Packing for Japan

Hi all... 

It's already two weeks until I move out of my country town and three weeks until I head to the land of the rising sun for a few months. 

I have been thinking about what to take with me for a while and after seeing Roli's Ramblings post on packing a weeks worth of outfits I decided to give it a go myself. The items are chosen using a system based off the hypothetical wardrobe posts that are common on her blog, they dictate the amount of items and and the item traits in order to create a complete and versatile wardrobe for many different occasions.

Here is what I chose based on Roli's formula...

Three Main pieces

One one piece, one jumper-skirt and one skirt including one solid-colour piece.

• Mystic Chiffon One-piece (navy), Alice and the Pirates
• Collection Chocolatier Douce Praline Jumper-skirt (Sax), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
• Wonderparty Skirt (Brown), Angelic Pretty

Mystic Chiffon OP from Alice and the Pirates is my solid colour piece. I chose Collection Chocolatier Douce, praline jumper-skirt because it's my favourite, most versatile piece and simply perfect for the spring weather in Japan. Lastly, I picked out my Wonderparty Skirt by Angelic Pretty. My first impression laying them out on the bed was that they may clash or prove to be difficult to coordinate.

Three Blouses

Two neutral blouses including one short-sleeve and a different coloured or dressier blouse

• Pintuck Blouse (Off-white), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
• Sheer sleeve knit blouse (off-white), Off-brand
• Carolyne Blouse (beige), Baby the Stars Shine Bright

As I discussed in my wardrobe post, I don't really have any short sleeve blouses that are in working condition so I chose two long sleeve white blouses: one plain pin tuck blouse from Baby the Stars Shine Bright and a dressy knit that I use as a blouse which I picked up for $15 in an off brand shop. For the third blouse I chose my Carolyne blouse in beige (it's shiny so I initially thought it was gold), which is also a dressier piece.

Two pieces of outerwear

One short-sleeve and one long sleeve

• Short Sleeve Knit Cardigan (Off-white), Metamorphose
• Cardigan with fur collar (navy), Baby the Stars Shine Bright

I chose my short sleeve cardigan from Metamorphose and a long sleeve cardigan from Baby with a detachable collar. Detachable items are really useful for easily creating versatility, however the drawback is that they often are bulkier than similar items without the detachable pieces and this can make it difficult to create a nice line for those who are just on the edge of brand measurements, like myself. 

Leg wear

One pair of stockings, one pair of over knee socks and one pair of ankle socks including one solid colour piece

• Esprit de la belle epoque de paris over-knee socks (ivory), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
• Kumya Kuma over-knee socks (beige), Baby the Stars Shine Bright

I chose two pairs of over knee socks: one, a translucent pattern and the other, a beige pair with kumya kuma on them. I currently have no solid colour opaque tights that are in working order.

 

Accessories

• Hat: ivory beret, BtSSB 
• Pin: navy beret ribbon pin, BtSSB; chocolatier pin, BtSSB 
• Barret: brown barrett with yellow roses, BtSSB;  Ivory Ribbon and Crown Barrett, Innocent World
• Headband: two  striped ribbon head bands in navy and brown, Innocent World
• Necklace: Alice teatime necklace, BtSSB, original crown and trump necklace, Innocent World
• Ring: Alice teatime ring, BtSSB 

For accessories I just pulled a few accessories together considering colours in my wardrobe and luggage space. 

Shoes

Two pairs of shoes that go with everything

•  Ribbon pumps in chocolate, Innocent World

I already have a few pairs of shoes in Japan, a pair of flats and heels in white and a pair of boots and heels in brown, that I couldn't bring back last time so I will only take one pair of shoes over that suit most things in my wardrobe.

After picking out what I will take over the first thing I noticed was that it was easy to see the holes in my wardrobe using this method. It was very easy to see that I lack plain coloured pieces, in particular leg wear, something I will need to rectify in the near future.

Outfits

Here are the outfits I came up with from my hypothetical suitcase...

As you can see there is a large variety of outfits for a different weather and occasions. I probably could have created more if I hadn't have become so tired due to changing outfits so often. 

Observations

I had no idea these cardigans would come so in handy, simply layering the cardigan can change an outfit drastically. 

Doing this experiment really shows me how versatile my wardrobe has become over the past two years and it has further solidified my view on the positives of having a wardrobe based on colour palette.

Changes

As I'm going to Japan for far longer than a week (three months actually) so I would like to add a few more items to my suitcase. Specifically, two more jsks: the Dear Bunny JSK, which I promised to twin with a friend with and my Kumya Kuma Sweet Chocolate JSK, which I just really want to wear in Japan; I would also like to add a pair of plain coloured woolen tights to keep my legs warm during the cooler spring months.

All in all I'm really satisfied having done this challenge. The formula really worked for my wardrobe and it has allowed me to create many different outfits. Even if I wasn't going overseas, participating in this challenge has given me lots of coordinate ideas and has shown me where the holes in my wardrobe are. If you're stuck for outfit ideas or need a start on packing some lolita fashion for a trip I would recommend using this challenge as a starting point.

Until next time...

Life's All Fun and Games...and Chocolate

Outing to San Churro in October

Hi all 

Did I just return from a holiday in Perth? I was so busy that I'm almost more exhausted than when I left but I really enjoyed seeing many of my beautiful friends and finally getting the chance to wear lolita fashion outside for the first time since I returned from my working holiday four months ago. 

Planning Outfits for Perth - Coordinates for Spring

Spring Outfits for the City

This week I'm travelling to the city for the first time in three months. Even when I returned from overseas I only spent a few days in Perth and didn't have the chance to go out in Lolita with friends. This time I've organised to see friends twice over my week trip so I put together some outfits in preparation. 

On the weekend, I put together some spring outfits and did up some coordinate ideas for my new purchases. I wanted to focus on coordinating seasonally appropriate outfits. It's spring in Australia (it's already quite hot though) so I chose light colours and breathable fabrics. 

Collection Chocolatier Douce by Baby the Stars Shine Bright 

This outfit is for a meet to eat chocolate and churros. I had to go with the Collection Chocolatier Douce for this outing.

I went with a white blouse and white purse to bring a fresh spring feeling to this jumper skirt. I really wanted to add in the brooch from this same series that I have so I've placed it on the collar. I also added a few cherry themed charms to my bag to keep the bag looking too plain. I'm still not sure if I'll keep them in as the look a little cheap clustered together on the bag. The blue bow is off my beret and I would clip it on the side of my head (hopefully it will stay). I would have preferred to use white shoes but my pair are still in Japan so I went with brown as my second choice. 

Wonder Party by Angelic Pretty 

I chose the fun Wonder Party print in brown for a meeting with a few close friends for dessert and board games.

Rather than go with a full ivory/brown coordinate, which would tend towards Autumn, I added a chiffon blouse in mint to add some cool tones and bring this coordinate towards spring. I believe that keeping most of the outfit light in colour is another key to keeping this brown and gold skirt working in a spring coordinate so I've added off-white see through socks and off-white wrist cuffs. I would also like to add a round lacy headdress or a bow in white with roses on it to keep the entire look bright from head to toe. The jewellery is the teacup ring and teapot necklace from Baby and it just goes beautifully with the theme of the skirt. 

A few bonus pictures now of some basic coordinates I made using the new pieces in my wardrobe. As I get more pieces within my navy, brown and ivory colour-scheme I can create more coordinates using the same pieces. It's certainly a very exciting journey. 

Until next time...

July - September 2015 Haul

Hi all,

What happens when you have a steady income, you have little to do in terms of recreation and the Internet...you go shopping!

One of my New Years resolutions was to create a more cohesive wardrobe so in keeping with that I stuck (mostly) to easy-to-coordinate pieces in either ivory, navy or brown. It was my first time shopping at many of the places as I tend to buy from EGL Comm sales and Facebook and have nothing bad to report (phew). So now that most of my stuff has arrived I would like to show you.

These are all my Lolita purchases for the past few months:

The story begins when I broke my spending drought by purchasing the bonnet from the Belle Époque series by Baby the Stars Shine Bright. I refused to pay full-price as it cost over ¥10 000 so I got quite excited when I saw it was on sale on the BtSSB website. 

It was my first time buying from the site and it went really smoothly, which is good because I've heard of the blacklisting horror stories. I definitely recommend reading an up-to-date tutorial before you buy from there.

A friend was selling some AatP ouji pants and I've wanted to try ouji-kei for a while. The sales were really in my favour so at the same time I was able to purchase an AatP Prince Conrad blouse in white and a vest on the second hand market for an excellent price.

This story is stamped to be continued, however, as the materials are of a different thickness and they don't match. My neck also disappears in the generous frill of the Prince Conrad blouse so putting together a first coordinate may take some time. I think I may have discovered the anguish of the ouji-kei wearer.

Another friend from my community was selling some items and I couldn't go past the navy Phantom of the Opera JSK from Krad Lanrete and the brown Wonder Party skirt from Angelic Pretty that she was selling. I've had the Wonder Party series on my wishlist for a couple of years and I love Phantom of the Opera (actually musicals in general) so I'm really excited about making a coordinate with both of those items.

Thinking about my upcoming trip to the city in mid-October (I live beyond the black stump at the moment) I was hoping to buy a dress in my colour-scheme that was suitable for warm weather. Then, I came I came across Collection Chocolatier Douce in sax by Baby, the Stars Shine Bright whilst on Usagiyouhinten. 

This was also my first experience with Usagiyouhinten. Although initial contact took a while, as they close mid-week, I was very pleased with the communication and the packaging of the item.

Also on my list for my trip in October was a petticoat. My current petticoat is on its last legs (and in storage in Japan) so I decided on a new petticoat from Chiffon Rose. I went with the Classical Puppets everyday A-line petticoat figuring if I needed more poof I could layer it with my older petticoat when I get it from Japan next year. They were closed for the month of September but as soon as it became October I received a shipping notification so it will arrive within the next week.

I naively signed up for Lace Market and was suddenly overcome with a terrible need for blouses. I wanted to get cool fabrics which would tie-in with my wardrobe and I managed to find three great lolita blouses. 

So at the close of September I've ended up with the following:

Two dresses: 

Collection Chocolatier Douce Praline JSK in Sax by Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Phantom of the Opera JSK in Navy by Krad Lanrete 

One skirt:

Wonder Party Skirt in brown by Angelic Pretty.

Three Lolita blouses:

Stand Collar Chiffon Blouse in navy by Angelic Pretty

Stripe Pattisier Blouse in mint by Baby the Stars Shine Bright 

Etoille Blouse in ivory by Baby the Stars Shine Bright (in transit)

One bonnet:

Belle Époque Bonnet in Brown by Baby the Stars Shine Bright 

An (unmatching) ouji-kei outfit:
Prince Conrad Blouse in white
Unknown AatP vest in black
Unknown AatP pants in black

Classical puppets everyday A-line petticoat (in transit)

As for the next few months, I'd like to focus on purchasing accessories. I really lack in this department and I know how important accessories are for making your wardrobe more flexible, bringing balance to a coordinate or putting a new twist on an oft-worn item. I'm particularly interested in making a "set" of accessories, that is, a few accessories in the same colour or similarly themed to make coordinating easier. 

Until next time...