February Coords Roundup

February always comes and goes in a flash. Although this particular one feels like a month of two halves, since the beginning was really cold, leaving me with very little motivation to dress up, and the end got much milder. My mood has definitely been all over the place and I think the outfits I’ve worn reflect that.

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Coord 1: Wa Ouji

| Metamorphose Wizarding Lesson shorts | Innocent World blouse | vintage haori and brooch | MuFish tights | Deary shoes | offbrand belt |

You can kiiiind of make out my eye makeup, though I'm more proud of managing to get that that mini top knot in the shot.

The wear I got out of this brooch I found on eBay is insane.

Or more like an attempt at it. To be completely honest, my feelings are mixed. As an attempt with what I have, it’s not the worst. As a wa ouji overall, it definitely needs some work: a different shirt, different shoes, preferably even different trousers. Something more hakama-like would be much better and then I wouldn’t feel like between the length of the haori and that of the shorts things looked too boxy - but then if I just had hakama trousers with a haori, how is that ouji and not just a take on masculine wafuku? The balance is very delicate on this one and I’m not sure if I’m the best person to try and make this happen. Certainly not at this moment in time. But the attempt was fun and did the job of making me look fancy for the exam board meeting.

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Coord 2: Asymmetry & Roses

| Bodyline Moulin High Waist skirt | Millefleurs Georgette blouse | Angelic Pretty Salon de The Rose OTKs | Irregular Choice Earl Grey shoes | flower clips in my hair are from Claire’s, the ones on my skirt are from other offbrand shops I don’t recall now | ring and necklace are handmade | brooch is handmade (not by me) |

Asymmetrical flower placement on an asymmetrical hairstyle. Even my beauty spot is only on one side (though I can't actually take credit for that).

Texture appreciation post.

Whilst I had ideas for Fluffy Kawaii Jo’s first Coord Mashup theme (purple and bunnies), it wasn’t working with what I have (might still do it eventually?). But the second one was perfectly up my street! I had roses everywhere: blouse lace, socks, as flower clips, in my jewellery, even my shoes were covered in small roses. Although I did consider using a dress with an actual rose print, like Georges Rose or Repose of Queen, this skirt was easier to work the asymmetry in and make the roses just as prominent. I enjoyed this coord, it was absolutely 100% unseasonal for early February, but it made me feel beautiful and elegant. And it’s great how without setting out to do so, my Coord Mashup submission ended up being ivory, mint and pink, which is Joelle’s colour palette!

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Coord 3: Romantic Sunday

| Metamorphose Sailor Tiered skirt | Angelic Pretty Romantic Bright blouse | Red Maria tights | offbrand shoes and earrings | handmade bracelets | vintage gloves and belt |

Usually I'm not keen on neck ties, but they do make it easier to be casual.

 

Gloves are perfect for photos, not so much for doing anything.

 

To be honest, it wasn’t an actually romantic Sunday, but I’ve been feeling the Valentine’s Day mood and wanted to wear outfits that would reflect the mood for love. I guess you could say that wearing things you feel cute in is also an appropriate expression of self-love, which I wanted to focus on. But since this was a Sunday without a particular plan, I kept it on the simpler and more casual side - to the extent that there isn’t a hair accessory here. If I were to wear one, I’d probably go for a big bow at the back of my head, so it wouldn’t be visible anyway. All I did that day was take photos for my wardrobe post and cook in between chilling. I forget how tiresome taking wardrobe post photos is, but doing so helped both with appreciating what I have and with doing a little bit of long overdue organising my stuff, so it was worth the effort.

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Coord 4: Valentines Day x Lunar New Year

| BtSSB Full of Stars “Bright Starry Night” JSK | vintage jacket and brooch | Enchantlic Enchantilly Crown of the Rose Princess tights | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | Innocent World Pearskin Dot Lace headbow | handmade bracelets and ring | Promised Land Creations earrings |

I've been on a bit of a roll of doing my lipstick in a way that fills my cupid's bow.

Velvet is amazing, but dang it clings onto everything!

I had a sort of informal goal for February to wear outfits that I’d be happy to wear on a date, whether they were lolita or not. Up until this point it hasn’t gone too well, but at least it motivated me when I did wear things. This coord idea was floating around in my head for a bit and after postponing it a few times, it ended up being worn on Lunar New Year Day itself, so the reds were perfectly timely. Usually when I dress up, I keep the outfit on for the rest of the day, but my flat is actually insanely cold and this coord was definitely more for the look than for practical reasons, so it only lasted a few hours, which is a shame. Had it been warmer, I think I would’ve enjoyed wearing it more.

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Coord 5: Zoomentine’s Meet

| Metamorphose Gold Braid Tuck Pinafore JSK | Shinku Rose Tulle overdress | replica OTKs | Irregular Choice Total Freedom shoes | After Midnight flower half crown | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace | Star Glazed Delights Brand Whore ring | handmade ring |

I probably could've piled on a little bit more on my head, but I was kind of running late and doing too much at the same time, so only stuck with this one.

I almost posted the more saucy detail shot, but then decided to keep things a bit more PG.

After freezing the day before to the point of changing out of my coord, I had serious second thoughts about this one. Sadly for me, I had set my mind on wearing this particular look, so I made sure to do everything humanly possible to be able to wear if for the whole meetup. And thankfully it worked out because I really enjoyed myself - both the coord and the meetup. My coord idea started off with the intention of being ero.Whether it ended up that way is debatable, nonetheless I enjoyed being a VDay harlot, which is all that matters. The meetup was really great too! Rather than being hosted by one of my local comms, a friend hosted it via the UK comm, so there were plenty of people I hadn’t met who are normally around London (and some joined from abroad). We had a Valentine’s Day themed quiz, which I managed to do ok in (meaning around top 10 out of 15), but more importantly had fun doing. I think I really needed this to be a success because I’d started feeling like my coords weren’t going the way I wanted to up until this point. Having one that I was really pleased with was the emotional turning point I needed to keep myself inspired and to keep me going. It prompted several of the following outfits that you’ll see further down in this post, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

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Coord 6: Witch School Application

| Dear Celine Magic Book OP | Axes Femme cardigan | Angelic Pretty Crown Logo OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | offbrand hat, hair clip and ring | Le Petit Four ring | Enchantlic Enchantilly ring |

You can be witchy at any time of the year, not just in October.

Fun fact, I remembered about this hair clip purely because of doing my wardrobe post.

Have you ever seen someone’s coord and thought to yourself “I want to be part of that gang too”? This is what happened to me when I saw @kimbuucha and @paigeloe’s twinning coord with this print. They did a wonderful job putting their look together and I couldn’t help but look and see that I had pretty much all the components. So I can’t take credit for the outfit, I can only hope that they will accept my application to join their super cool gang and let me hang out with them. I reckon I could teach magical languages - or maybe cooking magic, but I feel like that witch teacher needs a nice apron more than the fur collar.

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Coord 7: Hello 90s

| Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK | A.R.W. blouse | offbrand jacket | Innocent World Origa OTKs | Bodyline shoes | offbrand hat, hair clip, bracelet and brooch | After Midnight necklace | Jane Marple ring | Angelic Pretty Chess Chocolate emblem brooch |

That hat is probably older than I am. Not by much, but nonetheless.

This detail photo pleases my Vivienne Westwood aesthetic appreciation side.

When you can't decide on which detail shot you prefer, share both.

Ever since I got this jacket, I’ve been itching to wear it. But whilst I have the all-tartan coord idea in my head, I wanted to try something less obvious first and landed on Cinema Doll. Honestly? I’m not sure if I’m channelling more Clueless or more Heathers, but I vibed with this coord very, very hard in the best possible way. It did kind of make me feel all kinds of 90s vibes, so I’m technically classing this coord as retro lolita, even though the very thought of 90s, which I remember so well, being retro hits me right in the heart. No doubts a variation of this combination will appear on this blog in the future with other dresses, this is will very quickly become a staple coord base.

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Coord 8: Casual or Not?

| Metamorphose Bubble Bath skirt | pyjama top | offbrand jacket, patch and hair ties | Angelic Pretty Sealing Border OTKs | Irregular Choice High Scores shoes | handmade bracelets | Metamorphose clip |

Very messy twin buns and a faux fringe cover a multitude of sins.

I don't think I could ever commit to applying this patch (or the other ones @likeateacup gave me) permanently, but I do like the DIY solution of pinning it with a literal pin.

Once again I’m back at my undecided-but-recent-retro-pastel shenanigans using a base I already established to work. Except this time I took it even further into casual territory by wearing a pyjama top. It’s not that groundbreaking and the only reason for it was that the only T-shirt I own is black and I wanted that casual T-shirt vibe, so this was the next best thing. I might get a couple of cute T-shirts now that this is the third time I’m doing a coord with this vibe, which is clearly a recurring mood, but I won’t get too hung over that. For now I’m happy to keep reusing this pyjama top if I have to.

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Coord 9: Larme Date

| Metamorphose Polka Dot Tiered skirt | offbrand top and shoes | Snag White Russian fishnets | Axes Femme earrings | Gravelvet choker | handmade bracelets |

I have almost run out of this lip gloss (it's over a lipstick, but still). And generally I've been wanting more lip glosses to bring back the early 2000s fantasy of your lips being literal mirrors of liquid with gloss. So watch this space, I guess...

This choker doesn't get enough love and where else to give it love than in a larme coord?

Speaking of ‘back at it again’, it’s been a while since I mashed lolita with larme. I can’t even tell you why I decided that now was the time to do it again. I noticed that this skirt was coming up next on my ‘last worn’ tracker and when racking my brain for coord ideas, larme was what came to mind. It may actually be more larme than lolita, particularly with my foregoing a hair accessory again, but I quite like it this way. Had I been going on a date, this is definitely something I’d consider wearing or at least go for a similar vibe. To take it back to the whole “February is a month of love because Valentine’s Day” idea.

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Snuck this last outfit literally the day before the post was due to come out. As I said in the beginning, February felt like a month of two halves, not only in terms of weather, but also my mood and inspiration levels. They were pretty low in the beginning and the fact that not all of my outfit ideas were translating to worn reality as well as I would’ve liked, which didn’t help. But sometime mid-month, certainly after the Zoomentine’s coord, things clicked back into place. Granted, I had more ideas than energy to realise, since many of them were more on the OTT end, but still. It puts me on a good path for March, where I hope to realise some of those ideas and to hopefully enjoy some early spring time.

How was February for you?