Team Fabulous!

On Saturday Hong and I went to London EXPO.

I haven't had the greatest past few days, so I don't feel like talking about my coordination and why I chose what. Instead, I'll just show you the photos.

After MCM Expo Sale

With MCM Expo being over, Hong and I still have quite a lot of stuff left over. We have reduced our prices and updated our For Sale folders, so please check them out.

Here is a selection of some items that Hong has for sale. You can access her SALE folder by clicking the image on the right. Hong will also consider any reasonable offers.

And here are some of my items. I have way more in my SALE folder though, and I will be adding even more in the next couple of weeks. So make sure to come back and check it out. :) I will also consider reasonable offers.

MCM London Expo Day 3 Outfit

On Sunday I was much smarter in terms of taking pictures and made sure to get Hong to take a photo of my haori. Yup, I'm wearing leggings underneath too, because it was freaking cold and you can call us crazy for wearing ro/sha in such cold weather. But it was all for the greater good of not feeling hot at the Expo, so I was willing to suffer for few minutes.

As I was saying before, I selected kimono based on what was out at the moment, and this kimono was hanging on a hanger in my kimono room. The obi and accessories all matched too, so it was a no brainer that I'll take it. Funny story, I had someone at the Expo ask how much it was and try to buy it off of me, but it didn't work of course :)

When we got to the Expo, I could take off the haori (because I could feel the heat immediately) and reveal the outfit in all it's glory.

Hong decided to wear her purple ro shibori yabane kimono (I think we pretty much ticked off all the things that most people would love in kimono) with another gorgeous obi. Actually, that obi is mine now because we traded for one of my kimono. :) :) :) :)

On this day I also met another one of my followers. After Saturday, I was double flattered! So this is a shout out to the girl who took a photo with me, it was very nice to meet you too! :)

Overall Expo went pretty well but not as well as we had hoped, so we still have quite a few items left over. We are seriously considering doing the May Expo, but it will be cutting it very close to my leave day. I mean, it would be literally the last thing I could do before my house will get packed away and shipped to whichever place we're going next. Plus, we are also wondering if we have enough stuff left to justify another Expo...

Would you want us to come to Expo again in May?

~ Lyuba

MCM London Expo Day 2 Outfit

Conventions are tricky. On one side they can happen during any season, but on the side they are extremely hot in the dealer's room. MCM Expo is no exception, so Hong and I decided to go completely un-seasonal and wear our ro or sha kimono, and let me tell you we were COMFORTABLE!

At this point you might be wondering where is Day 1 outfit, but there is none. On Friday I didn't want to deal with kimono after packing my car, driving for 1.5 hours, then dragging and unpacking all the stuff at our table. Instead, I've decided to wear kimono on Saturday and Sunday, where I could dress in my room.

The selection process for which kimono to wear literally came down to which kimono I had out. A couple of weeks earlier I went though all my kimono and put away all the ro and sha, except couple that were out in random places around my house. One of them was this pink sha komon, which was still hanging on top of my dressing form. I didn't have to think about obi at all, because there was an obi laying right next to it, so all I had to do is pick out accessories that would match both kimono. Thankfully the obi matched both kimono too. My trusty purple boots completed the look. Actually, you can't see it now, but I wore a purple haori on top which matched the boots.

Hong wore her vintage kurotomesode with one of her ro obi. That obi made me drool for the whole Saturday because I loved it so much!

On this day I also got to meet one of my followers from Cambridge. I honestly never expected this to happen, since I blog about pretty niche stuff, but I was very flattered nevertheless. So this is shout out to my follower from Cambridge, it was very nice meeting you! :)

Lyuba

London EXPO is in 3 days!

It's starting to sink in and I'm starting to quietly freak out about going to EXPO. I mean, EXPO is huge and we've never done anything that big before! Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to it!

We will be at table AH12, which you can see on the map here. It is very close to Japan Ex and Totally Cosplay.

Meanwhile, here is a preview of some things I'll be selling there.

London MCM Expo

In two weeks Hong and I will be at the London MCM Expo selling all of the extras from our kimono collections. After over 6 years of collecting, we ended up with whole bunch of stuff that we don't like and/or wear. The picture above is just the obijime that I've never touched!

We will have everything from kimono and obi to accessories packs, which would allow you to get dressed up right away. Of course we will be happy to help you dress
 in kimono.

Our table is AH12, so come and see us there for some great kimono bargains!

~ Lyuba

My very first London EXPO :)

Wearing kimono two days in a row? Kudos to me for that :) Yesterday I went to London EXPO for the first time, and after my earlier disappointment in London Film and Comic Con, I decided not to cosplay but instead wear my kimono. Even if I get disappointed yet again, at least I wore a kimono right? Well... I wasn't disappointed. :) I actually liked it a lot! Yes it was crowded, yes it was full of people in (crappy) costumes but I expected it at a convention. The only thing that I didn't like was that they held their presentations, talks and workshops in the main convention hall, where it was so loud that you couldn't hear anything. I miss US conventions where workshops get their own separate rooms. I will definitely come back again, this time in a costume tho. ;P

I decided to go all out for the con. Lots of makeup, false eyelashes, crazy hat, you name it. :) For kimono, I wore my black hitoe with bright yellow abstract obi and red obiage and obijime. Of course, being me and just having to be all matching, I also wore red tabi and gloves, and yellow zori. ;P







Sadly I had a bad kitsuke day that day :( It just didn't want to work for me! My juban sleeves were showing, obi was crooked and the right side of kimono kept slipping down. And I also learned not to wear dark hats with my current hair color because they just get lost and hard to see.





I wish I could have met up with UK kimono club there. For all my suggesting of meeting there, I only briefly saw Isla and Hong and then didn't even see them again at all :( However, the highlight of the con for me was meeting Svetlana Shmakove, the creator of Dramacon. I wanted to meet her ever since I read the first volume. No, actually probably ever since I saw her drawings in Christopher Hart's How to Draw Manga series. I didn't know what time her signing was, and actually didn't even know where it was held. On my way to ask, I stopped by Tokyopop booth and long and behold, there she was! About to leave lol. She stopped to sign her book for me, and we chatted in Russian for a few minutes. Turns out she likes kimono too, and even owns several of them. Overall, she is super cool and I'm extremely happy because I got to meet her :) :)