The Wonderful World of MBOK

January 6, 2014 / lolitaland / 3 Comments

You can find some great deals on Mbok! Mbok is a Japanese online auction site that has a wide variety of items. There are lots of great J-Fashion (including lolita!) items there: you can find dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, jewelry, hair accessories, bags, novelties, and more. If you are not a resident of Japan, you need to use a shopping service to bid on Mbok items. The shopping service I used is Japonica, but there are other shopping services out there.

Searching for specific items on Mbok can be time-consuming, since you have to scroll through different pages, but it is pretty easy to find good deals on brand (and offbrand) items.

I would recommend using the Google Translate extension if you have the Google Chrome web browser. If you do not have Chrome, copying and pasting the Mbok URL into Google Translate works too. Google Translate is not perfect, but it works well enough to help with Mbok navigation.

Check out Mbok’s Alternative/Punk section for lots of lolita items! This is where you will find Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, h.NAOTO, Emily Temple Cute, Jane Marple, and more. This section houses lolita, gothic, punk, and other alternative styles.

You can also search for items from a specific brand on Mbok by looking at the brand category. Here are some great links to lolita brand items on Mbok:

Innocent World

Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Angelic Pretty

Metamorphose

Putumayo

Here are links to some great brands that may carry loliable items on Mbok:

Axes Femme – This brand has great cutsews and cute blouses! There are some nice skirts, JSKs, and OPs too (but not all items will accommodate a petticoat). An Axes Femme item was one of my first Mbok purchases!

Liz Lisa – This is a popular Gyaru brand that has some loliable blouses, cardigans, and cutsews.

Tralala – I’m not too familiar with Tralala, but it is one of Liz Lisa’s sister brands. You may be able to find loliable stuff here too!

Jesus Diamante – I’m not too familiar with this brand either, but it’s a popular Hime Gyaru brand and I’ve seen lots of cute loliable coats from them! They also have really cute parkas/sweatshirts.

If you are interested in Gyaru fashion, check out the whole Mbok 109/GAL section. I have not extensively explored this section yet, but there are tons of brands and lots of cute and cool clothes!

If you want to use Mbok’s search feature, here are a few terms you can try:

ロリータ or ロリィタ- Lolita

姫 – Princess (Hime)

ワンピース – One Piece (OP)

福袋 – Lucky Pack (Fukubukuro)

Find many more helpful search terms from this EGL post by Kyomu.

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If you have any questions, feel free to let me know! I am not an expert, but I can try my best to answer your questions. I hope someone finds this post helpful!

Have fun browsing and shopping~!

Christmas Eve: Walking in a Winter Wonderland

December 25, 2013October 27, 2014 / lolitaland / 5 Comments

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays (and have a great winter season) to those who do not~! I don’t really celebrate Christmas, but every year, I like to give out presents to family and friends during the months of December and January. (Although my grandparents and mother always complain when I give them presents… xD) I like showing my gratitude during the winter season by giving presents to people who mean something special to me. Even though I don’t really celebrate Christmas, I have always wanted to do something special on Christmas Eve when I was growing up. Perhaps it is because I grew up surrounded by people who went on vacations during Winter Break, or did fun things with family and/or friends on Christmas Eve, and for me, Christmas Eve just seemed like a normal day at home.

This winter break, a college friend and I are house-sitting for a friend of the college. So this is my first winter break away from home… that, in itself, is quite exciting! The place I am house-sitting has a Christmas tree. We water the tree everyday, and I love seeing the tree. When it’s dark, I like to turn on the Christmas lights. The ornaments and lights are so pretty together…

I brought some lolita things with me to wear, but I know I won’t be able to wear them much. After all, lolita clothes are not the best things to wear when you are caring for chickens and other animals. I wouldn’t want to stain my skirts or JSKs!

However, I had the chance to pretty myself up and go out in lolita! Yesterday, my friend Terry (who I call my lolita big sister) came to pick me up for some winter festivities.

We took lots of selcas~

We began by going to an exhibit called Walking in a Winter Wonderland. There were various indoor areas decorated with lots of trees and pretty scenes:

Sitting in a pretty gazebo

There were even moments when fake snow (made from soap, I believe) poured down from the ceilings!

Fake snow is fun because… it isn’t cold!~

After we finished walking through this Winter Wonderland, there was a professional photographer waiting at the last point. We had our photos taken and received some cute prints! I don’t have them with me at the moment (I forgot to take my copies; Terry has them at the moment). But I hope to give the photo prints to my mother and grandparents the next time I see them.

When we left the Winter Wonderland, we decided it would be fun to take some outdoor photos nearby! We walked around and found an area with cute historic buildings.

An old school house

After taking photos of each other and chatting about family and possible other activities to do while wearing lolita in the future, Terry and I recorded silly clips of each other in this area. I decided to put together some of these clips for my first lolita-centric YouTube video. After some thought, I decided to make a YouTube channel. Once we decided that was enough filming for the day, Terry and I found an outdoor gazebo for some more fun photos!

Terry was really hungry after this, and it was also getting late… so we decided it was a good time to get some food. We went to a small Vietnamese restaurant for our Christmas Eve lunch. Terry had Vietnamese udon noodle and seafood soup, and I had stir-fry rice noodles with beef and vegetables. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant, probably because it was Christmas Eve and most people are eating at home with their families.

All in all, yesterday was a lovely Christmas Eve! I am really grateful that Terry dropped by and picked me up to do something fun on Christmas Eve. Snapping photos, eating good food, wearing lolita, and enjoying the company of a friend are all great ways to spend a day.

Today, by contrast, I am taking care of the animals and wearing a sweatshirt and leggings. I wouldn’t want to crawl through the chicken coop in my lolita clothes…

[EDIT: Here is the Video. ^_^]

How did you spend your Christmas Eve? Do you have any plans for this week?

3 Trends I Could Never Get Into

October 5, 2013 / lolitaland / 3 Comments

This Week’s Prompt: 3 Trends You Could Never Get Into

I am not sure if all of these are considered Lolita trends, but here is a list of three things in Lolita fashion that I don’t think I could ever get into:

1) Rockinghorse Shoes

I know that many Lolitas love Rockinghorse Shoes, and I think they work well in some coordinates, but this is one trend that I would never be able to get into. I do not like how the bottoms of the shoes are shaped… They don’t look quite like platforms, and I don’t know if I would be able to wear them. If I trip while wearing heels or wedges, I would definitely be falling all over the place if I wore these Rockinghorse Shoes. They look like you could just rock forward by accident… and then BAM! You fall flat on your face. Also, I am not sure if the straps on the Rockinghorse Shoes (at least on the ones pictured above) would be able to stay up on my legs. I like the criss-cross strappy look, but I don’t know if it will work for me.

2) Stuffed Animal Bags

Stuffed animals are cute, and lots of Lolita bags and purses are cute, but I honestly do not like combining stuffed animals and bags for Lolita fashion. Many brands release stuffed animals with straps, pockets, etc. to be used as purses and small backpacks. I don’t know… but the idea of storing stuff inside a plush toy creeps me out a bit. Especially if there is a zippered pocket behind the animal’s head or in the back of the animal… It’s as if you were going to rip open the cute little creature’s skin and then stuff a wallet and some extra bobby pins and a camera into the thing’s flesh. Before I go into any more imagery… I’ll simply say that this is one trend that I will never get into. I do think stuffed animals can be cute accessories though! But not as purses.

3) The Christian Cross in Gothic Lolita

I love the Gothic Lolita style, and I would like to get more into this substyle of Lolita fashion in the future, but I honestly do not feel comfortable wearing Lolita items that feature the Christian cross. I know some people feel comfortable with it, but personally, I do not feel comfortable wearing an item with this religious symbol on it. I am not a Christian, so I would feel awkward if I was wearing a clothing item with the Christian cross or the Crucifix on it. I do not want to feel as though I am appropriating a religious symbol for fashion. I know some people who are not Christian love wearing the cross on their clothing or cross pendant necklaces as part of their fashion style, and that is okay if they feel comfortable with it and do not use the religious symbols in an offensive way. But for me, personally, I do not feel comfortable wearing the cross. I do think the cross motif on dresses is very pretty to look at, and I love seeing Gothic Lolita coordinates with or without the Christian cross. I love looking at those gorgeous Moi-Meme-Moitie dresses with crosses but I would never buy the dresses.

And those are the 3 Lolita trends that I could never get into! I hope no one is offended by this; these are all only my opinions. I have friends who love Rockinghorse Shoes, stuffed animal bags, and/or Christian cross motifs on their clothes, and it’s totally okay. Everyone has their own personal preferences for fashion, and that’s one reason why I love fashion so much! Everyone can express themselves through the clothes that they choose to wear.

What do you think? Are there any trends that you could never get into? Or perhaps are there trends that you would like to get into, but are afraid to?