October Coords Roundup

Honestly, October started a lot better than it’s finishing. Not in like a major way, but in my greed I picked up an extra one-off job at a time when my full-time one was getting more intense and spent the last week doing nothing but work and basic human functions.Hey, at least until then I managed to wear a few cute things!

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Coord 1: Comedy Friday

| Innocent World Georges Rose JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Ireland’s Eye sweater vest | Snag tights | Tabio socks | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand earrings | handmade (not by me) brooch | Enchantlic Enchantilly necklace |

If I remember right, that was during my spell of wearing more mascara, which really does make a difference.

The colours on this necklace are so faint that capturing them isn't easy, really glad I managed here.

Still in September (but just after the September Coords Roundup post went up) I went to Jon Richardson’s comedy show called The Knitwit. In honour of his love of cardigans, I knew I had to wear my sweater vest and after a while I landed on this utterly grandparent combo of florals, knitwear, and lace. Super cosy, super cute, still getting to use my spring/summer pieces before they got packed up, and relatively toasty. All that I was missing was some Werther’s Original sweeties (which I started craving as soon as I typed this out).

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Coord 2: Seeing a Friend

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme jumper | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | offbrand shoes and necklace | Cutie Creator headbow | Cosy Kawaii Mood earrings |

Initially I wasn't sure about this necklace. Maybe I should get an actual detachable collar?

I hate the taste of coffee, but love everything else: smell, warmth, aesthetic.

I spent the weekend in Liverpool, seeing a friend who’d moved there only a few months before. Taking advantage of the weather being somewhat mild and somewhat dry, I of course dressed up, though kept it on the more casual side. The earrings were the main inspiration. For someone who does not drink coffee I am chuffed to bits with them and have some other cosy looks in mind. It was also great to hang out with my friend, see his new place, see a little bit of Liverpool, and most importantly chat until the wee hours of the morning.

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Coord 3: Princess at Home

| Angelic Pretty Flower Garden JSK | Millefleurs Georgette blouse | BtSSB Dreaming Sherbet skirt | Angelic Pretty Salon de The Rose OTKs | offbrand boots and earrings | Le Petit Four headpiece | Violet Fane Le Portrait De La Reine necklace | handmade (not by me) brooch | Slightly Ghosts Forget-Me-Not pin | handmade ring | Tiny Passerine Creations ring | handmade (not by me) ring |

Slowly working out low effort hairstyles that give me the volume of hair that I need for fancier looks when I work from home. Except that I can't quite remember what I did here...

FINALLY! Nearly a whole year after getting this ring I found a coord to use it in!

Was this entirely excessive for a day of working at home and some chores? Oh, absolutely, totally. And very impractical too. But it made me very happy to sit around and be a princess with all the lace bits and stuff. Both the layering and the muted dusty tones of each piece came together so well. The last huzzah pre-packing for the colder months for this JSK, although the long sleeves, OTKs, and boots kind of make it quite autumn appropriate. Yes, all of this made me very happy indeed on an otherwise quite mundane Thursday.

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Coord 4: Comfy and Cosy

| Metamorphose Shirring Tiered Ribbon JSK | Axes Femme top | Innocent World OTKs | Laura Ashley shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto beret | handmade (not by me) headbow | offbrand necklace | Lady Sloth My Coffee Time brooches | Peppermint Fox brooch |

Seriously, in person you'd never think that this bow is so massive. But point a camera at it and the diva wants to steal all of the spotlight.

So, Paulina, do you like tea? Why, yes, what gave it away?

This is one of those absolutely not groundbreaking looks that is still different enough from its previous iterations that it appealed to me. I may need to rethink the proportions of this headbow as it  photographs as so much larger than it is and balancing it out gets a little tricky. But beyond that I have no major reflections on this coord. It was the end of the week that I was very much looking forward to having over and done with, so low energy motivated the comfy layers and cosy vibes are an absolute necessity for October evenings.

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Coord 5: Casual Meetup

| Wonderland Ukiyoe Lilith’s Collection skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Red Maria tights | Hush Puppies boots | Angelic Pretty Classical Petit Rose headbow | handmade earrings | offbrand brooch and rings |

Thinking about those amazing colour matches with pieces that are completely unrelated.

For a while now I've wanted a main piece that did this. And now I finally have one.

CLAM had a very casual meetup to go to Wagamama for lunch and then potter around. With there being no theme, the weather being way too warm for October, and me not quite feeling the spooks, I opted for the next logical idea for an outfit which was to wear my most recent acquisition. On paper this is a skirt and a cutsew, so fits the casual meetup vibe, even if in practice this is much fancier than just a skirt and a cutsew. I must say, I really love this skirt! It is heavy. So heavy that, worried that it might kill my Aurora and Ariel petticoat, I decided to wear two petticoats and so that I wouldn’t have to carry that weight - a corset. It will also take a bit of getting used to as this is longer and more voluminous than most of my dresses, not just lolita. Walking in it, especially stairs, is a very different feat. But I am very much enjoying it and can’t wait to wear it more (as shown by the 1 Dress 4 Looks post with it). Back to the outfit though, it really was a no-thinking kind of affair, very traditionally classic lolita, and it impressed others in attendance with my luck in colour matching this particular shade of light grassy green. The meetup ended up a lot larger than I anticipated, which was nice, lots of new people, excellent vibes, and this was a great day all around.

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Coord 6: Pumpkin Spice

| Lady Sloth Winter Spices skirt and necklace | offbrand top | Snag Papaya tights | Bodyline shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto beret | Toadstool House Art brooch |

I have since acquired a better lipstick for autumn that I have basically been living in since it arrived.

Gourds are by far the best thing about autumn.

Yes, I am also a pumpkin spice girlie now (though I prefer to take mine in savoury form - so far I made a pie and found a bread). Been thinking about adding an orange top to my wardrobe overall since probably last year and finally committed this year when I found this one BNWT on Vinted for like £4. Also, fun fact: even though this skirt is one of my designated winter pieces, I somehow missed it out when packing stuff for spring/summer, so it’s actually been sitting in my wardrobe this entire time. But I refrained from wearing it, even though I could have, and I’m quite glad because this coord is a worthy first outing of the year. Yeah, it’s giving a little bit of Velma from Scooby Doo, but I’m not mad at that.

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Coord 7: Eras

| AatP Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK | offbrand cutsew, jacket, boots, hat, earrings, and brooches | Angelic Pretty Crown Ribbon OTKs | Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Puvithel Crystal Heart brooch | MandaRin Designs brooches | Love from the North pin | vintage brooches | Lady Sloth My Coffee Time brooch | Sweet Dolly House Snowflake Cookie brooch | Magical Mews Swan Hoe pin | handmade ring |

Ok, I did ditch the hat after the photos, I wasn't feeling that brave to stick out even more.

A brooch for every mood. Looking back this is somehow giving big 80s vibes - probably because the jacket is likely from around the 80s.

I would not consider myself a Swiftie, however, I do enjoy Taylor Swift’s music. In other words, I would not have paid my own money for the bloodbath that was the tour tickets sale, but I was happy to see that at the cinema. And of course I had to dress up, though I was very torn on what to wear (or how). So I did the smartest thing ever: I messaged @lena_golita (who is a much bigger fan than I am) asking for help and she basically ended up putting this whole thing for me based on some of my favourite songs and my wardrobe. The outfit is based off Taylor Swift’s Red Tour look from 2014 and even though the brooches are an eclectic bunch, they all hold meaning in relation to Taylor Swift’s common motifs in lyrics (which I kindly received a cheat sheet for).

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Coord 8: Elegant Witch

| Alice Girl Velvet Cake OP | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | offbrand boots, choker, rings, and brooch | Rose Thorn hat | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto necklace | Patisserie Pink Bottled Stardust brooch | Dalao Home wig |

The mahoosive hat is back, baby!

As is usually the case, this is a brooch that I was going to give away to someone and am now finding uses for.

Filming a Halloween themed video required at least an attempt at matching the theme and in not wanting to overcomplicate things for myself, an OP was the natural choice. The outfit came together pretty much just as I had wanted it to (though only now, as I type this, I remember that I was also considering another layer that I totally forgot about - oh well). This hat is so massive that floppage of some sort is completely unavoidable. The video is already out, so if you want some hot takes, head over to my YouTube channel.

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Coord 9: Shimmer

| Song and Temple Fairytale Library skirt and clip | Axes Femme cutsew | Angelic Pretty Glitter Knit cardigan | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Patisserie Pink Bookshelf brooch |

Students are back and my selfie spot is too open, so this is the best of the bunch I took in extreme haste.

Attempting to capture some of that shimmer.

The main reason for dressing up somewhat to the office was that I wanted to try these shoes and break them in a little bit before wearing them all weekend at the end of that week. Even though I have two pairs of Elf Armorie shoes, those are suede, whilst this one is a stiffer pleather or something material. I needn’t have worried because of course they’re just as comfortable, but at least I looked cute at the office. With Taylor Swift’s Bejewelled stuck in my head leaning into a shimmery theme was quite natural: pretty much every layer has something shiny or shimmery, I even bothered with a sparkly eyeshadow for once (whereas for the office I usually only do lipstick).

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Coord 10: Red

| Metamorphose Classical Sister OP | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | offbrand hat, jacket, and choker | Magical Mews Swan Hoe pin | Love from the North pin |

This is the more autumnal lipstick I mentioned earlier. It's so good, I'm lowkey obsessed.

Why wouldn't you wear the MetamorHoe pin when given a chance?

Before the swiftie intervention, this was the rough outfit idea I had for seeing The Eras Tour, as inspired by the album cover of Red (Taylor’s Version). The outfit was too nice to waste, so I wore it the week after that for working from home and to see a musical in the evening, one called “Cheeky Little Brown”. Mostly though I just wanted to be autumnal, the mood was certainly there. Since the outfit is long sleeve OP based, there isn’t that much to say about it…

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Coord 11: Celestial Witch

| Angelic Pretty Crystal Dream Carnival Tiered JSK | Bodyline L581 blouse | Metamorphose Snow Crystal OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Rose Thorn witch hat | offbrand earrings | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace | Gravelvet Iridescent Princess necklace | Patisserie Pink Bottled Stardust brooch | vii ring | Lady Sloth Welcome to My Dollhouse underskirt | Boguta underskirt | Glasses Lit glasses |

Finally a makeup look worth talking about, something different. Not quite what I pulled off Pinterest for my inspiration, as apparently none of my blue eyeshadows are pigmented enough, but still really fun. I might do this pink under the eye more often, I like it quite a lot.

ALL the sparlies.

The Leeds comm got a community stall at the Leeds Alternative Market and so I went to show support. Whilst the event is geared at the more widely known kinds of alternative, everyone is welcome - it’s just that various sorts of goth, steampunk, and hippie vendors are the most prevalent. I decided not to engage with the goth side and instead embraced the alternative in this celestial witchy form (witcihng twice during Halloween Month, tis truly a blessing). It was certainly on the more dressy side of things, but it brought me tonnes of joy since the outfit really came together exactly as I envisaged it. And it clearly resonated with others because the number of times that people complimented me and said something nice, as well as the absolute diversity of people who did so, made my day, I felt like I was bewitching everyone with good vibes and spreading some positivity, which made all the effort of dressing up like this 110% worth it! The market was also great to browse, whilst not much appealed to me directly, I still bought a few little bits and took a whole bunch of business cards to look at people’s stuff later, without the background noise. I think this may become more of an annual thing for us given how many we were able to stop and talk to, as well as point blank recruit to the comm, and I look forward to that.

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On Halloween itself I have a big meeting at work where we present people for their final awards. Whilst Academic Trick or Treat: Award or Resit, as I’ve started to call it, isn’t worthy enough of fully dressing in frills, I will try to sneak in a bat brooch or something into my outfit for the day. Other than that (and other than rest after this week) I am looking forward to November and getting a little bit more cosy, as well as getting ready for Christmas and going to Japan (which I booked earlier this month, yaaaay!). Some of that will get its own posts here - and some of it won’t. Either way, hopefully you all enjoyed/are enjoying Spooky Month and aren’t dreading the upcoming season after it.