I had a really hard time tracking down old pictures (I lost a lot when we lost the old Lolita Snap and Himitsunoniwa sites), but I finally managed to find some so I thought I'd make a kinda abbreviated timeline!
Ummm..I was trying to write a narrative as I did this, but turns out I have early early onset Alzheimer's and I cannot remember anything about when things happened! So here is a mishmash of stuff.
I bought my first dress from Bodyline in around March of 2005. It was that pink maid one everyone had back then - kinda fake bustle in back, white poofy bust area, attached collar, horrible polyester. I had a photo taken at a cosplay event in it, but I cannot find it (I swear, I'm not just hiding it - though it was pretty bad! XD). I also bought the infamous Bodyline Lace Monster Marble knockoff. It was a two piece outfit with a skirt and a "blouse" with long sides so it blended with the skirt, everything made of cheap poly that was very thick so it was very hot, and all covered with miles of raschel lace.
I was afraid to wear lolita in public, afraid of what my school and students would think. So I wore the pink to a cosplay event. And I wore the black one to a goth club, my very first ever. I finally worked up the courage to wear it outside in public for a trip to Tokyo in the summer of 2005.
Um...that first week:
Oh god, oh god. Oh god. Yeah. I even wore it to Yasukuni Jinja. Classy.
Complete with unkempt hair and hat tied in front of the neck. D:
First brand! Bought that trip.
Then, I started wearing it more often, but I still wouldn't wear it in Osaka. But every chance I got, Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo, Kyushu...anywhere I didn't think I'd see students, I wore it. Course it turned out I still ended up seeing them everywhere, so I gave up after a few months and just started wearing it normally. Anyway, photos.
At some point I returned to Tokyo for IW's big grand opening in Harajuku and just to visit. While there I bought a new Innocent World skirt, my first IW. I also got to meet Emmie for the first time, and go to my first pseudo meetup! Though we never used that term :)
Other random photos from 2005-2006, in no particular order:
This was actually at a cosplay event in Nihonbashi (Osaka's Akiba). Bad wig is bad.
At sumo.
At some point around 2005 I started sewing more skirts.
In 2006 I became friends with Rose. I'd met her in 2005 at my very first goth event, and danced with her and had a good time, but didn't actually start really talking to her until 2006. I also didn't see her show until 2006, a real tragedy.
Halloween 06 we attended the Osaka Loop Line party, a gorgeous tradition in which a bazillion drunk foreigners and Japanese people take over about 6 cars of the JR loop line train and make a general ruckus as it travels the loop, getting off at every stop, hooping and hollering, and then getting back on in a different car. Alas in 2007(?) they forcefully shut it down. It was a sad sad thing.
I wore a horrid attempt at a Willy Wonka Lolita, which was also a sad sad thing. XD
In Osaka there is a lovely monthly tea party event, where they happen to have a professional photographer. I went in Feb 06 for the first time.
Hanami 2006, also my first Angelic Pretty...it wasn't pretty. I actually think this picture sums it up best.
In late 2006 early 2007 I started selling things a LOT and opened my sales journal. Random trivia.
In late 2006 early 2007, I started doing pin curls. I was starting to have a better sense of what worked on me, maybe.
Valentine's 2007
March 2007
I became a big Novala fan and in March 2007 went to my first Novala autograph session.
April 2007 I made my first jsk.
May 2007
In June of 2007 the OTT thing was starting. This girl was the first I ever saw, and I saw her all the time at like every event - the goth club, tea parties, AP events...
She was gorgeous. I think her name was Asuka but I can't remember now...started with an A. She wasn't all that friendly XD. This is
tiggielil in the photo with her - they won Best Dressed. In August 2007 I got my first corset. I started wearing it with ... kinda random things. XD
I also moved into a new apartment really close to downtown, in Nihonbashi, and became more outgoing, if only because it was so much easier. I wore lolita a lot more after this.
Halloween 2007.
xelyna and I went to a Kera tea party in Kobe. Kinda sucked. XD
That Halloween also saw the first appearance of what has now grown to be my primary style - corset, big hat, and lots of crazy.
And my first attempt at something akin to OTT earlier that month in mid Oct.
Really don't know what I was thinking, but I still love that hat!
At a friend's fashion show the next month, with Yoko who does a version of Ankoku Butoh now. She's wearing Luciferrot, which is the brand that made that music box pierrot hat I have.
Started getting into Meta's more retro designs.
At a goth event in early Dec 07
Bonnenkai 2007 - end of year party. This was a MASSIVE thing with several hundred people and some shows, etc, all-you-can-drink all-you-can-eat massive THING. Filled with a ton of normal people, a ton of goth people, and a ton of..."other". Picture related. In other words, we drank until we nearly passed out, then when everyone was about to go home I convinced them all to go to the goth event that night ANYWAY even though we were already blitzed. It was an amazing night. Even though most of us ended up passing out on the back tables. ^^
Yes, yes that IS Rilakkuma dressed as Shinku from Rozen Maiden. What ELSE would it be?
The final week of 2007 was incredible. Rose's book was being published, so there was a huge publishing party in Tokyo on Dec 28. My birthday is Dec 29. So my friends Nana, Rei, and I took an overnight bus to Tokyo, crashed at a karaoke place, went to the party on the 28th, went to a net cafe for 2 hours of sleep, then got up and went to Disneyland, then they went home and I met my boyfriend in the city who was there with a separate group of friends, we celebrated my birthday and went to Christon Cafe, and then we took the bus home the following night, getting home on the morning of NYE, and then we went to the giant Black Veil countdown party that night. Madness. But the best weekend of my life.
Blowing up balloons for Rose on a temple staircase
Rei and Nana hard at work caricaturing the family's faces on balloons at Tenmado. Sachi in the background! ♥
Rose <3<3<3
I got my bands cut that month too.
Jan 2008 I started going to this rockabilly bar in Shin-Osaka.
Feb 08 I organized a huge meetup in Osaka. We went to Iron Chef France's restaurant. And then shopping, and then izakaya...oh boy did we eat.
I was so proud of that coordinate...wow. It wasn't even that long ago, but just...wow. -.-;;
March 09 we had a hanami party.
I also bought an ungodly amount of Magical Etoile.
XD
This was in the height of my shopping service days. Pretty much this picture describes my every day life back then:
Carrying THAT home on a bicycle is ... a challenge. XDXD
April 6 2008, my last Novala autograph session. This was briefly after he got out of prison.
On May 12, 2008, I moved back to Detroit. It was sad, but I quickly grew to love Detroit and now I'm glad I came back. Though looking at all these pictures has made me incredibly nostalgic!
I think I will spare you any more photos, because it is midnight and therefore the theme ends in 2 minutes, and also you can find it all on daily_lolita:
http://community.livejournal.com/daily_lolita/tag/theosakakoneko
I started posting regularly there in Jan of 09, but there are some from 08 as well, so it pretty much fills in the blanks. I'd add them if there were more time, but I really can't afford to spend any more time on this anyway! XD So I'll use the time as an excuse and be done with it all! :D
Wow, some of my memory of all this is very blurry! I bet I got a lot wrong. T__T I should go back and read some old LJ entries...it was all only 3-5 years ago but I don't remember clearly at all!
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