New Dress Commentary

New BBTSSB dresses in online-store!
Stands for Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, a japanese lolita brand. They have a store in San Francisco that I really want to go to and browse in.

Its very cute and classic, even though I'm not a Shiro lolita, or a sweet lolita. I might have said before that I'm a classic lolita. It looks like a toned down sweet lolita dress. They also have off white, pink, navy, black and white, and pure black.

http://www.babyssb.co.jp/shopping/baby/jumper/136206.html


Yes, its a nice dress, but the reason I posted about this is that the sizing is reasonable! This dress could be a lower sized plus size dress, as the size is:

Length：90cm(35.43inch)
Bust：85～104cm(33.46～40.94inch)
Waist：81～100cm(31.88～39.37inch）

The dress looks a little short. Its wider around than it is long. I have a problem with that. I wish lolita brands in general would have more "long" or "tall" sizes. Over 40" in length, because not everyone is 5' even. So 36 inches is 1 yard, which is 3 feet. So 2 feet (24 inches) of you isn't being covered if you're 5'. That might be ok, might come up to your knees or slightly above. If you're 5'8", for example, you're 68". 68 - 35 = 32". Almost 3 feet of you isn't being covered. That means mid thigh is uncovered.

Love Ring Present Box
http://www.babyssb.co.jp/shopping/baby/jumper/135263.html
Ugh, the name is a little rough. =.= I dislike how lolita clothes and other items have Japanese-english names that don't quite make sense in translation. It feels tacky, it sounds tacky and broken english-japanese-ish. Kinda like they're trying to be  'kawaii-otaku'. ITAIII! T_T

The sizing here isn't exactly plus size.
Length：92cm(36.22inch)
Bust：88～99cm(34.64～38.97inch)
Waist：68～80cm(26.77～31.49inch)

People wonder why others make replicas of dresses. Much of the world isn't one size fits all. The dresses and clothing that comes in stores is. Incidently, you cannot copyright an idea in US copyright law. http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/unprotected.html . The US government holds that a piece of clothing cannot be copyrighted. If a design is copyrighted, because it has a specific use, the article of clothing can be modified significantly to create a different article of clothing. The popular myth amongst lolitas that one can copyright a dress is preposterous.
If dresses were copyrighted, there wouldn't be derivatives of the wrap dress. Or, designers would be paying royalties to the original wrap dress creator.

I don't know Japanese copyright law. I might look into it.

Another question is does a dress from a brand have a specific utility? Utility as in the difference between a generic shoe and those shoes where each of your toes is hugged, and supposedly you're able to run better.

I have lots of ideas about lolita fashion. I need to organize my thoughts about it into a researched discourse.
For one, I would expand the sizing.
I believe also that there are many different patterns and styles that can be experimented with.
I want to see more patterns being created and given out, and in multiple sizes. I think that companies won't do that, because they know that they are in a cultural niche, and they want to control the style and flow of money in the community.
There is a great deal of lolita dependence on brand clothing.

I feel like I want to write a book about this, nonfiction. That would require research, however.

Computer broke and the community's issues...

My computer broke. I'm sad.

Right now I have a loaner computer. But for at least 3 days I was SO bored because I couldn't get my computer fixed and do stuff like play games. I wasn't even productive. Something is wrong with the hardware.

On another note,
A week or so ago, I learned that the site Milanoo.com is a scam site. They make horrible clothing and then when you try to get a refund (if you've seen some of the clothing that they send you!) they will fight you all the way, and have to involve PayPal. I've heard some horror stories on the main egl group on livejournal. I'm so worried because I purchased this dress form them.  http://www.milanoo.com/p16634.html
I fear they won't give me a refund and I will have to check round the clock to make sure that I at least fight for it, and I may lose. I heard that they run out the time that you may file a claim, so you can't get a refund. I've seen the horrible dresses they send, and heard about the horrible customer service.
I want out of this bad deal.

Lolita is so expensive that getting a new dress is a really big deal and it had damn well better fit and look right. I've gotten ebay dresses that look decent and cute for less than $60 dollars. Soft fabric, lining, no nasty lace, etc. So Milanoo has no excuse.

I really want my $50 dollars back, so I can purchase some dresses from Fan+Friend or Bodyline. Before my computer broke, I was searching and found some dresses and skirts on Bodyline that can be modified. Everything there is usually a medium. (or really ugly looking... only a few though). I found some things that have shirring or elastic waist or a waist that can be modified by a few inches. Fan+Friend is really plus-sized friendly. I am pleased with them. However the $20 shipping isn't fun.

I need to really stop reading things on livejournal. The people at the plus sized lolita group told me not to look. I looked. I can't help my curiousity!!! It is one of my many curses.
Those people there in that lolita bashing community, 99.2% of them have ugly hearts, no matter what brand their wearing and how 'perfect' they are, they're always gonna be ugly, sad people. There's a difference between venting and trolling/trying to bring people down to make yourself feel better.

That being said, there's such a thing as ita lolita. I may be ita sometimes. I'll admit. But I believe in trying to conform to the rudiments of the style. The point is to TRY, and have fun doing so. It is definitely not about the clothes. It's about being a princess, or a doll, or a little girl, or a LADY inside, and showing that to other people.
(BTW, ita lolita refers to 'painful' in japanese. It's a term adopted by the lolita subculture to describe coordinates that don't coordinate, ugly clothes, too much lace or ugly patterns, or unflattering clothing.)

Things like that make me hesitant to join the wider lolita community, because this ugly nature isn't just kept to groups like this. I've seen some ugly comments on blogs and forums. I'm going to work on steering clear of these ugly people. But I always seem to find them eventually, is the horrible thing.

Hopefully I will have time to show pictures of my dresses tonight. I do have a major project in game design that will take 2 months and intense communication with my group. Therefore, I won't get to draw or anything. It is a 2d pygame game. Thank god I am not coding, but I will be one of two artists, in a group of 6. I am hoping to get along with everyone decently, and to draw the best I can. I aim to be a concept artist. And here is what we are doing, so this should be great experience. I just hope I can keep up. They're a really intense game design group, in that they want perfection and portfolio-worthy things.
That is a respectable goal. However, I want to SLEEP sometime this year.

I think I will post my lolita clothing drawings on here.