Happy New Lolita Year 2010!

Akemashite Omedetou! Happy New Year!

The most important part of the new year for lolitas is SALES! Most importantly if you live in Japan where the Lucky Packs (fukubukuro) go on sale around January 2-3, but also for online sales for international lolitas.

When I lived in Japan, I would always check Kera magazine for the list of brands and which day they would open to sell Lucky Packs, and which day they would open for Winter Sales (usually 30-70% off). The reason that some stores sold the Lucky Packs on one day and started the sale on another was to minimize the amount of confusion and people in the store. Some brands like Baby the Stars Shine Bright would only let in 5 people at a time, and wouldn't let anyone else into the store until they had paid for their items and left- presumably to prevent shop-lifting. Other brands just let everyone rush in- but it usually depended on how in-demand the lucky packs were.

The usual price of a Lucky Pack is 10,000-yen (about $100). The clothes inside can be worth anything from $200-800, depending on the brand. The most expensive Lucky Packs I've seen were 50,000-yen ones from Innocent World, h.Naoto and Angelic Pretty. Again, the more you can afford to lay down, the more you will get back in value!

Here are some lucky packs I got in previous years:


Angelic Pretty (New Years 2008)


Angelic Pretty (New Years 2007)


Black Peace Now (New Years 2008)

Lolita Week in Review #4

This week it was rainy and miserable outside, so I didn't go out in lolita much. However, I used my time inside to finish a new dress!

Presenting: The Mermaid-kei Lolita Dress!


Much ado has been made recently about "Fairy-kei" ("kei" is Japanese for "style"), which had been made popular by the brand Spank. Inspired by 1980s and 1990s cartoons and bright neon colours, Fairy-kei is a fashion made of layers or seemingly random clothes with a fairy-tale twist. For pictures of the style worn, check out this video on YouTube: Spank Fairy-kei Fashion Brand

Some people are saying that this style is beginning to cross over into lolita with pastel and neon colours becoming popular. But even if the influence is the same, the outcome is still different. Fairy-kei is closer to Decora style in it's mixing of layers and random accessories, whereas Lolita will always have the same kind of dresses or skirts and blouses to keep the basic silhouette.



So in reaction to the Fairy-kei movement, I made my own Mermaid-kei dress!



It combines the basic lolita silhouette with sparkly fabrics which are never really seen in lolita to create a new concept. Of course I don't expect this to take off and be the next big thing, but I thought it was an interesting experiment!

In other lolita fashion news, this week saw the start of Summer Sales and Fukuburos in Japan. A fukubukuro is a kind of lucky-dip bag that lolita brands sell with a random selection of clothes inside for around $100. The clothes inside are usually worth $500, but you don't get to choose what's inside. This can lead to either great savings or great disappointment if you get something you don't like or doesn't fit you. Most brands fill the fukubukuros, or "Lucky Packs" with clothes that didn't sell, but some also make special clothes just for the packs.

Lucky Packs are sold at least twice a year- once in Summer and once at New Years. These are also the times that brands have their sales. Webshops also sell these packs and have sales online, so even if you can't get to Japan, you can still get a bargain!