First Meet

Ah, so much for keeping this place updated frequently. It’s not like I had nothing to write about either, I’m just letting old habits die hard. Laziness, in this case. You have permission to hit me.

Well back to business!

About a week after I started up this blog I went to my first Lolita meet-up! There were six of us in attendance, ranging from the basic gothic to sweet.

Group shot outside the art gallery, taken by a helpful stranger.

Bethanie and I were the goths of the group, both of us decked out entirely in black (excluding Beth’s white tights) with some lovely lace and ruffles for an elegant flare. Hannah, the organiser of the meet, and Beccy, the most experienced Lolita of us all and the only one among us wearing any brand, wore somewhat old-school black and white sweet styles. Sara wore a beautiful ensemble somewhere between sweet and classic, while Lola was our sweetest in a handmade dress of strawberry-printed sax Cath Kidstone fabric.


Gothic Beth and Classic Sara

We met outside Leeds Art Gallery for midday, where we progressed to the Henry Moor institute for the final day of the exhibition. It was interesting work, but much smaller than we had expected so we didn’t end up spending much time there. We headed off after an in-depth chat with one of the female staff about our ‘beautiful dresses’—apparently she was already aware of Lolita as she’d studied in Japan a few years ago! It was refreshing to find someone who wanted to know how we’d come to find the fashion and how it was for us as such a small subculture, rather than the usual ignorant ‘where did you get a dress like that?’ or ‘Halloween’s not for another few months!’ as I’m sure the majority have experienced a fair few times.

An intense Pokemon battle... Beccy on the left, Lola right.

Beth with our Balloon Buizel!

From there we went for a wonder around the shops… and found ourselves outside a Pokemon Village. Needless to say we were all pretty damn excited! We let our (not-so-)inner-children go wild and helped ourselves to the consoles, distraught to find out that DS’s are much different to our old Gameboys and we lacked the skills to play anymore. Once again, the staff were very interested in our choice of fashion but were all extremely pleasant and genuinely curious. We got a lesson on Pokemon card battles (which was very interesting for me—all I remember about them was my cousin and me playing something resembling snap with them when we were younger) and then the lady we’d all been waiting for arrived. The balloon lady! Since we couldn’t decide which Pokemon we wanted, she decided to create any and see if we could guess as she was building it up.

Since we were planning to eat at Little Tokyo after browsing the shops, we donated our Buizel to Forbidden Planet. The poor shop guy was a little baffled, but at least he offered it a good home where it would be appreciated!

There’s not really much else to report from this outing, other than mentioning the wonderful food at Little Tokyo and the cheesecakes Sara generously treated us too when we went for drinks afterwards.

Group picture in Yates'. Sara was taking the picture, it's a shame she's not in it.

 All in all, it was a lovely day out! I’m a naturally shy person so I was worried I’d retreat back into myself around five people I’d never met before, but honestly, it felt like we’d known each other a lifetime. They are all such beautiful lolitas and amazing ladies, I’m happy to say I’ve made some genuine new friends!

Oh, and before I forget, here's my outfit shot for that day! Ignore the derpy face.

Bodyline JSK, everything else is offbrand/self-customised.