Miss Filigree

Happy new year to everyone reading this! I hope your year ended a bit better than mine. I intended to make another two or three posts before New Years Eve but due to some awful happenings I never got around to it. Lets hope for new chances in the new year! About two years back, I bought an AP ring from an online seller, a heavy metal bow. The listing said the gold had worn a little and one of the gems was missing, so they sold it for a reduced price. I figured I could replace the missing gem and wear it as is, so I bought it. Then it arrived... No, that silver sheen isn't just reflection of something, that's the gold all worn off. I figured I couldn't fix that, so I put it in my jewelry box and left it there for two years. Until last week I decided to give fixing it a try after all. I've done some gilding on paper and I figured gilding a metal piece wouldn't be all that much different! The materials I used. I used a glue consisting of two components inte...

Something I see pop up occasionally online are discussions on whether lolita fashion is beneficial or detrimental to the environment. There are a lot of sides to this discussion as it's a very multifaceted concept- something can be made organically but still fast fashion-like, aka flimsy and trendy, or not organically and not fairtrade but if it's made to last that ultimately reduces the stress on the world per time the piece is worn. I wanted to delve a little deeper, see what those fancy labels mean, what strain lolita brands put on our planet and what I can do to reduce mine, within or outside lolita fashion.   First of all, a little terminology for those not in the know, or for those who have the wrong idea about what labels and terms mean.   Organic : the name that gets slapped on anything and everything these days! Organic is good for the environment, organic is healthier, organic saved my marriage!! But what does it actually indicate? Wel...

Although autumn is already here I haven't had the inspiration to write this post, simply because it's still so warm! I'm still harvesting tomatoes at Halloween, it's crazy. However considering Christmas is less than two months away I figured I should get writing anyway, before I end up posting the winter one before this one! Dressing for autumn stylewise Tartans Tartans and autumn fit together like autumn and apple pie. Or autumn and pumpkin spice, if you will. You can wear them all sorts of ways too, from Angelic Pretty's pastel tartans with glittery threads to bold reds in oldschool Baby to Moitié's (yes, they've done tartan!) very subdued wool. Plus they come in all colours of the rainbow, so even if lolita pieces don't usually come in your favourite colour you won't have a hard time finding a tartan one! Creams and greys Out with black and white, in with grey and creams! This palette looks wonderful with the dulling su...

Little disclaimer: in this post I'm mostly talking about Angelic Pretty, because they take more cues from trends than other brands within lolita, and they're the brand I know most about. I'm not ignoring other brands, they're just not quite as quick with making trendy pieces, and some of the pieces I talk about (eye masks anyone?) wouldn't fit with their aesthetic to begin with.  Also, everything here is just my opinion and based on what I personally have seen! Maybe you disagree, and that's fine. With that out of the way, enjoy! Sometime back, I was browsing old blogs looking for outdated posts, I love how you can see how much lolita has grown and evolved from old blog posts. I came across a six years old post from Lolita Blog Carnival about underrated colours in lolita, and while the vast majority of the posts linking to it had been deleted, four or five still worked. Of those, two mentioned grey as an underrated colour. And indeed I do remember that ...

The next part in the 52 posts challenge! This one is 'my wardrobe turnover', or a time you changed out part (or all) of your wardrobe. I've had a few of these! Not in the sense of "actually selling off chunks" because I love my pieces too much and I think a lot before I buy anything, but in the sense of changing what aesthetic I look for in it. For this post I've gone way back and tried to find the very images that inspired me back then, so you really can get a look into my head! I hope you enjoy! Wardrobe goals #1: Goth When I started out in lolita I was a (horrible) mallgoth and I wasn't looking to get into lolita at all! I happened to stumble upon a post by F Yeah Lolita about adding lolita bits and pieces into a gothic wardrobe and I was super intrigued by the fancy look it gave. I started slowly dreaming of a gothic lolita wardrobe. I was only 15-16 at this point so my taste was....not great lol. That bodyline skirt I especially lusted after......

This year, a big lolita dream of mine finally came true: I attended the Angelic Pretty tea party in Paris!! I've wanted to go ever since I started lolita. A blogger I follow goes every year and for years I've been drooling over her pictures and imagining what I would wear to such an event. Then last year somewhere in fall, our little group of friends decided to go! We booked a hotel and train tickets super duper early, way back around December. Two other friends joined in later, one couldn't get a ticket in time and one friend was too preoccupied to make it. In the end we were with 6 people. We were in Paris from 6 to 9 July. This post will be solely about the tea party and shopping, since, truth be told, I REALLY don't like Paris. It always smells, there's loads of tourists and it's HOT. I know many people adore Paris, but sadly I'm not one of them. What I do adore however, is Angelic Pretty! Enough to go there anyway! (Also, the pictures on this post...