Dancing Bears

A quick and dirty review of Gothic & Lolita Bible Volume 30 [Japanese edition]. The theme for this edition was opera and classical music, but broadened to include circus themes, ballet, etc. The circus theme was particularly enunciated in the stickers, taken directly from Innocent World's new Circus pattern. It's a Victorianesque collection of bears on unicycles, heart-shaped balloons, and scrabbly-maned tigers, all on a cream background. I personally find it quite adorable - and promptly covered my cell phone with the stickers.

Things That Were Wonderful

-A huge array of brand clothes to peruse, a lot of which I had never heard of. Not only the usual brands, like Angelic Pretty or Baby - but also a lot of smaller, indie brands, like Deorart, Despair, and Vampire Doll.

-Some gorgeous photoshoots. Atelier Pierrot did a beautiful four-page spread of girls with very long hair and low-saturation [near black and white photographs]. They've also included a section on the Harry Potter movie set, and various other 'Britishy' locales. There is even a very pretty Japanese Harry Potter in kodona, complete with plushie Hedwig.

-The manga was especially good. I can't actually read my manga, as my Japanese stops short at kanji, but the general premise seems to be personifying a piano as a young girl in black-and-white stripes. (The issue has a lot of darker colors in it, even for sweeter styles. Less candy-heart-attack, and more dusty pinks or pink with black. Even Baby's models, despite looking exceptionally sweet, wear black as their base color.)

-Plaids seem to be in for this winter/autumn. A lot of different colors of plaid. Not only has Meta put out that greenish-purpleish plaid, but also Angelic Pretty, Putumayo, Black Peace Now, and MAM Maximacam have come out with plaids.

Things That Were Not So Wonderful

-Again, patterns weren't that fabulous. The Black Peace Now skirt is rather cute, with a plain layer under two layers of shingle-like ruffles. But the Marble halter is... unusual, and everyone can make Innocent World hairbows or a circular Baby headdress. Other items were strands of pearls, black and white; snap-purse Victorian bag, which is something they feature regularly; and VM-style floral haircombs (which don't really require directions. Glue stuff to comb. Stick in hair. The end).

-The shot for the Angelic Pretty page is... odd. The model has on a pink wig somehow eschew that makes her look bald and somewhat skeletal. I'm not sure if it's a white model or an Asian model, but either way, she is not their typical poofy-haired fare.

-I was hoping for coats and winter items like boots and muffs, and there were none. I can only assume they're for the next issue, then. I find it odd that although some brands have already put out coats on reserve for ages, others have not. And neither are putting out adequate press for their coat lines. It's practically like you have to be in the know to know when coats go on sale. Since it's such a high-ticket item that a lot of people need, you'd think they would publicize it more.

Final report: Good enough just for the artful photo shoots. If you're a huge fan of crazy photoshoots with obscure brands, then you'll like it well enough. If you're looking for something deeply informative, however - personally I wouldn't say it's your buy. Then again, it's not like I buy it for the articles... ;)

Labels: review

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 10:10 PM