Crimson Reflections

I got annoyed while picking out coords to wear to Fanime because I could not find my dusty rose AP blouse. I haven’t seen it since Kei Con and I’m genuinely starting to believe it got lost somewhere. I really liked that blouse, there was one on Closet Child, I was annoyed, I’ve turned my house upside down and not found it… so I bought another.

Quick aside: For those who don’t know, Closet Child is a Japanese secondhand shop. They have locations that sell music, and then, I think through that, they got in to selling second hand clothing, specifically things like Vivienne Westwood and Gothic Lolita. They will buy items for less than market value and resell them at market value or a little higher than market value. I’ve been buying from them on and off for over a decade and they have a good reputation in general. The name is weird, but I think it’s one of those weird translation things? Their mascot is an elf-like little jester puppet, which I think might be the “child” in question, but I’m not certain

This is Angelic Pretty’s Bisque Doll Blouse. It was 9,900 yen (~$63 USD) and listed as B quality. I could find no flaws in person. It’s listed as a bust of 103cm, but it’s an A-line sack with a 116cm waist, and my bust hits lower in the blouse than where they measure the bust so I find it quite roomy and comfortable. It is a weird material that people who religiously don’t like polyester would hate, but I like the look and it’s exactly the right color for a few dresses I really like right now, so, I wanted it back, darn it.

I’ve been wearing some Emily Temple Cute and Leur Getter items to work lately (in part because I’ve been wearing my tennis shoes due to a foot injury and my tennis shoes are cherry print…) and so I decided I’d buy a few more things and see which ones I can reasonably get away with wearing to the office.

First up is the Fruit Basket Print Camisole JSK from Leur Getter, which I’ve paired here with just a little cutsew top I had and a porcelain flower pin I picked up from the thrift store the other day. This was listed as B quality with “The surface is slightly white and fluffy, the camisole part is wrinkled” for 7,150 yen (~$45 USD). In person I can find no defects other than like a wrinkle or two which I’m sure I can get out. I feel like this is quirky… but not too quirky for work when paired with a cardigan and a little top like this.

Next we have a LG Autumn Macaron Parfait JSK . This was 11,000 yen (~$70 USD) and listed as B condition with “The elastic part of the shirring at the back is loose and wrinkled”. It’s not noticeably stretched out when I look at it. It measures 84cm ~ 108cm in the bust, and I’m at a 102cm bust at the moment, so whatever minor stretched-out-ness it might have is not going to make a difference for me. I think of the dresses I bought, this is the one that is the least likely to be a good office wear candidate just because the motif (parfaits and macarons) is a little more weird.

I’m not sold on pairing this with green, I might just do cream when I wear it. This is LG Fruits Tea Time Print Camisole JSK. It was 7,700 yen (~$49 USD) and listed as B quality. Again, I could find nothing wrong with it, and it fits me well, so I’m happy. It’s one of those pastel yellows that is sometimes labeled as ivory and it’s quite cute. I think I would have liked the pink better, but when this came out in 2015 it was 31,104 yen, and $1 USD was about 119yen, which means, this was about $260 new. So for $49, in like new condition I will absolutely take my second choice in colors.

This one is the Vintage Camisole JSK from LG from 2019. It has pockets, which is fantastic! I paid 13,860 yen (~$88 USD). It was listed as being wrinkled, and yes, it is and it holds onto them (this is after steaming). I’m hoping washing will help, but it’s not unwearably bad or anything.

Next is an interesting item. This is Gingham Check BERRY JSK from Emily Temple Cute and I believe this might actually be the modeled sample. The brand tag as a little logo stamp on it and there is no washing instruction tag. The placement of all the berries and flowers is identical to the modeled version (but not the mint color sample, which is a different copy of the dress!). It was tied with another ETC dress as the most expensive item in my order at 17,600 yen (~$112 USD) and was listed as being in B condition, but I didn’t see any issues with it.

This is the only piece that didn’t quite fit me. This is Triple Ribbon JSK from ETC and it’s supposed to have a 108cm bust, but it’s a bit tight IMHO, which might just be the type of elastic / cut, honestly? It was 13,200 yen (~$84) and listed as B quality… but when it came in it was actually new with tags?!

This is the Fresh Strawberry Camisole JSK from EMily Temple Cute It was 8,800 yen (~$56 USD). It was listed as B quality and “There are several stains on the hem of the skirt”. They were tiny in the photos, and IRL are almost completely unnoticeable unless you have it up to your face, which people generally don’t do to my clothes while I’m wearing them. Also, kind of hoping I can get them out since clearly no one tried as the tags are intact. This says it has a max 95cm bust in lolibrary, but it’s more like 110cm by my measurements. I also love the little tiny bow detail on the straps on this.

Lastly, the dress I’m wearing for my anniversary dinner tomorrow, ETC’s Vintage Strawberry JSK. This was tied as the most expensive at 17,600 yen (~$112 USD), but it was actually marked as S – New with Tag for condition. Interestingly, it has a little seal sticker on it saying it’s authentic ETC. I’m wondering if this was just something they tried out for a while or if this specific piece was sold somewhere other than their brand shops? Regardless, it’s interesting.

I placed my order May 18 , 2024​​, and my total was 121,668 yen (~$774 USD) with shipping. On May 20th, I got an email from Paypal with a refund of 5,040 yen ($32.31 USD) with this note from Closet Child “This is a refund for the excess shipping amount because the total weight of the items was much less than we estimated. Please note that we will only reimburse if the shipping balance is more than 1000 JPY. Thank you for your understanding.”. I was pleasantly surprised by this, but also, it does make sense as all of these pieces are very light weight. So that brought my total down to 116,628 yen (~$742 USD), which is still not a small amount, but I did get 8 dresses and a blouse. The retail value of these pieces new was 256,896 yen (~$1,635 USD), so I got it all for about half off of retail.

The package shipped 05/20/2024 14:42 and arrived at my home in the US on 05/23/2024 12:41. So it was a total of 5 days from when I purchased it, until when my cats received the package on my behalf and my wonderful dad who was cat-sitting brought it into the house for them.

I’m still working on my last Fanime post by the way. I have a lot of fashion show photos / videos to edit, sorry for the delay. I hope to get that up sometime in the next week or so.