AYWi30C #22 - Around Some Interesting Legwear

This post very nearly ended up using an ouji coord. I got to this prompt and did a poll on my Patreon asking people whether to go for an ouji or a lolita coordinate. The scales were tipped by literally one vote in favour of lolita, so here we are. I would like to do an ouji coord for one of these, but so much depends on the prompt and how I feel about it. With only 8 left it might not happen though, the legwear one seemed the best suited for an ouji coord. We’ll see how things go.

But since it had to be lolita, I thought long and hard which piece of legwear to use. There were no unworn socks or tights in my collection and I could never pick an actual favourite, so I looked for a pair that had the most interesting things going on in itself. This ended up being the Antiquite tights from Violet Fane, leading to a classic coordinate. My intention was to keep it on the simpler side and while the coord is still pretty elaborate, I don’t think that it overshadows the tights and it is simpler in the sense of not using too many pieces rather than not having enough depth. And the pinkish undertone to the tights made me go with that as my base colour as opposed to ivory. But, one thing at a time.

The print is actually slightly different on each leg, but that's hard to protograph aesthetically.

Mana have mercy on my wallet if Violet Fane ever releases a brooch with this particular design.

The sepia photographs are simply darling. I now want a photoshoot in sepia to put in gold frames.

There are so many colours to pull from these tights, which is why they're so versatile.

Since this all started with the tights, let’s talk about them. The print makes me think of an Edwardian scrapbook and no two elements on it are the same. And yet despite them being printed tights, the design is still pretty neutral, which together with being very comfortable is why they ended up being one of my most worn pairs of legwear in 2020. I couldn’t pick a single favourite motif on these, the Parma Violets card probably comes the closest, though I also really love that Art Nouveau-style fairy and the mirror. Violet Fane tights are super comfortable, as I already mentioned, but that wonderful stretch has another bonus - the pattern doesn’t distort much when worn. Of course, some pattern distortion is inevitable, but as you can see on the photos above, the images go back to being fairly crisp once taken off (and these have been through acouple of washes too). Violet Fane did a poll some time ago on their Instagram whether they should keep making tights, because some people were unhappy that their Otome Nostalgia tights were a slightly different shade than the dresses. Just hearing that made me sad, that the one European brand delivering us comfortable, size-inclusive printed tights for lolita could stop doing that because some people don’t understand that prints transfer differently onto different fabrics. However, the poll encouraged Violet Fane to keep doing tights - big sigh of relief there! If there was ever a pair you were considering, I highly recommend getting them.

Sosic Shop is one of those companies I can always rely on, they have not failed me so far.

Since we’re at the legs already, we might as well continue. Although I’ve far less to say about the shoes than I do about the tights. These are simply the only classic blue shoes that I own. The shade doesn’t match the dress, it’s a lot more saturated, although they do match the bonnet very well, so there’s at least some balance there that way. But that’s all the reasoning for the shoes.

When you think of these as clusters, there are only four sets of accessories in the whole coord.

Speaking of bonnet… Here are all the accessories used in this coord. As I mentioned earlier, there are fewer pieces here, especially when you think of them in terms of clusters rather than individual items. For all my love of OTT styles and piling things on, since the coord was put together around the tights, as well as was inspired by them, I opted for fewer items. That and most of the jewellery I could’ve used wouldn’t be visible anyway, so it seemed pointless to add too much.

I still remember the panic dash I made for the Triple Fortune stall back in 2017 to get this. Worth it!

That little crown gets me every time. There is one at the back of the bonnet too!

Honestly, I keep telling myself that I will wear this bonnet more and then I don’t. But it is without a doubt the most superior of bonnets, Triple Fortune know what they’re doing with these and I would so happily add more (and worry about storage space later). And thank goodness that the shade of this bonnet is such a good match for the shoes because given my track record with sax blues I probably wouldn’t have been able to wear it much without them.

Proof that not all jewellery you get for lolita has to be super expensive. Though admittedly classic lolita is probably the most forgiving substyle in that respect.

Keeping jewellery together as there isn’t much to be said about it. All of it is from Primark and I’ve gotten tonnes of wear out of all three pieces. The necklace does disappear a little from under the bonnet ribbons, but when it does peek out it’s a nice bit of texture and interest. Same with the rings - the blouse’s sleeves don’t leave hands very visible, but having a tiny bit of sparkle on them keeps things that little bit more interesting.

It took me a while to get on board the Peppermint Fox train, but that's because I'm not personally keen on the companions and every time I checked, the other designs I liked were sold out. But the longer I'm in this fashion, the more I love their style.

This particular cluster was pinned to the decolletage, right where the blouse and the JSK strap meet. Although this is something that I do a lot with brooches, adding a flower zhuzhed it up plenty. The flower also helped draw a bit more attention to the brooch, which otherwise would be far less noticeable in the coord.

I never thought I'd say those words, but my wardrobe may need more flower clips and brooches.

The other bunch of flowers was at my waist on the opposite side as the flower at the strap. Once the coord was on I felt like there was just something missing around my torso, as well as that the coord could use a bit more pink to tie it all in. An overskirt would’ve been too much (and I don’t have a pink one) and I didn’t feel like any of my belts (because they’re not pink). Having admired how @i_buried_alice has been using flowers in her coords, some of her influence rubbed off me and we’re here now. I really like the effect, it helped draw more attention to my waist without taking anything else from the coordinate. I currently want to get more flower clips, particularly the big ones like that Kaneko Shop one.

Stop for a few seconds to admire those textures.

Somehow these two colours, despite being years, brands, and countries apart in release, ended up being extremely complimentary. And there I was worried that this blouse colour might be too different even for my wardrobe.

Time to bring things back to the top of the coordinate. Yes, the blouse is a distinctly different shade of pink than every other one here. Does it bother me? Somehow, no. I went with this one because of the pinkish hue to the tights, as I already mentioned, but also because the sleeves on it are so dramatic that they would easily balance out the bonnet. When my beige Le Nuage blouse arrives, I might wear this coord again with that one, but I’m happy with how it looks for now, even though “by the rules” it’s not a very balanced look in terms of colours.

I am still not over the fact that these pintucks point downards in a V-shape and I've had this dress for almost three years now.

Last but not least we come to the dress. Of the dresses that I haven’t used yet, this was the perfect choice for the coordinate. It’s a very elegant cut that lets every other piece shine and compliments it. Being a non-printed piece, it was perfect for my vision of a simpler take on classic to match the vibe of the tights. And at the same time it is stunning in its own right, full of gorgeous details, that really shine in the overall look.

If you're a lolita and don't appreciate good lace like this, I may need to take your lolita card away from you.

After all, the skirt of the dress is made out of the biggest lace I’ve seen outside of curtains and table runners! There’s no way that anyone would miss it and the texture that it creates is enough to rival interest created by vibrant prints.

Like, seriously, this lace is magnificent and you don't need anything else to make the dress literally sing.

This lace, particularly in this colourway and with that scalloped finish, makes me think of snowflakes and ice, which is probably why I’ve worn it way more in the winter than I have in the summer. But this dress is too gorgeous to be confined to just one season and thankfully it’s not themed, so I can wear it all year round. This particular coord is definitely more spring-like, which may not have been the most comfortable to film in the middle of winter, but certainly made the wait until warmer weather a little more bearable.

This embroidery though... I could stare at it for hours, it's just perfect.

Cherry on top is the embroidery that adorns the spaces in between the lace. From afar it’s a little hard to make out, since the lace is so big and the embroidery is fairly dainty by comparison. If things catch right, the white thread reflects light a little, but it’s still subtle. The eye mostly notices that the spaces between the laces are not completely flat, but you have to get closer to appreciate these embroidered flowers.

Cream blushers have been my favourites for a while now, using lipstick as blush is just another step on that journey.

On theme with going for a simpler classic look, I kept makeup very minimal. Literally the day before I discovered that one of my red lipsticks makes for an amazing blush and I was keen on using that trick again. Another lipstick and small false eyelashes with a bit of mascara is all the rest here. Whilst not particularly historically accurate, it certainly has more of that historical vibe, which worked really well with this coord. In fact, I was surprised how well such a minimalistic makeup look worked with lolita, even with such a big coord as this, so this might become a more regular look. As for hair, I threw a wig on. Partly because I couldn’t be bothered to curl my own hair and partly because experience taught me that the comb on this bonnet stays better in wigs than in my own hair.

Wearing this dress as a skirt was a good temporary hack, but I'm ecstatic to have it be good to be worn as a JSK again and keep trying new coords with it.
From left to right these are from: January 2019, December 2019, May 2020, August 2020, and December 2020.

The last few times you saw me wear this dress, it was tucked to fake a skirt because I’ve been struggling to zip it up. My intention was to replace the zip, however, I haven’t had the chance - and upon closer inspection it turned out that it’s not the zipper that was the problem. I should’ve noticed this sooner, but somehow the bottom two lines of elastic weren’t stretching nearly as far as the top two ones. So I committed a crime by doing a very, very, very crude alteration myself, i.e. snipped the lining around those channels and cut the elastic. The corset lacing is there to help me cover the crime and one day I will probably fix this up a bit more neatly. But I’ve no regrets - this dress is too gorgeous to not be worn and since I don’t intend on selling it, it really doesn’t matter. And I can’t wait to get back to wearing it as a JSK instead of a skirt!

I was racking my brain as to how to showcase the tights. In the end I’m not sure if I succeeded completely, but I did the best I could on my own. How does one do a lookbook that features tights without it getting weird and without a helper though?