Lolita 52 Challenge - My First Meetup

To be honest, for as long as I have known about lolita, and started dressing more regularly, I had been a solo-lolita for most of those years. Of course I had friends into it, or not into it but liked to dress up too, and we hung out and did fun stuff~ But the city I've lived in most my life in Florida didn't have a lolita community until a few years ago, and I was in Hawaii when they started it apparently. So my first lolita meet up was actually in Hawaii, last year.

My Night Fairy Fantasia coord for the occasion~

It was a belated Christmas-themed meet up, and I had already met a lot of the local lolitas through mutual friends, but I got to meet even more of the community for the first time during this meet up. It was held at a tea room in Kailua called A Cup of Tea, which I had been to before with a friend, and it is super cute. Especially the bathroom which they dubbed the "Poodle Room" since all the decor was poodle themed. The meet up was really pleasant, and everyone was so nice to a newcomer like me. Afterwards, I made the effort to attend as many of the monthly meet ups as I could and met even more of the local lolitas at each one. I've made a lot of close friends because of them, and was really happy that the first lolita community I had joined, was such a great one~ After about a year and half in Hawaii though, I moved briefly to Germany. The plan was to live there for a few years, so I had made an effort to join the local community of the city I had moved to, but due to cancelled meets, and a change in mod for their group page, I wasn't added until about three weeks before I had to leave (no luck in finding a job, and my tourist Visa was running out). Luckily, I was able to meet at least two of the local lolitas who were both very nice and put up with my lack of German skills. Oh, I also happened to run into the Frankfurt lolitas while visiting Hanau for the Cinderella performance~ Everyone was so nice!

Frankfurt Lolita Group "Candy Days" at Hanau and myself~

After leaving Germany, I went back to my hometown in Florida once again. Thanks to a lolita I had met in Hawaii, I was now aware of the lolita community that had formed while I was off on my travels~ A week after I had returned, there was a meet up at a local con tea party, so of course I bought my ticket. I met a lot of new lolitas and made some new friends here too.

First Meet Up with my Hometown Community~

However, if it wasn't for my great experiences with the Hawaii lolita community, I might have continued to be a solo-lolita for the rest of my life, so I'm extremely grateful to them! And I miss them all > w<

Last major meetup with the Hawaii Lolis (and Misako XD) before I left the island~ I miss you guys!

Art Post: ロリー戦い

My friend has a lot of parasols. They come in handy when you're heading to a fashion walk in Honolulu and it's ridiculously sunny and hot despite being December. Anyway, watching her hold onto about 3 or 4 parasols was really amusing for some reason. I told her she had an 'arsenal of parasols' and that she could use them to fight someone off with. Which resulted in drawing this picture of her:

She ended up looking pretty cool, like right out of a lolita themed fighting game. Another friend who saw it said he'd love a lolita themed fighting game so we started joking about it and coming up with fake scenarios. I even named it Lolitatakai (bad pun for Loli Battle, *slaps knee*). It was so much fun just throwing ideas out there, I really did want to make a lolita fighting game. Other than visual novels though, I have no knowledge about making games, so for the time being, I just drew some character designs for fun~

I have more designs to work on, these are just a few~ I hope one day I really can make this game a reality~

Lolita 52 Challenge - How I First Found Out About Lolita

Cobwebs on my blog...

Hello, long time no post! I had every intention to be more diligent with this blog, especially since a lot of fun and interesting things have happened to me lately in my lolita world, but I've been neglecting it again. So, clearly I need something to motivate me since I'm not a self-starter at all. An acquaintance of mine recently started the Lolita 52 Challenge, and it looked like a good motivator~ It's supposed to be once a week, but I got a feeling I'm not disciplined enough to do something weekly, better make it once a day...;;

I won't be going in any particular order either, pretty much just going to do whatever I feel like~

Feeling the obligation to complete this, will hopefully also remind me to post about other things as well. So, here goes!

10. How I First Found Out About Lolita

I decided to start with this topic, because it's a really fun story for me. Not even going to lie, I'm an old-lady in lolita years. In the sense that I've been into the fashion for about 13 years, wearing it for about 8, wearing it more regularly for about 7.

It was the summer vacation before I started high school, I was 13 years old, and like most 13 year olds, forming my own sense of style (very badly). My 13 year old fashion sense was also typical: black, black, and more black. Rebelling against the discomfort of jeans, I only wore skirts, and since I've been a busty girl since I was like 10, I preferred t-shirts over blouses. I was admittedly a hot mess. Since I was a history/art history buff, I already had a love for Victorian fashion. It was my favorite fashion style in history. I collected Victorian paper dolls from museums, and my favorite artists were all Impressionists at the time. I wanted clothes like that, like the Victorian women in those paintings, and in my history books. Of course, in the early 2000s, the closest you could get to that aesthetic is goth clothing. Being a teen with no job, and therefore no money, I had to settle with whatever I could scrounge together from clearance racks.

Actually, I still kinda dress like this when I'm being lazy...

I remember the first time I came across lolita fondly *leans back in rocking chair, petting cat*.

I was across the street, at my neighbor's house. I had known her almost my whole life, and she was constantly my source for Asian trends as she had the internet at home, and I did not (what a weird concept to look back on, by the way...). A friend of her's had recently gotten into Gackt, and was showing us pictures and letting us hear his music. Instantly interested, I did my own research into Gackt (at the public library, of course! No internet at home...), which ended up with my discovery of Malice Mizer. Malice Mizer's music was definitely more my tastes, but more importantly, I was completely in love with Mana's fashion sense! One thing led to another, and my research had led me to Mana's brand, Moi meme Moitie, which just warmed my lil' baby goth heart~ It was all down (up?) hill from there. I started to buy GLBs whenever I visited Kinokuniya in NY during family vacations, and when I started attending anime conventions when I was 15. That's when I found all the other brands too. At the time, the only brand that shipped overseas was Metamorphose, but I was still a penniless teen, with limited internet access, so I just made do with terrible Hot Topic pieces that somewhat resembled the lolita aesthetic, and whatever I could find at thrift stores. And I was still a hot mess.

Still my god~

I didn't get my first "real" lolita piece until I went to Japan for my high school graduation gift in 2006 (back when it didn't cost an arm and a leg, just an arm). Coincidentally, bodyline was the only "lolita store" we could find (because we were completely uninformed, I really wish I could go back knowing what I know now...) and I couldn't fit into anything I liked (does anyone remember bodyline's Queen Size?? They've come so far since then as far as sizing...). I ended up getting a black and white velveteen and raschel lace skirt (hey, it was in style at the time!) from some off brand shop on Takeshita-dori called Richard's. It was $90, and I wasn't going to get it because of the price (*laughing/crying*), but my mom goaded me to get it, because 'when would you get another chance!?'. I still have that skirt, by the way, thinking about making a comeback coord with it.

Comeback Coord~

After my magical adventure in Japan, I became even more serious about my passion for lolita. I started to notice it was becoming a little more known overseas, a little easier to order online, and sites like In the Starlight and Sweet Rococo were making custom sizes (perfect for an already curvy girl who gained the freshman...30...). Sweet Rococo was definitely beyond my price range, but I still spent hours "designing" some dream dresses. Eventually, I did order a JSK from In the Starlight. It was my first JSK, and I loved it~ It was black with white lace (even to this day, I'm a gothic lolita at heart~), with corset lacing in the front, and shirring in the back. A friend from high school currently has this dress. Seeing it recently made me really nostalgic. Also, I'm not sure if anyone remembers or are familiar with another American lolita brand that is also long gone, but White Peacock was my go to for blouses. I bought a blouse from them about 6 years ago, and I still have it (poor blouse though, it's definitely seen better days...).

I got my first brand piece out of rebellion towards my mother. I had been saving up little by little from my part time job when I was in college for over a year to take another trip to Japan. My mother made a deal with me: if I paid for my own ticket, we would go again. When I had saved up just enough for a ticket, my mom said we couldn't go cause it was a waste of money. I was so angry, and it was also around the time my friends in CA were going to Anime Expo and were begging me to go and visit them. Without a second thought, I bought my plane ticket to CA. This was also around the time that Baby the Stars Shine Bright was shipping overseas, so I used that money to buy my first brand piece, Baby's 2009 release Ribbon Milky Sugar JSK in black (of course!). When it arrived, I was instantly blown away. The fabric was amazing, it felt so nice in comparison to my ITS JSK, the lace was knit, and it was surprisingly heavy. I knew then that brand was a whole 'nother level of lolita. There was no turning back! Anime Expo was my first major convention (I'm sorry, but FL conventions don't compare at all), and Angelic Pretty had a booth. Honestly, I didn't expect anything to fit me, even finding something from Baby that would fit was difficult (even though I had lost about 10 lbs before I went to AX). But after some prodding from one of the girls at the booth, I tried on the Sweet Jam OP that they had suggested. It was a little sweet for my tastes, but it was my first time seeing a lolita print. I was completely amazed by all the details! So when it fit, I HAD to get it. Suddenly, the person who had never bought brand before, had bought 2 brand pieces in the span of a couple of weeks. I was hooked. 

After spending almost all my money (literally) at Anime Expo, I once again began my little savings and continued to buy more and more lolita~ I didn't make very much money, so I didn't buy lolita very often, maybe one or two pieces a year (usually if I sold something ahead of time). It wasn't until I finally had a full time job that I could really build a decent wardrobe, but even now is still pretty small (bills, rent, food unfortunately take priority), but I'm quite happy with it. I think a lot of newer lolitas feel like "more is better", but I value each piece I have. They all have a story and a memory to go with them, and I think that's the most fun part of being a lolita. Nowadays the struggle of being a lolita, of finding clothes, and finding other lolitas to share interests is almost non-existent thanks to internet. I hope that the newer lolitas don't take that for granted and cherish all the moments and joys of being a lolita~

I'm actually 94......94