Forest Frolicking

I'm starting to fall in love with mori girl fashion in a way I've never fallen in love with clothing before. I still adore lolita fashion and won't be giving it up anytime soon, but mori is so much more freeing.

I think my favorite part of mori is the archetype of a mori girl - the nature-loving forest nymph. While there are no true "rules" to this style, thinking of the archetype helps me focus on the feeling I want my outfit to achieve. Floaty, fluttery layers, and a natural, effortless-looking femininity... at least, that's what I aim for! Even in my regular clothing, I'm finding that mori is having more and more of an influence (layers!).

With Kellie, doing our best "solemn street style photo" pose.

The local mori girls hosted a picnic in a park. I wish I had snapped a few photos of the picnic itself, because it was adorable! We brought homemade tea and lemonade in mason jars and delicious cakes. There were even cute paper straws. We got rained on, but luckily it was after the majority of the picnic.

After the rainfall, we trekked into a nearby trail. Everything was green and alive after the rain - perfect for exploring and taking photos!

Another "street style snap" picture.

Outfit Details:

Dress: Anthropologie (old) | Skirt: Thrifted  | Vest: Thrifted

 Lace cardigan: Forever 21 (similar) | Shoes: DSW

Do you ever think about the story behind your outfit?

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Daily Outfit: Parfait

Outfit Details:

Dress: Bodyline | Vests: Savers, Plato's Closet | Detachable collar: c/o Born Pretty 

Shawl: Buffalo Exchange (actually a skirt) | Socks: Forever 21 | Shoes: ModCloth

Cat Bag: TaoBao | Wristcuffs: Handmade (secondhand) 

The more I dress in mori-kei, the more comfortable I feel putting outfits together. In my day-to-day outfits, I love layering, but not to the extent mori requires. In mori, it's a little bit of a challenge for me! (The title of this post is an homage to the infamous scene from Shrek - onions have layers, ogres have layers!)

For this meetup, we were going to have a picnic, but the forecast called for rain. Instead, we had brunch and shopped around. I was going to go for a more traditionally mori look, but felt like brunching and shopping was more suited to a lolita look, so I merged the two. This is one of my favorite J-fashion outfits of all time!

I'm wearing quite a few layers here. First of all, the base of the outfit is this plain white lolita dress. That's topped with two different vests, a detachable collar, a pearl necklace, and - my favorite piece - a skirt I wore as a shawl. It's actually a lace maxi skirt with a huge slit up the side, so it opens into one big rectangular piece. Perfect! I love finding new ways to wear pieces.

Normally, I don't wear my own hair with J-fashion looks and prefer to wear wigs, but I think red hair suits the Mori archetype well, so I wore my favorite style, maiden braids.

We were stopped a lot with people asking if we were "living dolls" (thanks, TLC), "Harajuku girls" or "in a play." But, as usual, dressing up in public mostly results in positive attention, especially from the older crowd. I guess they get a kick out of it! 

In your day-to-day wear, do you like to layer a lot?

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Daily Outfit: Forest Girl

I've explored mori-kei (forest-style) fashion before, but only in the context of mixing it with lolita. I love the look - it's meant to evoke the idea of a girl who lives in the forest. If you're totally new to the fashion, my friend Kellie has a lovely write-up on her blog! (Kellie also took most of the photos in this post - thanks!)

It involves lots of layering and loose-fitting pieces - which are typically hard for me to style. I have loved the fashion for ages, but partaking involves a lot of style challenges for me!

I consider this outfit to be my first-ever, full mori-kei outfit. And for a first-timer, I think it turned out pretty good! I want to tea dye the white skirt to make it off-white or beige. Other than that, I just need a few more pieces and experimentation.

I love so many pieces in this outfit, but my favorite is my new lace collar. It's kind of like a necklace, so you can wear it with any cardigan or shirt, and it's such a fun detail. I got it from Born Pretty, which has so many cute items, like nail art supplies, jewelry and accessories, and for really affordable prices! Shipping was fairly quick (considering it came from Asia) and I love the quality of the items I got.

Born Pretty is also offering a special discount, just for you guys - use the code MMT10 for 10% off your order! Since everything is so affordable and shipping is free worldwide, you really have nothing to lose.

I'll be reviewing my other accessory from Born Pretty later, so keep an eye out!

I wore this outfit to a meetup with my local, budding mori girl community! There are only a few of us, and all of us are fairly new to the fashion. It's fun to learn together and watch the group grow.

We went to a cute little cafe and bakery, drank dirty chai lattes, and took pictures by the plants and scenery around the cafe. I look forward to future meetups - I can't wait to try my hand at mori-kei and similar fashions again soon!

Outfit Details

Wig: LockShop | Lace Collar: c/o Born Pretty | Sweater: Buffalo Exchange

Cardigan: The Limited (Similar) | Green Skirt: Buffalo Exchange | White Skirt: Thrifted

Boots: ModCloth | Purse: ModCloth

Have you heard of mori-kei before?

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Daily Outfit: Oh, Deer!

Happy belated Halloween! My Halloween celebration was a little bit late this year, but I didn't mind - it gave me extra time to get my costume together! I've been hinting at it for a while now, so I'm happy to finally share it with you all. I have been loving the deer/fawn makeup that has been going around the internet so I decided to be a fawn girl myself. I'm really pleased with the results!

This costume was really all about the makeup, so I wanted to do a few more things to make it special. I made my flower/leaf crown (here's a tutorial!), ordered a brown wig, and wanted a Mori Kei vibe with the outfit. I love the layers and forest-dweller feel of Mori Kei, so I thought it'd work out perfectly. I don't see myself in these photos at all, so I'd say it's a success!

For the makeup, I used some videos on YouTube and just searched the "deer makeup" tag on Tumblr for inspiration. I used different colors of bronzer and highlighting powder from e.l.f. to create a gradient effect, with the darkest parts on my cheeks and around my eyebrows. The white spots and my lips and nose are done with colors from a face paint kit. Finally, a ton of eyeliner and fluffy fake eyelashes complete the look. 

I used these EcoTools lashes because I got them as a Klout perk - score! - but I'm sure it'd look good with any lashes you happen to have. I must say these EcoTools lashes were really easy to use! I think when you are wearing heavy eyeliner, fake eyelashes make a huge difference. Otherwise your eyelashes just blend into your liner!

I actually ordered giant brown circle lenses to wear, but they didn't arrive in time. I want to revisit this deer idea in the future - maybe for a convention - and I'll definitely use the lenses for big doe eyes. In addition, I made antlers for my headband, but they were too fragile and wouldn't stay attached. I'd love to find a way for that to work next time, though I'm very pleased with the results of the look overall!

Outfit Details:

Flower crown: DIY | Wig: Lockshop | Sweater: The Limited (Similar)
Lace cardigan: Forever 21 (Similar) | Belt: Forever 21
Dress: Bodyline (secondhand) | Shoes: DSW

What was your Halloween costume?

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Magical Girls! Sailor Moon Lolita Meetup

One reason I maintain an interest in lolita fashion is the creative aspect. I'm a sucker for themed outfits so that aspect really appeals to me. 

I had the pleasure of attending a Sailor Moon-themed lolita meetup, which was so fun because everyone really embraced the theme! The idea was not to necessarily create a "cosplay-lolita" version of the character, but instead evoke them through an outfit. I love seeing everyone's interpretations of their various characters.

I chose Artemis (the cat) so I wouldn't have to buy a new dress or skirt (lazy or resourceful? You decide!). I threw on my sequinned, fur bolero and matched with white and gold accessories. My favorite detail has to be the gold cat ear headband with pearls attached! I think it ties everything together and it's purr-fect for a cat-themed outfit. I had on obnoxiously large fake eyelashes, but they didn't even survive the car ride to the event, so I covered all the failed glue with cat-eye eyeliner and called it a day. It turned out great despite all of that -- and it was so fun to goof off with my Luna (ChRi), too!

Cat took some video of all of us. We look like we're having so much fun!

The event itself was organized phenomenally. Hats off to Cat, who always outdoes herself with every meetup! We all got goodie bags as we piled into a privately rented theater to watch clips from the anime, live action series, and even the musicals. With the reboot of the anime coming out soon, it was definitely nostalgic and fun to rewatch the older iterations of the metaseries.

Thanks again to Cat for organizing the meet, the Alamo Drafthouse for letting a bunch of Moonies rent out the space, and all the attendees for impressing me with your cuteness and creativity!

Are you a Sailor Moon fan?

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