All aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Not a loli-related post per se but I'll like to post about Harry Potter: The Exhibition which finally reached our sunny shores early June this year. And which I finally managed a visit to last Saturday, as a random Hogwarts student, along with two others (Ravenclaws). Strangely enough, I always thought the Harry Potter books were only alright, nothing really outstanding in terms of writing and plotwise. What I really loved was the cinematic world that the Harry Potter movies created instead.

The Harry Potter exhibition basically features props, artifacts, a few recreated sets and costumes from all eight Harry Potter movies. Some of the recreated sets were the Gryffindor's common room, Hagrid's hut and the Great Hall. No photography allowed inside the exhibition halls though so here are some from the official website.

And there was a section with mock Mandrakes that actually squeals when you pull one up. Needless to say, everyone tried to. Pull one, that is.

Copies of the Marauder's Map were available for sale in the exhibition shop but much too expensive to justify getting one, sighs.

The featured costumes were my favourite part of the exhibition though!

The dress that Hermione wore for the Yule Ball in the fourth Harry Potter film installment, Goblet of Fire, was amazingly pretty, as was Cho Chang's cheongsam/evening gown hybrid.

Photos sourced off the net

And Ron's Yule ball tuxedo was absolutely hilarious!! I already grinned when I saw the whole ensemble on screen before but in actuality, it even had crochet lace on it. CROCHET LACE! The poor boy!

Photo sourced off the net

It was not a very big exhibition and took only an hour or so to go through the whole event. It would be longer if we examined everything they had throughly though. I enjoyed it and it was fun to dress up and visit the exhibition with friends! We had a fair share of stares at the exhibition while wearing the Hogwarts' uniforms. Some of the exhibition staff were actually rather excited to see us and asked for photos together, lol.

A Gryffindor, of course. Much too old to be a Hogwarts student really but still terribly fun to pretend to be!

And if you pay a bit more, you can have an official Harry Potter photo with inserted appropriate background of your choice. Definitely the Hogwarts Express for us.



Sale Clearance! Everything Must GO! 50-30% OFF!

So summer sale season is in full swing! And I myself have just come from the Innocent World sale, which I caved in and bought 2 dresses, one being an impulse buy. The flesh is so very weak, unfortunately.

Here's a list of brands currently having online sales that I know of.

Innocent World - http://innocent-w.jp/shopping/sale_e.html
Metamorphose - http://metamorphose.ec.uncvr.com/1173/1157/1243/-2/-/-1/new/1
Baby the Stars Shine Bright - http://www.babyssb.co.jp/shopping/2012-online-summer-sale.html
Excentrique - http://excentrique.shop7.makeshop.jp/shopbrand/016/O/
Millefleurs- http://millefleurs-noirs.com/sale.html
Putumayo - http://www.putumayo-home.com/sale/index.html
MA/MAM - http://www.maxicimam.com/?mode=cate&cbid=564764&csid=0
HeartE - http://www.hearte.co.jp/product-list/61
Moi-meme-Moitie - http://moi-meme-moitie.shop-pro.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=721035&csid=0

*Angelic Pretty's online sale is still forthcoming.


Plus here are a few tips when confronting sale season. Do not follow my not-so-shining example of impulse buying.

• If you can wait....WAIT. Some of the brands do have further reductions after the first or second week of their sales, especially for Metamorphose.
• Do remember to check out the shipping charges, it might still push you over budget despite the sale price.
• Also, don't forget to check measurements! Sometimes we can get blinded by the tag '50% off' (gawd knows I did) and forget to check if the dress on sale can actually fit or not.
• And even brand dresses on sale can still be expensive. Check if that dress on sale is up on any auction sites or secondhand clothing stores first, if you don't mind secondhand items. The dress could be going for cheaper there.
• Regardless of items going for half the price, still buy within your means. Tempting though it might be, "but this is on sale! I'll just add in another pair of socks, another dress, a trinket..." can all add up.
• However, if you are very sure the dress on sale is the dress you want now, then get it! 

Now, go forth and enjoy summer lolita sale season! =)

'Titanic' may have started it but I still can't stand Jack and Rose

Summer sale season is upon us once more! And this means that a few brands will be having lucky packs and online sales. At present, Metamorphose has summer lucky packs on sale while Innocent World has a 10% discount on all items going on until 1st July.

I've been on an Edwardian fashion jag lately. And not because of the 3D re-release of 'Titanic' early this year!

Rose's Boarding Suit that is supposed to be the height of Edwardian fashion in 1912. I can well believe it.

However. I did love the costumes in the movie when it first came out in 1997, just not the movie itself. But 'Titanic' probably did spark me down on the path to finding out more about this era, its fashion (and the ship as well). Not to mention, with Downton Abbey winning accolades for its costume-designs, Edwardian fashion is somewhat back in the spotlight. And there's something uniquely elegant about Edwardian fashion. While not as loose, airy and Grecian-inspired as Regency gowns, a structured outline for the well-dressed Edwardian lady was still required, it's not as constrictive as Victorian fashion which dictated the worth of a woman by the fussiness of her wardrobe and the tightness of her waist.

1910-12 evening gowns worn by Queen Maud of Norway. The detailing is amazing. The creation of exclusive custom-fitted gowns, or how haute couture was born, came about during the Edwardian era via Charles Frederick Worth.

Lolita fashion doesn't really draw as much inspiration from the Edwardian age, as say, compared to the Rococo and Victorian eras. Maybe as the 20th century progressed, Edwardian fashion for women placed a greater emphasis on the overall silhouette being narrowed and straightened with high waists and a stiff collar, unlike the lace, frills, pomp of a late Victorian bustle gown. Not that an Edwardian gown couldn't be decadent too. I especially love early Edwardian tea and lawn dresses with their pintucks and lace details.


While I did say Edwardian inspired lolita dresses are hard to find, I have come across some few that can evoke a sense of this era.

Innocent World's Lidie OP is rather reminiscent of the Edwardian sailor dress.

Of all the brands, I think Excentrique probably is the closest to having an Edwardian aesthetic to some of their clothing designs. Although I'm not even sure if Excentrique can be classified as a 'pure' lolita brand actually, so many of their pieces have a distinct old-world European charm. Or as one of their earlier collections says it, 'Euro Vintage Euphoria'. And that term kind of encompasses the whole Excentrique appeal.

So, right now? I'm hoping really hard that Excentrique has a summer sale oncoming!

'Frills and Lace and Everything Nice'

Last Saturday, I went for a workshop panel on gothic lolita fashion. The workshop itself, titled 'Frills and Lace and Everything Nice', was part of a pre-event leading up to an annual local cosplay event that's usually held in July. That annual cosplay event is called Cosfest btw. So I attended for a while and took some photos.

Besides explaining what is gothic lolita fashion, the workshop organizers also tried to give examples of different lolita styles like Gothic, Classic, Sweet etc. The end of the workshop culminated in a makeover for two of the attendees.

The workshop did have a rather rushed and incomplete feeling surrounding it. I had a chat with the organizers and they said the workshop was a last minute thing and tie-up with Cosfest actually, they only had a week to prepare everything. The workshop being held in a corner of a shopping mall was restrictive as well. The organizers also mentioned they had expected the workshop to be held in a private room with invited attendees but it didn't turn out that way, unfortunately. Still, I think the organizers did try their best with the limited time and resources they had.

Let's hope if there's another gothic lolita panel or loli related-event, more time and a conducive environment would be readily available. I'll be interested to attend such another event since they're far and few in-between here in Singapore. The last attempt at a lolita fashion panel was held in 2006 or 2007 I believe, at another anime/cosplay event. I guess it's unavoidable that gothic lolita fashion is associated with cosplay events as much as I still roll my eyes when someone on the street says lolita is cosplay, lol. And I would love to see a brand spokesperson like Atelier Pierrot or Angelic Pretty etc come to our shores for a panel, like they do for anime/cosplay events in the United States or Europe but I don't really see that happening, as Singapore just doesn't have a large enough base to warrant such a visit.

Indies Brand - dolce piu amabile

After doing a quick google translate, I discovered dolce piu amabile means '更加甜甜蜜蜜' in Chinese. And in turn, in English, that means 'even sweeter'. Lol! That tickles me because I am, sadly, easily amused.

dolce piu amabile is an indies brand that I discovered today by accident. While randomly surfing, I had come across this photo:

Instantly intrigued by the dresses being modeled by the Kokusyoku Sumire duo, and I am a sucker for smock dresses, so I did more digging and found they're from dolce piu amabile

This particular dress is no longer on sale, alas! I really do have a habit of stumbling across dresses, loving them at first sight, and then finding out they're sold out already.

There's quite a few indies brands out there and once their items are sold, it's probably nigh impossible to find them again on the secondhand market. Dresses from indies brands doesn't come cheap and can be, if not, even more expensive than your 'regular' loli brands. If you like the idea of having something unique as probably only one or two pieces would be made of each design, indies is the way to go! Not to mention, indies loli dresses sometimes can think out of the box in terms of style and design and present something quite unusual but still recognizably loli.