Frill by Affriliation

On June 9th, lolitas of all types converged on Atlanta, GA to partake in Frill, a convention for lolitas by lolitas.

Do read on :)

Welcome to my write up on Frill. I am here to share with you the experiences I had at the convention. Let me start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And that it was awesome not only seeing people I knew but seeing people from different communities at the same time.


But every story has a beginning.

 Hang on to your seat belts. Lets take a trip through my weekend ^_^

Prior to Frill, I was in Jacksonville. I had already decided to spend most of my vacation time in my hometown and from there go to Atlanta, thinking Jacksonville would be much closer than Charleston's 5 hr drive. I was very very wrong. I looked up the directions Thursday night and realized with dread it was going to take me a whopping 6+ hours to get to Atlanta and that I would have to go into insta-pack mode Thursday so that I would be ready Friday morning. I quickly washed my BL carousel dress and kodona blouse and packed them up with my hamper of other clothing. I then hung my other dresses up in their garment bag in my closet, closed the door, packed everything up, and went to bed. The next morning, I put everything in my car. Knowing I wouldn't be coming back, I made checks and double checks to make sure everything was in my car. What I didn't realize is that I didn't even check my closet.


The trip was quiet, taking a whopping 6.5 hours. 'Shotting' Mio and eating cheez-its, along with reciting stories to myself, help keep me awake. I arrived at the hotel around 3:30, got my room, went back to my car, and all just went quiet. Its like the world stopped as I stared into my car and realized that I was missing a very, very important garment bag. All I could ask myself was "Why... why of all days did my memory have to fail me on this day?" I swear I stood at my car for what was like 10 minutes. I felt seriously defeated. At some point during that stare-down with air, the thought of just going back home to Charleston ran across my head.


But then, I saw something purple sticking out of my hamper. And I snapped out of my funk. All was not yet lost. I had forgotten that my BL carousel dress and kodona blouse had never been packed with the rest of my dresses in the garment bag. I still had one outfit available to me.

 On Friday, I had this as my projected Saturday outfit.

Bolstered by this small victory amidst this disaster, I took my things up to my room and made the best of my outfit. It wasn't promising. My accessories for this dress were few. I had 3 bracelets and a horn. But the horn looked out of place w/o a headbow in front of it. And so in desperation of hopefully upgrading the outfit, I put out a plea for help.


To get my mind off my dress, I just played some Diablo 3. At least until Leechy, the lolita sharing the room with me, got there. We went out to go eat at this restaurant called Colossus Pizza, which contrary to its name served a lot of Greek food. But it did serve Greek pizza, which is what it is famous for. Here Leechy met Tommee, a lolita from Jax. Now mind you, we were all dressed casual. I made it a point that we not dress up, especially since we had all just had exhausting drives. But it was fun. And it really help me get my mind off things.


When Saturday morning came, I was still prepping my outfit. Leechy and I had discussed about letting me use one of her dresses but I hadn't done gothic in so long that I didn't have much to go with it. So I opted to keep with the original outfit. I decided to run down to my car real quick and grab a tiara I had just recently made just for that dress.

Made just a week prior to Frill

On my way past the front desk, I saw a very very familiar face. It was CJ, boyfriend to Lyla, who was another lolita from Jacksonville. I said hi and was about to run off when Lyla asked if I still needed a coordinate. I said yes and she told me the best news I had heard in the past 24 hours: She was gonna lend me her AP's Milky Planet Jsk in Lavender.

I'm so thankful to Lyla for letting me wear this beautiful dress. 

The headbow, which made my horn a very viable accessory. 

The end result. This is probably the best picture of me that shows off my outfit best.

But enough of my sob story with a happy ending. Lets move on to Frill. Frill was held at Killian Hall, a building which had a huge ballroom which could be split by temporary walls. And so it was split into a panel room, dining hall(?), and boutique, with the finishing touches being a bar in the back and a backdoor that led to an awesome patio.

panel schedule

Can you already tell what I was excited for :P

I personally was not a big fan of panels and opted not to participate in any of them. The boutique was very nice though. There were a lot of things to see and buy. The store was mainly stocked with dresses made from various Etsy's and American brand lolita stores. I didn't recognize most of em and almost all the dresses I liked had one thing or another that really made me not want to buy em. Mostly involved zippers on the back and buying a dress that required me to have the help of someone else just to put it on. But I did buy a LOT of accessories.

This was the star bag I bought to match my outfit

 I finally caved and bought food ring items @.@ But it was more things to match my outfit

These were the accessories I bought to hopefully match with my Chess Chocolate dress. I felt kind of dickish though when I found out that they were also selling Melty Chocolate Jsk and as you can see, these are clearly the accessories meant to go with that dress XD

But what is a lolita convention without seeing many of your friends? For the first time in my short lolita life, lolitas from two different parts of my life came together for the first time :3

From left to right: Kathryn, Me, Alyssa, Leecy, Hollie, Jessica, Allison, and Sonia. Floridians were gathered on the left *3 of us*, the NC lolitas gathered on the right *6 of us*. I of course associate with both :3

Leechy and I ❤

Alyssa and I see each other for the first time in almost a year. 

Once again, brolitas united!

Woot woot Tampa lolitas ^_^

Its like we have party hats on. 

Just as every story has a beginning, every story has an end. But we are far from there. In fact, there is much much more. Because every major event needs a sweet night party. And that is exactly what Frill had in store for everyone. 

If you look closely, it mentions that they are closing the hall at 6 pm to prepare for Frill After Dark. Exciting :3

So at 4:30 pm, Leechy and I retreated back to our hotel to recoup and prepare for the night. That of course called for a pizza party with EVERYONE at our hotel. So maybe not everyone. But we had plenty of lolitas who were staying at the same hotel, including Lyla and her bf, Sonia and Amy, and then Jessica and her roomies, Alyssa, Allison, Kathryn, and Brittany. And since my room, Lyla's room and Sonia's room were all in close proximity to each other, we just moved between the three rooms as necessary to eat pizza, drink soda, and prep makeup and dress. 

Touching up my makeup and doing my customary mirror pic. Complete with Leechy Butt :3

Leechy Nut and her GORGEOUS shoes

Allison and I being lavender ^_^

Now officially Princess Allison ^_^

Right around 7:30 pm, Leechy and I left the hotel to return to Frill. Allison joined us and we all arrived right around 8, when they reopened the hall to lolitas.The evening schedule was packed with a full list events, starting with the summer coordination contest where people brought in summer coordinates and laid them out for voting. This was mostly just a time gapper though as the big events people were excited for were the Fashion show and the Princess Brolita/Prince Kodona contest. Since I opted not to watch the Fashion show, I have no pics. But I of course partook in the Princess Brolita contest.

Night is young and we're already drinking away the night ^_^

"TWINNING"

Some pics of lolitas I took. 

AHHH! Such a cute kodona :3 

The Princess Brolita and Prince Kodona contests were held at the same time but the brolitas and kodonas were judged in their respective groups, We were lined up in a hallway that led to the main ballroom, where everyone was excitedly waiting, and then we were informed that it was going to be an actual catwalk and pose type deal. I think everyone got super nervous upon hearing that, since we all probably assumed we would all go out at the same time and line up. They let us know we were going to pose 3 times though other than Jessica and I, who were at the back, no one did that. I think. Hard to see things outside of a hallway XD

 The Judges for the brolita/kodona contest

I was definitely starting to burn up, as I always do when I get super nervous. But my brain gears began to roll and I began referring back to my "history of posing" post that I made a few weeks back. Now I don't want to make this sound like a battle plan. But that is exactly how I began to think of it. I knew that I had a purse. And I knew that my coordinate was also very left side dominated *my horn and head bow were positioned on the left side of my head*. I made my final decisions on the poses I wanted to do as the brolita in front of me was called up to do her walk. And right as she was finishing her walk, my flavor of the month song came on. 

My flavor of the month song, IE a song I listen to every day w/o fail for a couple weeks. 

My name was called, my male name emphasizing the brolita, and my nervousness washed away. I came out of the hallway to the cheers of the 4 different lolita communities whom I was part of + anyone else who recognized me from my interweb adventures. I stepped with confidence, stopped at the first pose, and made my first pose. *Now I unfortunately have no pics at this time of the actual contest. But as soon as I do, they will be uploaded. FIXED* After the first barrage of photos had gone off, I made a right and made my way to the 2nd pose spot. I knew this was the big one. I arrived at it, turned around to face everyone, and did a pose I had only ever practiced alone at home.

 Pose 2 of 3

 It was a coordinated foot and hand movement where both come in towards my body and then I shoot them out, my left foot stepping out and my left hand coming out to form the peace sign. I kept my right hand at my side, resting my purse on the wrist. I finished off my catwalk at the 3rd pose, using my 1st pose but facing the rest of the audience that couldn't see my face the first time. And then I walked off and waited with the other contestants while Jessica did her run. And then. It was time to announce the winners. 

Here the pretty princesses await the results. 

And so do the handsome princes.

Ayu and I, the winners of our respective contests. We both had to switch out our hair accessories, my head bow and her hat, for our gorgeous crowns.

Ayu giving me a kiss *blush*

Tote I won. And inside that tote...

Yay postcards. Well, ignore the top 3 on the right. Just the IW ones. 

A gorgeous umbrella

The night wrapped up with the fashion show and raffle drawing. Shown here, my friend Tommee on the right wins the brand accessories raffle. 

And now every story must come to an end. Frill was hosting a massive tea party on sunday. And as fun as it would have been and as much as I would have loved to go, the tea party's starting time of 2 pm meant that my estimated getting home time was gonna be 8-9 pm. And that was something I could not afford to do. So I cut my losses and went home Sunday morning after waving goodbye to everyone at the hotel. 

Despite the near disastrous start and sad ending, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend and can't wait for the next lolita convention :3