January Coords Roundup

How do you know that lolita is your nature now? Because even after so many outfits, both last year and last month, even after the general madness that is Christmas, I was still itching to dress up fairly early on in January. Would I now even be able to last a week without wearing lolita? That seems like the most foreign idea!

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Coord 1: OP x JSK

| Dear Celine Magic Book OP | Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | Angelic Pretty Toy March OTKs | offbrand shoes | vintage hat | Innocent World Original Crown Tassel 2-way clip | Fluffy Tori pin | cuffs from Meta’s Classical Sister OP |

Not a speck of makeup, but I did wear my half wig to get some actual volume to these braids.

You know, I struggle so much with this OP, but maybe using it as an under-layer is the way forward?

So Noke kind of started this trend of wearing a JSK over and OP with her AP Paris tea party look. And you know what? It’s January, it’s cold, the extra layer seemed sensible, so I decided to give it a go. I actually have another coord that’s an OP with a JSK, but that one is definitely more of a warm weather look, so will have to wait. I really like how the two dress prints worked together. This could’ve ended up looking really busy, but turned out really well. The cuffs were really needed to balance out the collar, I’m glad that I have them since the original OP design went with cuffs out of matching fabric. All in all this was a comfortable and cute look, I might try doing layering like this more.

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Coord 2: Birthday Coord

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | Dear Celine Polka Dot Waltz blouse | Angelic Pretty Ice Cream Parlor OTKs | Irregular Choice High Score shoes | offbrand headband and jacket | brooches and pins from Fluffy Tori, Milkribbon, Madillustration and Jule et Lily | rings from Angelic Pretty and Star Glazed Delights | earrings from Big Pink Boutique |

Excuse me being obsessed, but this may legit be one of my favourite outfits so far.

I also have a tonne of daft selfies, which is usually a sign of how much I'm feeling myself in a particular outfit.

A detail clip in lieu of a detail shot.

I’ve been dressing in lolita on my birthday every year since 2016, when I started being serious about the fashion. Not even a lockdown birthday was going to stop me from keeping that going - if anything, it only encouraged me. And you know what? I fucking loved this outfit, every single element of it! On that day the 21st Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates post went live, which was an outfit made around your favourite shoes - but honestly, this is far better and was also made around my (new) favourite shoes! These beauties were a birthday present from my parents and they’re so ridiculous I can’t help but loving them. Walking in them is still something I’m getting used to, but since I was indoors all day it didn’t matter. I’m not sure whether I was trying to go more 80s or more 50s with this coord, probably a bit of both (80s-does-50s maybe?), and I don’t care, I literally spent the entire day in it, loving how I felt. Even though I didn’t do much, I spent the day mostly offline, chilling, watching films and indulging in only my favourite foods. Being dressed in a way that made happy, giddy even, was as much of a present to myself as the random bits were or as the self-care day was. Heck, I am genuinely itching to wear this coord again and get more photos taken, preferably somewhere sufficiently Aesthetic®.

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Coord 3: Chill Hangout

| Innocent World Revival Sweet Teddybear JSK | offbrand blouse and necklace | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Angelic Pretty Odekake Ribbon OTKs | Sosic Shop heels | Cutie Creator headbow | Latte Galaxy brooch |

That was such an incredibly good photo day, both selfie-wise and full body shot-wise.

I sometimes forget how much I love this daft bear, she's the cutest.

I spent most of that day on a very chill, very lovely call with @lena_golita which was honestly so good! It’s been a while since I was on video call with just one other person and I forgot how nice that is to just forget the time passing by while you have fun. The birthday coord from the day before took out a fair share of my energy, so I wanted to prioritise being comfortable and landed on this dress. And since not so long ago I complained about not doing too many different things with it, I went with brown instead of red or white, like my first instinct was. Lolita gods have been kind on me that day because not only the coord came out really nicely, but I seem to have had a good makeup AND a good photo day because I liked pretty much every single one I took. I don’t know what I did differently, but hopefully I’ll be able to replicate that in the future.

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Coord 4: Cosy Snowflake

| Metamorphose Classical Sister OP | Axes Femme Snow Embroidery and Pearl cardigan | Metamorphose Snow Crystal OTKs | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss heels | Cutie Creator headbow |  vintage brooch | Sweet Dolly House brooch |

It seems to have been a bright light kind of day adding an extra paleness filter.

This brooch is everything. I keep going back to the shop to admire the matching ring and necklace, and earrings, and just... not doing anything about that.

One half of why I do the 1 Dress 4 Looks posts is to show how each main piece can be versatile - the other half is to have outfits in the bank to wear later, when I’m uninspired but want to be frilly. That was precisely that kind of day and the outfit is pretty much exactly the same as it was in the 40th instalment of that series. The only difference is that then I had a necklace, which I swapped out for another snowflake pin.

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Coord 5: Fancy WfH Friday

| Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | Angelic Pretty Logo Embroidered Turtleneck cutsew | BtSSB Heart Marble Chocolate and Sugar Coated Cookies bolero | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Star socks | Bodyline shoes | Innocent World Art Nouveau headbow | Two Days Slow hair clip | offbrand beret and ring| Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Patisserie Pink Lock and Key brooch |

A rogue hair escaped, but it's fine, sometimes things be that way.

This brooch was a present from my Secret Santa and they nailed me down perfectly. I do remember considering getting this one and eventually not doing so, as I was already getting two other brooches from Patisserie Pink.

The mood for dressing up was there, so I picked something that would be comfortable and warm. I could’ve tried to experiment more with other colours, but honestly, I just didn’t want to. What I did want, however, is to wear fewer layers. I seem to be cursed with wanting to wear massively unseasonal outfits all throughout the year. I resisted that this time because my flat is actually very cold and doesn’t hold heat pretty much at all, plus I can either work or have the heating on because of the flat layout, so this was the only way. But next time I might actually put myself through the discomfort for the aesthetic…

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Coord 6: Early Valentine

| Bodyline L262 JSK | Angelic Pretty Logo Embroidered Turtleneck cutsew | Angelic Pretty Rose Lace Pattern OTKs | Metamorphose shoes | offbrand hair ties | Lockshop Daisy wig | Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Star Glazed Delights Brand Whore ring | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring | Bibelot Rose badge | handmade bracelets |

I keep meaning to trim the fringe on this wig, but I wear it so infrequently that it evades me. I've left it out now, so maybe that will guilt me into action.

This badge is actually part of something very exciting I was asked to do. The video preview is up on Patreon now for the $2/month tier, if you want to find out sooner!

I was filming the next All Frills Baking that day and since it’s going to be themed around Valentine’s Day, I needed my coord to match. Something more like what I wore in November with this dress may have been a bit more Valentine’s Day-appropriate, but I didn’t feel like rehashing the idea. Besides, all red with pops of pink is surely seasonal enough, right? I don’t want to use up too much of my creative energy before I even get to what will inevitably be the virtual February meetup. Not when the coord spends the majority of the time hidden under an apron.

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Coord 7: Pop Again

| Bodyline Sweet Macaron JSK | Lazy Oaf top | Irregular Choice High Scores shoes | offbrand tights, beret and earrings | Bibelot Rose badge | Bubblegum Emporium necklace | Dear Celine badge | Fluffy Tori pin |

You know you're feeling your coord when you do funky poses and like it, then add a Meitu edit on top of that.

Being an extra level of kawaii by casualy posing with this pack of Orion jelly worms that I got in a Japanese snacks lucky pack (even though these ones are clearly Korean).

In case you didn't know, all Irregular Choice shoes have printed soles. The box these came in is also printed with that same design.

I’ve no clue what to call this kind of sweet lolita: it’s kind of retro, kind of pop, kind of something else I can’t quite put my finger on… but I love it! Again, it’s all because of these shoes and trying to find more pieces to wear them with. It’s a shame that you can’t quite make out that I was wearing white fishnets over solid pink tights, but then again, legwear is the only thing I would change about this anyway. This coord made me realise that I don’t have that many sweet-appropriate tights. Then again, it’s not like I have that many pieces of legwear to match this kind of look to begin with. Oh Lord, don’t tempt me with reasons to buy even more legwear, I did so well in 2020 having bought only two pairs...!

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Coord 8: Early Spring

| Angelic Pretty Flower Garden JSK | Dear Celine Polka Dot Waltz blouse | Fi.n.t. cardigan | AatP Lace-Up Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes | Angelic Pretty Classical Petit Rose headbow | Peppermint Fox brooch | Dentelles brooch | Le Petit Four ring |

My colleague asked if my headband matched my dress (they can only see me about chest up in work meetings) and I responded "of course" in such a way that I must've solidified my reputation for being obsessed with how I look.

So pleased that I found the right coord for this brooch. It is much more saturated than the rest of the outfit, and yet works really well with it all.

For a while until this point I’ve been very strongly vibing with green x pink. Don’t ask me why, I just was. And since actual winter kept deciding to avoid me, I might as well channel some spring, right? I can’t say how pleased I am with this look, it came exactly like I thought it would. Even though I had another flower clip that I forgot to add, it was still just like I wanted it. I even got a surprise flower delivery that day, a present from a friend to cheer me up after I had a low moment earlier that week over missing friends and feeling alone a bit more acutely than usual.

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Coord 9: Awkward Meet

| BtSSB Soirée of the Beginning of My Memories JSK I | L’Esprit de la Noblesse Le Nuage blouse | Red Maria tights | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand shoes, hair clip, earrings and necklace | Le Petit Four Emerald Palace ring | Peppermint Fox brooch |

Would you even believe me if I said that I set out to do minimal makeup, just a touch of eyeshadow, the false lashes and lipsticks, and then it all ended up in the usual full face?

A little lace and mesh appreciation corner.

The name of the meet comes from the game I made us play, my lolita-themed rip-off of The Awkward Storyteller, but it makes for a very catchy meetup name, doesn’t it? Carrying on with the green and pink moment, it was time to wear my newest wardrobe addition: Soirée of the Beginning of My Memories. This dress and I have had such an on-again-off-again relationship all the way since I first lusted after it in 2014 in BtSSB Kanazawa - although admittedly, I was lusting after the green one. Then I saw the ivory pop up on Wunderwelt and after some encouragement from my friends, it waited for me just long enough to get one of those 10% off codes and I treated myself using the store points I had. Best decision of the end of 2020, honestly. Not much more to say about the coord besides that I really liked it and that the JSK is really comfortable. The meet was fun too, it seems that everyone has enjoyed the game and it’s always lovely to see people you’ve not seen in a while. The game is kind of like Cards Against Humanity without forcing you to be rude (though there is potential for that), and I did try to make the scenarios work for both lolita and non-lolita situations. I’ll make sure to keep that spreadsheet safe somewhere, so that we can dip into it in the future if we need some games to play.

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Coord 10: Business Casual

| Innocent World Georges Rose JSK | Axes Femme blouse and earrings | vintage jacket | Innocent World Origa OTKs | offbrand shoes and flower clip | Bibelot Rose rosette |

That was a manic day, so I did everything as quickly as possible, from getting dressed to makeup, to taking the photos.

Highly satisfying pleats!

Is it business casual? It is for lolita, not necessarily by actual business casual standards. But I did feel like a cute mayor of some frilly cartoon town who got invited to open up a new supermarket or something. If you’d like me to open your local supermarket, let me know - once the pandemic is over, of course. This certainly isn’t a coord that I would’ve come up with under normal circumstances and I would like a different headpiece for it, but in general I am pretty happy with it.

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When did January go? It feels like it barely started and now, somehow, we’re at the end of it. I still haven’t decided whether that’s a good thing or a bad one. But at least some cute outfits happened during this time, not tonnes, just a reasonable amount.

Wow, listen to me, claiming 10 coords in a month to be “a reasonable amount”, when at my pre-pandemic peak 4 a month would’ve been considered a big success… This is what this pandemic has done to me, people. I also had a moment earlier this month, watching some random video along the lines of “The Strawberry Dress: Original vs Knock-Off”, listening to the women in the video call it “a ballgown” and “princessy” and literally catching myself thinking “A ballgown? But that’s quite a casual dress”. If I weren’t lazy by nature and didn’t value my sleep above pretty much all else, I would’ve by now become that person who is never seen in anything less than a 10/10 lewk. I think I need to have a moment to re-evaluate my priorities in life…

Anyhow, I’ve enjoyed every coord I’ve worn in January, which is what really matters, and am full of ideas for more. My bigger problem is finding the occasions to realise those ideas because, as I already mentioned, I’m lazy by nature and my ideas are more on the fancier end, which I don’t want to half-arse by not matching them with the right hair and makeup. So we’ll see how that develops.

On a final note, I am working on an actual wardrobe post. It’s pencilled in for February because I didn’t want to rush it and I was (naively) hoping that maybe my Puvithel order would’ve arrived by then to be included. The thought of photographing all my jewellery and then knowing that I’ll have to do it all over again when that arrives isn’t particularly motivating, but I might have to just bite the bullet. But if you want to catch me talking just about my main pieces, I decided to do an Instagram live stream this Sunday, January 31st, at 1/2pm UK time. If you’re free, pop-over to @cupcake_kamisama!