PMX Day 1

Last weekend was Pacific Media Expo and I attended with three of my friends.  It was probably the most I ever paid to go to a convention and the most I ever spent at one, but it was all well worth it because Innocent World, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, and Alice and the Pirates were going to be there as guests as well as selling their clothing in the Fashion Boutique.

We got in late Thursday night and promptly crashed so we could be well rested for the fun the next day.  Luckily there was a Starbucks at the hotel, which I ate at every morning.  We didn't venture away from the hotel until the very last night.

Us on Friday morning waiting in line for the Fashion Boutique to open.  We were some of the first in line, mostly at my own insistence because I didn't want to risk missing buying something in case their stock was limited.  I came prepared with an idea of what I wanted to buy but once we were allowed inside I discovered absolutely nothing I planned on getting was even there.  However, there were plenty of other things there to spend money on:

Baby/Alice mostly had dresses for sale along with $35 socks+bonnet lucky packs, some coats and sweaters, headbows, socks, and a few necklaces.  Innocent World had a larger variety of things including dresses, skirts, blouses, caplets, purses, shoes, and even Pullip Dolls.  I was torn in both directions.  It was especially a surprise that IW was doing a 1,000 yen = $10 conversion rate and most everything at Baby/Alice were discounted sales items.  There were definitely amazing deals there, while I was originally worrying there was going to be a markup.

There were no pictures allowed inside the Fashion Boutique, but it was absolutely lovely.  There were makeshift changing rooms in the back corners.  Since I wore my kigurumi to the opening, it made it a lot easier for me to quickly change in and out of things which I considered an advantage.  Unfortunately I wasn't expecting to meet the designers right away and was shocked that the woman checking out my purchases was actually Fujiwara.  I about died at how elegant she was, and there I was buying her clothing while dressed as a red panda.  How embarrassing.  After my first shopping splurge, I ran upstairs to change into something more appropriate.

We then went to the Q&A sessions with IW's designer Fujiwara and then AatP's new designer Miki Nohmoto.  While we were expecting at least some sort of an intro from the designers, they wanted us to start asking questions right away.  I was too shy to ask questions though. :(

We learnt that Fujiwara has a husband, a 3 year old daughter (who is a bit of a tomboy) and a 10 year old chihuahua!   She started IW at 25 and her parents were worried that her store was in too difficult to find of a location.  Her inspiration of course comes from classical European history and fashion, and growing up in Japan she was in an area where a lot of European mansions were built.  She loves Chopin and operas and would like to live in Paris, France.  Currently she has no plans for boystyle clothing or any overseas locations and thinks that American lolitas need to work on classical style (probably a reference to how popular sweet is here).  Fujiwara also mentioned that she likes Interview with a Vampire and likes Tom Cruise lol.

Next was Miki Nohmoto.  Most people asked her about future collaborations.  We learnt that she used to be a shopgirl but got hired as the head designer for Alice and the Pirates when she showed her designs to the company.  Apparently she's only 23!  Her favourite anime is One Piece and she gets most of her inspiration from old fairy tales.  She said that boystyle was her biggest challenge in design but that their male clothing is what separates them from other lolita clothing.  Somebody asked what she thought of girls that wear Angelic Pretty, which even if Miki had an opinion I doubt she could have answered it honestly since she was representing her company and instead opted for a neutral answer that Angelic Pretty is sweeter in comparison to her own designs.  She also said that Baby was her largest competition instead of naming a direct competitor.  We also learnt that she likes BJD and doing clothes for them.

Right after the Q&A sessions I ran upstairs to bring down all my old clothes and a few pairs of shoes for the swap meet.  I had 16 items and ended up having to quickly fill out a sheet for each one and rush to get everything organized (with a LOT of help from my friends).  I ended up selling almost everything but two skirts, a bolero, and a pair of shoes so I had considerably less to take home with me and gave me extra money for spending.  It also gave me a chance to meet a lot of the girls there.

There was a dance that night, but we were all too exhausted to go.  A friend and I ordered sushi and miso soup for delivery while our other two friends slept, and then we went upstairs to pass out ourselves.