Putumayo teaparty in April 2016 at Düsseldorf
I attended the Putumayo teaparty in Düsseldorf on April 29, 2016.
The star guests were Putumayo's designer Shunsuke Hasegawa and lolita model and kawaii ambassador Misako Aoki.
The Putumayo teaparty was the second teaparty that I attended. My first teaparty was the Metamorphose teaparty in Vienna, Austria in October 2015.
Preparations
The teaparty was announced already in 2015, but at that time it was too early before the event for me to decide.
I booked my eTicket at the beginning of February 2016. The ticket costed 30 €.
There were two pages with basic information about the teaparty:
the teaparty page on the Dokomi website and the facebook event
I like the Putumayo brand, especially the prints, the rich dark colors and that the items are perfect for casual lolita. I did not own a main piece by Putumayo because the clothes are too small for me.
I saw the OP in black from the Magic Frame series in the Facebook sales post of another lolita. I liked it, but found it too expensive. By change, I found the OP in blue on egl. I altered the OP into a skirt during April.
My outfit
Photographer: SweetManiac
Head ribbons Angelic Pretty Earrings Putumayo Pearl choker unknown / offbrand Cardigan H&M Blouse DreamV Skirt Putumayo Magic Frame OP (modified by me into a skirt) Petticoat Chérie Cerise Tights Teja Jamilla Shoes Secret Shop
The program
A timetable was announced one week before the event:
Time Program point 17:00 entry 18:00 greeting and introduction 18:15 opening of the buffet 18:45 Putumayo fashion show 19:30 Q & A session with Shunsuke Hasegawa and Misako Aoki 20:15 tombola 21:00 end
The organizers did not stick to the announced times (as expected ;). The event took at least one hour longer. I was not really in a hurry, so it was not a problem for me.
At the end of one program point, Loopy told what the next program point would be. I would have wished that she would have told the starting time, too.
The location
The teaparty was held at the ball room of the Congress Center of Düsseldorf. The trade fair center was used as location on the following weekend for the Dokomi.
In the ballroom, the following things were set up:
- a stage
- food and drinks on two sides
- tables with decorations and goodie bags and chairs
- stalls of the vendors
The tables were decorated with items loosely related to "Alice in Wonderland":
bottles, books, roses, sweet candies and napkins with the mad hatter.
I had expected that some guests got ill suddenly and that others from far away would come too late due to the traffic. But there were a looot more empty seats, approx. one quarter of the guests bought a ticket, but did not come...?
The goodie bags
Goodie bags for each guest were prepared on the tables.
My goodie bag contained the following items (from top left to bottom right):
- a set of 14 pictures of Misako Aoki in Putumayo clothes
- a paper note from the teaparty organizers
- a business card, a sticker and a little candy by Loopy Lovely
- 4 postcards by Putumayo
- a voucher by Candy Zombies
- a voucher for contact lenses by MatLens
- a little bar of Feodora chocolate
- a business card by Quini's petticoat service
- a business card by Dunkelsüß
- a leaflet with a list of several vendors and discount codes for their online shops
- 3 vouchers by MyHarajuku for their shop
The food
A buffet was set up. It contained several kinds of sandwiches, small mozarella balls with tomatos in a glass, potato salat with a meat ball in a glass, cakes, doughnuts and muffins.
Water and softdrinks were available. Probably tea and coffee were available as well, but I cannot tell for sure because I did not try.
It seems there was a problem with the caterer. As a result, the ordered vegan food was not available...
The vendors
The following vendors had a stall at the teaparty: Putumayo brought dresses and accessoires:
The Putumayo designer Shunsuke Hasegawa had designed a special hoodie as a collaboration item with the Dokomi. The hoodie with an Alice motif was available for 59 € at the stall of Loopy Lovely.
The Putumayo fashion show
There was no "official" call for lolitas to apply as model, therefore I assume that the models were recruited by the organizators directly. Some members of the team showed up as models. ;)
Models showed 11 Putumayo outfits on the stage. Misako Aoki appeared as the last model. ;)
And the fashion show included two dresses from a new series that had never been shown before. ^_^
(The two dresses on the far right side in the picture.)
At the end of the fashion show, the designer Shunsuke Hasegawa explained each outfit a little. His English was not very good, but it was really touching that he tried to get in contact with the audience. A translator was present during the event to help with communication. She did a great job!
The Q & A session
The organizers asked beforehand over Facebook and Dunkelsüß to submit questions.
During the teaparty, only five questions each were asked to Putumayo's designer Shinsuke Hasegawa and Misako Aoki. I had hoped for a longer Q & A session...
I found other interviews with the designer that might give you a little insight:
by Anime Weekend Atlanta on Visual Keios
by Tokyo Rebel
The tombola
Loopy handed out a piece of paper with a number to each guest as a raffle ticket and presented later the possible prizes on the stage:
- jewelry sets
- vouchers for circle lenses by Matlens
- a voucher for a bolero, custom made by Loopy Lovely
- two issues of the book "The Perfect Ten" about nail artists
- one issue of "Shades of Wonderland"
- a Dunkelsüß tote bag
The "best dressed" contest
Shunsuke Hasegawa selected three lolitas in Putumayo clothes as winners for the best outfit contest.
Does anybody know what prices the winners received?
Pictures
There were two "official" photographers: David Stoll and Jungblut Fotografie
Pictures of both photographers were uploaded by Dunkelsüß into albums:
pictures by David Stoll and pictures by Jungblut Fotografie
(Both albums are visible without a facebook account.)
There was an "official" photo point with a rose arch (in German: Rosenbogen). I did not manage to get my picture taken there because there was always a waiting line.
Misako Aoki showed up after some time. She was immediately surrounded by lolitas who wanted to take a picture with her ;)
By coincidence, I managed to get on a group picture with Putumayo's designer Shunsuke Hasegawa :)
Photographer: David Stoll
At the end of the teaparty, a big group picture was taken:
Photographer: ?
picture taken from Misako Aoki's instagram and cropped
The organizers
The Putumayo teaparty was organized by Loopy-lovely, Ina-doll, Joey, Scarletsedusa, La-vie-en-rose, Quini and Sutewi.
A big "thank you" from me for all the hard work that you invested!
I enjoyed the teaparty a lot and would visit again next year. ^_^