At least until the Zoom room opened. Whilst at first everyone waited quietly, little bits of conversation broke through, until eventually a good bunch of us were chatting whilst waiting. There was some music while we waited, which we joked was going to haunt us in our dreams forever now. It certainly was an earworm, but I possess the superpower of being resistant to the biggest earworm known to mankind, The Tetris Tune, so I just bobbed along to it. In fact, I did genuinely like the tune, I’d happily grab an mp3 of it to use as an alarm or something. I tried to take a sneaky clip, without compromising other people’s privacy, so hopefully you can listen to a fragment of it here.

That was, however, our only significant bit of interaction. The entire tea party was formatted more like a panel, with the AP Paris staff doing most of the talking, leading us through the presentations, and very small bits of controlled interactions. It’s understandable when you’re trying to get through a hefty list of things to do in two hours whilst on a Zoom call, my gripe, if anything, is mostly with calling the event a ‘tea party’, which I associate heavily with socialising. But that’s just a name, call it whatever you want, since content is what matters more in the end. And I know that for some people with social anxiety or who are simply shy/nervous, knowing that everything is ‘moderator-led’, so to speak, was quite calming, it took the pressure off them, relieving them of the “oh no, I don’t know anyone” weight and replacing it with structure that they were able to mentally prepare for. Our schedule consisted of:

• greetings
• the exclusive fashion show screening
• a short more in-depth presentation of a few items from the collection
• a surprise bonus of a feature from the Tokyo virtual tea party (that took place only hours before the Paris one)
• a bingo game
• announcement of the Best Decoration and Best Dresser prizes
• and lastly the group photo.

That is a lot to squeeze in two hours, but we did finish on time - which is all the more impressive considering how AP Paris had technical difficulties at the beginning and have spent something like 20-25 minutes without sound.

Screenshot courtesy of @likeateacup.

That was such a cute moment. Even though obviously technical difficulties are not their fault, it was really cute.
Screenshot courtesy of @likeateacup.

To cut down on the step-by-step rundown of what happened, because the above list kind of says it all, I’ll focus on what I liked and disliked.

Likes

Getting a glimpse into the upcoming releases was a definite highlight. I’ll go into more details about the collection itself further down, but for now it was just nice to see a beautiful fashion show, followed by a short presentation of certain details. As great as fashion shows are, you don’t always get to really see much details, so the two additional segments that elaborated on the releases were great. The first one, more of a presentation by AP Paris staff, previewed the cuts that will be available and talked about the colourways to come. The other one, the Tokyo tea party footage, gave us some more up-close detail shots of the dresses as worn on the models. Of course, taking pictures/screenshot was prohibited (though not everyone respected that), but still, being able to literally stick my nose into my laptop screen to see was great, and it’s something you would never be able to do during an actual fashion show.

The kawaii news report, straight from Paris HQ.

Another upside was that following the fashion show there was an opportunity to give some comments. The chat was open throughout the tea party, and people used that heavily, but literally allowing people to step in and talk about their opinions was a nice touch. I feel that this may have been a direct result of feedback from the summer tea party, where more interaction was requested, and while it had a downside to it that I’ll mention, having the opportunity was great because, again, you don’t usually get to do that with actual fashion shows. Yes, we all exchange our opinions, but usually amongst ourselves, not to the staff who say they will pass those comments back to the designers.

Speaking of the designers, it was lovely to see both Maki and Asuka send us some pre-recorded messages. They weren’t much, a brief “hope you enjoy the fashion show” at first and a kind of “we miss you and wish we could be with you, hopefully next time we’ll tea party together in person” thank you/goodbye message, which nonetheless made us feel appreciated and noticed. Angelic Pretty does get some flak for not always catering to what the Western community might want, so for the designers to directly address the Paris tea party attendees was a nice touch that fostered more of a community spirit.

Lastly, two minor points: one that the bingo prizes were really generous (there were 10 vouchers up for grabs, with the highest one being €150 and the lowest €20, if I remember correctly) and the other that every participant of the tea party received a €10 voucher as well as an exclusive keychain shaped like the poodle from the Lovely Poodle print. Though I say “received”, it’s more like “will receive” - as of now we are waiting for the vouchers to be processed and sent to us, whereas the keychains will arrive with the purchase made when redeeming them. I’m not sure whether the summer tea party also included gifts like this, but considering how this one you could simply purchase a ticket for without having to make a purchase as well, it was a great gesture.

I forget how intense bingo can be. Though some people asked for the calling to slow down, and having been baptised by fire at Love from the North, I couldn't help but feel like we could've picked the pace up.

Dislikes

Honestly, there weren’t many that wouldn’t be a direct result of the format. There’s no point commenting on the lack of socialising, when this is outside of the organisers’ control if they want to keep the Zoom meeting running smoothly. And then some things weren’t restricted to this particular tea party, but wider observations I made every time AP were guests.

As such my biggest problem was one that I already mentioned: time. Yes, in order for footage from the Tokyo tea party to be included in the Paris event, they needed some time to pass the files, potentially do some cuts, I’m not sure how much was recorded in advance. Add this to the time difference between Tokyo and Paris, and I understand why the tea party was later in the day. Yet for me personally it knocked my routine out of the window, afterwards I felt like the rest of the day went by too quickly before I had to get some sleep before work. Moreover, as an awkward person who eats dinner around 4pm-ish, which was bang at the start of the tea party, trying to sustain myself on just my spread of sweets wasn’t easy. If I didn’t have to get dressed and take pictures so early in order to submit them, I may have been able to make my dinner in time for the tea party (and then assert dominance as I nommed on some homemade fried chicken with not-homemade potato croquettes), but the timings and navigating such a poofy coord were just too awkward. In the future I probably would not attend a virtual event that ran from 4-6pm on a Sunday, mostly for my own sake.

The obligatory Post-Tea Party Real Food. (Also ngl, I'm pretty pleased with that chicken.)

The other thing is an even more subjective dislike: the space for sharing opinions after the fashion show. Whilst we were asked to provide some feedback, the mood and vibe in the virtual room very much felt like asking exclusively for what we liked, not for concrit. Let me make it clear that this was not explicitly said, all that we were asked to do was to share our thoughts. However, when one person after another only gushed about things, and with the chat filling with complimentary comments only, I did not feel comfortable raising my hand to share some of my less positive opinions out of fear of ruining the mood and/or creating an awkward atmosphere after that. Part of me really regrets not saying something anyway, but reading the room at the time it just did not feel like that kind of “share what you thought about the fashion show/the collection”.

And that’s it. I do want to emphasise that as a virtual event with the primary focus on more ‘show and tell’ activities with a few interactive bits in between, my comments above are very nitpicky. Deliberately so, not because I want to shit on AP, but because if the next AP tea party is also a virtual one, I think these are valid points for people to consider. If you ever get to attend a tea party like this one, you will now have a better idea of what to expect. Neither of the above points impacted on my enjoyment of the event itself, I had fun and don’t regret going - these are merely things that happened that I wish were different for my own sake.

The Fashion Show

Time to stop dancing around the subject and get right to it - I know that this is what you’re here for. Again, because photography and screenshotting of the upcoming releases were forbidden, I did not take any (I have one courtesy of a friend which I will not share). I also prefer to enjoy the show and catch as many details as I could have instead of worry about whether I’ve saved the screenshot or not. The experience is what I wanted when I bought the ticket. Angelic Pretty said that they will release a short video clip of the fashion show in due course, so look out for that.

Screenshot courtesy of @likeateacup.

Overall comments

Whilst we weren’t shown too much, maybe 8 or so designs from each the regular spring/summer collection and the premium ones, as I already mentioned, I feel like we got a much better look of what’s coming ahead. Not least thanks to the show being directed specifically for a video, not for the runway, so no odd lighting problems.

The regular S/S collection was very sweet, as usual really. Whilst the themes give plenty of nods to AP’s 2012 designs, everything bar one design was an all-over print. If you liked what AP’s been doing over the last year or two, but wished it was sweeter, then you’ll like this: there are bunnies, strawberries with bunnies, chocolate bears and jelly beans coming ahead. In terms of cuts, AP is still sticking to the two that they’ve been reusing a lot over the last year or two. Those needing full back shirring should prepare to be disappointed because I did not spot a single item with back shirring, only unshirred OPs and quarter-shirred JSKs, though notably a couple of salopettes. Again, if you liked things that came out over the course of 2020, then you’ll be set, if you don’t (e.g. because you prefer lower waistlines or different collars), then you might not find much to your taste cut-wise.

When it came to the premium collection, without meaning to sound mean, I want to call it safe. Take this with a grain of salt as I don’t often pay much attention to the premium collections anyway. What I mean by “safe” is that there were no wild experiments with cuts a’la that mermaid gown from 2017. Most of the designs seemed pretty samey in cut, elegant and with big lace overload, but nothing standing out in a bad way. The ones that stood out the most to me in a good way was what everyone dubbed The Pirate Dress, a lavender dress with a bodice cut like military style jacket with a big tricorn adorned with an even bigger feather, and one that I think may have aimed at being more hanfu-style in cut. The Pirate Dress (which, honestly, to me looked more Musketeer) was genuinely gorgeous, though notable mostly for being so different from AP’s usual designs. Imagine Alice and the Pirates doing a couture gown with a military jacket, then turn it lavender - it was stunning, but not something I expected from Angelic Pretty. Whereas the hanfu one I mostly remember because it was the only non-cupcake shaped dress. Instead it was more of a column with a high waist and while I don’t think they were trying to replicate hanfu (the bodice and sleeves, from what I remember, weren’t in that style), the choice of lacy fabrics and how they were layered certainly evoked that feel and I imagine the release may be popular with hanfu fans who have a grand to drop.

Personal favourites

Nothing that was previewed appealed to me enough that I’d want to buy it. Maybe besides The Pirate Dress, but I don’t have a grand to drop on an OP without shirring that won’t fit me in a colour I’m trying to avoid and without an occasion to wear it. Having said this, there were two designs that I genuinely liked.

Bear’s Chocolate is what you’d imagine: a chocolate print with bears, so cute yet slightly more mature in a way only chocolate prints can be. It’s an all over print, laid out not too dissimilarly from Candy Carol, but with much better proportions (individual items in the print were bigger and with better spacing). It also had a lovely sweetheart bodice, almost like a heart-shaped apron, but not as distinct. The striped socks that are to come out with it caught my attention, so I may end up using my voucher for those, we’ll see.

The other one was Jelly Candy Toys, simply because the idea of having a jelly bean print was so cute. Again, it’s an all over print, well spaced out and with individual components being the right size. It also looked like a good balance between being bright and pastel - not the bold kind that Milky Planet was, but not the wishy-washy pale stuff like Toys Museum either. A good balance of pastel, prominent, yet not super bright. It also appears to be coming with a visor (yes, you read that right), which I’m just amused to bits by. AP seems to be hellbent on proving lolitas that all our rules of what is and isn’t lolita can go in the bin, and while I can’t say that I fully agree, I applaud the troll energy they exhibit through that.

Final words

Thank you to everyone who read until the end. Hopefully this report gave you a decent understanding of what to expect, should you ever attend a virtual Angelic Pretty tea party, as well as satisfied some curiosity over the upcoming releases. Again, I can’t share pictures, even if I had any, but they are trickling down via social media now, both from those who didn’t care about the rules and from legitimate sources (like Instagram accounts of the models, Misako definitely shared some of what she wore). And considering how the fashion show was pre-recorded God knows how far in advance, as well that it wasn’t under time pressure like it would at a physical event, I imagine the short video clip and official photos won’t be long. As for me, I probably won’t be attending any more virtual Angelic Pretty tea parties, not unless they’re at a more reasonable time for me. It’d also be nice to have a crew of friends to go with, so that regardless of whether any chat starts out in the waiting room, I have someone to talk to without having to divide my attention between the Zoom meeting and the group chats on my phone (a welcome, yet further tiring exercise).

I didn't know where else to put it, so here it is: my Best Decoration proof submission (you had to send one of just the thing and one with yourself as proof that it was indeed yours).