Elegant Poupée

Monday, 20 February 2012

Edo Tokyo Museum

Hello readers!

Today I have some pictures to show you of my visit to the Edo Tokyo Museum. It's a great museum where you can learn a lot about the history of Tokyo in a really fun way! There are reconstructions of various buildings of different eras and the exhibits recreate daily life in Tokyo through the ages.

First though, my outfit:

I wore my new Meta socks and axes femme cutsew with my faithful old gobelins jsk.

The museum is near the sumo "stables" and we saw some sumo players squeezing through the ticket barriers at Ryogoku.

Made another friend!

Outside the museum.

Edo used to be almost permanently on fire, and ornately tattooed fire fighters would carry a banner like this on their way to put out the flames. It's jolly heavy, but look at me lifting it with ease! (Ignore that chain suspending it form the ceiling....)

This is how woodblock prints are made! The bottom row are the printing plates, and the picture is built up in layers.

You can buy the results at a bookshop like this! If you have access to a time machine. Actually I wish I did!

There was a special exhibition of artefacts featuring dragons in honour of the New Year. This coat with gold embroidery was stunning! I want to be a prince and wear it.

How about this snazzy rikshaw? I would worry about tumbling out of it though....

I actually did fit in this reproduction of a 1950s Japanese-style house, believe it or not!

This is a Western-style room from a Showa (I think) era house. I think it's so adorable, like the dwarves' cottage from Snow White! Sadly the house is no longer standing, but this room is preserved in the museum.

These paddles were produced to promote a stage show, I think they're beautiful! It's lovely how these traditional objects have been updated over the years but never forgotten. These ones are so of their era.

After visiting the museum, we went to Venus Fort, a shopping centre built with an Italian renaissance theme. There were some nice shops like Anna Sui and Michal Negrin, but the ceiling reflects the real state of the sky according to the time of day and as we went in the evening it made me quite sleepy!

The train journey there was very enjoyable. We took the Yurikamome line, which is up in the sky! The views of the skyscrapers and of Tokyo Bay were lovely.

Finally we had dinner in a Hawaiian restaurant. I'm not sure how authentic it was (is taco rice really Hawaiian??) but it was delicious.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

See you next time,

Sapphira

xxxx

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Vintage Shopping for the Lolita Part One: Where to go in England

Hello dear readers!

How are you this weekend? I hope you're having fun.

Some time ago I asked for some suggestions about how to improve this blog, and there was a request for some more information about where I get my vintage items from. If you read the rundowns of my outfit posts you'll notice a lot of vintage pieces listed! I have always bought second-hand clothes and appreciated their history, and nowadays I think they lend themselves very well to the antique style of classic lolita.

Since this is a subject I have a lot of enthusiasm about I've decided to make a series of posts about Vintage Shopping for the Lolita. Of course, due to my personal taste I can't help things being more geared towards classical style, but I hope that these posts will have something to offer to all lolitas and also to any person interested in vintage clothes.

This first post is about my favourite places to go vintage shopping here in the south of England. I've managed to go to second-hand shops in more exotic locations too but I'll leave that for another time.

1. Brick Lane, London

This area has a huge number of vintage boutiques as well as weekend markets which are great places to find a bargain. I like Rokit which has a couple of shops close to each other. There's a mix of different styles and eras, the clothes are in good condition and are cleaned before being put into the shop (this is not always the case in Brick Lane!) and the prices are reasonable. The selection of dresses and bags is particularly nice. If you are looking for a really stunning vintage piece, I highly recommend This Shop Rocks. Their speciality is ladylike clothing, from beautiful, delicate Edwardian gowns to adorable 50s circle skirts.

Rokit

101 & 107

Brick Lane

London E1 6SE

This Shop Rocks

131 Brick Lane

London E1 6RU

This polka dotted dress was bought at a Saturday market in Brick Lane

2. Lewes, East Sussex

This historical town boasts a number of flea markets, antique shops, antiquarian bookshops and a Norman castle. I like to go to The Needlemakers, where in the basement there are several antique/vintage shops. There's usually a Judy Garland record playing, another good reason to go! As well as clothes from every decade there are also ornaments, perfume bottles, books, records, make-up, costume jewelery and so on.

The Needlemakers

West Street

Lewes BN7 2NZ

Black handbag from a flea amrket in Lewes

3. North Laine, Brighton, East Sussex

I grew up and live just outside Brighton, so this is my home ground. North Laine is quite a famous area filled with unique shops of every kind as well as cafes and even a toy museum. My old favourite is Snooper's Paradise, a flea market. I think it's getting nicer and nicer in terms of vintage clothing! The upper floor is now filled with lovely dresses and blouses and skirts and there are several clothing stalls downstairs too. In recent years there have been more and more vintage shops springing around North Laine. One of the nicest I think is Kate & Aud, which has lovely feminine items. The shop itself is rather pretty and classic lolita-ish inside.

Snooper's Paradise

7-8 Kensington Gardens

Brighton BN1 4AL

Kate & Aud

27 Trafalgar Street

Brighton BN1 4ED

Bag from Kate & Aud

4. Charity shops, everywhere

Charity shops are a fixture in most British towns, and I love them! You never know what you might find- some days it will be nothing but sparkly tops with half the sequins off and giant bobbly sweaters, another day your heart will skip a beat when you discover among those sweaters a blouse with perfect lace or a beautiful summer dress.

I found this pretty dress among the Halloween costumes in a charity shop!

I hope you enjoyed this post! I know that not all my blog readers live in the UK, but if you have the chance to visit perhaps this might come in useful. The next time I write about vintage clothes I think I'll share some general tips for vintage shopping, what do you think? Is there anything you'd like to ask?

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Sapphira

xxxx

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Culture Clashes in Yokohama

Hello dear readers!

Today's post is another installment of my travel adventures, this time to Yokohama.

The day started well with a most excellent sleep on the train from Tokyo! I'd been sleeping quite badly around that time, which is most usual for me as I'm generally liable to fall asleep as soon as I stop moving.

The first place we went was Chinatown. Yokohama's Chinatown is the biggest in Japan, and in fact Yokohama (being a port) has a long history of cultural exchange with foreign nations.

I was very excited to see this Rocky Horror poster outside one of the restaurants! I'd love to see it in Japanese.

We had lunch at a famous Chinese restaurant. I liked the grand, heavy Chinese furniture a lot. Unfortunately I was less impressed by the food. I hoped it was a one off experience but I met up with a friend from Singapore later on, and she mentioned that Chinese food in Japan was pretty awful. I would always believe a Singaporean about food, so I'd advise just soaking up the bustling atmosphere in Chinatown. Unfortunately for me that involved being hooted at by a teenage chesnut seller! In general you don't experience those sort of things (which are a regular occurence in England) when wearing Lolita in Japan. Still, these things are to expected and I enjoyed my little visit to Chinatown nonetheless.

The next place we went was very lovely- the Yamate district. This is a hilly area where many foreigners lived from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, in grand Western-style buildings. These buildings have been restored and are open to public viewing free of charge.

The first one we visited was the Diplomat House. It was built by an American architect in the American Victorian style. I think this was my favourite one of all!

Although it is ostensibly Western-style, I detected a bit of Japanese taste too. In fact the diplomat who lived there with his family was Japanese.

This display of children's things was so cute! The pine decorations are for new year.

A view of the ornamental garden and the rest of Yokohama. Being so high up, the views and the air are lovely. I would have liked to be the ojousama of this house!

Next we took a short walk to Berrick Hall in Motomachi park. The houses are grouped in various parks close to each other, and since the area is very pleasant there are plenty of nice things to see on your way.

Berrick Hall is the biggest of these residences. It's a Spanish-style mansion that was built for a British trader. By the way, please excuse my funny green slippers in these photos! No outside shoes are allowed in these houses.

Berrick Hall was also used as a boarding house for one of the nearby private schools. Sadly the school was closed in the 1990s. There is some school memorabila displayed about the place, but the restoration has been so complete that I couldn't imagine what it must have been like as a boarding house. I think that's a bit of a shame!

I want a dress in this lovely deep teal-green colour!

The nursery room. I think Mr Berrick had a son? It was a very sweet, airy little room.

This is one of the buildings we saw on our walk. It's so cute isn't it? It reminds rather of Austrian houses. We also passed the Sacred Heart Cathedral and Christian cemeteries.

Finally we went to the biggest park, Harbour View Park, where we had tea in the Rose Garden Cafe in the basement of the British House.

This cafe specialises in rose desserts and drinks. The drinking water we were served tasted of roses! I had the rose roll cake, and my companion had the rose chiffon cake. Both were very nice, with a natural rose taste, not too sickly sweet. The waitresses had old fashioned aprons trimmed with lace, and attached to the cafe was a very adorable gift shop selling rose goods.

We also met this pretty cat enjoying the afternoon sun. She miaowed at me but was far too comfortable to get up.

I had a wonderful time in Yokohama, I really like that city! I'd like to spend more time there in the future. Next time I'd like to visit the Doll Museum, which unfortunately was closed that day. I've heard there's a cat museum and a curry museum too!

The best thing I saw was the mix of cultures. What I admire most about Japan is it's abilty to absorb influences from all over the world and from that produce something uniquely Japanese. Lolita fashion is a perfect example of this, I feel.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Sapphira

xxxxx

Sunday, 12 February 2012

The Versatile Blogger

Piperita Patty of Stylebunny was kind enough to give me The Versatile Blogger award. Thank you Piperita Patty! Her blog is both interesting and informative, covering many different aspects of fashion and always engagingly written.

The rules of this are that those awarded should write seven things that they haven't said before, and award 15 other blogs.

Here are my seven things (I hope I haven't mentioned them before):

1) I once entered a competition to become the face of the High Street chain Miss Selfridge. I didn't win it!

2) When I was younger I refused to wear skirts, only trousers. Unfortunately this phase coincided with my growth spurt, and my poor mother had to sew extensions on my jeans which would become an inch too short the weekend after they were bought.

3) I took ballet classes for many years, but for a little while I also took windsurfing lessons! It was fun at the time, but I don't think I'll be taking it up again.

4) I used to be crazy for the Harry Potter series, and wrote my own appalling fanfictions.

5) I was offered a place at Bath University to study pharmacy. I didn't get the right grades at A-level however, and decided I'd be better off studying fashion design.

6) I got into fashion school by presenting my designs for a fictional visual kei band. The teacher who interviewed me must have thought I was mad!

7) I used to think that the little red haired boy in The Snowman was David Bowie.