Allow me to introduce myself

Greetings!  My name is Valerie and welcome to my new lolita blog.  Though lolita fashion has fascinated my since 2007,  I've been actively wearing lolita clothing for only a year and a half now.  Since then I've come a long way.  For my introductory post, I figured it would be best to bring the reader through a timeline of my transformation.

When I first discovered lolita fashion, I remember immediately falling in love with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Innocent World.  I had no job at the time and it was all too expensive to ask my family to buy for me.  After graduating college, I moved to Florida to work a six month internship at Disney.  While I found myself with a bit of an income, it was still not enough to buy from the brands I wanted most.  Like most girls beginning their adventures in lolita, I turned to bodyline as the internet assured me they were still decent quality.

My first lolita purchase included a blouse, two jsks, and two pairs of shoes from Bodyline and a petticoat from Malco Modes.  Of these, I only still own the petticoat and a pair of shoes that I'm still looking to get rid of.

As soon as I tried this dress on, I knew it wasn't for me and actually never wore it out in public.  The quality was fine enough, but it still wasn't the beautiful designs that drew me to lolita fashion in the first place.  It was also then that I discovered that I should avoid fully shirred bodices, as they made me feel lumpy.

Yes, THE fruit parlor replica.  Buying from bodyline unfortunately limited me to overly sweet prints, which admittedly looks cute on other girls but makes me feel awkward.  I ended up selling this too.

So I started trying to experiment a little bit more, turning toward darker coordinates and even getting my bangs cut since that's almost a lolita requirement.  Those socks are actually my first ever piece of brand, Metamorphose and bought from the sales community.

The sales community made brand more accessible to me, so I bought the first thing I could afford.  (I also learnt that sellers aren't always reliable with shipping and waited almost two months for this Angelic Pretty skirt.)

This was about October of 2009 for the Mickey's Christmas Party at the MK, hence the red and white theme.  It was one of my first times wearing lolita in public for an extended period of time and I actually got a lot of compliments and people asking me wear I bought my outift.

Next I discovered TaoBao!  Cheap and custom sized lolita clothing that looked better quality than Bodyline, and so I rushed to place my first order.

After I moved back home to Missouri, it was snowy and cold and luckily this Dear Celine jsk was much thicker and heavier than my BL dresses.  I wore this to Naka-Kon in February, where I attended my first lolita teaparty.  Sadly there weren't as many lolitas at the teaparty as I was hoping.  This was also my first experimentation with a wig I bought off of ebay.  Way too shiny :(

At this point I just started a forrealz job and suddenly had a lot more income than I knew what to do with.  I bought a Cyperous hime-styled wig since I'm helpless when it comes to curling my hair and I got sick of trying to redye it darker all the time.

I consider this where things started turning around for the better.  This was at a tiny meetup at the KC Nelson's Art Museum, where I was one of three girls that attended and one of the other girls was moving out of state that same week. 

It took me awhile to get the courage to order through the brand websites, because I knew when I started I would be unable to stop.  The very first piece of brand clothing I bought new was Masquerade Theatre with the matching bonnet on reserve from Alice and the Pirates.  I fell in love with the chiffon almost instantly.

Attending my second ever con tea party at Anime Fest Wichita.

Since then my lolita collection has been growing and I feel myself improving all the time, wearing it more often and attending more events.  I've been experimenting more with makeup and putting more into accessorizing. 

Last weekend at PMX with one of my best friends.  Since PMX itself was such an event, I'll save that for another post.

That was all a bit longer than I anticipated!