Sunday 27 March 2016

The Opening of Leur Getter Kyoto

After a 17 hour flight, including a 6 hour stop-over in Singapore, I arrived in Japan on Thursday morning. I often read Misako Aoki's blog and she mentioned that she would be attending the opening of a new Leur Getter shop in Kyoto on the 26th. I met Misako at the Kera shop in Osaka last year in June so I was really excited at the possibility of meeting her again. Here's a picture from Misako's blog from the meet at Kera Osaka in May last year. It truly was great to be able to meet her and have a chat.



I admit I spent a good deal of time getting ready so I was late leaving the house and didn't get a snap of my outfit before leaving. There was also the problem of the mirror in the hallway being cluttered with luggage. (Most embarrassing behaviour.)
I wore a very similar outfit to this one below with the only change being the brown Innocent World head band that I wore with the cream beret. 



Luckily, I managed to catch the right train and arrived in Kyoto at 10:30am. The opening was scheduled for 12 so I decided to check out the place where Leur Getter was and then look for a place to get lunch before heading to the actual opening. I exited the station and headed to Teramachi street. If you're familiar with Kyoto you may know the Teramachi street shopping area and maybe even the Metamorphose shop there. The Leur Getter store is about a minute walk on Teramachi street opposite the shopping mall exit closest to Metamorphose. 



After finding the store's location, I returned to the Teramachi Mall and decided to take lunch at the Lipton cafe right at the exit onto Shijo street. The Lipton cafe is a quaint chain cafe around Japan. The main draw card is voluminous Western-style sweets and special drinks, however there is also a lunch menu, both of which can be ordered in a "set" which is a food plus a simple drink for a special price. I chose the daily lasagne with meat and eggplant and an ice coffee. When the drink arrived I realised I had missed a great opportunity of drinking a Lipton tea at the Lipton cafe and to be honest the coffee was not to my taste. The lasagne, however, was amazing. A thick topping of tasty white sauce topped with cheese with two layers of pasta with rich beef mince and eggplant. It was very hot so it took me a while to eat the whole thing but I enjoyed. Every. Single. Mouthful. 



By the time I had finished it was around 11:30am so I fixed my beret and lipgloss and headed down Teramachi street to wait for the opening. When I arrived the shop was already open and the little shop was full to bursting with keen Lolitas. Out the front was the creative director of Leur Getter, and Misako Aoki. 
The creative director is a wonderful older lady who was also the head designer of Emily Temple Cute but has moved on to heading this brand. I was very lucky to meet her once before when she came to look after a boutique in Kyoto for the weekend. She remembered me too! She is very easy to talk to and spoke about how happy she was to open the store and encouraged me to enter the shop and try something on as it would "surely suit me". 
I also spoke to Misako Aoki, who looked gorgeous in a full Leur Getter outfit. This picture is from her Line Blog. 



She asked me about my trip and where I was going. I mentioned that I was interested in going to Tokushima. She laughed as she professed that despite being Japanese she'd never been to Tokushima. I asked her if she was going to do anymore events but she answered that she was unsure if she would be doing anything in the Hyogo/Kyoto area while I would be in Japan. 

Misako wasn't taking pictures at the opening event but if I had bought something over ¥20 800 I could have gone to a flower viewing party with Misako later in the day. Being the first week in Japan, I decided against buying something so expensive so quickly. I took my leave at this point so that more Lolitas could browse the store. I took a few pictures of the shop front and said goodbye to the newly opened Leur Getter shop. 



Teramachi is very close to OPA Kawaramachi, where Baby the Stars Shine Bright is. When I lived in Japan in 2014/2015 Angelic Pretty hadn't opened. I believe that my visiting Baby in Kyoto greatly affected my own style. It was so wonderful to meet up with the staff, Bambi and Leo. Leo helped me to try on the new releases Snow Dot JSK in sax, Marie Antoinette JSK and skirt. She is amazing at tying waist ties, there's a video of her doing it on the net floating around somewhere. I was quick to cast my eye over the blouses and after a serious conversation with Leo about which would sell out first I decided to get the blouse. Surprise! I had forgot my passport. Without it, I could not get it tax-free so I put down ¥1 000 to hold it for a week. 

So, my next adventure is decided! I'm still unsure what I will do next week but I do know it will involve the acquisition of a beautiful chiffon blouse from the new Easter series. I hope you will join me then!




Friday 4 March 2016

Packing for Japan

Hi all... 

It's already two weeks until I move out of my country town and three weeks until I head to the land of the rising sun for a few months. 



I have been thinking about what to take with me for a while and after seeing Roli's Ramblings post on packing a weeks worth of outfits I decided to give it a go myself. The items are chosen using a system based off the hypothetical wardrobe posts that are common on her blog, they dictate the amount of items and and the item traits in order to create a complete and versatile wardrobe for many different occasions.

Here is what I chose based on Roli's formula...


Three Main pieces

One one piece, one jumper-skirt and one skirt including one solid-colour piece.
  • Mystic Chiffon One-piece (navy), Alice and the Pirates
  • Collection Chocolatier Douce Praline Jumper-skirt (Sax), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
  • Wonderparty Skirt (Brown), Angelic Pretty

Mystic Chiffon OP from Alice and the Pirates is my solid colour piece. I chose Collection Chocolatier Douce, praline jumper-skirt because it's my favourite, most versatile piece and simply perfect for the spring weather in Japan. Lastly, I picked out my Wonderparty Skirt by Angelic Pretty. My first impression laying them out on the bed was that they may clash or prove to be difficult to coordinate.

Three Blouses

Two neutral blouses including one short-sleeve and a different coloured or dressier blouse
  • Pintuck Blouse (Off-white), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
  • Sheer sleeve knit blouse (off-white), Off-brand
  • Carolyne Blouse (beige), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
As I discussed in my wardrobe post, I don't really have any short sleeve blouses that are in working condition so I chose two long sleeve white blouses: one plain pin tuck blouse from Baby the Stars Shine Bright and a dressy knit that I use as a blouse which I picked up for $15 in an off brand shop. For the third blouse I chose my Carolyne blouse in beige (it's shiny so I initially thought it was gold), which is also a dressier piece.

Two pieces of outerwear

One short-sleeve and one long sleeve

  • Short Sleeve Knit Cardigan (Off-white), Metamorphose
  • Cardigan with fur collar (navy), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
I chose my short sleeve cardigan from Metamorphose and a long sleeve cardigan from Baby with a detachable collar. Detachable items are really useful for easily creating versatility, however the drawback is that they often are bulkier than similar items without the detachable pieces and this can make it difficult to create a nice line for those who are just on the edge of brand measurements, like myself. 

Leg wear

One pair of stockings, one pair of over knee socks and one pair of ankle socks including one solid colour piece

  • Esprit de la belle epoque de paris over-knee socks (ivory), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
  • Kumya Kuma over-knee socks (beige), Baby the Stars Shine Bright
I chose two pairs of over knee socks: one, a translucent pattern and the other, a beige pair with kumya kuma on them. I currently have no solid colour opaque tights that are in working order.
 

Accessories

  • Hat: ivory beret, BtSSB 
  • Pin: navy beret ribbon pin, BtSSB; chocolatier pin, BtSSB 
  • Barret: brown barrett with yellow roses, BtSSB;  Ivory Ribbon and Crown Barrett, Innocent World
  • Headband: two  striped ribbon head bands in navy and brown, Innocent World
  • Necklace: Alice teatime necklace, BtSSB, original crown and trump necklace, Innocent World
  • Ring: Alice teatime ring, BtSSB 
For accessories I just pulled a few accessories together considering colours in my wardrobe and luggage space. 

Shoes

Two pairs of shoes that go with everything
  •  Ribbon pumps in chocolate, Innocent World
I already have a few pairs of shoes in Japan, a pair of flats and heels in white and a pair of boots and heels in brown, that I couldn't bring back last time so I will only take one pair of shoes over that suit most things in my wardrobe.


After picking out what I will take over the first thing I noticed was that it was easy to see the holes in my wardrobe using this method. It was very easy to see that I lack plain coloured pieces, in particular leg wear, something I will need to rectify in the near future.


Outfits

Here are the outfits I came up with from my hypothetical suitcase...











As you can see there is a large variety of outfits for a different weather and occasions. I probably could have created more if I hadn't have become so tired due to changing outfits so often. 

Observations

I had no idea these cardigans would come so in handy, simply layering the cardigan can change an outfit drastically. 

Doing this experiment really shows me how versatile my wardrobe has become over the past two years and it has further solidified my view on the positives of having a wardrobe based on colour palette.

Changes

As I'm going to Japan for far longer than a week (three months actually) so I would like to add a few more items to my suitcase. Specifically, two more jsks: the Dear Bunny JSK, which I promised to twin with a friend with and my Kumya Kuma Sweet Chocolate JSK, which I just really want to wear in Japan; I would also like to add a pair of plain coloured woolen tights to keep my legs warm during the cooler spring months.





All in all I'm really satisfied having done this challenge. The formula really worked for my wardrobe and it has allowed me to create many different outfits. Even if I wasn't going overseas, participating in this challenge has given me lots of coordinate ideas and has shown me where the holes in my wardrobe are. If you're stuck for outfit ideas or need a start on packing some lolita fashion for a trip I would recommend using this challenge as a starting point.

Until next time...


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