Paris - La Vie en Rose - Part Two

                                                 Saturday, the 21th February

I woke up very early, knowing what to wear makes it easier but I totally thought i'd have more time because I ended up having to leave the house with no makeup on. I put my hat in a bag, gathered all the makeup stuff and left the house on my own because my schedule was different from that of the regular atendees. 

I arrived at the venue right on time which was good. The minute I got there I left my things in the storage room and just started working.

The first thing to do was to take all the sales stall boxes downstairs so i decided I should take my shoes off and just went on barefoot which was somewhat strange i suppose. It made it easier for me and made me work faster. After that we then started putting all the merchandise on the tables. I helped with the japanese indies brand's stall but since there were already people there someone asked me to get the triple fortune boxes too. I ended up placing tf articles up for sale (omg those bonnets all went through my hands hehe). Fortunately I had help and soon we had finished. Me and Vief who also had had no time to put makeup on, managed to have some time to go back to the stock room and finally get ready. 

We sat there for a while and got ready, Vief helped me with the lashes because I am terrible with that sort of stuff (but I managed to put them on!) and then we left. My last official job before the opening was to great the guests at the entrance and to ask them to separate into 2 rows, the VIP and Valentines. 

And the game was on, suddently guests were finally checking in and LVER started. <3

First batch of guests! I took this photo right when i left the entrance after separating the lines. These are the first guests for LVER.

Once guests went down there would be two desks for ticket control. In this room there were 4 stalls in the 4 corners, Syrup, Btssb, Triple Fortune and Grimoire. There was also the place to leave guest belongings and the buffet area. 

That is where the triple fortune stall was, it seemed as if everyone just rushed to it first in fear that the bonnets would not be enough. Triple Fortune made a LOT of bonnets though so in the end everyone who wanted one had the chance to get one, unless they wanted a specific color.

Some of the beautiful outfits in LVER, everyone looked so amazing, it was a bit overwhelming!

This is part of the select shop stall. 

And this is one of the best bits of the trip for me, Moss Marchen. I have always known Martha online and we only met now and I love her, she is (I dare to say) someone i can clearly see me befriend if only i had been lucky to live close to her. I think she is awesome in every way possible. Her items are also perfection and I wanted everything. <3

And every time I see Fidel David in an event it makes me happy. He is a really nice person and his creations are incredible. 

Grimoire Stall. I honestly had almost no time to check things, I found myself to be like a little lost busy bee this year, I think it was the year in which I had less time for myself. 

The adorable Syrup stall, look at all the girly adorable accessories! I later regretted not having had the time to check everything carefully. I love what my friends got from the stall.

This is the outfit I chose for this day. I knew I'd have to move around a lot and work so I chose one of my newest dresses. I always wanted an Enchantilic Enchantilly dress because I love the fabric choice, the themes and also i love how fairy tale everything looks but when i tried it on I understood that having a designer/owner who isn't petite is a plus. The way this dress is cut shows that she understands the need for confort and the shirring doesn't squeeze me like others do and the shoulders are wide enough for my frame, its just perfect. I am not keen on the full shirring cuts now but I do love the fit. I also chose the hat because I knew I was going to work for triple fortune for 2 hours and I thought it would be respectful to wear something visible from them. I also wore a colar made by a Portuguese non-lolita designer to represent my country. I honestly love that i did not have to use a wig because it would be super tiring to have one on. Unfortunately none of the photographers asked me for a photo during the event so I have no decent shots of my outfit alone. And there goes one of my lolita dreams, to appear in a lolita major publication as a style reference and not in a group shot. This saddened me, I must confess.

After taking a walk around the room and chatting with some people it was then time for me to work at the triple fortune booth. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't go on stage to great the visitors in Portuguese but seeing as there were (that I know of) only two portuguese girls in the event - and one of those was me) not much was lost i suppose.

Working for triple fortune was interesting, I got to use my very basic japanese with Babi and Kaie and I hope they appreciated that I tried my best to help out that way. I did not get to speak to them about non business related things because I wanted to be professional and also because i'm shy and i was very busy haha. Rosalynn has a photo of me there, which I like a lot. It's the only one I have. <3

It was very interesting to feel how much the attendees wanted those bonnets and i tried my best to advise them on the best colors to match their styles/outfits.

After that I got to see a bit of the Mix brand / Indies brands fashion show which had a lot of very original looking items and also major brand pieces from brands I love like Atelier Pierrot and Juliette et Justine. There were also non lolita items of course since other styles were involved this year.

Here's a video of the fashion show by rosalynn - LINK

Girls seemed very busy and focused taking photos of one another and more than half of the guests were wearing lighter colors and princessesque coordinates, I felt a bit different i suppose.

There were also fashion shows from Triple Fortune (finally seeing the girls in the full coordinates made the rehearsal movements make total sense, it was a perfect show!).  love that green coordinate and i adore the male stule shirt. And I still want the black, red, ivory argyle pattern bustier.

After that I finally had a bit of time to get some photos taken with some friends or people that I have a connection with. I am glas i managed to get some photos, this year I honestly feel like I rushed so much it made it harder to enjoy myself although I could totally tell the event was a total success which made me happy of course.

I finally got to meet Rosalynn! She is so young and sweet and she is always super excited for everything and cheerful that i guess i cannot help but to adore it. She was wearing sweet lolita which is totally her thing and she looked adorable. I also met her mom and had the chance to tell her that i love how much support she gives to her and how much i wish i had the luck to have the same and that was also one of the special lver moments for me. At least looking back I always seem to remember that moment so I think it is.

Lempicka Maria was also there and I had met her already. We share a love for Moi-même-Moitié 

but although i branch into many other brands and styles she doesn't seem to which I admire.

She is always super sweet to me when we meet and she treats me with much care and respect and I value

that very much. I am so glad we got to take a photo together this year too. <3

Nana and Lea looked amazing of course, they always do and they are so nice, I really like them both. They are so pretty, its ridiculous really.
And on the right is Spiro, one of the amazing russian lolitas at the event. I am a big fan of their community, after being in love with the Finnish community I later fell for the russian in terms of fashion sense. They just really know how to do ott and fabulous coordinates as a whole and they are all such an inspiration for me. Spiro curiously is the only one that I managed to talk to for more than 2 minutes and she was just great to me during the whole event and I am going to be forever grateful.

There's someone I need to meantion in this post too with which I have no photos, Ada. Ada was amazing to me as well. Not because she gave me her raffle prize (how nice does someone have to be) but because I was feeling down, tired and just a bit odd at some point and she just made sure I got in a brighter spirit. Thank you Ada!

I managed to cheat my shy nature and ask Babi and Kaie for a photo when they came to me and gave me one of their catalogues with their autograph to repay me for the help that afternoon. I really like this photo too, i think we look really nice together I must say. <3

The other Portuguese attendee is Isuzu. She is actually living in Paris so technically I was the only one that went from my country which is kinda special but mostly very sad. It was really nice to see her even there, it made me feel more at ease i guess. 

Another great surprise this trip was that I ran into yourpervert who has always been those people who's photo posts i'd usually follow like crazy. Flawless style and great personality. Another one of those people i'd friend irl if only i had been lucky enough to be live near of.

Vief and Annso did not twin as usual but they were still a pair. Vief looked so adorable in Kodona, she totally can pull it off and they were just bubbly and nice as usual. Thank you for everything Vief. 

I also met Shannie Bee during this trip and I feel in love with her outfit for Lver, she added wings to the back of her dress, and the dress was to die for, the whole thing was flawless. She is super sweet, I barely knew her before but now I have discovered her blog and I adore it, I'll surely follow from now on. 

After this I went on stage finally to represent my community and after saying goodbye and helping clean up there was of course the group shots and such. I did not manage to be in the group photo for last year's SFE event so I was glad I managed to be in this years photo.

You can spot me if you watch at 5:40 <3 Thank you Cristina for the video. 

After everyone left I stayed and we took down all the items and made sure nothing was left behind. It was time to leave the venue. 

I then left home and when I arrived everyone was taking a rest but online people were talking about dinner and drink plans so me and Jo decided we'd go out. We made dinner plans with Kyra and got lost so Kyra and her husband came to us. Hah and we had a map! Not our best moment. The place we chose was closed but there was a japanese restaurant nearby and we decided to try it and we were lucky, it was affordable and the food was good. After that we got in the subway and met with the best people and had the (literally) worst Mohito I have ever had. 

But left with the best photo. 

I of course met and talked to many amazing people that day but unfortunately I took very little photos. Every time there's an event I always regret that I did not take enough photos and despite that this repeats itself. 

I have been looking at blog posts and I also talked to people at the event and everyone adored it this year. French Café and all the Street Fashion Europe members did an amazing job. It is an honor to have been part of it again this year. 

Hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Love,

Jo

Enchanted report - part 2

SUNDAY

We woke up and started getting dressed for the Tea Party. 

Since we did not bring any extra outfits getting dressed was easy... and annoying in my case because I wasn't a huge fan of my outfit. The reason I chose it was because this Juliette et Justine dress is soooo thin it takes no space in my luggage. I also pick it because this way i would not need to take an extra pair of shoes. I had also received this lovely wig by Lockshop and wanted to make my best to wear it at the event, so it was a lot of reasoning and not that much "want" involved hehe.

I thought these trees were lovely! I only took one coat with me which does not match the outfit at all hehe.

We arrived at the station and walked over to the Hotel, we remember the area well from last year. When we arrived it was sort of late I guess (or right on time) so everyone was already inside. 

We met the receptionist from last year, the Portuguese man we took photos with last time, guess what? I finally have a photo with him! We asked him again this year. He remembered us and said that he had told the staff that he was "looking everywhere for us". So sweet!

This is clearly Vânia's cup and pastries (the super dosage of sugar gives it away!) but I do not have a photo of the table so this is the best i could do without stealing one from someone else. How unlady-like are we?
Everyone got an enchanted pin+sticker set, a ring and other promotional goodies! 

Our table, we ended up sitting in the most hidden corner of the room but in great company, with Mr.Fidel, Sara, Ania and other lovely spanish ladies!

The food was great again and I must have had at least 4 cups of coffee! In the meanwhile everyone started leaving to take photos etc which is always a lot of fun!

Me and the lovely Vief who looked extremely original that day. There were a lot of girls wearing Puppet Circus which is amazing!

I love love love misty in this shade, I swear if it wasn't ridiculously short i'd try to get it (or in black). Don't they look like angels?

Playing around with Vânia, Mo and Sílvia (I still cannot believe you came! I want to see you more!)

Ok so Russian lolitas are incredible, look at this! I could only chat with them a bit that day when they were leaving and they gave me their cards and were super nice. I hope I can one day travel there to attend one of their events, they seem epic! 

This photo <3. Look at them!

Some of my favorite lolitas and people now. I cannot explain how fabulouse they all are. We all know they are great looking lolitas etc but I could only hope for them to be just as nice as they are in actual life. <3

I am in awe with Minori's makeup and sewing skills, more now than before. She truly is amazing. 

I obviously spent some time with my loved Scarlet and was asked to pose next to my pages on the Shades of Wonderland book. I am so proud to be a part of it, that book is everything! And Puppet Circus again!

Another view of the room, now when people were leaving after the raffle (I did not win anything).

All I can say is <3

The most fun and the surprise of the trip were these two because I had never met or seen them before and they are super nice and ridiculously fun to hang out with. And now i kinda want that dress, they looked gorge!

3 of the 4 Portuguese ladies at the tea party! The photo with Silvia was taken by Ana but you can see her in a previous shot.

My outfit: offbrand shirt, iw cardigan, grimoire socks, triple fortune headdress, jj dress, offbrand boots, claire's applique on cardigan, btssb bag, chocomint necklace and offbrand gloves and ring etc.

Fidel not only creates amazing clothes but he also looked stunning in this ensemble and makeup! And those socks, they sold out before i could get to them! Curse!

After the amazing tea party we left without going for a walk like last year because we wanted to change clothes for the after party and take it easy.
We took some better outfit shots near the house we were staying in.

We took a bath, got dressed and left the house, i guess we ended up not having as much time as we had wished. The thing is that, in London, bars and discos close so early... we do not understand this well as its the opposite in Portugal.

I wore something confortable but when i got there some of the brave ladies were still in lolita. I had done that last year and figured after vania ruining her dress with a cigarette going in normal wear would be safer. :P

The only shot i borrowed was this one from Miyu. Its the only one where you can more or less see what i wore and what i look like out of lolita.

We had fun, we drank some cocktails, chatted with interesting people and when the bar closed we ended up dancing at a disco which was differrent! 

Me and Vânia

We thought it would be smart to leave earlier because of the metro but then realised we could not get on it because it was sunday and it was closed already! Oops. We ended up going a bit nuts and getting on a random bus that took us to the tower of london area because we remember the place we were staying at was near there.

My "we appear to be lost" expression.

At this point I admit to have been a bit altered from the drinks since we were taking selfies on a bridge, from the results and also because we were laughing in a very odd manner for a very long time haha
But at least we got sight of the bridge etc, so pretty!

The view! The mix of old and new again.

We finally got in a taxi and magically remembered the name of the station. We arrived home safely but it was quite the adventure!



MONDAY

We decided to go check out Camden before our flight and guess who we found? Wasn't that lucky? Nymia, the other Portuguese lolita, took this photo.
We went to Cyberdog which is amazing! I got some lights for Mari's shoes.

 They ended up staying there and me and Vania left because we were starving!!

But mostly in need of coffee. I ordered the cappuccino.

And the english breakfast which was great!

We still had some time to check stores and to get gifts to bring back home. It's so lively and interesting, i really had fun there, too bad we had to run!

When leaving we also saw Midori with her interpreter walking around. People in London and Camden don't usually look at you when you are dressed up but she was still turning some heads hehe

 We finally went to the bus stop and with time to spare. At the airport we met Eimear! How lucky! And we also met the spanish girls again!

I am sorry for the delay and now that means most info was forgotten but i hope i made up with the shots. I had to wait for Vânia's photos because my camera had broken down the day before and she was nice enough to take photos for both of us <3

Love always,

Jo