July Coords Roundup

It’s ironic how I gave myself permission in June to frill up less and be kind to myself about it, and ended up needing that in July. Life doesn’t always work out the way you envisioned it.

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Coord 1: Art Gallery Explorer

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | Chess Story Gift from Budapest blouse and bow pin at the waist | Angelic Pretty Salon de The Rose OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | vintage hat | offbrand earrings and bracelets | Tiny Passerine Creations necklace and ring | brooches from Peacockalorum and Peppermint Fox |

I did a slightly different kind of eye makeup, though typically any photos actually showcasing that look crap.

Love these brooches, they look so beautiful together.

You would not believe the stress this coord caused me. More in the sense that for this meetup I originally had a completely different idea, which then had to be scrapped last minute due to uncomfortable fit and everything else either didn’t fit either or I just couldn’t get it styled in a way I liked. It took over an hour the night before the meet of trying various clothes on before I finally landed on this. So my opinion of this look is tainted by the fact that it wasn’t the vibe that I was originally feeling, but objectively I do like the coord. Somehow I managed to balance those lavenders and the nerdy yet classy botanical explorer vibe is one that I am quite fond of. The meetup was also super great, really chill and a great balance between meeting new people and catching up with friends. Sadly casualties include one earring (probably as I was putting my mask on when embarking on my trip back home), but I guess in the grand scheme of things it could’ve been worse.

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Coord 2: Back After a Break

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Axes Femme blouse | offbrand socks, shoes, earrings, necklace and bracelets | Pink Up Fanny’s Dressing Table hair clip | vintage brooch | Madillustration brooch |

Living that bare minimum life.

I really thought this pearl necklace would peek out a little bit more, though I kind of dig the extra subtlety.

After what felt like a whole lifetime, I finally found the will to dress up. It was still a bit too warm for anything super involved, plus it was a work from home Tuesday, so simplicity was key, nonetheless it did wonders to my mental health.

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Coord 3: Summer in the City

| Metamorphose Sailor Tiered skirt | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | offbrand socks, shoes and earrings | Cutie Creator hat | Celestial Castle hair clip | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | handmade bracelets | Banned Retro Bella belt | Angelic Pretty Trump Heart bag |

That glow is sponsored by factor 50 sunscreen.

The hat needed more bows, it's as simple as that.

To distract myself from the trip that I was supposed to be on and had to cancel because Covid didn’t clear quickly enough, I treated myself to a day out to the cinema to see Thor: Love and Thunder. This was right as the heatwave was starting, but before it reached unbearable temperatures, so I was still able to frill up without any discomfort. The film was everything that you’d expect from it in all the Thor himbo glory, and afterwards I treated myself to some rolled ice-cream from a van that’s always outside of that particular cinema, but that was the first time when the weather actually justified getting some.

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Coord 4: Casual Tea

| Violet Fane Ginza Kissaten skirt | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Pinky Girls cardigan | RojiRoji socks | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand hair clip | Twylite Fashion hair clip | Q-Pot Tea Bag necklace |

Whilst I wish I had two of those bronze-y clips, I equally dig the mismatched look.

Don't even remind me that I own what is potentially the most expensive tea bag ever...

Partly to make myself feel better that I barely dressed up this month and partly because I could wait no longer to put a coordinate around this dumb necklace, I dressed up for a work from home Monday. Ginza Kissaten seemed like the best match for the necklace, both in theme and colour, so with the coord base from the 1 Dress 4 Looks post I switched a few things up and here we are. I must say that I’m pretty surprised at these socks, I didn’t expect them to be so soft and stretchy, even if the vertical stretch isn’t quite strong enough to stay over the knee for too long. Also, in case you missed the dramatics in my IG stories, when I ordered this necklace I completely did not realise that it was an actual tea bag with actual tea inside. Upon much debating the consensus is that the tea must be coated in something to preserve it, since the listing clearly forbids eating this tea, but at the price of Q-Pot I still feel like a sucker for falling for it. Living in the UK where moisture never really leaves the air and rains are frequent is not optimal for wearing tea bag jewellery.

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Coord 5: Blackpink

| AatP Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK | Lazy Oaf top | offbrand tights and hair clips | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania shoes | Antique Beast headdress | Ruby Rose clip | Voodoodolly ring | Star Glazed Delights ring | Banned Retro Bella belt |

Was it a bit much for just working from home? Sure. And I did contemplate just keeping it bare face and taking a mirror selfie with the phone obscuring my face. But ultimately wanting to give this coord idea a fair shot won.

May the power of big rings compel you.

Ngl, this coord was a little bit nicer in my head than it came out in real life. Some of it is because this was another work from home day, so I didn’t have the time or energy to do anything more elaborate with my hair. But part is just that this is a right mishmash of things that don’t necessarily want to gel with each other. However, since the weather cooled down enough to allow something like this and since I already had it on, on it stayed. If I keep this dress (and right now this is a serious internal debate), then one day I will take the time to ponder how to make this idea work.

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Coord 6: All the Shades of Blue

| BtSSB Dreaming Sherbet skirt | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Dancing Days cardigan | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Star socks | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand barrette, earrings, and necklace | Lady Sloth My Coffee Time brooches |

Casual(ish) frills for work and throwing all the shades of blue at the outfit until something resembling cohesion emerged. Not much more to say about it, really.

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I contemplated squeezing in one more coord before the post was due, but energy levels rejected that request. There was a time when dressing up six times in one month would’ve been so much, whereas now it’s around half of what I’ve been averaging over the last two years. And I keep telling myself that that’s ok. Circumstances aside (being ill, hottest weather on record, actually quite a lot of work), whilst wearing clothes that make me happy, well, makes me happy, lolita isn’t the only style I wear. Moreover, the whole idea behind my 2022 goal of taking more mirror selfies was to take away some of the pressure I’ve been feeling to document what I wear in favour of just enjoying myself. And on top of that there’s been another bit of a style crisis which I’m waiting out to see if it’s really a style crisis or if I’m just feeling summery. Hopefully the answer will become apparent soon!