Gothic and Lolita Bible Vol. 31 Review

I usually review any Lolita publication that I read/purchase, but this is a slightly different kind of review. Instead of, this was cool and that was cool, consider this a tongue-in-cheek overlook at the magazine. After all, the girl on the cover has green hair and is supposed to look like a Christmas tree.

Oh, Japan! (I lovingly roll my eyes).

Firstly, stickers. If nothing else, this could be a $20 sticker sheet. I love the stickers. I carefully dole them out, hopefully with plans to keep them forever and ever and ever. My previous stickers have been allotted to my scrapbook cover and my cellphone. I don't know what to do with these yet, especially the large sticker of Christmas Loli, who makes a second appearance. Other notions about these stickers: use even the non-pre-printed stickers. Those cute stars aren't actually supposed to be popped out, but you can use a hole punch or punch stamp to MAKE them be stickers and actually get your $20 out of your sticker sheet.

There are also two Christmas postcards further into the magazine, in both French and English. The Japanese interpretation of a gingerbread house and Christmas Loli makes a third appearance.

I'm not feeling the urge to go in chronological order, so let's skip right ahead to the gingerbread house. Now if you're a gingerbread house maker, or purist, or have ever made one in kindergarten by gluing graham crackers to milk cartons, then you know the rule is, everything must be eatable. Edible. Yes, that. The Japanese have decided that rhinestones, tiny teacup charms, dollhouse dishes, and plastic skulls are eatable. Actually it wouldn't surprise me if the entire house was actually fake cellphone deco food and not at all eatable, which is sort of a cool idea.

On the same notion, they also advertised Christmas cake trinket boxes and clocks. I've seen the cake-clock look-a-likes, but wasn't too thrilled until I saw the Christmas cake version. Namely? It has banana slices. I think plastic banana slices are adorable, personally. It might be possible to make your own Christmas cake clock using cellphone deco food and sweets jewelry foam, actually - an idea to entertain.

A lot of the Lolita brands decided fur was in for Christmas. One of the Metamorphose models is wearing a fur hairbow the size of a stew rabbit, and the tails of about sixty of them around her neck. I love faux in Lolita but some of this was a little... crazy.

There is a section on hairstyles, too, which I especially enjoy as the photos are pretty language-free. Unfortunately almost all of the styles go like this:

1. Curl hair.
2. Tease the hell out of hair.
3. Add bow/mini-crown/teacup/teddy bear/stew rabbit.

They are very cute, and I would love to try some of them. I just can't get past the curling and teasing. Curling, especially with an iron, takes time, practice, fiddling, and energy. The teasing takes time, practice, fiddling, energy, and a genetic predisposition. My hair is too silky to tease - it just doesn't.

There is a a great pattern for a mini-hat however, if you'd like to try the curl/tease/insert method.

There were also some great ads by MAM [Maxicimam - does anyone know how to pronounce this?]. I wish they were easier to get a hold of here Outside of Japan. They have distinctly 'edgier' designs in my opinion. The dress I liked was pink with black tulle lace, campy rick-rack, and screeprinted cherries. Some of their stuff is at least as sugary as Angelic Pretty's, too. They need more love.

As to ads - is anyone else as horribly hypnotized by Angelic Pretty's full-page ads? I'll see a dress on the website and say, 'Eh, it's not that special for $300'. Then I see the ad, my eyes grow big, and I start to daydream of waltzing around in it, while glitter and candies and kittens fall from the sky in a shining rain. The full-page ads in this issue are for the Lady Rose line, which explain why the very thought makes me froth at the mouth with print-lust.

Or maybe I've finally caught something from my decorative stew rabbits.

Labels: review

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 4:40 PM