Lolita comes to the Victoria and Albert in London!

Yesterday I was very surprised to find out that there is going to be an exhibition about lolita fashion in the Victoria and Albert Museum! It has just sort of appeared out of the blue, and I think there are many UK lolitas who were pleasantly surprised by the news.

Kitty and the Bulldog: Lolita Fashion and the Influence of Britain will run between April the 23rd and October the 14th. That gives plenty of time for people to go and visit. There is also going to be a lolita meet held there in May (which I should be going to, so if you are coming I will see you there!).

Details can be found here- http://www.timeout.com/london/museums-attractions/event/250397/kitty-and-the-bulldog-lolita-fashion-and-the-influence-of-britain

It is part of the British Design Season and will be held in room 45.

Obviously, the V and A is a beautiful museum anyway, so it would be interesting to visit other stuff which is on display.

I find it interesting that this display has come up and at this time. Is this a sign that lolita fashion is growing even further in the UK? Will the museum "get it right" or will it be some strange version of lolita that is not really relevant? (Which could be a little embarrassing!) Either way, Hyper Japan was recently mentioned in a newspaper article and it is hard to ignore the growing number of new UK lolitas.

I have a good feeling about this exhibit. I am not suggesting lolita will become mainstream (and I wouldn't want it to become mainstream) but maybe, just maybe, the fashion is starting to get a bit of recognition here.

Yes!!!! Bodyline flat rate shipping is back!

Bodyline have brought back their fixed shipping rates! Air is fixed at $20 and sea at $10. Considering how slow sea can be, I am very grateful to see the $20 air rate back. I guess this means that more people will be holding Bodyline group orders again.

So this is brilliant news! Bodyline, please keep the $20 rate. I love you a lot more when I am getting cheap shipping.

Bodyline small homewares and new look international website

After a quick browse on the Bodyline website, I was a little surprised by the latest items. It would appear that Bodyline no longer want to just give us cheap lolita and cosplay clothing, they also want to give us some cheap homewares. It is an interesting direction for Bodyline to take.

Here are a few of the new items on offer-

This carousel is apparently a music box. This is possibly the strangest of the new items because it is purely decorative and has absolutely nothing to do with fashion. I suppose at a push, you could drape some small bits of jewellery on it. I would love to know if the horses spin around when the music plays. It is not the prettiest music box out there but considering the low price, I guess this is to be expected.

There is also a lot of jewellery stands available. My personal favourite is this ring cushion in the shape of a very fancy couch. I could imagine having one of these around the house somewhere.

Slightly less surprising is the mirrors. Bodyline already made some cute pocket mirrors so I guess this idea was not that huge a leap for them. They appear to be very cheaply made but some of the designs are pretty. However, if you consider the way Bodyline usually packages their parcels, this could cause problems. Hopefully Bodyline will put mirrors such as this one in a box or at the very least, they will be shipped in bubble wrap. I have a horrible feeling that they wont do this, but I will keep an eye out for online reviews.

But that is not the most exciting Bodyline related news today. International customers have a brand new look website! As I looked at the new site and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a background featuring their latest cosmetic print and a picture of one of the models playing a piano! I had a quick browse and most of the pages appear to load reasonably quickly. FINALLY!!!! I have waited so long for this day to arrive!

In other news, the design and model contests are back. I am debating submitting something for the design contest again. Despite a few items seemingly taking inspiration from the design I submitted last time, I have decided that in my case, this was probably pure coincidence. So I have not been put off the design contest... yet. As for the modelling contest? As much as I would love to meet the infamous Mr Yan, I have decided to give it a miss!

A dream come true!

Tuesday the 15th of March 2011 will now forever be imprinted in my memory. It was a very special day for me. I have been having a lot of personal problems recently and I have been having a hard time with my health too. So I have been feeling pretty miserable. However, there was a break in the gloom when my new skirt arrived-

I finally got March of the Duck! For ages it has been my dream print and now I own it! March of the Duck definitely has its lovers and haters (I am a lover of course!) but I have always been obsessed with ducks. I preferred March of the Duck to the duck print that Emily Temple Cute did. I was also happy to get my dream print in my preferred colour choice of white. I really dislike the blue version. The square part of the pattern reminded me of bathroom tiles. I felt it looked a lot better on the white version. I already know that some of my friends are keen to see what this print really looks like in person.

And here are the infamous ducks!

The lining is very soft. This Meta skirt did not come with the stiff layer on lining which is on my Old Emblem skirt. March of the Ducks is a Crown Label series so maybe the Crown Label ones don't have this extra layer.

I never noticed this before but the Meta bunny and bear appear on the print and the swan logo features on some of the balloons.

Polka dots! And a close-up of the lace.

Of course, I got the matching head bow too. This bow is actually titled ever so slightly to the side so it is a side head bow! I like the little pearls which helps to add interest to what could have potentially been a very dull bow.

I intend to show some worn pictures soon but I am still feeling a little ill and tired. I just quickly tried the skirt on and the fully shirred waist was very forgiving. However, I might be wearing this to the Oxfordshire lolita meet next Saturday so hopefully I will have some more photos soon. My poor Bodyline waffle skirt will have to wait for its first public outing!

Question is... now that I have my dream print, what will my next dream purchase be? I need to recover my finances first! My wishlist is VERY long but here are a few that I would really like-

Angelic Pretty- Milky Chan, Rose Toilette, Starry Night Theatre

Baby- Bunny Milk and Snow Strawberry, Twinkle Dreaming Princess

Meta- Nostalgic Chess, Feather cross Summer special 2008, apple print

AaTP- Midsummer Night's Dream, Masquerade Theatre

Innocent World- Felicia Crown