Gobelin appreciation

2026

Time flies. In between my last post in 2017 and today a lot has changed.

I have been into lolita on and off but the love will always be here even if one day I do decide to stop. 

Age does make a difference so if you are young and you are reading this, wear all the clothes, live all the life, do it before you are trapped (in whatever way, let's not get into that now).

Anyway as you know if you follow me since the start... (how long as it been? An eternity now, right?) I am a huge fan of the classic lolita brands, and some pieces will forever have my heart but also cause me pain. One of which is my dream coat (which has never and will never fit me), the 

Victorian Maiden "Gobelin Coat With Fur". 

So, when Kurumi announced her collaboration with Shimamura and the Noel de Memoire Series and I saw that coat, I knew I had to get it... even though I shouldn't spend a penny on anything. 

At first it seemed super cheap but then adding shipping, taxes etc, it was still sort of expensive, like a second hand coat and there are some things I'd like to improve, we will talk about that later.

As always, I asked the best shopping service in the world for purchases in Japan for help. She was the best as always and helped me. I did not know what I wanted, if only the coat, if I needed the accessories too... it is not fun to shop on a tight budget. 

It took some months for the actual items to be made and launched (I made the order in August and they were ready in December?). I paid the remaining amount and she shipped it really quick. It arrived in less than two weeks and after dealing with customs, it quickly came to my door. I wanted to film an opening video but it had been a while since i got something and was too excited.

I knew what it was, first I was not expecting anything and the Calbee on the box and all the lettering gave it away, it got me really excited!

There was also something else inside. One day a relative who stayed over broke one of my novelty items which i loved and seeing me so sad this person said "find a replacement and I will pay for it". I did not know if i could but i posted about it on facebook and who contacted me? My shopping service saying there was one for sale on mercari. I bought it!

 

Broken box. (never found that missing piece)

New box! Yay!

And now for the main bit, the coat!

When I opened the box I was really nervous. When you are plus sized you always wonder if things will fit, what if it didn't? I did not want to go through the hassle of trying to sell this especially since I was not sure if anyone else would be so much into granny couch stuff that they'd pay over retail price (shipping and all the fees).

Looking at both here they look perfect, right? But then I tried them on and I have a couple of issues:

1. The length:

One could tell that it was long but I always assume that long on a Japanese person does not mean it will be as long on me, but this one is... I am unsure if it is far too long. Still debating on this.

2. The size:

That is my fault, I orderd a 3XL which means it is perfect on the bodice (bust/waist) but then the sleeves are super wide for me. I mean i can work with it but would prefer them to be a bit tighter. I just have one of those odd bodies... I usually say that being plus sized is worse than being petite because the issue is to have the garment actually fit you. If it is too big you can always get it tailored, but if it does not close... its not the same. So I am ok with this.

3. The cape:

Did I really need it or did I just love the coat on the model and wanted to look like her? I find it a bit useless now that I have it. Also it is way too long for my taste. This one I should probably have gotten in a smaller size. I really need to get it altered to wear it, I do not like how long it is at all. 

4. The quality and thickness:

Its not warm at all, it looks like a winter coat but it is more of a spring/ autumn coat which might not make much sense visually speaking. But at least that might give me some time to get it altered so I can wear it still this year? Hope so...

The quality of the lining and fabric isn't the most amazing thing I have seen but I was expecting that due to the price range. 

I have another cape from Victorian Maiden for reference but that one is actually too small for my large shoulders and its not from a coat but a piece to be worn over a top. Something in the middle length would work better for me. 

As you can see the print is more dainty on the VM cape and the one on the right is a bit larger. The lace is also extremely beautiful on the VM cape and very tiny on the larger cape. I am not sure if I should find new lace and add it to the trim as I will be making it shorter. 

Lining of my Victorian Maiden cape

                                                                  Lining of the Kurumi x Shimamura cape

And this is the length on me. As I said, I do not hate nor love it, I think I may be too attached to my dream impossible to fit Victorian Maiden coat which makes my brain think this shouldn't be this long. I am not sure. I did not wear the cape because I really dislike it as it is. I was just trying the coat on anyway.

Overall, I am happy I got the coat. I would probably not have gotten the cape maybe or would have bought two sizes down hoping it would be shorter. The good news is that with the extra fabric I'll probably be able to make a rectangular headdress out of the excess material. The bad thing is, I don't own a sewing machine and am too scared to do it myself so I have to find a seamstress (and I know 0) around me to help. 

If you are interested in looking at the entire line, here's a link to the complete collection. I also liked the beret, the scarf, the boots with the fur and the skirt. 

FEBRUARY

I have trying to get back in touch with wearing the fashion again. 

For various reasons I have not been wearing it as much or did not wear it as much last year. This year I plan to change that. 

The most important steps (and the ones I don't mind sharing) include:

- losing the excess weight (I went from a size 40 to a 46)

- improving myself stress wise

- putting myself first

- saving so that I can go back to buying nice things

- reconnecting with hobbies as a whole

Until I achieve that, instead of waiting like I keep doing, I have decided to at least wear the fashion for myself and post more in my accounts as a boost to want to continue. I need that stimulus otherwise i lose interest and just go back to being a couch potato. 

This saturday I decided I wanted to try a dress that fit me but I did not wear yet and just hang out with myself having tea and working on understanding a bit more about bullet journaling (hobbies). I started off with the dress, tried going without a wig but could not deal with lolita without bangs so I had to get some... and then to hide the gap I needed to add a hat but it looked silly on its own and i wanted to hide the braid elastics so I added some bows... and then more bows and then more cherries to fit the theme.... and suddently this ended up not being that casual at all.

I realised I cannot do casual lolita at all. Totally failed haha but I think it looks cute. 

This dress is VERY short however. I wish it was at lest a palm longer skirt wise. But I do love the dotts on the straps and Emily Temple Cute Jsks with full back shirring are the best dresses for people my size. I kid you not, totally recommend them. 

Outfit Information:

Hat: Innocent World

Shirt: offbrand (Primark)

JSK: Emily Temple Cute

Necklace: offbrand 

Cherry hair clips: offbrand 

Bunny / Ribbon rings: offbrand (Chocomint)

Cookie brooch: honestly do not remember...

Ivory hairties: BABY, the Stars Shine Bright

Wrist cufs: Alice and the Pirates

Bag: Angelic Pretty

Socks: offbrand 

Shoes: Emily Temple Cute

There's a lot I want to unpack in this photo but I won't, not yet. I will leave you with the lovely Bordallo Pinheiro tea set which I love and matching the ETC vibes perfectly. 

What about you, what have you been doing?

Also please leave your blog/instagram/etc links so I can support and follow you. 

Love always,

Jo

International lolita day, winter.

9th of January

This day our community, the Portuguese Lolita community had organized a small gathering in my town to celebrate the winter loliday with a huge delay. Better late than never, right?

Anyway the weather was a disgrace, it was raining a lot and barely anyone was in the streets. 

It was scheduled at a lovely chocolate/cake store in which we had too many yummy sweets. It was great.

I had a lot of fun just looking at lolita magazines, eating and chatting with everyone and I love how everyone looked so different too. 

My friend Su came all the way from Lisbon to attend and stayed at my place which was a plus. <3 

Su, I adore you Su.

After getting dressed I went over to the meeting spot where soon all the participants arrived. Sadly it then started raining (a lot!) and we had to go all the way to the shop under heavy rain (my feet were super wet) but once we got there we got pretty confortable.

The counter full of tasty chocolates <3

We chatted and looked through lolita magazines and just spent a lovely afternoon. I really do wish we had these more ofen but the truth is, we just don't..

Group photo. Everyone looked super different, which is really cool. 

I am going to leave you with some photos of the goodies. The food was super yummy and just perfect for a dark and wet afternoon like that one. <3
I had my favorite drink (cappuccino) and a slice of chocolate / passion fruit cake, it was amazing!

Also Su brought me an adorable present, this cute cupcake shaped box which is now being used as decoration downstairs <3 My daughter also got treats, a princess crown and scepter which she loved.

You spoil me too much Su!

That was pretty much our day. 

The next day Su had to go back home but we booked lunch at our favorite restaurant, Ichiban.

Su loved it which is what's important. The view there is usually amazing because its right next to the sea but the weather was even worse on that sunday so just getting out of the car and into the restaurant was a freaking nightmare. 

Anyway I hope you liked hearing about my special weekend. I really want to have another one in my town just like that but nothing is scheduled for the rest of the year hehe.

I love you, thank you for following even if i'm too busy to post often. <3 I really really do appreciate it. <3

Japan 2015 Lolita Day

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

As only some of you know, I have been quite sick. I have been in and out of doctor's offices and taking a ton of tests to try and feel well again. 

I was in Japan for three weeks recently, we arrived last weekend to Portugal. I was unwell for the most part of the trip and even went to see a doctor there as well. Still I managed to have a handful of nice days out of this trip and one of them was the day in which I got to see my friend liemzie again.

My husband took some outfit photos before we got to the meeting point and I really like them, they remind me of Momoko living in the japanese countryside haha. I am almost 100% sure there's not even a single lolita in that small town. 

The pieces I am wearing were all gotten during the trip because I did not take anything lolita with me. Fortunately this dress does not need a petticoat! I did feel the lack of accessories but it wasn't too terrible wearing this outfit, it was sort of light and fresh.

We had to change trains in Tennoji station and there's a Axes femme store there where i got something i will need for a future outfit. The shop girl was super nice, we always made jokes when we went there.

We also had a lovely lunch there, it was like going to an upscale posh restaurant, the food was incredible and it was like 10 euros a person. It was cheap. I love eating in Japan, high quality for affordable prices. I have never had a terrible meal in Japan.

After that we went to Osaka station to meet my friend. I was a bit early but so was she! Great timing.
Since I have no clue on what to do when i'm in Japan, she, again, decided on what we could do.
We visited a limited store with really nice handmade things. It was a lot of fun and i wanted it all.

It was in this lovely mall with a ton of exhibits and activities. There was a train exibition too and I got a little something there too.

Me and the lovely Liemzie with... flamingos. :P

Picking out our favorites, look how focused we are! 

I liked this store a lot, i considered buying the straw hat with the black ribbon and bows....

When we got to this stall we got stopped by a bunch of older ladies who started complimenting our looks and asking us questions. It was really funny at first. They wanted to take photos with us and the artesan showed me a book she published...

... but then it came to a point where they wouldn't let us go and we got a bit bored. I even got something from the lady's stall in the end haha. look how unconfortable we both look!

After checking the pop up store out we left the mall and went to our next stop.

The Osaka (limited time only) Gudetama Coffee. How cute (and silly) is that?

Better photos on one of liemzie's fabulous blog posts.

The entrance for this café. 

my husband got the matcha pudding, it looked so sad!

Liemzie still had not had lunch so she had something more nourishing.

Our table! I misbehaved and had matcha latte.

 Fun facts about this place. There were only about 8 things one could pick so the choices were limited. Although Gudetama is an egg there are no egg related recipies which seems strange. The waiter did not place my cup on the individual paper in front of me. I thought it was odd but them Liemzie told me its because some people want to take them as souveniers. It sounded lovely but also silly because that means they serve no purpose.
Other than food there's merchandise on display and even statues of Gudetama around the place. The coffee will move to Tokyo next so that means all of this will be gone soon.

Hep Five has the most amazing Purikura area I had ever seen. There's a couple machines near the normal game and UFO machines but then there's a top floor that is actually exclusive to girls and or couples! So a boy cannot walk around there alone, ever!
They have costumes for rent and girls apparently come over with bags with clothes and then change clothes for purikura and then back to their normal clothes. There is an area with mirrors and beauty appliances (like hair curlers and dryers etc, not kidding!) for people to freely use to make sure they look their best.
Then there's a ridiculous amount of purikura machines of all styles! Unbelievable.

One of the purikura machine corridors.

We look so happy and silly, this is one of my favorite photos!

This machine was hilarious... it was about... being manly? I did not even understand but we ended up making a video punching a non-existant boxing bag. How silly is that?

And these were some of the costumes one could rent. They claim that one could dress in maid and lolita... so those maid outfits are both? So japanese people are confused on what lolita is too. XD

We then visited a bunch of nice stores! Most of them I never went to before!
Axes Femme, again! Liz Lisa, BABY, the stars shine bright, Ank Rouge... and some more. I saw a lot of things I wanted... shopping in Japan is so easy....

We also visited a Rilakkuma pop up store thing. You can read about it on liemzie's blog. 

She got the cutest Rilakkuma ever!

 And we took another silly photo, this time we couldn't do it together.

After this we finally said goodbye to Liemzie because it was getting quite late. It was so nice to see her again. It will be the last time we will be able to meet in Osaka too because she is moving back home. I am going to miss having a friend in Osaka but i'm sure we will see each other again in Europe.

When she left we went to a couple character stores where I spent more money. I mean common, look at how much fun these stores look! Look at the colors!

We finally sat down and had dinner. My husband wanted chinese and I ended up having a really yummy meal. I felt better these days, i thought i was better so I took some risks.

After that we went home, I was super tired but very happy. It was a great day, probably the best day of all the trip.

Thank you my friend!

Jo

Unexpected Visitors

Hello!

I have been prettty absent lately, the truth is that after LVER I had not worn lolita up till yesterday night. I am still in mad love with the clothes but the lack of a decent community here and the fact that I feel more and more unconfortable wearing it around my town for a bunch of different reasons (some known and some that not even I know) has made me grow a bit detached from the fashion this year.

Fortunately though I got the chance to meet one of the international lolitas that i consider my friends this week, another SFE member, Josine. She and her mom decided to visit my town, Porto and so we could at least see each other twice.
The first time we met the weather was absolutely terrible, the worst really, super strong abnormal winds, rain, cold but we still managed. My husband was kind enough to be our driver and we also took Mari. We met them at their rented apartment and then headed over to a local traditional cousine restaurant, Abadia. Josine's mom said she remembered having a codfish dish she loved years back so we ordered the closest thing possible. It was a really nice dinner, it was our pleasure to invite them. <3 After that we rode around town and i did a bit of the tourist guide talk thing.
Unfortunately I had to wake up super early as usual for work so we had to say goodbye after that. She was wearing a Juliette et Justine skirt i'd love to own myself (and the matching socks that I actually do own) and looked super feminine and cute. I wore pants and looked boring in comparison so I decided if we could meet again that i should try to go a bit more girly.

A couple of days went by and i was too busy so i didn't even try to meet up but finally yesterday night, and since my husband and daughter would arrive home quite late, i finally met with her again. I was lucky because she left in a flight this morning!
During the time we did not see each other the sun came back but, curiously, when we met it started raining again. I thought it was kinda amusing despite also being inconvenient. The weather sucked when we were together!
I wore casual classic and she was in the same style so we matched! I went to the place where she was staying which was about 10min walk distance from my place and we just looked for a place to sit and chat. We found a bar and just went it. We had sangria and talked for a long time, it was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately we did not manage to take any photos together other than a cellphone selfie that I posted on my facebook but when i got home I asked my husband to take a few shots of what I was wearing.

Beret: offbrand + bow from dress
Shirt: offbrand (Axes Femme)
Jsk/Cardigan: Innocent World
Socks: offbrand (calzedonia)
Boots: offbrand (c&a)
Corsage: SFE gift

 I wish Josine could come visit us more often, I have missed having someone who shares my love for lolita to talk to in person. It does remind me of how lonely it is to live here in that department. I wish I could go to another event this year but I do not think I can.

On another note I have gotten a few cases for my Iphone and I want more, i'm addicted to my phone for some reason. <3

Oh and my husband got me something yesterday too, i thought it was adorable. He said "I am sorry love but I had no time to get you a souvenir so I bought something on the plane instead. I hope you still like it!"He got me makeup! I loved it, and I actually do not own any eyebrow makeup kit so that's something new for me. 

Anyway that is all for now, I'm sure it sounds boring to some of you but it was a really happy event for me.

Love always,

Jo