°˖✧✝ Gotta Get my Bat On: New B.P.N. Blouse ✝✧˖°

My blouse isn't from Putumayo. I couldn't
find an official stock photo of the blouse,
so I used a picture that looked like it.
(And I just love Riku.)

Thanks to a friend I now possess a bat wing collar blouse! And what's more, I get to say that I now own an item from Black Peace Now (B.P.N.).

Ani't it cute?
I have an urge to do a crappy black x white Ouji outfit with it.
Cue the black x white stripped knee socks!

I've been trying to find a blouse with a collar like this for the longest, but could never find one. And even though I could find many blouses with pointed collars, the bat wing one would never show up. I needed one to fuel my desires, and a pointed one would not suffice! I know I may sound finicky, but the two, pointed and bat wing, are just not the same.  

LEFT: Bat Wing Collar ≠ RIGHT: Pointed Collar
And there's Riku again!
I promise, I don't have a weird obsession with him (I do).

So I nearly jumped out of my seat when I scrolled past one of my Lolita friend's online sales album with the blouse up for sale. And the price was just as unbelievable too. She was selling it for only $25! She said she got it from a buyer off of Yahoo!Japan, and that it was sold to her at a cheap price also. The funny thing is that while she just started buying secondhand clothes from Yahoo!Japan, and I've been for a while, she's the one who finds such great pieces! I now see that she brings good luck, so I have to have her next to me the next time I'm on an auction site, hehehe~   

As many of you know, I've just recently claimed to be an Old School Lolita, even though I've admired the style for many years. So even before I committed myself to Lolita fashion, I already had a soft spot for its older style, particularly because of my love of Gothic Visual Kei. Before I get a ton of hate mail criticizing my interests that contain lines like "Get your Visual Kei out of my Lolita," I would like to go on record saying that I know that Visual Kei doesn't epitomizes Lolita fashion. However, I would be lying if I were to say that there wasn't a time when both styles influenced and helped propel the other in the light of pop culture. 

Therefore, many of the Old School Lolita styles that I love stems from the visual styling of Goth Japanese band members during the '90's, one of them being bat wing collars (or bat wing anything, to be honest). So when I see bat wing collars, all I see is Shina, the ex vocalist of NOi'X.

He wasn't the only one to wear this type of blouse, but he certainly seemed to be the poster child for it, at least to me anyway. You could count on Shina to wear a bat wing collar blouse. He even wore one to NOi'X's last live. But, I can't give all of my praise to Visual Kei. Even though Shina has never said that he was a Lolita or dressed in the style, it's quite obvious that most of his "feminine" costumes were influenced by Lolita fashion.    

Blogger wouldn't let me load the NOi'X Flowers PV where Shina wears 

his signature blouse, so here is a different video, just because. 

  

So who should I thank for instilling my love for bat motifs, Visual Kei or Lolita? *shrugs shoulders* Eh, I guess I can thank both. I have enough gratitude to go around. 

°˖✧ 'Till next time

  

°˖✧✝ Lolita Blog Carnival: Who Inspires you in Lolita ✝✧˖°

This is my first Lolita Blog Carnival post, and I'm pleased to celebrate this experience with a special topic - my inspirations. 

When I first started in this fashion, I approached it from an experiential aspect, playing with a lot of my interests at the same time. I liked all of the sub-styles, and created outfits to fit many of them. This was very fun, for awhile, but I noticed that, while I was entertaining many of my interests, I never had a direction as to what I was aiming for. And, in hindsight, I now see that I was all over the place with my sense of style. Now, I find it more comforting to be able to look at the big picture and examine my intent and overall objective when wearing Lolita clothing. Before, I treated each outfit as it's own entity, and it was very telling. However, I now try to string all of my clothing together to convey a certain design or story. And my inspirations has helped me craft this image.      

I have many inspirations, but, for the sake of this post, I've narrowed them down to three people who represent the main three components that make up the image I project. I call these components the 3 'A's - Appearance, Aesthetic and Atmosphere.  

◊ Appearance

If someone would've asked me what "look" I was trying to achieve a year ago, I would've simply responded, "Cute." But really, that's too broad of an answer that I couldn't even then explain. It wasn't until I saw a post about Old School Volks dolls in honeyed's archive on Tumblr that I realized what I wanted to look like, or, better yet, what I wanted my makeup to look like.

These are just three that I like the most, but there are many more to swoon over.
Please, take time to admire the others here.

I know what you might be thinking. You're saying, "So you want to be a doll?" Simply, no, I don't. I'm not attracted to them merely because they're dolls, but because their appearance gives off a certain mood and character. It's a type of beauty that's hauntingly unsettling. It's a different kind of beauty that's alluring and off putting at the same time. I can only hope to reach this level someday. I want my appearance to speak volumes without me saying anything at all. 

◊ Aesthetic 

There are many interpretations as to what the word "aesthetic" means, but, for this, I'm labeling it as my philosophy. And, in my opinion, no one has a stronger philosophy about Lolita than Mana. And, instantly, I can feel the eye rolls all the way through the screen, and hear the sarcasm - "Oh, really? An Old School Gothic Lolita citing Mana as one of their inspirations. How shocking! Wake me when this section is over." While other Lolitas would consider the cliche embarrassing, I find it to be quit quelling. Because of Mana, I'm not ashamed to foster a deeper connection with the aesthetic of Gothic Lolita. In a message to Gothic Lolitas, Mana told us that he hoped Lolita would be " your style, your way of life, no matter what anyone tells you" and how he wanted "you to love this world for all of your life." I've never felt anything more assuring then these words, and I live to embody them for a very long time.  

   

Source: Monologue Sanctuary 

In the 50th edition of the Gothic Lolita Bible, Mihara Mitsukazu wrote a kind memento that said "Whenever I reread [ the GLB] all over again from the issue 1, I notice that Mana-sama's look and spirituality has never changed, and that's cool" (taken from Monologue Sanctuary's translation). I want to be able to develop a strong look and spirit that's also as unwavering as Mana's.   

◊ Atmosphere

As for atmosphere, I would say that Yoh's illustrations serves as a great inspiration for me to follow. All of his works stems from one place that he calls his "Monochrome World." And that's exactly what his works create - a world. They're much more than random characters placed on top of vague backgrounds. Everything is purposeful and precise. Every detail is carefully crafted to support the mood of his world. And he does this in a way that doesn't overshadows his characters.   

Source: Yoh's website

It's my intention to create a similar world that Yoh has made, but for myself in Lolita fashion. I want my clothes to determine my own unique climate and tone outside of the one created by society. Yoh's illustrations teaches me to reflct on the little details that I corporate into my world. Do they help define or cloud my objective? Thanks to Yoh, I can always be motivated to refine my image.      

With the help of these three inspirations, I choose; I create; I become my own design.       

Make sure to check out Lolita Blog Carnival!

Lolita Blog Carnival is an online Loita community of Lolita bloggers who come together to blog about certain topics each week to stimulate further ideas for great blog posts!

Here are other Lolitas with inspiring role models:

A Heart's Sound

Snow Rose

Sweet Indeed

Poppy Noir 

°˖✧ 'Till next time