Special Kumyas and You - Limited Kumyas and Clothing for Your Kumya Companion

Is the regular Usakumya with white fur and pink ribbons, or the Kuma Kumya with light brown fur and dark brown ribbons, not enough for you? Do you long for a Kumya in a different colour, - perhaps to perfectly match that one coord? Or would you love for your Kumya to twin with you?
Fret not, BTSSB has got you covered!

The Usakumya pochette is usually in stock with the fur colours white, pink and black, while Kuma Kumya seldom has a regular release that's not their signature Milk Tea colour. So regular releases will most often have these fur colours, and a few different options for ribbon colour/design. 
So what do you do if you'd like a Kumya in a colour or with detailing different from these standard ones? You go hunting for the special Kumyas. 

Special Kumyas, - Kumyas that in some way differ more or less significantly from the regular design, are very often a limited release. This may mean that they'll only be available in one specific physical shop or at a tea party or other event, which means you'll need a shopping service to help secure you one. Although even with a shopping service, you're not guaranteed one, as limited normally means limited in number, as well as a one-off design. 

Sometimes there are also Kumyas that are limited to the online shop, which are usually easier to buy yourself. 

The best way to keep on top of new limited Kumya releases is to keep an eye on the News and Shop Information sections on Babys' website, official twitter and social media accounts for each individual store. 

There have been special versions of rucksacks, big rucksacks and the rucksack mini mini, but by far the most common variant to get the special treatment is the pochette. The pochettes also have the most elaborate special versions. The special versions are very often made to commemorate something, and will therefore usually have a special embroidery or print on one foot. 

Although a special version is not always extremely elaborate, - they range from just being a special colour, to wearing a special outfit, and all the way to very elaborate and completely different from the regular ones. 

Pictured: left, middle, right.

The Usakumya in the middle of the above picture retailed for 28380 yen, which is the most expensive special pochette I've seen so far. The special pochettes are more expensive at retail than the regular ones, and they usually range from around 12000 yen to 16000 yen. A regular pochette costs, as of 18th of July 2022, 10450 yen (tax included). 

So, you've found a Kumya in a colour that matches your coord, but wouldn't it be extra cute if the Kumya could wear the same dress as you, to perfectly twin with you? Outside of the pochettes that come with a special outfit (that are sadly not always entirely removable), Baby also regularly release clothing sets for pochette sized Kumyas! So far this year they've released a Kumya's Floating Sky Tea Party set consisting of Kumya sized JSK and matching ear bows, a Hawase Embroidery Kumya dress set consisting of dress, bloomers and matching ear bows and a Kumya sized Sugar Bouquet JSK. Both the Kumya's Floating Tea Party set and the Sugar Bouquet JSK comes in all the colours that the human sized clothing does. 

In previous years baby has also released darling little cape sets, as well as this adorable costume set that will make your Kumya look like a lion!

In recent years clothing has ranged from 5000 yen to 10000 yen and you may ask yourself if it's really worth it, and of course it is. 

~ Green Tea

Are "C" Rank Dresses Really That Bad?

 

Hmm… (Image by Closet Child)

At some point in your secondhand buying of Lolita clothing, you may come across a desirable item that has stains and/or minor damage that seems either reversible or negligible on first glance, which will leave you with a few of options:

(A) Hold off and wait to buy it in better condition

(B) Buy it, and take it to the dry cleaners

(C) Buy it, and try to deal with it yourself

A has been a diminishing luxury for me for a few years now as most classical lolitas seem to be holding onto their items for life, so these days I bounce between B and C depending on the severity of the problem.

For the purposes of this article, here’s how I define the following terms:

• Stains: Everything that isn’t supposed to be part of the original fabric color/pattern/print is a stain until proven otherwise. Comes from a variety of sources. Could be removable, might be set-in already, or may turn out to be fabric discoloration.
• Minor damage: Loose/missing buttons, broken belt loops/lining tacks, missing ribbon/accessories, anything that can be fixed by amateur sewing repair or replaced with easily-sourced notions is covered by this term.
• Major damage: Alterations, shrinkage, rips/tears, fabric discoloration from fading/bleaching/sun damage/set-in color runs/etc. - anything that requires advanced knowledge or professional services to reverse/repair or may be irreversible permanent damage. Not covered in this article.

And some very bold disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: Try these tips when you have nothing to lose. Everything in this article is intended to be used on hardy non-print cotton dresses because that’s what I have experience with, and they tend to yield the best results. Dresses with known problems like color run possibilities, print fading, delicate materials/finishes, etc. should be taken to professionals unless you know exactly what you’re getting into, which brings me to the next disclaimer — 

Disclaimer 2: Try at your own risk. Don’t try this at home unless you are prepared to (possibly) cause more damage to the dress/spend more money on fixing new problems/settle for a dress that may have permanent damage/worst case, wreck the dress yourself beyond professional repair

Disclaimer 3: Do your research! There are lots of great washing and care guides for lolita clothing out there, take the time to find them and read through them thoroughly. My personal favorite is Raine Dragon’s Brand Washing Directory + cleaning tips page.

Where this all started:

I saw this 2009 version of VM’s Antique Rose Doll OP available for sale at Closet Child with the following description (via Google Translate):

Above: Photo from Closet Child

“Fabric fluffy/wrinkled, brooch missing, slightly yellowed inside sleeve tip/inside collar, many fine light stains on skirt, hem lining, thread cut on one side” for 15400 yen (roughly $133 USD at time of purchase). Not exactly a bargain per se, but still better priced than other Antique Rose Doll OPs; plus I couldn’t see any of the stains mentioned in the description in the photograph. So I bought it, and then set off to look for replacement Petersham ribbon for the “brooch missing” part of the description. 

Above: $11 for 3 yards of 15mm wide 026 Brunette Petersham ribbon at http://thesewingplace.com.

Note: This version of Antique Rose Doll OP has the advantage of having a very busy floral pattern, plus a background color that can mask a variety of stains - even if I’m not successful at completely removing everything, it’s likely that the damage won’t show in pictures as seen in the initial Closet Child photo even if it is blown out. 

Arrival of the Dress

After the dress arrived, I took a few pictures outside before tossing it into the machine for an initial wash. I didn’t bother to get a full shot of the dress because the stains really don’t show up when zoomed out, so I took close up shots instead to show the staining:

Above: Stains are circled + lining tack detachment

The sweat stains were barely noticeable if there were any, and it was difficult to tell if something was a wrinkle or a stain. If I were to summarize what had happened, it looks like one of the former owners of this dress got into a fight with a soy sauce bottle down the entire left side of the dress, while somehow missing all of the light colored parts except for the 2 small dots on the left sleeve. Also, Closet Child very conveniently covered the side where most of the stains were with the left sleeve in the sales photo.

Things to Do:

• Treat the soy sauce stains
• Re-attach the lining to the dress
• Replace missing ribbon

Treating the Soy Sauce Stains Part 1:

I initially tried a citrus-based stain remover (Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover) for the soy sauce stains, but it didn’t do much for lifting the stains. These photos do show how many small stains there are on the dress as well as how hard it can be to tell where the wet spots are if the lighting conditions aren’t right:

Above: Left side is the dress shortly after the first launder, middle and right pictures show how much spotting is in the floral part of the dress via Grandma’s.

Treating the Soy Sauce Stains Part 2:

Since Grandma didn’t do much, I opted for my preferred method of stain treatment - mixing baking soda with Shout Set-In Stain Remover to make a paste for each spot, then soaking everything in vinegar. Photo below shows roughly how much liquid to paste ratio works best for this:

Above: For this treatment, I leave it in the wash bucket because I know it’ll need to be soaked in vinegar after. Vinegar can act as a bleaching/lightening agent, so it usually works best on whites/ivories for sweat stains and isn’t recommended for colors that can fade easily.

I left it like this for about an hour or so, then filled the wash bucket with water and vinegar, specifically pouring the vinegar on the baking soda parts, and left it to soak for a day or so outside before putting it back through the laundry machine with cold water on gentle setting.

The stains were lifted a bit, but are still visible if you look closely. Definitely not visible from far away though. I’m sure if I went through a few more cycles of this removal procedure I’d be able to get most of it out, but this is good enough for now. Plus the two dots on the sleeve are nowhere to be seen.

Above: A couple of up close shots with some remaining stains circled.

Re-attaching the lining to the dress:

The other side of the lining ended up detaching itself in the initial wash, so I now had two sides to fix. To determine the length of the repair thread, I measured the broken tacking which came out to be around 7cm/2.75”. Any polyester thread is fine for this, and the technical term is a “french tack”. This is the tutorial I used (specifically the hand crochet chain stitch). 

Above: Lining reattached to the dress. This method can also be used to repair those pesky belt loops so many brands like to use for ribbon belts.

Replacing the Missing Ribbon:

The color of the ribbon turned out to be darker than the existing trim on the dress; I may look at getting a closer match in the future, but this is good enough for now. I ended up measuring the needed length for it it off another neck ribbon I had for a different item, which came out to 132cm/52” including a bit of extra ribbon for finishing the ends via clumsy whip stitch:

Above: Color comparison and finished ends.

Final Result:

Above: Lightly steamed C rank dress after a bit of treatment - which in photos, isn’t actually that different from where it started.

As it turns out, this particular C rank dress is both as bad as advertised, and not that bad at all. The C ranking at Closet Child can encompass a whole range of issues with an item, so as a final disclaimer, try this when you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain (and when the design happens to be in your favor). 

Best of luck in your secondhand shopping endeavors, and thanks for reading!

Hojicha 

Lolita in Winter

 Hello again!

The winter season is over, but for some people, it’s still quite cold out there. I know where I am, it often fluctuates between cold and warm. 

Lolita for the cold can often be easy to do since it’s already a fashion with a lot of layers. Layering is going to be the key to keeping warm, as well as the type of fabric you’re wearing. What you wear will also be based on your cold tolerance. For some people, they just need more or less layers than someone else.

Under Layers

Thermals

When it’s particularly cold out, one option to wear under your clothes, lolita or not, is thermals!

Thermal shirts or leggings are great for keeping you warm under a blouse, bloomers, etc. 

Heattech by UNIQLO

Thermals aren’t really seen, but you can always match the color to your coords. Maybe if your blouse is a little more sheer, you can find a thermal that matches it so it’s not as obvious.

Fleece Bloomers

One time, I had to wait in line in the cold for a whole four hours while wearing lolita. It was really bad, but I wasn’t as cold as I could have been. One of the reasons I ended up staying so comfortable was from wearing bloomers made of fleece! Fleece is an excellent fabric for keeping warm.

I really like these ones since they have such cute bunnies. And pockets!! They’re also very soft, and this kind of bloomer, in particular, was much longer and went down to my knees.

Legwear

Your legwear can certainly protect you from the cold. I have found that knit OTKs were fine alone to wear and keep my legs warm in 40 degrees Fahrenheit weather. However, if that isn’t enough, knit tights are the ones to go. I wouldn’t recommend using thinner socks made of polyester, at least not alone.

These fleece lined tights aren’t exactly the cutest or have a design, but they will keep you warm. Sometimes, it’s more important to have comfort! You could even layer cuter OTKs over this for both warmth, and cuteness.

Long Sleeves

Long sleeves are often the best choice for winter, for obvious reasons. They can keep you warm, no matter what dress you’re wearing! For OPs with short sleeves, you can wear boleros or cardigans on top to add that extra warmth/

This is even warmer when paired with thermals underneath. Not only that, but cardigans are a great accessory for a coord!

Coats/Jackets

Coats and jackets are pretty much a given for the winter! There are a lot of options for coats, and you’ll start to see them pop up around the summer, or fall. Wool would be an ideal fabric since it can keep you the warmest.

The majority of lolita coats are designed to work with the silhouette of your dress, so you still have your poof. Some are also short coats that stop right at where the poof of your dress begins.

There are also hoodies like this (also known as Parkas) for when the weather is just chilly! I’ve found these can be just as warm if I’m already wearing something long-sleeved underneath.

Ponchos and Capes

Ponchos and capes can also work in winter, but probably best when you’ve got a good amount of layers underneath. Some ponchos/capes work by trapping heat in a sort of bubble inside, but it doesn’t always have the same security as something like a coat or jacket.

Warm Accessories

Just like with regular outfits, these accessories can be paired with your coord. They’re both practical, and decorative!

You can add things like:

Gloves

Scarves or Muffler

Earmuffs

Hats

Shoes

Shoes are a little tougher to find for winter.

In general, if it is not snowing, regular lolita shoes are perfectly fine to wear. Personally, I don’t find my feet get cold at all since I’m already wearing something warm for legwear.

However, if there is snow, it is more suitable to wear boots, both to protect your feet from getting wet and cold and for easier walking through snow.

Style-wise, it’s easy to find cute, wintery boots that work perfectly for lolita!

But these kinds of shoes are not always the best for snow. I’m sure they would be fine for light snow, however. They’re just unlikely to keep your feet as warm, especially if they get wet.

Some non-lolita shoes would work out really well for lolita, and still be suitable for winter. For classic or gothic, it may be a bit easier to find things suitable for lolita since neutral colors are more common. Just be careful about wearing real leather boots in snow, as snow or salt may damage them.

Sweet may have a harder time, but I find that white can be a good neutral if one is wearing pastels. Otherwise, sweet coords with brown, black, or jewel tones can still benefit.

Staying warm is key

Sometimes, it’s just too cold. It’s not always possible to wear something perfectly matching with your coord, while also keeping you warm. Not everyone is able to get a lolita specific coat either. Personally, I didn’t get a lolita specific coat until quite recently. I’ve always managed with just a regular coat since I would take it off once I got indoors again anyway!

If you have a cute coord, but don’t have the perfectly matching jacket, or snow boots, that is totally okay. Some things are just purely utilitarian and don’t have to be part of your coord.

Also, if you’re going to a meet or somewhere where you still want your coord to look good, you could always simply take off your coat (assuming you’re indoors) or bring nicer shoes to change into.

I hope this article helped you during the colder seasons!

Lady Grey

Am I an "Ita" ??

You hear it said in hushed conversation, fleeting between petticoats...
You see it typed over and over on anonymous imageboards...
You see people apologize for being one...
But what really is “ita”?

The TL;DR- Ita is short for 痛い itai which is a Japanese word used as an adjective meaning "painful" or as an interjection equivalent to "ouch". When you see a terrible lolita coord (or attempt at wearing lolita), you can use “ita” to say that it hurts you in your kokoro (heart).

The legendary F Yeah Lolita blog has a wonderful article on “How To Avoid Being An Ita” however it is over 10 years old and some of the concepts need updating. I do recommend reading it before continuing this article if you aren’t familiar with it!

The difference between a beginner lolita and ita

As someone who mentors newbie lolitas and sees how scared they are of being called “ita”, I need to start this article by saying that just being a beginner doesn’t make you an ita! 

Even the most “perfect” lolitas like Misako started out at some point and they weren’t amazing from the start. Lolita fashion, like any hobby, has quite a learning curve and your first few coords most likely won’t be amazing. It takes time to learn how to create a nicely balanced coord, what styles you enjoy and what suits you. Even if you begin your foray into lolita fashion with a scratchy Amazon dress, cat ears and neon pink Demonia knockoffs, you can still improve and create amazing coords later on in your journey. 

Misako modeling for Bodyline 2004. Credit: Rainedragon

So what makes an ita “ita”?

Something we need to differentiate as a community is an ita outfit and an ita personality.

An ita outfit is, of course, only talking about the clothes themselves. They could be terrible quality, have a weird print that isn’t well executed, awkward fit or all of the above. Even Japanese burandos fail sometimes and create a dress that hurts to look at:

(Sorry if you personally love these dresses!) 

An ita outfit can also be an experimental coord that didn’t quite hit the mark. Lolita fashion isn’t nuclear science- experimenting and failing will not be the end of the world or mean that no one should experiment ever. As a creative fashion, lolita has its own trends and grows with the community- if we didn’t experiment, then lolita fashion would still look the same as it did in the 80s and 90s. The fact that it doesn’t look the same as it used to is proof that experimenting isn’t “against the rules” in the slightest!

On the other side of the spectrum, an ita personality is a person that acts in a way that is “ita” and hurts to see. An ita person will usually insist on the opposite of what experienced lolitas recommend just to be contrary and be “Not Like Other Lolitas”. 

They will approve of replicas for selfish reasons (even after knowing all the points explained here: The Big Frocking Replica Debate Explained), be convinced that the lolita community is full of gatekeeping meanies who just want to stifle their free artistic spirit with their “rules” and in most cases haven’t really interacted with the community other than in online spaces. 

As annoying as a person with an ita personality can be to other lolitas, they can also improve with time! After being at a real meet and meeting other lolitas offline, most people will calm down a bit on their “ita”ness and realize that the lolita community isn’t against them- actual concrit is given not as an attack, but as a way of caring and helping the others.

Experimenting with lolita fashion

A lot of people with an ita personality will claim that lolitas call anything that goes against the “rules” ita, that experimenting is “not allowed” in the fashion and anyone who dares to step out of the “cookie cutter” box lolita coords will be called ita, shunned from the community, shame their ancestors and be cursed for 5 generations.

As I mentioned above this simply isn’t true.

  

The lolita “rules” are more like guidelines or a recipe to make sure your cake doesn’t turn into a cookie. When you start out baking, you follow recipes to a T to make sure they turn out well.  Once you’ve tried several recipes, have more confidence in your baking skills and understanding of what you’re doing and why, then you can start experimenting and substituting ingredients while still ending up with a delicious cake. The same is true for lolita fashion- once you have the basics down, you can break the “rules” and still have a beautiful coord. As a famous artist once said: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”  

Is [X] always ita?

The short answer is- NO. Items or design concepts as themselves are not usually ita (unless it’s a replica or otherwise generally offensive.  Even the dresses shown above can be styled in a nice way even if the author is not a fan of them.) Items and concepts depend a lot on the way a person chooses to style them. Even items which used to be considered “ita staples” such as fishnet tights, mini hats, no makeup/ exaggerated makeup, animal ears, black and white coords and raschel "lace monsters” can still be styled well by someone with experience. 

For example: in this coord above, we see Misako wearing the infamous punk lolita style, with fishnets, a mini hat, low poof and no sleeves while still looking great.  

I hope I helped lessen your worries about being called an ita, and remember that we have an article on what to do if you’ve been posted to an imageboard. 

Milk Tea (Who took at least 2 years to get out of their own ita phase.) 

Lara's Doll Dress Review

Earlier this year, there was an old school style dress by a Chinese brand that got a lot of attention. It is the Lara’s Doll series by Little Bear Lolita. This brand is well known for making a lot of cotton old school style dresses.

After several months of production and a couple more for shipping, I finally got the dress! So I am here to do a little review for you with a lot of pictures.

When I first took this dress out of the box, I was super impressed with just how beautiful it looked. It is very heavy and made out of 100% cotton. It is a much thicker cotton compared to some of my cotton AP or Baby items.

The ribbon and lace are extremely nice and don’t feel cheap at all. A lot of Chinese brands have trouble selecting the right type of lace for old school style dresses, but this one is perfect. The ribbon is a nice quality and feels just right for this style of dress.

The sleeves are detachable and are attached using three buttons. This is one fewer button than I am used to with detachable sleeves, but it still holds it in place well.

I didn’t notice this until much later on, but flipping the collar up reveals that the ladder lace… doesn’t go all the way up. This is extremely weird but at the same time, the collar will always be laid flat so it shouldn’t be visible. It goes up past the lace on the collar, so it doesn’t show through the lace either.

To get into this dress, there is an invisible zipper on the left side. It’s extremely hard to tell where it is at first glance since it lines up with the lace around the waist so neatly.

I don’t mind invisible zippers personally, but they are harder to zip up for a lot of people out there. It will be especially tricky near the waist.

Onto the back now~

The back has a bustle which I guess I forgot was a thing with this dress.

This is the button and loop at the top of the back of the dress. You are supposed to unbutton it to put it on so your head fits through the hole, then button it back up when worn. 

It may be hard to tell, but there are pintucks along the bottom of the skirt that go all the way around, except for the bustle.

The fabric for the bustle appears to be a single layer of cotton with a serged edge. Weirdly though, it is attached to a white layer instead of a black one. It may not be noticeable in normal wear, but if the bustle gets messed up, it will show.

The actual lining is also white. The fabric that the bustle is attached to is a separate panel of white fabric. A lot of dresses these days have polyester lining, but this one is actually cotton!

The waist ties are attached by buttons that have a faint ribbon print on them? I guess all the buttons on this dress have the ribbon print on it. The actual waist ties themselves are made of the same cotton as the dress, but since they are double sided, it makes them feel extremely thick and harder to tie a neat bow with.

As for the sizing and fit, it is extremely comfortable and will likely become one of my regular daily dresses. I ordered the XL size (100cm bust) to fit my bust and it does really well. In fact, the waist hits where it is supposed to. Since it was supposed to be made bigger overall, the shoulders are a little too wide for me, but I should have expected this. The dress is a bit short since it was designed with the idea to wear matching peeking bloomers underneath, but it looks fine as a regular dress. It hits me just above the knee with a petticoat on.

I also bought the matching bonnet! So I guess I will tell you now that the black on the bonnet is a slightly different shade than the dress. I’m not sure why. It is not noticeable at all when worn.

There are two clips on the inside of the bonnet to help it stay in place. It feels sturdier than just having combs sewn in, but it does hurt my hair and take longer to put on this way if I want to use them. The ribbon to tie off the bonnet is sturdy enough that I might not need the clips.

A really nice detail is that there is wire inside along the edge of the bonnet to help with the shape. It’s tempting to expand it out all the way but I find it looks best when it’s scrunched up a bit to the proper size for my own head. There is some kind of interfacing so it also sticks up like it should instead of flopping over. A lot of half bonnets are generally soft and have no structure to them so this is very nice to have.

The pink bows lining the inside of the bonnet appear to be sewn on last. I can see that the knots for them are shown on the outer side of the bonnet. Since it’s black thread on a black bonnet, you can’t see them that well, but that kind of bothered me since it’s a weird thing to cheap out on.

Overall, the dress and bonnet are gorgeous and well worth it. I am a little disappointed that there was so much care and attention to certain details, but they cheaped out on other parts. However, this doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the dress at all and I am super happy that I ordered it.

I would definitely be willing to buy from Little Bear Lolita again!

 

You can check them out here:

Taobao: https://shop63762794.taobao.com/

Weibo: https://www.weibo.com/u/6315005400

Bonus! It also came with a few freebies - a postcard, clear file, and keychain. I am putting this at the end since it isn’t as important. I am also unsure if you will still get these when buying leftover stock. I did the preorder.

The clear file has different illustrations on the front and back, showing all the different colorways for this dress.

The keychain is small, but I absolutely adore it! It only comes in this colorway (the most popular one). The brand really didn’t have to do this, but it made me even more excited for the dress. I will keep it and cherish it forever.

That’s all for now. Please let us know if you’d like to see more dress reviews like this!

Chrysanthemum