1 Dress 4 Looks Take 69

Not to kick the post off with crass, but ooohhh yeahhh!

Now that I have this out of my system, it really is an ooohhh yeahhh because this is my first Physical Drop piece, called simply Long Sleeve Shirring Dress, and one that I was able to buy at their branch in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo. It’s such a fancy OP that I don’t really want to tone it down too much, but you know me, always up for having options.

Look 1: Layered Elegance

| Hoshibako Works corset | Angelic Pretty Brigitte Regimen OTKs | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | Vierge Vampur bonnet | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace | Tiny Passerine Creations The Duchesss' Tea earrings | Le Petit Four bracelet | handmade ring |

As per the introduction, it’s a fancy OP, let’s wear it in fancy ways. There is nothing complicated about this first coord, which is precisely why it works so well. Wine red and gold accents compliment one another perfectly and the simplicity of the styling is what exudes elegance. Not everything needs to be OTT in terms of the number of things to look elegant and fancy. Also, I am still annoyed that I misplaced my Puvithel red earrings. I know that they are somewhere in my house, but for the life of me I cannot thing where of the places I haven’t looked yet they could be!

Look 2: Nods to Vintage

| Innocent World Tulle Lace Millefeuille volero | vintage hat and brooch | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | offbrand earrings, necklace, and ring |

Layering long sleeve OPs is not always easy, though thankfully the fabric of this one is light enough to allow for at least some layering. And how could I not try at least one of my Millefeuille boleros with this? It may seem like the hat and the bolero are too much ivory at the top, but you need to imagine this with a red wig that would offset that. In a way all of those neutral colours are helping to tone down some of the inherent fanciness of this OP cut. Not all of it, this is still a very elegant outfit - but you can totally see this being worn to go antiquing, for example, it doesn’t have to be contained to fancy tea rooms.

Look 3: Ero

| Annzley corset | handmade garter belt | offbrand tights, hair clip, and brooch | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania shoes | Pauline Garden headpiece | Estrellas Bright Star choker | Puvithel Crystal Heart necklace | vintage brooch | AatP Tulle Lace wrist cuffs | Star Glazed Delights Brandwhore ring |

First of all, you have to imagine this worn off-shoulder. This is quite crucial styling that a flatlay just cannot convey. It's also very likely that the garter belt would be used to lift parts of the skirt and show off a cage skirt underneath. Simple yet effective. I like how this has somehow ended up being the most intricate coord of the post, there is a lot of layering here that adds tonnes of visual interest and dimension. Which feels like an accomplishment given that black is not very prominent in my wardrobe.

Look 4: Kitchen Witch

| Rose Thorn hat | handmade apron | BtSSB Border OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Q-Pot Teabag necklace | Patisserie Pink Bottled Stardust brooch | Erstwilder Potentially Poisoned Chalice brooch |

This one last coord is a spin on a similar one that I wore in October of last year. But with a more homely twist. I am way more of a cottagecore kind of witch than a typical Halloween one and this coord manages that playful vibe. Striped socks for whimsy, apron for practicality, and quirky jewellery for approachability. That's my recipe for becoming your cute local witch. Also, looking at the flatlay, this coord doesn't read very interesting, it reads a little empty. Once again, styling (hair and makeup) would play a big part here. But there's something to be said about practicality. Your local kitchen witch is working with her hands a lot and can’t have stuff weighing her down or getting in the way. Anything like rings would just be taken off, so why not skip that step?


I tried specifically to avoid deliberate attempts at toning this OP down to something that it is not. It’s a fancy dress and it deserves to be worn in fancy ways. In some ways, it will inevitably duplicate some of the looks that I’ve done and will do with my Alice Girl OP, but that’s unavoidable with two incredibly similar dresses. At least this one doesn’t have to be confined to just winter. It also hasn’t escaped my notice that three out of four of these coords utilise a three-strap heel design. Each a different one, but in principle it’s the same item. It seems like three-strap heels are the new part of Art de Paulina.

The Good Eggs of Lolita Fashion

For those unfamiliar with British English (and this particular phrase is most commonly found in the North of England, such as Yorkshire), someone who is a good egg is a nice person. If you get called a good egg, that means the person calling you that is fond of you. It’s one of those phrases that I absolutely adore, partly because I totally love eggs (in pretty much any form) and partly because to me it’s an incredibly homely, heartwarming, honest-no-frills phrases.

Every community has its own good eggs. In my opinion, the goodest eggs are the people who often won’t volunteer to claim that label for themselves, but instead will humbly be nice in the background and may not even expect praise or reward (though absolutely make sure that they get the recognition and appreciation they deserve!). So I would like to spread a little bit of love for those good eggs in our wider community (so beyond just the mods for our local comms) and hopefully make you all aware of them.

Picture by Roman Odinstov on Pexels.com

Connie from Atelier Pierrot

Picture taken from Atelier Pierrot's Facebook.

Whether you are Atelier Pierrot’s target demographic or not, Connie’s work with them is bringing so much good into lolita fashion at large. From as immediate as bridging the language gap and allowing more people outside of Japan to easily shop with Atelier Pierrot to all of the behind-the-scenes work he does that increases the brand’s inclusivity, international profile, and transparency. His post on Rufflechat about what goes into producing plus size pieces was the wake-up call that the Western community needed to put their money where their mouths are. All of that while rocking a killer style that’s inspiring loads of people – I’ve seen more and more newbies join the fashion as AtePie stans and it’s absolutely because of the work he does. A fully certified good egg!

Lolibrarians

Image taken from Lolibrary.org.

For most lolitas this fashion isn’t the only hobby and not the only hoarder hobby either. Have you ever wished that those other hobbies also had an equivalent of Lolibrary? I sure have. If you have too, then make sure to throw some money at them. None of us could imagine the lolita fashion community without Lolibrary and the dedicated work that the Lolibrarians put into it, from cataloguing and archiving down to coding and making sure the website runs. It is entirely volunteer-led, they have their own lives and full-time jobs, yet still find the time to run this resource for the community. When I say that we don’t deserve them, I mean it 75% seriously and only 25% jokingly. You know as well as I do how los we’d be if Lolibrary was suddenly gone. So get a fiver out of that birthday money and chip in to the upkeep of our community’s most valuable resource and the good eggs that run it.

Wonder Tea Party

Image from Wonder Tea Party's X account.

A well-written skit makes us feel seen and validated, our behaviours reflected in a humorous way that helps us maintain some distance towards ourselves. There’s been a gap in those in our community for quite some time until the Wonder Tea Party lolitas filled it. And the fact that they are all Japanese lolitas makes it all the better. We get a glimpse into the differences of how the fashion and its wearers are perceived in Japan versus other countries, but even more importantly – they show us the similarities. There is more that we have in common than what divides us and the Wonder Tea Party shorts are always so positive. Their catchphrase of “Lolita-tte honto ni tanoshii!” (“Lolita is really fun!”) always makes me smile. This is what it’s all about – shared joy over something that makes us happy. And anyone who brings goodness and smiles into the world is a good egg.


You know who else is a bunch of good eggs? The Bibliotheca bloggers and the Bibliotheca team at Bay Area Kei who run this amazing scheme. They make written content happen and then deliver a summary of this fantastic written content to your email (and only if you join, so nothing unsolicited). And then, like the good eggs they all are, they create a circle of inspiration whereby a silly theme such as this, egg, gets thrown around, taken seriously, and we all have a great time reading about all kinds of eggs in April. So if you haven’t subscribed to the mailing list yet, do that now. We can offer you some eggs in these trying times.

Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2024.01

Spring is threatening to actually stay and even waxing my legs hasn’t coaxed that cold snap yet (sorry for the tmi), which has me contemplating changing my wardrobe out soon. I mean, it is April now, right?

New additions

Every year for the past few I feel like the first quarter is the slowest one to pick up with these purchases. And probably every year, whilst some of that feeling has a basis in reality, it’s not as little as I would have liked to believe.

• 1 pair of tights (sweet in pink x red)
• 1 pair of shoes (classic boots in gold x red)
• 1 bag (red tartan backpack)
• and 8 sets of accessories (1 sweet brooch in red x gold, 1 pair of angel wings*, 1 pair of sweet earrings in red, 1 pair of sweet earrings in gold, 1 pair of classic earrings in gold, 1 sweet brooch in pastel tricolour, 1 classic brooch in gold, 1 gothic headpiece in white*)

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Admittedly, this is skewed by the fact that despite making many purchases in Japan that were already in January, I am excluding Japan from this list altogether. That was its own separate time zone, outside of the strict confinements of what is 2023 and what is 2024. It means that the list above is much shorter than it otherwise would have been, since the end of my trip is when I did the most shopping. Also, plenty of my purchases have been in that grey area where my lolita and non-lolita wardrobes overlap (basically everything that’s not a main piece or a blouse), so if I were to be stricter with separating them, there would’ve been even less.

To be honest, I would like to keep this level of fashion spending carry on through most of the rest of this year. It’s not like I actively need stuff (well, I do for my non-lolita wardrobe), certainly not in any major quantities, and at some point the time really comes to call a spade a spade and say that this is just a habit and not meaningful spending in any way.
Also, I know that the wings have technically arrived, but I could not be bothered to dig them out from the bottom of the wardrobe for this picture. You all know what a pair of costume angel wings looks like.

Possible new looks

Since I excluded Japan purchases from the list above, it’s only fair that I exclude them from showing how the new additions help me create new looks. Which basically removed January from the picture, but let’s be honest, this year in particular January was very long and deserves to be forgotten a little. Some of the new bits I got over the last three months are either for specific events or more for autumn/winter season, so they won’t see any wear for a good while still to come. But this is what flatlays are for, am I right?

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Picture from March.

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Picture from February.

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Picture from February.

Replacement and need list progress

It’s no longer much of a list as much as just an item to replace. Once I came close to actually finding an ivory JSK that I liked, but ultimately decided that the colour was not quite the right shade for what I wanted. I even messaged an indie brand about commissioning one, but got very much ghosted. And despite checking so many other places, from second hand sales sites to Taobao resellers, there has been nothing that appealed to me aesthetically. So for now I am still holding on. I want it to be the right thing for me and not just any first thing I find.

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Nothing has happened on the need list front either. This is more due to these items being so much more specific than the broad criteria I have for an ivory dress. Admittedly, the pink beret should be much further along than it is, which is entirely on me… The rest, however, just has not appeared. And I have looked – and been looking since.

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Current wishlist

I find myself at an odd point where my wishlist is pretty specific. I do keep checking various second hand sales places daily, but either these items are ones that people are holding on to or, if they are up for sale, they are not at price points that I am willing to pay. Part of me wonders how much healthier it would be if I stopped checking these second hand sales sites, but the fear of missing out still has me in quite a strong grip.

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This holds particularly true for the non-dress part of my wishlist, namely because of the Millefeuille boleros. They are my collection items, my Pokemons if you wish, so they rely on my being on top of checking places and sometimes on being quick about buying them. Admittedly, I probably could have gotten myself a wine underskirt by now if I didn’t procrastinate, but still. My shopping mood for this first part of 2024 has been focused so much more around my non-lolita wardrobe which feels in a much more immediate need of a refresh.

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New Year’s goals: progress summary

For 2024 I kept my goals a lot smaller and much more targeted. Did that work though?

• Did I finish the craft projects I started in 2023? No. I have had some motivation boosts, first in terms of getting advice on how to go about one of them and then to get something specific (but completely different) done for a friend as a present. I keep telling myself that I can just do a little bit at a time, but it is yet to translate into actually doing that.
• Did I learn a new hairstyle? No. It’s hard to learn without knowing specifically what it is that you are trying to learn. As I said in the original post about my goals, the big princessy curls are a nice goal, but not what this is about. I have experimented a little bit more with looks, but it is not quite the easy and effective go-to hairstyle that I was hoping for. I should probably take a long and hard look at some hairstyles and actually pick a specific one to practise, the vague nature of this goal is not helping.
• Did I sort through my bags? I made a significant start! Mid-March I had a burst of energy and managed to shuffle things around in my wardrobe so that bags now have enough space, as well as got rid of a few. One (maybe two) I would like to attempt to fix first, which will require a few more specialist supplies, and one I already managed to sell with another one due to be listed in a few more places. This is seriously better than where I was at the start of January and I feel so much better about it!

I would love to say that I am welcoming the advent of spring with open arms and a newly refreshed attitude. But the truth is that as I am writing this post I am actually full of flu, a blocked nose, and shivering a little despite the fluffy pyjamas and a blanket. What is keeping me going is that a few times already I was able to roam the outside in lighter jackets (and even overheat once or twice). I keep looking at Vintage Fruit and my green Physical Drop OP longingly, waiting for the right time to wear them and enjoy looking like a 10/10 cutie patootie.