Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Pullip x Angelic Pretty

I love dolls, which is kind of strange because I never really liked them as a kid. But now they're just a blast. While I am not so much of a Sweet Lolita, my dolls tend to have rather large Sweet Lolita wardrobes. I just can't help it, if it's cute and small and made of plastic, I want to dress it up in something pink and frilly, stick it on a shelf, and giggle every time I pass it. That's why I sort of freaked out when I came across these little Pullips dressed in Angelic Pretty. I don't own any Pullips (or any Angelic Pretty for that matter), nor do I plan on starting a Pullip (or Angelic Pretty) collection, but these little girls are just too adorable. Cocotte especially. Look at those cheeks and big sparkly eyes! She's such a little cutie. These little bundles of ruffles and pink run over a hundred dollars a pop. There are three Angelic Pretty x Pullip girls to choose from and they can be pre-ordered from Valley Of The Dolls. I personally don't plan on doing anything more than oogling over these little cuties online, but I couldn't resist the public squeeing of adoration when I stumbled across them.

Two of the other girls from the collection, Maretti and Sfoglia

Being A Tall Lolita

It's no secret, I'm a tall girl. In certain pairs of Rocking Horse shoes I stand taller than most everyone I know, and I love me some Rocking Horse shoes. If you're over 5'5” you know the angst of buying Brand. Even if it fits everywhere else perfectly, the hem is still going to end miles above your knees. It's sometimes hard to look adorable when you feel like an Amazon warrior who's just finished raiding the toddlers section. I've found the most important thing about dressing Lolita and being tall is to remember to dress proportionately. Some people think this means only ever being able to buy Tall sized Lolita clothes, or to stick to custom made clothes. But it doesn't have to be this way if you follow a few easy rules, and keep a few key pieces in your wardrobe.

The most important piece a Brand loving tall Lolita should have is a simple skirt with a ruffled hem. Get it custom made to your size, it doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to fall just above your knees and have a wide ruffle at the bottom. The sales community is full of people who would be willing to make you a skirt like this for relatively cheap. Buy it in a matching color, if you have lots of black dresses, buy it in black. If you have lots of sweet dresses, get it in white, or even pastel pink or blue, depending on your wardrobe. This skirt is going to save you a whole Hell of a lot of angst over too short pieces. Just wear it under anything you have that's too short (and over your petticoat, obviously). It will end up peeking out from under your shorter skirts hem a few inches, but those inches will really help make your skirt look the proper length. This works best with skirts that already have a ruffle, but as long as you didn't get some kind of crazy over-stuffed ruffle on your underskirt, it should look just peachy under a skirt without a ruffle.

A few more Dos and Don'ts for tall Lolitas
  • Don't think a lengthening underskirt is necessary for everything. Some dresses look awesome on the shorter side. But it's just not always the look you're going for.
  • Do wear over-the-knee socks instead of knee socks. This works great if you don't want to deal with wearing an extra skirt. I think that over-the-knees have a more elegant, and less school girl look than knee socks anyways.
  • Don't wear Brand bell sleeved tops. Most one size Brand tops have very short sleeves. You might be able to get away with long sleeves that don't quite go to your wrist, but bell sleeves will just look silly. If you want a bell sleeved top. Get it commissioned. Or if you just have to have a Brand blouse with bell sleeves, get a blouse with detachable sleeves, and get new sleeves commissioned at the proper length.
  • Do invest in a pair of wrist cuffs. Yeah, I know, a lot of people think wrist cuffs look stupid and itatastic. But you don't have to wear them with short sleeves. You can wear them with a long sleeved blouse to add an extra inch or two to the sleeve length.
  • Do check yourself in a full length mirror, stand as far back as you can from it and check to see if everything is the length you want it to be. If you stand really close to the mirror you're just going to be looking down on your skirt, and not be able to tell how long or short it looks on you. A few times I've forgotten to take a step back and check and ended up noticing my skirts were way too short in photos taken that day.
  • Don't substitute bloomers for missing hem length! They're underwear, so keep them under your skirt. A half a foot of bloomers peeking out from under your skirt is just going to make you look even more like Little Bo Peep than you already do.
  • Do wear bloomers though! Especially if you're rocking the shorter skirt look. Short skirts with a petticoat poofing them up is going to make accidental butt flashes more likely.
  • Lastly, don't be afraid to be tall! If you want to wear 6 inch platforms and have to duck to get into doorways, go for it! I know it sounds cliché, but the more confidence you have, the better you look. You can rock any style, so long as you know you can.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

What ever happened to detachable collars?

I'm not talking about an OP with a detachable collar, I'm talking about a lone little collar, sold all by itself, meant to be paired up with a cute Lolitay tee. Detachable collars were a fad that never quite hit Lolita. Gone the way of the rectangle headdress, the stripper mary janes, and the black and white stripy socks before they even got a chance to stick around. I first discovered them while browsing through Gothic & Lolita Bible scans online years ago. I instantly fell in love. How versatile! I thought. How quickly you could turn a cute but plain tee shirt into a cutsew.

My earliest sewing machine adventures involved making a detachable collar. Then, later, Candy Violet sold them briefly. I picked up a white one quick enough (modeled by me on the right, with a Candy Violet tee). Of course, I've never really worn it. I'm just no good at casual Lolita. I never wear tee shirts outside of Lolita, so why should I dress down to dress up? But I've held onto this useless piece of fashion all these years, along with a few Lolita print tees, just waiting for the rare chance to wear them. But despite my inability to wear a goddamned tee shirt, I can't see what's holding anyone else back from wearing detachable collars.

There's been a big surge in casual Lolita in the past couple years, why haven't I seen any ruffly white collars around people's necks? Perched on top of their quirky print tees? Maybe they have been there all along, and despite my love of the damned collar I suffer from some kind of blindness towards it. Not only can I think of a damned thing to do with it, I just don't see it when it's right in front of my face, being as cute as it can be. Maybe people just don't know about these little pieces of instant Lolitafication. Or maybe, they look stupid and I just am too stubborn to let them go.

Here's a scan from one of the early Bibles with a detachable collar pattern. Click for a much larger version. Try it out sometime. It's cheap, easy, and you might even like it.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Shop Spotlight: Days Long Gone

Days Long Gone is an Etsy shop specializing in Steampunk and nostalgic jewelery. Besides being a great place to shop for Steampunk, they also sell many other pieces that would go perfect with Classical Lolita. Most of the jewelery at Days Long Gone is made of stamped brass, vintage beads, and antique watch parts.

One of my favorite pieces in the shop is just this little bird hair clip. I love the look of verdigris and I think this would pair up perfectly with a green Victorian Maiden dress. Either holding back wavy locks, or tucked into a bunch of cream colored roses on a corsage hair comb. A pair of their vintage faux pearl drop earrings would go with just about any lolita outfit you could imagine, from Sweet to Classic, to even Gothic Lolita. The honey amber drops necklace is a sweet little necklace with amber colored beads and faux pearls, it's perfect for when you need to accessorize with something beautiful but not intrusive. If you want something bolder to liven up a somber dress, I really love the angel bee necklace, but that might just because I think Lolita could use a little more bee related pieces.

Steampunk shops are a dime a dozen now a days, but the Steampunk pieces at Days Long Gone are elegant and subtle. It would be so easy to work a little bit of steamyness into your Lolita outfits with their lovely winged watch pendants. Or if you want to shout your steamyness from the mountains, their vintage grunge watchmovement necklace is a whopping 4 inches wide and made from a vintage drawer pull, but is still manages to be delicate looking.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Micropost: Gothic Hime and Bouffants

I've talked some smack about Himegyaru in my day, and I still stand by my belief that Hime styles tend make you look like a Texas beauty pageant toddler, but I have to admit I do enjoy Gothic Hime Lolita. Yesterday I dug up my hair curler, busted out the hair spray, and gave into the urge to attempt to give myself Hime hair. I managed to make only a little bouffant poof, and my hair bow ended up hiding it. I've since looked up some tutorials and, despite my shame at the fact, bought a pack of Bumpits. I've got plans for an outfit consisting of a h.NAOTO knockoff dress, some Moitie, vintage black gloves, and a whooole lot of hair spray. We'll see how this all turns out.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

h.NAOTO print love

I love h.NAOTO. It's definitely one of my favorite Brands from Japan. Sure, they make some horrible and ugly stuff, but the amount of awesome outweighs the fugly. The thing that drew me to h.NAOTO in the first place was their beautiful prints. There are lots of Naoto knockoffs out there, and they never manage to get the prints just right. They often look too practiced and the patterns are obviously repeated. While real Naoto prints have a hand printed grungy quality to them. These are clearly not just scanned and printed designs, they're done with a loving and violent hand. Dystopic and elegant at the same time. And sometimes hiding something something shockingly offensive.

These are a few various h.NAOTO pieces with prints that I own (I had to resize them to fit my stupid layout, so you might want to click them to see the detail a little better). They range from nearly invisible white on white, subtle grays, elegant metallics, glossy blacks, to gothic blues and reds. Prints overlap, are barely there, or are embroidered over. My favorite outfits involve wearing as many different printed pieces as I can. Print over loads can quickly fall into the Hot Mess category, but with Naoto, the more of a mess the better.

My dream Naoto print is something of a legend to me now. I'm sometimes not sure I even saw it in the first place. h.NAOTO comes out with so much stuff in such a limited amount that it's nearly impossible to find the exact same piece twice. A few years ago I was browsing eBay for Burando, and had done a quick search for h.NAOTO, there was one result, a standard Naoto style cardigan, black, a little bit lacy, with a variety of texts printed all over it in white. One of the blocks of text had a closeup, “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” it said. How the Fresh Prince ended up on a Naoto piece is some kind of magical mystery. At the time I had no idea Naoto pieces fit such a wide range of sizes, so I didn't think I'd be able to fit the piece at all, nor had I yet grown used to Brand prices. I boggled a bit at the $80 dollars and went on my way, dreaming of owning such a strange piece. I've told this story to quite a few people since then, hoping that someone had heard of it and *gasp* they were willing to sell it to me, for super cheap even! But no such luck, no one's even heard of such a piece. I guess my quest continues.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Cabochon Ring Tutorial

These rings are so addicting to make, especially since it's just so cheap to buy the cabochons and the ring bases in small bulk. Think of these as the Gothic equivalent to cupcake rings, wear a ton of them at once! I've gotten quite a few compliments on mine and people seem to be surprised when I say I made them myself. They're really quite easy to make.

  • 1 magnifying cabochon (that's the little plastic bubble thing!)
  • 1 ring base
  • A spoon (yes a spoon!)
  • craft or tacky glue
  • Scissors or X-acto knife
  • Printed image

Before you can begin, you must hunt down some supplies! I buy my magnifying cabochons & ring bases from Etsy. Make sure to search under “supplies”. I tend to use 2 sizes, a larger 25x18mm and a smaller 18x13mm. My tutorial is going to be using the larger cabochon. Since Etsy's stock changes so much and is based on individual sellers, I really can't link you to the shops I use, because the supplies are not guaranteed to be there. Just do a little bit of searching and you should be fine. I think it's pretty obvious, but I should say it anyways, make sure your cabochon and ring base are the same size. If you're going for a lager ring make sure they are both 25x18.

You can use anything for the image in the ring, magazine pages, print outs, book pages, or even fabric. If you are going to print out an image, make sure you print it at the highest resolution you can. It's going to be magnified, so you're going to be seeing pixels if you don't. For this tutorial I used a Ray Caesar image from a magazine. If you are using someone else's art work for your rings, DON'T SELL THEM. Seriously, that's lame. I use art from some of my favorite artists, but I just wear them for my own enjoyment or give them away to friends. I'm not making any money off of other people's hard work, and neither should you.

Your first step is to decide where you want to place the cabochon. What may seem like a good idea at first might end up a little bit wonky looking due to the magnification of the cabochon, play around with where you want to place it.

Once you've found just what you want to be on your ring, cover the area in a layer of glue. It looks like a whole lot of glue, but you're really going to want to make sure there aren't any air bubbles between the paper and the cabochon.

On a firm surface, press the cabochon down onto the glue, until you can see a faint image underneath. Don't worry, it drys clear! Put your glue and plastic mess somewhere out of the way, where it can dry overnight.

Once it's dry cut the extra paper and glue off.

Put a little bit of glue on your ring base. Not whole lot! You don't want it seeping out over the side. I use tacky glue for all my gluing. It might not always be the strongest glue, just don't pick at your ring and you should be fine. I've tried Aleene's jewelry glue, which is like a thick super glue, and found that no matter what I do, I end up with lots of little air bubbles.

Press the cabochon onto the ring base, and now set that somewhere to dry over night.

When this layer of glue is finally dry, use the bottom of a spoon to gently push the little metal things against the cabochon. This will keep it in there a bit more securely than the glue alone. You're only pushing the metal things that the cabochon sits inside.

And there you go! You have a finished ring! I tend to make these to match favorite outfits of mine. I have a bunch of rings made with religious imagery to match my BtSSB Virgin Mary and Stand Glass pieces, a Meta nurse cross to go with my Guro Lolita outfit, and a few Sanrio and San-x characters to go with my few Sweet Lolita pieces.

Friday, July 17, 2009


I love corsets. It's a crazy sadistic kind of love. They're restricting, expensive, and sometimes downright frustrating. But oh how I love them. I've been a near-daily corset wearer for around 5 years. If I'm not wearing one I feel naked an incomplete with that steely hug around my middle. A nice, plain black corset can really turn a casual Kuro Lolita outfit into something Gothic and oh-so-elegant. Or, even better, worn under your clothes, a corset can help with that extra bit of padding that all the layers required of Lolita adds to the waistline. It can help define the waist, hold a petticoat exactly where it needs to be, and thus create a perfect Lolita silhouette. Along with all this, I have to admit I love the idea of Lolitafying myself right down to my underwear XD

What kind of corsets go best with lolita?
Most importantly, a steel boned under-bust corset. Those over-priced, plastic boned, mall corsets aren't going to cut it. At all. In fact, they're just going to make you look frumpy. They're going to bunch up around the tummy, twist around, make you uncomfortable, and waste your money.

If you're a beginner to corsets, and aren't looking to spend a lot on a corset (because let's face it, you'd rather be spending that money on Burando), I'd suggest the corsets from Timeless Trends. They're $99 and just perfect for waist cinching. My oldest and most worn corsets are from Timeless Trends, and they've withstood the time and pressure just dandy.

Go for a plain corset at first, either black or white would work just fine, and be versatile enough to wear over or under just about any lolita outfit. Or if you're feeling adventurous, go for something like leopard print or a gorgeous jewel toned velvet that will turn a couple of choice outfits into something totally awesome. And you can always wear it under anything that wont match. No one has to know you're wearing a leopard print restrictive Victorian underwear under your fluffy pink Angelic Pretty monstrosity!

Don't corsets hurt?
Not at all! As long as you're wearing it right. Don't make your first corset one that will cinch you in too far! Buy a corset size 3-4 inches smaller than your natural waist, but on the other hand, don't be scared and order something too large. Remember that you don't have to wear a corset laced up as tight as you can, but you can't make it any smaller than the size you bought it at. A corset that is too large for you will just be uncomfortable and won't even be able to stay closed around your waist, since the busk relies on pressure to stay closed. If you are wearing a nicely made, well-fitting hour-glass corset that is only a couple inches smaller than your natural waist, you don't have to worry about any awful health risks that are too often associated with corsets. Most of the “dangers of corsetting” you hear about are directed at extreme corsetters, such as reducing your waist to a waspy shape or a few corset shapes such as the S-line or Pipe Stem Hour Glass that tend to take years of dedicated corsetting to be able to fit into.

A few tips for wearing corsets with Lolita
  • If you're planning on wearing the corset under your clothes, buy an unadorned one. No ruffles or bows, no matter how Lolita it may look, it's just going to show through as ugly lumps.
  • Stick with an under-bust with a short-hip. If you're wearing it over Lolita you're not going to want the corset to be too long, or it's going to give you a really weird shape. I've found the Timeless Trends corsets are just perfect for Lolita since they are a little on the short side. If you're buying from somewhere else, such as a custom corseter, and plan on wearing your corset over your Lolita clothes, try going for a waist cincher rather than an under-bust. It's exactly what it sounds like, a short corset that cinches in the waist.
  • Invest in a couple plain camisoles to wear under your corset. So long as your corset isn't touching your skin, you need not worry about washing it too often. Frequent washing or skin contact can damage a corset. Plus, a couple cute camisole tops with a little bit of lace detail always adds to the dress-up thrill that Lolita brings.
  • The corset should go over your normal Lolita under things. Put on any stockings, bloomers, petticoats, and camisoles that you are planning on wearing, then put your corset on over that.
  • If you plan on wearing a JSK with a blouse, wearing a corset over the blouse, but under the JSK will help eliminate any bulk that the blouse would add, and also make sure that the blouse stays in place. Do a double check before you go out to make sure the corset can't be seen under the JSK, especially in the back!
  • If you're going to be wearing the corset under your Lolita clothes, make sure you get your corset laced up with a ribbon. When you tie the corset off, the bow will lay flat against the corset. If your corset laces up with a cord, the bow will show up as a little lump through your clothes.
  • Corsets don't look too good with A-line dresses, either over or under. Unless the A-line dress has a lot of poof to it, the corset is going to make it look really weird.

Links to some great info for anyone looking to buy their first corset

Just one final note, I am by no means a corset expert or seamstress. I am just an excited wearer who likes to read up about them and occasionally introduce other people to the joys of corsetting.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ask Miss Caro-chan

This is my special little section I like to call Ask Miss Caro-chan. If you have a question about Lolita or perhaps an entry you would like to see, then by all means ask by leaving a comment on this post. Feel free to post anonymously if you are too shy! If I have the answers or perhaps some handy advice, I'll make a post featuring the question. Questions can range from something very general such as "WTF is Aristocrat?", to coordinate advice, a question about Miss Caro-chan perhaps, or even something a bit more personal that you're looking for some advice on. I'll try my best to get your questions answered, so long as it has got to do with the frillz. I am sorry to say, but I might not be able post all questions asked, it depends on how many I am getting at one time.

Now, I used to have a form for you to ask questions on, but I've found I was getting a lot of questions that would require a very simple answer or something that I may have been asked before that didn't always need a completely new post about, so I've changed from a form to my Formspring account, so I can make whole posts for those that I need, and just answer in the Formspring for the ones that don't need a new post.

The only draw back to this new system is that there is a rather restricting limit to how long your question can be, but, for those of you with long questions, feel free to email me at fyeahlolita@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Hello, and welcome to F* Yeah Lolita!

Welcome to F* Yeah Lolita, my little Lolita spot in the blarrgospere. Where I can rant and rave about ruffles and frills to my little black heart's content. And everyone will listen and care, right? Or not, but hey, everyone else in the Lolita world seems to be doing it, so why should I miss out on all the fun? I've been saying I should get off my butt and start a blog for a while now, so I was brainstorming Lolita blog names with my awesome super kawaii rorita Xan-chan and she came up with this brilliant name for a blog. It made me giggle, so I signed up.

What you can possibly expect from F* Yeah Lolita
Besides infrequent updates, mindless rambling, run on sentences, and the same old crap? I'm hoping to use this blog as a place I can share some tutorials, tips, coordinates, and any rantings I feel like making about the over-the-top and beautiful world of Lolita. Personally, I'm a Gothic Lolita, when I'm not just Goth, so most of my entries will focus on the darker and more elegant side of Lolita, not so much the pink and cupcake encrusted side that, despite what every lover of the Gothic Lolita style has been hoping for years, just doesn't want to step down out of the spotlight.

F* Yeah Lolita?
Yes, my blogs name is Fuck Yeah Lolita. But I'd rather not have the word “fuck” right there in the title and URL, just in case. The name made me giggle, plus, I think it pretty much sums up my feelings for Lolita. It's that butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling when I first see a Lolita dress I love and the excitement of finally getting my grubby little mitts on it followed by the barely contained giddiness of trying it on for the first time, doing a little twirl in front of the mirror, petticoats a-ruffling. I can hardly resist giggling like a wild school girl and squealing “Fuck yeah, Lolita!” over something as silly as dresses.

Eh, but who knows, I may get sick of (or totally embarrassed by) the name and change it.
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