Brighton Japan Festival

Last weekend I took part in two Lolita fashion shows as part of Brighton Japan Festival!

~coat is by Innocent World~

I arrived at the festival quite early somehow! I had a chance to eat some takoyaki before the show. I don't know if it's my absolute favourite food, but it must be somewhere in the top ten! I'm really fond of Japanese mayonnaise too. All mayonnaise is good, but JP mayo is more eggy, and therefore the best! 

Now you know how greedy I am, on to the first fashion show! This was the "Sweet Lolita Catwalk"; you've basically seen my outfit before but for the show I changed my hairstyle to a shoulder-length wig and my shoes to the plain white mary-janes, to make it even more ama-loli!

JSK- Metamorphose

Bow- Handmade

Everything else- Vintage and offbrand

My lovely friend, ichigo_shock, who organised the catwalk, also provided us with these cute balloons!

I always get nervous about this sort of thing, but once I was on the stage I really enjoyed myself! The audience were very smily and nice, so I think that helped. 

All the Sweet Lolita models came out together at the end. The other girls all looked so amazing, and I loved how everyone had their own style! I felt very inspired seeing their wonderful coordinates, and I want to try harder with my own, especially with accessories.

You can see the wonderful Herajika in the picture above, looking as usual as if she leapt from the pages of GLB! In the strawberry dress is azura_mel, one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen <3  

There was a gap between this show and the later one. I took the opportunity to look around the festival. There were quite a few things going on. and a fair few people, though the weather was rather grey and dreary. This somewhat mis-matched couple came to soak up the atmosphere:

Too cute!

On to the second show, the Gothic Lolita Catwalk! This one was also really fun; I tried to channel a bit of 'vampire romance' into my walk.

OP- Juliette et Justine

Tights- Vivienne Westwod

Corsages, sash- Handmade

Everything else- Vintage and offbrand

I don't really have many strictly Gothic items, but I did my best and I think this coord could be called "Classic-Gothic" at least! A bit difficult to see in these pictures, but I wore a sheer blouse, chiffon sash and lace tights. Please use your imagination!

I changed my wig too! I haven't worn wigs before, only extensions occaisonally, so I was a little apprehensive of them falling off my head into the terrified audience. Luckily they stayed on! And they kept my little head nice and warm too. 

With beautiful Herajika again (she made that bonnet! So talented!), and you can just about see a glimpse my friend Wing's fabulous gold shoes.

I had a lot of fun at the festival! I hope you enjoyed the pictures. See you again soon!

Thank you, followers!

Hello hello! I have noticed that Elegant Poupée now has over 100 followers, and I must say I'm very happy indeed. 

I'm glad to think that the things I've been writing and the pictures I've been posting have been of interest to so many, and I have really enjoyed reading your comments and getting to know you. Thank you so much for making this blog such a pleasure to have! I look forward to writing more and more entries.

Yesterday I took part in a Lolita catwalk in dear old Brighton, and I'll be writing a full report of that soon. For now, I'll just post a teaser picture of my gothic outfit, which I think was my best attempt at gothic to date. I really want to try more gothic coords, and try to improve my classic ones too! Yesterday was really inspiring, so I'll gather up my pictures and write a nice long post!.

Thank you again, and see you next time!

with love from Sapphira

~xxxx~

GFW continued

Today I present you with a more informative post on my graduate fashion show.

First, a video of the catwalk! By the way, the correct spelling of my name is "SAPPHIRA", not the rolling 'rrrrr"- spelling that appears in the projection. I'm a little bitter about that!

Now some photos!

I made paper bows as accessories. I like the way they nod as the girls walk!

As you can see, I painted the soles of the shoes to match the collection colours.

Ta-da! You can click this picture to link to my page on catwalking.com.

Here's the finale! Well done to all my classmates. You can see me on the far right of the stage wearing a blue onepiece.

Finally a picture of me on the day, very, very, very tired.

Coat- Innocent World

Onepiece, bag- Vintage

Corasges- Handmade

Everything else- Offbrand

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, and see you next time!

Sweeter than usual

Hello everyone! Phew, my degree is over at last. Yesterday was the first time I felt really relaxed and happy in a quite a while. I had a date in town, and tried out an outift I have in mind for a Sweet Lolita catwalk I'm going to be in later this month.

Jumperskirt- Metamorphose temps de fille

Blouse- Vintage

Headbow- Handmade

Everything else- Offbrand

As you know I favour Classical kei, so I had a go at making my style a bit more Ama-Loli to fit the theme of the catwalk. This JSK is probably the sweetest item I own. When I bought it, I had a craving for a dress that I could consider totally "Lolita", and I think it fits the bill! It's a rather simple design, with many typical features: lots of lace, a flat-cut bodice, tiers of ruffles, and so on. However, I think the pintucked yoke and the tiny white polka-dots of the fabric are the little details that lend this JSK a charm all of it's own. 

Ama-Loli is a offers an opportunity for cute headwear! I really love big bows, especially when worn with a Jane Marple-style coordinate. I think I will make myself some more! 

I might change the tights to sheer ones or white fishnets (fine ones) for the catwalk. I think this outfit won't look too out of place on the day! I'm taking part in a Gothic Lolita catwalk later at the same event, which I have something in mind for! I love Gothic style, but I haven't produced any particularly good Gothic coordinations yet (ie. they never look very Gothic). Let's hope that will change in time for the catwalk!

I had a go with some false lashes, too! Being blessed with a lot of lashes naturally, and being decidedly NOT blessed with skills in applying false lashes, I don't usually bother. However, once they're on, they are great fun! These are "natural type" ones from The Daiso. I like the thickness and length of these particular lashes very much. They seem to match my natural lower lashes well. A very good deal for ¥105! The only thing that I might complain about was the length of the lash strip itself. It's an odd sort of size, too long for half-lashes, but much shorter than the length of my eye. Three-quarter lashes? At any rate, this odd deformity made them easier to apply and as I generally prefer half-lashes, three-quarter ones didn't bother me too much.

See you next time!

Graduate Fashion Week

Hello readers! It was my grand old fashion show yesterday!

I was terribly nervous, but my part of the show went smoothly despite my worries.

My lovely models walked in pairs down the catwalk to "Doll On a Music Box" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. My choice, obviously!

I think this picture is really cute!

All six outfits, and my (misspelled!) name projected behind. The music began to fade just as Dick van Dyke sang "Truly Scrumptious, you're truly truly scrumptious...." It was a perfect ending!

After the show, the designers came out onto the catwalk. Everyone worked so hard on their collections, and I'm really proud of my classmates!

All pictures courtesy of my friend's iPhone!

Luckily a lot of my friends and family were able to come to the show. I think they really enjoyed it! I hope it was a fitting thank you for putting up with me during the making of this collection, and for all the help that they gave me. And they did all help a lot, from sewing buttons to offering much-needed moral support!

You can see some more pictures of GFW including my work here.

I'll post the video of the show here when I have it, so keep a look out!

Bye for now!

Mixing blues with Marie Antoinette

Hello readers! A simple outfit post for you today.

~Rundown~

Skirt- Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Hair corsages- Handmade

Everything else- Vintage and offbrand

Remember your seatbelts, Lolitas!

Mary Antoinette is probably my favourite Baby print of all time. Though I think Baby has some of the loveliest prints of all the Lolita brands, sadly I'm not usually so keen on their actual clothing designs. Furthermore, their cut is usually particularly unflattering on me!

I do love this skirt however, though I've yet to have come up with a coordinate to do it full justice. In this instance, I've decided to pair this royal blue print with a lighter saxe blue. I picked up on the cream in the print, accessorising with sheer tights, cream shoes and peal and lace jewellery. I think I could chosen navy/royal blue accesories instead, so I'll try that next time. 

~

Thanks so much for your kind comments on the previous post. The show is tomorrow, and I'm feeling rather nervous! I hope to share pictures of the collection and maybe a video of the catwalk soon!

By the way, I've been a bit haphazard with tagging my posts, but all my outfit posts should be tagged "Coordinate" now. 

Thanks for reading!

Hina Matsuri

My final collection!

Actually there are four more outfits.... it wouldn't be much of collection with just two, would it?

This week I'm preparing for the show, which is on Monday at 12pm in Earls Court. I'm really looking forward to it! Although it's not Lolita, I think my collection does still show my personality as a designer, in that it's cute and has retro elements. 

I was inspired by the Doll Festival that is celebrated in Japan each year on the 3rd of March. It's also known as Girl's Day, and my designs are very girly indeed. 

I wanted to make clothes that make girls feel happy. Personally, I find that the way I dress has a profound effect on my emotions, and the feel and fit of the clothes has to make me as happy as the appearance. For this reason, the clothes I designed for this collection have a loose, easy-to wear silhouette so you can feel comfortable and cute, and there are lots of pretty details to enjoy like printed silk linings and useful pockets.

I can't wait to see the models wearing my clothes! I hope they'll feel like as pretty as an Ohina-sama.