Innocent World Gretel Boots review

I received my Gretel boots today and because many people asked me to do a review and since IW's shoes got very mixed reviews in the past I decided to give it a go.

I ordered them via the lovely chibi_tenshi in august, if I recall correctly. They were said to come out in late september, however at some point they updated their reserve page with a notification of delay due to problems with the factory. I waited paitently until chibi_tenshi contacted me to let me know that she had my boots.
I paid around 300$ in total for item+ss fee+shipping and got them three weeks later because the customs snatched them and clearance and sending it to me took quite some while (I didn't have to pay customs fees because I'm clever at making up stories ;D).

(I won't review c_t's service because she was just awesome like every time. I don't need to review IW's service because I've ordered from them several times myself and have always been very content.)

Up to the boots! I ordered a size LL in navy. My feet are very weirdly shaped and my right foot is bigger than my left and stuff like this, so buying brand shoes is never easy for me. I owned several shoes from Baby and AatP and their L ist mostly too small and their LL too large because my feet are 25.3 and 25.5 cm long. This is my first pair of shoes from IW and I'm surprised that they fit pretty good.
They are wide in the feet area, so people with wider feet could also fit in and my feet fit exactly length wise. It might get uncomfortable after longer wear though because 0.2 cm more would've been nice for my right foot.



First thing I noticed: they looked almost black when I took them out of the box. They are darker than the stock pic though it doesn't really show on my pics (they photograph pretty lightly).
Second thing: they used a different heel, that was shown in the stock pics of the ivory version. I don't mind that too much, I actually like this heel better.



The heel is plastic, but appears very hard and sturdy.



The stitching is very neat and the sole has a bit of profile so it shouldn't be slippery.



The buttons are rivetet and well attached, they are all pretty even and in line. The piping looks pretty good.



more nice, even stitching



The zipper is light going and sturdy, though the ends are not that neatly serged, there are loose thread ends sticking out at the hem and above the sole but that's nothing I can't fix with some scissors.



Here you can see the loose thread ends a little better



The inside. It has a bit of beige pleather on the upper calves part and some synthetic mesh with little padding below.

I could've sworn those were made of real leather, their product page however states it's synthetic leather. It feels really soft though it is pretty thin and it has a little shine.

I originally bought these boots to go with my Rinks OP from Innocent World:



The colours go pretty well with each other what really surprised me. I have so many items from the same brands that have completely different shades of navy that I have to compliment IW on this!

I tried two coordinates with the shoes, my Rinks OP and a pirate-ish boystyle version because I'm moving to wear more boystyle lately and wouldn't keep them if they were only wearable with female styles.



Haha, please excuse my derpface and my missing makeup, it's cleaning day today x)

Now, to the rating:

+ nice manufacturing
+ awesome colour
+ good fit
+ sturdy heel that is easy to walk on (8cm height)
+ sturdy and easy going zippers
+ military design, do I have to say more?
+ very versatile
+ light weight

- long waiting time (delay due to factory problems)
- some loose thread ends

After all, that's a 8 out of 10!

I am very satisfied with my boots, happy that I can keep them and can only recommend them to everyone else!
Thanks for reading my review and feel free to ask any questions ^__^

(crosspostet to egl. Sorry for my absence, I'm pretty much inactive atm because I don't wear lolita and don't have money to buy stuff. I'll write more about boystyle soon!)

Back to black

My last post has been a few days and I am still really relieved.
I already shipped some stuff, ship some more today and from tomorrow on I will be on holiday. I'm not taking a single lolita garment with me! Normal person holiday, yay!

But I promised I won't stop, so (like I said heh) I ordered the black x navy Silent Moon skirt (Niesje, far away twins! *_*) and just got the confirmation from chibi_tenshi. Yay, I am so excited. I will receive a really huge parcel from her in september I think. She still has my Twighlight Circus Skirt while we wait on the socks and last week I asked her to reserve me those boots from Innocent World:


I wanted some navy boots for a while now but AatP's always were a bit too bright for me and those are perfect and will match my last classic piece, Rinks OP:


They really look like they were made for each other, don't they? *__*

I'm sorry that this is more of a "OMG look what I've bought"-post but I promise you won't see them too often, especially since those will be the last bigger lolita purchases for now. I am planning on getting a black pair of AatP Boots and a black AatP coat for winter, but that's it.

This will be my last post before my 10 days holiday on Sardinia but be prepared, when I come back there will be a give-away! Until then, see you!

Makeover

I'm sorry that I started this blog in a time like this. English is not my mother tongue but I'll try to explain the best I can.
Some days ago I decided to partially leave lolita. I sold most of my wardrobe.
This is the huge EMS box where evrything I sold is kept now. My closet is almost empty.
I had the feeling lolita put so much pressure on me. I couldn't go shopping without lookin for loliable stuff which ended in not buying anything that wasn't loliable. I started not buying stuff that hat chemical lace, underwear for example. I felt owning brand was a competition. Who has more, who spends more, who gets the best deals. It took me a lot of time to be "good" in all those things and I considered lolita the most important thing in my life.
While I thought this would make me happy, it was not. I was dissatisfied because I never had enough. I spent all my money on brand but ended up not having enough money for regular clothes.
I know so many print names, standart size measurements, how ordering for several brands and online shops oes, washing devices, release years and so on. I put so much time in what I thought made a "good" lolita.

Fuck it. I love lolita but it turned to a selfmade nightmare to me. I didn't like wearing lolita anymore. Since I couldn't justify owning several thousand's euros worth of clothes I sold the majority. All I'm keeping are three AatP skirts, a Miho Matsuda and a Moitie one, my romper and OP, a couple of blouses, all my blazers, cardigangs and socks. I'll buy two pairs of boots and Silent Moon from the money I got from my sales and will get myself a proper winter coat in black. And that'll be it. I am a normal person with a delicate little lolita wardrobe and a lot of free time from now on. I'll have stuff left for three different gothic coords, a pirate coord, a classic coord and a sailor coord. All I need and all I want. I bought a lot of 80's styled clothes this week and spent around 250€ on them. I even bought some books and shoes. None of them are loliable and I love it.

(I won't stop this blog. I still wear lolita. I still check for updates and everything. I will just be a whole lot less obsessed ;D)

AatP's Twighlight Circus

It's here! I've waited for this print several weeks now, torn between the ugly JSK that I've seen on a GLB scan and the name that reminded me of sparkling vampires x)

Hoewever, AatP did not fail to amaze me. I have a little weakness for circus themed stuff and was close to buying AP's Starry Night Theater several times. Now, Twighlight Circus looks exactly like Starry Night Theater with an AatP touch. In other words: this is for me!

The print comes in four colourways:




















I love the ivory version, it looks so nostalgic and therefore has a very suiting name: Nostalgic Memory (I love how AatP started giving their colours names *_*) The pink is an unusual tone, not for me but cool.




















I wish they'd made the navy colourway less pink ;_; So I decided I like the black version the most. It's also the one that looks most like Starry Night Theater, imo. The only thing that creeps me out a bit is the German sentence on the print. It says "The last bedsheet word in the open room/space" What the...?

Again, this print comes in a variety of cuts and versions!




















Those are the two JSKs and while I don't really like the left, I LOVE the right! The bodice is so awesome!




















The OP has a little too many ribbons attached for my taste but the collar is the coolest I've seen for a while. And the skirt. As a skirts person, my heart went fast when I saw this. Highwaist, yay! And the buttons are little cards symbols.

Also, AatP has made a bunch of accessoires, a pom pom beret, cuffs, brooches, a necklace, two blouses, and socks for this print and restocked their circus bag.




















I particularly liked this chiffon blouse, I think it's a really cool idea to use a layer of chess fabric under the upper layer of chiffon. And the socks. I think they're a bit plain, but fine.

I already contacted my shopping service to get me the skirt and socks in black. I've even sold one of my Vampire Requiems to afford it (and a concert ;D). Also, tomorrow is my birthday so I decided I could spend a bit of money though I don't really have to money for it. Yay for circus themed stuff (I am allergic to animals (like horses and ponies) and hay so I can't go to a circus with animals ;_;)!

So, how do you guys like the print?

More pictures from yesterday and what to do with hair

I just got some more pictures from our meet yesterday and they look much better than my crappy cell phone pic so here you go:

Haha, my glasses look so weird in this shot.

Our whole group. I just love how none of my local lolita friends is a sweet lolita, so who said there were mostly sweet lolitas everywhere? And yes, I'm afraid the skirt is really that short on me (but I hope it's just the angle) ._.

Moitie elitist bitches! :D Sanja and I both had those huge cross necklaces we had to show off. And startig with this pic you can see I had quite of a hair issue yesterday. It was really windy and though I did kind of a up-do and put hairspray on it nothing wanted to stay in place ;__;

This is a very blurry picture of what my hair looks like atm. I'm trying to grow it so I don't really have a proper haircut, it's more of a maxi bob with frizzy ends. I only trim my bangs every few weeks and get my rrots bleached. My mom cuts my split ends every six or so months so I don't lose that much of a length. My hair grows really fast luckily, a year ago they were chin length, and my ends were cut twice since then so that makes roughly 15 centimeters *_*

I hardly wear my hair open and especially not with lolita because it looks just plain boring to me. So, everytime I get frilled up I think about what to do with my hair. I mainly do ponytails for everyday but whenever I want something special I'm really clueless. I mostly try to curl my hair (but that needs a lot of time, at least an hour or so) or do an up-do with some loose streaks. Here some examples for what I usually come up with:













Those are the curly versions. It really depends on how much time I have and if there's someone to help me because I fail a lot at curling my back hair. So whenever I don't manage to do my full head, I just curl on side and put the other one back and plug everyting together on my back head. That's what you can see on the left and though I really like it, I do it way to often. I like diversity! (Also curls won't stay in my hair when it gets humid or rainy so I can only do this on dry days)















So those are the hairstyles I go with when I either don't want to curl my hair or when it rains. I don't really like the left with all hair put back in a bun, it's so strict and my headshape is weird, it doesn't have any volume. I prefer the right one from all but that's exactly whyt I tried yesterday - in vain. My hair has grown since that picture on the right has been taken, I think that might be the reason.

So, why don't I just get a wig, you might ask. I really don't like wigs in lolita for me. Whenever I get frustrated about my hair I take into consideration but I would want a long curly one in the exact colour of my hair and that's not easy to find in decent quality.

If you thought I would now present you a solution for my problem you're wrong. I don't have one. I want my bangs and I want my length and I also need a lot of hair because I do some modeling every now and then and want to have the possibility to do a lot with my hair. I looked through a lot of GLBs, promotional stuff from lolita brands and didn't really find anything that I would go with. I guess I just need extensions and a curler with multiple functions, phew.

That's it for now, I'm leaving you with some inspirational stuff I'd like to try one day :)

Daily Outfits

After having a really busy time at work for the last weeks I am finally able to meet my friends again.

So I went out yesterday and today to go see my friends.
We didn't do anything useful actually, besides eating. It's like that most of the time, we get frilled up and meet for eating a lot. And chatting, of course :)

So, yesterday! This is what I wore:

Actually I wanted to go for a more ero look but it was windy and cold when I left so I went with a blouse and sheer tights. My skirt ist my beloved Vampire Requiem from Alice and the Pirates. Also I wanted to try out how my Lillie boots looked with a skirt and I actually really like it. Also, surprise, the good old Black Peace Now jacket x)

We went to our favourite cupcake cafe, it's called "Cupcake" n__n
I had a Raspberry Beret cupcake, usually it has a vanilla base but this time it was chocolate. I never manage to eat one of those up.

After that we went to the mall and did some window shopping, I bought some blue hair flowers to match with my moitie stuff.

On sunday we met up again and I decided to wear out my new Moitie stuff finally *_*

I really love the skirt, it has a bustle back with blue lace, unfortunately you can't see it in the picture. Socks and Headdress are also Moitie, Jackets from Black Peace Now (this time two, lol) and the ba is my good old Innocent World bag that I use every day. Also, I got this amazing huge cross necklace at Claire's the other day. I also tried to do a make up shot, sadly I only remembered when I got home, so sorry that it's not really fresh anymore.

We started off with a "Bucket for four" at KFC's and getting completely silly and then went for some ice cream. Afterwards we went to the nearby flea market and took some stupid pictures (that I won't bother you with) and then ended up sitting at McDonald's with milkshakes. When I went home I noticed that my platforms were literally falling apart D:

It's really time to get some new platform shoes D: Any recommendations, guys? If not, I'll just get some from an*tai*na cause that's what I wanted to do anyways.

Kodona

Today's post will be about a lolita style that never gets enough love: Kodona.

I LOVE Kodona/Boystyle/Ouji/Dandy/Aristocrat styles because I like pants. Before I got in lolita I didn't really wear skirts or dresses and my style was either punkish or slutty. But somehow lolita got me and whenever I feel like lolita but not like a skirt I go with kodona. Sadly, I don't really tend to take pictures of that because those outfits mostly end up pretty basic due to laziness. But recently I encounter to like kodona more and more and even bought a romper from AatP.

Therefore, see my fail kodona coordinates xD




















Both of them are from last year, around July/August. As you can see, it was the time where I transferred from sailor to pirate. And I LOVE kodona with short pants. I dunno who it was, but someone commented under a friend's d_l post with "Lolita: when the boys' shorts are shorter than the girls' skirts" This so much!

This is a more recent coordinate with my Night Fairy Fantasia Romper. It's pretty basic, too but you can see that my style has matured over the last year, at least I think so.

Also, I thought I could start making coordinates with stockpics and this is what came out today:

This is why I love Alice and the Pirates so much! Those pants are to die for! And the vampire coat...no more words needed.

I'm a lucky girl, a lot of my close friends like to wear kodona and I always gaze in awe when the pull of their outfits this good. I'd like to show you some examples, especially since they all have completely different body types and it amazes me that kodona can look good on anyone if you know how to pull it off!

Haha, I think they might kick me for posting their pics here but hey, that's life :P




















As you can see, Laura isn't exactly skinny but I just love her in kodona. She also wears lolita but more in a sweet way.




















Feder's coordinates always are somehow burton-esque and I LOVE that. She wears kodona a lot actually, even for work. When I think of her she even wears kodona in my mind. xD




















Kia, the Queen of Slut-Kodona. I've never seen shorter pants on anyone xD
I love her style, it's very unique and always looks so effortless but perfect. And we share our passionate lusting for Alice and the Pirates.

Those three inspire me a lot. I am really tall, the tallest out of my friends so I'm starting to wear more EGA and EGL lately but I think kodona might be a nice variety. I just need some proper shorts x)