The Mini Adventures of Shinkurose: My First Two Meet Ups of 2015 at Camellias Tea Hou...

The Mini Adventures of Shinkurose: My First Two Meet Ups of 2015 at Camellias Tea Hou...: So this year I decided to get involved more with the community but living in Bournemouth meet ups always involve some sort of travel however...

The Mini Adventures of Shinkurose: Les Filles Frou Frou at Guiq-Chaq

The Mini Adventures of Shinkurose: Les Filles Frou Frou at Guiq-Chaq: We were excited to be contacted by Tuulia, Cloudberry Lady, a Finnish Inde Brand who asked if Shinkurose would like to be included in small ...

Les Filles Frou Frou at Guiq-Chaq

We were excited to be contacted by Tuulia, Cloudberry Lady, a Finnish Inde Brand who asked if Shinkurose would like to be included in small Pop Up shop (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guiq-Chaq/176010795939467) in Paris just after La Vie en Rose.  We said yes and together with four other designers Les Filles Frou Frou came about.   The purpose of this shop was to promote European lolita designers and creators

The shop opened on February 24th and ran for three weeks with five designers in total and one digital artist coming from Sweden, Germany, Switzerland the UK and Finland. 

The Designers were as follows:

"Ergi by Piratessan" from Sweden

”Ergi by Piratessan, created by Eva Dejmo in 2006, is a Swedish fashion brand mainly focusing on creating their version of Japanese Lolita Fashion.

The full Ergi by Piratessan assortment can be found at:

http://lolitabutiken.se/ergi/

"Li-Paro" from Germany

Li-Paro is a small indie-clothing brand from Germany and was founded 2013, when the owner decided to work together with an illustrator from Germany. The main inspiration for Li-Paro is lolita fashion, from casual to classic. Currently they are working on one of a kind items, but they also create original prints and tights designs and they also make jewelry out of real flowers, like roses and daisies.

Li-Paro facebook : https://www.facebook.com/libreparuparo

Rumour&Whisper facebook : https://www.facebook.com/rumourwhisper

"Medusa Couture" from Switzerland 

Medusa Couture is a small Indie brand from Switzerland. We sell Lolita dresses and accessories and are also very happy to offer custom work.

etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/medusacouture

fb link: https://www.facebook.com/MedusaCouture

"Shinkurose" from UK

Shinkurose is a UK based Indie Brand established in 2012. We were trained in costume and bridal and bring this background to our ready to wear and bespoke garments and hats.

http://www.shinkurose.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Shinkurose

"Sirkku Tuomela digital artist" from Finland

Sirkku Tuomela is a Finnish digital artist, who loves colors and androgynous character subjects, mixing sweet and dark moods in her paintings. She has worked as an illustrator, game concept artist and comic book artist since 1999.

http://www.sirkkusylvia.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ArtofSirkkuTuomela

"Cloudberry Lady" from Finland

Cloudberry lady is a Finnish lolita fashion brand founded in 2009, the brand is specialized in millinery, dress making and footwear. Cloudberry Lady has become famous for their quality garments, custom-made leather shoes, the Renaissance inspired dress worn by Midori Fukasawa, and for their hats and bonnets, selection of which is also sold at ATELIER PIERROT!

Storenvy: http://cloudberrylady.storenvy.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CloudberryLady

The shop looked amazing and we wished we could have been there -

We love the way that all the designers items were displayed together and not segregated, it just shows how well everyone's designs complemented each other and it would be great to do this again sometime soon.  There is so much talent in Europe.

Here are a few of Shinkurose's happy customers.

We would like to say thank you to Mikiko Enomoto for looking after the shop and selling our much loved items. It would be great to be part of a pop up shop in Paris again in the future but next time we would love to attend.

My First Two Meet Ups of 2015 at Camellias Tea House and The Geffrye Museum

So this year I decided to get involved more with the community but living in Bournemouth meet ups always involve some sort of travel however I met some lovely Lolitas at Hyper Japan and other similar events and this made it easier.

2015 has started well and the first meet up I attended was a lovely tea party organised by Pippa of the Tea Party Club at Camellias Tea House on Carnaby Street in January.  Camellias was founded in 2007 and is a healthy and quirky tea company which wants to make tea drinking fashionable whilst improving your health.   The cake I had was amazing and I was very impressed with the scones which I am fussy about as my family make really, really good scones which are hard to beat but these came very close but I have to say that Camellias are much, much neater than ours.

I made some new friends and caught up with some old ones. 

My outfit for the day was from our winter collection 2013, an OP with a pintucked yoke which I accessorised with a dark purple bolero with a fur collar and muff because my hands get so cold.  The OP was made for a smaller girl than me for the photoshoot however we removed the sleeves and did some alterations and  I felt like a Victorian lady, very elegant and it is one of my favourite coords so far.   My hat is one of our boaters, this one was the lace version and decorated with flowers and feathers. 

It was very well organised and I met some awesome people.

The next meet up was again organised by Pippa and her co-host Sarah for the beginning of March. We met at The Geffrye Museum near Brick Lane, London.  This museum is beautiful and illustrates how homes have changed over the last 400 years.  It has eleven period rooms which span 1600 to present day with each room representing a living space showing how people would have lived.

I think the blue room below is an ideal Lolita house and I saw lots of things I would want in my house if I had more room.

I love the quirky murals which I photographed, the horse is especially hilarious.

I travelled up on the coach this time, not my favourite transport, so I knew I needed my choice of dress to be simpler and not so frilly and also something which would not crease as I am a fidget bum.  I went for more of an Otome Kei style using up some fabric from my stash.  There is no clear definition of Otome Kei however it focuses on dressing like a young lady, looking girly and maidenly.  My dress has a squarish neck decorated with Guipure lace, three quarter length sleeves gathered into a cuff and is high waisted and fully lined in cotton for comfort.  My bag is a delightful mushroom, an off brand bag from Camden market. I felt comfy and cute in this outfit but next time I will wear something a little more extreme as hopefully next time I won't be travelling on the coach, flipping coach, I hate coach travel!

Because of the simplicity of my dress I went to town on my hair accessory.   I have started making animal heads and using these for decoration and you can see the two I made for my headdress  here, one in fur and one in silk.  I was amazed that they turned out such different sizes as I used the same pattern!

The teddies were set on a buckram base which I covered in fake suede and decorated with flowers, robins and ribbons. I love it, it is one of my favourite belongings now.

Here is a photo of us all outside the museum and I must say thank you so much to Pippa and Sarah for their hard work in organising this lovely meet up.  I look forward to seeing everyone and their beautiful outfits again.   I would strongly recommend a visit to both Camellia Tea Rooms and The Geffrye Museum, they are both beautiful places and I hope to go again.

Until next time love, love, love Shinkurose.

Seven Reasons to Wear Lolita

My name is Emily and I wear Lolita Fashion.

If like me you have found Lolita fashion you will know that it isn't just a fashion but  lifestyle choice and for those of you still searching for your fashion and style choice here are a few reasons why Lolita is a brilliant one.

1        The Look - the roots are in historical fashion so the outfits have 'pouf', lace, ruffles and plenty of embellishments.  You can describe the fashion as cute or kawaii however it can also be elegant but it is always feminine and modest.

2      Hair Accessories - every style of Lolita Fashion requires adornment of the  hair often with more than one accessory.  Even before I started wearing Lolita fashion I always wore something in my hair, I feel undressed whatever the occasion with nothing in my hair.

3      Confidence - dressing in a style you love whether it is every day or for special occasions is empowering.  Feeling good makes you confident and helps on those days when the outside world seems to be a scary place.  I have always found talking with new people difficult however when I am dressed up I gain a confidence that I haven't had before and am able to go out and meet new people and work and talk at exhibitions.

4     Those Bags - every girl loves a hand bag and there is no exception in Lolita just more choice.  Who doesnt like a bag shaped like a cookie, a doughnut or maybe a more classic bag in an imprinted leather or a dark gothic bat shaped bag, there is a huge range to suit everyone.

                    

5     Variety  -  the fashion isn't limited to one colour or one style and although the silhouette is vital any theme can be incorporated into your coordinate.  The three main styles are sweet, classic and gothic but all of these can crossover e.g  classic/sweet, gothic/classic etc and there are other subgenera such as sailor, hime, punk and many, many more.  I like to mix my styles whereas others stick to just one style, again it is whatever makes you happy.

6    Creativity - it is a wonderful creative and exciting fashion and often it feels like you are making your own art in what you wear.  I am looking forward as well to designing more of my own border prints.

                                               

7   Finally the Puffy Skirts - not all the styles have puffy skirts but I love them, they suit  my shape and I have always had a love for big skirts from the 1950's, Victorian etc.  I love the contrast between a fitted bodice and the larger skirts.  It is fantastic to wear a fashion which takes its inspiration from the past but moves forward and experiments.

The above are some of my reasons for loving the fashion, I would love to know your opinions please leave your comments in the box below. 

AnimangaPop

Our first event of the year was AniMangaPop which is a small yet very succesful show hosted in Plymouth.  The venue was The Holiday Inn right on The Hoe.  

The organisers are 'Fantasy Events' who have teamed up with the 'Keep It Secret Group'.  Fantasy Events have over 20 years of experience in putting on shows and we found their organisation excellent and the show ran like clockwork. Keep It Secret started seven years ago and have their own Kawaii boutique stores in the South West. 

Due to the time of year we decided to travel down on the Friday in case of bad weather and it was a real treat to be able to set up the day before.

The photo above shows the stand nearly set up, we just needed to tweak it the next morning. Over the last few years we have been working on our display as it is difficult to have easy to carry display shelves which are attractive however  we are very pleased with the fold up shelves we have customised that you can see below. 

We also have a couple of perspex shelves which are great as they add height without distracting from the hats.

For our last two shows we have put our items together in colour families as we have found that this works better than displayed in types. What you can not see from these photos is our clothes rail and mannequin which we take to events.

It was great to start the day with a lovely breakfast and not to be eating breakfast nearer lunchtime which is what usually happens. 

This was a feast but lunch was just half a sandwich!!

It is always difficult to decide what to wear to a show but this time Emily chose 'Discovery of the Ocean Rose' OP in black, one of her favourite dresses, worn with 4 different hair accessories (a girl can never have too much in her hair), one of which you can just see is our tiny baby fawn horns which come in a multitude of colours.  These are sparkly green decorated with bows but a lot of them have crystals and pearls.  She wanted to wear the larger horns but they didn't quite go with her coord but at our next event she will be wearing  her new print which is an enchanted forest and the larger horns will be perfect.

The show opened at 9.30 for the VIPs and 10 for everyone else.  The show was really well organised with lots of performers as well as time for shopping. Scarlett Young who was voted UK Kawaii Star at Hyper Japan and appears on Japanese television was the first performer and also singing was Kelsey Ellison, a You Tube sensation.

There was also Momoiro Otome Ensemble (MOE), maid cafe performers and a great Kendo, Way of the Sword, performance, a Japanese Martial Art.

  

What is great about comic cons is the cosplayers, so many people put such a lot of effort and love into their costumes and it makes for a colourful and happy day.

These are just a few cosplayers which we managed to photograph.

There is also always a wide variety of different vendors such as artists, jewellery designers, cute things, bags, sometimes wigs but always the favourite the plushie store.  Below are the items Emily bought this time.

The Pocky came from Keep it Secret,  www.facebook.com/keepitsecret, the art from Anita Yip www.porukachii.deviantart.com and a suprise My Little Pony box from a collectibles stall local to Plymouth and inside was the character Discord.

We had a great day and look forward to the next one.