Steampunk Inspired Lolita & Victoria's Clockwork Emporium Review

I've been asked a few times to do a post about Steamlolita but I've been putting it off for a while because I'm by no means a Steampunk expert! Recently, however, I was asked by Victoria's Clockwork Emporium to review one of their gorgeous steampunk pieces and it has once again made me a bit intrigued by this odd combination of Victorian elegance and futuristic fantasy.

First up is the review piece from Victoria's Clockwork Emporium! I was sent a lovely hair clip with the iconic steampunk cogs and gears. The hair clip was sent very quickly, within a few days, and was packaged securely in a bubble mailer and slipped inside one of the most awesome bags I've ever seen.

The piece itself is very well made. The first thing I did, of course, was try to pull it apart. Well, maybe not, but I did test it a bit to see how well it was held together. Try as I might, none of the various little cogs fell off, it looks like they are held on with a pretty industrial strength glue, which is incredibly important on a piece like this, where all the more pieces mean all the more opportunities for something to fall off.

  I loved the packaging! The piece was in this awesome skull covered bag!

The gears and cogs are in a variety of different metal colors: silver, bronze and brass. Making this piece easy to coordinate with other pieces of jewelery you happen to be wearing because you really don't have to worry so much about the metal colors matching.

I was very impressed with how beefy the piece was, this wasn't just a couple small cogs glued together, it was practically a layer cake made out of broken watch parts! It is by no means at all a heavy hair clip, but it's definitely substantial, which makes it feel all the more sturdy and unbreakable.

 One thing I particularly like about the clip was that that the clock hand moves around! It's not exactly like I'm going to be fiddling around with it while it's clipped in my hair, but it's definitely a little touch that I really liked.

Victoria's Clockwork Emporium has a lot more to offer than just Steampunk pieces, although Steampunk clockwork pieces are their specialty, but they also offer a fair amount of pieces that are perfect for the Victorian inclined Classic Lolita.

Mixing Steampunk with Lolita

As I have mentioned, getting my hands on a cog-covered Steampunk piece really piqued my interest in this unique style mishmash. I certainly didn't magically transform into a master of steam-powered Victorian aircraft in the past week and a half, but I have spent much more time oogling Steamlita coordinates than I have in quite a while. Personally, I don't ever find myself too enthusiastic about the completely over the top Steampunk outfits, the ones that involve props and elaborate costume pieces (Although I would love to be able to try my hand at making some of them! I've secretly always wanted a steam-powered Pip Boy), as cool as they may be, I just prefer outfits that are more day-to-day wearable, despite how far out from the norm it is. Which is why a Classic Lolita with little Steampunk details- cog jewelery, utility belts, spats, aviation hats, etc. is definitely my preferred mixing of the Steampunk style with Lolita.

Some of my favorite Steampunk Lolita outfits are by AyraLeona on Deviantart. Her Steampunk outfits definitely have the balance of wearability and creativity that I really love! It doesn't look like she's in a costume, it looks like this is just what she wears. I feel like she's taken the Steampunk style and really made it her own.

I think that the Victorian nature of Steampunk lends itself very well to mixing with Lolita, and even if you don't want to go all out and build yourself steam-powered leather and brass gauntlets, you can still add a very obvious Steampunk touchs to your Lolita outfits that really adds something different from the generally girly and cute touches that you often find with Lolita.

Again, I am by no means a Steampunk expert, so I don't think I could really give any great advice on how to successfully mix the two styles other than "moderation!", so instead I'd like to ask how other people mix the two styles. Do any of you also participate in the Steampunk hobby/lifestyle/fashion? If you do, do you mix it in with your Lolita wardrobe? Where on the Lolita to Steampunk spectrum do you personally feel like is the ideal Steamlita? I might not be an expert on the style, but I do know that it's a somewhat hard style to get right. Go too much one way and you just get a Steampunk outfit with a shorter skirt, too much the other, and it's just Classic Lolita with maybe a pair of goggles.

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Where Are The Lustrous Fabrics?

This edition of Ask Miss Caro-chan comes off my formspring from an anonymous asker, who wants to know:

What's with the lack of shiny fabrics in Lolita? I don't mean cheap costume satin, but lustrous silks and brocades and such. It seems that, since Lolita is inspired by luxurious and opulent fashions, it should include more than just cottons!

I just want to start by mentioning that not all Lolita fashions are inspired by the luxurious and opulent! Lolita is actually inspired by many different things: cute, charming, old-timey, retro, are all just as equally inspiring to Lolita as opulence and luxury.

There are actually a fair number of pieces being sold by brands that are made with shiny or lustrous fabrics if you know where to look! Out of the big brands Baby's Alice & the Pirates line is probably the most well known for releasing a lot of shiny pieces. You can almost always find some blouse or dress made out of some lustrous fabric in their shop!

 

Some of A&tP's various lustrous pieces.

Lustrous pieces can also be found frequently by a few Gothic brands such an Antique Beast and Atelier Pierrot. Antique Beast is famous for using lustrous brocades while Atelier Pierrot is more known for using satins.

Antique Beast

 Brocade helps break up the shine a bit and adds even more opulence. It also tends to come in a variety of different shine strengths.

Atelier Pierrot

 

Atelier Pierrot's single most popular design, that they have been making since the dawn of time and releasing in a rainbow of jewel toned satins.

If you want some luster in a way that's slightly safer than satin you can always try velvets! Velvets are a very lush way to add a slight luster to your wardrobe and, depending on the piece, can either be worn as a knock-out piece or something a bit more casual. Go for a more detailed OP in an interesting color, such as jewel tones or dusty pastels, for a fancier look or a simpler skirt in a more "traditionally" Lolita color, pastels, bold colors, or basic black or white, for a more casual way to wear velvet.

In the cooler months, nearly every brand puts out velvet pieces, and they can usually be picked up year round on the second hand community, so it's never really a difficult task to find a velvet piece to add to your wardrobe.

These pieces are all definitely show off the more opulent side of velvet!

Satin's Bad Rap and the Difference Between Shiny and Lustrous.

Similar to black and white color combos, satin or other lustrous fabrics have been done badly so many times and for so long that it's almost a knee-jerk reaction to automatically dismiss any lustrous fabric as "bad". But, just like with black and white, when shine is done correctly, and out of good fabric, it can be a gorgeous option for Lolita.

Spotting good vs. bad satin is sometimes hard to do in pictures. Usually it seems that cheap costume satin tends to be more contrasting, it has darker shadows and brighter highlights, you can even sometimes tell how thin the fabric is by the way it hangs or the fact that it is already covered in wrinkles just by existing. High quality satins often seem to have a more gentler shine and you can often tell by the draping of the fabric that it's a much more heavy weight fabric. If you have the chance to see the piece in person, cheap satins are usually incredibly thin (they're often almost tissue thin!) and incredibly easily wrinkled, whereas better quality satins are usually very thick and sometimes even textured.

This is bad satin. In fact, this is just bad all over.

In the Lolita fashion, the difference between something simply being shiny and something being lustrous can often make or break an outfit. It can mean the difference between something looking like a cheap costume (It isn't called "costume satin" for nothing!) and something looking like it stepped out of the opulent fashions of the past.

I'm a big fan of using lustrous fabrics and details within Lolita, I love the extra bit of depth and interest they add. I've mentioned before about my love of texture and detail that many Lolita pieces have, and I think that lustrous fabrics is just another way to add interest to a piece without exploding a rainbow print all over the dress and piling on the accessories.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just want to do a quick post to give a little shout out to everyone who's celebrating Thanksgiving today! I can't wait to dig into some pecan pie later tonight! As I mentioned last year on Thanksgiving, I am, of course, thankful for the little things, the day-to-day things, and the important things in my life. But, as I gather around my traditional Lolita meal of pink frosted cupcakes and bow my head to the great and powerful Mana-sama, bringer of all Lolita, what am I thankful for in the more frilly parts of my life? This:

Mana-sama sent his little Jrock angels down and made it so I chanced upon stumbling across this deal. A size 2 (which I am shocked and surprised to find fits me perfectly, as Juliette et Justine's size 1 seems to run incredibly small) Juliette et Justine print dress, covered in a gorgeous brown floral print complete with little cherubs. I got an incredibly good deal on it too, like BtSSB second-hand lucky pack old school style JSK good deal! I just got it in the mail yesterday, so I get to wear it for the first time for Thanksgiving today!

I also want to point out that for today until the end of tomorrow I'm having a little Thanksgiving sale over at my shop Ophanim. You can get a whopping 20% off your order with the coupon code THANKSGIVING20. Last year around this time I did lucky packs, but my scheduled has been so hectic I haven't really had the time to make any! I do hope to get some done for the Christmas season though!

I want to end this post by mentioning that I guess I'm officially going back to my blogspot address at fyeahlolita.blogspot.com. On the topic of thankfulness, I am truly thankful to all my readers who have stuck with me through this sort of confusing move, and all the people who were distraught at the thought that my blog may have just disappeared! I am very glad to know that those of you out there care as much as you do for this blog. As upsetting as it was to find out that I lost my dot-com due to my own forgetfulness, it really made me very happy to hear from those of you who were worried! Within the next week or so I plan on having a back-to-blogspot giveaway, to help get the word out about my url change!

What's That On Your Head?!- Odd Lolita Headwear

Lolitas are no stranger to wearing odd headwear. Even the basic rectangle headdress is sort of WTF to most people (because, really, what is it?) or the mini hat or giant head bow are a bit odd if you really stop to think about it. But there have been things released and things that somehow got popular that have always sort of made me think "Who the heck thought this would be a good idea to put on their head?" Some end up being awesome, others end up looking just as ridiculous as you would expect them to.

So let's take a look at some of the stranger things Lolitas have decided to perch on their heads over the years!

Cake Hats

First up is what I like to think of as the original "weird Lolita headwear" the infamous cake hat. Cake hats come in a variety of different styles, from an individual slice of cake perched atop your head, to pieces that look a bit like mini top hats made out of cake, to just plain ol' balancing a wedding cake made out of lace on top of your head.

Angelic Pretty's Ice Cream Cone headbands.

 

A sibling to the cake hat would be Angelic Pretty's ice cream cone headbands. These come in two styles- upright, and spilled all over your head and dripping into your hair.

Angelic Pretty's Fluffy Bunny-chan Bonnet

I'm not being silly and making of dumb names for a dumb bonnet, that's actually what Angelic Pretty calls this monstrosity.  While adding bunny ears to a bonnet is not something Angelic Pretty invented, they certainly took it to the extreme. The best part about this bonnet is the bunny ears sort of flop up against the furry brim, and look like shorter bear ears, so instead of a cute fluffy bunny bonnet, what it looks like is a giant bear sneaking up behind you.

Alice & the Pirates' Pirate Hats

 

Their name is Alice & the Pirates, so of course they are going to put out pirate hats! Although, maybe we don't exactly need a full size pirate hat covered in bows to go with our Lolita. I'm sure that these could work in some coordinate, and I'm sure they could look awesome, but they're just so wacky looking I just can't imagine any self respecting pirate would go for a giant pink tartan bow on their hat, or even be able to see out from under that one with the stars all over it.

Extreme Mini Top Hats

 

If there is a brand that has elevated the act of gluing pompoms and small toys to a mini top hat, that brand is Angelic Pretty. These mini top hats are usually a bit bigger or taller than your average mini top hat, but that's really only so you can fit more crap on them.

Angelic Pretty's Jello Mold Hat

When Angelic Pretty came out with Jewelery Jelly, the Lolita communities first reaction tended to be "Since when is jello Lolita?!" which quickly turned into "OMG GOTTA HAVE IT!" but as quickly as many of us changed our mind on jello in our Lolita, most of us still were a bit confused by Angelic Pretty's choice of headwear for the set. They released a headdress made to look like a glittery brick of jello, complete with frothy lace whipped cream. On first glance it might just look like yet another silly cake hat, but the jello part of the hat his actually made with some sort of stiff sheer fabric. I've always been curious what this hat was made of!

Antique Beast's Bat Maid Headdress

 Definitely my favorite headwear on this list! Because it combines the kitchyness of Maid Lolita with Gothic elegance and bats. Because even Aristocrats need maids, and those maids are probably going to be dressed like frilly bats.

BtSSB's Usamimis

 

Usamimis were a trendy accessory for a little bit, mostly in the Gyaru fashion it seemed. They were little wired pieces of ribbon that were worn around the head and folded in a way that sort of made them look like lopsided bunny ears. They were cute and casual, then Baby decided to get their mitts on them. While some of Baby's usamimi's were just fine, some of them were completely ridiculous and ended looking giant and sloppy.

Very Expensive Hair Scrunchies

For some reason, a couple summers back, hair scrunchies got very popular in Japanese fashion. So brands started to jump on the scrunchie bandwagon and release their own versions of these little throw backs to early 1990's kids wear. Only, being from a Lolita brand, these hair scruncis (or "chou chou" I guess they are called when you want to pretend they aren't meant to be worn by an 8 year old in 1992 to decorate her side ponytail) tended to cost between $20 and $35. Hair scruncies are fine and all, especially with the often pigtailed-hairstylings of Lolita, but there's a limit to how much hair scruncies should cost.

Metamorphose's Gardening Teddy Kerchief

 

Sometime last year, when Metamorphose released their Gardening Teddy series, they really busted out some old school designs, but maybe went back a little too far into the old school, into the realms of Natural Kei, when it came time to think up some matching headdresses for the series. For whatever reason they decided a kerchief was in order. While it's certainly not awful looking, it's just an incredibly bizarre choice that seems several decades out of date.

Witch Hats 

 

 These are usually released around Halloween to go with whatever special Halloween set is being released that year, but I believe Antique Beast sells them year round. Personally, I like the idea of witch hats being worn every day. They're good hats, they've got a big wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, some flowers and bows for prettiness, and a point to show that you mean business.

Baby's Freakishly Huge Fur Bow

It seems like headbows have been getting larger over the years, but Baby, of all people, really took the cake when they released this monster of a headbow. To make sure that it will never stay up and probably even give you a neck ache at the end of the day, they decided to make it out of faux fur, which I'm sure you're aware is significantly heavier than cotton.

These aren't all the strange things Lolita brands have released as headwear over the years, and certainly not all the strange things individual Lolitas have decided would work best as a hat, but these are some of my WTF favorites. I really shouldn't be one to talk about wearing weird things on your head though, as I'm sure you all know, I have quite the fondness for oversized bonnets, and those of you that know me personally know that I keep a drawer in my armoire devoted to bonnets, which include a BtSSB bear eared one and a black and white bodyline one with huge awkward floppy bunny ears. And, as I've mentioned in this post, I would just love to see people wearing books as hats!

What do you think of out-of-the-ordinary Lolita headwear? Are you more of a tiny-side-bow kind of Lolita or do you like your headwear to be a bit more attention grabbing?

Moitie's New Alchemy Print

Moitie is a brand that I definitely have a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes they completely blow me out of the water with designs that I find incredibly unique and cool, other times they release stuff that I find so boring that I begin to suspect that the whole brand is just an elaborate joke set up by Mana. I can imagine Mana in his mountain-top gothic castle cackling over designs for a pair of plain black pants, tie-dye shirts that look like they were designed for trendy grandmas, and plain black turtlenecks.

Their recent design was definitely something that really reminded me of my love/hate relationship with the brand. At first, upon seeing the design picture I thought "Oh wow! That is a really cool looking design! The writing in the background is so cool, and I like all the different images!" Then seeing it on an actual dress made me change my mind completely. What might make a cool border image turns into an awkward print on a ho-hum dress design.

Moitie is famous for making simple yet striking designs, and Gothic minimalism seems to be their motto, but, to me, the minimalist dress design, plus a giant cluttered print just looks like Angelic Pretty gone Goth. Which might be a neat thing, but I just find it really awkward coming from Moitie. I think it's almost like they're trying to jump on the OTT trend a year too late.

I would love to see an alchemy themed print from Moitie, with magic circles, alchemical symbols, and I'd even be cool with some crosses and roses thrown in, but I can't help but wish they used this idea for one of their more classic screen printed designs. I think that this way it would have definitely been undeniably Moitie and not so much Moitie does Angelic Pretty.

Temp Blog URL!

I'm sure some of you have noticed, because practically as soon as it happened people started letting me know, but going to fyeahlolita.com just brings you to godaddy.com. Sadly, a major oops on my part (insert wacky tale of a credit card change and forgetfulness here) as lead to my domain name expiring. While I work this out, you'll still be able to visit the blog at my blogspot address!

http://fyeahlolita.blogspot.com

Hopefully I'll get this worked out soon enough! Sorry about the confusion!