Fashion Show @ Madman Anime Festival

The Madman Anime Festival Lolita Fashion Show

It's been a dream of mine for a while now to participate in a Lolita fashion show and the Madman Anime Festival presented a perfect opportunity to get involved in one. 

Working full-time I haven't had a lot of time to do much Lolita so when the organiser asked for a coordinate picture, my submission was a previous outfit I had worn. I was very excited when it came to the day and spent quite a lot of time on preparations which included going all out by putting on bottom lashes!

I only found the wig at the last minute as it was tucked away in a totally non-Lolita bag (most embarrassing behaviour). I was really happy with the way the outfit turned out. 

  

We all met up in the foyer and were led to a green room out the back of the theatre stage. It was a proper, proper dressing room with lights around the mirrors. I took a couple of dressing room pictures with all the frills inside the one room. 

 

The good lighting created perfect selfie conditions and this created a photographic frenzy from the shutter happy amongst us (including myself). 

Here are some of the outfits from the fashion show. I apologise if I didn't get around to taking a picture for those that didn't get one. 

Prince and Princess. The only pair coordinate in the fashion show and superbly done. The princess's head dress is actually made by the model with string of pearls that hang between the spires. Making sure the headdress was secure looked like a task but it surely paid off for the walk. 

   

I love the blend of old-school Lolita here with the head dress and rocking horses mixed with the relatively recent trend of adding boz jackets to frilly dresses. Usually reserved for the comparatively unfrilly gothic and lolita or aristocrat sub genres. 

 

The walk that these two frill-seekers did during the show was nothing short of adorable. I've always loved the Bodyline Cinderella Bunny print!

 

I actually love this coordinate. Particularly the dress which is from Taobao. The fabric was lovely too. 

 

Well, you can tell what I thought from this filter. #godess

I loved the all white coordinate balanced out with darker shoes and accessories. 

I really love this print and the umbrella made the whole coordinate look so elegant. 

This coordinate was a deliberate mix of genres. Spooky and cute. The horns were a great touch, I thought. I would like to implement some in a coordinate one day, myself. 

I really enjoyed dressing up, seeing everyone and their amazing coordinates and planning the fashion show. Unfortunately there were some hiccups with the organisation of the show that did put a dampener on things. We were forgotten in the dressing room and ended up starting an hour late. However, the show came off smoothly and we went into the festival afterwards to enjoy the show. 

There was a room filled with many stalls with DVDs, manga, merchandise and other things; a stage for interviews; movie room and a maid cafe. I was only interested in going to the maid cafe and checking out the Sailor Moon goods because it's usually quite expensive at these kinds of events. The line to the maid cafe was really long so I went straight to the stalls. There were cardboard cutouts of LoveLive characters and some posters of popular anime. I enjoyed posing in front of a Sailor Moon poster and taking selfies. I also got my picture taken in front of a cherry blossom background and got a print out for free! 

In the end, I didn't end up buying any merchandise or going to the cafe. The Sailor Moon DVDs didn't even tempt me. I was hoping for a box set with pretty cover art. Unfortunate but on the positive side, I didn't spend any money. 

I really enjoyed dressing up in lolita after a long while and enjoyed participating in the fashion show. I hope I can do it again next year. 

Beret, Necklace, Blouse, Kumya-Kumya, Socks: BTSSB

JSK: Krad Lanrete - Phantom of the Opera

Head bow: Innocent World

Ring: Q-pot

Shoes: off-brand 

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...