Blogspiration: Affrilliation Year 2, An Impressive Collection, & More!

Apparently, I'm only capable of making these blog roundup posts every six months! Not sure why I rarely do these, as I am always coming across interesting things to share.

First up is a post over on Kirakira Shoujo about a question that has been popping up since about 2001, is Lolita dying? It's not really a yes or no question, but Kirakira Shoujo writes an interesting article talking about the ebb and flow of Lolita's popularity! Lolita's not really going anywhere, and I'm not sure where people keep hearing this rumor, year after year, but the style is certainly always changing.

Affrilliation, the US's first exclusively Lolita convention has officially announced a second year! They've moved their con to a swankier new place and have started adding info about next year's con, which will take place the first of June! Check out their site for more info! Last year was considered a success and this upcoming one looks to be bigger and better!

Over on SkyScraperOpera's Tumblr I stumbled across this picture! It's a pretty amazing picture of their Alice & the Pirates Versailles Rose collection! I love this line because it's so striking and elegant. The pieces are classic Baby the Stars Shine Bright/Alice & the Pirates and they're all tied together with some gorgeous gold embroidery. I love seeing collections like this too! It takes some serious dedication and love to have a collection like this! One day I hope to have my own small collection of Meta's Antique Bouquet, one of my all time favorite brand series!

A common topic to pop up in the online Lolita communities is how to wear, or even if you should wear, Lolita to formal occasions. Over on Luna Rain, the blog's author talks a little bit about her experience of wearing a toned down Lolita outfit to a wedding and some general advice to keep in mind if you have a formal occasion to go to, but have nothing in your closet but frills!

A friend of mine just posted her adventures in this craft and I was blown away by how simple it seems! Check out this awesome tutorial! It's just puff paint and tulle but the results are so awesome looking! This was a tutorial posted for Halloween but when you wear Lolita, there are lots of occasions to get dressed up. I can imagine these masks in pastel colors for a Marie Antoinette Sweet Lolita themed masquerade look, in metallic gold to top off an OTT Classic styled outfit, or in Moitie blue to add a spooky touch to a Gothic Lolita outfit. 


Finally, I'd like to end this post with some pictures from the International Lolita Day tea party I went to in the beginning of December. These were all taken by Christina of Ramble Rori!

 At this particular meetup we had a guest speaker, Yuniya Kawamura, talk a bit about her recent book Fashioning Japanese Subcultures. Books that talk seriously about subcultures, let alone one that discusses Lolita, are few and far between, so this is definitely a book I hope to pick up sometime soon!

Maybe I'll update this little series of trips through other people's blogs more than once every 6 months, maybe not! But, until the next post, Merry Krampus!