Lolita Blog Carnival: Five Books Every (Gothic) Lolita Should Read

Hello dear readers! It's been a while since I've had the time to participate in a Lolita Blog Carnival theme, but as a literary sort of gal I feel obliged to take this one on. My reading list is pretty specific to those who enjoy spooky kind of stories. So without further ado....

Five Books Every Gothic Lolita Should Read

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Image from the 2011 film version of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the quintesential gothic romance, full of wandering in misty moores, unrequited love, madness, and vivid descriptions of soot-blackened Yorkshire kitchens and stone bedchambers. Putting aside its canonnical status in gothic literature, its also one of my favorite novels. Though it may seem heavy, I actually read this book in a night: I just couldn't put it down.  If you don't know the story, just give it a quick wiki search and do your homework. 

+The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Frank W. Benson - "Artist's Daughters in Dining Room" 1906

The Awakening is a tale of a woman unsatisfied with her position as a wife, mother, and socialite in Victorian Louisiana, and her struggle to find her place as an individual in high-pressure upper-crust Victorian society. During the course of the novel, the protagonist boldly leaves her family and attempts to forge a life for herself, but faces the overwhelming adversity of society at large. Kate Chopin writes beautifully and The Awakening is a literary gem for this reason alone, but I feel this novel is of the utmost importance to modern women, and to lolita and neo-romantic readers because it reminds us never to sacrifice our personhood for what society believes is the "right" way to live. We are reminded how far women have come, and how far we have yet to go. It also nudges us a little to not romanticize Victoriana toooo much ;). 

+A Good Man is Hard to Find short story anthology by Flannery O'Conner

Flannery O’Connor’s desk and typewriter in her bedroom at her farm near Midgeville, Georgia.
Photo courtesy of New York Times. 

Flannery O'Connor is probably my favorite writer of all time. Unfortunately, this queen of the Southern Gothic passed at a young age, and her body of work is quite slim as a result. None the less, she produced one of the best short story anthologies of American literature. A Good Man is Hard to Find is full of the grotesqueries hidden beneath the mundane American existence, and features stories about many deliciously gothic bits such as serial killers, bible salesmen, spinsters, and wandering hobos. Flannery O'Conner wrote during the 50's-60's, so there are all kinds of kitschy rural mid-century details if you're into that sort of thing. 

+House on Haunted Hill by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is another big name in American Gothic literature. Whereas Flannery O'Connor's work focuses more on absurd realities, Jackson's writing often has more of a supernatural or dystopic slant. Many of her stories are popular titles in this kind of genre, and I know that her novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a perrenial hit with the Tumblr/indieblogger crowd (I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read it yet!), but I have chosen House on Haunted Hill for this list because it really is the essential American ghost story, and who doesn't love a good ghost story? Like pretty much every other story on this list, House on Haunted Hill also deals a lot with a woman's perspective, and her status in society. Also the movie is badass (the Vincent Price version, not the remake).

+A Great and Terrible Beauty (and sequels) by Libba Bray

I know the cover makes it look like a cheesy romance novel. I promise you, it is not. The picture on the left is actress Romola Garai, the choice casting by a fan of one of the characters in the book, Felicity Worthington. I agree!

Unlike the rest of the novels on my list, A Great and Terrible Beauty is a contemporary novel, written by YA author Libba Bray. The story is set in a mysterious girls' school in Victorian England. Although at its core, this book is a fantasy novel, it is so  well researched and well written that it is actually quite immersive and feels very historic. The fantasy/adventure elements make this book fun to read, while the period detail makes one want to don her finest bonnets and go on some sort of gas-lit adventure.

I love each and every one of these books dearly! Maybe some of them are not really explicitly lolita, but each has a mood or theme that would appeal to most classic and gothic lolitas, as well as others interested in 19th century and 20th century history and life.

Check out these blogs that participated in this week's theme:

Let them eat cake: The EGL Community Blog ~ A lace jail ~ Palace of frills ~ Sparkling girl

Ice Age ~ Päivänvarjon alla ~ Swirly Purple and Green Crayons

Meet Up Report: Secret Winter Party at the Fairytale Boutique

Happy Holidays from Carnivale Salt!!

A week or so ago, I attended my first lolita meetup in Los Angeles. LA's Little Tokyo district is home to an adorable lolita shop called the Fairytale Boutique. In addition to selling barely-used consignment brand items and unique pieces by local designers, Fairytale Boutique is also known for hosting some of the most popular events in the Southern California lolita community! I was really bummed that I was still in the midwest for the Automatic Honey Halloween release party. When Fairytale Boutique announced that they would be hosting a holiday event, I could not wait for the chance to get to participate in one of these events!

So many lolitas! Everyone had a really festive time. There was a cosplay event going on at the shop next door so there were also several visitors in costumes. I love the Holiday Cami in the background of this shot!

Hostess Miki taking gifts for the White Elephant exchange.
She did a wonderful job organizing the event!! I loved her festive caplet.

During the event, guests who had RSVP'd for party programming played a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors against the hostess for prizes. I have heard in the past that this style of rock-paper-scissors is a popular game at brand events in Japan, for lolita and other kinds of brands as well. I didn't win any prizes, but I came really close in one round! Following the game, we moved on to an extremely lively White Elephant gift exchange.

The Christmas Tree before all of the White Elephant gifts were added.....

The tree after all of the gifts were added! It was quite an impressive sight. I had my eye on the parchment
wrapped gift but what I ended up with turned out to be much better. 

Instead of just matching your assigned number to the corresponding gift as I had assumed, we opened gifts one at a time in the group, and everyone could choose whichever present in the pile they wanted. Everyone cheered or booed as guests opened their gifts, and stealing gifts was allowed and encouraged! I had number 37, almost last, so I was lucky to have my pick of almost all the gifts. I felt a little guilty for stealing the Swimmer Tshirt I ended up with from another girl, but she got to steal another gift she wanted even more as a result anyway. At the beginning of the game, everyone felt bad stealing presents, but by the end, it was madness!

I brought home this extra cute Swimmer ice cream tshirt. The screen print is flocky and its black and grey color scheme works great with my casual wardrobe. I've been wearing it with acid-washed jeans, combat boots, my graffiti stud belt, and the Kidsyoyo berret I wore to the event. The gift I brought for the exchange was a box of
Tazo blueberry white tea, a black BABY headbow, a ring from MONOMANIA,
and a sterling silver teapot Christmas ornament, all in a collectable MONOMANIA giftbag.  

I had a wonderful time, and eventually did open up and meet some new friends, but I must admit that I was terribly nervous and shy most of the event :(. Large meet ups are always a little intimidating for me, but meeting all new people at an event like that can be downright terrifying!

All these girls were super nice! The girl I met with the red hair standing to the right of me was actually the one who won my gift! I was so happy she loves tea and wears gothic and classic, so it was the perfect gift for her. I wore my new AP Moon Night Theater miniskirt, with harlequin tights, black blazer and BABY blouse, topped off with my KIDSYOYO beret. Sweeter than my usual fare, but I wanted to be festive!

In spite of my shyness though, it was a great introduction to the SoCal Community, and I really hope I can get to know my local lolitas better soon! Did your community do anything fun for the holidays?

Carnivale Salt does Hollywood!!!

Hello dear readers!! Carnivale Salt is back after an eventful hiatus moving across the United States! As all things that are kind of done on the fly, moving turned out to be a much more complicated process than it should have been and it really turned out to be quite the adventure. None of it was really on topic with the things I talk about on this blog, but maybe I'll tell you about it sometime :). After about three weeks of traveling, we finally are settled in our new (beautiful) home in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles! I've lived in the midwest most of my life, so being here with so many fruit trees and palms and beautiful people feels quite idyllic. Things to watch for on the blog!!

+Decorating and domestic features
+Los Angeles city guides
+Coverage of SoCal Gothic and Lolita fashion community events
+ Recipes

On my list of things to do, find this awesome beach from The Craft. Yes, everything here does remind me of this movie....

Some recent purchases....

Hello dear readers! I apologize for my blog neglect, I have been very busy preparing for my upcoming move to California. Unfortunately, things haven't been going as smoothly as we'd hoped so the process has been more stressful than I anticipated. Even though we're experiencing a bit of a delay, I'm still super excited, and am holding my head up high with thoughts of what waits for us there!

Along those lines, I've purchased a few new items for my Lolita wardrobe that I can look forward to once I arrive!

The first piece is something I've been trying to get my hands on since it was infamously released in Hot Topic years ago.... The Orchid Jumperskirt! I remember when I was still a beginning Lolita, and it was still difficult to get clothes overseas, this dress, sold easily at your local mall, took the western community by storm. I remember looking all over for this dress, but none of my local Hot Topics had it. Well, almost 7 years later, it's finally mine!

The second purchase I made was the mini-skirt release of Angelic Pretty's Moon Night Theater. At first I thought I didn't like this print but a few of my friends have the Jumperskirt in the pink colorway, and I must admit that it's grown on me quite a bit. I've always liked pleated skirts and I've been itching for one of AP's more casual mini's for a while. Not too cutesy, but more playful than my usual fare, I'm excited to wear this with a black blazer or turtleneck and beret for gothy otome looks ~<3

The third and most dramatic piece, is Juliette et Justine's recent release "La Bibliotheque". I thought I had sworn off buying new brand at new brand prices, but this dress swept me away. Since I succeeded in selling most of the things I wanted to get rid of for moving, I allowed myself to splurge a little on this incredible piece! The design is so unique for a Lolita garment. I love flounce sleeves and find them to be very flattering on me, and I'm super psyched to see then used in Lolita. The handkerchief detail is perfect executed in this print, emphasizing the lines of the books. It's colorful yet still has that antique gothic feeling that I love!

None of these items have arrived yet, so I'm afraid these images are either borrowed from the seller or from Google. I'm so excited to receive my new items in my new home!

Have you made any recent purchases you're super excited about? Do you have any rituals when you move into a new home? Thanks for reading!

My Style Outside of The FRILLS

This week's prompt for the Lolita Blog Carnival is to talk about your personal style outside of lolita fashion. Since Carnivale Salt is not strictly a lolita blog, you've heard me discuss many different styles, ranging from mori kei to western goth. While I am very interested in these fashions, and take a lot of inspiration from them, my daily style rarely conforms to just one. I'd like to describe my style as antique avant gothic, but the truth is that I'm not really sure how to describe my look. Even though I think I have a pretty interesting style, I'm not the most photogenic of people, and I tend to only take outfit shots if its a special occasion. The following is a smörgåsbord of photos from the past year so you can decide for yourself! From most recent:

Most recent and current hair and glasses combo... This look consisted of a mid-length long sleeved sweater dress and long pearls. Somewhere between Edward Gorey and Edith Head. Channeling 30's spinsters. September 2012

Another recent look from shortly before I cut my hair short. I was going for Moon Flamenco for the club and put lots of flowers on my head and wore a stripy blue ruffley shirt, snakeskin leggings, and leather wedges. September 2012

Wearing my hair down for a fancy wedding in Los Angeles. I'm the one with the big hat on the left. I wish I had a better picture of this outfit, but as you can see, it was very minimal consisting of my minipleat stretch column dress and a very big vintage portrait hat, accessorized with chainmaile earrings and Vivienne Westwood bag. One of my British aunts kept teasing me that I had to wear my hat at a jaunty angle, and not back on my head, because it looked too witchy! May 2012

Eyebrowless and bright pink hair for early spring. I had bright blue hair a few months after this, but I can't seem to find any pictures.... This picture was from Midnight Mess in Tokyo during my trip in March 2012.

More subdued pink last winter. This picture was taken of my boyfriend and I
at a speak-easy themed show at a local loft space. I was going for bawdy turn-of-the-century feminist.
Wearing pants and swearing at stuff. The boy is wearing a bike tube as a bolo tie! February 2012

More winter hair. I miss these glasses!!! I think they broke in my purse :(.
I don't remember what I was doing when this picture was taken.... January 2012

I wish I had more pictures to show you! I'm really bad at taking outfit photos, especially outside of lolita and club looks!! I'll try harder in the future!! This year in my personal style was all about un-naturally colored hair, interesting glasses, and thrifting a lot. I'm excited to see everyone elses posts on the blog carnival.

Check out everyone else who participated in this weeks Lolita Blog Carnivale!

Two Teaspoons of Sugar ~ Pop Princess ~ FF &SS ~ Geisha Baby
Magic A la Mode ~ Princess Palace ~ Red Tonic ~ Swirly Purple and Green Crayons
Dollhouse Diaries ~ A Lace Jail ~  Make Pretty ~ F Yeah Lolita
A life in Disguise  

Chicago Lolitas' Halloween Tea 2012

This past Saturday, I hosted a tea for my local lolitas at one of my favorite spots, Russian Tea Time. When I first became active with the Chicago area lolitas in 2008, it was a tradition of sorts that the community held seasonal formal teas, usually one in the spring, one around the holidays, and one in autumn. Our first fall Halloween tea was one of my favorite meets, so I decided to continue the tradition and host another edition of ChiGothLoli Halloween Gothic tea.

Everyone together taking obligatory shoe shots!!

I was a little nervous about the turnout, but after everyone arrived, we had a large group of 19 lolitas and friends! The theme was gothic, but some people ventured out in their best bittersweet, oldschool, and classic looks. I really enjoy themed meets because I feel like it encourages people to look their best. Everyone really did well!

Said shoe shot. Mine is the velvet boot with lacey tight at 12:05!

I didn't get many pictures of the tea service or the party indoors because the lighting was poor, and also because I've featured Russian Tea Time's service before. As always, it was very delicious, and with generous helpings! I love RTT because I usually have a lot of left-over sweets that I can bring home and enjoy with my coffee the next morning (yes, I'm a sweets for breakfast kind of girl!).

Russian Tea Time has lots of beautiful dolls that harken back to folkloric Russia.
I've always loved them but never got any good pictures!
Thanks Nina for this snapshot!

After tea, the group of us meandered over to the Art Institute gardens for pictures, and then over to State Street to visit Sephora and Beard Papa's, a Japanese creme-puff shop very popular with the local lolitas.

Like everywhere else right now, Beard Papa's is full of pumpkin items for fall.
I bet a pumpkin creme puff would be really delicious...

Choices of creme puff shells at Beard Papa's. The cookie-top one is my favorite.

All in all it was a very successful meet! In addition to carrying on an annual past-time in our community, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to say goodbye to my local lolitas because I am moving to Los Angeles in a few weeks!!! I'm so excited!!! I will miss Chicago but I'm excited to have lots of new adventures on the west coast. Expect many related posts in the future. This is what I wore to tea.

I wish I had a better shot of the details! My blouse is beaded and has a very beautiful lustre,
but it doesn't really show in the photos :(. ***
OP: Black Peace Now
Blouse: Vintage
Bloomers: Metamorphose Temps de Fille
Tights: Vera Wang
Shoes: Bordello
Accessories: F21, VoodooDolly

Coat: KidsYoYo
Stole: Vintage

Thanks for looking! Do you have any Halloween traditions with your friends or your fashion community?

Three Lolita Prints I Would Like to See

I'm a little late to the party for this week, but I recently joined a wonderful ring of lolita bloggers for our very own Blog Carnival! A Blog Carnival is a group for weekly blog prompt, and is intended to bring lolita bloggers together and help each other keep our blogs active! While my blog isn't exclusively for lolitas, I do dress in lolita fashion, and participate in the lolita community. This week, our prompt is about prints! I tend to choose dresses for their design rather than the print, but I do have a few things I've been dying to see.....

The Bug Collector: Butterflies, Moths, Beetles, and Bugs

"A moth, butterflies, and bees" by Wenzel Holler c. 1650

From my banner and previous posts, you've probably deducted that I love natural history, and I especially love early 17th century natural history illustration and engravings. I would love to own a lolita dress with a tiled, all-over print of illustrations of various insects, perhaps with labels and arranged in a grid like a scientific preparation. A black print on ivory or white would be beautiful, but colored illustrations against a solid background would be stunning as well. Perhaps with velvet or grosgrain ribbon trim.... I would love to wear a dress like this with a straw hat, doctors bag, and maybe a brass magnifying glass on a watch fob for a Victorian naturalist inspired look.

Surrealist Photography

"Composition" by Maurice Tabard, 1919.
The Met Musuem, New York

Perhaps an unconventional choice for lolita, but I would really love to see a dress with a surrealist photographic motif, maybe in the style of Juliette et Justine or Jane Marple. Surrealist photography usually is black and white, and has a collaged or layered composition. This kind of textural image could really be interesting in a textile, and could lend itself to interesting details, such as draped sleeves or hems, in a lolita dress! Surrealist photography often has sexual imagery, so one would probably need to choose a photograph that was safe for work!

Black Cats

Found on Tumblr

I know Angelic Pretty's recent release Cinema Doll features black cats, and there have been other brand releases featuring black cats in the past, but I really want something spookier!! I am the proud mom of a extra cuddly and really not at all spooky black cat, and I really want to own some related dresses!!! In spite of this, I haven't really been enamoured with any of the black cat prints that brands have released, and am holding out for more. Common Moitie, black cats on gravestones with skulls, please??

Check out everyone else that joined in on this week's topic:

La petite Princesse ~ Good Morning Lovely ~ Sweet Lolita Doll ~ Darkly Darling

Pop Princess ~ A Life in Disguise ~ Commercially Alternative ~ A Lace Jail

Secret Window ~ Rainbow Star Candy ~ Lolita Poupee ~ F Yeah Lolita

Dixmacabe Sewing ~ Parfait Doll ~ Leather Lace and Arsenic ~ Puppenschloss

Candy Coated Life ~ LemonTree111