COORDINATE 010: CHILDHOOD MEMORIES IN GINGHAM

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Dress: Metamorphose (Gingham Check A Line OP in black)
Headband: Handmade by me. It’s black velvet 🖤
Bow brooch: HMHM (it came with their Okra Blouse)
Parasol: Offbrand (bought from Lolita Collective)
Bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (Ribbon Heart Bag, unsure of release year since they’ve released it in black x white many times)
Belt: Offbrand (thrifted)
Gloves: Offbrand (bought from Amazon)
Wrist cuffs: Handmade by me
Socks: Taobao, bought from Ebay
Shoes: Bodyline (Chacha Ribbon Shoes shoes178 in blkxowh)

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Worn to a local parks festival in June 2018. A little classic, a little sweet, a little retro. I didn’t have any special plans for International Lolita Day (too much scheduled to go away for the weekend) so I dressed up to go to the parks festival outing that I had already committed to. My husband’s band was playing at the festival and the wives of the other members who are married all came too. Band wife hangouts are always a good time.

My outfit is inspired by a memory. When I was little, my mom had a black and white gingham print umbrella and I thought it was really pretty and classy, so of course I played with it whenever I could. I remember turning on the sprinkler in the summer and standing under it with the umbrella, and going outside with it to jump in puddles when it was raining. (I’m pretty sure I broke it by playing with it so much. Sorry mom.) This old school Metamorphose tent dress has the exact same pattern on it as that umbrella so I went for a classy, fancy look, as much as you can get gingham and rickrack to look mature and polished anyway. All you have to do is remove the belt and I look 4 years old again, lol. The gingham check is rectangular rather than square and the white is a soft offwhite color. The fabric is nice and thick. The heart buttons are a cute touch. I love wearing these wrist cuffs over the gloves, especially since the gloves are quite plain by themselves. I made them without decorations so that I could pin just about anything on to embellish them (and not have 500 pairs of wristcuffs that are all similar). A gingham umbrella would have been perfect, especially considering the inspiration for this outfit, but I don’t have one, and I was initially going to bring a black parasol with me but then decided the white one looked better.

Ultimately I decided this dress was a little too cutesy for me to wear a lot, so it’s off to a new home, but it brought back good memories and I’m happy I got to wear it once. :)