2024 Winter ILD

 Hello my dark darlings~

   Happy International Lolita Day~! For winter ILD, my comm decided to go see ZooLights. For those unfamiliar, it is an interactive walk-through light show held at the Phoenix Zoo every holiday season. Despite living in Arizona majority of my life, I had actually never been to ZooLights! That, or I have when I was a young baby bat and I do not remember. Either way I was extremely excited to see the dazzling lights and spend some quality time with my beloved friends. 

    If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it! It is best seen with friends or family ❤︎ But heed my warning, it is a VERY popular holiday attraction so be prepared for big crowds and long lines for food. Luckily the parking situation is not all that bad. There will be employees guiding you to empty lots. If you purchase your tickets ahead online, it will only be $30 ($35 at the gate). 

ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo (photo taken from zoo website)

    Surprisingly it was not that cold. I planned for a very chilly night, so you'll see I wore a coat. Honestly I was just really excited to wear a coat. You truly get so few opportunities to wear anything heavier than a cardigan or sweater here in the desert. So to say I was disappointed at how warm I felt is an understatement! As the night went on though it did get cooler. 

    Deciding a coord for such an important meet-up was a difficult task. By now, I have accumulated quite the gothic wardrobe. And I did have a specific gothic dress in mind: Baroque Sleeping Lily OP. I thought of doing a "Charles Dickens" inspired Victorian look with a bonnet and granny boots. But the OP is one cotton layer, so it's not very warm. 

    I do not own any gothic lolita-appropriate jackets yet (you so rarely need one in Arizona). So I looked to my newly created choco-lita capsule wardrobe. I have been following Roli's Capsule Wardrobe Building series to create a sweet capsule that focuses on bears and chocolates. I was able to find an adorable brown bear-themed coat to fit the capsule. And I (perhaps wrongly) assumed it would be freezing. So I opted for a sweet coord. It just so happens that it was my "sweet debut" as I have never worn sweet in front of my comm before. Suffice to say my readers will be sure to see more of The Curator's sweet side in 2025 ཐི ₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ཋྀ

My hair & makeup, inspo taken from GLB Vol.35

In the Glow Garden~

All hail the octopus!

Do not perceive the black petticoat peeking out; quality pettis take time to ship!

Rupert did not appreciate being sacrificed to the lions >:(

♱ ཐི ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ ཋྀ ♱

Love & Laces, 

The Curator ♱

One Frock, Four Seasons - Rose Castle ~Invitation From The Duke Of Bat~ OP

I own the Enchantlic Enchantilly Rose Castle ~Invitation From The Duke of Bat~ OP. Now try saying that five times fast! It is my favorite dress I own right now (but I do not own many dresses to begin with haha). It is a empire-waist, 110 cm bust OP with short puff sleeves. It is perfect for plus-size gothic lolitas like myself! 

The waist ties are detachable and can be tied in the back. There are neck ties that can be either tied like in the photo below or tucked into the neckline to hide them. There have been several releases of different colors, the most recent one in 2020 had "Red Night", "Night Sky" (black with a glittery waist tie), "Jade Night" (green), and "Blue Night" versions.

I love the all of the intricate details, from the roses, to the gate filigree, the castle tiling, to the lovely bats flying or hanging everywhere. The print just screams vampiric! Plus it even has a one pocket! Not sure why just one, but even one pocket is so rare in lolita releases that I'm just happy to get even that XD

Duke of Bat Skirt

Red Night colorway

My one complaint about the print is why does it only have one bat have a face? The bat in the center front and center back of the skirt has a little face and he's wearing a ruff collar but all the other bats on the dress are just... wings?? And I mean that literally. Just body and wings. I do not see the point. Was it too much work to give each bat a cute face? I would pay GOOD money just to ask the designer why they made this choice. I want to look at cutie patootie bats and this dress was not cheap!!

What a distinguished gentleman ^_^

A flying rotisserie chicken

I still love this OP so much due to how stretchy and comfortable it is. I tend to wear it around the house in casual coords. That being said, I thought it would be fun to see how I can style this OP for each season. I might make this a series with my other main pieces. Let's start with summer. 

♱ཐི ʕ.•ﻌ•.ʔ ཋྀ♱

Summers in Arizona are b r u t a l. It is common to get in the triple digits (in Fahrenheit, sorry Europe; get good). I like my gothic lolita to be vintage inspired and vampiric in a sense, so I tried to keep that in mind when styling all of these looks. 

Look #1: A Vampire in the Sun

Next is spring. I really tried to emphasize the roses in this print to bring out a romantic floral vibe. Spring brings rain and some chill so I added a parasol and a ruffly cardigan but otherwise kept it pretty neutral for rain or shine. I love how elegant this turned out.

Look #2: Strolling Through the Rose Garden

Next is autumn. I originally wanted to do a witch-inspired coord, but pairing a witch hat with a black dress is way too easy. So I tried to get creative with this witchy jacket and a different kind of hat to make what ended up feeling more like a magician's outfit. I added the La Luice Bunny Bag to fit that vibe. I actually really love how it turned out!

Look #3: For My Next Trick...

Finally we come to winter. I had to go with a full Victorian look, with so many delicious gothic-looking mantles out there. A mantle is like a long cape that was common during the entire Victorian era. I have been dying to re-create a Victorian evening look with long opera gloves, an elaborate bonnet, and a dainty chatelaine bag. I could see this person walking down a foggy London street, on their way to see the symphony.

Look #4: 'Ello Gov'na!

♱ཐི ʕ.•ﻌ•.ʔ ཋྀ♱

Love & Lace,

♱ Curator ♱