Documentary about Cosplay / Dokomi

Today, a (german) documentary was released about Cosplay and the Dokomi convention. I just watched it and it is really really good! It explains Cosplay as a hobby very well and shows everything you can do at a convention. If you have any parents / friends who want to know more about your hobbies, you should show it to them xD

Unfortunately it is only available in german. You can watch it here:

http://www.spiegel.tv/#/filme/manga-cosplay-duesseldorf/

"Lolita News" - new blog !

Hello my dears!

I want to present you my new second blog "Lolita News". I created a second one because it will have a complete different focus: I will post about new events, intersting videos, pictures, reports and more.

I'm quite active in the "Lolita internet world" (or how you want to call it xD) and I often find here and there some intersting stuff, but always on many different websites. So I wanted to create a blog where everything is in one place.

"Puppenschloss" is about my personal life as a Lolita and with my own written content. But the new blog will mainly contains short posts with links to the interesting stuff. I hope you like the idea, please tell me what you thing about it.

I started it 1 week ago so of course it is pretty emty yet, but hopefully many posts will follow. "Lolita News" is written in german because I want to make it for german Lolitas, especially when I'm writing about new events.

So after my wall of text comes the important part, the link xD

>>> http://www.lolita-news.tumblr.com/ <<<

Article about Lolita in Japan

Hello again after one month ^_^

Today I want to share an interesting article about Lolita with you. The article mainly deals with how such an extraordinary fashion style like Lolita and the "Kawaii"-culture in general could evolve in Japan, and only in Japan! It is really a phenomenon why you don't find something similar in other countries.

Also you can read about why the brands are so expensive and that the emloyees and owner of the brands actually are far away from being rich.

The article can be downloaded here: www.stanford.edu/group/sjeaa/journal111/Japan5.pdf
It is written by Teresa Younker who is a student from the USA (but I think she is Japanese) and she had the oppurtunity to work at Btssb and Mary Magdalene.

Picture from "Kamikaze Girls" movie

Here some interesting quotes if you don't want to read everything:

~ "Cuteness is used to soften up the vertical society, to soften power relations and present authority without being threatening."

~ "Unlike in much of the West, where adulthood is seen as a period of freedom, in Japan adulthood is viewed by many young people as a gloomy period of heavy burdens."

~ "Adulthood in Japan [...] places special burdens on women. [...] Unfortunately, life after marriage is not a glowing picture of family bliss. Mothers are discouraged from social life and increasingly expected to devote themselves to supporting their children’s trajectory through the education system.
Against this social background it is no surprise that cuteness has gained such widespread popularity and that Japanese cute focuses so squarely on childishness."

~ "By acting selfish and childish, the Lolita contradicts nearly every single “traditional” Japanese value: self discipline, responsibility, self-sacrifice, and hard work. She is saying, “I’m a spoiled, immature little brat and I like it that way!"

~ (about Mary Magdalene:) "They would usually only produce around 50 of each item, but each item would be impeccable. A staff member would personally inspect each product, remove lose threads, and iron it before it shipped out. The staff salaries were quite low. The starting salary at the time was JP¥700 an hour (US$8), and even the CEO could not have been making much. He ate sack lunches, shopped for used clothing, and rode his bike to work every day."

~ "Although Baby has larger operations than Mary, they encounter similarly high production costs and rely mostly on staff dedication to make ends meet. There were moments when I was amazed they could afford to stay in business, and it was clear that everyone working there, including the CEO and designers, were not in it for the money. Although the company spent considerable sums on marketing and goodies for their customers, they kept their labor costs very low. The average salary for a shop staffer was JP¥800 (US$9) an hour, and the highest paid workers were only paid JP¥1000 (US$10)."

Thank you for reading,
Miuko

Kyary PP Japan Expo Video

Hello!

Today I found a really good high quality video of the whole Kyary Pamyu Pamyu showcase from the Japan Expo! It's such a great memory for me! So if you are curious for the concert, or want to be nostalgic (yeah it was only 1 month ago but who cares?? xDDD) like me, then watch the video :D



P.S. Did you saw the dancing camera man? So awesome! <3

Mister Rococo - Lolita Movie // Show about model business

Hello!

This time I want to show you interesting web links! First I wanted to show you a video from a korean TV show about Lolita which I loved so much, but... it got deleted before I downloaded it :((( But I still mention it because I'm so sad about it ^^''

So the first link is the short movie "Mister Rococo".
To be honest, it is a really stupid movie which contains Btssb - exactly like Kamikaze Girls xD And I also just love it because of the ridiculous story and that a Lolita is the main character xD

 Btw, here is the official page of the movie: http://mrrococo.net/

The second link is only in german, I'm sorry! It is a repotage about models in the fashion industry... I think many girls are currently watching "Germany's next Topmodel", but after watching this repotage I see this industry with different eyes.
Mode, Mädchen und Moneten

But for my international readers I still have something that might be interesting: They talked about the movie Picture Me, where a Top Model filmed her daily life with a secret camera, where she shows the bad sides of the fashion industry.


I hope I could show you some entertaining videos for boring days :D

History of Cheap Dresses & High prices in Japan

Hello princesses!

Today was the first warm weather this year, that means spring is finally coming! ... Well, that has nothing to do with the following content of my post, I just wanted to point that out xD

I want to share two very interesting articles I found.
The first one is The History of a Cheap Dress. Before sewing machines were invented, women owned much less clothing their whole lifes than we buy in a year! And at the beginning of the 19th century, it was common to pay more than 600$ for a dress - which was just a knockoff for this price! If you want to know more about why women closets became bigger and bigger in the last two centuries, check out this article!

 

 The second one is Why are Prices in Japan so damn high? I know that Lolita fashion is a luxury fashion, that's why the clothes are so expensive, but I also like to read about other japanese fashions, and when I look at the brands - even mainstream brands - they often have high prices. I also heard from other people who travelled to Tokio, that nearly everything there is really expensive. That's why I became interested in this article, and I love it even more because it also gives a little insight in japanese society.

I wish you also a warm weather, hopefully it continious tomorrow because I want to eat ice cream xD

♫ Princess-Syndrome ♫

Maybe you already heard it, maybe not, but I love this chinese song called "Princess Syndrome" by Jay Chou!
There is not only a Lolita, but the text is also super funny xD Even if you don't like this kind of music, you have to watch this video because of the text!



And talking about princesses I found a beautiful quote:

♫ “Whatever comes,” she said, “cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.” ♫
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

Happy New Year + Harajuku Videos

First, I wish you all a Happy New Year! I had no date so I went to the cinema to watch the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I didn't saw the first one but I read the story of it and realised that they have two different storys, so I thought this wouldn't be a problem. I heard from sooo many people that the movie is great, and now I can tell you my own opinion:
...
I didn't understand the movie xD I really couldn't follow the story and for me it was just an action movie with beautiful costumes and locations, but no good structure of the story... maybe I should give it a second try? -.-

And I found three videos where they ask people at the Takeshita Street in Harajuku about their styles (I think Takeshita Street is a famous street for shopping).
In the first video they asked people about their styles and introduced the "twin type".
In the second video they introduced the Decora style and asked the people about their jobs. I find this one interesting because you can see many different styles of Decora, it's not just putting on everything you own ^_^ I don't wear this style myself but it's always a pleasure for me to look at.
In the third video they show two girls and visit them at home. It's interesting to see how japanese parents see the fashion of their daughter.







I love the last sentences of the third part:
"I listened to a lot of people, a common factor of them is they all really like fashion [...] and they are frugal of money for dressing up".

Kawaii Sanrio Wallpaper

I found a website with totally cute wallpapers for your desktop! I couldn't even decide which one I want to use *_*

meowwwww ♥♥♥

~*~ Click here to find much more :D ~*~

And did you know, that the first Sanrio Character was Spunky Burro and not Hello Kitty?

But I think that it didn't sold very well, you can't find any products of it... not that I want some xD

Pictures from Saturday + TV

Here are the pictures from Saturday:

Kitty is missing on the picture, because she was the photographer ^^'

I only bought the dress because of the Eiffel Tower xD

xD

♥

Aaand I was in TV in a Lolita-Outfit for like 1 second xD But seriously, this is a really interesting documentation about the japanese people in Düsseldorf, I recommend watching it! Now I know why there live so many of them. You can watch it here:

http://www.wdr.de/mediathek/html/regional/2011/11/04/wdr-dok-konnichiwa.xml

Have fun =^.^=