I had a delivery since last journal entry, which featured this apron jsk from WireHead. I fell in love with it. The strong cotton and cute lace was so comfortable and enjoyable to wear. I think that by pairing it with more obviously matching pieces, such as a white blouse with a peter pan collar, and white knee socks, it will have more of a traditional and classic lolita feel. Whereas by pairing it with black, and adding a high necked blouse, it was more of an unusal and experimental combination. I used an ivory headdress to tie in the ivory of the dress.

Putting together this coord inspired me to consider creating a crochet headdress, as I've seen some people use for old school looks. I think this could be cute too. I started work on this already, but I'm waiting for deliveries of lace. I don't think I'll be super pleased with my final result for my first iteration, but I think I could improve the design over time into something I truly love.

Coordinate to visit my grandparents

This coordinate is quite a simple one. I wore it to visit my grandparents, while picking up an old tshirt. They're doing a clear out of many objects in their house, as they tend to have a lot of clutter. I understand this because I too am quite prone to clutter, though I would say the clutter I keep is probably more cluttered than their clutter. And now clutter doesn't even seem like a real word.

I wore a bordeaux apron JSK, with pink knit texture tights and a pink blouse. The pinks didn't match perfectly, but this is fine as the overall vibe still worked. I brought my laluice bunny bag with me - my grandma really loves bags, as well as plush toys, so I felt like this was a bag that she'd really love to see. I didn't wear the rosary or shoes I had pictured here - since I was driving, I ended up switching out the shoes to some flat canvas shoes that I always wear to drive in, and I didn't want to wear the rosary around my grandparents to avoid questions around it, so I went for a silver chain. I've been working on softening some flat leather shoes which I'd prefer to wear when going for more casual styles like this, but on this day I'd forgotten about them.

Overall I was fairly happy with this coordinate, I think my headwear choice could have been better, but it worked well enough. The only problem really was that the weather on this day turned out to be a lot hotter than I expected, so I regretted not wearing something a bit lighter on my arms.

Purple and Teal Coordinate Planning Collage

This is what I wanted to share about how I plan coordinates for lolita fashion. For this coordinate, I went into it wanting to put together a style which made use of purple and teal. To help me to balance out the style, I like to lay out pictures of the items I wish to use on a large digital canvas, in order to help balance the colours. I will then swap in and out accessories, shoes, and various layers, until I feel satisfied with the result. This doesn't always result in a coordinate that looks good on a body, but it helps me to get an idea of what might work.

This method is one which I used a lot more when I was newer to lolita, I found it hard to picture in my head which items can work with what, so laying them out on paper makes it easier to picture the items together. Nowadays I use it a lot more when I think of a fun idea, and I don't want to forget it. It's helpful for me to remember coordinate ideas I've had, if I put them out into a picture. It also lets me feel more creative.

In terms of ways I think this coordinate could be better, I feel as though it'd be better if the underskirt was a shorter length, as the way it is right now it will be hard to see the socks. Alternatively, it would perhaps be better to use a purple shoe, and then lace tights to match with the gloves a little better - though the only purple shoes I own are not tall enough to wear with this skirt. I don't have either of these options and am not likely to expand my wardrobe in these ways, so I'm happy enough with the coord as it is. But if I wanted to improve it, those are the options I'd consider.

Upcoming coordination opportunities

This week I have 3 days which I am planning coordinates for!

First of all, tomorrow I am running a workshop on ecotourism in Africa and the Carribean in work. For this I want to wear something by Physical Drop, without a petticoat. I'm hoping to wear the Sailor Collar OP, but might end up wearing the Chest Gather JSK. I want to wear flat shoes since I'll be walking about a lot to catch the train, and get into the office. I'll also need to consider the change in temperature between outside and inside the office - outside it will be only 13 degrees celsius, but inside it will likely be a lot hotter, since for some reason the office is very warm. Last time I wore a coord with a petticoat and long sleeved OP, and it was incredibly hot, which is why I'm thinking no petticoat this time - the sailor collar OP works better for this I feel.

On Friday, I am going to be going out for a meal at a Chinese restaurant. I have no idea what to wear for this! My boyfriend suggested maybe the Baby the Stars Shine Bright Tartan Babydoll JSK, but I don't feel ready to coord this just yet. I'm overall scratching my head here, so I'll need to consider it more soon. I should be fine to wear high heels though, so I'm looking forward to this.

Next week, I'll be going to a Gothic event with a few friends. I will need to catch the train there, and the day trip will involve a lot of walking and standing. I packed a foldable seat to bring, since I was worried about being stood all day, but I will likely still prefer to wear something like my New Rock boots where I have a bit of a platform but the shoe is quite flat. I was considering wearing all white for this - I recently had a long bustle JSK in White delivered, so I wanted to wear this. But I am also worried about standing out a little too much against an all black background. I'm also unsure about how to do my makeup for such a dramatic shiro gothic outfit. Minori is clearly the inspo for styles like this, but to be honest I'm really bad at makeup, so that probably isn't a style of makeup that would work for me.

I've also been thinking about wearing one of my corset dresses - my red bustle corset dress was so fun to coord for going to watch Renfield, so I could wear this in a similar way again, or I could wear one of my other corset dresses. The purple mini corset dress might be fun with the new rock boots! Overall I have too many options that I like, to choose between them, so I'm thinking about getting a second opinion. I will likely need to bring an umbrella, and I'm expecting the weather to be fairly nice and cool, so it gives me a lot of options for things I can wear.