Autumn aesthetic

This autumn finds me inspired by witches(especially Slytherin witches) and vampires. My inspiration for gothic lolita has been back in a big way for some time now even though I still love classic too. Now I just have closet of two tales. On the one side we have the gothic vampire lady with silks, velvets and brocade and on the other the preppy, sort of snooty Slytherin witch with wools, tartans and little bit of quirkiness.

something gothic this way comes by mimielizabetha featuring home wall decor

The gothic side of my wardrobe is as always inspired by vampires and gothic romance. This year I am especially in love with Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu and I hope it shows atleast a little bit in my wardrobe. Another big inspiration has been the new Guillermo del Toro movie, The Crimson Peak which I cannot wait to see. 

Little bit of Slytherin by mimielizabetha featuring Vivienne Westwood

Even the more classic side of my wardrobe is a bit darker again. I do love black dresses with white collars, being a Wednesday Addams fangirl at heart. As I pointed out in an earlier post my Potterheadedness has also returned with a vengeance and I love to add a little touch of Slytherin to my outfits.  Other than that after rewatching Gossip girl (I love the devious Blair Waldorf) I have also fallen in love with a slight preppy look and hope add that to my style as well. It feels so put together and chic. 

What are your ideas for this autumn, dear reader? Tell me in the comments.

Madame Parapluie

Quick craft: How to age jewelry

Today I purchased a new pair of earring from Glitter which is a Finnish costume jewelry shop and decided that they weren't quite me. Thus I decided to make a little tutorial about how I aged them a bit. 

Here is what you need.

- A piece of modern blingy jewelry.

-Markers. The black and the blender are necessary but if you don't want to add colour then you don't need the coloured one. I chose to add colour. 

Then just start colouring the gems. I chose to make the central stones green to match my green jewelry.

This is how it should look after the first coat. From here just add more black to the stones of your choosing and lighten others with the blender. If your blender gets too dark just clean it by colouring some white paper. 

Before and after. I decided not to make them perfectly symmetrical to make them seem more authentic.

Done. Now let them dry for over night and go enjoy your new bling!

Madame Parapluie

Inspired by: Harry Potter

Autumn is quickly approaching and my love for Harry Potter is once again rekindled by the most magical of seasons. So naturally I thought it might be fun to make one of these inspired by-things about my favourite book series.

I have loved Harry Potter since I was eleven and my elementary school teacher (who's name I have happily forgotten) started reading the first book to my class. Soon I was demanding the books for assorted Christmas, birthday and "hey I don't like to be stuck at the summer cabin for months"- presents.

Ever since those golden days Harry Potter has been a big inspiration in my life (I have even written fanfiction stories which I call  "The thing that will never be published") and naturally I have worn some Harry Potter inspired coordinates over the years and await wearing many more in the years to come. Here are just a few ideas I might utilize when the time comes.

House pride makes a good start

My Hogwarts house. according to Pottermore and assorted internet quizzes is the noble house of Salazar Slytherin, so naturally my house pride outfit is inspired by the cunning, ambitious, Slytherins. The method I used to make this coordinate will however work on any of the houses.

 I suggest a splash of the house colours, in my case silver and green, utilization of the houses emblem, in my case the often misunderstood snakes, and  adding some unique things to reflect your style. 

In this case as pointed above I used Slytherin colours and emblem and decided to add a really snobbish umbrella to a relatively casual outfit to make it bit fancier. I was also rather liberal with jewelery because I feel it would suit the Slytherin spirit.

Evil comes in.... Pink tweed packages?

Yes this was inspired by Dolores Umbridge. Yes she is a nasty piece of work and possibly the most hated character in the entire series. But... I have to admit that she had a pretty epic style. Especially in the movies. Now I am not a very pink person but her look has this iconic flavor I just can't resist.

To create this Umbridge inspired coordinate I combined her movie colour palette with her book description. Everything is pink and covered in cat jewelery but she is wearing the cardigan and the head bow mentioned in Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix. I wanted to make her outfit sort of businessy and bossy by using a very tailored type of jumper skirt.

 Fandom is fun

Last of the outfits is the most simple. A basic coordinate with some fandom inspired jewelery. I do like these kinds of subtle nods to things I like. It feels so nice to know that there is a special little detail in your outfit that reminds you of something you love. Personally I do this sort of outfits constantly. It's fun.

Other ideas

• Add a house scarf or tie to you outfit. Scarfs are a darling addition to an outfit especially if it's a bit cooler.  Just make sure everything matches nicely. 
• A witch hat is also a nice addition especially around Halloween. It is a more costumey element and should be used on more OTT- looks. 
• Wear something robe like, maybe a bolero or  capelet with deep hood to feel like a proper witch. 
• Draw inspiration from the other schools mentioned in the series. Beuxbatons already has some very loliable uniforms for ladies. 
• Become a ghost by wearing something white. Ghosts are after all very important in Harry Potter. 

So these are my ideas about Harry Potter. What kind of fandom related outfits have you worn, dear reader? And also what is your house in Hogwarts?

Madame Parapluie 

Tea in the Apple tree garden

Some time ago I attended the teaparty Sanni hosted at her home. Her Garden is so whimsical and lovely. The party was wonderful. She had put so much thought to making everything perfect. I had so much fun. 

I wore: 

Hat: Redecorated vintage

Blouse: Modified fanplusfriend

Capelet: Twin flowers

Dress: Handmade by me

Gloves and stockings: Random.

Shoes: Second hand

Necklace: From my grandmother

The dark colours group. Everybody looked so amazing. 

Thank you again for Sanni for organizing this. It was amazing.

Madame Parapluie

Celebrating her royal bunniness

On Saturday I went to Mari's place to celebrate her bunny's birthday. Mari had done a lot to make everything very bunny friendly and the theme for outfits was bunnies. 

I wore:

Bonnet: Handmade

Blouse: Fan plus friend modified

Dress: Innocent world

Shoes: Offbrand

Bunny Bear: Baby the stars shine bright

Our queen and her minions plotting world domination.

All the bunny bears. 

Madame Parapluie

Lolita reads: Queen of fashion.

Last time I reviewed fiction. This time it's time for a little bit of fact as we educate ourselves on the wardrobe of Marie Antoinette, with Caroline Weber's Queen of Fashion, what Marie Antoinette wore to the revolution. We follow her journey from the modest Austrian Arch duchess to the Queen of France and finally on the steps of the Guillotine. 

The book isn't written like traditional biography though the timeline does follow Marie Antoinette's life chronologically.  The writer puts the fashion choices of the queen in to historical context but is more concerned with the actual dresses and the evolution of her style than telling the story of the French revolution. 

Sometimes the text jumps back and forth which is a bit of bother but not big enough to ruin the book for me. 

Personally I like the way the book is written. It's easily understandable and nice to read and not too scientific making it a fun read for everybody.  I especially enjoy the descriptions of The Grand Mogol and the queen's gowns during the first phase of the revolution. 

"Exotically named  the Grand Mogol, in reference to putatively luxury-loving Asiatic grandee, her boutique boasted large windows filled wit displays that were designed to divert foot traffic from Palais Royal. With their artistic  arrangements of bonnets, shawls, fans, spangles, furbelows, silk flowers, gemstones, laces and other accessories, the displays set up a bewitching siren's song. Once lured inside, ushered through a door by liveried  footman, potential customers found themselves in a setting as luxurious as an aristocrat's salon." 

Doesn't it sound so much like depiction of  a lolita boutique's window displays and space? This is why I find this book so inspiring for lolitas. Our fashion was inspired by these times and the book paints them beautifully for us to gaze, with the help of numerous well picked illustrations that help one to imagine how everything would have looked. 

I do feel that this bookl isw most inspiring to lolita like me who enjoys the historical inspirations of lolita fashion more than the kawaii culture side of things. I find the fashion history in the book to be endlessly inspiring with the morbid details of the fashions of Guillotine survivors, the royal mourning customs and the idea of bringing a little bit of meaning to your outfits with well picked accessories. I even learned somethings I had not known previously. 

I could go on forever with how much I love this book but I shall just leave  you, gentle reader with another beautiful, if melacholy quote. 

"And so, shedding the ragged black dress in which she had faced her accusers, Marie Antoinette slipped in to her plum-black shoes, a fresh white underskirt and her pristine white chemise. To complete the ensemble  she put on  the white deshabille dress Madame Elisabeth had sent her from the Temple and the prettiest of her muslin fichus around her neck. She even removed the dangling black ribbons from her makeshift widow's coif, the result was a pared down ruffled linen bonnet as colourless as her hair. Paler then ever from her severe recent blood loss, the queen became a figure of pure, radiant white. " 

Madame Parapluie

P.S. If you have any books you'd wish me to review leave your suggestions in the comments. I am always happy to receive book recommendations. 

Lolita blog carnival: What would I like in future prints?

To be completely honest I am super tired of prints and wish there were more interesting cuts, lace, ruffles, embroidery, appliques and epicly nice fabrics but let's still play along.

Less

Less by mimielizabetha featuring dresses

Less crazy Angelic pretty prints with crazy buying wars. I mean How many chocolate prints is going to be enough? Or cutesy carousel pony prints? These things have been around for years and years and years... Could we move on? Or at least get some new ideas? I did like Milky cross after all. 

Less random clip art prints. Juliette & Justine I am looking at you. I love Juliette & Justine but am so done with randomly placed images over randomly placed images. Even Atelier Pierrot is doing it now. Could we have some sense of design again? Please?

Less of the same old themes unless there is an interesting twist included. No more carousel ponies or endless hordes of teddy bears or crowns upon crowns or piles and piles of chocolate dresses. It seems like some themes just come up again and again and again. 

More

More by mimielizabetha featuring punk rock shirts

More interesting printing techniques like velvet flocking or metal embossing. As Juliette & Justine so aptly proves these techniques are just as interesting and intricate as colourful drawn prints. 

More prints combined to an interesting cut. I'd love to see more dresses that have something more tha print making them special. Maybe the dress has edwardianesque cut combined to a print of Mucha's art.  

More interesting goth prints. I do love crosses, tomb stones and cathedrals as much as the next girl but could we have something else as well. I'd love a realistic bat print, or print with realistically drawn skulls of different animals, or macabre or somber art prints. There are so many options that have yet to been tried out.

More prints in other items that dresses and skirts. As in the example set the blouse with the printed shoulders is interesting and new. More of this please. 

More abstract prints covering the entire dress. Stripes? Yes please. Geometric patters? Why not? 

To summarize I'd like to see new things tried and less of the same old same old things that  have dominated the lolita print dress for a long long time. New themes, techniques and even garments to make this lovely fashion more interesting than ever.

Lolita blog carnival group: Here

Participants

Kawaii no Hawaii

Daily Fuckery

Pepins de Pom & co

New vogue Children

Alice in lolitaland

The Bloody teaparty

Beyond kawaii

What would you, my dear reader see in the future of lolita prints? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Madame Parapluie

PS. I just realized that an absinthe themed print would be totally epic as well. The antique glasses and fountains and spoons would make a perfect gothic print and would add a new theme to lolita. 

What's in my purse?

This is my bag. 

Click for larger view

And here are the things I keep in it. The bag itself is Longchamp and can magically carry my groceries if it needs to. In it I have my glasses and sunglasses, a notebook I got from Carmilla, my almanac and a pen, my wallet which is from Baby the stars shine bright and my mobile phone in pochette I embroidered myself and of course my keys but they aren't very pretty so I'm not showing them. During summer I usually add a fan, to keep cool and during winter I carry a thermos of tea to keep warm.

Madame Parapluie

Lolita reads: The little white horse

Welcome to my new series where I review books which I feel are inspiring or otherwise interesting  to lolitas. Today's topic is the the Little white horse by  Elizabetha Goudgen which has been filmed under the name Secret of Moonacre (though there are quite drastic changes from the book).

The little white horse was first published in 1946 in London, England. It has whimsical fairy tale like style which makes it nice reading for lolitas of any style. I would compare it to Harry Potter which is no wonder as J.K Rowling has said she was inspired by the Little white horse. 

The story opens at 1842 when Maria Merryweather's father dies and she has to move to her second cousin's manor in Moonacre, where she has many whimsical adventures. The book has a pinch of romance and a lot of fun. The characters are intriguing and have clear personalities. My personal favorite is Maria's King Charles spaniel, Wiggins, who is both quite selfish and greedy but also a welcomed comedic side kick whose exploits always manage to make me laugh.

"Wrolf and Zachariah treated her now as an esteemed colleague, and Wiggins, though his expression in her presence was by no means agreeable, had sufficient self control not to give verbal expression to the sentiments within in his breast. For one he as not quite sure what Wrolf might do to him if he did and another, he was not unaffected by the charming sweetness of Serena's manner toward him."  

As the story progresses Maria begins to realize that not everything in Moonacre is as nice as it seems and it falls to her young shoulders to try and fix the discord that has ailed the valley and her family  since ancient times. 

The writing style is whimsical and easy to read pulling the reader in to the story excellently. There are even a few songs included in the book, which I have always found rather charming.   

A more fashionably inclined reader will enjoy the descriptions of Maria's clothes and most particularly her boots, which are lively and will surely give some outfit ideas as well. 

"And the boots she had on today were calculated to raise the lowest spirits, for they were made of the softest grey leater, sewn with crystal beads round the tops and were lined with snow white lamb's-wool. The crystal beads, as it happened, could not be see, because Maria's grey silk dress and warm grey wool pelisse, also trimmed with white lambs wool reached to her ankles, but she herself knew they were there and thought of them gave her a moral strength that can scarcely be over estimated."

The edition I read sadly has no illustrations but a quick googling has made it quite clear that there are absolutely charmingly illustrated ones out there. To me it's a bit sad that I couldn't find an illustrated version because all the styles of illustration I've looked at are charming and quite inspiring.

All and all The Little white horse is a charming story of girls just at the cusp of adult hood, akin the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Little Princess or Kamikaze girls which all feel like classic reading for lolitas to me. It has a bit of fashion, tad of tea parties and a lot of whimsy that most lolitas will enjoy. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to any lolita. 

Madame Parapluie

Auntie Mims on: Tricks of the trade or what I said in Hellocon

The Auntie Mims Icon was commisioned from Lemontree11

Hello dears!

Here is a the short version of what was discussed in my Hellocon program "Tricks of the trade or how to care for your Lolita garments."  

This will be more of a resource-type post and has a lot of general information.

Clothing care symbols

Here I will go through the basic western clothing care symbols. Here is where I got the pictures for this blog post and the program. In the links section you will find a more detailed guide for the western symbols and a guide for Japanese symbols as well. 

First up is the washing symbol. This is fairly straight forward. If this is in your care label you can wash the garment at home. It usually will show which temperature to use. If the garment should be hand washed the symbol will have a hand  in it.

If any symbols has a cross over it it means you cannot do this to your garment. In this case you can't wet wash it home. 

This is the ironing symbol which will tell you on which setting to Iron you things. In this case it's the medium setting. Again if it's crossed over you can't iron the garment. 

This is the tumble drying symbol which naturally means that you can tumble dry the garment. As with the others the symbol should tell you which setting to use or if the tumble drying is not allowed. Other drying symbols will also be square in shape.  

This is the symbol for professional laundry. It will usually indicate which sort of program to use with a letter and have lines under it to indicate which setting the dry cleaners should use. In Japanese clothes dry cleaning is often recommended even when it's not needed. More on that when we tackle the typical lolita materials in the next topic. 

And finally we have the bleaching symbol. This symbol tells if you can bleach the garment and which sort of bleach is good for it. 

Typical lolita materials

Lolita has many forms and uses many materials but to my experience these are the most typical.

Cotton: If it's not printed or two tone (white lace on dark material or vice-versa) you should be able to just chuck it in to the machine and wash in the typical setting for a cotton garment. Blouses, bloomers and unprinted cutsews can be machine washed always. If it's printed you can hand wash it but check first if the print is known to run. 

Chiffon: Lolita often uses polyester chiffon which can be machine washed in the appropriate setting. 

Polyester: Unprinted polyester is machine washable. If it's printed I'd hand wash it or use a really gentle setting on my machine. 

Velvet: I am sorry ladies but this you will have to drag to the dry cleaners. 

Wool: If it's knit wash it at home in the wool setting of your machine and flat dry to prevent stretching. If it's a coat take it to the dry cleaners.

Always wash the garment according to the requirements of the most sensitive material used. For example if you have a dress with a velvet bodice and a chiffon hem, take it to the dry cleaners. 

General tips 

~ Wet thin socks before using them even once. This will increase the elasticity and prevent runs. Wash all socks after every use.

~ If your garment is slightly wrinkled hang it on a hanger and take it to the bath room with you next time you take a hot shower. The steam from the shower will take care of any small wrinkles. 

~ After washing your lolita garments straighten the lace when the garment is still wet. This will save you time and nerves when ironing. 

~ Always test stain removal products on a unseen place on your garment. Seam allowances are a good option. 

~ Wool cardigans that are not stained but have a musty smell can be just aired out to remove smells. Wool is self cleaning fibre which is also why you should dry clean your winter coat only once a year unless some rude person splashes mud all over it. 

~ Do not wash your head bows by sinking them in water as this may cause rusting. If your head bow has a stain dip a corner of soft towel to water and in a drop of soap and then vigorously rub the stain to remove it. This technique will also work on make up stained collars and other stains. 

Links

Garrment care tag on my blog: Here

Clothing care in EGL: Here

What prints can be washed: Here

Japanese washing symbols: Here

Western washing symbols: Here

How to fix print bleeding Here

 And as this post is already super long I will leave the shoe care, ironing and mending techniques for another time. 

If you have any questions or topics for Auntie Mims to write about leave the in the comments and I will try to answer them. 

Thank you for reading this kilometre of a post. 

Auntie Mims

What are teaparties made of?

A little bit of cake...

A splash of sparkling wine...

Touch of scandal...

A good amount of dignity...

And plenty of fun!

Thank all of you lovely ladies for being my guests! I hope we can do this again.

Madame Parapluie

Ps. Photos by Sanni Siira so no using without permission. 

Scenes from Hellocon.

This year Hellocon was like falling through a rabbit hole to whole new world of magic and circus. Gloria was decorated with gold and red and white and everything felt like we had actually stepped into a circus. 

Myrre was our official master of ceremonies. Here she is presenting the guests of honour, Maki and Asuka from Angelic Pretty.

Adorable table of Sweet and tiny. Everything looked absolutely gorgeous.

The owner of Miss Danger shop.

Table of Lorina Liddel

And the personnel of the same brand.

The lovely Maki from Angelic pretty. She looked really cute.

A swedish lolita who's outfit was mind blowingly pretty. 

Carmilla looked amazing on stage.

And so did Lydia.

Mandatory backstage selfie.

Mari did a post about our fashion show right here and I will try to get the Tricks of the trade post up as soon as possible. 

Madame Parapluie

Details make the dress: printed edition

As promised to my friend here are some details from my favourite printed dresses. I've tried to pick a wide array of different brands, handmade and different printing techniques. I hope you enjoy.

Let's start with a handmade piece. 

I freely admit that I have thing for books. I am after all a librarian (now with a fancy diploma to proof it), so naturally I love book prints. Currently own two, the Biblitheque one piece and this jumperskirt I made myself. 

The details in this dress are quite simple to let the print truly shine through. I just used this chanel-ribbon in the bodice and hem and pleated the shoulder straps to give them volume. 

And yes I have worn this to go visit the library. 

This dress from Alica and the piurates was an instant must have dream dress for me. I got lucky and found it at EGL community sales and it has recided in m y wardrobe ever since. The print combines two of my favorite things, royalty and tea (though I have yet to understand how tea shows in the print..). It is lovely regardless. 

I chose this version of the two jumperskirts because I loved the bodice detail. It makes the dress a tad difficult to coordinate but I've worked around it. 

And now for the crowning glory my holy grail dress, first love, the moment the old me was slain and so on. The Juliette & Justine cross print which I have coveted since the first velvet version was on their site. Robe de l'agnleau. Where do I even start with this one...? The simple yet elegant cut Juliette & Justine is known for, the plush velvet, the opulent print... I love everything about this dress.

Just look at it. It's the most epic thing in my wardrobe and I love it. 

So what's next? I quite like these Details make the thing-posts so I'd like to continue. Maybe blouses? Coats? Shoes? Or would you my dear readers prefer to see on concentrating on a particular piece of clothing in more depth and detail? Do post your thoughts in the comments.

Madame Parapluie