It has been a little while, school has been keeping me busier than I expected so I couldn't do the once a week posting I was planning, but I finally found the time to write this up. Unfortunately in the time it took this dress ended up filling its ressrvation slots so you can't buy it anymore, but that hasn't stopped me before.

This dress is Avenue Denfer's Return to the Darkness! Like a lot of the ones I've been covering lately, it comes in two versions, a OP or JSK and blouse combo. Both are utterly lovely so I'll be covering both individually after I go over the shared details I like. Starting with the colour, both versions are in green or purple. I like the purple a lot more here, it's a lot more gothic and so it better fits the intent of the dress. But I think the green might have a lot of potential as a classic if you wore a white blouse instead of the black ones, and green and white is one of my favourite colour combos. Unfortunately the set blouse is only in black, so there's no example photos of this idea.

Next up is the jacquard patterning on the main dress. Both colours and versions use the same design, and I love how it brings in butterfly, candelabra, and other gothic motifs while remaining very subtle thanks to being a jacquard weave and not, for instance, a print. I like the butterflies the most, especially due to how they tie into...

The butterfly brooch on the bow! I love this, it's so cute yet still very gothic feeling, it's the exact thing I love so much about lolita in general. And since it's only the one part of the dress, it keeps it still feeling classy overall while bringing in that cute little focal point.

Beyond the butterfly, this photo is also an excellent segway onto looking at the OP version of this dress. And what a good segway it is, I adore the lace on this one. It's so pretty. I overall prefer the OP of the two versions specifically because it uses the lace so much and so well.

In particular I love the little lace sleeves on top of the actual dress sleeves. It looks fantastic and brings in the draping which is both pretty and effective at deemphasising shoulders. It's the stuff that I love in capelets, although not to quite the same extent.

On the JSK version of the dress meanwhile, the blouse adds a ton to the look, particularly with the jabot on top of it. And due to its nature as a JSK set both the blouse and dress are usable for other outfits. And this works in its favour since they are both very versatile and could be used effectively for a lot of different looks. Like the white and green I was thinking of earlier, but one could also mix the blouse with a blue dress or whatever else one might dream up with it. It's all up to taste.

I would have posted an extra pic to end this off but I hit the limit and don't feel like waiting to add another pic. Needless to say I like the dress and it's very pretty. I hope anyone who read this enjoyed it or maybe even felt a bit inspired by the look!

So so far I've covered a few different styles of lolita dresses. I started with a sweet, then did a classic, but I haven't done a gothic yet, let's change that.

This issue's dress is Lingxi's Nightmare Lilith. It's a rose-themed gothic, as made obvious by its incredible collar. Seriously if I could get just the collar I would. It's perfect for basically any gothic rose coord. The thorns add so much to the rose which is a pretty common motif.

The collar isn't the only rose themed part of this dress though. The skirt has an printed rose motif. It's in almost the same black as the dress itself, so it's relatively subtle, but it adds a lot. Especially thanks to the pop of red behind it which adds some colour into the otherwise pure black dress. (Which, speaking personally, is very important for any gothic lolita in my eyes. Pure black can look good but I much prefer gothics that use dark reds, purples, and navys in their scheme since they add some visual interest. White too but white is tricky and not every dress pulls it off. But ultimately I'm not a gothic I'm a classic, colour is just part of my aesthetic in a way it isn't for a gothic.)

The dress has two sleeve variants, regular sleeves and bell sleeves. They're both lovely, I'm honestly not sure if I prefer one or the other.

Of the three model coords, I like this one the most for its use of prayer beads. It unfortunately gives up the witch hat that's part of the set (which I love, witch coords are so cool and I want one), but the new headpiece is beautiful and I adore how the spikes on it accent the rose collar's thorns.

So that's the dress! I didn't really have as much to say this time, like I said I'm a classic not a gothic. I just really loved this one's collar and rose theme.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5430764

Hello and welcome to the fourth of my silly little rambles that people apparently like to read, only this time it's a post! I spoke with a few people over on trachat and the consensus seemed to be that making this a full post would be better, so from now on I'll be posting them here and crossposting to traa.

Jumping right into it, today's dress is Long Ears and Sharp Ears' Morning Glory. Unlike the other dresses I've covered so far, this one is available as both a OP and a JSK with blouse.

As you can see the JSK is a lot girlier and cutesier, while the OP has a nicer more mature and elegant look. Of the two I'm drawn more towards the white versions OP, but both are really lovely! I think however that the coloured versions of the dress work better as the JSK, particularly this purple version. I'm just personally drawn towards pretty white clothing in general.

I was mainly drawn to this one by the chiffon and tulle fabric, in particular the metallic tulle hexagon pattern that covers the entire dress is really beautiful and adds a nice shine without being overwhelming. The white versions of the dress show it off particularly well I think. It makes the entire dress glow in the sunlight, hence the name, and it is utterly gorgeous when it does.

As has become a theme, I'm also in love with the smaller details too. In particular this collar is gorgeous and I adore all the little bows on the JSK version. The mix of purple, blue, and green that you can see here is really difficult to get right but I think it works quite well here!

I honestly don't have much else to say about this dress really, it's a bit simple but I think quite effective and I really like it. I already quite liked LnSEars as a brand for their more elaborate fairy-themed pieces, but this one has shown me that they can do a decent variety of looks and it makes me want to get one of their pieces again. LnSEars are also a good brand for taller women, since you can custom order their dresses to match your sizes for only a slight price increase. ($10 extra for a skirt length increase, $15 for a full resizing)

Hello and welcome to the fourth of my silly little rambles that people apparently like to read, only this time it's a post! I spoke with a few people over on trachat and the consensus seemed to be that making this a full post would be better, so from now on I'll be posting them here and crossposting to traa.

Jumping right into it, today's dress is Long Ears and Sharp Ears' Morning Glory. Unlike the other dresses I've covered so far, this one is available as both a OP and a JSK with blouse.

As you can see the JSK is a lot girlier and cutesier, while the OP has a nicer more mature and elegant look. Of the two I'm drawn more towards the white versions OP, but both are really lovely! I think however that the coloured versions of the dress work better as the JSK, particularly this purple version. I'm just personally drawn towards pretty white clothing in general.

I was mainly drawn to this one by the chiffon and tulle fabric, in particular the metallic tulle hexagon pattern that covers the entire dress is really beautiful and adds a nice shine without being overwhelming. The white versions of the dress show it off particularly well I think. It makes the entire dress glow in the sunlight, hence the name, and it is utterly gorgeous when it does.

As has become a theme, I'm also in love with the smaller details too. In particular this collar is gorgeous and I adore all the little bows on the JSK version. The mix of purple, blue, and green that you can see here is really difficult to get right but I think it works quite well here!

I honestly don't have much else to say about this dress really, it's a bit simple but I think quite effective and I really like it. I already quite liked LnSEars as a brand for their more elaborate fairy-themed pieces, but this one has shown me that they can do a decent variety of looks and it makes me want to get one of their pieces again. LnSEars are also a good brand for taller women, since you can custom order their dresses to match your sizes for only a slight price increase. ($10 extra for a skirt length increase, $15 for a full resizing)