Hello my Fanciful Faries, Lovely Lolitas, and Gorgeous Gals~~
I know I have missed far too many Storenvy Saturdays and my shop reviews have been few and far between. To tell you the truth the store that I work at hasn't been doing well and a ton of girls quit. So now since we are still looking for people to hire my hours have doubled and I get few days off. I never realized how exhausting it can be to work 8 and a half hour shifts for six to eight days straight in heels. I don't know how I got through the majority of high school in heels. O n O So that has kept me busy, plus I have been sick with a terribly sore through. Going to the doctor is so expensive though, so hopefully I don't have strep throat. [/fingers crossed]
So I decided for my return I should make a couple announcements:
I SHALL MOVE STORENVY SATURDAY TO TUESDAY. I am not sure what the catchy title shall be but Tuesdays are much better for me that Saturdays now. Friday ~ Sunday are heavy-hit days for retail so I am always working long hours and utterly exhausted by the time I get home.
And secondly, WITH MY RETURN I AM STARTING A LIFESTYLE SERIES! I knew I needed something big for my return, and there are few lifestyle references for Fairy Kei. SO I PRESENT THIS: Lifestyle tips from a lifestyle Fairy ~~
CHALLENGE START ~
I used to wish that there was a manual for a 'lifestyle' lolita or a 'lifestyle' fairy. To me, it would make things much easier if there was a visible list or a how-to book laying out exactly what one should do. Collecting dolls, drinking loose leaf tea in expensive Shelley teacups, reading original copies of Victorian novels, baking elaborate sweets, embroidering artwork. I could easily come up with a list of hobbies for lolita. Lolita is a style that tries to embody looking as doll-like as possible while maintaining modesty and obeying rules of a certain fashion style heavily influenced by Victorian and Rococo period clothing. Therefore, I would think that the activities of a lolita would be just as elegant. For each style the hobbies would alter slightly - a sweet lolita might bake cakes and macarons, while a gothic lolita may dabble in performing seances. Fairy Kei was a much more difficult style to create hobbies for; roller skating, karaoke, dance parties, bowling, video arcades, jazzercise - anything that was really popular in the 80s seemed to be fitting.
Then I wondered the most difficult question for myself to answer: "How should a lifestyle lolita or a lifestyle fairy act?" There are very limited resources behind lifestyle Fairy Kei, which is why I am creating this, but even the lolita websites are a little lackluster. The lolita sources say to be kind, polite, demure, perhaps even timid and cutesy if you are a sweet lolita but I thought "Shouldn't everyone be polite? Lolita or Abercrombie-addict?"
I spent forever trying to figure out what it means to be a lifestyle fairy. I soaked up everything I could from every website, every magazine snippet and all that I found was people saying "be positive and be polite". Some people said you had to act one way while other bloggers had a completely different idea. It was then that I realized something very important.
Fairy Kei isn't a structured style.
There is no handbook for how to dress in Fairy Kei because there are very few rules, and when the rules are broken it suddenly becomes a new style. Fairy Kei is all pastel with no black, add black and you look Pastel Goth or even Creepy Cute. If you add bright colors to Fairy Kei and you are now wearing Spank. There are no restrictions to how short your skirts can be, how poofy your dress needs to be, how many accessories you can wear, what your hair color can be, what shoes to wear, or what fabrics your clothes need to be. Anything from satin to silk, polyester to cashmere, vinyl to wool: there are very few rules.
Of course there are a few guideline rules as there are with any style. Everything from 1950s classic styles, to bohemian, to lolita, to gyaru, to even Fairy Kei there are rules. The first and only still in existence is all pastel colors (because anything else lands you into Spank or even Decora). It used to be that you couldn't have morbid designs so a lot of Milklim designs originally wouldn't have worked but now that has changed drastically. It also used to be that you couldn't wear sailor fuku, or even pants! That has also changed. If you want to incorporate more macabre themes, sailor fuku, or pants it is entirely up to you.
Oh, let me repeat that last bit because it is an important theme in lifestyle Fairy Kei.
IT IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU.
If you read this post thinking I would give you a wonderfully written guide on how to be a fairy, you may be disappointed as this is not one. However, if you keep reading this post you will find many ideas and suggestions. Plus I may empower you to quit looking for that guideline.
Unlike Lolita there are no guidebooks, handbooks, pamphlets, or carved stone tablets listing what you can and cannot do in Fairy Kei. Likewise there is no magazine, website, book, newspaper, person that can tell you what you must do to be a lifestyle Fairy. Since this style has only a color restriction your options are free for dress and for your lifestyle. (And location! Some Fairy Kei looks are ridiculous for super cold weather~!)
LIFESTYLE IS MORE THAN WHAT YOU WEAR, OR WHAT YOU DO, OR HOW YOU ACT TOWARDS OTHERS.
Lifestyle is also your outlook on life. Are you a pessimist or an optimist or somewhere in between? Are you the protagonist in your story or the anti-hero? There are many upon many more questions you can ask yourself but there is one that holds a higher importance than the rest in your journey to figure out what a lifestyle fairy is: What does being a lifestyle fairy mean to you?
I shall repeat.
WHAT DOES BEING A LIFESTYLE FAIRY MEAN TO YOU?
Since this is a blog, I shall express my own opinions here as I do everywhere else on my blog. Hopefully sharing my journey might answer some of your questions.
To me being a lifestyle fairy means waking up each morning thinking every new day will be better than the last. It means staying positive even when times are tough. (You never saw Jem [from Jem and the Holograms] pouting and moaning whenever things got rough for her, did you?) It means spreading my happiness to others and ridding anyone of their sorrows. I have always been a people-pleaser and try to make people smile. I can imagine Tinkerbell and her friends flitting around to wipe frowns from everyone's faces ~~ It means even if I fail to make a sour person smile, I still try to be polite to them and don't fret about my failure.
It means filling every dull moment of my life with pastels and joy. My desk where I do schoolwork used to be a place I dreaded to go to, but now it is a pastel paradise filled with all of the things I love: strawberries, Hello Kitty galore, anything sparkly and pastel, lots of stickers and stationary, all sorts of cute pens, pencils, etc. My bathroom which used to be so bare now has a pastel shower curtain, a cute tissue cover, all of my makeup is in adorable bags, my bath products are all adorable and they smell amazing - like fruit or flowers or even sugary candy.
To me, being a lifestyle fairy committed entirely to Fairy Kei style it means my clothing purchases fit into the style, aside from the clothes I need for work. For work I do have to wear black, white, and graytones but I found ways with my accessories to bring in a bit of sugary sweet fun (and even in my shoes). Little things like accessories I have found are a great way to get myself excited for the workday.
Throughout each day I ask myself three questions to keep myself motivated in my Fairy Mission: what can I do to make myself better today, what can I do to help someone else today, and what can I do to make a better tomorrow? Sometimes I make myself a better person by not eating something high calorie or by limiting how much I can spend on nail polish or by laying out my days outfits the night before. To help someone else I hold doors open for people, make sure to mind my manners, and sometimes I buy gifts or bake some sort of goodies and give them to family, friends, coworkers, classmates, etc for no special reason. Making a better tomorrow covers a very broad spectrum. Perhaps I will pick up liter and recycle it, maybe I will lay out my outfits the night before the workday, or I might pack my lunch and my sisters lunch ahead of time to make the next day go a little easier.
Fairies are rarely negative creatures in folklore, fairytales, Disney magic, and in Harry Potter. In fact it is pixies that can be the bad ones - but this isn't Pixie Kei, it's Fairy Kei. So I like to act extra nice to everyone, I like to smile, I like to perform good deeds and random acts of kindness. Every Christmas I empty every piece of change on my person and give it to the Salvation Army bell-ringers and Santa Clauses. Come Halloween I not only hand out candy but I give girls beaded bracelets and boys little swords made from the same beads. I even hand out candy to the teenagers that old enough to be neglected on Halloween by the adults (and I totally understand that getting free candy and dressing up can be more fun than going out dressed in a skimpy outfit and grinding against a stranger while drinking). All year round I go out with dum dum lollipops in my purse and hand them out to little kids, and if they are really tiny I had them to their mothers. When I have a plethora I hand them out to teenagers and the elderly too.
As for my Fairy Kei hobbies; I am learning how to sew mostly because I have dreams to open up my own brick-and-mortar store someday as well as an online shop. I collect Shelly teacups and I love being a barista at home for friends and family; tea, hot chocolate, fancy coffee. I make beaded bracelets out of pony beads and stretch string. I have dance parties by myself in my room and sometimes I drag my sister or my friends into them. I love going bowling at night when they have their glow-in-the-dark lanes and lights on. I love going to the arcades around here and spending an afternoon playing nickle games. I love making paper flowers from tissue paper and any thin and shiny paper. I love making origami too! Baking has always been a hobby. . .and eating too. I collect Care Bears and absolutely anything Strawberry Shortcake, strawberry scented, or anything with a strawberry motif. I love writing letters to all of my lovely pen pals. I like to collect candy wrappers - especially from foreign candy. I love turning them into artwork! My most prized artwork was taking reflective and glittering wrappers from various Japanese and Korean candies and cutting and gluing them into a koi fish swimming in a pond. I framed it because I am so proud of it! I adore roller skating because it is so obnoxiously 80s and I do drag my friends with me. Lastly, although I am not the best singer I love karaoke. There is a place locally that plays not only English music but they have a massive ever-growing library of music in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and some Thai and Vietnamese. While my singing lacks, I do stand up and dance to all of the songs. It is embarrassing how many routines I have learned from music videos (even the more complex Korean boy band pieces. Breakdancing solos? You bet I can do them).
So all in all if you are into Fairy Kei, you are lucky in the fact that you have chosen a very open and expressive form of fashion!! Although it can be difficult to find your way at first, I can promise that it becomes easier. Fairy Kei is very much a style that you mold to your own tastes and the lifestyle you have already given to yourself. One of my best friends is a Fairy and spends most of her days playing video games by herself, and on occasion she will go to Pokemon meet ups where we all play Heart Gold and Soul Silver. (Plus she owns so many old school Tamagotchi, it's amazing ~)
I hope this allowed you to find your personal path for Fairy Kei, and I am excited to do lifestyle DIY projects in the future as well! Comments are loved as always and I would really appreciate hearing other fairy's opinions too~~
