Antique Beast review + try on

Dear all,

Yes, still here, still trying to make thing a thing again. 

The Portuguese Lolita community has always been tiny but lately there seems to have a tiny boost in energy. I won't like, I am not really a big part of that boost unfortunately because I just cannot cope with...much of anything really but it is nice to see new people join and the overall enthusiasm.

Part of that brought something we used to have and stopped for a while: group orders. Now I try not to go too wild because our customs is... abusive to be honest but when I can join, I do.

The last group order I joined was an Antique Beast order. 

For those who do not know the brand, it is quite old... 2000s dare I say? And the particularity is that they do not always accept orders, they open the opportunity to order until the slots are full and then they just do not accept orders until the next round. That makes it a bit inconvenient but also sort of makes you feel special when you do make an order.

I cannot fit into their clothes but I love the hair accessories so I jumped at the opportunity to add something else to my collection. 

I ordered two pieces:

白猫ヘッドドレス (bat headdress in white)

Treizeヘッドドレス

As this was a made to order and group order, I kind of "forget" I order things and when they arrive it is just a wonderful surprise again!

There were two fabric options for the bat headpiece, the regular fabric and fancier option but I already owned it in black and I like how it sits so I wanted to order the white in the exact same material. I guess i was scared it would be floppier or something.

Here's the black. I was surprised because the tag is red on the black but purple on the white. 

The items come in plastic bags and there are no paper tags on the items, just a small glued on home printed "sticker" which makes it feel as indie as it comes. I think most people just imagine all japanese lolita brands to be these huge businesses but this really shows the reality of things. As I have been to Japan I know that's not the case. If you are reading this: if you have the means, do support your favorite brands as much as you can. I wish I could do that more often these days.

I particularly love the fact that the ribbon has this flower print detail. It is lovely. 

I am also very happy I ordered something else. This piece is equally beautiful if not more, I am in love with it. I just hope I can do it justice. The ties are wide chiffon which adds some drama to it (who does not love some drama in their coords) and the ribbons have the same floral detail as the bat headdress even though they are a wider ribbon. There are little cute details everywhere. I really recommend that you get something from them if you love elegant gothic styles. 

I really could not wait to try something on so I decided to dress in lolita again this weekend to celebrate this order. I went with my Moitie white op which is literally the only white main piece i have. I do love shiro coords but because I am plus sized it makes me super self conscious and I rarely wear it or invest in new white pieces. This means that headdress matches very little in my wardrobe but oh well.

OUTFIT INFO

Cutsew: Maxicimam

Dress: Moi-Meme-Moitié

[fun fact: someone uploaded my photos to lolibrary so those photos are of this actual dress XD ]

Headdress: Antique Beast

Socks & Necklace: Metamorphose temps de fille

Tights, Shoes, Cross ring, bracelets, wristcuffs: Offbrand

Bag, rings: Vivienne Westwood

Coffin ring: Suppurate System

After this I sat in my small couch and just browsed an old Gothic & Lolita Bible (boy do I miss them!). I don't have them all but I wish I did. I may hunt them down some day... 

I love how inspirational they are. Did you know my favorite sections are always the "street snap" photos. I wish I was lucky enough to have been in one of these pages. It would have been such an honor. I am forever sad I missed the chance. 

Looking at these photos does also make me regret many things I sold over the years, I wish i had all my old Metamorphose blouses and my fully shirred dresses. I wonder where they are now. Some I still know. I hope one day they return to my closet. Who knows. It would make me happy to at least wear them again, just one more time. 

Do you have any sales regrets too? Do you think about it?

Hope you liked another rambling post, see you next time :)

Opposite poles

Hello again!

Today there was a japanese culture tiny convention happening in my town and, like last year, the portuguese lolita community was invited to participate in some way. I was the one in charge of these things before but I have left my position as administrator and am now just a normal user of the comm. So the girls in charge organized something and a couple of ladies participated as models. 

Because I did not want to attend this time I posted telling everyone who did not go that we should wear lolita and post an outfit in order to show support. This is the outfit I chose.

I absolutely love these colors and I adore this dress but unfortunately I hate the way the waist belt looks on my wide and long body and so all the photos that i find decent are all of me covering that area with my arms. I think I might have to sell this dress soon, it makes no sense to keep something I find doesn't look ok on. But selling will break my heart.

Outfit info:

Bonnet - Triple Fortune

Shirt - Mille Fleurs

Onepiece - Atelier Pierrot

Socks - Offbrand 

Shoes - Offbrand (Primark)

Underskirt - Victorian Maiden

I cannot wait to see the fashion show outfits and video. I hope everything went well. 

Love,

Jo

Paris - La Vie en Rose - Part Three

Hello everyone,

This is finally my last post about my trip to Paris. I hope you like reading about my day.

 Sunday, the 22nd of February

I woke up feeling super tired and a bit depressed because I knew it'd be my last day in the house with the best house mates in existence. I was also a bit worried about my outfit. I had gone a bit nuts with creating things to wear the day before the event and although I loved it in theory wearing something so ridiculously OTT freaked me out since it was so damn out of my confort zone. Still I wanted to wear something different for a change and all my other btssb/aatp sets are a bit playing it safe so I gave it a go. 

I asked the girls to help me though because I knew that without the right hair and makeup it would look ridiculously and I couldn't have asked for more, they just made it all come together. 

The interesting part was that out of the 5 of us, 3 of us had circus themed coordinates and I had no idea whatsoever! How amazing is that?

The circus team, all of us looking completely different which is great.

Me and my amazing room mates. They were by far the best thing out of the trip. 

We left right on time to enter the tea party which for me was a bit late because all the staff was there before that. 

We decided to go on foot because according to the map app it wasn't that far from where we were. The weather was amazing, the best it had been so far and it was actually a nice walk. On the way there people stared of course, we knew how ott we looked haha and it was very amusing because along the way we crossed the "rue du cirque" which means circus street and it was totally unexpected and a total obligatory photo moment. 

When we finally arrived there was a huge line of lolitas waiting and of course some of them were familiar faces so I went to the end of the line with the girls, said hello to a few people and then left to the entrance to reunite with the staff. 

I got in, left my coat and went up. I got a short briefing and waited with the rest of the staff for the tea party to start. 

When the time came we stood at the entrance and greeted every guest one by one which was fun. I talked to people for a bit after that and then went to find a place to sit. We tried seating in some areas but ended up in a corner of the room and our party was separated which sucked to be honest. The space was very pink and bright and the ateendees all looked amazing again. 

This was the entrance, the stairs where we stood to greet everyone are on the right in this shot. 

This table was where some of the nicest people sat hehe, the table next to mine - the one there in the back.  

I walked around a bit and asked to take photos of everyone, it seemed natural plus I wanted to redeem myself from taking almost no photos the day before. I still failed at taking photos with people though, and my ott made me a bit more shy, not sure why.

This is the first section of the space, then in the back where I was standing there's another room and then another space in the entrance where tf staff sat along with most of sfe and french cafe.

  

One of the things that made it impossible to move was the space and seating distribution.  I mean for all those people to sit it couldn't be helped but yes people had to ask others if they wanted to pass etc. It made it easier to see everyone's outfits though. hehe

Look, its Fidel in the back! He looked amazing! And I heard the lovely Marlessa in brown there won the best Alice and the Pirates coordinate! She always has the most incredible hair and accessories ever. 

The food was yummy and stunning. There was a tower of macarons and eclairs and some fireworks envolved. Guests all could chose from tea or hot choco which could be refiled. There was also one glass of orange juice per guest and 2 macarons and 1 eclair per guest. But there was a surplus so if one went outside we could get one or two more. There were also other 3 bites of sugary goodness later on. 

This is what I wore (and I'd like to thank the two photographers and my friend Marissa for taking these shots of me!):

Hat: handmade 

Sash: handmade

Scepter: handmade

Bag: Innocent World

Jsk: Alice and the Pirates

Boots: BABY, the stars shine bright

Socks: tutuanna

Necklace: Alice and the Pirates

Shirt: Mille fleurs

With our number tag we also got a couple of papers to vote for our favorite btssb and aatp coordinate. Also there was paper available to write nice notes to friends and people who we admire. I loved that idea and wrote as many as I could myself. And thank you for all the ones I got, i loved them and they made me happy during that plane ride back.

 

There were so many amazing outfits that day I wish I had taken more photos but the time was limited and it was all a bit confusing for me so again I failed to take many shots. This time I also did not get photos with the btssb guests, most of the atendees and my friends. I always regret that but its too late now.  

After this I unfortunately had to rush and leave because of my plane. So I said my goodbyes and rushed out. I asked for a cab because i could not get home myself and got home soon after. I took a phew photos of the amazing art in the house, i loved that place so much, i could totally live there. 

How wicked are these? 

I also took some more shots of my outfit and then got undressed and changed to confortable clothes for the ride. I got everything ready on time which was good. 

After I took this shot something happened... i realised I had left my coat at the tea party venue!!!!!! I was so upset with myself for being so irresponsible. I rushed to get a cab, asked the driver to stop there, got my coat (which was weird because the atendees were all leaving and I was running in there to get my coat looking completely different from before) and after I got it i just got into the cab again. 

The driver was super friendly and we chatted a lot in my broken french, he asked me about the event, about my trip, we talked about kids and travelling, it made me relax and feel happier about leaving so suddently. 

I thanked him and got into my bus towards beauvais airport. After getting there everything was pretty easy and I still had time to get some souveniers (got cheese and mustard for my husband and chocolate for mari).

On the plane i decided to have something to eat, some ratatoulle. It was the first time I bought food on a plane, not joking haha. It was ok, I was really hungry. When I arrived in Oporto, my husband and Mari were there to pick me up. I hugged her really close and cried like a baby. I was really happy to be back despite it all.

And that was it. I am sure i forgot a lot of things and people but its been a while now and my memory is terrible so this was the best I could manage. haha.
I was bummed i missed the raffle, the best coordinate election, the group photo and the after party but I was happy that, despite leaving my coat behind, i could get to the airport on time.

Love,
Jo