Some outfits and some pretty pictures

I'm so not ready for the incoming lolita events that it start to quite bother me. In fact I don't really want to go anymore, I'm too tired to enjoy it properly and their is a bunch of people I don't want to see but hey, I paid for it so I'll do my best and enjoy all of that as much as I can with all my friends.

I didn't dress up a lot these day because it's too fricking hot and I don't go out that much, but here are a few of my last outfits.

Blouse :IW
Skirt : MM

Blouse : IW
JSK : VM
Headdress : MM

Kimono, nagajuban, obi : vintage
Bag : Axes Femme

Kimono, obi : vintage
Blouse : Axes Femme
Hat : H&M
Socks : AatP

Sweater and otk : H&M
Shoes : Tokyo Bopper (borrowed from Tzadkiel)
Bag : Thierry Mugler

I seem to be pretty unlucky these days, half the things I bought on sales didn't fit and I can't seem to find anything on my shopping list right now (I need long dresses and cute sandals for my trip to Thailand this summer).

I've been walking around Paris quite a bit these last weeks, so I have a few pictures for you. I think I'll post them in two blog post, here is the first part, les Buttes-Chaumont.

My favourite spot

I definitly need to learn how to photoshop, most of these pictures do need a little bit of colour ehancement, they are way too harshly lighted.

And yummy dessert just for you :

At L'oisive'thé

Hope you enjoyed these pictures.
I don't think I'll blog again until the summer lolita events so see you !

Edit : I'll be at Japan Expo on the 3d of July. I didn't plan to go but they have guest geishas so I'm pretty much bound to try to see them. I'll be wearing my furisode and I'll mostly hang out in the cultural part of the festival (they have some cha no yû activities this year !) so if you spot me come by and say hi. I hope I can make it to the geisha masterclass !

Tatoo exhibition and Maleficient

The other day I've been to the tatoo exhibition, finally. It was awesome, really.
(Part of this post might be NSFW and maybe triggering to some as it have tatooed bodies thus nudity).

It began first by an historic view of tatoo with prehistorical tatooed skulls and mummy and then modern time Europe, with manly sailor and thug 'arts'.

It then talked about tatoos by area and country.
Here is a kabyle women in traditionnal costume and tatoo.

As you can guess, one of my favourite part was about Japan's 'irezumi' (which just mean tatoo but also describe this really specific kind of japanese tatoo). I learned quite a lot about it, especially about how it used to be popular for brave characters to sports tatoos in kabuki for example.

Traditionnal look

Modern look

I wish I could sport something like that, but I'm sure it would look awful on me.

They also had some fake body parts tatooed by famous tatoo artists from all over the world.

By Tin-tin, a famous French artist

But the best part was definitly the 'freak show' one. They had some wonderful pictures and show posters, as well as performance videos.

 Now let's take some times to realise how sexy Rick Genest aka Zombie Boy is. (these pictures were not part of the exhibit)

Well, even if I adore tatooed men more than I should, this would be a little bit much for me if he wasn't that cute anyway. But he is (yes, tatooed rotten flesh and filthy bugs can be sexy, don't contradict me).
I wasn't really interested by him before, mostly because I though he was doing it 'just' to be a freak like that lezard man with face implants and tatooed green scales all over his body, but this guy sounds surprisingly nice and down to earth. He is smart and really passionated both by tatoo and performance show, and in my opinion he is a real artist. So yep, true 'artistical crush' for me here.

This exhibition was really well-thought and agreable, I liked it and really discovered a lot of things so I totally recommend it. I wanted this wonderful book about irezumi's history but it was like 150€+, so I just hold my purse tight and let it go, but their shop does have some more budget friendly documents you should definitly check out.

And I've been to the theater to see Maleficient. At first I wasn't really interested by this movie because I really don't like the 'let's take every fairy tail ever and f*ck it up even more than in the Disney version by adding a unnecessary realistic point of view in it becauses fairy tales totes need to have realistic logic' (yes, Disney movies were already pretty meh compared to the original tales, everything was so polished and shiny and everyone seemed to come from a Colgate commercial).
Hansel and Gretel was particularly awfull, I only stood three minutes throught Red Riding Hood and I didn't saw any of those Snow-white rendition, for it's one of my favorite Disney and original tale (and no, Kristen Stewart is not motherf*cking Snow-white).

But I saw a trailer video and changed my mind. Aesthetically speaking, the movie was appealling and I wasn't decieved by what I've seen. It was pretty, it made sense, it was not too bad scenario wise and the costumes were great.

Just a thing : Maleficient isn't actually maleficient. Why would they name her that way ? Couldn't it be a nickname she gained when she became 'evil' ? Why is she called like that at first ? It makes abslutly no sense.
And I did find that Aurora wasn't pretty enought to be the Sleeping Beauty, even thought she was cute and endearing and she genuinely looked like a nice person. The Prince was pretty great tho, I loved that One Direction hair cut.

Maleficient costumes are really 'organic'. At first they are earth-toned then they become darker but still hold a lot of natural elements like fur, snake skin, bark-like textures etc, showing her strong link with nature and reminding us that she is still a fairy. I liked these costumes a lot because thanks to them you see how she is actually way more powerful than the pixies and why her charm can't be undone.

Look at these three small flower fairies. They each rules only one flower type. On the other hand, Maleficient is more of a goddess, she rules 'nature' and is way much more powerful. In this sense, she kind of looks like celtic fairies much more than american god-fairies we tend to see in Disney's work. Her existence is not linked with humans from the beginning, she is here to protect the forest, a manifestation of living nature. She is meant to be too powerful for non-magic creature to normally reach her.

These earth-toned, elfic like clothes <3

So yep, the artistic creation was good for this movie and I was pretty happy to actually see it. It worth a great big screen in my opinion, so you should definitly try to see in theatres.

I'm off for now, gonna work my kanjis again, so see you soon.

Life, Lolita 52 challenge day 17

I'm back in Paris tonight, yay !
I was at my familly house for my mom's birthday. I planned to get her a gift but it didn't arrive on time, I felt bad about it, and I'll certainly not see her again until the second week of july so yeah, I guess I'm not a good daughter. I've been with her at her drawing class (she is an artist and does illustration, goes to drawing classes for models). I can't stand most of my drawings but apparently it isn't that bad according to the teacher.
For her birthday we had lunch at one of my favourite restaurant at Saint-Valentin which does french-japanese modern cuisine. Everything was so good, even things I usually hate like spinach. Loved the yuzu cocktail too. The only down side is that they don't offer japanese tea, but I guess the salted/vegetable-like flavour of japanese tea isn't really common as far as digestive goes.

So I lurned that there is a movie about my favourite painter planned for december. Yes, Turner, yes my tastes are common, I like Chopin, Pre-raphaelites, Oscar Wilde and Romantiscism, please don't despise me.

The only thing I can do is cross my fingers so the director choose a Turner-like photography as Webber did for his Girl with the Pearl Earring which was not bad and had some pretty nice scenes.

And also good costumes. I cringe when I see inexact costumes in XIXth century based movie (I look at you, Coppola's Dracula, I don't really know why but I don't like you).
Still cinema wise, I should go and see Maleficient. I highly doubt it will be that great, but costumes look super nice and overall it's seems aesthetically pleasing so, why not ?

This week I also absolutly need to go and see this exhibition about tatoos and their evolutions at musée du Quai Branly, which is Paris's primitive art center.

I'm not into primitive arts at all, but they have a nice textile collection from all around the planet, including arabian traditionnal gowns, chinese dresses and aïnu woven and indigo died outfits so it definitly worth a shot, the building itself is wonderful too.

And finally I got my sewing machine back and a bunch of my fairy tails books so I can start working on my summer events outfits at last ! Corssing my fingers so I can make something passable. I feel like I'm most likely to be uncreative and just wear a kimono at Japan Expo, since I'm going to die of heat anyway.


As it's been quite a while, here is my lolita 52 challenge entry too : 17 : My first meetup.

To be fair I don't exactly remember what was my first meetup. The first time I met lolita was at Japan Expo (was it 2009 ?), but I can't pinpoint my first 'true' meetup.