Betsey Johnson is a big-name designer that I just adore! Her designs cater to those a little outside of the mainstream, and would fit perfectly in the arms of one who follows Japanese street fashions.

Today’s highlighted Betsey Johnson products will be purses and bags!

QUILTED LOVE HEART WRISTLETBRIGHT pink, wow!! I love anything with hearts. And bows. So this little handbag is a winner!! There are a few other colors available as well. n_n

BETSEYS BOUQUET XBODY BAGThis blingy design definitely reminds me of Hime or Ageha looks and would be FABYOOLUSS with any of those formal dresses I posted a few days ago. Basically just slap a big bow on anything and I’ll love it.

TEA PARTY FRAME XBODY BAGIT’S PINK AND THERE ARE BOWS ON IT.

LOVE FOLDS FRAMEDesigns like this that are simultaneously elegant and cute are the reason I went ahead and categorized this post under Lolita as well. This is the sort of bag a princess would carry around on her night out on the town.

FLORAL WRISTLETAnd here’s a sweet piece to round off the end of this post with. Black looks good with everything and a floral design will keep you look girly and elegant. The lacy-ish design in the corners is what really won me over, though!

Betsey Johnson’s stuff may be leagues out of my price range, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire them from afar!

And that’s just what I’ll do.

Probably forever.

;_;

August 28, 2011

I’m so happy! 😀 A few months ago, I treated myself to my first Lolita purchase. <3  As I waited, I sewed my first garments to go along with it. <3  And now, finally, I’m taking the first little baby steps toward living my princessy life~

‘Scuse me while I block out my messy room with crayon hearts. XD ((Brush credit goes to Colors Everywhere by Ronjark.))
I tried to make the outfit replicate the gif I made those months ago:

Do you think I succeeded? XD  (Don’t answer that lul.  The color is off and I exaggerated the poof in the drawing. <3)

I’m still in the process of wrapping my head around the fact that this is mine. ;~; I feel like I am just looking at someone else’s photos on the Internet. If this were Tumblr I would like the pic and just keep scrolling, pining away in my heart for those clothes to someday be mine. But they ARE mine! oAo THIS IS AMAZING.

Let’s show some details of the outfit from head to toe~

My tiara from Claire’s and huge flowery headband from Charlotte Russe are tough to wear at the same time. XD
Here’s the super pretty details at the neckline:

That picture didn’t really need hearts but I put them there anyway. XD
The lower half:

I am pleased with the poof my petticoat is providing, but I am blown away by the potential volume of this skirt!! I am definitely making a second petticoat out of twice the material I used the first time. More layers and more ruffles, I say! MORE! There’s plenty of room under this skirt, let’s fill it up! 8U

Can I talk about how in love I am with these socks? I know that silly colorful ponies don’t exactly coordinate with the more elegant dress, but I just fell in love with the fantasy pony theme of these socks and couldn’t not get them. Also these are officially the whitest socks that I own and I’m terrified of wearing them casually because they are doomed to turn dingy grey just like all of my other once-white socks. ;A;

As for the shoes – I’m sure I measured my feet accurately, and correctly converted the measurement into centimeters, but they are really big on me! There is a lot of space between the criss-crossing straps and the top of my foot. Oh, they’re not so big that they’re impossible or uncomfortable to wear. I’m going to put some arch supports or something in them to fill up the empty space a bit as well as simultaneously put some cushioning in there. n_n I’m actually glad for the extra room because it means I can wear thicker socks, or layer stockings + socks when it’s cold in the Winter.

Adorable shoes like these are what I always think of as one of the important staples of Sweet Lolita fashion, and like the outfit as a whole I still can’t believe that I actually own something this cute!! oAo My mind is totally blown!

I attempted that perspective shot that everyone else seems to do. XD How do you guys manage to do those without falling over?! There is so much poof in the way you can’t even see your feet without bending way over. oAo (Lol I <3 my throw rug.)

I thought I was done taking pictures, but then I sat down at my laptop and my skirt tried to eat the keyboard, which left me giggling so much I snapped a shot of that, too:

(Didn’t even notice Vivi was in this shot until I was editing it on my computer. XD)

I pretty much spent the whole day marveling at the ruffles and the poof and the omg. Sitting down with the skirt out around you… It’s like miles and miles of ruffles stretching out forever and ever on all sides.

This must be what happiness looks like. <3

August 4, 2011

Woo! All right! Here we go! A shopping review post, just as promised!

Today I would like to talk about shoes. My reasoning behind choosing this particular category is because there’s this store, see, and it’s got these pretty mind-blowing shoes.

See what I mean?

Anyway, this store is called Dream Vision. I have in the past always referred to it as “Dream V,” because that’s what’s in its url. It is also commonly referred to as “Yume Tenbo,” but I think it might be more commonly made one word as “Yumetenbo.” This store has a lot of names. The main thing you need to know is that you can shop its overseas shipping page here.

I’ve briefly mentioned Dream Vision before, in my Rakuten Shopping Guide. c: Furthermore, almost all of the shoes I’m going to spotlight in this post have already been posted on my Kawaii Shopping Tumblr, an experimental blog I set up in catalogue format, because I thought Tumblr was very well suited to that sort of thing. Unfortunately I haven’t been updating Kawaii Shopping very frequently, but, I’d love to change that. c:

So let’s move on with the feature. I’m just going to quickly highlight some of my very favorite shoes Dream Vision offers!

WAH look at those!! @3@They’re frilly and dainty and have a big bow on them. I don’t know how comfortable it is to have a ring around your toe that’s attached to your shoe, but it’s a really unique touch. I am of course partial to the ones available in white and pink.

These are super elegant.Plus they have bows on them! With hearts in the middle of the bows! This is how you take girliness and turn it into elegance.

These are slippers eeeee!!I am always wearing SOME kind of footwear around the house – I just can’t go around barefoot, or even just with socks on! I would totally love to own these, they would make me feel princessy and girlish even when I’m just chillin’ at home.

More super elegant pumps.These get major bonus points for having the heel shaped like a heart!!

Fun furry boots!!My favorite colorway is the pink boot with white fur. These would look awesome with a feminine coat.

These are SO feminine and cute.They have just a bit of a wedge, which I just love. Don’t you love the sweet colors they come in? n_n

Ahhhh more slippers!!FLUFFY BOWS!! 8U I just get really excited about some things, okay??

Did someone ask for massive flowers on their sandals?’Cause we’ve got massive flowers on our sandals.

Massive flower x3 combo

Let’s finish off this feature with these gorgeous things!That floral print looks like something vintage. Extremely ladylike. These are for going on picnics in. I LOVE the minty green colorway.

That’s all for now, but I’ll probably feature Dream Vision’s shoes again in the future, because there are just SO MANY amazing ones.

By the way, if you didn’t notice, you can click any of the images here to be brought straight to the page where you can plop them right into your shopping cart. 😀 None of these shoes are over $30, isn’t that AWESOME?! So go indulge yourselves. 8D

Shop Dream Vision now!

May 31, 2011

EXCITEMENT.  Just a couple of days ago, I made my first Lolita purchase.  I’ve been admiring the fashion for definitely more than a year now, probably closer to two years.

There are a lot of reasons why I didn’t dive into it right after learning of its existence, and the expense is a big one.  But I’ve been really smart with my money these past two years and, by golly, I deserve a little treat for myself!  I’ve had a lot of time to put research into this fashion and the subculture surrounding it, and I am more than ready to embrace the princessly lifestyle for myself!

I know Dear Celine isn’t among the most coveted brands out there, but when I browse through their selection of available items, I am blindingly infatuated with nearly every one of them.  All of their original designs are SO FRILLY!! The pink dress on the left, titled Spring Sweet Candy Check, is what I purchased.  It is just the right amount of elegant and cute. This is my princess dress. It is being manufactured right now to fit my exact measurements. <3

I also purchased socks and an adorable pair of shoes! I can’t wait until I receive them so I can show them off to you! X3

That may not be for about a month, though, due to the amount of time required to manufacture a custom-sized garment.  Plus, I ordered using  a slower shipping method, to save just a little bit of money. <3

I’ll be making my own bloomers and petticoat!  The bloomers are actually almost done – I will probably finish them today!  Maybe some burst of productivity will happen and I’ll get the petticoat down, too!

Oh!  I almost forgot.  I made this gif out sheer excitement the other day. XD

Hahaha, that’s not even a very good representation of the dress. XD  And yes, I am totally aware that I am completely ridiculous.  I just can’t help myself~  I’m so looking forward to having my princess dress!

xoxo

Bridget

Update: Princess Training: Foundations
and finally; Princess Training: The First Steps~

May 24, 2011

Lots of the shopping coverage on my site will be related to Rakuten in some way, so let’s get familiarized with it now. c:

To put it in the simplest of terms, Rakuten is a huge conglomeration of Japanese stores. It’s easy to comparatively say that Rakuten is like Japan’s Amazon. Many, but not all, of Rakuten’s stores ship internationally.

First, let’s get Rakuten’s site in English.

Wow, look at that! You were expecting everything to be in Japanese, weren’t you?

Now, to make sure that the stuff you search for can be shipped to your country, click on the corresponding flag!

This part is important!! For example, if you live in the United States, you definitely and for sure want to be browsing here, because anything you search for from that page is sure to ship to the United States – it’s automatically filtered for you!

I cannot stress enough how convenient this is. It is a huge bummer when you’ve selected all of your items and are about to check out, only to find that they can’t ship to your area. Click your flag from the main page, bookmark it, and never have to worry about it again.

Just like with Amazon, it is possible to place orders through Rakuten without an account with them, but it will be made a lot easier for you if you do. So let’s walk through how to sign up.

Everything is in English and automatically set to “For people living outside of Japan.”

Fill out all of the information as it asks – it’s basically your regular sign-up stuff.

!Note!: Sometimes, even though all of this information is asked for at signup, I still get a prompt when actually checking out. This prompt looks different and can be confusing, so I’ll post it here:

And that’s it for signing up!

Let’s move on to searching and browsing and shoppinnnnggg!!

Like I said before, you want to start with your country’s correct page, so let’s go back here and choose your corresponding country. I bookmark mine so I don’t have to repeat this step!

Type something into the search bar and that’s it! You can narrow it down by choosing categories such as Women’s Apparel or Shoes.

When I see something especially cute, I like to follow the link to the shop’s name to go to everything that shop carries! I bookmark so many of these shops it is not even funny.

When your shopping cart contains items from different shops, your order will be ‘split up’ between those shops and you’ll have to view all of your shopping carts separately.

It’s a good idea to keep your shopping sprees limited to just one or two shops, because shipping is calculated separately for each order! There is no way that I’ve ever found to combine all of your items into one big order.

Here’s my shopping cart for Dream Vision, one of my most favoritest Rakuten shops. <3

There’s not much of a difference between Checkout and Quick Checkout. Both lead to a sign-in page, and if you’ve already input your address and billing information at signup, you shouldn’t have to input any additional things for either of them. I usually choose Quick Checkout just… because… I have to choose one and Quick Checkout makes me feel better as a person, okay?! ;~;

You should always sign in before purchasing because you gradually rack up points! Every 50 points puts 1 yen in your account, and eventually it adds up and can get you some sweet little discounts!

Before clicking the final Place Your Order, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what your shipping rate is going to be!

Okay, that’s the end of my guide for now! I’ll add more to this if I think of something!

Go shopping now!