Japanese Article in English on Decoden

While I was reading up on a chubby shironuri interview, I looked at the other articles and I found an article in English about a junior high schooler who does fake food deco! She sounds super talented. Although I haven't been doing much decoden lately, I will be working on it more since I am planning on taking next semester off to work. Hopefully I will be energized enough to go back to school in the fall~

Here's the link: http://www.tjf.or.jp/clicknippon/en/mywayyourway/04/post-7.php

International Lolita Day 2013

This past Saturday was International Lolita Day. This "holiday" for lolitas is a tradition that popped up and it occurs on the first Saturday of December and the first Saturday of June. Although I enjoy wearing lolita, I always take tons of time to get ready and always end up being 30-45 minutes late to a meetup. There should be a setting on Facebook for extremely late people like me that makes an event 30 minutes earlier than it actually occurs. >_>

Here's some pics with other girls in my community (we had a mini meetup at the Milwaukee Public Market and it had amazing Christmas decorations!)

Taken as we were leaving~ These lovely lolitas (Beck & Jeanette) are some of the best dressed in the comm!

OP: Akane & Alois
Headdress: Rococo Soul
Shoes: Dolce by Mojo Moxy (DSW)
Everything else: Offbrand

If you're interested in getting the booties that I was wearing, you can get black, grey, silver, or tan!

Favorite Japanese Street Snap Blogs

In September, I had some major fun outings with my local lolita comm and Japanese Club! Going out to eat at a Japanese restaurant (hibachi, which is actually an American concept of teppanyaki), going on a brewery tour in lolita, and eating southern style food in the Midwest for dinner. I've also been buying accessories off taobao through Taobaotrends (shipped!). My Taobao GO from my comm also got shipped (we waited for some dresses to get made... orz) Other things in the mail is my dream print~ It's the Chess Story Marriage D'Amour High Waist Skirt! I've always regretted not paying full price when it popped up on the fb sales group.

Speaking of fashion, I follow a few Japanese Street Snap blogs that are well known amongst Tumblr jfashion fans! Do you like street fashion? I hope that you'll decide to follow them too soon~

Japanese Streets

http://www.japanesestreets.com/

This website is the oldest out of the bunch? It is the one that I followed first when looking for street snap blogs online. The most well known monthly magazine is FRUiTS, which spread the word around the world with its compilation books (1, 2). You can get it at cdjapan or Yesasia (cdjapan is actually cheaper than buying it through Kinokuniya, although the wait is longer for SAL shipping)

Tokyo Fashion

http://tokyofashion.com/

This is one of the more well-known street fashion blogs on tumblr, partially because it has collaborations/photoshoots with style icons like Minori (shironuri) & Hirari Ikeda (jfashion, model). They also do "feature" articles of fashion parties and events around Japan (mostly Harajuku). Harajuku Fashion Walk has been photographed for a long while too! It helps that it has an official tumblr to share the pictures. I always take inspiration from the avant garde hairstyles and fashion.

Tokyo Faces

http://www.tokyofaces.com/

This blog just got on my radar recently since they probably took some photos of lolita, cult party kei or fairy kei girls. I ended up following them because they have an RSS feed! They also have a tumblr~

Style-arena

http://www.style-arena.jp/?langType=en

This is a curated blog of street fashion all around Japan (not just Harajuku!) by the Japan Fashion Association. You get a ton of different fashion styles like crazy OTT Harajuku or The only downfall of this website is that you cannot subscribe via an RSS feed nor do they have a Facebook page...

RID SNAP

http://ridsnap.com/snap

A newly found addition for me, it's been around for a while. Somebody reblogged a repost of the photos and this site is fresh and has an open feeling to their photographs~ They are also really fast at retweeting stuff (like a minute after I tweeted about it, they retweeted me! O_o;) People join their page and tweet their coord to @ridsnap and it gets retweeted? The best way to keep track of this site is through their Facebook page!

DROPTOKYO

http://droptokyo.com/street/

Another find while looking for more street fashion blogs. It's quite nice and has a gritty real feel compared to the other ones mentioned earlier.

Fashionsnap.com Street Snap

http://www.fashionsnap.com/streetsnap/

Wow, I really like the styles in this blog! I love that it has a girl with a tiger head backpack on one of the snaps~ Every snap has such a clean look to it.

Want More?

http://www.fashion-snap.com/cat/japanese.html

This has a list of various street snap blogs/websites. It is pretty comprehensive but I gotta hate the Comic Sans~

Krad Lanrete Skirt and Clobbaonline Review

Close-up on the print!

Ahhhh, I'm so excited today! I was recovering from a weekend cold and my long-awaited Krad Lanrete Phantom of the Opera skirt finally arrived in the mail! If you follow this Taobao brand, they are known for Mozarabic Chant, a medieval theme print. I'm actually excited for their new jellyfish print, despite my reservations with the brand actually making it in their estimated time frame. You can visit their shop here: http://krad666.taobao.com

Stock picture~

To order this skirt, I decided to use Clobbaonline instead of a cheaper shopping service because it would be a definite reserve and I wasn't comfortable with other SS level on communication with Taobao shops. This skirt was custom size, which the shop offers for preorders only. I got it in the black & gold colorway~

Length of order to delivery: This is where it became an unacceptable length of wait, since the estimated completion date was LATE MAY/JUNE and I just got it today (Aug. 19). I sent an email to Martin (the guy behind Clobbaonline) with the filled out order form on April 4th, various update emails in between, arrived at their office on August 4th, skirt got sent out on August 7th, so registered AIR took about 12 days to arrive to USA.

Here's the emails that I got from Martin starting in June and ending in August. :/

Response after I sent an email about the status of the skirt

Response after I sent an angry email about not getting updated & the ridiculous wait 

Final update email

Price: It cost $76.95 + $17 custom size fee + $15 registered airmail = $108.95 and I paid via Paypal.

Communication: Good! Martin replies quickly (within 1-2 days) and is fluent in English. However, I was really upset that he didn't update us fast enough after Krad Lanrete messed up on their printing. I had to send some emails asking about the status of the skirt each month. Some of my anger about the whole wait was that other people had already gotten their skirts/jsks/OPs.

Quality: AMAZING~ I really like the lightness of the fabric of the skirt, the nice lace detailing, and the fact that they have a brand tag on the inside.

TL;DR: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars) Martin of Clobbaonline was great to work with, but this got negative points for the super delay of Krad Lanrete and my personal opinion on how communication went for updates on the progress of getting my custom size skirt (originally supposed to be made first, but then made last).

Cute packaging!

Bubble wrapped for protection

Skirt inside a plastic bag

Size comparison of the package to Clover Omnibus manga (actually very small!)

Phantom of the Opera Short Skirt in all its glory~ It's made of light silk-like fabric! Perfect for summer!

Tag on the skirt (I think the elastic is in the back?)

Very nice lace adorning the ruffles 

Lining inside (very light fabric)

Sample coord worn with Classical Puppets A-line petticoat

Another worn skirt closeup

Final worn closeup~

Lastly, I gotta recommend this song! It makes me think of how lolitas always want to be extravagant but we actually are living our dreams through the fashion while our real lives are quite plain. Also, it's a good commentary on pop culture right now. Also, insane that she's only 16?!?!?

Chantilly Phantom Merry-go-round Skirt!

I got this skirt & sock set as an ACEN 2013 exclusive from Harajuku Hearts x Enchantlic Enchantilly! I backordered it since this color way was sold out on Friday afternoon (yes, isn't that crazy?!) And after the swap meet, I got black x white Chantilly diamond socks too! I love this skirt to death~ Of course, this happened in May but I'm now just putting up pics.

http://lolibrary.org/apparel/phantom-merry-go-round-skirt

Out of the bubble mailer, the skirt was inside a Chantilly bag.

Free postcard!

The design is beautiful!

Closeup on the print

...even closer!! 

built-in petticoat

closeup on lace detailing and fabric texture

Wearing the skirt & socks in a coord (left) to an exhibit at the Art Institute

Lolita Outfits: February - August 2013

As you probably noticed, I've started wearing lolita fashion! I really enjoy my local comm as its just small enough to know everyone, but enough that we have a variety of styles and have decent sized meetups, along with carpooling to bigger meetups in Chicago. I think I joined when the drama was low or gotten rid of in the other comm and everyone is really nice so far! The best part of joining a lolita comm is probably seeing prints and dresses in person. I've been taking too many pictures with my phone instead of a camera, so quality is pretty low. Also need to exercise... my face is getting chubby and I need to smile more...

February - First Meetup!

Second coord ever! I am so embarrassed about this one, if only I tucked my blouse inside the HW skirt...

March - Brunch meetup

Wore my new circle lenses + falsies with my Lady Sloth skirt!

May - ACEN Friday & Saturday, Brunch/bowling Meetup

Friday coord - late to ACEN because I tried curling my hair with a flat iron; first "brand" (H. Frill)

Saturday coord - Thank goodness! Someone in the Chicago comm took a pic & shared it in the fb group!

As a Doctor Who fan, I'm obligated to share this random Tardis that appeared in the hotel lobby.

Coord for brunch/bowling meetup (old school?)

June - International Lolita Day & Megameet in Chicago

International Lolita Day - someone took a picture of us & shared it online

EDIT: Just kidding, I just found this one!
I forgot I did a review on the sizing of this jsk on the Plus size lolita discussion fb group

Megameet in Chicago - My prized Chantilly skirt! (no shoes at home)

July - lots of meetups

Bastille Days meetup - yay for Metamorphose socks, boo for no sock glue

Swap meet coord - need a better petticoat :'(

Brunch meetup - TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE

August - meetup at Art Institute

Art Institute of Chicago exhibit meetup - unplanned kuro/shiro! ♥ Chantilly~

And suddenly I look better since this photograph was taken in daytime with natural light
Loving this Innocent World replica bag that I got at the swap meet

Lolita Timeline!

I'm getting a ton of socks & accessories from a Taobao group order soon so I expect my coord skills to get better soon! I'm expecting a Krad Lanrete the Phantom of the Opera skirt (edit: arrived!) and some Lady Sloth stuff to eventually arrive, along with another Chess Story B&W striped jsk from my Taobao order.