The second major dress up event we attended in May 2025 was the Spill The Tea: Jane Austen Tea Tasting co-hosted by Savvy Tea Gourmet and Lyman Orchards at The Lyman Homestead in Middlefield, CT.  Savvy Tea Gourmet is my favorite local tea shop as they source tea and make their own blends from all over the world and everything is super fresh and eco-friendly packaging. The owners of the Savvy Tea came up from Madison to offer delightful Jane Austen inspired tea pairings as well as tea education, while Lyman Orchards Apple Barrel Farmers Market provided the accompanying quiche, tea sandwich, and scones with strawberry jam in the historical Lyman Homestead. The Lyman Homestead, built in 1860, is one of the best Gothic Revival structures in the greater Middletown area. It was built to a design by New Haven architect Rufus G Russell and was completed in 1865. The 2 acre property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. 

Now this event just happened to also occur on the same day that our Dances of Bridgerton class over in nearby Middletown was to take place. Dances of Bridgerton is a bit of a passion project dreamt up by master dance instructor Susan de Guardiola. Imagine learning the  dances from the Netflix show Bridgerton, other dances by the same choreographer, and some actual Regency dances with a real time instructor and a bunch of other people at the same time!  Did you gush at Simon and Daphne's couple dance in Season One? Or did you love the dance in Episode 6 of Queen Charlotte between Charlotte and George? I've learned them both and we frequently go over them in class as well as learning new dances too!  If that sounds like an amazing time to you, the class is open and looking for more attendees. The next one is actually next Sunday, August 10, and walk-ins are welcome! 

Since pretty much everyone who attends this dance class is into dressing up in period fashion, drinking tea, and socializing, I proposed to Susan that we should let the other attendees know about it and see if they also would like to sign up. Susan was able to get the Spill the Tea event to allow us a table of 10 rather than the purported maximum 6, but every single one of us dressed in our Regency finest. It was like we absolutely stepped back in time from the historic home itself, to our fashion, the tea service, it was truly a magical moment!

After we enjoyed our tea pairings and food items, there was still time to wander around the interior of the building. The historic home caretakers didn't seem to mind us wandering around to the different rooms and posing in our outfits with the furniture. 

This is my friend Nina from my CCSU days. She is excellent at sewing and drafting her own patterns. She looked at historical regency patterns and drafted this one for herself. She also has a matching petticoat she made to wear under it. The blue cotton of her dress matched the wall pretty well and I thought she should stand in front of the fireplace to show that. I asked her if she would like to go to the first "Dances of Bridgerton" class with me last year because Pahl couldn't make it and we've been hooked on the class ever since. She's also teaching me basic sewing now too!

Now you must be wondering, is my outfit actual Regency after looking at Nina and Pahl's outfits? No, not really. It's an EGL dress from the Chinese indie brand Miss Point's Sally Gardens Series. The dress is described as an "elegant vintage one-piece dress", that features a square collar, lotus root sleeves, an empire waist, ribbons+ flower decorations at the chest and cuffs, and a long length. I am wearing a 78 cm daily wear petticoat under this dress for the poof and flow at the bottom. The straw bonnet, additional chest flowers, and lace choker are also from Miss Point. I absolutely could not forget my teapot bag, which is actually pop culture merchandise from Bridgerton via Hot Topic. It is a white teapot cross body purse with purple and green printed petals and says "Diamond of the Season" on it, which if you've seen Bridgerton, you know is the Queen's pick of female debutante each year. It was just so meta to be at a tea party with folks I learn dances from Bridgerton with while carrying around a purse dedicated to those two ideas. 

I have actually worn this brown and cream dress so frequently to dance class (I love the way it glides in the Queen Charlotte dances to be honest), that  Pahl and I normally go out to the same restaurant after class and the staff there knows us by our outfits and greets us very warmly and always asks us how our dance class was!  We haven't been to class for a few months because we missed the one in June for Downtown Milford Business Association's annual Pirate Day (a future blog post) and there wasn't one in July.  The goal is to learn enough dances and dance them well enough for a dance focused Bridgerton Masquerade Ball in October! I am so looking forward to it as well as planning a new EGL Regency inspired outfit for the ball!

I ended up doing several dress up events in May 2025, and the first one I was the host! I had it in my head that I wanted to plan a karaoke meeting for my fashion club. I knew I wanted to do karaoke for us somewhere semi-private, rather than your average dimly-lit American bar, but I didn't think we quite had the funds to rent out a private booth plus snacks and drinks for the evening. Luckily RoiEt Cafe in Hamden, CT allowed us to rent the "VIP" area for free for 3 hours, and provided several delicious dinner items inspired by Thai and Japanese street food to purchase as well as a variety of drinks (alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic like bubble tea, etc) that allowed us to get our fill and loosen our lungs for a fun night of singing! The menu includes such a range from pad thai to sticky rice chicken wraps to onigiri and Japanese bread. It is easy to order a full meal as well as snacks and desserts here, which is nice if you're not really into imbibing or a stereotypical bar scene.

The VIP area was actually quite well lit, and we also had our own private bathroom. The lower level supposedly fit up to 15 people, but we cozily sat off to the left side for eating and moved closer to the grass wall for singing and photos. I can't lie, the karaoke set up is about as bare bones as you can get. They have a couple of mics and you're supposed to search on YouTube for the song you want to sing. I was honestly surprised at how many obscure songs were already converted to "Karaoke versions" on YouTube. 

The outfit suggestion was to "wear a style that represents the music you like to sing or listen to".  For myself, one of my favorite types of music that I like to listen to is industrial, electronic, and punk. So of course I had to incorporate as much black, plaid, and metal rivets/ zippers, and grommets into my look for the evening. Pahl likes punk too and wanted to make sure he matched me, so he also wore black and blue. Nomi was also channeling a similar vibe with their Atelier Pierrot Decay Gauze Skirt paired with a light pink t-shirt, black harness, and black leather choker. 

Sarah has a thing for strawberries and quite deftly worked them into her main dress as well as a pin on her sweater. Cute black tights with red hearts, red shoes and a red hair band complete the look. I wouldn't be surprised if Erik also wore black and red to match his lady. 

Maxie wore a beautiful classic floral style dress. She sang September from Earth, Wind, & Fire, which is an American pop, soul, and jazz fusion band, and then proceeded to sing an operatic song from Muse, which is an English band that fuses rock, electronica, and opera together. If anything, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that she really enjoys complex music that combines many genres. 

Jax represented the country genre and added stylistic details such as a tiny cowboy hat, gingham scarf, corduroy jacket slung across one shoulder, and Timberland boots to their otherwise sweet style coordinate. Jax did not disappoint with their selection of a country song that was so funny as they did stereotypical mannerisms you see in country videos for the male singers especially. Later they did a duet with Sarah of Dolly Parton's "9-5", as an ode to my last post about getting dress-coded at the office for looking too much like a doll. 

Now you might be wondering more about my coordinate. Let me tell you, I had this outfit in my head for months. I ordered the dress and matching blouse from Chinese indie brand Alice Girl in Spring 2024, but I had to wait a little longer to get the matching accessories. This dark but  brighter than navy saturated blue is called Klein blue. It is used in a lot of alt fashion garments across brands, often specifically for gothic looking styles. So, naturally, I also started collecting accessories that incorporate klein blue as well as main pieces. 

For my accessories I am wearing a black pleather bow headband that has a metal heart and 3 kinds of metal crosses hanging from it. Under that I have a white wavy bob wig with 4 long braids at the ends. For wrist cuffs I am wearing long black fabric gloves that have 3 short belts with gromets as well as a long visible zipper on the outside. For socks I am wearing the lace up ones from Moi Meme Moitie. You lace them up yourself---but they look so good! For shoes I am wearing black shiny pleather platforms that also have metal studs and crosses hanging from them. For my purse I have a black rectangle satchel with rivets around the edges and a centralized silver metal crown. 

You might be wondering if I sang any industrial songs while I was at the meeting. I did not...but I did sing Lady Gaga's two most recent singles off her new album Mayhem, "Disease" and "Abracadbra". My voice cracked a bunch and I was a little embarrassed, but those are pretty hard songs to sing at the range that Lady Gaga does. I already look like her, I thought maybe I could try singing like her too. But there is only one Lady Gaga. 

I had a lot of fun seeing what everyone wore to the meeting and talking about music, literature, and other great places to eat, etc with attendees. I don't know if I would go back to this particular spot just for karaoke, but if you want a relatively quiet area to catch up with some folks and have choices for both dinner and snacks, this is a great hidden gem! 

Now the April 2025 Wooster Square Cherry Blossom Festival had actually been canceled this year due to predicted weather. It wasn't actually THAT bad on the day of, but the festival committee had called it two days in advance just in case. However, I still wanted to go and view the blossoms in a cute outfit.

From mid March-end of May 2025, I participated in a fashion challenge called the "75 Hard Fashion Challenge" with a small group of international EGL enthusiasts. The challenge is to document what you wear for 75 days straight without purchasing any new pieces into your wardrobe. I was doing this challenge with some folks who wear EGL and/or ALT fashion daily, and I wanted to start incorporating some of my most what I considered benign office friendly EGL dresses with light green, pink, violet, cream, and sax blue as solid colors and/or mixed florals into my office clothes rotation a few times a week. They didn't say anything for weeks, but this is the outfit I got dress coded for.

To this day, I still can't exactly figure out why I am not allowed to wear this to work. Is it the pastel colors? Is it the knee socks? Is it the shoes with the star buckles? How did this offend someone? How did this break dress code? The best answer I could get was that I "looked too much like a doll".  I understand every workplace is different, and I respect the dress code, but I guess they have to add "don't look like a doll" to the dress code regulations, just after too many visible piercings and articles that are ripped, torn, or have profane words or symbols.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's talk about how magical it was to go to the park after work. Some of the cherry blossoms were past their prime and the petals were already romantically gathered on the ground while other trees still had open flowers. I also loved the fact that there were way less people walking around and that we were able to have an easy photo shoot as well as a few lovely snacks on a park bench to ourselves. 

The cute cafe in my office complex happened to be selling Hanami (cherry blossom) colored Dango (see Hinamatsuri post for more info on that) with honey for dipping and Onigiri (spicy tuna and rice seaweed wrapped triangles) that I picked up for Sarah and I to eat before we started our little photoshoot. 

As I've gotten into the fashion more and more, I seem to be chasing the aesthetic on every level. I am eating and wearing all the colors of this very special time of the year and I'm sharing my knowledge of Japanese customs with friends who are learning about them for the first time. 

I was very proud of how well I put together this coordinate. This dress is the same pink dress I wore to the Witchy Alice Tea , just without the apron. I paired it with light blue-ish gray and white cotton knee socks (because it had started getting a little warmer outside) and then I had a vision to repeat the light blue. Technically the cardigan and shoes are considered sax blue, and are a slightly brighter blue than on the socks, but when you put everything together, close enough becomes rather cohesive. I added a gold, violet, and pearl long necklace as well as a cameo barrette in my hair. I am also wearing a plastic pink and sax striped star ring, to echo both the main colors in my outfit and the star buckles on my shoes. 

I had actually worn this same dress with the same cardigan in violet to work a different time during the fashion challenge, but I wore it with nude colored tights and oxfords... and that was somehow more okay. Is it the visible knees this time that got me? Perhaps it is the fact that it is actually too well put together. In the earlier incarnation, I wasn't wearing jewelry at all and I plopped an off white beret on my head, while wearing tights and shoes that were two different shades of the same color. I feel like this dress has tremendous potential, and more outfits to unlock, but just not at the office. 

Pahl and I went to the Old Lyme Inn for their Alice themed afternoon tea in April 2024 as a reconnaissance mission to see if it would be a venue and theme my fashion club would be interested in. We had a blast last year, and as a result of my mission, I ended up hosting 2 other teas at the Old Lyme Inn while waiting for the Alice Tea theme to come up again. Last year I went as a interpretation of Alice with a white dress with a blue architectural print on it, the matching head bow, printed blue and white tights and a storm blue wool coat. Pahl was a version of the Mad Hatter. 

This year, when I presented the theme to my fashion club, Sarah R thought we should all go as different characters from the book, to make things interesting and creative. I knew that this year, I was going to change my tune. I would no longer be Alice, but instead I would be an interpretation of the White Rabbit. And I wasn't going in a dress either... I was going to don pantaloons, knee high socks, a waist cinching elaborate tail coat, and a medium size top hat.  

If you thought I had started planning this outfit months in advance--you are correct! The first piece I acquired was the tail coat from Chinese indie brand Immortal Thorn. I have an affinity for this style of diamond pattern, which is considered a harlequin style or sometimes referred to as rhombus pattern. The coat itself is white with gold lace and embroidery of different playing card suits. It's also lined with black and white diamond pattern. It is best worn with a stand collar blouse of various lengths. Just after I acquired the coat in December of 2024, I found that someone happened to be selling a black and white diamond pattern shirt from the brand Lady Sloth on Lace Market. The pantaloons also became available at around the same time, from someone who was selling them used in an international forum for the fashion I am a part of. By January 2025 I had the meat and potatoes of my outfit, but I still needed some accessories to complete the look. 

The boots I ordered in February and it took about a month for them to be made. They are a combination of white suede and scalloped lace cutouts and they do not have a zipper, so they do require some time to put on and lace up. The hat I had purchased in March from Chinese Indie brand Fox Cherry. It is a very versatile piece and comes with two additional attachments. It can get quite heavy, especially when worn to the side, so I only put on one of them. The bag is a very inexpensive clock over the shoulder bag, and it was still available in the white and gold---PERFECTION! The playing card socks that are white and gray I had ordered a few years ago to go with a different dress (that of course I've never worn them with), but they worked with the look. I have since acquired black and white diamond over the knee socks that will really pull this look together next time!

You could say Sarah H had been planning their outfit for even longer than I had with mine. They acquired the blue color way and matching apron and headdress of Japanese brand Metamorphose's "Wondercard" OP over a year ago, and they had been waiting for an occasion to wear it. Sarah wore a blonde wig, a white long sleeve cotton blouse, white and black striped tights and black platform mary janes. We matched really well with our playing card motif, so I asked Sarah F to snap this photo of us together. 

Jax started their coordinate with the purple color way of Magical Artefact JSK, also by Metamorphose. This print features black cats with gold lurex lace, gold buttons and charms and black ribbon. They wore a long sleeve black blouse under it and black tights with different colored cartoon style cat eyes on it. They also have a black fuzzy cat bag with orange eyes, and a pink furry cat ear head band, which also matches their shoes. 

Sarah R decided to style a few different brands together for a sweet style ouji look. The blouse and shorts she is wearing are from the Japanese brand Liz Liza. She is also wearing a waist coat, outer coat, and carrying a parasol from the Japanese brand Angelic Pretty. Gray striped and dotted over the knee socks and pink boots complete the look. 

I really like this photo that Sarah F took of them because not only do they look like the characters that they are representing, but they are also acting in character. Especially Sarah R as the Door Mouse. 10/10 for acting and looking the part!

And Pahl was the Mad Hatter, once again. In fact I made a comparison of every time he's dressed as the Mad Hatter, and ever single time, he wears these pants. He does change up his waist coat, tail coat, bow tie, shoes, and top hat. He's thinking of maybe trying to go as the March Hare next time we find ourselves at an Alice themed event, but he needs to make some rabbit ears and attach them to a top hat to pull that one off!

I honestly really enjoyed dressing up as a whole group with different characters. However, we did confuse OTHER tea attendees with our outfits, to the point that many people asked to take photos with us and had assumed that the inn hired us for the tea. At one point I had to just let someone know that we didn't work there and to ask permission before taking photos. If anyone, the White Rabbit should be able to act as the bouncer!

Back in early March of 2025, about the weekend after I went to the Doll Shop for Girls Day, Pahl and I went on an Afternoon Tea Adventure in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The Hampton County Hexenbruts were having a Witchy Alice in Wonderland themed tea party with an escape room and dance performance. I was intrigued on so many levels and was resolute in attending even though there wasn't a whole lot of information about the event. It turned out it was the very first time this event ever happened.  We learned about the tea party through a Steampunk group we are a part of, who has members that are both Steampunks and Hexenbruts. Hexenbrut is both a German dance group and a specific dance which originated with this group with the song, Schuttel Deinen Speck, "Shake your Booty" by German rapper Peter Fox.  This particular dance is loosely choreographed and Hexenbrut groups throughout the world perform it. We were lucky to see a live performance by the Hampton County Group at the conclusion of the tea event. And what was also great was that if you knew the dance and had your own broom (or something broom-like), you could also perform the dance with the troupe because it is universally the same thing throughout the world. Unfortunately it was maybe the second time I'd seen it performed ever and I had never learned it officially, so I was simply enjoying the performance. 

Every table was uniquely decorated with a time piece, a teapot, flowers, unique tea settings and a little goodie bag. There were plenty of specifically Alice in Wonderland themed teas to choose from and lots of tea sandwiches and sweets to eat. In fact they had a lot of leftovers and encouraged us to go up for seconds and thirds. It was AMAZING in that aspect as Afternoon Teas are not normally a gastronomically filling endeavor.

We only knew two other people who attended this event--Alan Kendzior and Kit Catlett, who both took amazing photos, for which I sourced throughout this blog post. We met them at other Steampunk events in the past so we all sat together for the tea. Kit also tried to help Pahl and I solve the puzzles in the escape room, but we were pretty much lost with the second puzzle with the cipher. There were 3 additional puzzles afterwards and well, we didn't get those either. It was a very hard escape room! But luckily it wasn't a serious one and if you had to leave early, you could without an issue. 

Now this was the second Alice in Wonderland themed tea I have attended, but the first one with a Witchy twist. I was excited to put my creativity to good use. I decided to start the outfit with the Gloomth Pink Cotton Maid dress with the original "Cake" artwork matching apron. The dress is innocent enough, but the Apron shows a woman wearing a bonnet with cloven feet about to cut a layered cake, while a skeletal figure (also wearing a dress and a bonnet) and several wrist watches waits in anticipation. It's morbid and weird, and kinda witchy. To drive home the witchy aspects, I added black and white striped tights with lavender scrunch socks at the base. Then I decided to make it a little punk. I added lavender and black mary janes that have spikes, a duo belted waist belt with excess rivets, a coffin shaped necklace with a real spiderweb in it, a headband with a black bow and additionally unnecessary but visually exciting rivets and charms, and a lavender bat shaped bag with spiderweb embroidery on it. Did I need to add lavender to this outfit? NOPE. Did I? Absolutely. 

Pahl likes to go to these events as the Mad Hatter. He's got it down. He started with these striped linen pants, and added his paisley earth toned waistcoat over a white blouse. He is wearing his brown oxfords and a dark brown leather top hat with embossed tentacles and hidden eyes. A blue octopus bow tie and a green velvet tailcoat complete his look along with other eye and octopus rings. He's the Mad Steampunk Hatter this time. 

I loved Kit's outfit as the Queen of Hearts. All of her outfit was completely modified by herself. She had made most of the costume a few years ago for a similarly themed Steampunk event, but added the sash, diamond arm pattern, and the ruff recently when she acquired Valentines themed fabric on sale at a fabric store. I am always inspired when people make an outfit from scratch out of many different materials. I hope to be able to do this someday myself!

"The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It's then, only then, that you'll find Wonderland"-The Mad Hatter. I would definitely say that the energy in the room was amazing and everyone was having a splendid time. The costumes other people made/wore were so incredibly creative too--I felt that my coordinate while carefully planned was simple in comparison. That's why for my next Alice themed tea (in April 2025), I made sure to dress up as a different character other than Alice. Between Steampunk, EGL fashion, and any other local tea place that has monthly themes, we are sure to run into more opportunities to reuse and rework our Wonderland outfits or generate new ideas completely as this is a theme we adore and apparently other people do too!

Earlier this year, I had an idea to have a meetup at Calling All Dolls in Cobalt, CT. Calling All Dolls is a unique doll retailer who also specializes in doll restoration. The owner has dolls and doll accessories that are not available in most stores. There is an extensive collection not only of American Girl dolls and their accessories, but also antique dolls, vintage dolls, clothing (a lot of which the owner makes herself), rag dolls, and character dolls. Pre-owned dolls are also available at a discounted price. 

When I asked the community what time of year we should have this meeting, Sarah said that we should have it in March, to commemorate the Japanese holiday Hinamatsuri. Hinamatsuri, also called Dolls Day or Girls Day is celebrated every year on March 3. It celebrates the health and happiness of young girls and women. Families put out elaborate dolls that represent the emperor/empress and their attendants to help attract heath, wealth, and happiness to their daughters. Dango, a Japanese dumpling made of rice flour and glutinous rice flour is a popular dessert served on this day. If you've ever seen a food emoji with 3 balls on a skewer that are pink, white, and green, that's dango. This dessert is often served with some kind of sweetener like sugar, red bean paste, syrup, or other sweeteners. 

For the meeting coordinate suggestion, it was simply, wear colors that you associate with wealth, health/happiness, or anything that makes you feel especially happy. I split the meeting into two parts. First we would go to the doll shop, and then we would go out to ION Restaurant for Sunday brunch in Middletown. It's Only Natural is 100% vegan, but you would never know--the food is so good!!!

Pixie and I got to the Doll Shop first. It was an exceptionally cold and windy day for March, so we decided to get in as soon as possible and hope that Morgan and Sarah just rang the door bell when they arrived. The shop is packed from ceiling to floor with dolls. Let me show you!

Calling All Dolls was part shop, part museum. Renee, the owner told us about several restoration projects and all about the shop. It was fascinating. Sarah found that some of the doll clothes that Renee made actually fit her Kumya Pochette (small bear bag from Baby the Stars Shine Bright), so she got it some bloomers to wear that match dresses she already owns for it. To note though, do not wear a significant petticoat while in this shop. I must have knocked over something at least 4 times just by turning my body very slowly and carefully. 

For Hinamatsuri, I really wanted to call in the ideas of health and wealth, so I incorporated gold and green into my coordinate. I also am wearing pieces from several different brands mixed together. I started with the Shirring Princess JSK in Ivory from Baby The Stars Shine Bright. This is a very famous Japanese brand that creates beautiful sweet style dresses. Most of the time, my bust measurements are too large for this brand without alteration, but the Shirring Princess has plenty of stretch! My version is a much older model (from 2007?) that did not come with a detachable waist bow. There were matching waist ties, but I purchased it used, and they did not come with it. Then I layered a blouse from the Miss Point demon hunter series that has gold embroidery along the buttons as well as gold wrist buttons on the arm cuffs under the Shirring Princess JSK. To add length to the JSK, I wore a cotton underskirt from Miss Point as well. Over all of this, I wore the Nocturne Tulle Cardigan from Atelier Pierrot in the green color way. I had other ideas for my head piece and shoes, but when the weather was below freezing with windchill, I threw on an ivory beret and velvet brown and ivory booties. (Originally I was going to repeat the ivory/gold again in my headpiece and shoes, but the weather was just so uncooperative. In fact, my beret even blew off my head when we walked to the restaurant!)

Morgan and Sarah didn't make it to the restaurant, but it's okay, because we had Marisa and Caro join us for brunch. It's Only Natural Restaurant was a recommendation from Marisa. She goes to it frequently and had lots of good suggestions on what to order from the menu. 

I had such a fun time celebrating the health and wealth of my fashion community around the holiday of Hinamatsuri. It was such an incredibly good idea and I am glad I got input as well from other community members as far as the where and when. I don't own any dolls myself, but I was really inspired by Sarah's bag, so I ordered a posable teddy bear bag that is large enough to wear doll clothes. This bag will appear at a future meeting, so be on the look out for her!

For Valentine's Day this year, we really went all out. The local Romanian restaurant, Transilvania, was having a special Vampire Masquerade themed Valentine's Day menu along with a live band playing popular monster music as well as jazz inspired dance macabre. If you remember our Nosferatu fits from January, this gave us a second opportunity to dress like vampires and have a good time. 

To show we were a vampire couple, we made sure we both wore purple and black. This dress is from the Japanese brand Atelier Pierrot. It had been on my wish list since I knew it existed, but I wasn't so sure if they made it in my size. It turns out that this design, the Bustle Corset JSK was so incredibly popular, the brand released it in a series of three additional plus sizes. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted the purple color way as well. (There's a joke that purple is the overseas favorite, because what the brand has found is that almost everyone who buys the purple color way does not live in Japan).  Was it possible for me to find the Bustle Corset JSK used in the purple color way in Size 2 in a price I could afford? Luck hit me mid August when I was browsing Lace Market (a used marketplace for EGL clothing and accessories) and someone had a reduced price simply because their body size was going to change and needed it desperately out of their closet. It may have been delivered in a beat up cardboard box inside of a trash bag, but it was absolutely the real deal and included the matching underskirt.

The Bustle Corset JSK is pretty lux. It is made of shantung and ruffled chiffon, with a bodice featuring original Atelier Pierrot designed lace. The fish tail skirt has bustles on both the front and back of the skirt. The back has shirring as well as a corset ribbon lacing, for the perfect fit no matter what your body type is. 

I am also wearing a blouse that I purchased from Atelier Pierrot. This blouse is simply called Shirring Princess Sleeve Blouse, and it's usually always available in a few color ways on their website. It is the most popular off the shoulder blouse that they sell and pretty much goes with everything they design. It includes a double lace collar, shirring from the front and back collar to the waist (and on the sleeves), and dramatic princess sleeves that spread in a fan shape. I had to pre-order the black blouse in October (because it was out of stock) and it came in December 2024.  It's definitely a great blouse. I would love to get another one in the bordeaux, navy, or beige at some point, but used, preferably. 

The headdress I'm wearing is a customized gothic rectangle piece from Junvyette on Etsy. I added bat hair clips on top of the satin black bows for the vampire theme. I am also wearing black and white lace printed tights and black pointy boots with silver buckles. The jewelry is silver and red or silver and gray/black. And of course I had to wear a masquerade mask. I tend to pick the lightweight fabric ones that allow you to wear your spectacles over or under it, if you're crafty enough at application.

Pahl is wearing a lightweight pair of black trousers with a black blouse, black lightweight waist coat with silver buttons, black heavier weight tail coat with silver buttons, and a black wool cloak that he has tied to one side to act like Dracula's cape. He is wearing black leather riding boots as well as a purple silk cravat that cleverly matches the shantung fabric on my dress. (The cravat was another birthday gift from me. I was hoping it would match my dress and I was very happy that it did!!) And of course he is wearing a mask! This one is something he bought and I believe it is a metal mask. There are only a few pictures of him wearing it as well, simply because we were at a restaurant and he couldn't eat with it on!

Pahl has a tradition of making Valentine Day cards for each other. Even though I'm an artist as well, I didn't go to an ivy league graduate school for Painting like Pahl did, so I always try to do something a little outside of the box. You can tell Pahl's card is masterfully designed and took him several hours to add line work, painting and other small details. I decided to put my tiny adult hands to good use and make swan origami where it is made of as single piece of paper. The archway that they are floating under is three hearts. I went way back into my elementary school art supplies to pull out the oil pastels and doilies to accent the rest of the card. It's relatively simple looking, but the origami was somewhat complicated with many steps and many small folds. I was proud of myself for also making it 3D and something that could lay flat in the card or be displayed open. 

I had bemoaned the fact that I was just about finished with the pound and a half chocolate bar that my friend had picked up at Trader Joes for our Christmas party in early December 2024, so Pahl made it his mission to fill up my chocolate stash. The chocolate inside the metal Godiva tin did not last long...but the rest of these bars (in order of darkness right to left), certainly have. As of the time of this entry, April 2025, I still have 3 of the bars left. 

I had so much fun dressing up, going out to dinner, and dancing to a live band for a little while. I hope the restaurant continues to put on fun themed events like this one! And I noticed that in general people that happen to be at the same place/event have also noticed that our outfits are real clothes---not just costumes!  We get a lot of questions about where we acquire things, so don't be afraid to ask if I somehow don't write about it here. 

Pahl and I had such a wonderful time at the Frost Moon Feast last year, we decided we really wanted to go again. The Frost Moon Feast is a dinner theater event where the cast of characters represent a noble fae court and its attendants that come out during the winter months. This year the main differences were that it was at a completely different venue, and instead of having us solve riddles and small games individually or at our tables, we were all invited to solve a murder mystery within the cast. Luckily, the cast was the SAME as last year, and they had pamphlets this time that gave information about each character. We were only slightly less clueless, and mostly interacted with the same character all night, and did not successfully solve the mystery completely. It's hard when you're just having such a wonderful time spending time with friends old and new at your own table!

The first friend I found at the event was Aletta. I met her while going on past Steampunk club adventures. She had come to the Frost Moon Feast with another friend. Aletta was inspired by Nordic style fashion when she selected her outfit for the feast. We must have been thinking the same thing when we thought Frost and Moon = Royal Blue and White. I really like the attention to detail in her accessories like the beaded crown, necklace, and drinking horn hanging from her belt.  

Another friend that ended up sitting with us was Nicole and her husband Josh. Nicole I had met previously when she attended my Chocolate Factory Tour and Tasting meet up last year. Nicole is super crafty. She makes all of her own clothes, from EGL fits like at the chocolate factory to this stunning lace and beaded over dress/ skirt. It was so nice to see her and catch up with her! She apparently knew the cast of the dinner theater very well, and probably knew the whole story line, but deftly concealed it from the rest of us so we had to figure it out (or not) on our own!

And we can't forget Mike and Colleen! They were the only two people we knew at the Frost Moon Feast last year! Mike wore a similar outfit as last year and Colleen whipped this one up for herself apparently last minute. Another crafty friend, I'll say!  (I tried to make a dress like this in high school and by the time I was ready to go back into, I was a completely different sized person). Also, apparently Colleen is the only one who can look at the camera while someone is taking a group photo. Mike was about to say something, I'm looking at Colleen, and Pahl is lost in a wonderful daydream. 

I put a tremendous amount of thought into my outfit for the Frost Moon Feast this year. Pahl had initially said to "wear the same thing as last year" as it was a more Renaissance themed dress, but I like to change things up between years so that I remember things better. I wanted to bust out my custom sized Surface Spell Nocturne Brocade Puff Sleeve Dress. I had ordered this dress in March of 2024, and guess when it arrived...AUGUST. It's made of a heavy weight lined black brocade with beautiful royal blue shimmer embroidery at the skirt as well as black beaded pearls all around the neckline as well as the bottom of the skirt. The back has a corset style tie in the same royal blue color. 

I easily could have coordinated it with black and gold and called it a day, but I didn't. I have been collecting a capsule wardrobe of black, blue, and white items, specifically in gothic styles, and I had to add some white for the winter theme of this event. So first I ordered a new headdress from chinese indie brand Fox Cherry. The one I ordered has small white rams horns wrapped with royal blue ribbon, blue roses, a small silver crown decorated with pearl accents at the top as well as hanging down over the top of the head. There is also a white veil with silver and gold stars.  To repeat the white and blue again twice over, I added fingerless white gloves with royal blue lacing and white tights with a blue criss cross flower design. The jewelry I am wearing is vintage costume jewelry with "gold" metal and "sapphire" stones. 

I wanted to look a little otherworldly, so I did my eye makeup in cool blue and silver colors, my face highlight as a cool shimmer, and my lipstick as a dark purple (a combination of a cool medium pink and a dark blue shimmer). I finished my look with Strangecvlt Coven boots in black with silver buckles. I suppose I have other shoes that would have worked, but the forecast was threatening a real snow storm and I didn't want to wear something that might be hard to walk through snow in. 

Pahl wore a full suit of armor. Wait didn't he wear a full suit of armor last year? Yes, he has more than one suit of armor. He is wearing lightweight chainmail under a red and black tunic that he embroidered himself. It is a red rabbit leaping!  He is also wearing shoulder epaulets as well as the neck armor and leg armor. I am certain it took him much longer to get dressed than it took me!  In fact, I helped make sure the cape still moved under the armor and got the shoulder armor to attach to the neck armor. I even carried in his helmet at the door. I am a  princess squire in training!  

I especially loved the sound of Pahl going up the stairs. So much metal clanking! He could not sneak up on you!

The lighting inside the venue was exceptionally dark in most places, and I had to use every ounce of Photoshop magic I possess to even get this much exposure. It's not perfect, but at least he's no longer a knight in the shadows!

I think it's obvious at this point that we have a lot of fun at the Frost Moon Feast regardless of our ability to follow the story line or solve the puzzles or murder mystery. The feast is always excellent and as I continue to attend I am sure I will know more and more people! We look forward to the event again every winter. What will I wear next year? Not sure yet, but you can count on Pahl to be a Knight. 

The second time we dressed up in January 2025 was to attend the Winter Lantern Festival held at Lyman Orchards. The Winter Lantern Festival was a celebration for the Chinese Lunar New Year. Not only were there beautifully designed intricate but also large sculptural lanterns and walkways to pass through, but there was also entertainment from an acrobat troupe as well as live music. I knew it was something I wanted to attend and opened up to a meeting with my fashion community. A few people bowed out last minute...I mean 18 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill is just not comfortable, even with thermals, thick wool and polyester fabrics, and strategically placed Hot Hands in your shoes. Jax was the only brave soul outside of Pahl and I. They had an adorable sweet style outfit on with a matching gingerbread house back pack. I wish I remembered more of their outfit, but it was so cold and I only have this one picture of all of us and well...it looks good for scale purposes, but the details are lost.  

We learned our lesson about surviving in the cold outside at the Mystic Aquarium Home for the Holidays event in December, so we made sure we got ourselves hot beverages right away. At Lyman Orchards, you could get shots of alcohol added, but we had ours plain. It was a really excellent hot chocolate that cooled down way too fast. We decided to walk over to the entertainment tent before doing the official walkabout while we were waiting for Jax to arrive. 

You had to follow a lit up path with different robots and when you got to this sculpture of the woman with wavy hair, you hung a right. This brought you up to the back side of the 1741 Pub & Grill, which we had attended a Bridgerton themed Brunch at the year before. However, we were still outside the entire time. They did have some gas fire places to stand around, upon which we huddled around near the performance stage. The acrobats were really impressive. First a woman dressed in a panda onesie came out and did various balancing on a see-saw barrel while stacking bowls on her head. Then the clowns came out and did various stacking and spinning of plates. Each performer took turns a few times, but the entire act must have been a good 15-20 minutes. I loved it and was so impressed that they were even performing at all in the cold with the wind. They noticed my admiration and insisted that I take this cute bunny balloon as a souvenir.

They gave balloon swords to the children, but they insisted that I should take the tired bunny star wand. They didn't offer one to Jax or Pahl. I still have it and it's March. It's still fine and has all its air. It must be a magic wand. 

After the performances, we decided to go on the lantern walk together. This was pretty much a field with the most intricate and largest fantastical sculptures. There was a foam square walkway all around the perimeter. I briefly attempted to go off trail to try to stand closer to this frost fairy whom I loved so much, but there was a ton of ice and mud and holes in an uneven field, and I almost tripped and landed on my face somewhere near some electrical cords. 

Pahl was going for a more tailored version of the captain look he had when we went to Mystic Aquarium, (the big difference is that he shaved). This time he wore a deep navy and black waist coat, black jeans, black shoes, and a black tail coat. He is wearing a purple paisley cravat, another one of the birthday gifts I gave him. 

​I am debuting a deep blue velvet dress from Canadian designer Gloomth. Gloomth coins itself as "Victorian Grunge" and "Modern Mourning Attire", and this is the first of three designs that I own from the brand to appear in this blog. This dress in fact, was my Christmas gift from Pahl. You never need to worry about finding me a gift. I'll tell you exactly what I want and expect you to buy it for me. This is the "Dauphine" Blue Velvet Gothic Party Dress and what I love about Gloomth designs is not only the piece itself, but the various ways that she styles each piece. Each dress will have at least 20 different photos and poses with different models and accessories. 

As far as my own accessories I am wearing the blue, silver and pearl Luxmira eye necklacewith dangling blue and silver heart made and designed by Minori (who is a Japanese fashion designer and model). I found the earrings at a thrift store and I had the hat custom made on Etsy for me last year. It looks gray or white sometimes, but it's actually off white with light brown and black streaks. It is fully lined with fleece and is faux fur. I get a lot of compliments on it wherever I go and due to its height, it helps keep in heat very well. I was also wearing thermals and lined boots, but that was more of a survival choice rather than a fashionable one.

It was a novel idea to try to dress up to go to an outdoor winter lantern festival, but if I were to do it again, I'd definitely follow the lead of the acrobat and start with my fleece parakeet animal onesie as my base layer and add leg warmers, a heavy coat, and a hat. It was a really fun event, but I kind of wish it had been like 20 degrees warmer. 38 degrees Fahrenheit would have been amazing. But it was very much winter in Connecticut and that just doesn't happen until late spring. 

Now to be honest, I'm not really a horror movie kind of person. But Nosferatu hits different for me. Nosferatu (the Romanian word for vampire), is based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.  The two stories share many similarities, such as a vampire who becomes obsessed with a person and terrorizes their family, the setting of a crumbling castle in the Carpathian mountains, and a vampire traveling by ship to a new home.  However, in Nosferatu, Dracula is known as Orlok, and Orlok is rather susceptible to sunlight, while Dracula is only weakened by it. 

There have been 3 film adaptations of Nosferatu so far. First, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) the original silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. Then, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) directed by Werner Herzog that combines Nosferatu and Dracula. And lastly, Nosferatu (2024) which is a remake written and directed by Robert Eggers and was released on Christmas Day in December 2024.  Nowadays, I feel like we are lucky if a movie is in theater for a month! We saw it as soon as we could after the release date, which turned out to be on Pahl's birthday in January. 

Pahl loves to dress like a vampire. It is one of his specialized looks. He had a completely different outfit planned to go see Nosferatu in, but then I got him this dead head moth bolo tie and belt buckle set for his birthday and he had to change almost his entire outfit to wear them! Of course you need a certain collar on a shirt to wear a bolo tie, and he had to wear a waist coat that did not cover the tie nor the belt buckle. He kept his fit in all black so that the silver metal of the tie and buckle would really stand out. 

Now of course I had to wear EGL fashion. Transilvania Moonlight by Chinese indie brand Krad Lanrete was the absolutely perfect choice for a nod to the movie. The Transilvania Moonlight JSK features a high waist, partial shirring, corset lacing in the back, as well as imagery of castles, roses, crosses, trees, churches/cathedrals, staircases, angels, bats, moons, and coffins. The black over skirt is attached and adds to the spooky feeling. I paired it with the Atelier Pierrot Shirring Princess Sleeve Blouse in Black. This blouse is pretty iconic for gothic EGL fashion. The black is always going out of stock and is hard to acquire used. So I bought it in October during a pre-order and luckily received it in December! You would think that the princess sleeves get in the way, but they never do. They always look great, and if you do need to do a task like the dishes or something, you can stuff them into the shirred sleeve parts. Very stretchy, very versatile. I am also wearing a headdress that I had custom made from an American Etsy seller named Junyvette. Junvyette specializes in made to order gothic headdresses.  Another amazing part of my outfit is my stained glass coffin rosary necklace from American brand Neant Glass.  These necklaces are very popular with those who wear the Gothic style. Neant Glass is even a partnered vendor with Japanese brand Atelier Pierrot. Despite my geographical proximity to the maker of Neant Glass pieces, they always seem to sell out rather quickly (like within minutes) of a drop. However, I got really lucky on small business Saturday and was one of 17 people to nab a special set. The seller also made our set a surprise, but we could send her photos of our Instagram page to get a feel for what would go with our coordinates. As I understand it, this was one of her tamer looking pieces, and she was very happy to find the right person to wear it!  (Again--proving I'm a select horror film lady). 

I paired it with patterned tights and my trusty coven boots from Strangecvlt. I didn't wear makeup this time...we were going to the movie theater...who was going to see it anyway? I've seen every Nosferatu movie and I really enjoyed Egger's version for the gorgeous costumes, drawn out atmosphere, and character development.  A lot of people complained about how Nosferatu looks in this version, but if you've ever seen a drawing of Vlad the Impaler, there is definitely a resemblance with the mustache and the furs. 

Honestly I was just so happy that it wasn't TOO SCARY for me to watch it in the theater. We made sure it was a matinee anyway. It was just so fun to dress up for the film. I had never really done that before and it was also fun to finally debut my "LEGIT GOTH EGL" pieces and accessories together for the first time. So if you're not a horror movie person, but find yourself somehow okay with the vampire genre and really like fashion, then this movie is for you!