February Coords Roundup

February, by virtue of being the month of Valentine’s Day, is definitely the month of wearing reds and pinks. This year I deliberately set out to wear these two colours and to capitalise on wearing lovecore stuff as much as I could and looking at the outfits that I wore, I seem to have done very well. And once we include chocolate into the brief, then I pretty much nailed the assignment that was February!

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Coord 1: Girl Date

| Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK | The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Axes Femme cardigan | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | Amavel bag | Promised Land Creations necklace | offbrand belt |

This tiny necklace gets so much wear, but it's so tiny that it can disappear a little, so I wanted to give it some extra love and attention.

Ah yes, justifying owning a bag by using said bag.

At this point, we are still in January with the outfits, just after the January outfits post went up. I had this coord idea saved in my potentials in Whering, waiting for a good enough opportunity, and then a friend suggested a fairly last minute casual hangout. And nothing is more deserving of dressing up than a good friend! We pottered around Manchester city centre, going to all the typical lolita spots: Miniso, Kenji, Affleck’s Palace, Lazy Sundae, Thunder Egg… It was so fun to go with the flow and basically do what our teenage selves would do, but with the knowledge that we do have money to buy things (and then spend it on good food rather than cute tat).

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Coord 2: Serving Biscuits

| Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | A.R.W. blouse | DreamV cardigan | Innocent World Wendy OTKs | Sosic Shop shoes | Haruhi Clover headbow | Axes Femme earrings | Once Upon a Cookie Treat Jelly Cookie necklace | offbrand brooch | Angelic Pretty Melty Ribbon Chocolate ring | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

Not much to say about the styling, it's function first and aesthetic second, and it does the job.

This brooch was a purchase from just before Christmas and it hasn't had the chance to feature in an outfit yet. Why not now? A gingerbread house isn't just for Christmas, after all.

At least with my outfits because I certainly was not serving any of the eating kind on that day. The coord required a few tweaks from the original plan, mainly because I couldn’t be bothered to faff with my hair to make a bigger headbow work, and then it came together into something quite cute. Can’t say I’m raving necessarily, but I like it, it was pretty warm too and very comfortable for another WFH day. And the reasons why I wasn’t crazy mad about it gave me some food for thought about my style in general and what makes me feel happy to wear, which is also a good thing to ponder as it will help narrow my style down further.

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Coord 3: Casual Lovecore

| BtSSB Snow Dot skirt | vintage blouse | Snag tights | offbrand shoes, beret, and hair ties |

Proof that accessories matter in styling. Looking back at the photos, I wasn't so keen on the two braids in the previous picture, but I really like them here, yet all that's changed is the choice of headwear.

These hair ties are from this chain of accessory shops in South Korea called N. Cat, which is basically a Claire's but super cheap. To this day I am upset with myself that I didn't get them in pairs of colours, though there is something quite fun about having two colours too.

Trying to capitalise on free time and the lovecore season, even though I wasn’t doing anything particularly special. But for grocery shopping, a few minor chores, making magnets out of stickers, and a video call with a friend, this was perfect. Still love this skirt as much as I did last month. I still love Meta, but for all the (well deserved) rave about Meta’s fully shirred skirts, Baby’s do not get the appreciation they deserve and they are just as comfy and cute (and arguably more flattering since they’re a little longer?).

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Coord 4: Less Casual Lovecore

| Metamorphose Polka Dot skirt | offbrand top, hair ties, and jewellery | Snag tights | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes |

RIP hair styling, you barely lasted 20 minutes.

Finally getting to wear my Discord Secret Santa gift.

The tragic backstory of this coord is that I tested out a different hair curling method to get at the very least some wave into my hair, but it all fell out during the walk to work. But besides this, considering how the outfit had to multitask in being work appropriate, warm (hand on heart, our office is so cold I now keep a blanket in my bottom drawer), comfortable (damn surprise Aunt Irma visits), and cute enough for the Patreon A. Club meeting in the evening, it worked hard to tick off all of those boxes. It managed all that and some more (mostly a quick trip for some food where my earrings earned a compliment from the cashier), so an all round success in my eyes.

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Coord 5: A Bit of Chocolate

| Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | DreamV cutsew | Angelic Pretty Odekake Ribbon OTKs | Bodyline shoes | offbrand hair clip | Milkribbon Butterkeks brooch | Wonderbox Designs rosette |

This cutsew worked surprisingly well with the JSK in terms of neckline cuts and details. Gave me some mint chocolate maid vibes and for once in my life I wished that I had a maid style headpiece.

How have I owned this brooch for so long and only just now noticed that the little holes on it are hearts?

Mint and chocolate is not a flavour combination that I enjoy, but it is a great colour combination. It was hard to resist the pull of a comfy and cosy work from home coord and although the browns in this one are a tad on the warmer and brighter side than what is already within the print, hopefully the brooches manage to bring that into balance. Also, that was the first proper day of my using a new, pretty keyboard whilst working and my French dresser got delivered (a day early since a slot opened up), so all in all it was a very aesthetic day.

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Coord 6: Hearty Boy

| Metamorphose Wizarding Lesson shorts | vintage blouse | Snag tights | Sosic Shop shoes | Imogen’s Imagination beret | Kreation Studio earrings |

The emotional comfort of not needing to add any makeup for boystyle is very freeing.

The random sash that went with this release because I was lazy with my detail shot tbh.

Believe it or not, this outfit came about because as I was working out how many posts I had until the tea party in Rome coord would be ready to post and realised that one more outfit would get me really neatly to that. So one more work from home outfit it was, still perfectly on theme with all the Valentine’s Day motifs. And thank the Maker that I did dress up because honestly that Friday the universe was sending me every possible signal to not work and kept breaking things when I refused to drop my work, resulting in a lot of unnecessary stress, so at least I looked cute whilst stressing over stuff.

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Coord 7: Divina Commedia

| Alice Girl Velvet Cake OP | Annzley corset | handmade garter belt | Fan+Friend hoop skirt | Cutie Creator tights | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | Antique Beast Hecate headdress | Lady Lucks Boutique flower clips | Eulalia earrings | offbrand necklace |

Don't just me for feeling my ero look and sharing more of the spicy pictures I took, it was fun to be so different for one day.

Although the hostel courtyard background doesn't match my look, I love this selfie because my grey hairs are really coming out here. And my hair was at its floofiest here, freshly done and before any travel.

Also, fun little fact, the last time I wore this necklace was when I did a truly awful Corpse Bride costume. I never cleaned it properly of the green face paint I wore then, so there are still some traces of that on the inside. But hey, it's great that I kept it all these years, it really goes with this coord!

Honestly, this is what I spent most of my time doing at the event.

I will talk about the tea party in a bit more detail in a separate post soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Here let’s focus on the outfit because, well, it’s not often that Sexy Paulina makes a public appearance. With the theme of event and my travel partner being @tonblackberry, I felt compelled to join the #DemonBordello. Whilst the initial idea to use this particular OP came around fairly early on (it’s an OP, so comfortable and easy, plus it’s velvet so even had Rome decided to be chilly, it wouldn’t bother me), the coord had a few evolutions. The process of developing it made it clear just how much I’m not used to coordinating gothic looks and I am very grateful for friends offering very detailed and specific feedback that let me improve until I reached this final form. The devil is in the detail and the demon was within me, waiting to be released, and I am very pleased with the whole look. Going through such a concrit-heavy journey is inspiring me to talk about it in a bit more detail, but that’s something for further down the line. As for slutty demon Paulina and whether she will make a reappearance - well, you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you? ;) But the silent film star makeup and hair vibes are definitely going to have to come back at some point and I may or may not be already brainstorming some ideas.

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Coord 8: Food Tour

| Grove Deer Moon of Eternal Day OP | Lady Lucks Boutique flower clips | offbrand shoes |

This only just about counts as a casual lolita outfit, although I am very impressed that the F+F cage skirt did not show through this very floaty OP. The day after the tea party I joined a food tour planned by a lolita I met at the event for the first time and it was an absolute blast. How could it not be, since it involved what I enjoyed most about Rome: pottering around the pretty streets and eating good food? Also, please enjoy this cute candid of us during the tour.

I'm sorry, I really can't remember whose Instagram stories I pinched this from (I think Theresa's, but I'm not sure).

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Coord 9: Italian Renaissance

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | L’Esprit de la Noblesse Le Nuage blouse | Grove Deer Moon of Eternal Day OP worn as an underskirt, and the belt | Enchantlic Enchantilly Angel’s Ball Party tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Angelic Pretty Rose Garden Princess headbow | handmade hat and ring | offbrand snood | vintage beads and brooch | Enchanted Dream Wear necklace | Tiny Passerine Creations The Duchess’ Tea earrings | Patisserie Pink Lock and Key brooch |

I once again attempted a more peachy makeup and once again feel like the blush barely showed up despite there being a tonne of it as well as some colour correcting on my part. It must simply be what my face is like, it swallows up all the peachy tones.

Glad I got the picture because I broke the ring before I even left the house.

Is it obvious that the post-event blues hit me hard and that I was very inspired by my most recent trip? Probably, at least a little. However, you gotta hold onto those bursts of wanting to wear something more OTT when you can, even if it means you’re pretty OTT at a meetup designed to be casual and chill. But it was also a meetup at Whitworth Art Gallery and art galleries justify looking like a renaissance painting. The initial plan of this outfit did not involve an underskirt or belt and I’m glad that the plan changed because those extra layers of red really help bring it to the fore. On the day I also pondered keeping all my jewellery to sax, to echo the sax in the JSK, but decided ultimately against that and I have zero regrets. The meetup was absolutely lovely, our group seems to have made the day of a few employees at the gallery and their enthusiasm kind of made our day too. The (Un)Defining Queer exhibition they had on was particularly good, though the Open House one, which focused on wallpapers and included submissions from members of the public, was lovely too. Overall, a very nice day and an absolutely lovely conclusion to the social aspect of the month.

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Although I am seeing the end of February still pretty physically tired, my soul feels very refreshed and rejuvenated. Part of that is leftover positive vibes from attending a great international event and part is just seeing more daylight. We as humans are not that different from plants and the extra bit of sunshine helps so much. I still haven’t found an optimal balance between having more work responsibilities and them taking away the energy from creative pursuits, literally confining them to evenings and weekends, but the will to engage in creative pursuits is still there and that is just as important. Roll on March with all that it may have to offer - all the more if it includes some warmer spring days, those are what I am most in need of!

Bittersweet Capsule Wardrobe

Phwoar, to say that it’s been a while since I did a capsule wardrobe out of the pieces in my own collection would be a massive understatement! The last one was published in September 2021 and it’s all because doing these posts took up a lot of my time with all the collages. But now that I am using Whering, which removes backgrounds from pictures for me and is designed for putting together hypothetical outfits, I am hoping to get back on this wagon and finish going through the list of capsule wardrobe ideas that people have sent me way back when.

And I’m kicking off with one that is the least like what I wear: bittersweet, which I believe was suggested by @herroliness herself (and if not, then it would’ve been my other bittersweet enthusiast friend, @saltymadloli). Am I an expert on the subject? Far from it! I don’t wear bittersweet, I am very much at the entry level of pairing pastels with black, so please do not take any advice on bittersweet lolita from me. However, since the addition of the BtSSB Snow Dot skirt, I feel like my wardrobe could finally pull something at the very least bittersweet-adjacent, which is why I wanted to give this a go. And because it’s more fun to start off with a capsule that is a bit more challenging for me rather than going with something that I know I could easily do.

THE CAPSULE

Definitely click to enlarge! Since Whering is a mobile app, I can only do portrait orientation collages.

Even way back when, when this capsule was still only an idea consisting of stock pictures, my first choice was to go with black x sax as a colour scheme. We all know the black x pink or black x lavender bittersweet looks - neither is something that my wardrobe could stretch to an entire capsule. But I do own a lot of sax pieces, plus it felt a little bit more exciting since it isn’t necessarily the most obvious choice of colourways for the theme.

As I was going through the pieces, I also noticed an accidental (?) secondary theme of polka dots. It probably wasn’t avoidable given what I own, though this did genuinely just happen without any conscious intervention on my part. When picking the items to use, I was more focused on the colours and fabrics first, so it wasn’t until everything was already together that I noticed all the polka dot or dotted items in attendance.

Lastly, having arbitrarily limited myself to 25 pieces in total, I decided to skip adding a bag in favour of an extra hair piece. Truth be told, I don’t have a bag that would fit the theme of this wardrobe… Or actually, I do have a black bag with polka dots. It isn’t lolita, but it could work - but since it’s the only one, every coord would just be assumed to use that, so it didn’t seem that interesting to include it anyway.

Now, the proof is in the pudding, so let’s see how well my choices of items are faring when put to the outfit test, shall we?

COORDS

Lady Sloth's Look at My Dreamy Sky casual OP

The OP serves a couple of functions here. It’s a lazy option, but also one that can be dressed up. It sits in between the printed and the non-printed items, and can be coordinated as either. It can be a main piece or be used as a layer itself. Although it’s probably the most awkward of the shades of blue in this mix, at least having the black in between them helps to somewhat hide that.

Alice and the Pirates' Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK

Every capsule needs a fancier piece and that’s what this JSK is. The flocked velvet with glitter on organza is incredibly classy. At the same time, as my previous attempts have shown, this dress is both pretty sweet and pretty easy to tone down since that flocked velvet print isn’t necessarily the most immediately visible, certainly not on photos. Despite what it may seem to be as a standalone piece, it bridges the gap between the sweet and the bitter pretty well within this capsule.

Bodyline's Sweet Macaron JSK

Yes, I know that I’m not helping myself by going for a ‘sax’ that is objectively just sky blue. But since none of my saxes match anyway, I went with the more vibrant print, so that it can pull its weight against black as a base colour. And it does somehow manage to sit somewhere between the sax of the Lady Sloth OP and the sax of the Meta skirt. Plus, Bodyline doesn’t get enough appreciation for the pieces they did get right - let it have a moment to shine here.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright's Snow Dot skirt

The skirt that started it all and made me feel like putting together a bittersweet capsule was possible for me. It became an instant favourite from the moment it arrived, the textured fabric and the lace are simply exquisite. To me, maybe through the sort of exposure that I’ve had with this theme, bittersweet is an inherently more casual look and skirts make the most sense. This is why, regardless of my opinions on the other coords so far, these four feel the most bittersweet.

Metamorphose temps de fille's Bubble Bath skirt

At first I reached for my other BtSSB skirt before realising that this capsule could do with more prints. Bubble Bath is undeniably sweet and has proven itself in the past to work pretty neatly with black, which made it the best substitution. Even when styled in a more relaxed, casual way, the bold print still keeps it a bit more out-there than the solid coloured items. And for how bright and pastel it is, it does manage to hold up well to being paired with black.

FINAL WORDS

Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room and that is the collages themselves. Using Whering to create this capsule was an incredibly easy process, I could put each individual piece into a lookbook and then create away. Doing a set of four looks took no more than 20 minutes, including thinking and tinkering time, which should mean more capsule wardrobe posts in the future. At the same time, each image can only be layered under or over another, no further image editing is possible (besides resizing, that is). So I couldn't easily layer a cardigan over a blouse in a way that showed off the collar or that would hide the sleeves. Moreover, and that could be to do with my phone, but the app doesn't feel like it has enough space in the outfit creating interface, making the collages feel crammed in. The app is very obviously designed for mainstream Western fashions and it shows in little bits like this, even though I really enjoy using it for outfit planning. It may take me a while to figure out a more aesthetically pleasing way of arranging these collages, so just bear with me for now, please.

As far as bittersweet capsule wardrobes go, there is a lot of room for improvement here. But as far as what I could manage with that theme, this isn’t a bad attempt at all. Not every coord pictured here is strictly bittersweet, however, I wanted to show that this capsule wasn’t a one-trick pony and has more to offer. Some of these coords are blatant reuses of outfits I’ve done in the past, while others might end up in my bank for potential wear later. Sure, this isn’t my first choice of colour combinations or themes, but it’s still clothes that I own, so having the options is great. Despite using only 25 items in total and despite definitely relying on base sets that I knew worked, I didn't feel like I was running out of options to try.

Now, I’m not promising to return to making these capsule wardrobe posts on any sort of regular or even semi-regular basis. They will happen as and when I feel inspired to do them. At the same time, I’m not denying that thanks to Whering these have stopped becoming a chore that I avoided, so it shouldn’t be another 16 months before a new one of these happens again. As always, if there are themes that you’d like to see me attempt using the clothes that I currently own, let me know in whatever way feels the most comfortable for you. Whether in a comment here, via an Instagram DM, through email, YouTube, Patreon - I am bound to pick this up one way or another and would love to add to selection that is still waiting its turn since I first gathered a bunch of ideas.

Ranking Doughnut Prints for Fat Thursday

One of my favourite pieces of Polish culture to introduce people to is Fat Thursday. (As a translator, my minor gripe is that Greasy Thursday would’ve been more accurate, since the Polish adjective “tłusty” carries both the meaning of “fat” and “greasy”, but Fat Thursday is what stuck.) In short, when the English gorge on pancakes on the Tuesday before Lent, Polish people gorge on doughnuts (and some other fried dough sweets) on the Thursday before. I don’t care whether you participate in Lent, everyone is welcome to eat some doughnuts on that day, go treat yourself next Thursday, February 16th.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

Very unfortunately for me though, I will be in Italy at that time and won’t be able to make my usual trip to get some Polish doughnuts - big sad. So instead, and to engage with doughnuts beyond just eating, as someone who doesn’t own a single print with these sweets and doesn’t feel any particular need to, I’m going to rank the ones that I’ve found on Lolibrary for everyone’s entertainment, though mostly my own. For clarity, I will only be ranking the print designs, not the dress designs, to keep things fair. All on a scale of 1 to 5 doughnuts, of course.

Angelic Pretty Melty Cream Doughnut

Photo from Lolibrary.org

Gotta start with the most famous one! It is a classic and the fact that it’s an all-over print appeals to me a lot. Whilst the glazed ring doughnuts make my teeth hurt just by looking at them, I like that the print includes the crullers doughnuts, which I used to love as a child.
4 out of 5 doughnuts

Emily Temple Cute Cutlery & Doughnuts

Photo from Lolibrary.org

The addition of the cutlery breaks the print up in a very pleasing way and tones down some of the sugar overload. At the same time, there does seem to be more cutlery than doughnuts, which in this particular ranking counts against the print. The crullers once again makes an appearance next to your standard glazed ring doughnuts, earning the print a respectable
4 out of 5 doughnuts

Leur Getter Doughnut Print

Photo from Lolibrary.org

Simple, but almost too simple for my taste. Although I like the almost cascading layout, as if doughnuts were falling from the sky and piling around the skirt in a more border print-like manner, there really isn’t much going on there to compliment the doughnuts. The chocolate bunnies distract me from the main dessert and the doughnuts themselves look pretty basic.
2 out of 5 doughnuts

V-Castle Cute Doughnut

Photo from Lolibrary.org

These doughnuts look a lot less oversweetened, almost a more mature treat for the sophisticated people. I would’ve liked to see a bit more colour variety, as the all-brown colour palette gets boring very quickly, but there’s also a timeless elegance about it. The mini doughnuts look the most tasty to me.
3 out of 5 doughnuts

Captain Meow Doughnut Cat

Photo from Lolibrary.org

They had me at doughnut and kept me at cat! The simplicity of these doughnuts looks as tasty as it looks cute, like straight out of a trendy cafe somewhere in Seoul (don’t ask me why Seoul in particular). The diagonal banners with the brand’s name having the most contrast in the whole print is a bit distracting and takes the attention away from frickin’ cat-eared doughnuts. If they had tweaked the contrast on this print a little, this would’ve been the one.
4.5 out of 5 doughnuts

Leur Getter Colorful Donuts

Photo from Lolibrary.org

We’re getting into the prints with the American spelling now. Although the doughnuts themselves still look toothache-inducing, the overall design is much more pleasing. I would’ve liked to see different background colourways - the muted tones help highlight the brighter tones of the doughnuts, but those shades of grey and blue are just weird. The pink colourway is the most pleasing one. Besides that, it’s a lovely doughnut print - nothing major to complain about, but also nothing major to rave about.
3 out of 5 doughnuts

Le Carrousel Dreamy Donuts

Photo from Lolibrary.org

Our first and only Western indie entry. And I gotta say, whilst I wouldn’t want to eat any of these particular doughnuts, at least Le Carrousel committed to making a sweet print. The colours are wonderfully bright and the doughnuts pop against the white fabric without straying into neon territory. I’m a magpie attracted to colours, so I’ll give this one a
4 out of 5 doughnuts

Emily Temple Cute Many Donuts

Photo from Lolibrary.org

Dare I say “hell yes!”? This is my favourite doughnut print of the lot. We have variety (ring doughnuts, crullers AND heart-shaped churros? Yes, please!), we have extras that don’t overshadow the main star of the show (and a tart cherry feels like a great palate cleanser after a super sweet doughnut), we have good contrast and complementary choices of colourways… And most importantly, I would quite happily nom some of these.
5 out of 5 doughnuts

Anna House Teddy Donuts

Photo from Lolibrary.org

Not that coming last right after such a strong contender was ever going to be easy, but I feel like Anna House didn’t really help themselves either with this choice of fabric. First of all, this is very clearly more about the teddy bears than about the doughnuts. Secondly, the entire design looks like it lived in the children’s section of the fabric shop and it’s overall a bit too childish for my taste to work in a lolita setting. I should probably disqualify it, but since it exists out there and does call attention to the doughnuts through the print name…
1 out of 5 doughnuts (just because there at least are some doughnuts on the print)


The above ranking focused on prints that included doughnuts in the name or otherwise made it clear that this was the primary motif. Browsing through the “doughnut’ tag on Lolibrary brought up several more prints that feature this tasty treat somewhere else in the design, but as they were made to share the stage with other motifs, it didn’t seem fair to judge them. In the end, I am sad to not see the Polish doughnuts, or anything similar to them, represented in any of the prints I could find, though I am pleased to have found at least one release that scored full marks.

As I said, Fat Thursday is for all to enjoy, so go treat yourself to a doughnut or two. Preferably two. I’m firmly of the opinion that doughnuts have to be eaten in even numbers as then they distribute themselves evenly inside your body.

1 Dress 4 Looks Take 64

Turns out one doesn’t stop buying new main pieces so easily. The Snow Dot skirt from Baby turned up on Xianyu for a price too good to resist and now it lives with me. Mine is the re-release and FYI, in case any of you were considering getting your paws on it - do! The moment it arrived to me, I was in awe at all that cotton and lace loveliness. And even though I plan on it being more of an everyday/casual skirt, that doesn’t mean that I can’t play with some other ideas in the background.

Look 1: Token Retro

| The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Dancing Days cardigan | Angelic Pretty Fancy Candy OTKs | offbrand heels, earrings, necklace, and bracelet | Eat Me hair tie | Sweet Dolly House ring |

Hello and welcome to Tricolour But With Black. There’s never a bad time to throw a retro-inspired coord with a tricolour scheme, which is why I’m kicking off with that. Yes, a blouse with a black collar would’ve been better, but in the absence of one this one can tie in the lighter stripes of the socks a bit better. As always, imagine this with a curly ponytail and retro makeup for a full look.

Look 2: Token Oldschool

| BtSSB 134*405 shirring blouse | offbrand socks, shoes, and beret | Cutie Creator wrist cuffs |

One of the great things about these posts is that I don’t actually have to wear the looks featured here and can focus on exploring ideas this way. Oldschool isn’t my jam, but this skirt leans itself so well into oldschool being a rerelease of an actual oldschool design and all. Though because it’s not a style that I wear, I very clearly lack the pieces for it and it shows. Imagine this with a ringlet wig, that would hopefully pull the look together a bit more.

Look 3: Token Goth

| offbrand blouse and ring | Annzley corset | Teja Jamilla tights | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | Antique Beast headdress | After Midnight necklace | Eulalia earrings | Lauralp pin | 

Yes, I am aware that this is a sweet skirt. But I can simultaneously grumble at people putting together an all black coord with sweet pieces and calling it gothic, and use my own black sweet piece to create a gothic coordinate out of. And hand on heart, this may be my favourite here? The textures of all these black pieces work so harmoniously together.

Look 4: Token Bittersweet

| Dear Celine Polka Dot Waltz blouse | Angelic Pretty Sealing Border OTKs | Topshop boots | Cutie Creator black headbow | Ruby Rose clip | vintage minihat clip | Star Glazed Delights ring | Fluffy Tori patch | Banned Retro Bella belt |

Am I doing it? Guys, am I doing it? Even if not, I am so pleased with this coord and the more emo nods within it. There’s a mini hat, striped socks, chunky(ish) boots, the phrase “black is my happy colour” - all we need is some eyeliner and a playlist. Part of me wishes I still had my skull-print arm warmers with the iconic thumb hole. Those were iconic...


The beauty of a simple black skirt is that I could’ve done so many other tokens: token circus lolita, token punk, token sailor, token larme, token dark academia… You name it, it’s very likely possible to do. And despite what I said at the beginning, there are some looks in here (as well as some that only flashed through my head as initial ideas) that I actually would love to throw on my body. Will this be the skirt that will turn me over to the dark side? That may be a bit of a far fetched claim for now, but I’m old enough to know to never say never.