Panda Fuzz Review

Over the summer I was sent a few items from the Fairy Kei shop, Panda Fuzz, for review. Since my blog has been on a long hiatus since then, I'm only now getting the chance to post the review!

Shortly after being contacted by Panda Fuzz, I was sent a package that was sent priority and only took a couple days to arrive. Packaging was very neatly done and everything was wrapped in pink tissue paper and the accessories were confined to baggies to keep them from rolling around the box. Panda Fuzz surprised me with a very high quality printed tee shirt that I was totally not expecting (The shirt is the image in the background of the review header!). I was very impressed with the print quality on this shirt, as it appeared to be screen printed, and the illustration on it was just adorable! Anyone familiar with the style will tell you that cute and unique tee shirts in pastel colors are an indispensable addition to a Fairy Kei inspired wardrobe. 

 The rest of the items were Fairy Kei essentials, such as this kandi styled charm bracelet. It's on an elastic cord, which feels strongly secured and comfortably stretchy, and look extra cute paired with pastel lace wristcuffs in Fairy Kei x Lolita coords!

I thought that this heart lollypop cell phone strap was particularly cute and a subtle way to add a little bit of kawaii to your life. Unfortunately, I was afraid of the fragility of this piece, as the lolly pop stick is the real deal and the resin set so that it was more rubbery than plasticy. The rubbery resin isn't necessarily a flaw, it was by no means sticky, just something to take note of and I believe has since been worked out. However, all of the other resin pieces were perfectly set!

My favorite piece was definitely this very excited star hair clip! The face on the star is too cute and the color gradient was very cute. It featured a pink glittery plastic chain and charm dangle, that would look extra cute mixed in with your curls!

 The final item I received was a large statement charm necklace, featuring the same pink glittery plastic chain as on the hair clip. My favorite part about this was the little heart and star charms, as they reminded me of the sort of linkable charm necklaces that we used to make growing up in the early late 80s/early 90s. Definitely the right kind of nostalgic for Fairy Kei!

Overall, the items I received from Panda Fuzz were well made and were just what you would expect from the photos and the price range. The designs are cute would be a nice addition to a Fairy Kei inspired Sweet Lolita wardrobe!

You can find Panda Fuzz a few places online:
Etsy

Storenvy

Facebook

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Short Socks?

Over on my Formspring I was not-so-recently asked a little question about shorter sock-lenghs:

Hi Caro-chan ^^ I'm a newbie lolita from Hong Kong. I am wondering if it's ok for sweet lolitas to wear "short socks" (above your ankles, but way below your knees). Is it a must for sweet lolitas to wear overknees and high socks? ^^

It's definitely OK to have other options for sock length! Sock length popularity in Lolita has sort of been all over the place, way back when it was sort of anything-goes when it came to sock lengths, and then it sort of leveled out to a rather strict "knee highs, opaque tights, and over-the-knees only!" idea for a number of years, before finally returning a bit to a sense of anything-goes. That incredibly enlightening history of Lolita sock lengths aside, short socks have definitely been making a comeback in Lolita! Especially now that hotter weather is here, they're a really great way to still have some sort of leg decoration going on without the stuffiness of wearing socks or tights.

 Some crew-length socks, including a pair of the currently very popular sheer socks.

Shorter socks tend to come in two different lengths: crew (which I believe our anonymous was describing) and ankle. Crew socks hitting somewhere around the mid-calf area, while ankle socks hitting, you guessed it, at just around the ankle.

 Some ankle-length socks, in case you forgot where your ankles were located.

I'm sure you have noticed that the above socks are particularly Sweet Lolita, as that tends to be the style that works very well with this style of sock. However, it can also work well with a Classic or Country Lolita coordinate, as well as being perfectly suitable for those who are more inclined towards Otome, Dolly Kei, Mori, or even Cult Party Kei. Check out the following pictures for some inspiration, which I picked from some of the more recent volumes of Gothic & Lolita Bible and Kera. Click the picture to make them larger!

Short socks with super cute Sweet Lolita, a match made in heaven! They can make a girly frilly coordinate look even girlier and frillier!

Short socks with the not-so-extreme Sweet Lolita. Yes, you can wear them casually! I feel that they add a bit of an Otome feel to outfits sometimes.

 Short socks with some coordinates that lean towards Classic Lolita. They add a bit of girlish elegance to the more Classic Lolita inclined coordinates.

Shorter socks might not be for everyone, unfortunately, as cute as they are, if you have thicker calves, they can make your legs look stocky, because the ruffles that are almost always on them tend to hide the shape of your ankles. Many Lolitas also find them a bit too childish for their tastes, and some seem to think, because of that, they're just not supposed to be worn in the fashion, despite the overwhelming amount of ads and street snaps featuring them!

If you're on the lookout for a cute pair of shorter socks to wear with Lolita this summer, you can often find them in regular clothing stores, particularly in the kid's section! As they are something of a staple of traditional little girl's fashion. If you want your sock-shopping to be done in secret (because, let's face it, it's a little weird to go lurking around the kid's sock isle sometimes) sock dreams has several pairs on their site. I actually used to have this pair, until I lost them, that looked especially cute worn with a pair of Victorian styled short boots! It made it look like the boots had a pretty lace ruffle around the top of them!

Print Bandwagon: Perfume Bottles

There are many motifs that brands like use over and over again, and many times you will easily notice that certain motifs will be used by multiple brands, often all at once it seems. Recently, a couple brands, namely Angelic Pretty and Mary Magdalene, have revisited the theme of perfume bottles for their new prints.

Left: Metamorphose, Perfume Bottle. Right: Angelic Pretty, Rose Toilette

While this theme is nowhere near as popular as something like rabbits or toys or some other ridiculously cute thing, there have been a few stunning pieces in the past to feature perfume bottles. Not only the sought-after Rose Toilette from Angelic Pretty (a personal favorite of mine), but even Metamorphose has released a punchy version of this classy motif.

Angelic Pretty's blobby pale pastel Pale Blobs of Pastels.

With this new wave of perfume bottles, we have a bit of the old, and a bit of the new! The old comes in the form of Angelic Pretty re-using this theme, this time a bit more cutesy. The print on this new Angelic Pretty perfume bottle dress (named Glass Bottle of Tears, oddly enough) is, I think, both a bit hit and a bit miss. I think that the perfume bottles themselves are gorgeously illustrated but I can't find a single colorway of this print that actually looks good. The pastel versions just sort of look like a bland blob from a few feet away, and the black version looks sort of ridiculous. I think it's the stripes in the background that I am just not a fan of. While they are my favorite part of Rose Toilette, which featured elegant and detailed stripes, that looked a bit like fancy Victorian wallpaper, Glass Bottle of Tears just looks like generic fill-tool stripes, and sort of remind me of the quick-fix striped background that are in a lot of Bodyline prints (who also have actually released a dress featuring perfume bottles as well!).

Mary Magdalen's Perfume Bottle print. When you've never released a print before, you don't have to think up a ridiculous name for it!

The new comes in the form of the Mary Magdalene dress, which, unless I'm mistaken, is the first time Mary Magdalene has used, not only a border print, but something other than a solid color or all-over floral. I think this ended up being a completely gorgeous dress! The print is so elegant and classy, and it completely suits Mary Magdalene's style. Now, when I first heard people talking about this dress, I have heard a few people complain that they feel like Mary Magdalene is, very belatedly, hopping on the print trend, and are acting like the next print from Mary Magdalene is going to feature pancakes shaped like bunnies riding on a rainbow made of ice cream. Honestly, I am pretty excited to see Mary Magdalene try something new! The results are obviously gorgeous, and completely fitting for the brand.

Innocent World's Antique Perfume Bottle.

The other perfume print to come out recently comes from Innocent World. I actually wasn't aware that Innocent World released a perfume print until I was writing this. And before I googled it, just to be sure, I was trying to imagine what a print of perfume bottles by Innocent World would look like, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that what they released, looked a lot like what I imagined a print by them would look like! Innocent World's print features a relatively simple and understated print featuring some very elegant monochromatic vintage illustration styled perfume bottles, all lined up along the hem. All in all, it's a very cute dress!

There are very few of the major Lolita brands that haven't released a perfume print, so far as I know, I don't believe that Baby The Stars Shine Bright have released one to feature perfume bottles (although, they have made so many prints, I'm sure one of them includes a perfume bottle somewhere!). Moi Meme Moitie certainly hasn't, although, I can imagine if they did, it would be pretty awesome and feature coffin-shaped bottles filled with electric blue liquid, with some rosary beads and candelabras nestled amongst the bottles. Or, there's also a pretty good chance it might also look like a clip-art disaster.

Personally, I really enjoy seeing brands reuse themes again and again. I know some people might feel like themes get a bit stale after a while, but I feel like so long as brands are picking themes and motifs from a big enough selection of them, and not just doing cherries and rabbits over and over again, I think it's actually pretty fascinating to see how a brand will reuse the same theme, 6 years later, like in the case of Angelic Pretty and their perfume bottles, or how the same theme can look so vastly different when interpreted from one brand to the next!

Ask Miss Caro-chan: How to Make Aprons Work with Lolita

Art by Imai Kira

I've been neglecting my formspring, and my blog, lately! But to get things, hopefully, back to normal, I'd like to start out with an Ask Miss Caro-chan that has to do with one of my favorite old-school styles

I love aprons in Lolita, but is there anyway it could look cute or mature and not look like a maid or Alice get-up? Iv seen VM's tablier and it looks gorgeous, but that is the only good apron i've seen that doesn't look like a a costume!

Personally, I'm a big fan of aprons with Lolita, however, I'm very well aware of how tricky they can be to wear and not look like you're a very fancy maid. While I do love the look of maid or Alice aprons, I do know that it's not everyone's cup of tea. If you want to wear an apron that isn't so apron-y, the best way to do it is to simply make your apron color math the rest of your coordinate. Despite what most people think when they think of aprons in Lolita, not all aprons are stark white maid accessories. You can actually pick up a Lolita apron in almost any color that you normally can find in Lolita. If you match the color of your apron to the color of your dress, the apron adds detail and texture to the coordinate, without making it so obvious you're wearing an apron.

Sort of like this!

 There are also a few releases that are, instead of being aprons, styled after the pinafore, which is a bit more of an apron, and a bit less than a dress. Basically, a pinafore is a lot like a JSK that buttons or ties up the back, a dress that you wear over your dress. Victorian Maiden's Tablier is more of a pinafore than an apron. Despite the fact that many dresses use the word "pinafore" in their name, there are very few pinafores released by brands. Metamorphose has released a few pinafores that are very Victorian or even Natural-Kei looking in design. There are a lot of possibilities with a pinafore looking more like a dress than an apron, but because so few are made by brands, they tend to still be made in the basic apron-like style.

 Victorian Maiden's Tablier

If you're more of a print person, but still like the look of aprons, brands often release skirts with apron-like looks. From half aprons, to detachable apron tops that can make the piece go from skirt to JSK/apron hybrid. The best part about these is their versatility, some of them really do just look like JSKs, while the aprons on others are much more subtle because it's color coordinated to match the rest of the outfit.

 

Some times brands also release pieces with small aprons which, in my opinion, tend to not look very maid or Alice-like. Combined with a print, and the fact that the apron is usually smaller than a regular apron and often has some sort of cute detailing on it that ties it to the rest of the dress, these pieces feature an apron as a cute detail, rather than a maid-like aspect to the dress.

If, like me, you do happen to like the normal look of an apron with Lolita, but just don't want to look like a maid, the best you can do is to coordinate it in a way that does not make people instantly think of maids. Try wearing one with anything other than a non-black design, avoid old-school headdresses, and try to avoid any sort of "sexy" additions like shorter skirts or heels and thigh-high socks.

In addition to subtle aprons, maid-like aprons, apron-like skirts, and pinafores, some brands also release aprons that are costumey to the extreme! Baby is probably most famous for doing this, they always seem to have some sort of over the top apron in their shop from their infamous Gloomy Bear apron, to aprons with, instead of the standard heart, use all sorts of ridiculous shapes like cookies and bunnies.

I think at least one apron is a vital addition to any sizable Lolita wardrobe, not just because it's a cute way to keep your dress clean if you're doing anything that might put it in danger of getting a bit dirty, but also because I think they can be an easy way to make something a bit different out of almost any outfit, from adding an over the top costumey touch to an outfit (when you're looking for that of course!), to adding a classic old-school touch, to even making a Classic Lolita piece look more Natural-kei.

I have an older Baby the Stars Shine bright heart-shaped apron in my wardrobe, as well as a vintage crochet half-apron, but I'm always looking for more aprons to add to my wardrobe. Especially because you can often pick them up for a pretty good deal! My BtSSB one cost $40, and my vintage crochet one cost me about $13.