Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dolly-kei make over: shoes

This is a brief post, basically I"m just excited to be finished with this project.  I've altered some old shoes!  I bought them used and fell in love with the color and texture of the suede, but they clearly had signs of wear and I wanted to find a way to make them more 'Dolly style' to spruce up my basic pieces.
I've mentioned it in a previous post,  but Dolly style is another sub-trend in the Harajuku fashion world.  In the words of a well known memeber in the Lolita community, "It's like Mori and Lolita had a beautiful baby!".  For me, it's like Loli went shabby chic, which I love, because while Lolita fashion emphasizes perfect coordinates and elegance, I love to see a little roughness around the edges.  Having an off the wall piece in you outfit definately gives it character and makes it personal, and I see alot of girls and boys doing this with some wonderful handmade accesories or unique vintage pieces and when done right, its awesome, and Dolly is doing it right.

Well here are the shoes before:  ( don't know what that net stuff was supposed to be...)

And after!  ( look closely, pearl drops on the front bow!)


I don't know how much this will appeal to Loli-tist (lolita elitist...clever haha), but I've been wanting to do this for along time, and with some help from reading issues of Altered Couture magazine, I figured out how to do it.
Long story short-glue gun.  Not the most 'classical' method but it got the job done well and efficiantly.  This particular design is special to me because the lace used was all completely vintage. The wide pieces are at least 50 years old I was told, and basically there wasn't enought of it to use in many other ways and I wanted it to be apart of something I would wear often.  Well these are my new favorite shoes and can't wait to co-ordinate.  Hope your inspired to take a chance with an old pair, you've got nothing to lose!

0 comments:

Post a Comment