Can I Wear Pastel Goth/Fairy Kei/Lolita Fashion in Public?

You've laid out your outfit for the next day, it's your first real day of wearing something "out of the ordinary". Something creepy, maybe something cute, maybe even both (I prefer it that way!). You're super excited for the next day to rock your new look. You lay in bed and try to rattle off the compliments you're expecting to receive the next day. You couldn't be more pumped up! 

Suddenly, you're starting to doubt yourself, little pecks of insecurities pop into your head. What if someone doesn't like it? What if someone calls you, "scene" or worse, "an ita", you cringe at the thought of it. Maybe you shouldn't wear that elaborate outfit the next day...maybe you should just wear some jeans and a t-shirt, like everyone else does. People like you the way you are, so why change, right? What if they start to not like you?

STOP right there! Stop overthinking! 

Seriously, I don't understand where this always from, but I tend to get questions relating to, "How can you wear that in public?" and, "Aren't you worried about being criticising you?" quite often, more often than I wish. 

I'm wearing clothing I like, and if anyone else likes it, great! If not, who cares? Do I dress to impress others? No. I dress to make myself happy. Somedays I'll fancy up into a full lolita victorian coordinate, others I'll throw on one of my Dad's old megadeath shirts and pull on some ripped jeans and call it a day. Yeah, my style isn't exactly consistent, but again, who cares? 

If you're dressing for somebody else, you're wasting your money and I can promise you that. It doesn't matter what's "in fashion", or what's "so last year". Just remember that during the Elizabeth area in Great Britain people actually used to stuff their clothes to create an appearance of a bigger tummy and bigger arms and legs (called bombasting! look it up! it's quite funny!). Or think about the popularized hobbleskirt at the end of the 20th century! It was literally popular for the use of slowing down and appressing women! The creator actually said, "Yes, I freed the bust...but I shackled the legs!".

So, to simplify this question. Can I wear _____ in public? Well, is it sexual? Is it showing too much nudity? Is it illegal? Is it appropriate attire for the occasion? If you said yes to all of these questions, then you're good to go!

Fashion trends are simply fads that come and go. Let's say, wearing a plastic bag for a dress was a new fad starting today! Okay, so everybody is wearing these horrid plastic dresses now. If you like them, great! Wear them. If you don't, and you're simply buying it to fit in. And in doing that, you've basically wasted your time and money because maybe a week from now everyone will be saying those dresses are out of style again. Just like with the hobbleskirt and bombasting!

So please, if you can honestly take anything from this blog post... Know that it doesn't matter what you wear as long as it makes YOU happy. If you spend your entire life trying to make everybody else like you, then you're wasting time...Sorry to break it to you!

So, what do you think about the hobbleskirt and bombasting? Is there any other crazy fads you've heard of either in the past, or currently? I know, I've seen a lot of crazy trends on the runway recently, and I don't even spend a lot of time looking at fashion! I'd love to learn about other crazy fads that I happened to have missed! 

My Bodyline Kewpie Cupcakes l547 Horror Story

For my first official, official, post on this blog... I have decided to talk about an outfit I wore for a recent photoshoot, plus adding the story of how I tipped my toes into the lolita pond to test the waters, awhile back. My fashion has improved since this, I promise. 

And yes, before anyone points this out: I know I'm supposed to wear a blouse with a JSK, but honestly, I don't care. It was the beginning of summer and I was dying of a heat stroke at the time so I preferred my own comfort over fashion. Oh no, I did a big no-no. I broke a rule! Yeah you're just going to have to get used to that because I don't really care, I break a whole lot of rules. And also at the time, I didn't know it was SO important to wear a blouse with you're JSK, I was just getting into lolita fashion about a week before I bought this dress, without even realizing that a blouse needed to be a priority, and to this day I still don't own a blouse, I just usually don't wear my JSKs, I prefer my OPs, personally. 

Now, at the time I bought this JSK I was ending sophomore year, and I had just stumbled upon lolita fashion, as well as fairy kei. Before this, my fashion of this sense consisted of pastel goth and that's about it, I thought everything fell under that category. Towards the end of the school year I had extra time on my hands, so I started researching and learning. I used to have this app on my phone called DePop, and I wanted to buy my first lolita dress to try out the style on my own. Now, back then I didn't know about different lolita brands. I didn't know where to shop, what was good and what was bad. I knew that people sold used clothes on DePop, and I knew I was poor (and still am) and couldn't afford $600 for a dress I saw online, and finally I didn't trust buying from ebay. In the end, all I did was search "Lolita" and hoped for the best. 

I continued searching for awhile, everyday, about every hour. I was obsessed for awhile, I have extreme OCD and if I want something, I'm damn sure getting it. I happened to find a seller one day who was selling a handful of bodyline dresses, and some other Liz Lisa dresses. I saved a bunch of money, which a bunch of money to me was $100 and I bought two dresses from her. At the time, I didn't know they were bodyline. I didn't even know what bodyline was. I'll do another post eventually on the other dress when I do a shoot in it, I simply just haven't done that yet for some odd reason. 

Now, to start off my tragic story... I usually wear a medium in american sizes, and I didn't think about japanese sizes, or measurements, or anything. Like I said before, I was a total noob who was just throwing $100 into dresses I hoped fit and I hoped looked good on me. This dress is bodyline's l547 jsk, the Kewpie Cupcake dress. This dress came with the totebag too, which I'll post pictures of below, as well. 

Now, in case you didn't know, jsks run small as well. So I had all factors playing against me. I don't know how to say this nicely, but I have rather large boobs, I wear like a 38C or D, really depending on if I want the bra to be tight or not, which I usually do because let's be honest boobs suck. This particular JSK and I were not friends and still aren't. It's a beautiful dress, don't get me wrong. The details are amazing, it's so cute and perfect but UHG. 

So, here I am. Just got home from the last few days of school, and I see this big box on my porch, I get so excited and I grab it as fast as possible, running upstairs to my bedroom and chucking my school clothes onto the floor before I even got the dresses out of the packages. I was delighted when I saw it, it was my first lolita dress in person. The lace was beautiful, the details had me mesmerized. I've never owned a piece of clothing that costed this much, never anything this fancy. I was happy and I couldn't hide that. I sent pictures to my boyfriend, and posting on facebook bragging of how beautiful these JSK's were. I still hadn't tried them on yet, I was standing naked in my bedroom spazzing about such a perfect specimen. 

Finally, I got the nerve up and I unpackaged both dresses and went to try on the first, the kewpie cupcakes. At first, there was no problem, it fit my hips nicely, and it went over my head. And then reality hits as soon as I go to zip the JSK up. My boobs were in the way! I couldn't zip it up! I took my bra off, and still the zipper refused to budge. I finally decide to grab one of my cosplay binders, aka a sports bra WAY too small to try to force myself into this thing. Nothing worked, there was a few inch gap where I couldn't even get the zipper together!

This JSK does have a lot of shirring, or at least I thought so. I fell onto the floor and starting sobbing. Both jsks were the same size. I just wasted over four weeks worth of work money for two things that I could never wear because they would never fit. I cried and cried. All my time spent hunting felt meaningless and I felt pathetic. Did I gain weight? I must have. I must be too fat now! I know I'm fat, don't get me wrong, but I know I didn't gain weight at the time, and I still fit in my medium tardis dress, so I didn't see the problem!

I ran downstairs to my grandmother after I finally regained my self control. Mascara was running down my face, and I was a shaky anxiety filled mess. I asked her and my little cousin for help, but to avail. I spent countless hours trying to get into that damn JSK. I wasn't giving up until I fit. I told my grandmother that I refused to eat until I could wear it. Truthfully, even loosing weight wouldn't have done much good, my boobs were just too big.  After awhile I kept pulling, loosening the strings, trying my hardest to just fit. Just for one minute, just to make this whole experience worth it. 

After a few hours, I finally fit it, I loosened the sheering as much as it could go, and if I breathed too deeply the dress would unzip, but I did it. And that's what matters. 

Minutes after I rushed to my phone and called my photographer, he happened to be free, thankfully.  I quickly did my hair and my makeup and put together my first shitty lolita outfit ( I'll make a post on the whole outfit later on). I couldn't exactly sit right, but I was wearing it, and honestly that made me the happiest person I could be. We did my shoot, and then I went home and sat in the dress for the rest of the day, as uncomfortable as it was. 

This is how I learned I should buy OPs and I should buy in 2L because you know.... boobs. 

Firstly, An Introduction!

Hi, hi! Welcome to Pastel Pandemic, a blog dedicated to the study, interest, and perfection of pastel/fairy kei/Japanese/Lolita/the outlandish, basically anything that's not traditional in american eyes, fashion. Here you’ll  be able find helpful articles on how to improve your wardrobe, handle costs, and live a pastel lifestyle. Here, I will cover anything from handling summer heat with a thick wardrobe, to where to buy cheap quality kawaii clothes! 

 What's my Mission Statement?

 I want this blog to be all about my nontraditional fashion, for the average person who can't exactly spend over $200 on a simple JSK. This is not Lolita 101, or anything like that. I do know more than I let off, about fashion, but I'm not an expert. I will be doing a lot of research for posts on this blog, and I will be spending a lot of time in design and writing for it, as well. This blog is for the more seasoned magickal girl/guy, somewhere between grand princess/prince and noob. I know a thing of two, I know not to show the edge of my petticoat and how to buy quality clothes, as well as not getting caught up in cheat products! I want for every girl/guy out there who sees some of herself/himself in me, to be able to relate and learn from my mistakes! I'm always here to answer the questions with easy tutorials and kawaii lessons based off experience, and submissions! 

Pastel Pandemic 

Why the name Pastel Pandemic? Well, this blog is about several things: light and delicate fashion, problems that arise in dressing non traditionally, and the wide spread or outbreak of this type of fashion! I guess you can say, the title is sort of metaphorical, and ironic. But hey, that's just me! I want to express the tinsy tiny tidbits of beauty in a monotonous society are similar to charms on a bracelet; 'ittle ornaments that add character to an otherwise cookie-cutter block of jewelry.

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