Amai Furiku?
- The sweet freak's guide to VK fashion
This month we've got a preview of the latest h.naoto x kera line as well as some tips on getting some of those much sought after sarueru pants (drop crotch/harem pants).
All brand clothing is notoriously expensive and the new h.naoto x kera line is no exception. The new floaty babydoll dresses cost a staggering 15,540円 (about £117/$176). There is no doubt that the garments are beautifully made and of course look gorgeous, but that amount of money may be a little too much for some of us to pay out.
Lucky for us, there are a few alternatives. Ebay is full of stores dedicated to gothic, visual, lolita and generally alternative clothing and accessories. Off brand clothing will always be cheaper, but remember that you often get what you pay for. Admittedly, a lot of the stores are China based, so beware and be sure to check the ratings before buying.
Also, Ebay has many private sellers who maybe have too much in their wardrobe and need to make room for that BTSSB JSK.
This is often a great way to buy clothing as often, private sellers will be more than willing to take extra photos and help out as much as they can to get their items to a new loving home.
Another interesting site is fururun.com. It is in Japanese, so you will probably be best off searching it in Google first, and then translating the page. Essentially, it is a second hand online store for all things J-fashion. You can find inexpensive brand clothing as well as some even cheaper off brand. Each item is graded according to the state and quality of the item, "A" being the best.
Lastly, there are many journals and blogs dedicated to VK fashion, many of which are US and UK based. You will often find that true aficionados of VK/J-fashion will sell on their older items (often in pristine condition) in order to gain money to buy more brand clothing. I recently was bought a gorgeous pink Bodyline cardigan from a mini matsuri for only £15/$24 as there was slight bobbling on the material!
Now, those infamous sarueru pants. Love them or hate them, they're extremely popular right now. While browsing for some brand sarueru, I came across these beautiful Deoart pants.
They look as though they would be very flattering and they have some subtle, but cute detailing. However, the price threw me off a little. They are cheaper than the h.naoto x kera line, but at £67/$105, it's still a tad too much for me to splurge out on. So I made it my mission to search for an alternative.
Sarueru are very fashionable right now in both eastern and western cultures. They are currently available in a variety of shapes, lengths, sizes, colours and patterns from many different stores both in the highstreet and on the internet. Highstreet stores such as Select, H&M and New Look all stock differing styles. It is certainly far cheaper to buy from the highstreet and places like ebay.
The problem is, a lot of the sarueru sold in these places are quite plain or dull. This can be a plus point though as they are suitable for both men and women. Once you have found your perfect pair of sarueru (the cheapest ones I have found are about £15/$24, that's less than a quarter of the Deoart pants!) it's time to customise. And so you don't have to do the legwork, we've done some searching for you!
In most towns, there are craft stores or dollar/pound stores. These are treasure troves for buttons, beads and various t
hings you can stick and sew to your clothes. Ebay also has a huge selection of stores selling these sorts of things. I found these beautifully detailed silver buttons from a UK based Ebay store called "Dragonswann Designs" and it only costs about £2/$3 for 10 of these buttons.
Don't fret, they also ship internationally! With these buttons, you could either imitate brand sarueru by sewing them at the top, or you could use your creativity and make interesting patterns or even sew them on sporadically to get a new and interesting look.
The braces on the Deoart pants add a really nice touch and I found a store on Ebay called "ChasingRainbows" that sells a variety of different coloured and patterned braces for only about £3/$4!
Finally, the chains. Chains are not necessary but will add something else to look at on your newly decorated pants. Chains can be found in plenty of places; if you want heavier chains, try pet stores and dollar/pound stores, if you want more delicate and patterned chains, try jewellery stores, antique stores and even raid your own jewellery box. The chains could be sewn into the pants, but if you can't bear the thought of sewing on your prized necklaces and bracelets, try sewing on some belt loops if your pants don't have these already. All you'll need is a couple of small pieces of fabric which you could probably nab from your mum's sewing box!
Approx final cost: £25/$39
This is only a small fraction of the price of brand sarueru!
Add anything else you like, after all, VK is about being unique! I'd love to see anything that you come up with, so if you decide to try this, email me your photos!
Here, I am modelling a pair of patterned sarueru from a China based shop on Ebay- "Little Chili Shop". They were pretty cheap, again, about the £15/$24
mark.
To accessorise, I added a pretty pink studded belt (mine is Lowlife brand) and a cute Miffy phone case. I found some
old braces and wore these as an extra accent, similar to the Deoart sarueru.
Obviously men can wear them too, and this is often the case in J-fashion. Charles can be seen wearing the same pair of sarueru; he has added a plain silver dog chain to accessorise.
- The sweet freak's guide to VK fashion
All brand clothing is notoriously expensive and the new h.naoto x kera line is no exception. The new floaty babydoll dresses cost a staggering 15,540円 (about £117/$176). There is no doubt that the garments are beautifully made and of course look gorgeous, but that amount of money may be a little too much for some of us to pay out.
Lucky for us, there are a few alternatives. Ebay is full of stores dedicated to gothic, visual, lolita and generally alternative clothing and accessories. Off brand clothing will always be cheaper, but remember that you often get what you pay for. Admittedly, a lot of the stores are China based, so beware and be sure to check the ratings before buying.
Also, Ebay has many private sellers who maybe have too much in their wardrobe and need to make room for that BTSSB JSK.
This is often a great way to buy clothing as often, private sellers will be more than willing to take extra photos and help out as much as they can to get their items to a new loving home.
Another interesting site is fururun.com. It is in Japanese, so you will probably be best off searching it in Google first, and then translating the page. Essentially, it is a second hand online store for all things J-fashion. You can find inexpensive brand clothing as well as some even cheaper off brand. Each item is graded according to the state and quality of the item, "A" being the best.
Lastly, there are many journals and blogs dedicated to VK fashion, many of which are US and UK based. You will often find that true aficionados of VK/J-fashion will sell on their older items (often in pristine condition) in order to gain money to buy more brand clothing. I recently was bought a gorgeous pink Bodyline cardigan from a mini matsuri for only £15/$24 as there was slight bobbling on the material!
Now, those infamous sarueru pants. Love them or hate them, they're extremely popular right now. While browsing for some brand sarueru, I came across these beautiful Deoart pants.
They look as though they would be very flattering and they have some subtle, but cute detailing. However, the price threw me off a little. They are cheaper than the h.naoto x kera line, but at £67/$105, it's still a tad too much for me to splurge out on. So I made it my mission to search for an alternative.Sarueru are very fashionable right now in both eastern and western cultures. They are currently available in a variety of shapes, lengths, sizes, colours and patterns from many different stores both in the highstreet and on the internet. Highstreet stores such as Select, H&M and New Look all stock differing styles. It is certainly far cheaper to buy from the highstreet and places like ebay.
The problem is, a lot of the sarueru sold in these places are quite plain or dull. This can be a plus point though as they are suitable for both men and women. Once you have found your perfect pair of sarueru (the cheapest ones I have found are about £15/$24, that's less than a quarter of the Deoart pants!) it's time to customise. And so you don't have to do the legwork, we've done some searching for you!
In most towns, there are craft stores or dollar/pound stores. These are treasure troves for buttons, beads and various t
hings you can stick and sew to your clothes. Ebay also has a huge selection of stores selling these sorts of things. I found these beautifully detailed silver buttons from a UK based Ebay store called "Dragonswann Designs" and it only costs about £2/$3 for 10 of these buttons.Don't fret, they also ship internationally! With these buttons, you could either imitate brand sarueru by sewing them at the top, or you could use your creativity and make interesting patterns or even sew them on sporadically to get a new and interesting look.
The braces on the Deoart pants add a really nice touch and I found a store on Ebay called "ChasingRainbows" that sells a variety of different coloured and patterned braces for only about £3/$4!
Finally, the chains. Chains are not necessary but will add something else to look at on your newly decorated pants. Chains can be found in plenty of places; if you want heavier chains, try pet stores and dollar/pound stores, if you want more delicate and patterned chains, try jewellery stores, antique stores and even raid your own jewellery box. The chains could be sewn into the pants, but if you can't bear the thought of sewing on your prized necklaces and bracelets, try sewing on some belt loops if your pants don't have these already. All you'll need is a couple of small pieces of fabric which you could probably nab from your mum's sewing box!
Approx final cost: £25/$39
This is only a small fraction of the price of brand sarueru!
Add anything else you like, after all, VK is about being unique! I'd love to see anything that you come up with, so if you decide to try this, email me your photos!
Here, I am modelling a pair of patterned sarueru from a China based shop on Ebay- "Little Chili Shop". They were pretty cheap, again, about the £15/$24
mark.
To accessorise, I added a pretty pink studded belt (mine is Lowlife brand) and a cute Miffy phone case. I found some
old braces and wore these as an extra accent, similar to the Deoart sarueru.Obviously men can wear them too, and this is often the case in J-fashion. Charles can be seen wearing the same pair of sarueru; he has added a plain silver dog chain to accessorise.
Amazing article! I was beginning to wander about you guys, was wandering if you were still alive? Did you receive my email? Glad to see your still around xD.
ReplyDeleteIs that SkeletoneCreep in that bottom right pic? xD well you both look amazing who ever that is.
I like the print on your pants in particular, they kinda look familiar I can't put my finger on it xD.
Great job ^-^v I enjoyed reading the article very much.
Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I replied to that email, I don't know if you got it though >_<
Yeah that's him :) thank you very much :D
Yeah there are a few variations in print and colour from the store we got them from, but Charles chose the black and white as they are more unisex friendly :)
All photography credit goes to him too ^^
That's great! good job both of you I am really impressed.
ReplyDeleteAnd no I haven't gotten your email O_O I hope your emails haven't been going in my spam folder. >.< its ridiculously over flowing with spammers. and yahoo doesn't even catch them all -.- and now if i found out your email went to spam folder imma ditch yahoo. its getting on my nerves xD
btw I had a thought, you guys could pose and make a photograph on a green screen I could take it in photo shop and do some black magic xD and we can make a new header image for the site. or maybe get all the fashion author's to take a photograph in the VK? but thats just a thought in my mind atm. I would like to talk about that more at the next meeting. though nothing schedule for that atm XD.
Maybe it did go to spam then >_<
ReplyDeleteDangggggg.
Hmm that's a possibility, all of the green screen stuff is at Charles' house so it'll be a few weeks before we can do it, but that sounds like a great idea ^^
=3
Wow this was very detailed and cute! I never paid much attention to that style of pants but I'd really like to try them now (^_^)
ReplyDeleteYay, I'm glad that we managed to inspire you a little ^^ they're probably some of the comfiest trousers we have ever worn!! :D
ReplyDelete