March Coords Roundup

Folks, it’s spring! It really didn’t feel like it for so long and now it does, and I cannot express how much good that is doing in my head. 

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Coord 1: Working Day

| Bodyline Moulin High Waist skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | offbrand jacket, tights, socks, and shoes | handmade (not by me) beret | Three Little Pirates earrings | Folk and Fortune Typewriter necklace | Love from the North pin | Akaritsuko badge | Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings | 

This is why we love a beret: it makes even the laziest hairstyling work.

All of the Manchester events vibes.

I look way more leggy in these pictures thanks to these platforms. An all ivory coord with red accents strikes again for some working from home. There isn’t much to say about the coord itself, since it’s not necessarily very experimental. What I will say is that I had a bit of an issue with this skirt at the start of January where I couldn’t zip it up and now, after nearly 2 months of going to boxfit classes one day a week, that problem seems to have gone away, which I’m very proud of myself for.

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Coord 2: Resort From Home

| Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK | offbrand blouse | Jane Marple OTKs | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania shoes | Axes Femme hat | offbrand and vintage jewellery |

When in doubt: red lipstick, winged eyeliner, and a low bun made out of criss-crossed braids. Works the charm every time.

A very satisfying bow match.

On the flipside, Cinema Doll definitely needs altering. As much as I like the outfit, it gives off posh resort holiday vibes in the best way, it was too uncomfortable to keep on for a whole day (though I only swapped the JSK for an Axes Femme skirt and that was still a cute, if more larme-ish, look). Nonetheless all the greys compliment the print and I have discovered a dangerous lack of silver and/or gunmetal brooches which I am sure will come back to haunt me next time I go charity shopping or something. So much for ‘I don’t need any more brooches’...

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Coord 3: A Goth Attempt

| AatP Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Atelier Pierrot Nocturne cardigan | offbrand tights, shoes, and brooch | Antique Beast Hecate headdress | Little Rogue & Co pin |

That one lil' stray strand of hair keeps taunting me in a 'cut yourself a wispy fringe' way and folks, it is a dangerous voice to have in your head.

This cheap offbrand brooch goes into almost every single gothic/black-based coord I do, let's appreciate this 5 euro spend.

Can we have a candid moment here, please? This worked way better in my head than it did worn. I thought that the tights would photograph darker and the cardigan would photograph lighter, so that the difference wouldn’t be quite so stark. The difference in the hem lengths of the JSK and the cardigan bother me as well and overall the proportions feel off to me. Why share it here then? Because I did wear it and did take pictures, and I still stand by the fact that bad outfits have their place in real life. Even if in the moment the awareness that this one hasn’t quite worked out to plan was a little sad.

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Coord 4: Burger Cravings

| Summer Fairy Limited Menu JSK | offbrand top | MuFish tights | Sosic Shop shoes | vintage hat | handmade choker | Candy Kitsch earrings and ring |

The lesson from this coord is that I need more wide-brim hats.

Would you like a burger with your burger?

More induced rather than quelled by this coord though. I’m glad that I had this look on the cards for immediately the day after the previous one because it coming out nicer has helped my mood. It’s nothing major, but then again, I think this dress is going to end up being a more casual piece going forward. It seems to work best when you don’t overcomplicate the styling and stick to the tricolour. So whilst I’m sure in the future I will try something more OTT themed around fast foods, that’s not happening until an event that warrants that kind of overkill is organised.

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Coord 5: A Konbini Snack

| The Black Ribbon Konbini Market JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | MuFish tights | Laura Ashley shoes | offbrand hair clips, ring, and pins | handmade choker and bracelets |

Back on that kick of doing a whole face of makeup with just lipstick.

Ice candy inspired.

I had wanted to wear this JSK over the weekend at home, but I channelled my energy into way too many other things. Technically, on that WFH Wednesday, I also should have been channelling my energy into other things, but I forced myself to dress up precisely to combat some of that stress with a bit of positivity. You know that stuff is serious when Japan nostalgia increases so rapidly. I really wanted to bring out the dark pinks from this print and this cutsew is perfect for that. And in a surprising turn of events, I realised that I don’t own nearly as many snack accessories as I thought I did? Well, I do, but few that fit this dress. So that’s something that I now have to actively try to resist rectifying. Still, the outfit turned out cute and was just the thing that I needed to power me into a day filled with work (my own, translation side hustle, podcast, pre-departure stuff, household chores, you name it, I was doing it).

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Coord 6: Hello, Chicago

| Metamorphose Lovely Forest skirt | Snag tights | Cutie Creator headbow | vintage brooch | everything else is offbrand |

Sometimes the best selfie light is at Bear Papa's and you just roll with that.

Here for the textures.

Having spent my actual first full day in non-frills and scoring this cute top at Goodwill, it was a no-brainer to wear it as soon as possible for a relaxed day of exploring more of the city. @tonblackberry, whom I was travelling with, suggested some sort of a vest, which I don’t have right now, but I am totally into that vibe for the future. Basically, should I decide to upgrade this coord to something more, it’s all about going somewhere into dirndl vibes. I have thoroughly enjoyed wandering around Chicago in my casual frills, it has very similar, chill vibes as Manchester on a good day, and everyone we encountered was so lovely. Made being in frills beautifully easy.

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Coord 7: Meeting People

| Metamorphose Lovely Forest skirt | Axes Femme cutsew and brooch | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | offbrand shoes and hair clips | Sweet Fragrance apron and belt |

Plugging the gaps in my messy updo with the flowers.

For once I feel like I was fidgeting less with a ring. Normally I am quite bothered by the sensation since I'm not used to wearing rings.

The day after we had a meetup plans with a big-ish group of @tonblackberry’s online friends, some of whom I’ve met before, some of whom I’ve followed online, and many of whom I met for the first time. This is what I was planning to wear from the beginning, since the plan was to go for lunch, then to the Art Institute, and finish on a fancy dinner. It’s a way more classic take on this skirt and I like how it plays into that. I’m not going to lie, at one point the physical tiredness of three days filled with walking got to me a little bit, but overall I really enjoyed meeting new people and everyone in that crowd was a sweetheart, I hope that I’ll get to meet them again.

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Coord 8: The Great Lace, Polish Edition

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ Apron JSK and OTKs | Stroje.pl blouse | Sweet Fragrance apron as underskirt and belt | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Kaneko Shop headdress | handmade necklace | Folk and Fortune Kukuryku brooch | My Inspiration necklace | Star Glazed Delights ring } offbrand shawl and hair clips | Lullabellz hair extensions |

These braids were heavy, but also somehow pretty comfortable? Definitely a great investment!

ALL of the details!

Otherwise known as day 1 of the event, which I will write about more soon. My logic here was that since I am so Polish that I arrived to the USA on a visa and Chicago has one of the largest Polish communities outside of Poland, I wanted to pay tribute to that. Versions of this coord have featured on this blog extensively, my own coords archive counts something like 4 renditions, but this is the most Polish that I have ever been. Like 110% Polish, just missing a plastic bag filled with homemade pickles for a full 120%. I felt fantastic and everyone I bumped into or spoke with throughout the event continued to offer compliments, so the coord was clearly a hit. It seems to have made the day of a few other people with Polish heritage whom I encountered and I had a blast doing the very impromptu ‘fresh off the boat’ photos just out on the street. And I had a total blast meeting online friends in person! Lemme tell you, it’s nice to message people here or there, but nothing beats giving someone a hug and all of that 3D reality stuff.

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Coord 9: The Great Lace, Floral Edition

| Angelic Pretty Flower Garden JSK | Lady Sloth Galaxy Witch overdress as an underlayer | handmade cape | Enchantlic Enchantilly Crown of the Violet Princess tights | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | offbrand flower clips, earrings, face flowers | Enchantlic Enchantilly necklace | Peppermint Fox brooches | Folk and Fortune Diamond of the First Water brooch | Le Petit Four bracelet | Irma Saf ring |

I should've done more blush. All of my makeup was basically blush, but I still think it needed more lol.

Since I forgot to take a detail shot, here's a quick video of the cape since that was the entire point of that coord!

They said the theme was florals, so I delivered! Well, officially the theme was something like Spring Garden in the City, but you get the point. This cape took something like 80 hours of handsewing and boy, was it worth it. Every moment of doubt or hate towards the project paid off with every compliment thrown my way. The vision came together and I felt like a million flowers, this coord really brought back some sort of a spark that I thought I lost. The only bit of improvement that I can foresee here would be to add one of those big floral underskirts that came out a few years back from someone like Boguta (?), but it was too late for one to arrive by the time I thought of it. The day was once again full of chatting with people and meeting everyone I could. It’s difficult to believe now that this whole thing had happened, that only last weekend I was doing all of that, it feels like a parallel timeline or something, so I am all the more grateful for the photographic evidence.

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With the advent of warm weather (and touch wood, it doesn’t seem to be a blip either) this weekend is reserved for the seasonal wardrobe swap. I am a little bit sick of looking at some of my pieces and missing a bunch of other ones, and cannot wait for that artificial feeling of having different stuff. Cannot wait to wear some lighter colours and fabrics, and to not have to layer quite so heavily. It’s going to be great! Hopefully wherever you are and whatever season you are approaching, you’re also finding something that gives you this feeling of things being fresh and inspiring. And don’t worry if you’re not feeling that at all right now, sometimes that’s how things roll.