Clobba Online Review: Emperor and Nightingale Coat

Hello Everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts over the past month or so. I don't really have an excuse but I've got quite a few plans to blog about coming up soon so you'll be hearing more from me!

I ordered this coat from ClobbaOnline.com. I started my ordering process on 12-7-10. I sent an email to ask about shipping prices before I ordered and they got to me within 12 hours. They gave me prices for EMS, SAL, or SEA mail. They have a DHL option listed on their site but it may not be available for all items or something since they didn't give me a quote for it. I ordered the Emperor and Nightingale Coat in Black with the optional mantle. I had some issues getting their order form to load on 2 of my 3 computers but I was able to place my order later that night.

By the time I woke up the next day (12-8), I had received my invoice. I paid immediately and they confirmed that they received my payment shortly after. They did not tell me how long it would take for them to actually ship the item. On 12-16, I sent them an email asking when my order was going to ship. I received a response the same day from them stating:

"The coat set is not ready yet. The supplier is making a new batch at the moment. There were a few left from the previous batch but they ran out too fast. I will email you once it's ready. :) "

On 12-26, I sent another email to ask about when they were expecting to receive the coats and received an email back a couple of days later.

"The coat will need another 2-3 weeks. The supplier is still doing the embroideries for all the coats at the moment. :)"

I asked for another update on 1-11 and expressed my concern about how long it was taking.

"Please give me an update on the status of my order. It has been more than 1 month since I sent payment. (8th of December) There is nothing stated on your website that the items were out of stock. Since I paid through paypal, I am only covered for 45 days from date of payment. I am starting to get concerned since this time limit is fastly approaching."

They responded the same day with a link to their feedback on EGL and the following:

"The embroidery is still not done. There are more coats in this batch as this will be the last batch before the holiday begins. The supplier will not make more of these coats after the holiday as spring collection will be coming then. Most Infanta pieces does not need to be manufactured. But this coat runs out too fast everytime after a new batch. So you will need to wait some times. Most customers ordering the Emperor and Nightingale coats are like that since this Oct. I'm sorry if there's any confusion."

On 1-23-11, I received another email from them to let me know that they had received the coats and that they would be shipping out as soon as possible. At this time, I asked if it would be possible to order something else with my order. They said I could but they warned me this time that it would take time because they were having issues receiving shipments from Dream of Lolita. I decided to have them just ship the coat for now. I received an email with a picture of my package and tracking number when they shipped it on 1-28-11.

I couldn't get my tracking number to work but I received the item on 2-4-11. I ripped it open without getting a picture but the picture they sent me works well enough XD. The coat was nicely folded in the package with the unattached back ruffle, jabot, and mantle. The back ruffle and jabot attach with pins and the mantle has a button. The coat came with an extra rose button and an extra pin. The wool is nice and thick and very comfy. The coat is fully lined and the fur is really soft. It is very warm and will definitely keep me warm in the northeastern winter.

Say hello to my new dress form that my Mum gave me for Christmas! Here's the coat without any of the extras.

With the mantle only

With the back ruffle

Without the back ruffle

Back ruffle close up

Jabot close up without mantle

Jabot close up with mantle

Jabot (Sorry about the sideways pictures here... For whatever reason it won't let me remedy that...)

Close up of crown charm. Unfortunately it is missing its rhinestone. It's not very noticeable but worth mentioning.

Close up of the cameo. The cameo feels a bit loose. I may have to sew it on tighter. It's made out of plastic and looks a little cheap under the flash of my camera but it's fine in real life.

There are long threads that weren't cut on the jabot. Not a big deal again, but worth mentioning. It's easy enough to snip them off.

The back of the jabot. The back ruffle attaches the same way.

The Infanta logo and crown embroidery

The embroidery of the bird cage. The birds eye is a little rhinestone as well. ^ ^

Overall, I am very happy with the coat. The delay was a little annoying but, it is understandable. I just wish that they had let me know about the delay before I had both placed and payed for my order. Would I order from them again? Most likely. The quality is great and it was well worth the money I spent on it. I'm thinking I may press my luck in the near future with their Dream of Lolita section since I really want one of those nice spade purses! Thanks for reading! I'll do my best to post more often! And on an unrelated note, Binghamton now has two lolitas! We've been hanging out and it is wonderful! But more on that later! ^ ^

Halloween-Time Photoshoot

I really wanted to shoot here but we were asked to leave since there was no photography allowed T_T This was the only photo we got.


Back around Halloween, I modeled for a few photos for a contest I wanted to enter. I had a lot of fun working with two great artists, Eric Maruscak of Pepperink.com and Jason D. Moore of Jason D. Moore Photography and would love to do it again some time soon. I'd like to share some of the photos with you!

-Photography by Jason D. Moore Photography

-Photography by Pepperink.com

They have minimal editing other than being taken with HDR technology, which from what I understand, is when you take three or more images with different settings so that you can edit the photos that are identical other than the lighting together, taking only the best parts from each photo. For example, the last photo above is comprised of the three images below.



It's pretty neat. I'm in love with the end product it produces. It's so hard to stand perfectly still for so long though!

Contest Ideas!

And for good measure, here's a really adorable panda photo!

I'd like to have a contest soon to celebrate that I'm getting really close to 50 followers. The problem is I can't for the life of me come up with an idea for it. Simple giveaways are boring don't you think? Anyone have any ideas that would make for a fun contest? I was thinking some sort of photo contest. I'd love to hear what you guys would have in mind!

Halloween!!!!

For Halloween, I didn't do a whole lot. The day before however, I had a very small get together with a couple of friends. We all dressed up as pirates and did very un-pirate like things such as have dinner at Denny's and watch The Running Man. I was mostly happy to get to wear a bunch of my new items (and old items actually), that I have never gotten to wear yet!

Coord Rundown!

Blouse/Socks: AatP
Shorts: h.Naoto Gramm
Shoes: An Tai Na
Bag: BTSSB
"Corset"/Hat: Offbrand
Eyepatch: Handmade

As always, I'd love to hear what you think. Did anyone else do anything fun for Halloween?

5 Lolita Pet Peeves

A little while ago, a user on EGL "challenged" us lolita bloggers to do a small blog on what we dislike in lolita. I've got a few pet peeves myself so I thought I'd make my own ^ ^

1) Cake Hats
I've hated cake hats since the very first time I saw one. I also place those awful ice cream cone headdresses that AP put out with Milky Planet in this category. This is my number one pet peeve in lolita

2) Wigs
I like wigs a lot actually. It is always really annoying though that it seems without a wig, one's outfit just isn't really considered complete and seems to be lacking something. I wish more people would show off their real hair.

3) Wa-Loli
When I first became interested in lolita, I desperately wanted to be a wa-lolita. I loved all those bodyline yukata dresses. Part of me is very glad I never was able to get one. I like them on rare occasions on an asian girl, even then though, I couldn't imagine wearing them as a daily fashion. I think western girls look very out of place in them.

4) Blunt Bangs
Again, I like bangs, but I feel like you are expected to have blunt bangs in lolita. I've never been a fan of myself in bangs and every time I wear lolita I always worry that my lack of bangs makes me look strange in the style. I understand that they aren't necessary, but I wish there were more bang free lolitas.

5) Bonnets
Lastly, I hate bonnets. I always have and probably always will. I think they look goofy and just ruin the whole look. Half bonnets have the possibility of looking less ridiculous, but still rarely look good.

NYCC/NYAF '10 Recap: Day 3

Wow it's been a while since I did the last update of this convention. Here's the third and last installment. Hopefully you'll all forgive me for taking my sweet time writing it up!

I started my day out sleeping in/oversleeping and then catching a cab down to the convention. I did a little bit of early morning wandering around before the convention opened and then headed down to the fashion show line to wait. I met some really nice lolitas in line and then got a really good seat at the fashion show. Unfortunately, my camera REALLY didn't want to cooperate with me during the show so my pictures aren't very good or numerous. I've long forgotten many of the designers names but I really liked the more regal fashions that there were. I want to say it was I Do Declare who was the designer. If I'm wrong please correct me! I saw a lot of pieces that reminded me of h.Naoto and other punk/goth labels. There wasn't much that I wasn't fond of. I'm posting here a few of my photos that came out that I liked.

This was my favorite piece of the show!

After the fashion show, I decided to check out Takamasa Sakurai's panel and the lolita panel he participated in afterwards. I hate to say that I found his panel to be terribly boring, but he did the panel with Kanon of An Cafe, who was quiet and reserved but fairly adorable. The panel focused more on cosplay from the headline series of anime. I'm not into cosplay like I used to be and I was really expecting the panel to be more about fashion. The other panel, which I believe was something along the lines of making lolita work for you, was a little more interesting. I have the same criticism for this panel as I had for the Day 1 lolita panel I went to. It was nice, but the panel seemed to be more geared to newcomers to the fashion, although they did have a few cute and original coord photos to show off. They also had a giveaway which was nice. I'm a big fan of giveaways at panels even if I never win anything XD.

Me with Sakurai ^ ^

After the panels and fashion show, I came back to see Eric, who in my absence, had finished the mural! There were a ton of people checking it out and the finished piece was quite lovely. Unfortunately we did not get to hang it this year which would have been awesome, but it's not always possible since the conventions don't really have the fixings for it. We've always had to improvise in years past with the equipment they could provide us last minute. Regardless, the final piece was quite awesome.

We decided to wander the floor a little bit afterwards and had a convention volunteer valiantly guard the piece. We visited a bunch of different companies but hurried back to the mural out of fear of some unfortunate event such as children running under the bars or a spilled cup of coffee. On our way back, I saw a really nice Master Chief cosplay. I've always wanted to wear a Spartan suit myself, so this one is a favorite from this convention.

Lastly, I wanted to post a few of my favorite lolita coords again. I loved meeting all of you! You all looked great!

You can't go wrong with Vampire Requiem!

Pink and red seemed to be the color of the day!

Rocking AP Fantastic Dolly in mint!

A nice display of the variety that can go into sweet lolita ^ ^

Hope you enjoyed all the recaps even though they were quite spread out. It was a great time and I can't wait till I can go to another con. Its a wonderful excuse for me to dress up and treat myself to some new goodies. You'll hear from me again real soon, I promise!

As always, check out Eric's work at Pepperink.com!

NYCC/NYAF '10 Recap: Day 2

I'm getting a little behind on these blog posts (Oh nooooo! T_T) . I think it's about time I get back on track before I forget all the fun little details that were the NYCC/NYAF.

I started the day out by heading straight to the Hangry & Angry Fashion Show before the con doors opened to wait in line, and I'm glad I did. While the show wasn't as full as it could have been, the room's layout didn't lend itself well to tons of people. I got a seat in the front row right where the models stopped for a photo-op. My camera seems to be on its way out so I'm glad I got seats there or else I may not have gotten any photos. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this collection. There were a lot of really nice individual pieces, but I guess I just wasn't feeling the actual coordinates. Maybe this type of punk just isn't really my style... Either way I did get a few photos and I've picked out a couple pictures I liked best.

Shortly after the Hangry & Angry Fashion Show, I met up with a bunch of other lolitas and we had a little swap meet. While I didn't actually sell or trade any of my stuff (T_T) I did pick up a few new things. I got a couple of pairs of socks from BTSSB and Meta, some Meta jewelry ,and an offbrand blouse. I was tempted to buy a couple other things (I'm far too good at spending money -_-') Luckily for my bank account, I realized that the dress I was looking at was something I probably wouldn't actually wear... Crisis averted XD. While I don't think I got the whole group of us in the photo we did manage to get at least one group photo before the con staff headed over and shouted at us to move. I guess we were blocking some invisible entrance or something...

After the swap meet, I wandered around and did a little bit more perusing in the Dealer's hall. I ended up picking up a pair of wrist cuffs at the Kinokuniya booth since they were pretty and not overpriced like the rest of the booth. I also picked up the most adorable skirt from the Ichigo Black booth for my niece. Unfortunately, my niece was not a big fan of the skirt. She liked the skirt but didn't like that it had people in the print of the fabric -_-''' I guess you just can't win with 8 year olds... At least my nephew LOVED the Call of Duty blanket I found for him. I did okay with not spending TONS of money the first two days of the con.

I met a large panda whilst shopping!

I didn't spend a ton of time chilling with Eric on Saturday. I did get a chance to offer to get him food or a drink, but that was the extent of it. He was a lot more productive than I was, which he was really stressed about. In the end it worked out quite well. He had the YuGiOh logo just about finished before we took off to have dinner. We had dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant. I got some really tasty chicken dish that I've never heard of and no longer remember the name of (other than the word "pollo" was in it XD). I know you don't care about my dinner though, so on to the mural photos! As always, if you'd like to see more of Eric's work (and I know you do!) Visit his website at Pepperink.com

This is about where he ended on Day 2

Saturday, I wore my beloved BTSSB Pockets Embroidery. It was great to finally get to wear it in a full coord. The blouse is AP and there is some Meta jewelry. Everything else is offbrand or a replica.

photo by frozenmotion9

Bag and skirt detail. photo by frozenmotion9

Bling Bling! - Photo by frozenmotion9

On the subject of lolita, I saw a lot of awesome lolitas again on Saturday. Just like last time, I'll post up a few of my favorites. I was very pleased with the number of good lolitas I saw throughout the whole weekend. ^ ^

Me with frozenmotion9 with are netted headdresses ^ ^

Twin Irongates!

Sweet lolita in Wonder Cookie. I love the AP envelope bag ^ ^

A cute classic lolita

Lastly, I wanted to showcase a few cool cosplays I saw. I was kind of all about lolitas on Saturday and Sunday so I didn't get very many cosplay pics. I heard that there was a lot of awesome stuff out there I must have missed. Check out the pictures!

A cute Disney Alice ^ ^

This kid has a really cool mom!

These guys visited Eric twice during the weekend and stayed in character. It was hilarious XD

This was probably my favorite cosplay of the entire weekend. I really like how the flash washed her out.

Thanks for reading this portion of my recap. Day 3 will be up soon.