Book Review: Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute

I recently got the book Kawaii!: Japan's Culture of Cute off Amazon. I've been meaning to get it for a while after seeing a couple of reviews about it. I like to get books relating to Japanese street fashion so this seemed like a sensible choice.

What a cute cover!

Whilst my last Japanese street fashion book was content heavy but lacking in the photo department, I would say that Kawaii! has a great balance of the two. There is a particularly strong focus on artwork and artists, and after looking at this book I would like to know more about them and their work.

I spent several minutes on certain pages taking in all the details of certain drawings and paintings.

It is packed full of interviews with various kawaii artists, designers, models, etc. There are explanatory title pages explaining a certain aspect of kawaii culture, before divulging into different brands or products which fit into that category.

For me, the one part where the book is lacking is talking about kawaii fashion. This was a little disappointing given that the kawaii aspects of sweets, foods and even mayonnaise was covered, but the section on lolita fashion, for example, was given a mere four pages consisting of a brief interview with two models. It did not make for an informative read, but simply presented personal opinions and experiences. However, I realise this approach might appeal to some people.

Still, there's a section on the street fashion walks which happen in Harajuku which I found interesting. I can't imagine that idea working very well where I live!

This book is visually stunning, packed with high quality photos and artwork that are a pleasure to just sit and flick through on a cloudy day. The pages are large and the book feels sturdy. I would recommend this book to those with an interest in learning about the origins of kawaii as it goes pretty in depth about this. It would make a great gift, for yourself, or someone else!

Overall (with a slight drop in score due to how it breezes through kawaii fashion), I would give this 4/5, and I would definitely recommend it!

Do you own this book? What do you think of it? ❤

Another Alice-themed Day in Oxford!

Last Saturday was Alice Day in Oxford, a day dedicated to celebrating Lewis Carroll's Alice, and her adventures in wonderland. But somehow, despite kind of knowing where the events would be held, myself and the other Oxfordshire Lolitas managed to completely miss all of those official items of the day! We still had a really amazing time, with Luna being an awesome meetup host as usual.

We started off the day in our favourite pub for a meal. It was pouring with rain outside, but I couldn't help sharing a pitcher of summery Pimm's with Sammi and Luna. Outside we noticed a lolita none of us knew walk past. Mysterious!

After our meal we went to a sweet shop before hunting down the Alice Day activities. We found one event happening, but it consisted of a couple of gazebos and not much else-- certainly not worth paying an entrance fee for. After getting pestered for countless photos (or simply having people take our pictures without asking) we decided to cool off in the ice cream shop. Newly refreshed, we headed to the park.

The day's activities included an egg and spoon slalom race with plastic utensils and breakable plastic eggs! The spoons were much too small for the eggs so actually moving with the egg on the spoon was close to impossible and incredibly frustrating! Who knew this traditional children's sports day race could get so intense?!

I ended up winning both of my egg and spoon races, and won a prize! I got a hair clip, and a teacup ring (which I totally didn't notice until I got home. I was amazed when this random ring tumbled out of the tissue paper in my bedroom!) I love how real the sweets on the clip look, plus they matched the charm bracelet I was wearing that day which was an added bonus!

My outfit included my trusty Alice's Ribbon Kingdom jumperskirt! I'm finding this is becoming my go-to jumperskirt as I'm more comfortable coordinating with black than with pastels. #bittersweetlolita XD

The blouse is Anna House, and the shoes are from Bodyline. You can just about see a Pusheen necklace trying to hide in my blouse!

I would say my lolita style is very casual (probably too casual), but I would like to add more details to my outfits in future and step out of my comfort zone. I found Blair's coord very inspiring, and couldn't help but snap detail shots. Her Innocent World wristcuffs are positively divine!

The meetup attendees! I'm the sort of person that is more comfortable in smaller groups, so this was a really nice change of pace for me. By the way, please excuse our collective squinting at the sudden sunlight-- we really struggled to find a good spot to take a group picture that wouldn't have a ton of tour groups and randomers for a backdrop!

Overall, I had so much fun at this meet! I adore doing silly running around activities and not taking things too seriously. It was nice to get to know the two newer members of the group, and I hope they will come to more meetups soon!

I hope you enjoyed this post! See you next time ❤

New Youtube Videos: Baby Bag Review and Metamorphose Lucky Pack Opening!

Hey everyone! I haven't had much time or energy for proper blog posts recently (plus it's currently my very short summer holiday and I want to make the most of it!) so I've taken a little time to make a couple of Youtube videos.

They're very basic "unboxing" videos, where I talk about packages I got in the post recently, and go through the contents. Most recently I got a bag from Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, and a dress set/lucky pack from Metamorphose.

Here are the two videos I've done in the last week or so. I hope you enjoy them!

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