Late to the trend

 I will fully admit, when I used to think of deer in Lolita, my mind usually went to something like this:

So cute! So adorable! So something I would never be confident enough to use in public without feeling like I raided my 4 year old cousin's toy chest.

It was sad, but true. Deer were very cute and lovely, but somehow I had warped them in my mind into something that was almost strictly associated with sweet Lolita. Huge eyes, pink fur and often associated with other baby animals, they were so sugary they made both my teeth and heart ache at the same time. I loved them, but I already knew through my trials in sweet Lolita that they would just not be for me. And somehow, through all of this, I was missing out on just how versatile they had truly grown to be within the Lolita community.

But then all of that changed when one day I was browsing through My Lolita Dress and stumbled across this beauty.

It was like something had flipped a switch in my brain. Those soft, muted colors. That A-line, flattering cut. Such beautiful, elegant embroidery. It was all so...so...classic!

I know. I missed out on a lot.

But I think that's what happens sometimes when we get into our heads that trends are an inherently bad thing.  We read about the lack of originality and the boredom, and it can sometimes urge us to back off from exploring something we might truly love. After all, who wants to a bandwagon jumper?

But I ordered that dress. And I learned something.

I didn't care.

I didn't care if I was joining a trend that many had long since considered tired and drawn out. 

I didn't care if I was joining the masses with a dull, unimaginative coord that had been done a thousand times before.

I didn't care if my dress looked matronly or my accessories didn't perfectly match.

And most importantly?

I still don't care!

I'm not a very confident person, and as much as I loathe to admit it, I often put too much stock in what other people think of me. But allowing myself to love and adore deer and wade as deep into this trend as I want has taught me something I should have realized a long time ago. That is to say, I would never be able to cultivate and accept my own personal style as a reflection of who I am if I continued to shape that perception based off of what other people wanted. 

 I know this is something most people realize by their late teens. But for me, this is a huge revelation. I know it's still going to be a struggle. I'm still going to feel that pressure and that doubt. But I hope that every time I look into a sweet little doe eyed face, I'll be reminded that I am my own person, that trends might come and go and that's okay to get swept up in them, and that my only goal should be to wear and express myself however makes me happy.

lightinthebox.com

Innocent World

My Lolita Dress

Yay deer!

My-Lolita-Dress Review I

I've been seeing more and more positive reviews lately when it comes to My Lolita Dress floating around, so as I've been interested in quite a few of their items for a while now I decided to go ahead and take a chance on them. So here is my own review on working with the website, as well as a short review on the actual dress I purchased.

My Lolita Dress is a reseller of a lot of popular taobao brands including Rose Melody, Infanta and Surface Spell. Personally, as I've never been a huge fan of using shopping services, the easy set-up and convenience of this website really appealed to me, which also helped in persuading me as I could finally purchase some of my favorite Chinese brands without dealing with any hassle.

Timeline

6/22/14- I placed my order and paid right away, the website uses paypal so it's very simple to use. I chose EMS shipping since my plan was to wear the dress for a 4th of July party I was attending and I really wanted to ensure it would be here in time.

6/28/14-I contacted MLD as my status still had not changed and I was growing a little worried it wouldn't show up in time. Within the hour I received a response from Linda letting me know that my dress had already been sent out and I would be updated with a tracking number soon.

6/30/14-I received an email letting me know my dress had been shipped and that I could track it through DHL. I was still a bit wary since EMS said it would still take between 4-5 days for the package to arrive and I didn't know if it would come before the weekend.

7/1/14-The dress arrived!! I'm guessing it just took awhile for the company to update my order online, but since my dress definitely arrived before the 4th I'm not complaining!

So overall, with EMS shipping the entire transaction took only 10 days! Though please keep in mind that the dress I ordered was listed as in stock so I didn't have to wait for it to be made first.


Packaging
Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to take photos of the package until after I had actually opened it, so I have none to share. However, the dress was packed in a standard shipping bag, and wrapped in a second plastic bag inside. It was clean, dry and didn't have any rips or tears.

Customer Service
Linda is such a delight to work with!! She responds unbelievably fast and answered all of my questions. Her English isn't 100% perfect, but she is still easy to understand, knowledgable and super polite. I feel extremely confident in communicating with her about my future orders and the products being sold.

~*~

Now, onto the dress itself! I ordered the Chess Story M&M Deer Dear Embroidery JSK in cream color. Honestly, this was a HUGE leap for me since I rarely ever purchase anything in Lolita other than black, and especially never anything in cream! But in the end the design of this dress absolutely stole my heart the second I laid eyes on it, and as it wasn't terribly expensive I decided to take a chance-and I'm so glad I did!

Given the structure of the dress I really only had to worry about my bust measurement. Still, despite the fact that given the measurements on the chart I should have been able to easily fit in a size L, I decided to go for an XL instead. I'm not very familiar with Chess Story (and reviews seem far and few between), so I had no idea if they ran small. I figured that given the style of the dress that even if it wound up being too big it wouldn't be overly noticeable, plus I would rather have to deal with taking a dress in then being stuck with a dress that was too small to fit comfortably.

Turns out, this dress is EXTREMELY roomy, and I'm pretty sure it could easily accommodate a bust much bigger than the 100cm size it lists. Fortunately I was right in that because the dress is meant to be flowy and that it has waist ties, I can easily adjust it to my own size. I am sad however that it does seem to be a tiny bit shorter than I had hoped it would be. But aside from the length, the dress is made of a nice, sturdy fabric, I think some sort of cotton or polyester blend which I like since it's thick and doesn't feel flimsy. It did have some loose threads out of the package and it also came with an extra button (all but one of the buttons were sewed pretty sturdy).

My favorite part is this gorgeous embroidery!!  In the photos I certainly already liked the way it looked, but in person it absolutely captures my heart! There aren't any loose threads or bald patches, and the detail is just exquisite. It also matches really nicely with the cream color of the dress, and I think this is quickly going to become one of my favorite winter dresses.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that not only is the dress  completely lined, but it has a layer of tulle lining the very bottom which also helps give it shape. The tulle itself is very stiff and scratchy, but since it's sewn over the lining it never touches bare skin which I appreciate.

I just realized I completely forgot to take any photos of the fur collar! Although on the website it mentions that the fur might not be exactly like the photo, mine turned out to look just like the one pictured. The fur itself is fairly thin and more for decorative purposes than actually providing any warmth. It came with two ribbons to tie it with, but the ribbons are fairly flimsy and I think I'm going to cut them off and pin the collar together with a cute deer themed brooch.

Overall, I love this dress! Everything from the cut to the color is so completely different from anything else I own and I feel like it's really helped set me on a new path of experimentation in terms of my style. Although I will be wearing it this weekend as I had hoped, because of it's length I sadly probably won't be wearing it again until I purchase an underskirt to go with it. However, I'm taking that as a positive since I've been putting off purchasing an underskirt for a while now, and this seems like just the push I need to get myself in gear.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this entire transaction went, I highly recommend My Lolita Dress and I certainly have plans to order from them again (hopefully very soon)!