New Bodyline Coats

This time last year, I was madly searching for a nice coat to keep me warm whilst I was wearing lolita. In the end, I picked a Bodyline coat which thankfully, was warm enough for a typical English Winter. I am very happy with my coat selection and I am not looking to buy another this Winter, but I thought I would have a look at this year's coats anyway. I think quite a lot of lolitas struggle with purchasing a coat because they can be quite expensive, so I was relieved that my Bodyline coat was better than I was expecting.

To be honest... this year's coats are not as well designed as last year's designs. Last year there was a very pretty sailor coat, which was surprisingly versatile (and still available on the website in black only). However, I am not going to write off the new coats just yet, because they are still very cute.

Cat ears have not exactly got a good reputation in the lolita community, but I know they have their fans too. If you are in to cats, then this coat could be for you! With its ears, fake fur and bells, there is no doubt that this coat is aimed at the sweet loving crowd. I am impressed with the shape of this coat, which reminds me of the shape brands use sometimes. I also like the bow on the back, which just furthers the sweet theme. I would have preferred heart shape pockets on the front because the cat ears on the pockets are a bit OTT. I would have also left the bells off. Also, with the black coat, maybe black fake fur would have been nicer. My overall impression of this coat is cute, but I probably wouldn't wear it myself. Despite the haters, many lolitas still wear animal ears.

Bodyline are also bringing in some capes. I felt design-wise, this cape was the nicest because some of the colours on the other capes were a bit... 'interesting'. I think this cape may also have limited appeal. The picture does not show how easy it is to move your arms underneath. There is no point spending out on a coat if it is not that practical! Whilst I do like the use of check (especially the gathering on the bottom bit) and also the bows, I think the lace on this coat looks bad. It looks a bit cheap. The collar is a good shape and the pom pom ties fit well with the design. I wish there had been more colour options with the check parts, which is black on every colourway.

As far as longer coats go, this is the lastest design. The coat reminds me of similar styles from FanplusFriend. Hopefully, the fake fur parts will be detachable, because that would give the wearer more options about what to team this coat with. It would have been good if there were more options with the fake fur colour, but if the red coat had white fur there would be a real risk of it looking like a Father Christmas outfit! I dislike the shape of this coat. I think it could be a bit longer in length and the scalloped edge is average. However, the cape sits nicely over the coat and I think it would look cute worn alone on warmer days. This coat has rose buttons and some lace too, which blends in with the design. It will be interesting to see what sort of lolitas decide to go for this coat. Will non-sweet lolitas be put off by the fake fur, or will they see the potential of the coat minus the fur?

Given the choice between this year's coat designs and last year's coats, I think I would try to get a coat from last year's selection. Some of the coat prices have fluctuated throughout the year, but I feel those designs are more wearable. However, don't underestimate the new coats. I know people who will love these newer coats and if people have a few minor issues with the design, then maybe customisation could be an option. Even though I dislike the bells, I would not let that put me off the cat coat because they should be easy to remove. My only advice would be that if you live in a country that has VERY bad Winters, you may need a good cardigan underneath. My Bodyline coat is perfect for England, but it may be a different story in a colder country!

Finally, I would just like to quickly apologise if my blog posts are a little erratic over the next few weeks. I have not been feeling very well lately, but I am going to try my best to keep things going as normal as possible. I am also going to try and work on improving the content of my posts so do keep reading!

A cute Baby jacket!

Am I the only one who finds clothing shops releasing their Autumn/Winter collections a bit depressing? It is a clear sign that cold weather is coming!

However, it does mean that we get to see lots of exciting new brand coats, jackets and outer wear. Meta have announced a coat collection and Baby have already released pictures of their new stuff.

So far, my favourite item is this fawn style cape! I can already think of several different prints this could work with and it will look stunning with solid colours outfits too. It would look beautiful with classic lolita but I would also like to see this jacket worn with a toned down sweet outfit. I do like how this jacket does not look too cute. I think the fur is fake too, which is a bonus (if it is real fur, please correct me).

My only worry was how versatile the jacket would be. It is short so would not be suitable in harsh weather conditions. It is a bit of a what I like to call "transition piece", which is best suited for those times between seasons when the weather goes a little strange. It looks like Baby have already thought of this problem-

This is what it looks like on top of another coat. Hmm... I love how Baby are trying to get people to buy both the cape and the coat! I do think the cape could be workable with other coats too.

Baby and Alice and the Pirates have a lot of cute outerwear on their website now so if you have been thinking about getting a coat, do have a look!

Bodyline coat review

As the colder weather started to catch up with me, I realised that I could not put off buying a coat much longer. Finding a coat that I liked was a very tiring process. I found brand coats too expensive but I didn't like a lot of the off-brand designs. So many coats looked identical to each other or had bunny ears on them (I don't think I can pull off bunny ears any more). I came very close to buying a second hand Metamorphose coat but a girl managed to get there first. I eventually settled on two coats- a Fanplusfriend coat and a qutieland one.

However, a few weeks ago I noticed a coat on Bodyline and I thought it looked interesting. Then it finally came on to the international website! Yay!

And so I purchased this coat-

And the back-

Firstly, the lighting in my living room is dreadful! The colour is a very pretty creamy colour.

http://www.bodyline.co.jp/bodyline/frame01.asp?type=gothic&subType=coat

This coat design has already sold out once so it will probably sell out fairly fast. This coat is L306 in off-white and it cost me $125. After adding postage on, it roughly cost me £89. Whilst the coat I received seems to be of a good quality, I think the price is too steep for an off-brand company. Is it just me or are the Bodyline gradually getting more expensive? The coat did not come in the usual Bodyline bag but was reasonably packaged. Plus I didn't get charged by customs this time! YES!!!!

The coat is very heavy. Although I am yet to wear it outside, I imagine it will keep me very toasty warm. It is not the thickest coat out there but I think it is enough to cope with English weather. The material is good quality. The fur is not the softest I have felt but is still feels really nice to touch. The fur collar can be removed if you don't like it. The sizing feels good. I am 5'4'' and this coat reaches my knee.

As far as practicality goes, I am wearing a skirt and petticoat underneath and they fit. In fact, you can just see the lace of my Bodyline carousel skirt poking out. If you would like a better shape it will require a very strong petticoat to properly puff the coat out. It would have been nice to have some sort of waist tie to help define my waist.

Some of the details may look a bit familiar to you. For starters this coat has a heart shaped patch on the back which looks similar to the one featured on Baby's Usakumya coat. The bottom hem has flowery lace which looks like the lace used on a recent Metamorphose coat. It would appear that Bodyline has been taking a lot of inspiration from the big brands.

Something I was a little worried about was the sheer amount of details on this coat. I could take or leave the 3 bows running down the front and on the arms. Since putting the coat on I have grown to love these details. My favourite part is the bows with pearl draped underneath (another detail which has been copied by Bodyline).

The coat definitely feels durable enough and I no longer need to panic about not having a coat to go over my dresses. The coat is more suited to sweet styles but at a push I will use it for classic too. I am really hopeless when it comes to Winter outfits so this coat will probably become a staple piece for me.

After the sales problems, I had no trouble with the Bodyline website this time. Yes, the server is still slow but it seems to be more bearable now. I got through to the checkout on my first attempt with no issues. The delivery was very speedy, which I think has always been Bodyline's strong point.

Overall, I am very pleased with my coat but it is a bit too expensive for Bodyline. I think their coat designs have improved a lot. They also have a sailor coat out now and I almost went for that design instead. Their coat section has a few strong designs out now so it is worth checking out if you can't afford brand. The trouble is, I now need to find the space to hang my lovely new coat!

My coat dilemma

For a while I was a lone lolita. I kept myself to myself and mainly wore lolita around the house. In fact, it is only recently that I decided to become more involved with the community and other lolitas. This has worked out really great but I find myself needing to weatherproof my lolita a lot more. This time last year I was mainly inside so this will be my first Winter where I may need to be out in the cold for meets and other stuff. I have already purchased some cardigans for the annoying transitional phase where it is hot one minute and cold the next. Now I need to focus on a coat.

This coat needs to meet the following criteria-

1. I have to like it (obviously)

2. It will have to be able to work with my wardrobe and I don't just mean with one or two dresses. The more items the coat matches, the better.

3. It would ideally need to look good with both sweet and classic lolita (I think the colour cream would possibly the best halfway mark between the two styles)

4. It has to be heavy endurance because I don't know if or when I will be able to by another coat

5. Sadly it needs to be off-brand because I simply can't afford a brand coat.

The sad thing is, I have already found a coat I really want. But it is from Innocent World an 44940 yen. A quick check on XE.com tells me this will set me back approx £340 and that is excluding shipping. Plus, I don't think Innocent World do international orders so I would have to use a shipping service and obviously that coasts extra. My budget is severely limited (about £100 but this is worst case scenario. A lot depends on how much I spend at Hyper Japan this weekend). And here is a picture of the coat-

What I like about this coat is that it is simple. There are no bunny ears, heart shaped pockets or overly cute features. It is just a plain and simple coat which would suit my current wardrobe and it is easy to wear it outside of my loli stuff. The site shows that this coat can be worn many different ways. Plus if you pay a bit extra you can get this matching cape-

It is times like these that I wish I could just spend a load of money and not have to worry one bit. I have seen other coats that are getting released this year and I have not been too impressed with the other brand ones. I have not checked Baby's coats yet but there is not much point when I can't afford one.

So I have been madly searching off-brand sites in the hope of discovering a good strong coat that fits my main ideals. After much fruitless searching I came up with 2 coats. There was a third coat but it wont be available until mid November (plus it is custom made which adds even more time) and I would prefer to have a coat before then.

The first coat is a Fanplusfriend one. Out of all the coats on this site I think this was my favourite-

The good thing is that the fur bits can be removed. The site says the material is heavy and the making estimate is 2 weeks (I predict it would probably be a bit longer than they say but I thought 2 weeks was quite a quick time). My only real issue is possibly the deep red colour. Out of the colour options deep red is my favourite but I am doubtful that it will go with some of my stuff. Currently my wardrobe is mainly baby pink and sax blue but I am starting to veer more towards classic lolita and this coat would suit classic. Would this coat go with sugary sweet colours? I don't know.

The second coat is from Quiteland and the design is called Celebi! Like the Pokemon! This coat has more details on it. I can't remember if the bows are detachable or not. I like the design of this coat. Plus, I like the cream colour the best which would suit both my sweet and classic items. I think I prefer this coat slightly more than the fanplusfriend one. But this coat will take longer to make.

I am still really clueless about what coat I am going to pick. I am open to other coat suggestions. I suppose I don't really need to rush it. I know it is not very lolita but for now I am making do with wearing a biker jacket and a coat I purchased from new look last year.

And whilst I am on the subject of Innocent World...

I REALLY want this bag.