December Coords Roundup

Merry Christmas! It almost escaped me that today is the actual Christmas Day. I had the #Frillmas2020 challenge to get me through up until now and there were no plans to dress in anything in particular after that. Not that spontaneity is forbidden, it simply made me feel better about posting a coords roundup post before the month is actually over.

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Coord 1: Snowy Season

| Haenuli Lovely Memories JSK | offbrand cutsew | Axes Femme cardigan | Metamorphose Snow Crystal OTKs | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand earrings | vintage brooch | Glasses Direct glasses |

These glasses are amazing, but let's be honest, them and a headbow is a sacrifice.

Gosh, I'm a massive sucker for anything with snowflakes...

Once again, since I haven’t gotten round to replacing the zip on this JSK, I’m wearing it as a skirt. Thank goodness for cardigan season! This was actually a really cosy outfit to wear: that cardigan is beautifully soft, wearing the dress as a skirt upped comfort levels a bit and the Malco Modes petticoat provides extra fluff underneath it all. Great for being cute whilst working from home. It also happened to be my name day and while I normally don’t do anything and don’t expect anything, I got surprised with a gigantic package full of goodies from my parents which really cheered me up!

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Coord 2: Fond memories

| AatP Sheherazade ~ One Thousand and One Nights ~ JSK I | Axes Femme cutsew and faux fur collar | Metamorphose Dressy OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | vintage brooches | Ebony and Ivory clip | Wicked and Whimsy and Jane Marple rings |

This faux fur collar gets so much more wear when it's not on the cardigan it came with. Maybe I should get a few more like it?

Adding brooches around my waist area has definitely been one of my favourite things to do lately.

The last time I wore this dress I had my heart broken and since then it’s been hard to look at it the same way. And I really don’t want that to be the case - this is one of my dream dresses, it has some great memories attached to it too (first big tea party event and first meetup I hosted), it was painful to have one coincidental episode taint it so much. So I interpreted the #Frillmas2020 day 3 prompt in a way that lets me create new fond memories rather than evoke any nostalgia for existing ones. The very festive green and red colour combination worked so well, and the faux fur collar completely turned it in my opinion. It all came out so well, I was even tempted to move my Christmas tree back so that I could pose with it because it matched so well, but I’ve already moved that thing too many times. So yes, having worn this outfit I do feel like a big chunk of healing has happened and that I’ve moved on from this being “the heartbreak dress” back to “this is a dress that I love a lot and that has plenty of fond memories attached to it”.

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Coord 3: Cookies and sweets

| Lady Sloth Winter Spices skirt | offbrand cutsew and shoes | DreamV cardigan | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | After Midnight beret | Mojiangxiaopu hair clip | handmade necklace (not by me) |

Dang it, the cropping just cut off the necklace.

I love this print so much, this is practically a recipe for mulled drinks.

The entire reason why this prompt is in the challenge was because when putting it together, I read online that December 5th was National Cookie Day in the USA. This immediately made me think of this skirt and how I could wear it with this cardigan. So here it is: this skirt with this cardigan, plus some other bits. Super comfy for a working Friday, super quick and low-key, perfect for re-wearing at some point down the line.

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Coord 4: Winter ILD Glam

| HeartE Tartan JSK | Infanta blouse | Bodyline L380 skirt | Peacockalorum underskirt | Enchantlic Enchantilly Angel’s Ball Party tights | Irregular Choice Total Freedom shoes | handmade chain of office and red ring | offbrand earrings and gold ring | Puvithel Crystal Heart brooch | vintage belt |

Full honesty: the hair is a half wig, whereas my hair is what's wrapped in the ribbon and pinned at the top of my head. I wish that my own hair was this thick (though if it was, I'd probably curse it every time I had to roll it to curl it).

I did jump in on that Puvithel preorder and can't wait fot my collection to expand a bit.

Since Winter ILD had to be online again and I had so many coords in the bank, instead of creating something completely new, I dipped into past ideas and pulled this one out from the 35th 1 Dress 4 Looks post. It wasn’t even updated that much, I only changed the tights and rings, ditched the bracelets and swapped the crown for a fancy hairdo. Did it work exactly the way I had envisioned based on the flatlay? Not quite - but it’s also not that different, all I needed was to swap my hoop skirt for a petticoat and it all clicked into place. After doing this hairstyle I really want to get more actual hair pieces, so that I could do more Renaissance-style fancy hairdo’s, since you really need quite a bit of hair for them to look anywhere near as nice as on the paintings.

The Sheffield comm hosted a very lovely Winter ILD meetup online, with a quiz as well as an activity. It started off scavenger hunt-esque, in that we each had to pick one newest item (either to us or in general), one oldest item (same), and one favourite comfortable item (or one that brings us comfort). Didn’t have to be lolita or clothing, just an item. Literally before I started getting ready I also received a very mysterious package, which I wasn’t expecting. But had to get ready, so I picked that as my newest item. And honestly, Mana must’ve blessed me with some luck because after we presented our items, the rest of the activity was to draw a coord/design a dress using those three items - and my mysterious package was a gift from @gravelvet who had sent me the green jacket I got to wear during his ouji makeover in March. He asked me if he could send me “a lil thing”, which I assumed to be a card and maybe some chocolate, something of that level, not gifting me an entire jacket! Anyhow, the other two items I picked were a bear-shaped water bottle and that 1960s vintage hat, because I was lazy and picked things that were within arm’s reach, so the coord I drew is very FRUiTS magazine with that edgy oldschool “don’t fuck with me” energy to it. But at least some of it will happen and my mind is still blown to pieces at Lou’s generosity and kindness to have sent this to me. It truly turned ILD into Christmas come early.

I don't draw much because I don't consider myself to be very good at it and can't be arsed practicing. However, having relieved myself of pressure to make this look good, I just let myself doodle and this came out not too bad. You can make out what the items are (I think), which is what matters!

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Coord 5: Glitter

| AatP Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Glitter Knit cardigan | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Cutie Creator headbow | Promised Land Creations necklace | offbrand shoes, earrings and brooch |

These earrings are another pair that I've had for years and then forgot about when I stopped wearing earrings so much. And they're one of my most comfortable ones too, really should wear them more.

Amazing what great finds you can find in random normie shops if you only keep your eyes open.

All the other prompts until this one have been dealt with through non-lolita outfits (which if you fancy checking out, I’ve done a highlight of stories on my Instagram). But to my own amazement I discovered that I don’t own as many things with glitter as I thought I did. I was going with this cardigan anyway, so why not pair it with one of my only two lolita dresses that has glitter in it? And the glitter on this one is a bit more noticeable, while gold and black is a classic colour combination. Casual yet only by lolita standards, simple yet dressed up. Good for almost-halfway to Christmas itself, not much more to say about it.

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Coord 6: Angelic Pretty Paris Tea Party

| 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 |

Still super happy with how everything here came together.

I told you, 'tis the season for pinning things to your waist.

I wrote about the tea party and my outfit separately here, I’m including the outfit here to keep everything in one place.

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Coord 7: Candlelight’s Glow / Saintly Sunday

| L’Esprit de la Noblesse La Bibliotheque JSK | Lady Sloth Glitter Mesh blouse | Angelic Pretty Brigitte Regiment OTKs | offbrand shoes, tiara, earrings and necklace | vintage belt | Jane Marple ring |

Fun fact: this tiara was a gift from @myrreli, who is an absolute sweetheart. She offered some crowns that she was getting rid of and all I had to do was pay for postage, so I got a few lovely blingy bits from her. And of course I had to get this one precisely for this dress!

This ring is so gorgeous, but damn, it's too small for my ring finger and too big for my little one.

Full disclosure: whilst I did wear this coord, it wasn’t for much longer than an hour at the very most, if that. I spent one day taking photos in advance for some of the fancier #Frillmas2020 looks that I wanted to include. Usually when I share any coords here, they have genuinely been worn for a more significant amount of time, and I wouldn’t want to hide the truth here, but still want to include the look. Because this is precisely what I envisioned when I was thinking of how to wear this dress. Regal. Elegant. Opulent. It’s not the heights of OTT, just the first step on the journey of making it so. One day I will wear this outfit properly to an actual occasion though, this look deserves that kind of justice.

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Coord 8: Christmas market

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme blouse and cardigan | Resailan Jewelry Box tights | Hush Puppies boots | offbrand boot toppers | Haruhi Clover headbow |

I'm not the happiest with my hair and makeup, but after the OTT weekend I had prior to this, I needed something as low effort as possible.

Considering how many compliments I get every time I add these boot toppers, I'm tempted to get them in other fur colours too. At least one to match the faux fur collar.

The AP tea party wrecked my routine on Sunday so much, that I didn’t get a lot of sleep and therefore didn’t have much energy on Monday. Which translated to extra laziness with this coord by virtue of no accessories. Though I’m actually still pretty happy with it, the only thing I’d change is the hairstyle, the rest I quite like. This is the sort of outfit that I would have worn to a Christmas market, had any been going ahead. Since none were, the shops on this print ended up being my Christmas market. Thankfully for my sleep deprived low energy, the day went on quickly thanks to two long social meetings my office colleagues held as a Christmas celebration. Doesn’t mean that the rest of the week was going to be any easier - we were promised a quiet week, yet from the moment I clocked in on that Monday my phone did not stop ringing. Refund on that week, please!

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Coord 9: Warming drinks

| Innocent World White Double Braid Tartan skirt | vintage blouse | Haenuli Secret Garden tights | Hush Puppies boots |

The pinch-your-cheeks blush and bite-your-lips lipstick have been solid 'makeup' staples for me throughout December, actually.

R.I.P. Manchester Christmas Markets. Lets hope that you will be revived in 2021.

I debated with myself whether to include this look or not, because it’s kind of lolita, but kind of not. In the end I settled on including it in the post, but count it as more otome/historybounding and therefore not in the Lolita Fashion Youtubers Collaboration that’s linked at the bottom of this post. Once again, the skirt and the messy attempt at a Gibson Girl bun have met, though this time the bun came out even more wonky than usual. Oh well, it happens, part of me kind of digs it.

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Coord 10: Season for giving

| Dangerous Nude Gobelin bloomers | Infanta Swan Lake blouse | offbrand jacket | Innocent World Belle Epoque OTKs | Angelic Pretty Elegant Doll boots | vintage brooch |

The glasses don't make for a very historical look, but the whole thing is so anachronistic anyway that why pretend like I wasn't wearing them?

A flatlay detail because I wanted to include those socks against the jacket and brooch. Though this close they came out much whiter than they actually are, they're a definite beige.

Ey yo, ya favourite Tudor boi is back! I told you that I’d wear this jacket with those bloomers only a couple of sections up and the ‘Season for giving’ prompt was the perfect occasion. What could’ve been a better coord than this: a generous gift from a kind friend and festive green and gold that’s perfect for a Christmas coord challenge? I’m still grappling with working out how to balance my head out in ouji when wearing jackets that make me broader in the shoulders, but that’s a work in progress that I can carry on with. It shouldn’t stop me from wearing this coord. And the socks literally arrived on the day that I wore this, so I could change from the plain ivory ones I was wearing before that. Escaped customs too! This truly is the season for giving.

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Coord 11: Ghost of Christmas Past

| Metamorphose Gold Braid Tuck Pinafore JSK | Bodyline L581 blouse with the detachable yoke from Metamorphose’s Classical Sister OP | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Vierge Vampur bonnet | Wicked and Whimsy ring |

Selfies are harder when you try to get as much of the bonnet in the shot, it messes up my muscle memory.

Forever a Wicked and Whimsy ring stan.

This is another one of my pre-photographed outfits that was only worn for the sake of a photo. It was more focused on the “past” than the “ghost” part as I tried to do something inspired by the look of Victorian fashion. I’m particularly pleased with the combination of that blouse and the detachable yoke. Even though I have high neck white blouses, I wasn’t feeling any of them so much. The sleeves on this one are fancy enough without being too OTT to add some interest and all that was needed was a more modest high neckline, which this yoke provided. And whilst I’m usually not keen on tying bonnets under my chin, I went with it for the sake of that extra Victorian-esque touch. Would I wear this again? Maybe. It’s a coord I’m pleased with, but I think I’m more excited by the idea of it and the base than the outfit as a whole. I’d sooner ‘repeat’ it with another dress.

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Coord 12: Winter Solstice

| Lady Sloth Glitter Mesh blouse | AatP unknown jacket | offbrand jeans | Angelic Pretty Elegant Doll boots | After Midnight necklace | Risu Rose necklace |

If it seems like I'm trying too hard, it's because I had some K-Pop in the background and it was giving me attitude I was desperately trying to emulate and appear like I'm cool, but in that nonchalant way.

Dangerously close to being risque *gasp*

Two ouji looks in one month? This is the last of the pre-shot looks and the one I kept on the longest. I picked up a takeaway delivery in this, which counts as being worn since I was seen in it, right? Weird logic, but hopefully you get me. Also, yes, I know I say that I don’t own jeans - yeah, strictly speaking that was a lie. The reality is that I keep them in case I ever need to do something that could potentially stain my clothes, like painting the walls or going mushroom foraging (both technically probable, if extremely unlikely), but I don’t actually wear them. I find jeans stupidly uncomfortable after years of wearing elasticated skirts. But I thought that if @gravelvet can wear jeans with his ouji, then it was worth pulling this pair out just for that. Though next time I'll probably just wear leggings.

That long introduction aside, the inspiration for this prompt was the idea of the longest night and the prospect of days getting longer from then on. This led me to the gold x black colour scheme again, which really is a reliable classic. And I like this outfit a lot. There’s also something about wearing ouji that makes me feel sassy and gives me a whole lot of attitude, which sometimes even comes across in photos. Sometimes it just looks odd, masculine posing is hard, but if I tackle it with a more of a boss bitch kind of approach, that tends to be a good middle ground. Oh, and I actually had a gold bow in my ponytail, but we all know what happens to accessories that are at the back.

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Coord 12: Christmas Dinner

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | vintage cardigan | MuFish tights | offbrand blouse and hair clip |

You can't even make the hairclip out here, but a bow clip to top off a high ponytail is a perfect easy accessory for a very lazy day.

I'm thinking of starting more of a collection of ugly Christmas sweaters like this one.

Squeezing wearing my new Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt before the year is over. And let’s be honest, with its full shirring, it’s perfect for still being cute whilst overindulging on food during Christmas. I did actually wear it a couple of more times, since I went over to my parents’ for Christmas (as responsibly and safely as I could, with full intention of self-isolating upon return), but those ones were like my office looks pre-pandemic - not documented. Call it testing the waters, if you will. And as it was Christmas Day, no point pretending that any sort of shoes even happened. ’Twas the day for being comfy and eating, not for any sort of pretence.

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For everyone who doesn’t follow me on YouTube and who feels like they’d like to see more of some of these - a bonus! When the Lolita Fashion Youtubers Facebook group decided to do a Christmas-themed collaboration to show off some festive coords, I knew that I couldn’t commit to recording something separate. I could, however, simply take extra clips of what I was already planning on wearing. So my contribution to that collaboration is a lookbook of most of the #Frillmas2020 looks you see above. I couldn’t make it all as the collab publishing date was set to December 23rd and I still had to edit the thing, but it’s nonetheless more than there otherwise would’ve been.

Again, December isn’t really over and there may be something happening between now and the New Year in terms of frills. If it does, I’ll include it in the next post, which will analyse all my coords from the second half of this year. And if something happens after that… I’ll take it as and when. This is just what happens when you obsess over sticking to a particular schedule and want certain seasonal things to fall right where the season takes them (and I’m talking mostly about January/New Year stuff here now).

I hope that you have a wonderful, peaceful and restful time over this Christmas, whether you are celebrating or not. We all deserve a break and should grab every excuse to get one. Thank you all for being here, I really appreciate your words and support, and hope that in however small a way this blog (and maybe my YouTube channel too) has played a part in brightening up your day at least once during what has been a very trying time.