My July was packed with events and activities, which may have left me with a little less energy to dress up just because, whilst I was at home. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, having a reason to put on frills definitely makes me put more effort into the outfit itself.
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Coord 1: Summer Appointment
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| | Victorian Maiden Shirring Frill JSK | Angelic Pretty Airy Dot socks | memery sandals | vintage hat | handmade necklace | offbrand bracelets and belt | |
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| The start of the month was very much the middle of my glowy looks kick. |
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| Shoutout to this extremely offbrand belt that seems to get compliments every time I wear it. |
A coord for the back end of a heatwave was certainly a dumb idea. That being said, this is a 100% cotton dress that can go off-shoulder – it is literally made to be a summer sundress. So although a petti was a bit much, the accessories were absolutely too much, and the hat, whilst cute and practical, would not fit over my headphones (and the headphones would’ve squashed the brim), these are but cute pictures that did not reflect the reality of how I went out to my appointment. Because by the time I arrived to it, I was a mess anyway, so why not pretend like I wasn’t, right?
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Coord 2: Nearly-Full AtePie
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| | Atelier Pierrot Whip JSK | Vallee Lys Nocturne overdress | Vallee Lys Velarium Lace OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Triple Fortune bonnet | Puvithel Crystal Heart earrings, necklace, and brooch | Le Petit Four bracelet | Star Glazed Delights Brandwhore ring | |
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| Tried to fit as much of the bonnet into this crop of the selfie because 3F bonnets are the best. |
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| The jewellery set that isn't a set. |
The desire to wear my new bits from AtePie compounded in the “What if I wear ALL my AtePie all at once” energy. And to my credit, the only things that aren’t AtePie in this coord are those that I do not own from them or don’t own in the right colours. (Also, full disclosure, I originally had this layered with the AtePie Decay blouse under it all, but felt it was too bulky and the fraying texture wasn’t meshing well, pun intended.) I like the older and the newer styles of AtePie coming together here, lots of very textural details to this coord, that was absolutely excessive for working from home. But hey, sometimes you gotta be extra. Especially during every summer moment cool enough to allow that. Admittedly, I am not a massive fan of where the overdress sits on me, but since I didn’t want to faff with corsets this time round, it very much is just one of those things that one has to accept.
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Coord 3: Sunny Streets
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| | BtSSB Snow Dot skirt | Niuniu Shop blouse | Angelic Pretty Cherry Stamp ankle socks | offbrand shoes and earrings | Pink Up Fanny’s Dressing Table hair clip | Neant Glass Gatekeeper pin | handmade bracelets | |
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| The digital perm I got isn't particularly showy, but boy, am I enjoying the little things, like that my hair actually will stay curled in on itself if I twist it. |
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| Gates are on the streets, so that seemed fitting, right? |
Even when it’s a gig that I go more for the company than for the music, I try my best to emulate the vibe somehow. Which was made all the more difficult by The Streets being an outdoor gig during a hot summer. I did my best, but as I sweltered even in this, for the actual outing I skipped the petti, swapped the sneakers for crocs (I know, ring the shame bell!), and plonked a sunhat on my head. With those adjustments, and once things cooled down slightly for the evening, this was actually quite comfortable. The gig wasn’t my cup of tea, but I can at least say that I experienced a part of British culture that I hadn’t experienced so far.
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Coord 3: Love Stories etc. Day 1
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| | Forest Girl Clothing Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary skirt | BtSSB blouse | Tutuanna socks | offbrand shoes | Two Days Slow hair clips | Kreativ Studio earrings | Folk and Fortune Typewriter necklace | Son de Flor belt | handmade bracelets | |
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| It's two days of books about love, therefore it's two days of heart glasses. |
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| A necklace so good it got featured in one of the organiser's Instagram reel. |
After the high of last year’s Love Stories etc. I got my tickets for this one the moment I got even a hint of them being for sale. And then waited patiently to see what the weather would do before finalising my looks. Both of these coords had to feature my heart-shaped glasses (because love stories, duh!), but I picked from the main pieces that hadn’t been worn in a while, starting with this skirt. Which actually stumped me a tiny bit on how to coord it with red glasses before I remembered that I can just ignore all the floral embroidery and focus on it being a white skirt. Simple, very textural, practical for a still very warm day (though not hot anymore, plus the library is air conditioned). I had a blast on day one and many people remembered this necklace from last year, so I got to promo the maker just before she closed up shop for a well deserved break.
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Coord 4: Love Stories etc. Day 2
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| | Metamorphose Gold Braid Tuck Pinafore JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Angelic Pretty Fancy Border ankle socks | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator Maiden’s Prayer headbow | Hello Crumpet Cruel Summer earrings | Folk and Fortune Typewriter necklace | Folk and Fortune Romance Book Club brooch | Felfira Moon Designs pin | Angelic Pretty Charlotte Bear brooch | handmade bracelets | |
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| Makeup is a funny thing because you'll be wearing it and thinking to yourself "Oh no, it's too much ToT" and then you see photos and they look fine. |
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| My unthematic pop of blue. |
Day 2 always feels a little harder to coord (unless it’s a lolita tea party event), because Day 1 sets an expectation. And whilst I had some fancier ideas for this JSK, I knew I had to manage my energy levels very carefully, which meant not overdoing it with outfits. Hence this coord as opposed to trying something with my Vallée Lys overdress, like my mind’s been itching to do. Am I 100% happy with this? Hmm, not quite. But I also can’t necessarily put my finger on why that is. I definitely wish that I had something better for my pop of blue around the waistline, though a new friend I made at the event did seem to recognise Angelic Pretty as a brand when she noticed that brooch, so not all is lost.
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Coord 5: Anniversary DnD
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| | Violet Fane Ginza Kissaten skirt | Axes Femme cutsew | Mademoiselle Pearl Persimmon socks | Modo Prayer Poem shoes | offbrand hair scarf and | Lotus Ribbon hair clips | Pypah’s Art earrings | Tiny Passerine Creations Lily of the Valley necklace | Slightly Ghosts Forget-me-not pin | Kirstteas Pumpkin Cat Bean Pie brooch | handmade bracelets and scrunchie | |
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| The face of someone who was up at the crack of dawn for the seventh day in a row... |
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| Sneakily wishing for autumn to hurry up and come back... |
To celebrate one year of playing this campaign (and honestly, it’s wild that it’s only been one year, and last year I overstretched myself too whilst looking cute) we got together for an in-person session and a small gift exchange. My initial idea was to go with something foresty (as I play a giant tree man), but since that’d be a lot more involved that I had energy for, I settled on just brown. And because this skirt has orange – on orange. And because I wanted to wear these socks with it – added some pops of blue. We exchanged gifts, so over the course of the session my chest was actually even fuller with various pins and brooches, but I didn’t take a picture of that. Still, it was an absolute blast, two back-to-back sessions of DnD-ing was a lot to do straight after a 2-day 10am-8pm event at the end of a full week of work, but it refilled my emotional cup all the way to the brim.
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Coord 6: Transferable Base
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| | The Black Ribbon Konbini Market JSK | Ank Rouge cutsew | Banned Retro cardigan | Angelic Pretty Candy Fun Fair OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Two Days Slow hair clips | vintage necklace | Rorobun Fruit Sando broch | offbrand brooch | handmade bracelets | |
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| Again, the hair change is extremely subtle, yet makes such a massive difference even in the most lazy of 'hairstyles' (i.e. pinning my growing-out fringe back and leaving it all down) |
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| Obligatory fruit sando with the print that includes a fruit sando. |
This cardigan and OTKs combo is my transferable base that just hops across different main pieces to make new coords. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And Konbini Market hasn’t had a go at this base yet, so since I was working from home and had rested (most of) my intense weekend off, I decided to dress up again. And tackle that legwear list – at that point, I had to wear at least six pairs of legwear per month (not counting July) to make sure that I meet that 2026 goal. So the sooner I started on some of those trickier ones, the easier time I’d have later in the year.
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Coord 7: Abergele
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| | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto The First Semester JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World Short Boots OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | Folk and Fortune Fleur de Lys earrings | vintage necklace and brooches | Folk and Fortune Ruby Hilt Dagger brooch | Metamorphose wrist cuffs | |
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| Look, ma, I went to a castle! |
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| This necklace belonged to my late grandmother and this was the first time that I've wondered if she perhaps made it or adapted it from something else she had (the stitching around the snap on that ribbon is very clearly done by hand). |
Bf's work took him to Abergele and he suggested that I use some of my remaining annual leave to visit. So I did. Given that the biggest local attraction is a castle built into the hill, I opted for something vaguely matching that, whilst also practical for schlepping around. The coord is absolutely a variant of stuff I've done before, but it works and got compliments, so who cares? I thoroughly enjoyed my day wandering around a cute Welsh town and then the castle, hit my daily steps goal before I even reached the castle, so I'm absolutely grateful for sticking with the sensible shoes!
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Coord 8: Stationery Fest
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| | Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK | Axes Femme cutsew | offbrand T-shirt, shoes, scrunchie, and earrings | Angelic Pretty Ice Cream Parlor OTKs | Pink Up Fanny’s Dressing Table hair clip | Folk and Fortune Late Night Diner necklace | Angelic Pretty Fancy Crepe necklace | Bibelot Rose badge | handmade bracelets | Banned Retro Bella belt | |
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| I really enjoy looking vaguely 1980s. That's it. |
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| Trying to capture stars with stars. |
Full on pastel retro to spend daft amounts of money on stationery. Because stationery is joy and deserves all the whimsy that I can bring. But also, comfort: with the sneakers, the loose layers over my torso, the hair up in a ponytail, the no rings that could catch and get in the way. Really love how this whole coord came out and the only thing I'd potentially change are the socks – and even that only because I think it's time to part with these ones, the lack of stretch around any scalloped designs ain't it in the year of our lord 2026.
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Coord 9: Casually Wa
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| | Physical Drop Long Sleeve Shirring Dress | vintage haori and brooch | Angelic Pretty Harlequinade OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Chrysanthemum’s Concerto headdress | offbrand hair clip and earrings | Tiny Passerine Creations The Duchess’ Tea necklace and ring | Slightly Ghosts Forget-me-not pin | |
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| Desperately trying to balance the height of those flowers with my hair. |
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| I can't even remember why I got these earrings, I've had them for so long. But I am very glad that every now and then they get their chance to shine. |
An unexpected WFH Monday called for dressing up, though I was still a little low on energy and needed comfort. No-one gives comfort as much as Physical Drop, even when the dress is quite fancy. And I really like how the haori hits it at just the right length with the faux side overlays of the skirt, plus the colours just speak to me.
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I was going to squeeze in one more coord, round it up to ten, but then on the day itself I really didn’t feel like it, so I didn’t force it. July was plentiful with looks anyway, I’m pretty pleased with this spread. We’re being threatened with another heatwave, which I hope we will avoid, especially as I am organising two meets in August, one of which is outdoors. We’ll see how that rolls. Suffice to say that I am ready to be done with summer and to move to something a little cooler – though I am not ready to move to shorter days.
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