The Great Lace Event Report

At this point I can’t even remember how I found out about The Great Lace event in Chicago. Probably through Instagram and then someone in my Discord server verified that the organisers aren’t complete newbies and are on good standing with the comms. One very emotionally detached early bird ticket purchase in January 2023 later and then another 15 months on top of that, and now my first US lolita event has all gone by in a flash. I’m going to do my best to combine both days of the event into one post and to structure it a little bit differently, so bear with me and let’s hope that I will stick to a manageable word count. (Spoiler alert: I did not stick to a manageable word count.)

Official event banner. Art by Kaitlyn Illustrations.

Hosted by members of the local community, excellently named Frillinois, The Great Lace was held on the weekend of March 29th and 30th, at Palmer House Hotel in Downtown Chicago. The theme was along the lines of ‘spring garden in the city’: perfectly accessible for all styles and wonderfully seasonal, though not necessarily the best advertised as plenty of people I encountered were not even aware that there was a theme. Still, with a beautiful venue and plenty to get inspired by, The Great Lace was promising a weekend of frills and frills only, no having to share with an anime convention (just other people staying at the hotel, but it was massive, so it was fine). And I was certainly all about finding out how do they do it across the pond, if you get my drift.

| 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 |

| 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 won’t spend too long talking about my coords because I’ve mentioned plenty in the March Coords Roundup post. What I would like to reiterate here is the inspiration and the purpose. Saturday’s more comfortable outfit was an homage to my own heritage and a nod to the Polish community in Chicago itself. It was perfect for a day of shopping and fashion show, and chatting with whoever I came across since I had fewer things that would get in the way, fall out of place or even get lost by accident. On the other hand, my Sunday outfit was all about that floral theme and going over the top. Even though it ended up still being quite a comfortable coord overall, that cape is weighty, so it was better saved for a day spent mostly sitting down, taking pictures, and eating.

How was The Great Lace the same as European events?

Let’s get straight to the point. And the point is that The Great Lace was in essence exactly like the events that I’ve attended in the past. The split of having one day for shopping, panels, and fashion show, and then another for the tea party and swap meet was familiar, as was the atmosphere inside. Although obviously for me it was less about any reunions and more about meeting people for the first time, it carried the same heartwarming feelings of saying hello to people who have only lived in your phone up until then and who you can now give a real hug to. Lolita events are ultimately about fostering connections, both to the fashion and to one-another, and I have certainly felt extra connected to both over the course of the weekend.

With @fairy_anne_

With @repto1

With @babelglyph

With @dandypuppeteer and @marinakei_

The kinds of things that you could buy or see at the event were also familiar, if obviously different due to the actual nature of the vendors and guests. The vendors hall was filled with US brands, with only the Atelier Pierrot, Iris Garden x Haenuli, Harajuku Hearts, and the Lolita Collective offering other brands at their stalls. Plenty of handmade goodies and beautiful art, ranging from small and inexpensive for the most student of student budgets to full-on OTT spenny if that’s what you fancied. Going to multiple European events means that there are certain brands that I see vending there more often, which is great for restocking, but can get repetitive. To go into a vendors hall filled predominantly with items that I’ve never seen with my own eyes before brought back some of that joy of going to my first lolita event ever. Those feelings didn’t necessarily last through the fashion show as I had hoped to see more of those US indie brands modelled and on stage, which was not on the cards, nonetheless the fashion show was as familiar an affair as I’ve known it. This was also my first live lolita fashion show post-TQiD and it’s an interesting experience to go back to the very traditional, elegant, relatively conservative format after you’ve witnessed a lolita fashion show with nipples, latex, and sapphic scandal. But I fully appreciate that it was TQiD’s that’s the outlier and it’s not going to set a precedent. I can’t really speak on the quality of the panels because I only went to Atelier Pierrot’s presentation about manufacturing in Japan, parts of which I had also caught at TQiD. None of the other panels on offer were of interest to me, they were likely perfect for all those for whom this was their first lolita event ever, so I chose to free up my time for socialising instead.

Vendors hall.
Photo by Karen, borrowed from the event Discord server.

Deerist One Designs' stall.
Photo by @mahoumikan.

Atelier Pierrot fashion show.
Photo by @dreamy_sweetie

Atelier Pierrot fashion show.
Photo by @dreamy_sweetie

Atelier Pierrot fashion show.
Photo by @dreamy_sweetie

Enchantlic Enchantilly fashion show.
Photo by @dreamy_sweetie

Hoshibako Works fashion show.
Photo by Karen, borrowed from the event Discord server.

Hoshibako Works fashion show.
Photo by Karen, borrowed from the event Discord server.

Axes-X fashion show.
Photo by Karen, borrowed from the event Discord server.

The final similarity that I would like to highlight, even if it is somewhat bittersweet, is that you’re never guaranteed good food just because the venue is fancy. For clarity, I am completely setting aside any comparisons between afternoon tea in the UK and anywhere else because it’s not like I expected Strike a Pose or The Grand Embassy to supply me with perfectly traditional scones or Victoria sponges. And I’ve certainly been to enough mediocre afternoon teas at hotels in the UK, including some that were for bigger events. Fancy venue does not always equate to fancy food or even plentiful food. Which I can laugh about now and there’s always that extra layer of funny since other people bring snacks to share with their friendship groups. I’ll forever be grateful for that Tunnock’s tea cake at Divina Commedia and I’ll forever be grateful for a chance to try cheese curds and a pecan praline from Buc-ee’s at The Great Lace. It’s a mild form of frilly traumabonding, so whilst of course that we’d always rather have only the best food, be wowed with each bite and be sure that we’re not going to need a takeout the moment we leave the venue, often the collective disappointment in food leads to fun memories for everyone at the table. And as we’ve already established, events are all about making those connections. Plus, it’s always interesting to learn how the current tea party experience compares to what others at your table may have had and learn about what lolitas in other countries do just generally.

The sweets spread. For a table of ten. Yes, that was all.

Thanks be to the Bringer of Buc-ee's!

How did The Great Lace differ from European events?

To address the elephant in the room: scale. Whilst I’ve not attended any Street Fashion Europe events when those were still happening, I get the impression that even those weren’t quite as big. To me Dream Masquerade Carnival back in 2017 felt massive at, I believe, around 200-ish people? A lolita exclusive event that’s literally twice that size was mind boggling to me. Thanks to how large the space was and how well room capacities were managed, it never felt this overwhelming, though I certainly got glimpses of it when seeing the queues snaking back on themselves. It makes sense too: the US is a bigger country, has a much larger lolita population overall, and the organisers have found ways to add more tickets throughout. But if you struggle to say hello to everyone you want to at a European event, at a US one it seems that you have to accept that as an inevitability and make peace with that fact.

The queue to enter the fashion show. At the end of that photo the corridor turned left and the queue went all around that too. I didn't even realise that I got snapped there.
Photo by Karen, borrowed from the event Discord server.

A panoramic shot of the tea party room.
Photo by Chloe, borrowed from the event Discord server.

The tea party group photo, trying to squeeze 400 people in one shot.
Picture by @mintypile.

The second difference was the overall vibe and structure of the Saturday being far more inspired by convention style events. Whilst the shopping and fashion show format with a tea party the following day isn’t inherently a convention invention, there were plenty of little things around those that I’ve never experienced at European events. Badge pickup (and it being open the day before the event), an actual schedule packed from basically 10am until 8pm (European events will have maybe one or two things to attend during the whole day that’s not the fashion show and rarely go on until that late), accommodation discounts for those staying in the venue (likely because we rarely use hotels for the shopping days of our events), photographers having official press passes and being there mainly to document the event, not to offer coord shots… Not to mention some of the things that I heard or glimpsed that as an organiser myself I recognise as being better for the organisers/venue/guests than for the attendees which I will not go into. Where European events always feel very grassroots to me, The Great Lace Saturday, despite being organised by members of the lolita community, felt more like Doki Doki convention than a Tea Party Club event. It’s not a bad thing in and of itself – it will simply meet some people’s expectations of what is the most important in a lolita event and what isn’t

As someone who's used to just picking up a tote on the day of the event, this was both nice and weird to do the night before.

The badges were cute though.

The third difference that I’d like to point out is the style. Whilst a lolita event isn’t always the best measure of what’s popular in a given area since most people try to match the theme, you still get a flavour of what substyles are most popular based on what people are wearing. On top of this, knowing that there were plenty of people for whom The Great Lace was their first lolita event or even a first big event in lolita ever, it was very easy for me to spot those first timers, especially on Saturday which I think had more attendees from that category than Sunday. Sunday is when I have found more people trying to match the theme, though I still would have said that the ones who dressed more OTT were the more experienced lolitas. Even the sweet lolitas have found their more toned down or floral main pieces to come to the tea party in. And there were certainly plenty of sweet lolitas! Even knowing that it’s arguably the most popular substyle in lolita in general thanks to its higher visibility and higher accessibility, Saturday was when the sweets turned up in droves. And Saturday is also where I saw the wider spread on the casual-to-OTT scale, with more people who seemed to have pitched their outfits on the slightly more conservative side, presumably because of not knowing what to expect. It isn’t a bad thing and I find that happens at every event I go to. Even looking back at my own first event I feel like my attempt was a bit less OTT because I did not know where to pitch. Yet the impression I got was that, unlike in Europe where we have arguably fewer lonelitas and more people relying on their local comm to find that information out and maybe give a second opinion on coords, the US lolitas going for the first time may have come from all over and not necessarily be members of comms. There was a small handful of lolitas whom I saw mostly with what appeared to be family members rather than friends, which further fuels that theory.

And lastly, which may be more specific to just The Great Lace than US lolita events generally, is that I have found the tea party itself to be much more packed than I am used to. And by packed I don’t mean people, but schedule. To me the tea party day is supposed to be all about getting dressed up, eating the spread provided, and hanging out with friends new and old. Meanwhile Sunday had two more guest demonstrations, the swap meet, and the meet and greet with RinRin all in the morning, and then, during the tea party itself, the Q&A with Connie and RinRin, the raffle, and an unannounced mini history lecture that, if I may be so blunt, could have been a leaflet or a page on the event website. None are necessarily bad things, but it’s awkward when the organisers are on stage asking for everyone to get back to their seats and you have to hurriedly finish your conversations, only to find out that this isn’t really stuff that you have much interest in, but it’s rude to talk over stage events. It did extra poorly with the venue’s tea service which I found to be just not enough food (and as already mentioned, the food was meh just on a straight up quality level) and the staff seemed all too keen to clear up as soon as they spotted your plate to be empty. I have done far more socialising after the tea party was officially closed and everything was being cleaned up than during the tea party itself, which is not how I want to spend my time at tea parties. Some of this was clearly dictated by the venue’s schedule, some seemed like the result of being overly enthusiastic and trying to make everything happen in just one event, and only some, I imagine, was actually down to any kind of cultural differences.

Atelier Pierrot's Manufacturing lolita in Japan panel.
Photo by @eepy_lamb.

Q&A with Connie and RinRin.
Photo by Mori/Kat, borrowed from the event Discord server.

What suggestions do I have for the organisers for the future?

My biggest, most important tip would be to build more socialising/down time directly into the event. Although 99% of the attendees travelled from much closer, even interstate travel in the US is time consuming. And the one thing that I find is universally a killer of a good time at events is people feeling rushed or like they can’t do everything that they want to in the time that they have. Moreover, big lolita events are a chance for catch up with people one has not seen in months, a year, sometimes longer. Add to this the fact that event-goers (and maybe especially lolitas, high on the fact that for once everything is directly relevant to them and nothing else) frequently neglect to take care of themselves (drink, eat proper food, sit down for a bit, take themselves out somewhere quiet for a second), and you create an environment where people will crash and burn. This goes for the guests as well. Yes, they are there for work, but at the same time, they will appreciate having more time to rest, since frequently they are straight back to their usual day jobs the moment they return from the event. From what I’ve heard from others, this does seem almost directly lifted up from convention culture where people also notoriously crash and burn, but since lolita exclusive events don’t have to be exactly like cons, why not change that culture too? Less is more and people will find their own ways to fill the extra time with, trust me.

Secondly, whilst this is less within the organisers’ control, it is something to consider for the future and that is to keep a more balanced offering of panels. Yes, the panels (if an event chooses to offer them) are heavily dependent on who voluntees to run them. The Great Lace had plenty for newer lolitas and first-time event-goers, and very little for the veterans (only the fashion show and maybe the Atelier Pierrot and RinRin panels). When this is combined with having less time to actually socialise with our friends the following day at the tea party, it’s difficult to not feel like a bit of an afterthought. Intermediate and veteran lolitas are harder to cater for with the panels, sure, but we’re not impossible. It may be good in the future to have one or two backup ideas in the bank, so that when panel applications close and they see that things skew heavily towards a particular group (and this could also mean styles and not just experience levels), there is something to balance it out with. Or allow yourself to have a couple of gaps on the schedule because, again, people will find ways to fill their time with photos and chatter.

Lastly, and more on like an organiser to organiser level, is to get more people on the actual team. The bigger the event grows, the more manpower is required to pull it off without pulling your own hair out. There's no point pointing to something like The Queen is Dead and saying that three people managed that fine when TQiD was nowhere near the size of The Great Lace. Volunteers are wonderful and we would not go far without them, but every event needs people who are on it for months and not just on the day. At the very least consider having one organiser per every 100 tickets being sold, even though that’s as arbitrary a number as it gets. But when all 400 people have something to say and they’re in your inbox, one would be grateful to split that work with three more people instead of just one. 

Final thoughts

Obviously, I had a grand time at The Great Lace. My memories are focused predominantly on the lovely interactions I’ve had with people and the fun times sharing a fancy hotel room with friends – which is exactly the same as for every other event I’ve been to, except the hotel rooms weren’t always fancy (though the hostel rooms are remembered just as fondly). Had I been based in the US, I certainly would’ve been making a bigger note of this to attend in the future because I also really enjoyed my time in Chicago and found the city so incredibly easy to navigate and just be in. As things stand, to go again in the future, I’d need just as much notice as I’ve had now (if not more) because of course a transatlantic week-long trip costs more than a budget airline long weekend city break. And with all the undisclosed-until-the-receipt taxes and tips Chicago works out pricier than, say, Rome, even when eating relatively on a budget. So I won’t be back in the US for a lolita event again anytime soon unless some very major things change. For their first event, and one of this scale, I think the organisers did a fantastic job and sincerely hope that they will focus on all of the positive feedback first and foremost. If they do decide to organise something again, I will certainly keep an eye out and encourage everyone I know to go.

To get a feel of what attending The Great Lace was like, as well as hear me reiterate some of the above points and see closeups of my haul, you can watch my vlog from the event here: