Monday, May 21, 2012

Belle's Library~ Mister Rococo

One of my MN Lolita friends just posted the full short film, Mister Rococo, in our FB comm so I will share it here!



It is short, but quite fun to watch. No spoilers until after the jump!


Personally, I really enjoyed it because I wasn't expecting any morals or real plot. I know some other Lolitas found it disappointing because they were expecting more of a Shimotsuma Monogatari-type film, but if you take this just for light-hearted fun, it's great!

I liked the room views and her deco'd weight as well as her cute exercise outfits. Several years ago I actually designed a Lolita-inspired workout outfit after some slight drama on EGL (regarding wearing Lolita to the gym, if anybody was around for that) and after watching this, I want to make the outfit!

Although she has quite a frightening figure in the end, it was funny to see her take down Vancouver Cat and get revenge on her ex

Slight tangent, but in school I have a class called Creative Basic where I am making a mask. I finished the wire base and realized...



It looks like Yuri's wrestling mask!!

Don't worry, mine will end up looking more like a 3D version of Lilith's head:



DON'T ASK ME HOW THIS CLASS IS RELATED TO FASHION

/tangent

Sorry for the lack of real posts - school is much busier than I can manage on top of my jobs!
What do you think of Mister Rococo?

Friday, May 4, 2012

Chinese Terminology

I've been offline so much recently. It is quite nice to unplug every once in a while, but at the same time I feel like I am missing out on so much! Today I decided to check EGL to see if I'd missed anything. I saw a fun post asking about Lolita terminology in other languages.

Here are some terms in Chinese, which can be useful for searching Taobao:

Skirt: SK or 群子
Dress: OP or 洋裝
Jumperskirt: JSK or 無袖洋裝 (often it can be referred to as "dress")
Shoes: 鞋
Platform Shoes: 厚底鞋,松糕鞋
Wig: 假髮 (假毛 for slang, meaning false fur)
Hair: 頭髮
Curls: 卷髮
Bangs:劉海
Brand Name: 名牌
Purse: 包包
Bow: 蝴蝶結 (lit. butterfly knot)
Lace: 雷絲 (loan sound)
Headdress: 頭飾
Bloomers: 南瓜庫,燈籠褲 (lit. pumpkin pants, lantern pants)
Corset: 馬甲
Shopping: 購物,逛街
Store: 店,店面
Reservation: 預定 (I think? Inever reserve)
Lucky Pack: 福袋
Socks: 襪子
Knee-Socks: 長襪
Tights: 褲襪,絲襪
Over The Knee Socks: 過膝襪,OTK
Head-Eating Bow: KC
Heels: 高跟鞋
Sweet: 甜though we usually just say "sweet"
Gothic: 哥德 (loan sound)
Classic: 古典
Petticoat: 襯裙,澎群 (lit. supporting skirt, puffy skirt)
Necklace: 項鍊
Bracelet: 手環
Earings: 耳環
Make-Up: 化妝品
False Eyelashes: 假睫毛
Scam: 詐騙
Japanese Fashion: 和風 (Japanese style) 日式服裝 (lit. Japanese fashion)
Shirring: 鬆緊 (elastic)
Cute: 可愛
Sleeves: 袖
Cardigan: 小外套 (lit. little jacket)
Bolero: 短外套 (lit. short jacket)
Jacket: 夾克,外套 (lit. jacket loan sound, and coat)
Prince: 王子
Princess: 公主,姬
Victorian: 維多利亞 (loan sound)
Rococo: 洛可可 (loan sound)
Cake: 蛋糕
Tea Party: 茶會
Macarons (because.): 馬卡龍 (loan sound)
Fan: 扇子
Handkerchief: 手帕
Parasol: 洋傘
Wrist cuffs: 手袖
Wallet: 錢包,皮夾
Apron: 圍裙
Caplet: 披肩
Waist Ties: 腰帶 (actually means belt, but it's what we call it)
Meet-Up: 聚會 (lit. together party/gathering)
Photo Shoot: 外拍 (lit. outside photography)

*Taobao automatically changes traditional characters to simplified, so you can directly copy and paste :)
*If there are any other terms you would like to know, feel free to comment and I will add them to the list!
*Some of the terms we use when speaking/typing (e.g., SK, KC, etc.) but not for keywords.

There was also the question of whether Lolita fit in or not in our respective countries, and here is my reply:

Lolita doesn't really fit in, I think... I wear it every day that I don't teach class, but very casual lolita. People still think it is formal, though (because I wear a petticoat)
Originally I wore Lolita because that was the only clothing I had, but for some reason I get less stares, points, laughs, and ninja photos when I wear rocker or punk styles than Lolita O_o;;

Lolita is super different from traditional Chinese clothing, I guess! Han-fu (they look like giant, baggy kimonos. It later evolved into kimonos in Japan, Han-bok in Korea, and Qi-Pao in China, AFAIK... I forgot most things I learned in my class, haha!) were quite unstylish. Qi-pao is actually a lot of Western influence, which is what people think of when they think of Chinese clothing. I like Qi-pao, though :) But you have to have a good figure to wear one!

Here are some images of hanfu:

A later style of hanfu. In class my teacher showed us very old versions which really looked like potato sacks!

I don't know how these people didn't die of heatstroke.

How does Lolita fit into (or not fit into) your country? How about your country's traditional dress?