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!