As I briefly mentioned in a recent post, I have been really drawn to Larme Kei recently. My primary interest is still lolita, but seeing how easy it is to find workable Larme pieces on the high street, I decided to see if I could start dipping my toe in to the fashion with some low priced items. Fortunately, pom poms are apparently 'in' at the moment, so there are lots of Larme friendly accessories out there right now. Chokers, like the ones worn a lot in the 90s, also had a bit of a moment. Reading Larme focused blogs has helped me to pick up some ideas of the sort of style direction I want to go in. So I am sharing my recent purchases here. Apologies for this haul not being very lolita related, but I have been very busy recently, which means I have been going out a lot an subsequently spending more money on non-fashion things. These cheap purchases have been keeping me cheerful until my next big shopping spree!
I found these pom pom hair twists in New Look. They were actually in the sale, so I got them for £2 instead of the price shown on the sticker above. I thought the black and white ones looked pretty, but I was instantly drawn to the pastel ones. The colours are so soft and dreamy. The shades remind me of ice cream! These pom poms are suitably fluffy and I think they could make a good hair accessory if you bunch a few together. Who knows, if I am feeling a bit more daring, maybe I will try using them with lolita as well...
This is the backing of the pom poms. As you can see, you sort of twist them in to your hair.
I tried just the one pom pom at first to see how it looked. They surprisingly gripped my hair quite well. I am tempted to use a bobby pin or two with them though, just to make sure they are extra secure. I doubt I would have paid full price for these, but I feel I paid a good price for what I got.
Also from New Look is this 'Scuba' (I have no idea why they named it this) dress. I saw that somebody else had brought it, saying it would be good for Pheremone Fetish Larme style. I can see their point. From the pictures below you will be able to see the ruffle details a bit better.
This photo shows the bodice ruffles a bit better. I have been having a lot of camera and lighting issues recently (sorry!). I think the ruffles really help to transform what would otherwise be a very basic black dress.
Here is an attempt at a worn photo. The material is very stretchy. Even though I managed to get this dress in my desired size, I was still grateful for the stretch. The material clings quite a bit, so it is probably not the ideal dress to wear if you are conscious of your figure. I really like the overall shape and the length. The zip got a little bit stuck going up, because of the way the fabric around it has been sewn. Eventually I managed to get the zip to go up though, and the dress was comfortable.
I intend to wear this dress with a top layered underneath anyway, but for the worn photos I wanted to show how it looked on its own. However, I did have to wear a camisole because as this picture demonstrates, this dress sits very low on me. My strapless bra was really visible when I initially tried it on without the camisole. So my options are I can either go bra-less or wear a top underneath. The listing suggests that you should be able to wear this dress by itself, which suggests the fit is slightly not right for me. But this is easily fixed because of how I intend to wear it anyway. But it is still something to consider if you have seen this dress and were considering buying it.
Here we have another New Look purchase! I am not intending to use this with Larme kei, I just happened to like how it looked when I saw it featured in a magazine. Sheer layers are another popular trend right now and I liked the idea of styling it in a punk sort of way, over a band top and maybe jeans. I spent months trawling through multiple branches of New Look to find this dress, but nowhere had it. In the end, I had to order it online with the other dress. They sold out of my size earlier in the day (I went to order this in the afternoon and my size had literally only just run out a few hours before!) so I had to go a size up. Because of the style of dress, it doesn't hurt that I got a bigger size anyway.
The tulle it is made from is a bit cheap but thankfully it is not too scratchy when worn. I think the dress tiers are well spaced out.
The top style is quite basic in design and I think it looks a bit like lingerie! I do like the ruffle going along the neckline though.
The dress does not have a zip or button up design. You literally pull it over your head. Luckily it is really stretchy. Sizing up actually went in my favour! I like the overall length, but I wish the neckline sat a little bit higher. Overall though, I am happy with the dress. It was priced quite cheaply, so I didn't feel too ripped off by the cheap materials and it suits the look I am going for which is quite 'distressed' (the ''outfit'' above was just a 'trying on' thing and not supposed to be a final outfit). It could have been better, but I got what I paid for.
I also decided to pick up issue 13 of Larme magazine. It is one of the few that is still available on Amazon UK and from the reviews I guessed that this would be the best volume to get. I wont publish scans because in light of Kera/GLB ceasing publication I feel it is more important than ever to protect our J-fashion magazines (although there are obviously going to be scans elsewhere, I didn't want to contribute here with more). My general reaction to this news is that Japanese fashion wont die if we continue to wear it and share our content online. I am still a bit upset about GLB though. There is something to be said about sitting down with a magazine you can physically hold and take your time to turn the pages and get yourself nice and comfy. Also (a bit of a weird confession...) I have this odd fondness for that magazine 'smell'. Please tell me I am not the only one who loves smelling their magazines! Swiftly moving on... I have only had a quick flick through so far, but I am already falling in love with the magazine aesthetic and the look captured in the photo shoots. So if nothing else, I have a new pretty art book and I can pick up and admire! The magazine looks pretty inspiring and gives a much clearer idea of what Larme is about. I think that even if you have read Larme blog posts online, the magazine is definitely still worth getting.
Finally, I went a bit mad in Claire's Accessories yesterday. I saw they had these cheap pom pom chokers. These were available in the Oxford store as well but that branch had a different offer. Then my local branch decided to go and change their offer to buy 3 get 3 free. So I ended up having to find 6 items instead of the intended 3. Luckily their choker range seems pretty promising at the moment. I got all of these items for £16. That is less then £3 an item. I couldn't resist the moon choker and necklace. Moons are definitely my style! You can't really tell from the photo, but the pom pom ones are on a leather strap and the other 2 are on velvet.
I thought that rather than review each item individually I would just show how the pom pom chokers look. If you want any further information on the items above then please comment and tell me what details you would like to know. I tried on the black pom pom choker and found it was an okay length. I am wearing this on the smallest setting. As you can see, it is not completely skin tight, but I prefer my chokers like that anyway. The leather straps were also slightly bent in to the shape that they were packaged in. With time I am confident this will improve. It is just a matter of storing them well. I am not really sure why there is a thin string line on the choker as well. I am tempted to cut it off.
So once again, I am sorry this haul is not more lolita relevant. I just really wanted to get a few Larme-ish bits which didn't break the bank. I am not sure it is a style I want to properly get in to yet, and lolita will always be my main love, but I suppose I see no harm in giving new things a go. If I happen to pick up any lolita purchases soon, I will certainly share them here! In fact, at the time of updating this post I had just put in a pre-order for some cute lolita friendly jewelry, so keep an eye out for that post soon (should be in about a month or so).
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