Mirror, Mirror

The other day a friend of mine and I were talking about the importance, or perhaps the illusion - of vanity. Vanity, sometimes labeled as one of the deadly sins in place of pride, is something we are meant to be ashamed of. Being called vain or shallow is definitely an insult, and we don't want people to think we are over-involved in ourselves, especially our appearances.

As lolitas, however, we go against this idea. Among ourselves, I think vanity is a concept that has mostly been silenced. I am not sure if I have ever heard a lolita called out by another as vain. It would probably be considered the ultimate in hypocrisy. After all, the lolita spends more time on her appearance than most people. It is, after all, what all of the subculture is built on. The look and style, from hair to clothes to makeup, is what distinguishes the lolita from the average person. She will spend endless time hunting down and selecting the proper clothes and accessories, learning to style her hair, and the correct way to line her lids or apply false eyelashes. She will make her own accessories if she has to, or even whole outfits, just to perfect the look she wants to achieve.

The lolita does all of these things to fulfill her own idea of what is beautiful. A lot of lolitas say that they enjoy how the style makes them feel - beautiful, they say. Like a princess. In a modern world where woman are often made to feel bad about themselves and their appearance, there is a sudden reversal. Being all dolled up, blowing kisses to the mirror, or even just admiring the pink glimmer on your lips - you feel happy. The emotional high we get out of beauty, or feeling that we contribute to that beauty, is what draws us to it in the first place. When we find something beautiful, we get a hit of pleasure off of it - whether is a new dress, a single snowdrop in spring, or even just light glinting off of a glass Coke bottle.

To delve a little deeper into this and paraphrase the words of author Cal Garrision: whenever we experience beauty, we experience evidence of the divine (in whatever form you believe that to be, be it a deity, the Universe, a spirit, the flow of karma, etc.) I know I have often found spiritual solace in the faded colors of a sunset or the perfectly sculpted towers of closed morning glory buds. Seeing something of beauty reminds us that this world is either very, very lucky accident or clearly blessed by some outside force. I know I do not usually get very spiritual in this blog, being as it is situated around a fashion, but in this case, I feel it applies.

So whenever you appreciate beauty or put the effort into your own, you are participating in a kind of meditation or prayer. It is a devotion to yourself, a promise to who you are. You carefully fix your spots with concealer, then daub the face with powder; smoothly run fingertips laden with eyeshadow over your lids. Do you painstakingly curl your eyelashes, with maybe a little trepidation? Or if makeup isn't your thing, perhaps you delicately work strands of hair around a curling iron, or tint streaks of it with pink dye. The dress you choose, simply because you like it, is a gift to yourself and your own sense of beauty. Every last accessory, of an image you have compiled, is unique to you.

So when vanity is brought into the equation, consider its meaning. It may be referred to as an overindulgence and attention to one's appearance, but if it is a deep attention to loving ourselves and trying to be be happy, how is this a bad thing? Is vanity just something cooked up by the jealous, who only wish they could live their lives with such fervor? Is vanity meant to oppress what should be rightfully ours? Or perhaps the term vanity is only the code word for really loving yourself - should anyone find out a girl's little secret of beauty.

Labels: culture, discussion, inspirational

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 11:18 PM 5 Comments

Good Morning Starshine!

Since Good Night Miss Princess has finally opened, we put together a slumber-party themed photoshoot using some of her samples! They were a lot of fun to shoot, and for once, the clothes we modeled in were comfortable!

You'll also notice a GMP button in the sidebar. You can reach the Good Night Miss Princess webpage by clicking on it. I hope to add more cute shops I like to the sidebar soon - I know how you, my darling readers, can appreciate a good dose of cute! If you have one you'd like to suggest, let me know by emailing me (also located in the sidebar).

Labels: photopost

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 8:36 PM 3 Comments

Mint & Aqua Bears

You can see today's outfit by clicking the teaser!

The suitcase was rescued from my attic recently and I just had to use it in an outfit! Mint, aqua, lavender, and powder blue are colors I have been wanting to work with for a bit, so I added a dose of it to my outfit.

See what you can find left over from your own childhood - there may be something perfect waiting to be coordinated! Some places to look:

• tag sales
• attics with your old things in them
• Grandma's closet or jewelry box for jewelry, maybe shoes or purses
• antique shops
• eBay
• consignment shops

It's those small touches to an outfit that can really add some originality and pop! I've even found 1980s Barbie paper dolls, a carousel-themed jewelry box, and a Peppermint Rose necklace in my attic! Take a look to find your own nostalgia-filled accessories!

Labels: outfit post

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 11:43 PM 0 Comments

Vintage Cherry Blossoms

The fashionable Miss Lumpy and I got together for two reasons: one, to visit! and two, to work on a project for you, our lovely readers! We'll be jointly covering a small series on lolita cleaning, organizing, and redecorating.

(Yes, I needed help to clean my room.) I am a sentimental packrat and artistic type, so I have either saved it because it reminds me of something or because it may be used in an art piece eventually. This means I have little slips of paper from as many as 8 years ago! And it's not always clear what each thing is, except to me - Miss Lumpy puzzled over a nonsense small paper piece until I told her it was an unused Parisian metro ticket that I was saving!

But the day was also warm and sunny, with the cherry blossoms beginning to open in the garden, so we also used the opportunity to take some photos! To see them, click the teaser image.

You can also read more about thrifting and lolita with this article, by Miss Lumpy!

ETA: It must be getting late because the teaser date is wrong - it's really the 19th. Sorry everyone!

x-posted to daily_lolita

Labels: outfit post

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 12:41 AM 3 Comments

English GLB Vol. 5 Review

Now I'm not a romantic type. Well, I love the idea of Prince Charming, happy ever after, all that. But perhaps I've gotten a little jaded in my time dating - but somehow the idea of weddings doesn't quite appeal to me. At least, until I read this issue of the English Gothic and Lolita Bible.

As you've probably deduced, the magazine's theme is weddings. Lolita weddings, Gothic weddings, historical weddings, and the weddings of two indie brand designers, Miss Megan Maude and Blasphemina of Blasphemina's Closet. They editors admit that most of their readership is too young to consider marriage yet, but the end comic is quite telling: three girls mooning over bridal magazines, imaging cakes and flowers. I won't tell the ending, however!

Some features I found especially attractive in this issue:

• Special-occasion makeup for dark, olive, and pale skin tones. This is the first time that they have deviated from the traditional Japanese makeup tutorials and talked about other ethnicities and how they relate to makeup, which I consider a good step forward. They even included an adorable frolita, a little-seen look that needs more love in my opinion.
• Brief histories of real princess weddings - from Princess Anne to Jackie O!
• The crafts include more accessories, which I prefer as it might be less daunting for me to attempt - four Angelic Pretty 'purse accessories' (tote bag, rail pass, cellphone case, and makeup pouch), and a few hair accessories, like corsages, a full-size Angelic Pretty hat, H. Naoto leg warmers, Gothic veils, and even a glove pattern.
• Paris, New York, Germany, and Texas reader snaps make an appearance - plenty of interesting outfits to ogle.
• Every celebrity possible to interview has been questioned on their dream wedding - sometimes this is very fascinating, with illustrations, or the celebrity remains fairly elusive. I was surprised to read that Kana said very little on the subject of marriage.
• A review of various wedding cakes, a la Food Network's Ace of Cakes. Bring on the fondant, please!
• Designs for two Gothic fascinators, one with a veil and one with large crow-like feathers. I like the idea of veils with pearls glued on!
  

There has been some talk that the English Gothic and Lolita Bible, produced by Tokyopop, may be soon out of production - in fact, this is rumored to possibly be the last issue. I am not sure if this is the case but I urge you to support the magazine before it is no longer available. It is a great step forward in the international Lolita community and the loss of it, however short its run, would be tragic. They can almost always be found at Borders bookstores if you are not sure where to purchase one, or you can try Amazon.com if there is no Borders near you. I hope you will continue to enjoy and support the English GLB for many more seasons!

Labels: review

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 9:46 PM 4 Comments

Rainbows of Decay

Ms. Julia and I had a photoshoot with our wonderful photographer Christina a few weeks ago! You can see them here!

So one overcast April day Julia, Christina and I trekked out to a highway overpass and a train tunnel, resplendent with brightly colored graffiti. Silly me, expecting the weather to be warm, since, I told myself, 'It's April!' But April in New England can quickly turn from flowers to flakes - there was a snow squall only last week! It was quite chilly, but consider this an occupational hazard of the model - you'll always be either too warm or too cold, it seems.

The place looked as if it housed the homeless at night - a few bottles, both water and alcoholic, littered the place, and a spare blanket and lost, trampled shirt was left forlornly on the gravel. It was actually a large, self-enclosed staircase, through which the wind whistled, and at the top of the staircase was a wire overpass to the nearby highway. Running parallel to the highway were the old railroad tracks. Down by the railroad tracks was a dark tunnel, unlit and black; along the walls were several bright friezes of aqua and pink graffiti.

So you might be wondering, why would lolitas go anywhere near this destination? Shouldn't we be frequenting historic mansions, or rose gardens, or gilt theatres?

The concept is juxtaposition. By contrasting the harsh images of urban decay and city ruins, the sweet and idealized look of lolita comes out all the stronger. Rather be a paper doll in a dollhouse, a juxtaposition photoshoot opts for a punch of difference - the same as white on black.

The idea to me has a little dystopian fairytale feel to it as well - I picture a world ruined by humans and war, or perhaps plague, where the lolita has somehow survived, and finds herself wandering a desolate landscape of broken skyscrapers and empty highways. The image has always been very melancholy and beautiful to me, so perhaps that is why I enjoy urban decay lolita photoshoots. I wonder if this hypothetical, alternate-universe lolita is a visitor of time or space, or a native, and what she thinks of the sunlight lacing through the rusted metal, or the acid rain casting eerie iridescent puddles on the cracked concrete.

I'm not from the city myself, but a lot of lolitas are - you might even say that lolita was born in an urban landscape, as it does come from Tokyo by origin. The two seem at home with each other, in their contrast. There is something very natural about a lolita on a sidewalk or curb, even more so than to find her in a castle of gracing a manicured lawn. The latter is like an immigrant's native child returning to the old country; but the former is like a flower at home in transplanted soil, the place it had grown from: the cracks of the sidewalk.

Labels: photopost

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 6:42 PM 3 Comments

The Ugly Duckling?

Spring is the in the air: I can tell from the fact I have to keep licking yellow sugar off my fingers as I inhale marshmallow chicks. Yellow little birds that vaguely resemble Metamorphose's new print: March of the Ducks.

Sounds epic, doesn't it? But so far it doesn't seem to have garnered high ratings from the international lolita crowd. A lot of girls are saying it's too young and too babyish, even for lolita. Nursery wallpaper, is one of the terms used to describe the little waterfowl - decorated by balloons, neckerchiefs, and inner tubes.

But I see a different taste to this piece - it just screams 50s retro to me.

Maybe it's because my mother has a deep attachment to her childhood decade, the 50s, or maybe it's because I sent vintage Valentines this year - but I am completely attracted to the new vintage idea of cute. Today's kawaii style is like Hello Kitty or Rilakuma - eyes set close to the mouth, generally with simple lines. If you look at old vintage cute, like from 50s lunchboxes, the idea was all about giant eyes, giant eyelashes, and round little bodies. Bright colors like red were popular, or even sunshine (should I say duckling?) yellow! I've gone through old antique shops and collected vintage Valentines and notecards, and that's the style - hugely caricatured. Sort of like Mickey Mouse, a little bit. The style of the Showa era in Japan is rather similar, as well.

The 50s is not a time period generally associated with lolita. When asked about lolita, most girls reply with an answer including the Victorian era or the Rococo period. But some of the lesser discussed influences are the Edwardian era, the Regency era, and yes, the 50s and 60s. When I first started dressing lolita, my aunts would ask if I was trying to look like the 50s. They remembered wearing petticoats - I think then they called them crinolines - to school, along with stockings and garters and the whole set. Berets, babydoll cut dresses, eyelet lace, polka dots, and poodles all take a bow to the 50s. And don't get me started on Mary Janes or saddle shoes! Sometimes lolita looks more like a sock hop than a night at Versailles. The reason I chose the below jumperskirt for the example is that it looks very retro!

Now I know that at first, there is a bit of an aversion to the 50s era - I didn't like the idea at first either, because of the '50s housewife' idea. I've read Betty Friedan, you know! ;) But those women did dress. Slouching around in sweats is not something they did. They put work into carefully waved pincurls every day. In a way, it was a kind of idealism. The 'American dream' is probably a leftover from the 50s, when everyone envisioned a car, supper on the table, and a new refrigerator. And lolita has hung onto some of that same idealism - perhaps you could say they are idealism, the way a woman is envisioned, just like a doll is an idealism of a human.

So I know that the ducks are not very popular - you may be shaking your head in wonder at my poor taste, at this very moment - but I think they are a style of an important facet of lolita life. I can just see this outfit with a white bonnet, little braids, and perhaps a picnic basket and red roller skates, from a time when the concept of 'Honey, I'm home!' was possible.


You can see different examples of historical eras of lolita influence here.

Labels: culture, discussion

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 11:21 AM 7 Comments

April Style Tips

• Rainy spring days? Wear a pair of cute galoshes and carry your best waterproof parasol! I bought my galoshes for $20 at Target - hot pink with polka dots!
• A little apricot can really put a spin on pink - try a light coral lipgloss or some peach roses in your hair.
• Make hair corsages in your favorite spring flowers! I've used faux roses of all colors, daffodils, cherry blossoms, daisies, and even orchids! They pretty much require a glue gun and a comb or clip, and about ten minutes of your time.
• Buy a straw hat from the dolls' section of a craftstore and do it up with flowers and fruits. I like to add rhinestones to my fruits for extra pep!
• Try some bright pink, purple, or red streaks in your usual do! They only last about a week and a half tops, and they really bring out the emotion of the season - sunny!
• Spend time in the sun whenever you can. I have seasonal affective disorder, so it really helps to have bright sunlight coming back!
• If you have a sunny afternoon and the ground isn't saturated, use whatever you can find - pebbles, sticks, or leaves to make fairy houses! I don't use flowers though, since I don't want to pick them - try building next to flowers instead :P I like to see ones made with seashore items, or forest items!
  
• Interested in exercising as you swim out of winter layers? Try hula hooping, ballet, or ballroom! I hope to take ballet this summer :)
• Dye eggs for Easter or Ostara - bright colors, and then glue on lace and bows. Maybe a little lolita will hatch from them?
• And even if Easter isn't you thing - buy and eat a ton of Easter candy. This is a direct command from LC! It's so delicious, and adorable - pink sugary marshmallow bunnies?! Doesn't that sound like a print name?
• If your town has a spring festival, like a sakura festival or a daffodil festival (the Connencticut lolitas are attending the local daffodil festival in a few weeks!) gather up your girls and go! Flowers, sunlight, pretty dresses, maybe a picnic?
• Hang prisms in your window to catch the light. I have one that moves with solar power - and it sent flying rainbows around the room for about two hours in the morning!
• In the spring, white-on-white - called whitework - is a beautiful art to work on. Try a whitework handkerchief for warm days!
  

Labels: style tips

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 9:45 PM 3 Comments

English Rose in the Country

Today was so nice and warm, compared to our very cold photoshoot yesterday, so I got inspired by the flowers and tried my hand at country lolita for the first time.





Skirt, socks, bustier: BABY the Stars Shine Bright
Hat: handmade by me
Purse: offbrand

x-posted to daily_lolita

(You can also see there two old daily outfits of Lindsay and I when we met for an afternoon in March!)

Labels: outfit post

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 7:37 PM 5 Comments

The Ladies of the Court

Labels: photopost

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 12:57 PM 0 Comments

Good Night Miss Princess

Do you recognize this bunny? He's the logo and mascot of Good Night Miss Princess, which, I am excited to report, will be opening it doors this April!

Whether you are a 24/7 Lolita-chan or simply in need of something pretty to wear to a Lolita slumber party (what would the Lolitas do if the fun stopped at daywear? Turn from princesses to ordinary girls in oversize jerseys at night?), Good Night Miss Princess has what you need! From the ever-useful bloomers to romantic, flowing nightgowns, you can now add some beauty and fairytale style to even hanging around the house (watching Judge Judy, right? :D)

I admit it: that's how you'll usually find me if you drop by on a random afternoon - probably in my bloomers or nightgown (yes, I own a pink prototype of my namesake, the Victoria Nightgown!), with a pair of long fluffy socks, and a hot cup of tea. Because even when I am not dressed to the nines and out on the town with my girls, I try not to feel bummy :( I want to feel cute, because feeling cute makes me feel upbeat and more likely to sing along to the radio, say, or write LC articles for you :) And that's what Miss Julia wants her shop, Good Night Miss Princess (or GMP), to do.

To quote the lovely seamstress and designer herself: "I would totally love to find out people wore my [items] around the house and accessorized with tiaras and stuff. That's what I want Goodnight Miss Princess to be about: feeling like a beautiful princess all the time, not just when you're in lolita (or your favorite jeans, or whatever!) during the day, but also lounging around the house. When people wake up in a GMP nightgown or pajama set, I want them to be able to look in the mirror and think they look cute, even just after waking up."

And here at Lolita Charm, you know that we're all about those tiny, twinkling touches of beauty to your life that make you feel like a princess. We're a good fit together :)

Not only that, but I'm actually the embroider-in-chief for GMP. I do all of the embroidery on any GMP article, completely by hand, with love, for you ;) I think machine embroidery, while being fast and efficient, takes away some of the beauty of embroidery. An outline running stitch or a sturdy satin stitch can be useful, but there is a subtle art and love put into a raised bullion stitch rose with round petals, or a carefully worked chain stitch in gold thread. And this kind of love and care are put into every GMP product, not only the ones with my embroidery on them.

If you have done any snooping around in some of Lolita Charm's links, you've probably run across Good Night Miss Princess before on Miss Julia's blog 'Fashion's a Show' which has been documenting her work. The opening designs, a few sneak peek photos, and stories of her treks into New York City's fashion district are just some of the content of her blog.

She is also currently looking for potential customers to participate in a simple focus-group activity - finding out what you want so she can make it! If you're interested, click the above link to her blog!

Keep your eyes peeled for the official opening of Good Night Miss Princess (and the ensuing model photos with yours truly!)

Sweet dreams!

Labels: shopping

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 11:41 AM 1 Comments