Of the beginning

Good evening, friends. 
 

To starry-eyed Lolita, melancholy Goth or wandering stranger on your virtual way, I bid you welcome to this lovely haunted castle I call home. You, dear stranger (although, I hope, not a stranger for long), seem to have stumbled upon a rather dark and fantastical tea party. Here, between the first stroke of midnight and the last, this castle and its occupants touch hands with the real world, through the written medium of a blog.

And this, to speak briefly, is the blog of a Gothic Lolita, a Romantigoth, a Japanophile, a writer-composer-artist-(aspiring)seamstress, and most of all, a dreamer. First and foremost, I wish to record my thoughts concerning Lolita fashion in general (on which I am no expert, as you will soon discover), and my experience in it. Nonetheless, these other passions of mine will most likely escape my quill—that is, keyboard--at one point or another.

Make no mistake--I adore many of the blogs already written by sweet and classic Lolitas (and indeed, you will find a good dozen of them on my profile page, under “Blogs I Follow”), and I consider invaluable the information and encouragement which these blogs have often given me. Still, I find myself wishing for a greater number of Lolita bloggers of the gothic persuasion, who understand (as I'm sure you do, my dear guest to this ballroom) that wrought iron gates and brooding towers make the perfect complement to our beruffled finery.

Beg pardon? Ah, my blog's name, is it? I understand your curiosity. Truth to tell, a few weeks ago I was busily looking to concoct a suitable name, one that would eloquently suggest my whole identity as a creatively-minded, gothic-and-lolita dreamer. A tall order, no?

The answer came to me out of the gothic fantasy tales that sometimes glimmer their way through my imagination, simply insisting to be told. Whenever my more unearthly characters—the ethereal dusk-fay, or the aristocratic vampires—find themselves lacking a quest to pursue or a mortal to enchant, they like to dance here in the midnight ballroom, beneath that crystal chandelier above us, while the ghostly moonlight pours in through the tall, arching windows.

You'd like to meet them, you say? Perhaps I merely imagined that you said so. Still, I daresay these darkly magical folk—my beloved darklings, as I call them--will be flitting in and out of my reflections on Lolita and Gothdom, from time to time. They tend to do that in the daily course of my life, and I doubt they'll soon change this habit of theirs. As it happens, whenever I start posting a few of my poems, those of my readers who wish will get to know our fay visitors much better. Many of the works I'd posting here not only relate somehow to sentimental, magical gothic-ness--of which this Gothic Lolita, and therefore possibly others, simply cannot get enough—but moreover, quite a few of these poems are written by my characters themselves. (Have no fear, dear guest—I have complete confidence that you do, in fact, follow my logic.)

One more secret to be told, and then I invite you to dance with us. It's true that I have considered myself a Romantigoth for several years now, and thus have had time to build a somewhat respectable gothic wardrobe, although this project remains very much a work in progress. In searching for my own style, even before Lolita, I always gravitated toward ruffles and ribbons, bows and roses, and “poofy” kneelength skirts—all in romantic, spooky black, of course.

As to Lolita itself, however...I must confess that I only just fell in love with it at the start of this year. As a poor and busy college student, I have not been able to build a wardrobe yet. Very soon, when I return home, I intend to set to work bettering my skills as a seamstress, initially with the invaluable help of my mother, who is herself highly experienced in sewing rather fanciful clothing.

By all means, yes; brand is wonderful. But even aside from cost, I'm afraid brand is not for me. Perhaps because of the DIY aspect of Goth--my first subcultural love, after all--I find myself yearning to try my hand at selfmade projects, perhaps (eventually) like those which other Lolita seamstresses have completed so masterfully. Besides, in the few gothic DIY pieces I have made, I often enjoy wearing my home-made pieces more than I do donning something fancier or prettier and bought from a store.

Therefore, I invite you to come with me in my journey into Lolita, and continued wanderings through Gothdom--not to mention the occasional occasional revealing of my Japanophile side, which is almost as much a part of me as Lolita and Gothdom. I cannot promise how often or how usefully I'll post these next few weeks, amidst the simply horrendous stress of college finals and so forth. Until that's over, I won't be getting to the fancy stuff either, sadly, like posting pictures or documenting my clothing-and-craft experiments. All in good time, then.

At any rate, with the introductory post over, I feel that it would not be improper for me to chatter here and 
there about any further goth-or-lolita-related subject that should catch my fancy. Sometimes, I assure you, the tone of my writing will come slightly more down to earth than in this first post. However, I should warn you: I view this blog as a license to indulge in the kind of ornate and metaphor-strewn poetic language which I wish I could speak in real life--without people looking askance at me, that is.

“Come away, O human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”

--W. B. Yeats

Ah!--the stroke of midnight... Do you hear it chiming?

Let the dancing begin.