Dream Dress Syndrome

WHEW

to combat the ranty-ness of that last entry I thought I'd blog about something that made me really happy~
(again I'd like to apologize the swiftness in which I jumped from introduction to a informative post and then straight to uncoherant ranting! In my defense it was about 3 AM when I decided to word-vomit a rebuttal.)

Maybe it is because of the very nature of lolita fashion, the obsession with fantasy and fancy, the adoration of beautiful impractical things, that what I call the 'dream dress' syndrom is so prominant! 

Now, this isn't a lolita specific thing,  I know bjd owners often have a 'dream doll' they long to purchase, the average fashionista lusts over a pair of shoes she HAS TO HAVE, or with any hobby really, it's natural for people to make shopping lists in their head and have a particular item they quest for. (Ah glorious materialism how I love thee <3)

Anyway, back to the dream dress.  This is a fact; whether she (or he) knows it, every lolita has a dream dress.  This is the dress that maybe introduced them to the style or even fall in love with it, it's the dress that maybe sums up everything they love about lolita in one garment for them-  sometimes it might not even be a dress at all! (insert a JSK from moi meme moitie, a bonnet from tripple fortune, a tail coat from atlier boz or any other item here)

Haha unfortunately for me, what cemented this particular dress as my 'dream dress' recently, was seeing it on egl comm sales for a mere 170$ plus matching headbow and shipping.

Now, I was one of those girls who has a huge folder of dresses, hats, cutsews ect. that we one day hope to purchase (or replicate) eventually, and when ever a post on egl came up asking 'Show me your dream dress girls!' I didn't know how to reply.

But back to realizing it was my dream dress-  my heart beat quickened- my palms grew sweaty- I spazzed on aim to whoever happened to be online that OMG this dress was on sale what do I do?!  ( I would like to quote a choice couple of sentences from Kamikaze Girls here, but alas my copy is at home.  Novala, you might be a slightly creepy japanese dude, but you know the inner workings of a maiden's heart!)

At 170$, even for a Metamorphose OP which originally retailed at over 300$ (and if you add the shipping costs and the matching headbow, the price could very easily tip into the upper 400's) it is the largest lolita purchase I have yet to make- at a time when I know I'll be short of money anyway. (and yes, I am afraid I'll be living off of plain noodles ... with more noodles for quite a while)

After two days of completely irrational anxiety ( refreshing the sales page every 10 min. to see if there had been any offers so far- CHECK) I finally broke down and asked the seller to hold it a couple of days so I could purchase it.

Anyways, yesterday it arrived a couple days ago and I didn't know what to expect.  Would I be dissapointed finally holding this dress which I've longed for unknowingly for some time? Would I be completely furfilled and choose not to buy another item of lolita clothing because it couldn't match up to the hype and gorgeousness of this dress?

Can I just say that I am in love?

It's every bit as beautiful in real life as I pictured <3333>

SO my advice is as follows

- if you see your dream dress on sale and you know you're the sort of person who's going to have regrets- get it!

- of course this entails being considerate of your current financial position- last year I wasn't so smart with my bugeting and thus had be pretty thrifty so I wasn't living off of old halloween candy. (OH WAIT...)  

- So I suppose the point is, go ahead and indulge yourself but be knowledgable about what you can or cannot do- if you really want something, splurge only if you can deal with the concequences!  The saddest thing would be buying your dream dress only to sell it off soon after because you couldn't afford your rent/food/other nessecity.  

It might sound like I'm trying to act like your mom, but I know mine would say something like 'Devote your money to important things first!' That is certainly the reasonable approach, but if you love lolita, I feel that a love of a little bit of impracticality comes along for the ride!

And for gods sake if you buy that dress- wear it!  Confidence will only make you more beautiful<3

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LOLITAS: get over your selves!

http://lolita-charm.blogspot.com/2009/08/endangered-species-lolita.htmI'm sorry but I found this post despite what ever the poster's intentions totally self rightous, melodramatic and overall, annoying.

(this can be shortened as tl;dr)

IN MY OPINION lolita has grown so much from when I first joined the community in 05. There has been an influx of new people for better and for worse- sweet has replaced gothic as the popular style- cosplayers on /cgl/ are getting annoyed because of the influx of lolitas- more and more brands have started shipping overseas (haha yes, those of you who also remember when metamorphose was the only one who did international shipping, cheers)- yes, I am an old fag, hear me roar.
However I've noticed something else growing alongside the lolita community. A reputation. Not even a real one I might add, but girls warning n00bs, 'Be careful otherwise you might be posted on that community!' 'I really think that's a good idea but I wouldn't say that online!' Bull. Shit.
Most of these accusations are completely baseless and come from others who don't know what they're talking about. People who haven't lurked lolita fucks, gtfo egl or lolita wank (when it was still in commission). They haven't seen these sub comunities band together and actually do good- reporting scammers, calling out girls who are actively threatening others and so forth. I'm not trying to say all of the snark comms are vigilante based, only looking to do good for egl, but I've seen countless people called out on vendetta posts, mocking people for being 'ugly' or 'fat', being tasteless or racist.
However if you would listen to some girls on egl you would think we have a designated day where we pick a random girl from daily lolita and then photoshop swatstikas onto her forehead. It has even gotten to the point where I have seen newspaper articles on lolita- barely after the style definition it mentions how hateful the main community is, how girls are afraid to post without getting attacked!
You've been talking about how bad of a reputation lolita has girls, I hope you're happy now that we've got one. Saying things like 'I had the opportunity to meet some very new lolitas. They were so full of fresh ideas, things never done before. I tried to be encouraging, but I knew that if they were ever to voice these ideas, they would be shot down.' is pretentious. MAking EGL sound like the big bad but she is kind and openminded enough to see their merit. Making stupid assumptions that their ideas will be shot down automaticaly.
It's rediculous that I'm supposed to feel a kinship with all other lolitas- it's the same as any other intrest, lolita is not special. There are people I love who dress lolita, and there are lolitas who I know in real life and greatly dislike. Some of my best friends are not lolitas, and some of my best friends are lolitas. I am fully capable of realizing the exact same emotion in another's eyes having felt it myself and still hold a deep dislike for them. Just because I empathise does not mean I sympathise. Although I'm decrying the claim that we're supposed to get along based on a shared intrest for frilly clothing, EGL, is a wonderful thing.
I've made some of my best friends and countless other cool people through it. I feel like I'm instantly welcomed into a community if I just go and post a meetup saying I'll be in town a couple days and see if anyone wants to get together.
The athmosphere at the baby opening? That girl was being idealistic, there were people snarking as usual, she just wasn't part of the right community so she heard none of it- that being said we're not going to pounce and rip eachother apart based on some silly e-vendetta.
While I'm not saying things posted on the internet have zero merit, real life is a diffrent matter entirely, we all realize how immature it is to start loudly making fun of someone's outfit.
Although we have so many 'how to be lolita' guides, in my experience is we don't give a 'flying fuck' about them as long as the outfit is good. People just need to loosen up and not worry how they're wearing their wristcuffs (LOLOLOL), just take in the overall outfit and keep an ear open to critique.
I'm not going to call the girls who have retreated from egl pussies, they are making the right choice for them selves. As much as I wish everyone would get a bit more of a thicker skin and find the strength to communicate, I know it's not going to happen. These people are at least making the right choice, knowing that they aren't comfortable being in the communities and are likely to get their feelings hurt to withdraw. The stupid ones keep posting on egl pushing their opinions on the unwilling, getting posted to gtfoegl, crying about it, and then making a flounce forgotten in a week.


"If you are in favor of something bigger than yourself, if you are in favor of creativity and growth; if you are in favor of girls who gain confidence instead of losing it; if you are in favor of beating the stereotypes of catty females who chip away at their own movement; if you are in favor of a sense of belonging. If you are in favor of lolita fashion and subculture: stop this before it is too late."

I am in favour of myself, what I find asthetically pleasing, the people I care about. I am in favour of my creativity and artistic growth. I am in favour of girls taking critisism to heart and not crying about it like little bitches. I am in favour of girls being strong and comfortable in their personalities or striving to change it, whether or not they are 'catty females' or whatever else. I am in favour of being strong enough to be comfortable in a group but not letting it define you, being able to stand proud alone or with your friends. 

I am in favour of lolita fashion, and how dare you say I am not.

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Connie Chiu is one fierce bitch

I figured a good way to start off was blogging about some of my style inspirations- people that maybe not have a style that inspires mine directly, but have a well... inspiring style nonetheless :B

First up is the model Connie Chiu, a chinese model with albinism. I stumbled upon her photos on the interwebs a while back and well, let me direct you back to the title of this post. Sadly she seems to be a rather enigmatic figure, even her own website gives only a couple paragraphs about herself.

From what I can gather is she was born to Chinese parents in Hongkong 1969 but grew up in Sweden. After going through art school for photography she sent a photo off to Jean Paul Gaultier and was asked to appear in one of his couture runway shows. Since then she has worked with various fashion photographers including Terry Richardson, Paul Burley, Heidi Niemala, and Morten Smidt, and appeared on the runways modeling designs by Margie Tsai, Ann Huybens, Marc Lebihan, Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella Cadante and more. Asside from modeling, she also has an intrest in writing, poetry and journalism. Sadly though if any of these works are available on the internet to the general public at all, my google fu is too weak to find them.



More photos under the jump!

I hate to repeat my self, but is she fierce or what ?

For those who want to know more, her official website is right here: http://www.conniechiu.com/

There is an interview with her in the March 2009 Issue of Vice Magazine- the entire interview isn't up on the internet, but the photo spread is : http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n3/htdocs/fashion-connie-chiu-712.php?country=

Also there was an interview with here in German Vogue: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.vogue.de/articles/models/models/connie-chiu/2004/09/13/05815&ei=wdSdSeSAOoai-gasieWxCg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=4&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCONNIE%2BCHIU%2BVOGUE%26hl%3Den (link goes to the google translate version)

For those of you who want to see her in action, she was interviewed in the BBC documentery Jesse: My new face, and appears in two music videos, Stalker by Recoil and a version of Maddening Shroud ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0s0fSeSSbU ) by Acacia.

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1st post

Hello currently non-existing audience,  let me give myself an introduction.

I go by Andrea/angryasiangirl/carbonidiot on livejournal, deviantart and a plethora of other blogging/community/art websites.  On livejournal I mostly talk about my day to day life and my journal there is mostly friends-locked.  Thus I decided to start a fashion blog.

SO who am I? 18 year old fashion student, about to start my sophomore year at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California.  An avid lover of Japanese street fashion as well as any other style I come across.  Self proclaimed brand whore and thrifter.  Book worm and fashion victim.

What can you find here? Lots and lots of eye candy, daily outfit snaps, fashion illustration, much bitching and hopefully some inspiration.

Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get on with it already!

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