Victorian Romance - Fly Away Fashion Official Tea Party

Hello ^__^

Long time no see! It feels like ages since I blogged for the last time. I went to Fly Away Fashion tea party last Sunday. For weeks I was too busy to do anything fun and I also went through a very hard time. I'm working things out now, hopefully everything will be okay in the end.

So... the Fly Away Fashion Tea Party. Fly Away Fashion is a Dutch lolita shop with handmade clothes, accessory and kawaii goods. Click for the website ~~
There is a lolita tea party for their costumers every half year. It's always theme tea party, this time it was Victorian Romance. I don't have a complete Victorian lolita outfit, that's why have had to improvise. I wore my Rococo dress from 4 O'clock, with a blue bonnet which was an amazing gift from my friend Dieuwke, Moitie socks and my new lolita shoes from An*tai*na. I went with Ellis to the tea party.It's always fun to attend lolita meeting with her. ^__^ We are probably going to Summer Darkness again, that's another story, only I'm really looking forward to it. At the train station we met up with Roos and Josine and we traveled together to Fly Away Fashion.

Food!!

Group pictures ~~

When we arrived Katie (the shop owner) started the high tea with a talk. It was about Fly Away Fashion in general, the program of the tea party, about future events and reservations. Then she showed us the wonderful new collection. She wore a beautiful handmade dress with dots. The high tea was delicious, there were all kinds of sweets, sandwiches and even strawberries. Then it was time to visit the shop and pick up my Alpacasso which I bought a few days before the tea party. Many new lolitas attended the tea party, it was for the first time in years seeing more lolitas I haven't met before than my lolita friends. It was nice to see many new lolitas, only I was also a little bit shy. There where so many people which I never met before... Although I'm happy to see there are many people interested in lolita fashion. 

Pictures ~~

My silhouette 

Picture with Josine

She looked wonderful! And look at that coord. *_*

Picture with Jannike

It was so nice to see her again! It was a surprise to see her wearing pink. This outfit suits her so well! ^__^

Alpacassos ♥

Then it was time for the outfit contest. Everyone has put so much effort in making and creating beautiful outfits. Maybe I will participate with the contest next time...

I'm still not sure because I'm really scared to participate, what if nobody likes my outfit?

After that it was time for the last event, the lottery. This time I didn't lose my ticket, I'm so proud of myself! And that's not the most remarkable... I won the first prize in the lottery!

Letters from Paris skirts ♥
I won the red skirt. ^_^

This is what I bought at the tea party:

A super cute Alpacasso from the Eden series. Look at his face it's so cute! *_* And Katie wrote a small notice for me which was attached at the packing of the Alpacasso. She also gave the Alpacasso an extra ribbon and I Jetoy card.

Translated it means as much as: Dear Anne, thank you for your purchase. Have fun with you new little friend. It made me so happy. ^___^

A new pencil & a cute box. What do you think it's mend for?

Look it's a box to store contacts! 

And at last...my prize. I'm so happy that I won! I must be a lucky person, because last time I won the third prize. It's a skirt from Fly Away Fashion with a beautiful print. It's called letters from Paris. Look at all those details, there are cute ribbons in the lace and look at the small texts in French. I made me think of the great time I had in Paris this Winter. 
Thanks again Katie! I'm so happy with my new skirt.

4 O'Clock review

A few months ago I commissioned Linda Friesen from 4 O'Clock to make a dress for me. I already have the dress here at home for about two months so I'm a little bit late with the review. I just want to share my experiences with 4 O'Clock with other lolitas. And I also promised Linda to review the dress I commissioned. Let's start with the review!

The brand
About 4 O'Clock:

4 O'Clock by Linda Friesen. A brand that specializes in creating elegant custom made doll-like garments. (from facebook)

4 O'Clock is an indie lolita brand located in the Netherlands and every item they sell is made and designed by Linda Friesen. It's an unique brand which sells amazing dress, skirts and much more. Every item is custom made that's why 4 O'Clock doesn't have clothing in stock because every item is specially made for you!

Click for the Facebookpage!

The Design 
I asked Linda to make a Rococo inspired black dress for me, even though I wanted have a Rococo inspired dress I wanted to keep it simple and elegant. The design ended up even more beautiful then I ever could expect. It's such an amazing dress, I really love it.

Quality
The quality is very good, it's even better than most of my brand dresses. This dress fits perfectly, it's very clear that it's custom made for me. Most of my brand dresses do fit but I don't have much space left and most of the time I'm aware that it's a one size dress. The fabric is amazing, it makes me so happy. Every lolita dress should be made of high quality fabric I think. The lower layer of the dress is really soft and the top is made of high quality tulle. The tulle is all over the dress and the decorations are also made out of the same kind of tulle. However tulle is very vulnerable I always have to keep when I will be wearing this dress, only it was my decision to use that kind of fabric. It was also the intention that the tulle will fray a little bit because the dress get more of a old rococo doll feeling.

Details

The lining

Baleen for the corset

Communication
The communication was very good, we used facebook to send each other messages. That's easy, isn't it?
Linda always replied in a few days, most of the time at the same day. She is very friendly, she also wanted to make the dress fit in my idea of a 'perfect dress'. I told her all of my ideas which I had in mind for the dress and she tried to note all that. Linda kept me up to date about the progress of the dress, which was very nice, I exactly knew when I could expect the dress to arrive.

There was also a sort of misunderstanding about the zipper of the dress, in the end it was all my fault but Linda stayed calm and helped me to understand how to use the zipper correctly. You might think why so much fuss about a zipper? The fabric of the dress is very vulnerable  it can't get stuck otherwise it will be damaging the dress.

Price
The dress cost me 350 euro, it a lot of money but I think it's definitely worth it! Brand dresses are sold  for about the same price these days.

Shipping and arrival time

On 24 October I've send a message to Linda for information to get some information about commissioning a dress. The next day I got my answer and I decided to commission a dress from 4 O'Clock for real. On 30 October Linda started with the dress design, I knew it was going to take a little bit longer because she first had to finish another commission. A few weeks later I got instead of one design two designs from which I had to choose one, that was extremely difficult because I really liked both designs. At 24 November I decided which design I wanted to have. Linda started to work on the dress in the first week of December, the dress was finished at the end of December. My dress arrived at 7 January after the holidays. (it arrived two days after Linda sent it to me) I didn't want Linda to send the package between Christmas and New Year, the postal service in the Netherlands isn't very reliable then because it's extremely busy. I don't want to lose my dress before I even get it!

24 October 2012 ~~ 7 January 2013

Overall
I totally recommend to commission clothing from 4 O'Clock! The dress I ordered was well-made, made from high quality fabric, the communication was very good and the design is beautiful. I'm very happy with my dress and I would commission again from 4 O'Clock. This is how the dress looks like when it's worn by me. I'm still searching for some more accessories to make a more OTT coord with it. I hope you like the dress and I hope you know a little bit more about 4 O'Clock's clothing now.

Rococo Lolita meeting

Last Sunday I organized a meeting with my friend Josine. I'm a huge fan of themed meetings unfortunately my community doesn't organize many of them. Such a shame of course, the Dutch community needs more themed meetings because it's nice to wear a special outfit for a certain meeting. A few months ago I told Josine that I wanted to attend more themed meeting especially a Rococo Lolita meeting. That's why we decided to organize one. ~~

We went to a lovely restaurant in Utrecht, I loved the ambiance of the restaurant. The restaurant had a Victorian look, not really Rococo but well, it looked amazing and the food was amazing. It was nice to be back, it was the same restaurant were I had my first lolita meeting. And one of my best friend went with me to the meeting, she didn't attend a lolita meetings for a long time. 

What did we do? We went to the restaurant to do an afternoon tea (high tea) and we talked a lot about lolita and other things. The Afternoon tea was very delicious like I said before, it was one of the best I've ever had. Sandwiches, scones, muffins, pancakes and much more...

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ FOOD ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

After the high tea we went to visit a beautiful church which I never visited before.

It was hidden between other buildings, the church is not outstanding and I first thought it would be a small chapel. I was really surprised, it wasn't a small chapel but a big church with the most amazing colors and decoration. It's the St. Willibrordkerk, (kerk = Dutch for church) the church is located near the Domkerk (Domchurch) and it's really worth to take a look if you are close.

Source: Google

We had to leave the church because of preparations for the mass later in the evening. I'm sure I'm going back it's such an unique church! Then we went to the Domtuin for taking some nice pictures of the group. Everyone wore lovely outfits, I'm so happy people have put so much effort in their outfits. ^^

The Group

Lany and I

with Yvette

Me & Josine

Lory, Lany & I

I had a great day! Thank you so much everyone. ^__^

It's looks like a lot of fun to organize meetings only it's also hard work. I'm glad everything went well... I was worrying too much, I think!

My outfit

Dress: 4 O'Clock
Gloves: Vintage
Necklace: offbrand

Stockings: Fly Away fashion

Shoes: Fly away fashion

When I wrote this I realized that the outfit is completely Dutch.

All the items are from Dutch shops, I never thought about it.
I guess we have some amazing shops! ^_~

Thanks for watching <3
See you next time with the Fairy Tale meeting!!! (more information about that soon) Pictures by: Yvette, Lory and myself.

Lolita Wardrobe 2013

It's the time of the year again, for the lolita wardrobe post! My favorite theme of the year on the EGL community. I'm again a little bit scared to make a post on the EGL community and I don't have enough time to do it either. That's why I decided to only make post on my blog...

My wardrobe changed a lot through the year, I sold about half of my lolita wardrobe and I bought a few new items. I also made a few handmade items. I'm so much happier with my wardrobe compared with last year, I love every piece of clothing. It's still half gothic and half sweet, it's not impossible you know! ^__~ 

 OP's

Jewelry Jelly - Angelic Pretty

Sailor Ribbon Princess - Handmade

Dark Rococo Romance - 4 O'Clock 

JSK's (Gothic)

Little Green Monster - Handmade

Holy Stained Glass- Moi-même-Moitié

JSK's Sweet

Frill Princess (??) - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Memorial Cake - Angelic Pretty

Minnie Mouse JSK - Handmade

Skirts

Strawberry Skirt - Handmade

Pink Polkadot skirt - Vintage

Divine Cross - Moi-même-Moitié

Blouses

Pink & White

Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty

H&M and Taily Weijl

Vintage (please ignore the price card)

Black blouses

Moi-même-Moitié

Offbrand

From a local store

Cardigans

Offbrand

Maxicimam

Cape

Fly Away Fashion

Accessories 

hats

Rosa Nitida, Vintage 2x

Angelic Pretty and Vintage

Corsets and belts

4x offbrand & 1x handmade (bat belt)

Fake fur

Vintage & Fly Away Fashion

Hair items and Jewelry

Rosa Nitida, V&D, H&M and offbrand

A Gift from my grandma, I love it and it's more than 50 years old!

Michal Negrin, Midi-Nette, Vintage and offbrand

Gifts, Vintage and Fly away fashion (wristcuffs) 

Offbrand

Bags

Hello Kitty & H&M

Socks

I decided not to show all my socks, just my new  and favorite ones ~~

Taobao

Metamorphose & Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Shoes

All Bodyline

New Yorker and from a local store

Bristol

Fly Away Fashion

I forgot to show the umbrellas and probably some more items, I couldn't find anything.
I'm waiting for new shoes and for an amazing shirt, I tell you the details later!

Like I said before my lolita wardrobe changed a lot through the year.

I think I created a nice balance between brand, offbrand, indie brand and handmade.

An all brand wardrobe is too expensive for me because I am a student and I don't have that much money. Handmade, offbrand and Indie brand make outfits more unique and I love to wear outfits which are totally my taste and a little bit different than other lolita outfits. 

Things I should buy this year:

- Pink cardigans 

- A new black hat

- More stockings

- Pink shoes

- Pink Angelic Pretty Socks & other socks

- Hair flowers

- Sweet lolita bag

-  Black gather belt bloomers  

Things I shouldn't buy:

- Headbows

- Hair accessories (except for hats)

- Too short dresses

- No metamorphose skirts or dresses (instead of those items, buy socks or hats)

- Expensive (brand) blouses

That's it! This is my wardrobe for this year, I hope you all like it! ^____^  Thanks for watching <3