June Coords Roundup

Hello, July, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes? Wanna wave goodbye to June with me?

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Coord 1: Summer ILD

| BtSSB Soiree of the Beginning of My Memories JSK | Infanta blouse | replica socks | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | vintage hat, necklace and brooch | offbrand earrings, bracelets and rings | Love from the North pin |

The dilemma between wanting to have the drama of wearing a veil and not wanting to be rude whilst talking to people was so real.

Framing one brooch with another.

The first time that I had the energy and will to dress up in June was, quite fortunately, for Summer ILD that I was hosting. Nothing was speaking to me in any particularly strong way coord-wise, so I once again dipped into the 1 Dress 4 Looks posts to pick something that was ready-made and tweaked it for my needs. We went to The Midland Hotel for the tea, which did not disappoint, delivering excellent tea spread, excellent service, and an excellent atmosphere. Whilst none of us cared about the platinum jubilee, the photo set the hotel had in their lobby was too good to not take advantage of and with some clever angling it was possible to hide the “God save the Queen” writing on the mirror. Afterwards we headed into town to admire the flower show displays, where we got chatting with two lovely people running one of the stalls who were really incredible, not only letting us take photos with their stalls, but keeping street paparazzi at bay for us. 10/10 best people, they really made our day.

The excellent tea spread.

And all the Platinum Jubilee themed sweets. The one time when I'm not wearing tricolour and didn't have all of this match my outfit...

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Coord 2: Film Noir

| Haenuli Just One Bite JSK | L’Esprit de la Noblesse Le Nuage blouse | Innocent World Union Flag Lame OTKs | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | vintage hat | offbrand earring | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace | Wicked and Whimsy ring |

Day 2 rescue curls that somehow ended up looking waaay better than the day 1 ones. Hair gods are so fickle!

My husband? Dead? How... tragic.

Another outfit that multitasked hard and that I wrote more about in a separate post here.

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Coord 3: Wedding Meet

| Baroque Repose of Queen OP | Miss Point corset | offbrand tights, tiara, earrings, ring and bouquet | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | vintage necklace and gloves |

To be honest, I'm not keen on any selfies I took that day, which sucks because I really liked this look in person. It sucks when a bad selfie day happens on a great look day, but it happens.

This bouquet fully passed the test of being wedding-appropriate.

This coord is brought to you by the kind souls on my Discord server. The meetup was coming up fast and I knew I wanted to wear this dress, since it’s arguably my most bridal one - but the week has wiped me out of all spoons and brain cells. Thankfully in our community it’s perfectly fine to ask others to style you, so between about three people this coord was created, not a single addition from me was made (other than hair and makeup choices) and I could not be happier with the look. The meetup was also really lovely, Leeds Minster were really nice about us basically doing a vanity photoshoot there (they’ve asked for a donation, so all of us gave at least the minimum asked), and overall we had a very chill time. Everyone agreed that going back to basics and doing lower energy meetups is still very much needed as we slowly re-enter the post-pandemic world, and being fancy with fancy friends was such a great reset for my fried brain.

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Coord 4: Apple of My Eye

| Chrysanthemum’s Concerto Lost in the Garden of Eden JSK | Metamorphose blouse | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Tabio socks | Bodyline shoes | Two Days Slow hair clips | offbrand necklace |

You can juuust about make out the green eyeshadow I was wearing, which I absolutely adore.

These shoes are a bit too beat up for closeups like this, but since the coord was put together around the socks, they had to be the detail shot.

My friends linked me these socks some time ago and they lived in my head rent-free for long enough to be a sign that they should live rent-free in my drawer. And once they arrived, even though I didn’t plan on including them with lolita coords, the inspiration was there. I would’ve loved to have a matching green short sleeve blouse instead of this bolero, which is a bit too classic for the rest of the coord, but that’s the best colour-matching thing in my possession right now, so it had to do. And I do really like this coordinate, it’s very fresh and just the right look for such a cute pair of socks.

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Coord 5: Solo Date

| Victorian Maiden Shirring Frill JSK | Cutie Creator headbow | Summer Tales Boutique necklace | Grimoire brooch | everything else is offbrand |

Did my makeup all in peachy tones and whilst I love it, those peachy tones do not work on me unless I have full foundation on underneath. There go my plans of doing quick peach-toned looks.

An aesthetic cluster of accessories.

It started with my spontaneously booking a cinema ticket, which then grew into a whole occasion for a little me-time. And what me-time is complete without dressing up? The weather forecast promised more warmth than I ended up getting, but it’s fine, I walked everywhere (hence the practical shoes) and warmed up. The staff at the restaurant where I had my breakfast were very complimentary of the dress too. Since I needed practical shoes, I coorded everything else around them, aiming for something mori-kei-inspired with natural themes and neutral colours. The solo date went so well that I want to make it a more regular thing, so here’s to hoping!

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Coord 6: Retro Sweet

| Metamorphose Bubble Bath skirt | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | offbrand socks and necklace | Sosic Shop shoes | Pink Up Fanny’s Dressing Table clip | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury brooch | Angelic Pretty Cute Ribbon wrist cuffs | Candy Kitsch ring |

The fringe and curly ponytail is such an excellent quick look and great for summer too!

Kitty says "Moisturise".

It could be the hairstyle, but I felt like the female lead of some high school rom com set in the 50s - or a 50s makeup counter assistant, either is fine with me! The blouse is new and I wanted to test how it would look with sweet lolita before fully committing to adding it to that side of my wardrobe, and given where my preferences currently lie, I think it passes the test. I may even get it in a few more colours, if my size is restocked.

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Coord 7: Feeling Cool

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring Pinafore JSK | offbrand top | Snag White Russian fishnets | Irregular Choice High Score shoes | bow clip from Lady Sloth’s Winter Spices skirt | belta from Meta’s Airline JSK | Big Pink Boutique earrings | Fluffy Tori pins | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

Told you this hairstyle was a mood! Also, the eyeshadow was one that I got for free from my building's Corridor of Gifts (i.e. where everyone leaves their unwanted stuff - it was completely new and unused).

Repping the kawaii dotty life.

Recycling the hairstyle from the previous day and inspired by a friend’s coord I decided to do something that was skirting the definition of lolita. There was also a significant amount of guilt that these shoes haven’t seen much wear, so I coordinated everything around them. Is it lolita? Hm, questionable. Is it cool tho? 1000%! And as I was thinking about where everything is from, I realised that despite having some expensive pieces this coord is actually one of my least expensive ones purely because I was gifted a lot of these pieces. Now that’s a real win here!

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Coord 8: Country Skies

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky OP | offbrand socks and bolero | Sosic Shop shoes | Cutie Creator hat |

A hat is your friend if you want to pass off lazy hairstyles as fancier than they acually are. If you can call brushed hair left alone a hairstyle.

Let me go on a picnic, dammit!

Times have once again called for summery looks and I realised that for how great this dress would be with a straw hat, that hasn’t happened so far. Uncomplicated, very basic, but it was cute and comfortable for working from home and trying to make it to the weekend with at least one marble still intact.

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Coord 9: Brunch In

| Grove Deer Moon of Eternal Day OP | Innocent World bolero | Angelic Pretty Wrapping Cherry socks | Irregular Choice sandals | offbrand hair clip and earrings | My Inspiration brooch | handmade bracelets |

Brunch at home deserves nice looks too!

Lace appreciation photo. This kind of lace is a chore whenever you wash it, as you have to make sure to straighten it whilst it's still damp, but dang is it worth it.

Inspired by the previous Sunday’s trip out, I really wanted to do something like that again, however, my bank account said a firm no. So instead I decided to make the fancy brunch be an at-home occasion. Because fancy things can be at home too and deserve dressing up equally as much. And with a change of shoes a bit later the supermarket also got to admire this look.

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Coord 10: The Wench

| Innocent World White Double Braid Tartan skirt | offbrand dress as a top | apron from BtSSB’s Polonaise Brillante JSK | Pairs Scotland socks | Hush Puppies boots | Kaneko headdress | Summer Tales Boutique necklace | My Inspiration necklace |

My goal with these curls was something more, well, hobbity, but that didn't work out. However, I think that this was an accidental insight into how to get some more 70s curls, so stay tuned for further experimentation!

Sure, the embroidery nbrooch is nice, but I am also here for the texture of the cotton dress underneath.

I debated with myself whether to share this look here since it isn’t lolita, it just happens to use some lolita pieces. But the usual ‘my blog, my rules’ aside, I think it’s good to show how you can use lolita pieces to create non-lolita looks too. What I really wish that I owned was a front laced corset vest, but alas, that will have to wait. All that you see here was my attempt at getting that cottagecore wench/summertime hobbit look down with what I currently own because I saw one too many ‘get ready with me for ren faire’ reels on Instagram that featured Celtic Woman’s Téir Abhaile Riú as the background track. And because I’ve been in a mood to rewatch Lord of the Rings for longer than I can recall and it still hasn’t happened, and I am physically itching.

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Coord 11: Office Sunshine

| Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky OP | Sosic Shop shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto beret | offbrand earrings |

This look either had the beret on or the shoes, not once during the whole day were both of these on at the same time.

Proof that this beret goes exquisitely well with this dress.

And wrapping the post up with another non-lolita look because this beret has finally arrived and I simply had to wear it with this dress asap. Even though asap meant to the office, so of course I wasn’t going to sit in the office with a beret on, despite really wanting to. And even though it was quite warm so there is absolutely no legwear here and this is just a dress with a petticoat. But stuff it, sometimes you have to be the sliver of blue skies in your office and I take my role of being that person very seriously.

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Not going to lie, I am a bit surprised that I managed (arguably) 11 coords this month. After giving myself a pass to dress up less it seems that the need to do so still eventually caught up with me. The date stamps very clearly mark a turning point around mid-month, when my stress levels finally started going down enough to free up energy for creative pursuits. Although truth be told, this month was mostly a blur, it feels more like one very long week rather than a month and even looking at these outfits the days they were worn on kind of blend into each other with the earlier ones seeming like they’re from another life. Also, I am once again realising that my wardrobe is not made for summery weather, I’m struggling for options and am longing to be able to layer up in cardigans a bit more comfortably. Probably won’t happen for a while though, so that’s something I will have to address some other way. I shouldn’t complain, true summery warmth is a rarity for me and I have enjoyed being able to go out bare legged and stuff. I just also want to wear the cute cardigans that I have.