Iberanime + Egl Portugal

Hello everyone,

Egl Portugal was invited by the biggest convention in Portugal (japanese culture related of course) to cooperate and organize some sort of activity. After meeting with the rest of the team we decided to organize a small tea party.

After a while of talking about small details and having in mind that they would not give us any kind of monetary fund that would get us to do the sort of thing other communities can such as getting important guests etc, we asked for the space, food and publicity.
Since I went to Japan during this process I brought some things for it, a Innocent World gift to giveaway, some cards and decorations etc.
Vania also contributed by giving away some of her things to use as gifts. Claudia contributed with making the flyers and printing cards etc and the other girls helped by making powerpoint presentations, doing the talking and coming from far away.

We were unsure of what would happen and if people would be interested but we were hopeful.

Saturday

12th ofOctober 2013

I woke up early and so did my mom. Since I do not have a drivers licence and we had things we needed to take there: clothes, arts and crafts stuff, manequins, computer and speakers, etc.

We drove to several places because all 4 of us are in different areas and headed to the venue which was also in a place i never go to. 

When we arrived we were a bit shocked. It was not time to open the doors but there was a gigantic line already. We feared we might have to carry all that stuff and go through that line but someone from the organization spotted us and let us in through a back door. 

We then went to the registration desk, got our invitations and started setting up our room.

The room was bright and inviting but it was also on the 1st floor making it hidden for most people. We set up what we had and it looked clean, modern and somewhat empty. 

We set up two outfits, one 100% brand and one 100% offbrand. This day I was in charge of the offbrand one so i did a kuro outfit. Vania took most if not all of her bibles so people could sit down and check them out. Claudia set her cards up and we also added some balloons which kids loved and used to play in that outside area as well. We also had a projector and with it showed some fashion shows and lolita documentaries.

It was basically a day to promote the style by inviting people in and talking to them. It was a well spent day but it was looong.

Headdress: Angelic Pretty

Dress: Angelic Pretty

Bolero: Innocent World

Underskirt: Metamorphose

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Wrist cuffs: Btssb

Ankle socks: Tutuanna

Shoes: Emily Temple Cute

I felt really cute in this outfit actually, not like my age at all. I also for some reason managed to put on fake eyelashes which was a real victory. 

As usual i hate all the shots I have seen of me but i actually like my own. I blame my constant laughing and weird facial expressions. 

We left very late because those were the rules, to close after everyone had left. We were beat!

Sunday

13th ofOctober 2013

I woke up quite late because i was so tired. I tried waking up early but i really couldn't. The girls had to go there on their own this time because two lolitas came from the capital city and stayed with vania so we couldn't all fit in the car anymore.

I got dressed, asked for someone to zip my dress up and guess what? The zip broke. I am not joking, it was the first time that happened to me and it made me feel fat... -_-;

I had to completely change my outfit and ended up wearing something different which took more time.

I got in the car, we picked up my brother and claudia and headed to the event. When we got there it was empty, no line like the previous day. The weather was also much worse, it was raining so i predicted it was a bunch of things that contributed for the smaller attendency.

I got to the room, switched the outfit for a brand outfit (my turn for the brand one) and we headed down to the main area. We had to go to the stage for a community presentation. We had agreed that flavia and claudia would talk so i had the task to ask all the lolita fan looking girls if they were wearing lolita and if they would join us on stage. Most of them did which made me happy.

On stage it was... odd. Both girls were very nervous and one could tell from their speech but they got more confortable towards the end and actually did quite well. I was very proud of them.

After this we had to close down the room and get the tea party ready, we had to set up the tables, go buy some more cake (because we thought that what they had provided wasn't enough) and just making sure everything looked more of less ok. I think the end result was quite adorable and I was happy with it.

We then started letting people in. Since the event did not ask for any extra fees for participants to enter and all they had to do was sign an online form we ended up having to call people and we found out some had even forgotten they had signed up for it which is a problem. Fortunately a lot of people wanted to participate and came without having signed up so we easily filled the room and even had to say no to some people which is always very hard to do.

Not everyone was wearing lolita. I'm sure people in other countries or communities would not have accepted this but in Portugal its either this or nothing so i was just very happy to see so many people getting into lolita and wanting to know more about the style, even boys!

We played bingo (there was a bag of brand goodies: a hairbow, a brand bag, postcards, catalogues, stickets etc), we also picked the best coordinate (the girl in the pink ap chocolate set won another goodie bag!) and then we finally gave away the Innocent World bag I bought in tokyo for the draft. I was happy it was a lolita who won the bag even though i must say she isn't a very active participant in our community. I do think this might change that, at least I hope so.

I ended up being so busy the whole day that I only got around to having the time to take a photo of what I wore in the end of the day when i was already tired and sweaty. I really liked the outfit though, super confortable and still pretty elegant. 

Headdress: Aatp

Shirt: MmM

Bolero: Juliette et Justine

Dress: Atelier Pierrot

Socks: Innocent World

Boots: Bordello

Jewelry: Forever21

Gloves: vintage

Everyone was really nice to me during the whole weekend and I really hope the Portuguese Lolita Community profits in some way from the money, time and effort put into this colaboration. I will help out as much as I can if they decide to do it again but hope that we will get a bit more support... or participants pay a small ticket price to go into prizes and stuff (5 euros each wouldn't hurt but who knows if people would still participate if they had to pay that + con entrance fee). If that happens, maybe next year we can give away a dress instead!

Anyway I hope you liked reading my serious and very personal post again. I cannot help it.

Love,

Jo