Angelic Pretty French Cafe print

Above is a large picture of angelic Pretty''s newest print, French cafe. It seems like French stuff is "in" with both lolita and mainstream clothes. i usually don't follow mainstream stuff, but I can't help notice that there is a french themed outfit in almost every shop window I pass by. I'm not very impressed with this print. The border thing on the bottom of the dress is way to big. There is an OP, a pair of socks, two skirts (one is really short and the other one is a normal loli skirt with an apron thing), a bow, and two jsks. This dress is available in pink, black, blue (not saxon blue), and red.

To me it just doesn't look as "sweet" as most of AP's other dresses and adds more evidence that Angelic Pretty might be turning less sweet. I was really hoping that after holy night story Angelic Pretty might go back to it's usually sugary-sweetness that we all love, but I was wrong. Maybe in spring Angelic Pretty will design more pastel explosion dresses!

I believe this was the first print of the new year (or the last print of 2010) either way Angelic Pretty started 2011 the wrong way. I hope that later in the they they will design better clothes.

Guide to OTT sweet

OTT sweet is one of the most popular lolita sub-styles right now. It started around early 2009 and became extremely popular in 2010. OTT sweet started because of extra sweet lolita clothing that AP sold, so the outfit will mainly come from there. Some of Btssb's dresses can pass for OTT sweet but AP just does that style better in my opinion. 

As you probably know, OTT sweet is just sweet lolita turned up 5 notches and dipped in syrup. It is my favorite style but I wouldn't recommend it for everybody. First you have to have the money for it. OTT sweet is probably the most expensive style because it centers around AP and their dresses are really expensive. You also have to buy a lot of accessories. It's also really hard to pull off. You have to know which accessories to use and what colors look good together. (it's that way in other lolita styles, but harder in OTT sweet because there are so many accessories and lots of color) 
Now I will give some quick tips on OTT sweet to help anyone out who wants to wear it. 

• accessorize: You need a lot of accessory for OTT sweet. Rings, bracelets, lacy gloves, wrist cuffs, necklaces, broaches, and head things are what you should look for. You can get accessories with hyper amounts of sweetness at Angelic pretty and various online stores (listed below) I have a strategy for hair accessories that I will share with you. Wear a big bow or a bonnet in the middle of your head (like you would for normal sweet lolita) as the "center piece" and put barrettes, bow clips, and random kawaii stuff around it. 
• turbo cupcake puff: I know it's a term I use a lot, but you can't do OTT sweet with a lot of puff, it just wouldn't look right. I suggest wearing more than one petticoat to get the right amount of puff.
• Hair: Unnatural hair colors are an important part of an OTT sweet outfit. Any pastel shade can work and two conned hair has also been seen. It's best to buy wigs for this because you can have a extravagant hair style and a unique color without styling or dyeing your hair. You don't have to choose one specific hair color, it's perfectly fine to have baby pink hair one day, and saxon blue hair the next day. It's fun to coordinate your wig with your outfit.
• mixing colors: Mixing pastels is an OTT sweet lolita trademark. Instead of pink with white you should aim for pink with blue or pink with yellow. White blouses are just too boring for OTT sweet! 
• Detail: Details like lace, bows, and ruffles are used a lot in OTT sweet. They are what make it, well, OTT. Keep in mind that there is a difference between a dress with a lot of lace and a lace monster. Don't buy a dress just because it has a lot of lace on it. it is good to have detail on blouses too. Bows, lace around the collar or a lacy jabot are great details to start off with.

Where to buy: Angelic Pretty is the best place to buy OTT sweet clothing and they also have accessories that can go perfectly with their clothing. Minty Mix is a store that sells wigs and sweets jewelery. kawaii goods sells various OTT sweet accessories. Chocomint sells a large amount of amazingly cute accesseries. 

                 

Wigs!

I think the way your hair looks is really important to any lolita outfit. Wigs are great if you don't feel like taking the time to dye and style your hair. I gave up on trying to style and dye my hair so I usually wear wigs. The most common style where wigs are seen is OTT sweet, but simple wigs can be worn in any other style. This post will be about the basics of wigs.

Quality: The most important thing to look for with a wig is quality. Good quality wigs are soft and don't have a bunch of tangles in them. If your not sure if a wig is good quality or not you should look at the customer reviews. If the wig gets a lot of reviews saying that it's pretty, good quality, etc, that means it's a good wig! There are a few places (which I will talk about later in the post) that I have ordered from and are great quality.

How to take care of your wigs: Just like anything else in lolita fashion, wigs can be expensive so you should take good care of them. When you get your wig you should brush it out a little bit. Make sure not to brush a wig to much or to hard other wise it will ruin the shape/style of it. Keep your wig some place where they won't get ruined after you take it off.  

Where to buy: One of the best places to buy is Minty Mix. The wigs from minty mix are good quality and pretty. They mostly have over the top wigs in pastel colors. Minty Mix also sells sweets jewelry and hats. Another good place to buy is Cosplay Wigs USA. They have cosplay wigs and lolita wigs in a wide variety of styles.         

Critiquing an Outfit

Most lolitas (especially lolitas on online communities) will come to the point where they have to critique another lolita's outfit. I will show you how to critique the right way.

  CnC(constructive criticism)101

First I will show you the worst lolita outfit I could find. I will critique it in three different ways and you can decide which way is best.

  



Ok this is a lace monster dress from visible and I think it looks totally awful. These are three different was to critique it. Only one of the ways are good.

1st way: Oh God, where do I start? First of all that lace is horrid and it's so stiff that it looks like paper. That dress has way to much lace and the sheer fabric makes it look trashy. Those are the weirdest sleeves I've ever seen and the gloves don't help. Sheer socks should never be worn, especially those ones. Over all I don't know what you were thinking and you look like a clown fell into a lace factory.

2nd way: Wow that's a great try! It looks really original and it's great that your wearing accessories. It's also great that your skirt is the right shape. Your also wearing socks which a lot of new lolitas forget. 

3rd way: I looks like your wearing a petti under your skirt which is good because that's something a lot of newer lolita's forget. You also have they key accessories like the socks and head thing. Next time I would suggest wearing something with less lace. Try to avoid contrasting colors because they are really hard to pull off. I think you should try solid socks with less lace. Next time you pick out a blouse I think you should wear one with less frills and normal sleeves, a basic baby collared blouse is a good start. An Alice bow would be easier to pull off when your newer to lolita. Better luck next time!

So which way is the best? I think the 3rd way is obviously the best way to put everything. the first way was too harsh. If critique the 1st way the person you're CnCing could get offended or maybe even give up on lolita. The second way was too nice. If you are to nice and act like it was perfect when the outfit is far from it, it doesn't help anybody. If you only state positive factors of the outfit then whoever your CnCing will keep dressing like an ita and never learn anything. The reason why the 3rd way is the best is because it's stated the positive parts FIRST, then said the negative parts in a nice way. Remember, we were all beginners once and we still make mistakes today!

I hope you learned from this post. Oh, I forgot to tell you, happy holidays to my viewers! 

Convincing Your Parents to Let You Wear Lolita

One of the hardest things for a teenager wishing to wear lolita is getting your parents to let you wear it. I know you don't want to hear this, but with most parents it will take a lot of work to convince them to let you wear lolita considering most people outside of Japan don't know anything about lolita fashion.

 

Getting past the word "lolita": We all know the word lolita has some "questionable" meanings most of them have nothing to do with an innocent, frilly, Japanese style. The word lolita might be a huge turn off before you even start explaining the style. When I told my parents about the style, I completely avoided calling it lolita because they read a lot and it would have been impossible for them not to know about the "other" lolita. The only problem with avoiding the word lolita is that most lolita fashion sites have the word in huge pink letters right at the top of the page. I solved that problem by getting a bunch of pictures off the Internet and made a slide show about the fashion. If that is too much work than you can tell them that the fashion is called lolita but explain how little the novel has to do with the style.  

 

The "shock strategy": If you know before you even show your parents about lolita that they won't particularly "like" the idea of you wearing it than the shock strategy is the way to go! The first thing you need to do is figure out what style your parents hate the most. Once you figure out that style, pretend that you want to wear it. Make it really obvious so your parents think that it's what you want to wear (even though it isn't) Your parents will be in panic after that! After about a mouth of "shocking" them act like you just found lolita and tell them about the style. They will be so relieved that you want to wear something different than that style they hate that they would let you wear almost anything! This strategy might not work for everyone and it is hard to pull off, so you shouldn't try it unless your sure that nothing else will work.

 

The direct strategy: This is the most common way of convincing your parents where all you have to do is be direct about what you want to say. Just tell your parents that you want you want to talk to them about wearing a different style and explain it to them. 

 

Explaining the style: So you got to the point in whichever strategy you chose to use (weather it's one of these or something you made up) where you explain lolita fashion to your parents. Now you have to figure out how to explain it to them. the tips below will help you explain the style to your parents and get them to let you wear lolita!

• Explain the good parts of the style first like the innocence, cuteness, and how much you love it. Doing it this way make the bad stuff seem less "bad"
• Sugar coat the bad stuff, explain that not all styles are perfect. The only bad stuff i can think of about lolita right now are the weird stares you get and pricey cost.
• What ever you do DO NOT show them pictures of anime/manga characters wearing lolita because they might think your trying to dress like a cartoon character and not understand that some cartoons are influenced by real life.
• Explain the different styles, tell them about the style you want to wear but tell them about the other style too so if they don't like the style you want to wear they still know the other options. 
• show show your parents how happy the clothes make you, i would recommend going somewhere with them you could try on lolita clothes then they will see how happy you are in lolita and buy something for you (hopefully)
• Save up for your clothes and buy them yourself, maybe the reason why your parents don't want you to wear lolita is because it's too expensive. If you save up and buy with your OWN money they might be ok with it.
• Show them bodyline, although I have mentioned that bodyline sells a few bad quality items it is the cheapest lolita brand out there. Remember that if your buying from bodyline you showed know what makes a dress good quality or bad quality so I would suggest reading my ovoid being an ita post.
• learn to sew, if the bodyline prices still aren't good enough for your parents sew your own lolita clothes.
• do good in school, it's more likely that your parents would let you wear lolita (or any style) if you have good grades and a responsible attitude. They won't think your responsible enough to wear lolita if your failing out of school and have a sour-puss attitude all the time. If you get straight A's your parents might even buy you a brand dress!
• ask about Christmas/birthdays, They might not buy you a lolita dress any old day, but they might buy you something for Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) or your birthday.

Qutie Land review!

I recently bought Quite Land's Merry-Go-Round One piece in pink x silver and I love it! it's really cute, the fabric is good quality, and it's only 100 dollars but it also has shipping cost which differs depending on where you live. The shipping is slow, mostly because everything is made after you order, but the quality of the dress makes up for it. It has a fair amount of puff already in it so it could look okay with a petti under it but a petti makes it a lot better. I also bought this Petti from the same site and it gave a perfect bell shape to my skirt :) The last thing I bought was this cutsew in blue. It's really pretty but still comfortable and easy to co-ordinate into a more casual outfit.         

lolita undergarments

So, today I'm going to talk about lolita undergarments. To achieve the perfect poof you need the proper undergarments.

Petticoats: The most important part to achieving the ideal poof is a cupcake shaped petti. It has to be the write shape and length for the outfit to work. It should have a bell shape to it NOT a square dance petti because square dances pettis have an out word flare to them and don't look right. The proper length should be a little be shorter than your skirt. Any longer and it shows under your skirt and looks sloppy, any shorter and it can cave in around the bottom of your skirt and look awkward. Sometimes you might have to war more than one petti, it depends on the quality of the ones you own.

Bloomers: Bloomers also add to that extra poof to your skirt. The only way you can really go wrong with bloomers is to buy a pair that are to long and show under your skirt which, again, can look sloppy. Think about it this way: when you bend over in bell shaped skirts it can show you panties, bloomers also add extra modesty so that doesn't happen.

Corsets: I'm not going to spend to much time talking about corsets because they are optional. If you want to look thinner they are the way to go, but they can also be uncopmterabe (sorry about my spelling) and restraining. If you do choose to wear corsets, than make sure to wear them UNDER your outfit, unless your going for a gothic or erololi look.