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!

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 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.

Spring/Summer Collections

During one of my last visits to the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright shop in Paris, I was given the 2010 Spring/Summer catalogue as a "gift" for my purchase. I must say all in all, this is a rather disappointing season for me. I did see a few things that caught my eye though.

Damn it Baby! Who said you could try to put bare legs in mah Rorita again? XD

The ugly:

While I don't think that the cream puff skirt version of this design is terrible, the doll version of the JSK is downright hideous. There is just way too much going on and it reminds me of some of the more poorly designed Angelic Pretty rip offs that have been produced over the years.

The Bad:

While this set isn't even that ugly, I can't seem to help but hate it. It reminds me too much of something Mr. Yan would come up with. Bodyline releases dresses like this all the time. I suppose part of it stems from my extreme hatred of aprons, but this dress just isn't doing it for me.

This was another dress that had potential. While I kind of like the black version of this dress (It's my love of stripes, I can't help it), I feel that this print is overall just ugly. It's very plain and boring. On top of the bad print, I find the design of the actual garments to be equally as boring. While this had both the card suits and the stripes going for it, ça me laisse froid.

The Good:

While I'm once again not thrilled with the design of these dresses, I do love the print. If the design were better, this would be up there with Vampire Requiem for me. I do like that unlike Vampire Requiem, they actually released a few accessories like a tote bag purse. The wine bag give away and the brief case style purse that were available for Vampire Requiem left something to be desired. I personally would have like to have at least seen socks or something.

Although I really hate that they modeled this on a guy in the catalogue, I really love this dress. It's obviously not lolita at all, but it's very beautiful. It reminds me of something I'd see from h.Naoto more that Alice and the Pirates. While I find it to be quite beautiful, I don't think I will be purchasing this one myself. I think the dress would sit strangely on someone with any sort of curves, which is probably why this guy is modeling it instead of Kanon Wakeshima like the rest of the dresses in the Alice and the Pirates section of the catalogue. I really like that Alice and the Pirates went for something that stands out as original in this little catalogue of recycled frills.

The Awesome:

I almost feel like I don't need to put a description here about why this is awesome. I mean, it is after all the Marie Antoinette JSK... This print has been many people's dream dress for as long as i can remember. I , myself, would love to have the blue version. I don't even know how I would coordinate it in my 90% black and white wardrobe. But I do know that I want it very badly. The other colors are amazing as well, but there is just something about the blue that gets me.

The Meh:

While I absolutely love the print for this dress, I can't help but be left unmoved by the overall designs of the dresses. While both the OP and JSK strike me as frumpy and unflattering, I'm not terribly excited to see yet another corset skirt. Perhaps my dislike of the skirt stems from my not buying the Castle of Nightmare skirt when I last saw it, but I think it stems more from how I rarely see anyone pull them off without acquiring either a boobloaf or boob shelf in the process of it all. So while this had the opportunity to wow me, it fell short, therefore the meh.

Overall, I feel like I'm seeing a lot of the same thing over and over again. I feel as if even though Baby isn't releasing the same OTT sweet designs every month like Angelic Pretty, it all feels very much like I've seen it before. Not all of it is necessarily even bad. It's just disappointing to see the same concepts being recycled so soon that didn't wow me the first time around, with the sole exception being the Marie Antoinette series, which wows me every time I look at it.

I also just saw Angelic Pretty's new Wonder Cookie Cutter print. I was also disappointed in this one as well. I really like the black version of Sugary Carnival ,the mint versions of Melty Chocolate and just about every version of Starry Night Theatre but this was just poorly executed I think. This one also has that feeling of being a recycled design, more specifically the print looks so familiar to me as a mesh of several of their older prints. I don't agree with their choice of stripes for the dress. I think it adds too much to the already busy print. While the pink and white colorway seems less busy than the others, the black colorway makes my head hurt.

Those are my current feelings on Lolita fashion. I'm looking very much forward to the Marie Antoinette rerelease and will have a very hard time resisting if I can afford it when it is released. I've always been a sucker for the blue version from the very moment I saw it. Hopefully the Fall/Winter catalogue will make me feel better about the fashion I love so much.