2013-10-12 Innocent World Tea Party in Vienna

The first even tea party of Innocent World set outside Japan! The tickets were sold out within minutes. Then lottery took place between interested people about who will be lucky enough to pay the higher price of the even more limited VIP ticket. The VIPs were let in an hour early and instead of just chair they had a place at one of the tables. 

Vienna is in Austria, neighbor country to my home. My trip did not start very well. I missed the first of a serie of long-distance busses I booked due to the traffic jam in our city. The luck turned back to me though and I was able to find another bus and got to the tea party (barely) in time! Right upon arrival we were gifted a bag with some trifles.. though the Antique Perfume Bottle OTKs I got are surely half the price of the ticket itself! 

Refreshments were available during the whole four hours long tea party. Several sales booths were set up, mostly with trifles and accessories, also some clothing. Opening of the Innocent World sales booth could not be missed.. you could easily track it by the crowd which quickly gathered. By the time I got close enough to have a peek, barely anything was left from the few pieces they brought - about 6 dresses, four coats, several OTKs and bows. Besides, 310 EUR for a coat is a bit outside of my comfort zone. 
 

The outfits of attendees were breathtaking! I was never before around this sheer amount of frills and prints and I loved it. The light was a bit dim, but a few quick snaps turned out allright..

The sweetest outfit of them all, Dream Fantasy from Angelic Pretty. 

Innocent World's Lotta twins!

Then the Innocent World's fashion show started. The prints were inspired by Wien, the last two pictures are of coats. The tiles with paintings look tacky to me but the last of the prints, the mint dress with sweets, looked so nice! These were made to the IW anniversary and were first seen on public right at this tea party! All the models lined up at the end of the fashion show and the sweet mint dress was so close to me I could have touched it if I reached my hand :)

Next event of the pea party was an half an hour performance of band Lolita KompleX unplugged. They were not very succesfull, the acoustic was bad and it was quite bland so about three people were listening and the next hundred went about their own buissness, chatting, eating snacks, shopping and taking photos.

Questions and Answers with Yumi Fujiwara, designer of Innocent World! Maybe the best part for me, even better than the fashion show. Everyone was listening tentatively. One of the questions was if IW plans to open a shop in Europe. Mrs. Fujiwara said that they did not, but seeing the enthusiasm of lolitas here, they could have start to consider it. Everyone aplauded her answer. We also learned that she remembers every single dress she designed, including the smallest bows, or that she designs clothes she herself would want to wear, without any hidden message within. She just likes frilly clothing. She designed the dress she was wearing at the tea party after the last visit in Vienna, inspired by a library she had seen, and its one of her most beloved dresses. She also visited other european countries, but Vienna is her favourite - could she say anything else in the middle of there? Overall, she was very polite and pleasant to listen to. 

  

Lottery took place at the end of tea party. It was total surprise to me. Suddenly people started to pull out tickets, I have no idea where they got them. When I asked around it turned out someone selling tickets was going around between people soon after the start of tea party.. oh well, I never noticed. 

On the other hand, I got a photo with Yumi Fujiwara! Pardon my creepy autistic self forgetting to look into the camera. I wore Innocent World's Bouquet Doll OP in beige x brown for the tea party.

Read about the tea party 

at LunieChan's blog, first part, and second part! 

at Dunkelbunt and Bittersus

2013-09 Classical photoshoot

Back when we actually had a tiny local lolita community, friends invited me to photoshoot. The shoot was classical themed and happened in a street of our city's historical core. Since I was never at a professional photoshoot before, I certainly had to give it a try!

It's probably my only real classical coordinate, featuring an Innocent World Bouquet Doll OP and Bodyline shoes. My friend Tairesia standing beside me :3

Behind the scenes of the photoshoot! The photographer also brought a reflective umbrella, but broke it halfway through the shoot O///o

Some of the best photos we got from the day!

2013-07 First anime con experience: Advik

Advik is an anime con organized every june in the hottest part of the year whatsoever in a school. Kids are off to holidays and the school is loaned and transformed for a week into a con place. Now, I don't watch much anime at all, but I heard lolitas are going to be there too so I went to check it out! The article is long so I broke it into four parts: The Place, The Talks, My Outfits, and The People. The photos are terrible due to using a Garmin GPS inbuilt camera (lol!) and even worse when someone else took a picture for me.

The Place

Main feature of the whole weekend was unending heat and too many people, for me. It was over 30C outside, more inside as the schools here are not equipped by A/C. On the ground floor, there were a few stalls by the main entrance, and a huge paper pinned to a wall for people to doodle on (neat idea!)

The gym was used for the biggest of the talks, a lolita fashion show, and dancing lessons. Here it is occupied by a minecraft creeper.

 

On the first floor, there were console games in the hall. I hoped to try those out, but the handheld ones were constantly occupied and when I got to one of the Wii's I didn't even figure out how to make a game play. Since I was alone and the few strangers I asked just shrugged their shoulders, I let it be.



In the first floor's classrooms were the talks, as well as board game room and DDR room. I spent quite a time on the DDR, and I must admit that hopping is much harder than it looks like!

 

I looked forward to maid cafe. You didn't get a cake with picture but they got coffee, toasts and some snacks, along with a bookcase with mangas. It was the most quiet place of the school so I came there often to find solace in the quiet.

On the second floor was sleeping area looking like a refugee camp. Most people stayed overnight sleeping in sleeping bags sleeping in classes and halls of the second floor, but as schools arent really equipped for that, plus it wat tropically hot, the lines for showers were hours long, so I regretted even bringing brand along.

The Talks

I came to a few random talks. Most were just random people with hobbies talking about their anime related obscure knowledge. The biggest highlight of the whole con for me was the talk of a real Samurai!



He also held a workshop on sushi making (impossible to get in due to high demand, sadly) and sold rice with shredded egg and seaweed after the talk. I bought two servings, it was simply delicious. The rice I am used to is tasteless like a plastic bag, and about as chewy, but that rice he sold I could eat just dry like that, it was so good!

There was also a lolita fashion newbie talk, and a BDJ talk where we could also see the dolls in real life!



The gym held a lolita fashion show, but due to poor organizing it was late and hurried. Most of the lolitas came for the con only for the show and then redressed or left. The better half of the fashion show. A sailor outfit, Bodyline's skirt, awesome outfit (I think its BtSSB?) of Silvia from Ostrava, and a Honey Picnic dress by Metamorphose.



Dancing lessons divided into two parts in the gym were great opportunity to refresh my dances knowledge before the cons ball. I wore Angelic Pretty's  Dolce OP in pink and loved to twirl in it!

My outfits

I took my BtSSB tartan JSK for travelling. I badly bruised my knees prior to arrival (edited out on the other pictures). Mega pikachu! The guy mustve cooked himself alive in that summer heat though.. that is SOME dedication!

Angelic Pretty's Dolce OP. The confused me totally forgot about the detachable neck ties for the dress.  I saw a few lolitas through the con, but I was too shy to talk to them. At least I managed to ask this lolita in a blue Bodyline dress for a photo :3 We look so alike, but in different color! I also took a BtSSB cutsew op in cream for a nightwear, no photos for that but it was soo much more comfortable than my usual cotton pajamas :3

The People

There were a few hundreds of strangers, some of them dressed in an oddly manner, more often tacky than not. People usually went to grab food to the closest supermarket, I bet the public must've gotten good laughs from that. Well, not at the mornings.. the school was locked at night and they refused to open it before 9 am, which caused a lot of grumpy, hungry people missing morning talk.

People hanging out and chatting.

I have no idea who is he supposed to cosplay at but he was too cool to pass. 

He even offered me his arm, what a gentleman! 

               Left: if that was a lolita, she was the best dressed of all I've seen on Advik!
               Right: No idea. Sailor moon, maybe? I don't have a clue.

That girl in brown vest, I've seen those somewhere. I don't know the name but those guys 

are from some space anime and wear short green cloaks which remind me of hobbits?

Creepy people. Homestuck maybe? Definetly similar level of crazy.

                 Left: Deathnote! Too bad this blurry photo is the only one I have.
                 Right: No idea but it looks cool. Very cool.

More cool outfits I have no idea who are they supposed to be!

         Left: Rapunzel? Or maybe someone who lost a bet with his friends.
         Right: I admire the dedication to wear something like that when its over 30C in a shade.

Professional photo for the end! Hooray! It was one wild ride and I think I'll keep to tea parties.