thursday & friday, july 29-30th, 2010: we arrive at otakon
I'm copying Angel's idea and splitting up my entries by day so it's more manageable. haha This entry is rather glowing because I have only good feelings about Thursday and Friday. XDD It was so nice to see old friends again and meet new ones, which turned out to be an important reason for attending in the first place. ♥
Thursday:
We arrived early to check into the hotel and pre-register, but we avoided the long pre-reg line and flash rainstorm by stuffing ourselves with delicious fish tacos at California Tortilla. They fried the fish right in front of us! I wish I had taken a picture. ;o;
When we got back to the room, Koda and I completed preparations for our panel and Kelsey & Bianca hand-stamped the business cards for my blog! I don't even KNOW how they did it so fast. And cheerfully. WTF guys. I don't even know. Here's the finished product:
Here you can see the variations in stamping and card color/texture... I love it. ToT
I purchased the custom blog address/info stamp, the bunny stamp, the lace stamp, and the variety of cream-colored cards on Etsy and then relied on hand-stamping so they would have that morigirl-approved handmade appeal. :3
By the time we finished preparing and relaxing a bit in the room, the line for pre-reg was GONE. XD Really, what's more satisfying than a stomach full of tacos and the sense of achievement that only comes from avoiding a long line in hot weather? After picking up our badges, we stopped by CVS to pick up last minute things for the room and lots of tea. We ended up buying three big jugs of green tea, sweet tea, and arnold palmer. I spotted John (my ex-boyfriend for those who don't know) loitering around inside the store, so I ran outside like a total chicken and hid around the corner with a friendly Baltimore homeless man. I don't think John saw me, but I could be giving my stealth skills too much credit. haha
Friday:
I woke up very early and transformed into a giant cream-colored bundle of nerves. >m<;;; I felt fine about the panel the night before because everything seemed set, but maybe extra preparation just makes one more nervous. I styled Kelsey, Zoh, and Yanise in natural kei, morigirl, and dolly fashion, respectively, and then headed over to panel ops to sign in. That took forever because the dude in charge was speaking so slowly to this bunch of bros in front of us in line, so I feel as though we wasted a lot of time there. Koda unfortunately had to run back to the hotel room for an ID, but everything ended up being fine.
When I was finally through, I ran ahead to the room and arrived with only 5 minutes to spare. Everyone was already inside, sitting neatly and talking amongst themselves. XDD That was a pleasant surprise! Most of my friends were in the front section, so I felt everyone's support. ♥ I NEEDED it because I was even more flustered than before. haha So thank you to everyone for showing up and helping and being so sweet! Thank you especially to my lovely raffle ticket distributors, Bianca and Natalie, and my super-cool models, Kelsey, Yanise, and Zoh!! ::fangirls all over you guys:: I'm borrowing other people's photos indiscriminately at this point because I forgot to ask anyone to take some! Smooth move on my part. :3
Here's the opening slide:
Keynote presentations are very polished-looking compared to the Powerpoint presentations I'm accustomed to, so I think the effect was good. I wonder if compulsively adjusting my glasses is a tick I should worry about. e_e
We started off discussing natural kei, an amazing style that's largely ignored in recent times because its heyday has come and gone. Kelsey looked phenomenal in my Pink House dress and offbrand skirts & accessories; with her hair and complexion, she looked as though she stepped out of a Pink House catalog. ;o;
WHEEEEEEEEEEEE ♥
Then Koda took over for the morigirl discussion, during which Yanise swanned around the room looking like a perfect morigirl. I knew it would work when I was styling her at my hotel room and she exclaimed, "I feel so comfortable!" haha THAT'S THE IDEA, MY DEAR :3 ::twirls mustache:: You're so petite, Yanise, that I just want to swathe you in layers all the time anyway. Interpret that as you like.
Finally, we launched into dolly fashion. Zoh looked right at home in the style, especially with her vibrant hair! Hitomi would go crazy over your hair, Zoh. I styled it with some light teasing near the crown for volume and then smoothly curled the ends under-- like a longer version of the typical Grimoire shop-girl retro bob-- and the effect was really good. XDD I knew Zoh can pull off antique looks well, so she was just right for dolly fashion:
I really can't help all the model-gushing. ;o; If anyone has any photos of Yanise and Zoh that are a bit less dark, could you send them to me?
It seemed as though the audience was politely paying attention at first, but they didn't really get into it until the morigirl and dolly fashion segments. It's true that opening with natural kei puts it at a disadvantage because there's no time to warm everyone up, but also it's kind of a difficult style to grasp anyway. I'll have to add more fun things to that section when we do the panel at NYAF. XD
In the end, there was just enough time to do our raffle. Four strangers ended up with the prizes, so I was a bit sad for the League of True Believers sitting in the front, but I'll make a ton more prizes next time so more people can benefit! A nice guy in glasses won the lace bib necklace I made, which was cute, but I hope he has a sister or girlfriend to give it to. The next day he came up and told me how much he enjoyed the panel when we were standing in line for the h.Naoto fashion show. XDD It was so sweet.
My main regrets for the panel are as follows:
1) I didn't think about it at the time, but it would have been nice to have Koda and I stand up at some point to show everyone what we were wearing.
2) I didn't have time to wrap any of the raffle prizes, so I just handed them to people like a total schmuck. ::sigh::
So all in all, not bad. Everyone was nice afterwards with the compliments, so thank you! I take it all really personally, so one little compliment goes a long way.
Here's what I wore:
Here's the fox-head headdress I made for the panel and ended up wearing a lot XD I was purposefully trying to that Grimoire look... morbidly whimsical XD
I wanted a mix of morigirl and dolly style because I like both. XD The morigirl elements of the outfit were natural tones, comfortable shoes, long loose layers, and modesty. The dolly fashion elements were dark eye makeup, very morbid dead animal headdress, defined waist accentuated by a thick belt, and antique feel. It was so fluffy and comfortable!
My co-panelist Miakoda was the perfect example of dolly fashion-- so ethnic it hurts! *n* She could have walked right out of Grimoire... and into my heart:
Thank you for being an exceptional co-panelist, Koda! All that hard work we did was worth it. ♥ ILU BRO.
Later on, we rushed to the dealers room to see the h.Naoto booth and it was amazing! I was so happy they were selling a few GRAMM pieces. ;o; I ended up buying this dress:
and lusting after this one:
Now I wish I had bought it as well because it was just so... so... ::cries:: Maybe I'll see it in an auction someday.
I got a chance to meet Iris at the booth and talk with her (read as "spazzing out together over GRAMM"). She's so nice! Anything else I say about her is going to make me seem like some kind of creepy stalker, so I'll refrain. haha
LOOK AT THAT UMBRELLA ::ahem:: Okay, so after the h.Naoto booth, I explored a few other places in the dealers room, including Lady Heather's-- which is a bad booth overall, but she does sell some vintage brand (that lonely brand rack is like the Island of Misfit Toys, seriously). I found an old BtSSB jsk lurking among the other pieces! I recognized it from a few old scans and photos I've seen:
How amazing is that? The fabric is heavy and soft and I love the "old lolita" style of it.
GAHHHH dark florals! *n* The booth owner (I hesitate to call her "Lady Heather" ::shudders::) wanted $230, but I talked her down to $150 on Sunday by saying a couple of times how "old" it was in a dismissive tone. loll I hate bargaining, so I can't believe I actually went through with it!
After wandering around for a while, everyone started getting ready for the lolita fashion show. Our hotel room was pretty much fashion show central because three designers were in it. So... much... thread... on the floor. XD We lugged everything over to the show and I ended up doing some hair at the last minute, so I was glad that I happened to have hairspray with me! After everyone was ready, I grabbed a seat in the audience. It was fantastic! Despite the technical difficulties, I think it went really well. The designers represented a lot of different styles and their work was really impressive @n@ Lots of cute models too. haha Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.
Afterwards, Angel, Becky, Kelsey, Koda, Zoh, and I went out to dinner at a German-looking restaurant that we'd seen across the street from the CVS on Thursday night. It turned out there were only a couple of German items on the menu, so I stuck with a grilled cheese thinking, "You have to be pretty thick to mess up a grilled cheese." BUT NO. ene Koda and I both ordered grilled cheese but were given cold cheese sandwiches, which is fine at home but eating one in a restaurant just seems too depressing. Koda was too nice to send hers back, but I wasn't. haha When it came out grilled, it was delicious. 8]]] Here's a few bad shots of the interior:
There were also some badass crests on the walls, but it was too dark inside to capture them with my camera phone. All in all, I wouldn't go back but it was interesting. There are too many delicious restaurants in the Baltimore Inner Harbor area to mess around with poorly lit, faux-German establishments. Naturally, I enjoyed myself because of the company! XD
That was the end of the day. Saturday and Sunday reports, complete with excruciatingly unnecessary detail, coming soon! :3
Thursday:
We arrived early to check into the hotel and pre-register, but we avoided the long pre-reg line and flash rainstorm by stuffing ourselves with delicious fish tacos at California Tortilla. They fried the fish right in front of us! I wish I had taken a picture. ;o;
When we got back to the room, Koda and I completed preparations for our panel and Kelsey & Bianca hand-stamped the business cards for my blog! I don't even KNOW how they did it so fast. And cheerfully. WTF guys. I don't even know. Here's the finished product:
Here you can see the variations in stamping and card color/texture... I love it. ToT
I purchased the custom blog address/info stamp, the bunny stamp, the lace stamp, and the variety of cream-colored cards on Etsy and then relied on hand-stamping so they would have that morigirl-approved handmade appeal. :3
By the time we finished preparing and relaxing a bit in the room, the line for pre-reg was GONE. XD Really, what's more satisfying than a stomach full of tacos and the sense of achievement that only comes from avoiding a long line in hot weather? After picking up our badges, we stopped by CVS to pick up last minute things for the room and lots of tea. We ended up buying three big jugs of green tea, sweet tea, and arnold palmer. I spotted John (my ex-boyfriend for those who don't know) loitering around inside the store, so I ran outside like a total chicken and hid around the corner with a friendly Baltimore homeless man. I don't think John saw me, but I could be giving my stealth skills too much credit. haha
Friday:
I woke up very early and transformed into a giant cream-colored bundle of nerves. >m<;;; I felt fine about the panel the night before because everything seemed set, but maybe extra preparation just makes one more nervous. I styled Kelsey, Zoh, and Yanise in natural kei, morigirl, and dolly fashion, respectively, and then headed over to panel ops to sign in. That took forever because the dude in charge was speaking so slowly to this bunch of bros in front of us in line, so I feel as though we wasted a lot of time there. Koda unfortunately had to run back to the hotel room for an ID, but everything ended up being fine.
When I was finally through, I ran ahead to the room and arrived with only 5 minutes to spare. Everyone was already inside, sitting neatly and talking amongst themselves. XDD That was a pleasant surprise! Most of my friends were in the front section, so I felt everyone's support. ♥ I NEEDED it because I was even more flustered than before. haha So thank you to everyone for showing up and helping and being so sweet! Thank you especially to my lovely raffle ticket distributors, Bianca and Natalie, and my super-cool models, Kelsey, Yanise, and Zoh!! ::fangirls all over you guys:: I'm borrowing other people's photos indiscriminately at this point because I forgot to ask anyone to take some! Smooth move on my part. :3
Here's the opening slide:
Keynote presentations are very polished-looking compared to the Powerpoint presentations I'm accustomed to, so I think the effect was good. I wonder if compulsively adjusting my glasses is a tick I should worry about. e_e
We started off discussing natural kei, an amazing style that's largely ignored in recent times because its heyday has come and gone. Kelsey looked phenomenal in my Pink House dress and offbrand skirts & accessories; with her hair and complexion, she looked as though she stepped out of a Pink House catalog. ;o;
WHEEEEEEEEEEEE ♥
Then Koda took over for the morigirl discussion, during which Yanise swanned around the room looking like a perfect morigirl. I knew it would work when I was styling her at my hotel room and she exclaimed, "I feel so comfortable!" haha THAT'S THE IDEA, MY DEAR :3 ::twirls mustache:: You're so petite, Yanise, that I just want to swathe you in layers all the time anyway. Interpret that as you like.
Finally, we launched into dolly fashion. Zoh looked right at home in the style, especially with her vibrant hair! Hitomi would go crazy over your hair, Zoh. I styled it with some light teasing near the crown for volume and then smoothly curled the ends under-- like a longer version of the typical Grimoire shop-girl retro bob-- and the effect was really good. XDD I knew Zoh can pull off antique looks well, so she was just right for dolly fashion:
I really can't help all the model-gushing. ;o; If anyone has any photos of Yanise and Zoh that are a bit less dark, could you send them to me?
It seemed as though the audience was politely paying attention at first, but they didn't really get into it until the morigirl and dolly fashion segments. It's true that opening with natural kei puts it at a disadvantage because there's no time to warm everyone up, but also it's kind of a difficult style to grasp anyway. I'll have to add more fun things to that section when we do the panel at NYAF. XD
In the end, there was just enough time to do our raffle. Four strangers ended up with the prizes, so I was a bit sad for the League of True Believers sitting in the front, but I'll make a ton more prizes next time so more people can benefit! A nice guy in glasses won the lace bib necklace I made, which was cute, but I hope he has a sister or girlfriend to give it to. The next day he came up and told me how much he enjoyed the panel when we were standing in line for the h.Naoto fashion show. XDD It was so sweet.
My main regrets for the panel are as follows:
1) I didn't think about it at the time, but it would have been nice to have Koda and I stand up at some point to show everyone what we were wearing.
2) I didn't have time to wrap any of the raffle prizes, so I just handed them to people like a total schmuck. ::sigh::
So all in all, not bad. Everyone was nice afterwards with the compliments, so thank you! I take it all really personally, so one little compliment goes a long way.
Here's what I wore:
Here's the fox-head headdress I made for the panel and ended up wearing a lot XD I was purposefully trying to that Grimoire look... morbidly whimsical XD
I wanted a mix of morigirl and dolly style because I like both. XD The morigirl elements of the outfit were natural tones, comfortable shoes, long loose layers, and modesty. The dolly fashion elements were dark eye makeup, very morbid dead animal headdress, defined waist accentuated by a thick belt, and antique feel. It was so fluffy and comfortable!
My co-panelist Miakoda was the perfect example of dolly fashion-- so ethnic it hurts! *n* She could have walked right out of Grimoire... and into my heart:
Thank you for being an exceptional co-panelist, Koda! All that hard work we did was worth it. ♥ ILU BRO.
Later on, we rushed to the dealers room to see the h.Naoto booth and it was amazing! I was so happy they were selling a few GRAMM pieces. ;o; I ended up buying this dress:
and lusting after this one:
Now I wish I had bought it as well because it was just so... so... ::cries:: Maybe I'll see it in an auction someday.
I got a chance to meet Iris at the booth and talk with her (read as "spazzing out together over GRAMM"). She's so nice! Anything else I say about her is going to make me seem like some kind of creepy stalker, so I'll refrain. haha
LOOK AT THAT UMBRELLA ::ahem:: Okay, so after the h.Naoto booth, I explored a few other places in the dealers room, including Lady Heather's-- which is a bad booth overall, but she does sell some vintage brand (that lonely brand rack is like the Island of Misfit Toys, seriously). I found an old BtSSB jsk lurking among the other pieces! I recognized it from a few old scans and photos I've seen:
How amazing is that? The fabric is heavy and soft and I love the "old lolita" style of it.
GAHHHH dark florals! *n* The booth owner (I hesitate to call her "Lady Heather" ::shudders::) wanted $230, but I talked her down to $150 on Sunday by saying a couple of times how "old" it was in a dismissive tone. loll I hate bargaining, so I can't believe I actually went through with it!
After wandering around for a while, everyone started getting ready for the lolita fashion show. Our hotel room was pretty much fashion show central because three designers were in it. So... much... thread... on the floor. XD We lugged everything over to the show and I ended up doing some hair at the last minute, so I was glad that I happened to have hairspray with me! After everyone was ready, I grabbed a seat in the audience. It was fantastic! Despite the technical difficulties, I think it went really well. The designers represented a lot of different styles and their work was really impressive @n@ Lots of cute models too. haha Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.
Afterwards, Angel, Becky, Kelsey, Koda, Zoh, and I went out to dinner at a German-looking restaurant that we'd seen across the street from the CVS on Thursday night. It turned out there were only a couple of German items on the menu, so I stuck with a grilled cheese thinking, "You have to be pretty thick to mess up a grilled cheese." BUT NO. ene Koda and I both ordered grilled cheese but were given cold cheese sandwiches, which is fine at home but eating one in a restaurant just seems too depressing. Koda was too nice to send hers back, but I wasn't. haha When it came out grilled, it was delicious. 8]]] Here's a few bad shots of the interior:
There were also some badass crests on the walls, but it was too dark inside to capture them with my camera phone. All in all, I wouldn't go back but it was interesting. There are too many delicious restaurants in the Baltimore Inner Harbor area to mess around with poorly lit, faux-German establishments. Naturally, I enjoyed myself because of the company! XD
That was the end of the day. Saturday and Sunday reports, complete with excruciatingly unnecessary detail, coming soon! :3