July Coords Roundup

It seems that we’ve had nearly every possible weather in July and I frilled through practically all of it. 

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Coord 1: Pop Gig

| BtSSB Snow Dot skirt | Sweet Fragrance apron | Eat Me x tulle hair clip | Vivienne Westwood Lorelei studs | Vivienne Westwood Mini Bas Relief pendant | everything else is offbrand |

This is very much how pleased I was with the separate layers working seamlessly as one.

It's funny to think of my VW jewellery as the most normie jewellery I have.

I wasn’t even going to put on any frills. The weather was still warm and the gig venue would get even warmer, so I wanted maximum comfort. But as I played around with the bottom part of this apron in normie settings and it wasn’t working, my mind naturally went to this skirt – and the rest sort of just happened. It’s fun how despite being two different pieces, the mesh top and the apron skirt look like one. Everything else was kept relatively simple (one could say even quite normie), so that I didn’t have to interact too much at the gig. The gig itself was amazing, I went to see Matt Hansen after it was rescheduled from March and had the time of my life, singing every song along with the crowd. It was the epitome of the performer giving his best and standing in that crowd highlighted for me how girl gigs hit very different from boy gigs (better imho).

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Coord 2: Homely Charlotte

| Metamorphose Charlotte JSK | offbrand top, tights, and earrings | Laura Ashley shoes | headbow handmade by Jule | necklace handmade by me | Amadea Kingdom The Adventurer D4 brooch | Cutie Creator wrist cuffs |

Entering my floral dress era (finally).

Love that cute lil' charm.

I've owned this dress for too long without wearing it, to the point where it became a point on my weekly to-do list. I deliberately kept the coord simple, prioritising ease of wearing and comfort since all I did was stay at home, catch up on Bake Off: The Professionals, and play DnD in the evening. The DnD session was the reason for this brooch over one of the other more floral ones. And it was a lucky charm of sorts as not only we finished the campaign that we started… oh boy, I think 3 years ago now? – but we also managed to get the happy ending for everyone. Emotional times ensued and as a reward for completing my first DnD campaign, I finally bought the set of rose quartz dice that has been on my mind since at least the end of last year.

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Coord 3: Meta Weekend

| Metamorphose Airline JSK | offbrand top, shoes, beret, and earrings | Snag tights | Rose Marie Seoir choker | Swimmer badge | Donguri Kyouwakoku badge | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring |

Always, always, always happy to wear this silly dress!

showing off the earrings, kawaii tootache edition.

Taking advantage of the weather being cooler, I brought out the orange. In a really simple way since, again, all I did was stay at home and do little bits. Including cooking up a bolognese sauce, which I’m not sure is the definition of courage or hubris when done in your most expensive, white dress, but I am happy to report that nothing happened to it. There is something interesting about the fact that some people associate me with the red/white/blue tricolour and others associate me with orange because of this dress. The duality of woman means that both are true, yet somehow, with how everything else has been going, the orange may be a little bit more me now than the tricolour?

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Coord 4: Dark Retro

| Grove Deer Moon of Eternal Day OP | offbrand tights, shoes, and scarf | Cutie Creator headdress | Three Little Pirates earrings | AatP Tulle wrist cuffs | 4Aces ring |

I've been really enjoying eyeliner-free looks recently.

Potentially using this coord as an excuse to get more neckerchiefs...

This coord is an exercise in “you can’t always plan everything”. I wanted to wear this OP. Looked through past coords and realised that I like it most when it’s styled in a fairly simple, classic, almost normie way, with an A-line silhouette. Decided to go darker with black, maybe lean a touch more gothic. And on the day, once the hair did its thing, as I was thinking what to put on my neck, I tried the scarf – and voila! I’m pretty happy with the result. Not like, ecstatic, but pretty happy. In a good way. It’s what I wanted, I felt good, considered whether I now need this OP in other colours, then went back to just enjoying a quiet working day.

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Coord 5: Too Hot – And Yet

| Violet Fane Ginza Kissaten skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | memery sandals | Cutie Creator headdress and wrist cuffs | Cosy Kawaii Mood earrings | Milkribbon Butterkeks brooch |

That colour changing blush from Barry M has been a real blessing during the hot days.

I will always hate coffee, but will also always love these earrings.

Otherwise known as the summer heatwave coord. Inspired by coord pics from people in the actual hot and tropical countries like Brazil, who still rock their frills, just in a much less by-the-rulebook way, I decided to have a go myself. And I see where they’re coming from, they are onto something. Because like I said back at the Geek Fayre, I would’ve been hot in anything, so might as well wear something cute – and this was actually pretty cool and served my needs well.

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Coord 6: Book Date

| The Black Ribbon Rococo Rose JSK | memery sandals | handmade earrings | vintage bracelet | everything else is offbrand |

I've gotten quite into French-braiding my hair around the mid-month point. I'm awful at it, but have found it oddly easier than regular braids? And these all came out way better than when I had long hair.

These Primark rings, I swear... Part of me thinks that if I ever find proper equivalents, I won't like them as much as I do these cheap ones.

I wasn’t planning on getting dressed up that day. But then my boyfriend asked me if I’d like to go with him to Waterstones and I immediately turned this into a lil’ adventure. Heathenous frilling continues with blouseless, bare-legged, sandal looks, but it was still very warm. I’m very pleased with how it came together, it’s exactly the sort of faux vintage, quite relaxed look that I wanted dresses like this in my wardrobe for. I ended up buying two books (we imposed a limit on ourselves so as to not go overboard) and then bought frozen pizzas to enjoy for dinner. A great date, all that could’ve improved it would be a fun drink, but the queues were too long to deal with.

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Coord 7: Blessed Rains

| Physical Drop Long Sleeve Shirring Dress | Innocent World Tulle Lace Millefeuille bolero | Violet Fane Antiquite tights | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Cutie Creator Maiden Prayer headbow | vintage brooch | offbrand jewellery |

Ah yes, this is some point when I've fucked up my fringe with a way too careless trim, so please, don't look too closely at that.

Honestly, little beats a good cameo.

It’s been so warm and finally crashed with some rains, which thankfully coincided with me working from home. And it was finally cool enough for a long sleeve OP, so I wasted no time. The coord is basically a hatless version of the one from the 1 Dress 4 Looks Take 69 post – I tried the hat, but this style doesn’t work with a fringe and I had already curled it. Still, it made me feel elegant and like I should be going out to a soiree instead of hanging up laundry in between sitting at my desk. At least the Romantic Novelists’ Association meeting was that evening, so it wasn’t totally wasted.

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Coord 8: Folklore Summer

| Metamorphose Gold Braid Tuck Pinafore JSK | offbrand blouse and socks | morun x muuna stoic overskirt | belt from Physical Drops Long Sleeve Shirring Dress | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | AatP Sheherazade ~ A Thousand and One Nights ~ headdress | vintage necklace | Mademoiselle Boutique necklace | handmade bracelets | Star Glazed Delights Brand Whore ring |

Fringe makes wearing rectangle headdresses soooo much easier. I see why people love them. But I'm not sure if I'll stick with the fringe for long enough to make getting more worth it.

Forever folklore.

Capitalising on another cooler day, I decided to try something more folk-leaning with this JSK, since I wasn’t feeling anything black and I like how this dress can lean almost dirndl-looking. Although the discrepancy between the hemlines bothers me a little, overall I’m pretty pleased with this coord. Again, not wildly into it, but liking the result and how I felt. Maybe once I finally get my act together and get that wine underskirt, it will even itself out for future attempts.

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Coord 9: Blind Boxes and Bevs + DnD

| The Black Ribbon Konbini Market JSK | offbrand T-shirt, hair clips, and earrings | Angelic Pretty Airy Dot socks | Bodyline shoes | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | handmade choker and bracelets | Madillustration brooch | Bibelot Rose badge | Chocomint ring | Angelic Pretty Fancy Sods ring | Banned Retro Bella belt |

I tried a baby blue and pink makeup, which may not have quite worked out, but it still looked really fun. I also went for a more aegyo sal accentuating makeup, but I don't have a selfie that showcases both.

Sipping on my petty fun drink.

Me? Overstretching myself socially? Whatever gave that away? The meetup to exchange blind boxes over some food and drinks was in my calendar for a while, whereas the first session of the new DnD campaign got added to the day considerably later. I had this vision of an outfit that was cool, matching the market we ate at, looking like it'd fit against the backdrop of vintage film posters and neon signs. And thus this coord was born, after a few initial early attempts. It felt great to wear it, I love styling Konbini Market in such ways, the print lending itself well to more street fashion looks. It's a little sad then that the meet venue was too loud to comfortably converse. Even worse, my shoe literally disintegrated as I got off the train in Leeds and I had to make an emergency stop at Shoezone. But all in all, it was a good day. Long – but good.

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Coord 10: Gig Night

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Lazy Oaf top | Cutie Creator tights | offbrand shoes and belt | Ruby Rose hair clip | Big Pink Boutique earrings | Lockhart Mansion 2 pendant | Strike a Pose pin | Six: The Musical pin | Lullabellz hair extensions |

Feeling like that bitch with my winged eyeliner and long braid.

RIP Ruby Rose, I still think about all the things I didn't get from you.

Boyfriend took me to the Billy Eilish gig and I tried my best to dress in something cool. I still wanted it to be lolita, which sadly meant not being able to wear my big fluffy NieR Clothing jacket, as that is just too long. But pink and black feel cool, so with a little bit of faffing here and there, I was able to put this together accompanied by “How It’s Done” from Kpop Demon Hunters (which I am still yet to see, but the tune is banging). I’m indifferent to Billie Eilish, but it’s nothing new for me now to go to gigs of artists that I only sort of like as a plus one. It was more like date night where we went out for food first and had the gig after. Shame it was a Wednesday, because I really would’ve loved to sleep off the gig before having to go to work. It was great, the biggest one I’d ever attended, literally never been in a queue that long – and once again, girl gigs are way better than boy gigs, nuff said.

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Coord 11: Love Stories etc. Day 1

| The Black Ribbon Rococo Rose JSK | offbrand top, tights, shoes, and brooch | Cutie Creator headbow |  Fantastic Grim Jewelry necklace | Crafty Witch by Nix earrings | vintage bracelet |

The fringe was wild in the morning! It settled later in the day with the humidity, but I didn't take any selfies later, so we're going to immortalise this instead.

Obviously I was going to wear a book necklace to a book event.

Love Stories etc. is a 2-day festival all about romance books – and the moment I saw it, I knew that I had to go. A chance to learn more about the inner works of the romance publishing industry, meet fellow writers/readers and industry professionals, talk kissing books for two days straight, and potentially make exactly the right connection? Erm, hell yeah! Although in my books, I opened the weekend with a toned down and simple coord, it still got plenty of compliments (and rightfully so, this dress is gorgeous). I even got recognised as a lolita by one of the invited authors who told me that her daughter wears lolita too, so in the nicest possible way, I’m not determined to see how many levels of separation we’ve crossed because lolita comms in the UK are so niche that we probably have plenty of mutuals somewhere. The day was great, I got the most generous goodie bag with my VIP ticket, and even though I was knackered by the end of it (a 10am to 8pm plus commuting is no joke), I left intellectually enriched and with my heart filled with positive energy. Not unlike from lolita events, really.

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Coord 12: Love Stories etc. Day 2

| Metamorphose Shirring Tiered Ribbon JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Banned Retro cardigan and belt | Angelic Pretty Loving Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator Maiden’s Prayer headbow | Melty Wish earrings | Folk and Fortune Typewriter necklace | Bows and Crossbones bangles |

I almost didn't wear these glasses - but they were too perfect for a romance event to resist!

Also got to rep and advertise Folk and Fortune to so many people there (understandably), I hope she gets lots of sales when she reopens.

By Day 2, despite my energy levels dropping due to physical tiredness, I was even more determined to wear a fun outfit, despite initial intentions to keep things toned down. Again, for lolita, this is relatively chill, but obviously in a normie crowd it wildly stands out. The pops of red were mainly a result of me needing to stick to practical, comfortable shoes (once again, RIP Bodyline tea parties), but they really lift this coord into that realm of fun and a little quirky by normie standards. Not pictured is the Big Bow Backpack that I carried with me alongside the tote because a girl needs her stuff, but also some cushioning for her back. Another long, yet eventful and upbeat day, finished off with a great afterparty (though a far more adult one than the lolita ones like TQiD’s!) have left me feeling like my communities have expanded with another wonderful place filled with inspiring, supportive people, and I cannot wait to dive into that world more.

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Coord 13: Recycled Pile

| Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | offbrand top, jacket, and ring | Innocent World Anchor OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | handmade (not by me) beret | Glitter from Wonderland necklace and earrings | Sweet Dolly House Cookie Bon Bon ring |

Placed the beret differently because of my hairdo and wanting the decoration to be visible, and somehow I look even more continental?

Dotty bows everywhere!

Recycled as in I had this outfit planned and assigned forever ago in Whering and didn’t wear it for various reasons, then totally forgot about it. But I remembered now. It’s more of a classic Paulina look, been a while since I’ve done one of those and it still feels good to wear. Although it was definitely too warm to wear that jacket beyond the photos, even though it had cooled down.

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Some of these coords had not come without a sacrifice of comfort. There were plenty of moments that highlighted for me (once again) how summer NOT ready my wardrobe at large is and that I need to accept that global warming hasn’t left my corner of the world unaffected. I am also finding myself already longing for the cooler autumn days and knitwear, that is clearly where I thrive. But I try not to wish my life away and let’s have a fun August before those warmer days disappear for another six to nine months.