Lolita fashion ♥ hats

Every outfit needs a good hat. Hats are awesome and I hope more lolitas will notice this. So store away your headbows, flowers, hair clips & bonnets and read this blog post. Here are 5 reasons why you should wear a hat!

1. Lolita hats are unfairly undervalued.

There are just a few lolitas who wear hats. Lolita hats are unfairly undervalued. That's probably because of the popularity of headbows,hair clips/hairpins and bonnets. Lolitas should leave their comfort zone and try to wear hats. I'm pretty sure hats can be the new lolita trend. It's a pity lolita hats always seen to be forgotten.

I really love hats since a few years. Other hair accessories aren't good for me. Hats can be cute and elegant. Hats make my outfits more special, I think. That's why more lolitas should wear hats. It's nice to see special and unique outfits! ♥ ♥

My lolita coords with a hat

2. There are so many amazing hat designs.

Maybe you have never noticed it, but every lolita brand sells beautiful hats. There aren't many hats in their collections. Only the hats that are sold are amazing. Especially those elegant hats from Alice and the Pirates. Or think about the cute OTT hats from Angelic Pretty. Who doesn't want to have a cupcake hat?! Just take a look at the hair accessories selection from your favorite brand. I'm pretty sure they sell one or two hats. 

                  These hats are my favorites

Angelic Pretty

                          

Rosa Nitida

3. Hats are more easy to find in normal stores than other lolita hair accessories.

Many normal shops sell hats. Even the H&M sells some cute straw hats and sometimes casual hats. Those hats are easy to customize, you don't need special skills for that. Vintage shops are also nice places to find hats. I usually get my hats there. Vintage hats are unique and most of the time a lot cheaper than hats from lolita brands. So it's easier and cheaper to go to your local vintage shop to buy a new hat instead of ordering something from Japan.

It also can be a nice meetup idea. It would be a nice idea to go to vintage shops with your local community. Afterwards everyone can customize their own hats.
 
4. Hats complete outfits.

That's true! Hats make outfits more elegant and eye-catching.


5. Just look at these examples! Aren't you convinced by now?!

                          Source: Google

Source: Tumblr

My friend Josine

Source: Tumblr

Iira

Let's start a new trend!! Tell all your lolita friends to wear at least one hat this summer.Lolita hats are awesome and they deserve more love. ^__^

New lolita shoes

My favorite black lolita shoes were too old  and the quality wasn't that well anymore that's why I ordered new shoes two months ago. I hope you will like them as much as I do! The shoes are from An*Tai*Na and I bought them from Fly Away Fashion.

Elf Fantasy Fair Haarzuilens 2013

Last week I went to the Elf Fantasy Fair, like I told you when I showed my outfit. First I wasn't sure about going just for one day or the whole weekend. I already bought my Saturday ticket but I was too tired in the evening to visit the EFF on Sunday. It was an amazing day! I saw so many friends and even a few friends which I haven't seen for about half a year. My life is far too busy these days...It was so great to talk with them again. ^__^

A wonderful visitor

I needed to travel to Haarzuilens all alone, so I was a little bit scared at first. I don't like to the travel all alone when wearing lolita. I guess I was worrying too much, many people were really nice to me and asked where I was going and why I was dressed up like that. In the morning I went to visit some shops at the market with Simone, her boyfriend and a friend. Then I met up with Marcella and her boyfriend by accident, I was so surprised because when I talked to her last time she wasn't sure about visiting the Elf. There should have been a lolita meeting at 13.00 only just a few lolitas showed up and the group left. My day existed finding out where my friends where, there where so many people at the Elf Fantasy Fair there is no way you can find someone easily! Then I was only left with Damien and his partner, we lost all the others. We went to the steampunk area, it was awesome! All those amazing detailed costumes and furniture. That's why I like steampunk so much.

Steampunk curiosity cabinet <3

After that I saw some frogs in the water ~~ I love frogs so I had to take a picture!

The frogs 

After visiting some shops I saw my friend Rosy and I decided to go to a lecture from Linda Ravenscroft with her. The lecture was great, she even showed some of her original works. ^__^ She is such a wonderful person. 

Then we did some shopping, I bought a book from Oscar Wilde and a muffin. I already ate the muffin (!!) and maybe I will show the book later. 

I don't have many pictures for on my blog. Please visit Damiëns blog for amazing Elf Fantasy Fair pictures!

Picture time

This is it for now, maybe I get more pictures soon?

Thanks for reading! <3

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.