Lolita Closet - Metamorphose's Fancy Egg High Waist Pinafore JSK

This week's post, let us look at Metmorphose's Fancy Egg in the high waist pinafore version in pea green. The third post I have for the Fancy Egg print, this dress belongs to my friend, Keiko, who asked me to keep an eye out for it and to buy it if it ever popped up on the second hand market. It is her grail dress and she been obsessed with it every since the print was originally released, so for awhile I would check for this dress. Only lately, I have spent a lot of time looking for this dress and eventually I found it in this version and it came with the matching headpiece!

Metamorphose Fancy Egg in pea green

The pea green color was definitely one of the more unique colors in the original colorway options and I was surprised that it was a bit more muted in life and not as bright. It is definitely not a mint green, but leans more towards a more earthy tone of green. It might be hard to tell since my carpet is pink, but it is a very lovely shade of a soft green.

The dress has an empire waist cut and the main part of the bodice is embellished with diamond shaped trim and satin and grosgrain ribbon on the center panel.

Bodice details
 

You can see the different types of trim and lace that decorate the bodice and it is all dyed perfectly to match the green colorway. The skirt is gathered into the empire waist and can accommodate a medium sized petticoat.  The dress has a side zipper to help you get into the dress. Keiko told me, it is quite comfortable and because it is high waist dress, you don't feel constricted when you eat.

Back of the dress

The dresses in this series do not have fancy buttons for the shoulder straps, and it one of those things I wish they could have spent a bit more time on since I think any kind of shank button or even a fabric covered button would have worked better than the plastic one they chose.

The back panel features a quarter panel of shirring, and you can lace up the back with satin ribbon. I noticed that this dress did not have waist ties, which is a bit more unusual and uncommon for a lot of lolita dresses. I would say a majority of dresses in my collection come with waist ties.

Details

Once again, the print is beautiful in any of the colorways and I think the pea green brings out more of the gold details from the print. You can see the subtle lace print on the border and the hem is finished with the green pea fabric.

Mini-hat!

When I found this dress, it came with the hat headpiece that none of my friends knew about! I knew it existed but I preferred the barrette or the bonnet over the hat head piece. It's actually really cute in life, since the hat is stuffed and is very soft and light weight. There is a hair comb on the underside and the two ribbons are sewn on the side. The ribbon on the hair is removable so you can use that instead as a hair piece instead of the hat. The ribbon is made from chiffon and has a small cameo decoration on it made from plastic.

I might take a break from this print and move on to other things in my closet for future posts for now. I do have the black colorway of this print, so that definitely will come up later on!

I hope you enjoyed looking at Fancy Egg with me and until next time,
Stay fancy!

Lolita Closet - Metamorphose's Fancy Egg Tuck Pleated Pinafore JSK

Let's explore and examine one of my favorite prints in my closet, Metamorphose's Fancy Egg, also known as Egg Art. This version is the Tuck Pleated Pinafore JSK in medium length. Ever since this print was released in 2012, I knew I had to have it. Initially I bought the ice blue skirt directly from Meta, which I blogged about awhile ago. Over the years I've slowly accumulated the rest of the colorways and at some point, all the colors were in my closet. Meta recently re-released Fancy Egg in some new designs and included a red colorway. I still prefer the original colors rather than the new ones. Let's look at the original pink colorway in the pleated pinafore design!

Meta's Fancy Egg

I acquired the pink version of the pinafore JSK with the barette as a set. Initially I wasn't sure if I would like the color, since I normally do not gravitate to pink lolita dresses. However, the price was really appropriate and it was a deal that I could not pass up. I also thought it would be a nice piece to add to my Fancy Egg collection since I had already owned an item in the blue and black colorways. The silhouette is quite lovely and I have to admit that the medium length makes it even more elegant than I imagined.

Front and back detailing

The bodice has a yoke that includes pleated chiffon detailing and two brooches that are removable; one small bow and the other is a lace cutout with a "M" emblem placed on some satin ribbon. The overall print is designed with a harlequin motif and is more subtle with the pink colorway. The skirt is pleated rather than gathered at the waistband and the waist tie is made from chiffon. Although the chiffon gives a lovely airy effect, without any interfacing, it does not maintain a bow shape that you would normally have with waist ties made from cotton.

The back has a quarter panel of shirring and features lace up button holes with pink satin ribbon. There is also an invisible zipper on the side for you to use to get into the dress. I was not particularly fond of the buttons they used for the shoulder straps and in time I might replace them with pink or gold buttons.

Back

This dress falls right below my knees when I wear it and I really like that I don't have to roll up my petticoat because it's not short on me. The pleated chiffon hem is really fun to walk around in since it shifts constantly with your steps. The fabric is made of a lightweight cotton so it's a great choice for summer or hotter days. You have to be careful not to snag any of the chiffon pieces on anything since it pulls quite easily. The inside of the dress is lined with pink polyester lining.

Details of the print

The main reason I love this print is the Faberge eggs and all the fascinating details in the print. It's so much more magical to see in life and I constantly talk about and show my friends this print all the time. There are so many hidden gems in the print and I always find something new when I wear it.  

I recall wearing this dress and some ladies saw me walking down the street and they stopped and stared a bit, and hid around the corner just to see me walk by. I thought it was quite cute and they stopped me to say that they loved my dress and had not seen this fashion before in Toronto. 

I hope to wear this dress more often in the future. I was not deterred by the pink color and I definitely love the design of this dress. If I manage to find this dress in a different colorway, I might end up adding it to my collection.

Until next time!
Stay fancy!

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Ritz Carlton

This month's meet was pretty exciting, since we finally managed to get the majority of the group to have afternoon tea at the DEQ restaurant located inside the Ritz Carlton hotel. I had to book quite early in advance to secure the booking for a party of 11. They were very accommodating with my requests as I initially booked for 8 people but asked if we could change it to 11 people about 2 weeks prior to the date. I think partially because the manager e-mailed me asking me if I could change our reservation time from 12pm to 2pm because there was a private event happening and they could not set up in time for afternoon tea. If anything, it worked out for most of us, as it gave us more time to get ready!

Photo credit: Ritz Carlton

The nice thing about the Ritz is that their afternoon tea menu changes every month or two. The theme for the month of August was Japanese high tea. I know previously in May, it was maple themed and I just saw that for September and October, it's a Gatsby themed tea set. It's nice that you can return and have something unique every time you go. 

This was our menu for our experience at the Ritz.

YUZU CURED SALMON
Wasabi mayo, pickled radish, romaine, flaky croissant

CRAB SALAD BOUCHE
Pineapple, cucumber, mirin cured raisins, micro greens

TONKATSU SLIDER
Panko crusted chicken, candied plum relish, avocado, citrus mayo, sesame sliders

GRILLED FLATBREAD
Roasted red peppers, spiced Japanese eggplant, crispy shallots

Broccoli and cheddar quiche

Pistachio Strawberry shortcake
Yuzu lemon tart
Matcha sables
Mango crème choux
Sweet plum pound cake
Freshly Baked Raisin Scones
Devonshire cream
Preserves

Tea or Coffee

Our group had a nice alcove to ourselves in the restaurant and there was a fireplace where we were sitting. It provided great ambience but having the warmth of the fire in mid August was a bit odd. I think most of the girls were not deterred by this fact since the air conditioning was abundant and we got lucky with the some cooler weather that day. 

Tea selection

The Ritz serves Sloane tea for their tea sets and if I recall correctly, they had swapped out a Darjeeling for a Japanese Sencha for the month since it was more appropriate for the theme. Sloane tea is a Toronto based tea company and it's nice to know that they're supporting local businesses.

There was no time limit to our seating at the Ritz, it seemed that they normally allotted 3 hours for each seating, but they never mentioned a time limit to me when I made the reservation and there was never a sense that they wanted to rush us.

Each person was given their one pot of tea and the table was covered in teapots. Be mindful that the teapots are quite large and heavy. The tables had milk and sugar packets for your tea and a small jars of honey, jam and Devonshire cream for the scones.

We were served quiches that were served on a plate and they brought out the savory items on the tiered stands. It was hard to photograph the items on the stands and I hoped that they would give us the thinner frame stand for our food. I noticed that the Ritz has a variety of stands and some are quite unique looking. The table of two that was near us had a stand comprised of stacked cubes.

My favourite savory item was the smoked salmon croissant with the wasabi mayo. I wish I could have eaten more! A lot of locations in the United Kingdom offer refills of savory or sweet items, however it doesn't seem to be commonplace here in Toronto. I would have ate more of those croissants and taken home some of my sweet items.

Sweets time!

They served the dessert tiers after we were done with the savory and mine was brought out on a separate plate for my chocolate allergy request. There weren't too many differences with mine and the food items that everyone else had except that the chocolate topping pieces were either taken away or substituted with fruit.

One of the things that was brought to my attention was the large amount of sugar on the matcha cookies, I barely noticed it on mine since there was not much sugar, but Whitefrosty was scrapping the sugar off and she had a small mountain on her plate when I looked over.

I enjoyed the yuzu tart the most and I learned that it was less sweet compared to the version with the white chocolate topping. My sister said that she could taste the yuzu better in my tart when I let her try a bit of mine.

The normal desserts and my special non-chocolate versions of them. 

The raisin scones had a dense cake texture to them and were very filling. They weren't very large but eating one was definitely enough to send you into a food coma. I prefer my scones to be fluffy and lighter.

Overall I had a really pleasant experience at the Ritz for afternoon tea. The food was very good and we were provided with excellent service. They took into consideration all the accommodation requests that I asked for. I wish that we could have been seated at a normal table rather than the coffee tables that were in our alcove. I found that it was harder to eat and the couches were too comfortable. I think a few of us had started to melt into the couches after we finished eating since we were so full!

If you're looking to come here with a larger group of 8, it is best to book at least 3-4 weeks in advance, especially during the summer season. For a large group you will be sent an email and form to fill out with your personal and credit card information. It is a disclaimer and also a contract to advise you if you were to cancel within however many hours notice how much the Ritz would charge you for cancellation fees. As long as you contact them prior to that, any cancellation will not incur you any charges or fees.

For this meet I wore Metamorphose's Swan Lake.

Some photos from this post are courtesy of Kimi and Archangeli. Thank you!

Until our next adventure~
Stay fancy!

~*~

Bonus:

That fireplace!

Lolita Closet - Bodyline Nostalgia Waloli Set (L051)

One of the more interesting sets I have in my closet is from Bodyline. It was the first Japanese lolita-esque item I ever bought on my first trip to Japan with my family back in 2008. I remember going to Harajuku and seeing Bodyline and thought some of the sets and prints were very cute and affordable. At that point in time, I wanted the set more to wear at a convention and never thought I would start collecting and wearing lolita. This is the Nostalgia Waloli set (L051) that retails for 4999 yen.

Waloli set from Bodyline

I remember going into Bodyline and trying to try on the top in store. After some miscommunication and sign language, I realized that they don't allow customers to try on their clothes in the store. I also realized it was one size, but I remember the shop girl giving me a thumbs up saying it would fit me...haha! 

There's three components to this outfit set. The top, the skirt and the waist piece. I chose this waloli set because I liked the blossom pattern on the fabric and thought it was a nice budget piece. The top is a one size fit and quite loose on me. There are some ties around the waist area on the front panels to secure it in place and to get that 'Y' on the front of the top. The way that the ties are built in, it's impossible to not put it on correctly. The front panels are lined with some black cotton lace and is on the collar as well.

Back photo

The sleeves have fully finished seams, so you can hide some items in them without anything falling out. I think I put some random things in my sleeves, like coins or some tissue, when I wore this outfit to a convention. 

The skirt has an elastic waist and does not give too much. You could probably replace the elastic if it is too tight, but it was alright for me. It consists of a black ruffled under layer and has two asymmetrical cut pieces of the blossom fabric which is all sewn together at the waist band.

I could never figure out if I should tuck in the top into the skirt and then place the waist belt on top, but I remember thinking it didn't look quite right, and even on the promotional pictures on Bodyline's site, it had the bottom portion of the top sitting on top of the skirt. I had habit of tucking in the bottom corners of the front panels into the front of my skirt, just to help give some volume to the skirt and visual interest. I don't think it matters that much, considering the fabric really blends in on itself. How you wear it and whether you tuck it in or not is all up to your own preference.

Butterfly bow

The waist bow is pre-constructed and looks more like a butterfly than a traditional obi bow. It is made of the same black cotton fabric with interfacing to help reinforce it to keep it's shape. The whole back panel of the waist belt is shirred, and the way you put it on is with a zipper fixture on the side. There are two decorative ties that go all the way around the belt, and are adjustable.

I was lucky on my trip since I managed to find some cute zori shoes in a shop called Geta-ya in Asakusa. They were out in the front of the store on display for sale and I remember thinking, they might match this outfit! I had to make my own black tabi socks to go with this outfit when I did wear it since I couldn't find any black ones in Japan.

I hope you thought this blog post was interesting and you liked this feature. It's not a common choice for someone to have a set like this in their lolita closet and it leans more towards a costume piece rather than a fashion piece. However, I still consider it something unique and combines that fusion between tradition and unconventional fashion from Japan.

Until next time!
Stay fancy!

<3