March Coords Roundup

March has somehow come and gone. Started out still quite wintery and ended up nice and spring-like, so I guess all the weather summoning I did through some of these outfits has worked.

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Coord 1: Sepia Tones

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Axes Femme top | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand earrings and necklace | Amadea Kingdom The Adventurer D4 brooch | Latte Galaxy brooch | Dalao Home wig |

Sometimes it still takes me aback how much of a difference a wig makes.

Love me some novelty brooches.

I was able to kick off the month with a coord right on day one, as well as start with one for the No Buy Support challenge. Read more about the outfit here.

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Coord 2: Summoning Spring

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ JSK and OTKs | A.R.W. blouse | Pinky Girls cardigan | BtSSB Dreaming Sherbet skirt as an underskirt | Irregular Choice Total Freedom shoes | Hello Crumpet Kukuryku brooch | everything else is offbrand |

You can juuust about make out the green barrette at the back there.

His name is Robert.

So, I got this cardigan because it was inexpensive and I wanted to introduce a spot of yellow to my collection. I was also able to snag this brooch after missing out on it during the first release. The rest simply had to happen and whilst I went with simpler styling (i.e. you can only just about see the barrette at the back of my head), this is still a look I am very pleased with. The yellow lifts the colours in this print up and the rooster is a perfect accompaniment to the Polish print. At that point I was also sick of constantly feeling cold (in fact my hands were still freezing as I was working in this), but hopefully the coord would have been spring-like enough to draw out some at least milder weather and ideally some actually warm weather.

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Coord 3: Town in Spring

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | A.R.W. blouse | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | AatP Lace-Up Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes, hair clips and necklace | Amor Barocco pin | Fluffy Tori Tea Party Hard pin |

After trying bubble braids with my own hair, I can tell you that it looks nicer with wig, they just have more hair for that.

Forever tea partying hard.

My spring summoning must have worked because the next day the sun came out and when it wasn’t windy, it was even pretty warm. So I dressed up to go to town and balanced the need for comfort (shoes, simple hair, minimum accessories) with the seasonal vibes and colours. The light greens worked surprisingly well with the pale blue tones of this dress. Between feeling great in this outfit and the sunny weather, I ended up treating myself probably a little bit too much, but hell, it’s been a tough week emotionally, so I deserved those treats.

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Coord 4: Kind of Ascot

| Mary Magdalene Paulina JSK | Lady Sloth Glitter Mesh blouse | Angelic Pretty Musee du Chocolat OTKs | Deary shoes | vintage hat, gloves, earrings and brooch |

You know, time sometimes works wonders because I do feel less critical of this coord now than I was at the time.

A lady always matches her gloves to her hat.

The weekend prior to this I got this hat from a charity shop and have been looking at ways of using it. It is more 80s Princess Diana inspired than anything else, but the giant bow made me think that it could fit with lolita so well. Whilst I can’t say that I am absolutely 100% happy with the outcome, this is once again down to styling rather than the components themselves. I did deliberately aim for something slightly more elegant woman in the 1980s with the jewellery choices, but I think that vibe gets a bit lost without at least more 1980s makeup (and ideally hair too). And maybe in the end this wasn’t really the dress to use it with. But having done the look, I do like what it was trying to do and it was a nice balance between fancy and toned down for a work from home Friday. So yeah, a work in progress, but I’m all about sharing those too and normalising not being 100% perfect 100% of the time.

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Coord 5: Feeling Cool

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Angelic Pretty Whip Girl cutsew | Angelic Pretty Sugar Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes, jacket and hair clip | belt from Lady Sloth’s Look at My Dreamy Sky OP | Chocomint ring | Fluffy Tori pin | Dear Celine badge |

A ponytail and the right glasses can turn a look.

May the power of bows compel you!

The other outfit from the No Buy Support Challenge for this month. Once again, more details in that post.

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Coord 6: Librarian on a Day Off

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky casual OP | A.R.W. bolero | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | offbrand earrings | Summer Tales Boutique necklace | Latte Galaxy brooch |

Balancing the desire to dress up and be cute with the desire to be comfy, the following day I landed on this low-key coord. I was drawing inspiration from mori-kei colour palette and going for a sort of bookish, librarian-esque vibe with the quirky accessories. Later that day I even lit a candle that smells like an old library to add to the vibes. Since the day was very chill and I did little besides enjoying the moment, I didn’t bother with more than just a mirror selfie or pretending like shoes or hair accessories ever happened. (Everything else did happen though.)

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Coord 7: Coord Telephone

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring Pinafore JSK | Ank Rouge cutsew | Angelic Pretty Wrapping Cherry socks | offbrand shoes and beret | Promised Land Creations necklace | Innocent World Strawberry Fields wrist cuffs | handmade bracelets | Manda Rin Designs brooches |

One of the best times these rope curls have come out.

Innocent World does lace like few others do.

Some time ago my Discord server had a Coord Telephone thread, where each consecutive person picked one item for a person until a completed coord was created. With a few small tweaks (my own hair instead of a wig and the additions of hand accessories and brooches) this is it. I wouldn’t have picked the black shoes to go with this whole thing, but with those couple of additions having the colour include three colours instead of two ends up nicely balanced. I also feel that the heels and the colour scheme leans into that sweet/classic territory, hence my choice of brooches and bracelets together with the wrist cuffs. Cute and comfortable, great for a working Monday - big thanks to everyone in my Discord server who contributed to this!

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Coord 8-10: Going Away

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | A.R.W. blouse | Fi.n.t. cardigan | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | offbrand shoes and barrette | Mademoiselle Boutique necklace | The Grand Embassy badge | Violet Fane Violet’s Tea Room brooch |

Not sure why the glowy halo, but sometimes your phone just decides that your selfie needs it.

Love the details on this print so much.

Day 2: with an Axes Femme cutsew, A.R.W. bolero, Paints and Teawater brooch, and an offbrand beret and necklace.

Day 3: with a Peppermint Fox broocch.

I was going away for a weekend at my parents’ and since the weather forecast was optimistic, I not only dressed up for the trip, but the whole weekend. The first one for travelling itself did get modified with a different pair of shoes later, as I didn’t want to pack an extra one just for a weekend. And going with spring colours to still coax that spring weather out of its winter slumber - give me all the greens! The other two use the same tights and a pair of brown Oxfords, with everything else being just variations of each other. You don’t need a lot for a weekend and to me these coords are different enough from each other whilst still minimising how much needs to be packed.

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Coord 11: Spring Gingham

| Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | Cat Tea Party blouse | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Star socks | Irregular Choice shoes | Chrysanthemum Concerto Lost in the Garden of Eden headbow | offbrand hair clips and necklace | Tea and Paintwater brooch | Hello Crumpet Kukuryku brooch | handmade bracelets | Banned Retro Bella belt |

Balancing out a headeating headbow can be tricky sometimes, but I feel like these two small ponytails behind it did the trick.

My outfit was channelling the energy of this kitty in particular.

Other than the weekend at my parents’, I've gone through my whole week off without frilling once. This coord idea has been in my head literally since January and I’ve been waiting for some warm enough weather to wear it. The forecast has been threatening me with going colder again, so it was now or never. It came out pretty much just how I envisioned it. And it was nice to dress up without anything in particular planned for the day, just for myself and my own fun. I’d been missing that a bit lately, which made a big difference in my mood. Nothing like putting on a favourite dress for lifting one’s spirit.

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Coord 12: Back to Work

| Metamorphose Bubble Bath skirt | Madillustration brooch | Sweet Dolly House necklace and ring | handmade bracelets | everything else is offbrand |

Wow, hair, why so messy?

These sneakers were one of my best Vinted finds. And they get a detail shot to prove that both lavender and mint (as well as pink) feature on them.

Having hit my groove on the Sunday before, I couldn't resist dressing up for the first day back. It;s hardly ever fun going back to work straight after some time off, so every little helps. Carrying on with the theme of comfort and spring vibes I arrived at this. Since it already got a bit chilly, I also wore my AP cutsew cardigan over it. Apparently, for the unsporty person that I am, those pastel sporty-ish vibes are really agreeing with me right now.

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I am finishing the month feeling like I haven’t worn lolita as often as I would’ve liked. All the ideas that I have that get me excited to wear them out are on the fancier side, which gets disrupted by a lack of either time (during work days) or motivation (on other days). It feels like I’ve fallen into a rut with my style and am not sure how I want to look like these days. There are plenty of looks in this post that I was genuinely pleased with, so I should be focusing on that, as well as stay in the moment a bit more. This last coord featured here helped a little with getting the excitement back, so hopefully as we advance through spring into summer those ideas will start clarifying a bit more.