Lolita x high fashion! And also Aaaaaaaaaannn :D

My flatmate and I watched the finale of ANTM Cycle 16 tonight, because we are well-adjusted young women in our mid-20s who have an excellent social life (sneaky secret: it involves watching ANTM in our dressing gowns and eating fried halloumi for dinner at 10pm on a Saturday night). Throughout this entire season, we've been "meh" on the girls but Every. Single. Time they showed a shot of Ann from the previous cycle, we chorused in unison "Aww, Aaaaaaaaaaaannnn". She is adorbs, to the point where I actually use words like "adorbs". 

ANYWAY. As you may or may not know, the finale runway was a Vivienne Westwood Anglomania show, which made me go to my happy place, and then Ann opened the show in THIS. Why Vivienne, are you doing some high-fashion lolita-inspired awesomesauce? I do believe you are. Awesome. I love so much about this coordinate. It'd be super-neat to see this (maybe enamel?) depiction-of-a-bow-onna-headband take off in the lolita community to replace fabric bows, since I think the enamel bow is quirky without being infantile. I'm in-love-with-and-amused-by the Melissa heart-detail heels, since those have been used in lolita coordinates a whole bunch and the filtering-back to the designer is fantastic to see.

Mostly, though, what I really fucking adore about this is the hard-edged slightly-punk badass cool that this has in spades. I left lolita because it was so hyper-saturated sweet, with no edge about it, and more recently I've been delving more and more into dark colours and things with a bit of grit. (Today I bought a black ruffled leather miniskirt. There will be more on this later.) But anyway, while this outfit is obviously runway-styled and couldn't translate directly to everyday life, you could add some opaque black tights (perhaps footless to show off the shoe a bit), tone down the hair a bit, reinterpret the makeup to perhaps some neon eyeshadow and under-lash colour with a good swipe of black liquid liner, and maybe throw on a cropped black motorcycle jacket, or even a black lolita-brand cardigan if you really wanted to bring a bit of sweetness back into it. For streetwear it'd be just about as out-there as OTT sweet, and purists might not call it lolita, but dammit, it's definitely lolita-influenced and at least it looks really fucking cool.

Pick-me-up pretty things

So yesterday in walking to work I managed to trip and fall down some sneakily slippery steps, bruising both my knees and my dignity. And today I got all the way to work before admitting that yes, the sniffles and temperature and aches I've had since last night might just be a sign that I was getting sick, and at the urging of my coworkers I headed home for rest and recovery (they were looking out for me, yes, because they are lovely, but also I suspect they didn't want me coughing all over them). Clearly this is Not My Week.


Now I'm at home, curled up on the couch with copious amounts of hot lemon-honey and a pair of giant fluffy socks purloined from my flatmate's sock drawer (seriously, fluffy men's socks, there is nothing better for keeping my feet warm). But when episodes of Buffy ceased to have their comforting appeal, what could be better than looking at pretty sparkly things online?


I'm totally in love with the look of rough crystal jewellery at the moment, which is a bit weird for me as I've never been much of a crystal fan - it's always struck me as a bit hippy-dippy gypsy-fair stuff. But recently at my local sewing store, the shop assistant was wearing a long pendant with a rough chunk of amethyst hung as a pendant on the end, and it looked SO COOL. I was totally converted. Rough crystal, combined with a very simple draped or tailored outfit in monochrome colours, could look totally fantastic. Sadly, I asked her where she got it, and apparently it wasn't sold as a necklace, but just a keyring which she bought in Nelson (a wee town across the Cook Strait) and whacked on a long chain, meaning that I couldn't just jump on the awesomeness bandwagon and go buy myself one. TO THE INTERNET!


At the totally-out-of-my-price-range level is this amazing citrine ring, which has a delightful chunkiness. By the same jeweller is this amethyst tip ring as well as this fantastic cluster ring (pictured above). LOVE. Sadly, what I don't love is the US-NZD exchange rate, which would firmly put all of these into the saving-my-pennies-and-eating-toast-for-dinner basket (wait, I eat toast for dinner anyway. Uh, the "eating toast for dinner because I have to" basket, then).


Luckily, Etsy has some more wallet-friendly and totally awesome things, such as this silver wire-wrapped amethyst pendant and a very similar citrine option. This flat silver-backed pendant is a beautiful option if you like the flatter sparkly cluster look rather than a shard of crystal, and I'm personally in love with almost everything over at Sadie Designs. Check out her beautiful dipped crystal pendants! The length is awesome too, perfect for wearing over a plain black t-shirt or lovely dress (I might have just bought a draped black shirt-dress which I'm dying to pair with some rough coloured crystal, can you tell?) Rings seem slightly more expensive but this citrine cluster looks like it'd bring sunshine to the cloudiest winter's day, and this amethyst chunk is both totally affordable AND a serious knuckle duster. It's not quite as rough-hewn as the others, but I utterly adore this gold-dipped rose quartz ring - it's some serious bling and a fantastic statement piece. I think there'll definitely soon be more crystal in my jewellery box!

Double daily outfit: All boots all the time!

This was a couple of weeks ago and was for a casual day at work. I really like how the patterned sleeves of this top add a pop of colour to an otherwise quite monochrome outfit. Also, boots! I lived in these pretty much daily last winter, and I suspect much the same will happen this winter.

Details (click picture for larger version): Black merino top with kimono-print sleeve detail, Frutti. Black embroidered skirt, Dotti, via Trademe. Brown belt, Pagani. Black tights, supermarket. Brown slouchy boots, Overland Shoes. Black cotton textured scarf, vintage, gifted. Gold acorn pendant, gifted.

I really, really like this outfit - it's extremely comfortable, perfect layering for this time of year and in my opinion is super cute! Pro-tip: this dress has a slightly high waistline, about two inches above my natural waist, and I find that belting at this point makes your legs look extra-long even in flat shoes. The More You Know (sparkly rainbow). Speaking of flat shoes, these are my New Boots and I utterly adore them. Winter does have its good points, and one of them is being able to live in knee-high leather/suede boots for six months.

It's not hugely noticeable, but this was also the day after I had my hair cut and COLOURED, oh gosh! I've never dyed my hair in the past (up until just under a year ago, I had super SUPER long hair down to my hips, so I was a bit iffy about dye) but I really like the effect. My hairdresser put fine foils of a darker copper right through, and it's darkened it up to a lovely rich red for winter. 

Details (click picture for larger version): Black merino top with ruched sleeve detail, Glassons. Blue/black tartan dress, Primark. Black patent belt, Cue. Black tights, supermarket. Black suede boots, Mi Piaci. Paisley silk scarf, borrowed from my flatmate. Knit hat, Glassons. Brown tooled handbag, vintage via Trademe.

(Not so) daily outfit - Graduation day!

Okay, so I've been really terrible at posting recently. In my defence, I've been super busy working up to Graduation Day! Here in New Zealand we don't have high school graduation in cap and gown, only school prizegiving (where it's most common to wear the school uniform), so the full academic-dress-robes graduation is reserved for finishing university.

This was my second graduation - last year I graduated my BA and chose to wear a lolita dress under my robes (Baby's She is Sleeping dress in white, plus pink lace tights and black high heels). This year, I went for a white (well, cream) dress again, but chose a slightly more grown-up frock and a pair of really freaking awesome high heels. Because it's not every day you graduate a Law degree, and heck yes I was going to do it in hot pink and cream suede platform heels with pink rosettes on the toes!

Details (click picture for larger version): Cream lace paper-bag waist dress, Kate Sylvester. Hot pink and cream suede heels, Ultra Shoes. Cream pearl necklace, vintage via Trademe. Pearl brooch, vintage via Trademe, borrowed from my flatmate (this was excellent for keeping my robe hood in place). Academic robes and mortarboard, from my university.

Bonus: me and my baby sister! She's adorable, and see? My shoes, they are fabulous.