sailor or a school girl.

I wore a new dress today! I traded it for two items from the BTSSB lucky pack that I bought. I didn't know how much I'd like it at first because this dress is very form fitting, which is unlike the clothes that I usually wear. Figure wise, I have a short torso and pudge around the waist, I'm well suited for empire waist and babydoll cuts, so those are the styles I generally go for. This dress has a drop waist bodice and has no elastic in it. I when I got it, I wasn't expecting at all for it to fit.
I can't even begin to explain how amazed I am that it zips up all the way! Not only that, the shape is very flattering and curves in at the waist. I've only had it for a few days but it's really grown on me.
The dress is Victorian Maiden. It's one of my favorite lolita brands, but this is the first dress I own from them. Also my first sailor style dress. I've always kind of wanted one. This one is black and ivory, which I didn't think would be so easy to coordinate but I happen to have a ton of ivory colored things.
Today I got a ton of compliments on my hair! I took out my braids during lunch break and so many people talked to me about my hair during the afternoon, which was unexpected! I've worn the same hairstyle for about three weeks now but no one has said anything about it until today.
Posing here with my dressform, Camille. In addition to this dress, I received three other dresses in the mail this week and last week. I'll hopefully be posting them soon.


As an omake, here's some pictures I snuck from a critique on Tuesday.
Everyone went in with something that looked really awesome and well put together and like with most critiques, I felt pretty inadequate because I'm really not much of a seamstress. Our assignment was to create a fully lined lapel jacket.
My teacher is really good at sewing and isn't afraid to tell us when we do something completely wrong, and I was so prepared to be told off. I presented last, and I couldn't believe how nice everyone was. My classmates gave the sweetest comments and told me how cute my jacket was and asked me to try it on, then told me it was so cute that I should just wear it out. I get really shy when I'm complimented and I was pretty much reduced to a pile of goo by the end of the critique. I can post pictures of my jacket and sketches once I get it back from grading.

Love, Kaia

stress is just right around the corner.

Yesterday's outfit. It has been pretty good weather this whole week. A few days have been so warm that I wake up sweaty in the middle of the night. The air conditioner and heater are the same thing and sometimes it works as a heater and sometimes it works as an air conditioner but you can't choose between when what works, so sometimes I'd be using the air conditioner and all of a sudden it becomes really hot.Today was something in between. Kind of warm but a little bit chilly at times. I kind of like it that way. Heat is not my friend. I was watching an episode of a drama during my lunch break between classes. I like to multitask. When I finished my food, my episode wasn't over yet and I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not doing at least two things at once so I did makeup while I finished the episode.tops from Taiwan, jacket from Harputs Union, Vena Cava silk shorts from Aritzia, Doc Martens, Tiffany & Co scarf, gift. There's only two weeks left of school; it's hard to believe that time has passed so quickly! Right now, I wish I had more time to do things I want and need to do. Like laundry and cleaning my room. And sewing clothes for myself and making stuffed animals and phone pouches. And drawing. And preparing for Fanime. All things that I can't do because I need to concentrate on getting my work done. Final projects have been assigned and I have a lot of things I need to be working on. Two essays due on monday, final dress and skirt for patternmaking, a collection for sketching and another collection for apparel presentation. A knit project and a recycling/upcyling in class final. Final tests. All fun things (minus the essays and tests) just not under stress and time constraints. Here's a few of the things I've been working on in the past week.This is my sketching assignment that I turned in today. I based it on images I found of the ocean. We get a new assignment for sketching every week. The one before was a guys collection that I based off of pictures of the suburbs that I took from my phone. For my current apparel presentation project, I am working of a collection based of flowers. My teacher is kind of ehn about this collection from me because he thinks it is too predictable from me and wanted to see something else. I don't know what else I can do to change it; there's not much time left so I don't think there is much that I can do. There's currently 30 pieces, and I have to narrow down to 8-10 to finalize and present. Cutting down always seems to be the hardest part. Working hard. Love, Kaia

the sun will come out tomorrow.

It was so nice outside today, with temperatures in the high sixties! Today was busy so I didn't get any pictures of today's outfit (I wore shorts today!) but here's yesterday's outfit. It was super nice out yesterday too but not as nice as today so I still needed to wear tights. I wish I didn't because I don't have any light colored tights.
shirt from Tokyo Fashion Co Taiwan, grey cardigan from flea market, handmade collar, H&M dress, tights from Taiwan, shoes from Nordstrom Rack.
Yesterday I took a bunch of spinning shots, and didn't get any good ones but I got so dizzy that I started falling and running into things so I gave up on that.
These tights ripped when I was wearing them yesterday. I was to buy a bunch of stuff from Forever21 (spree!!) but no money. Just a little bit sad. I wish I worked part time sometimes. Alex Wang interned and worked when he was in school. I can't do that. I can barely do just school.
Today is the start of my spring break. There's a lot of things I want to do! But I don't know if I have time to do everything. I want to make a lot of things. So much homework, though. I have two essays that I'd like to get done this weekend, and some projects that need to be finished asap. Hectic as always, but at least I'm working on things that are somewhat fun (it's less fun when you're being graded).


Love, Kaia

lets go on a picnik break.

Finally some photos that aren't heavily edited on picnik. I've been using picnik a lot lately because of the whole shutting down dilemma. I'm sad about that because even though I have photoshop, I often prefer using picnik.

Here's an outfit from a while ago



cat sweater from thrift store. skirt from Charlotte Russe, jeans from Japan, jacket from H&M, shoes from Nordstrom Rack, hat scarf from Brooklyn Chinatown, bag: gift from friend who got it in China.


Generally I think it's supposed to be really cold during this time, but weather has been warm more often than it should. A couple days ago I was wearing shorts (in February in New York. I don't think that's normal).

Last weekend, I painted a sign to put up on my dorm door. It's a picture of my roomie and me riding on my alpaca. I was planning on painting it when we moved in together, but I hadn't really had time on the weekends. Which reminds me, I have my history midterm on Monday...the most dreadful thought in my mind right now. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't all memorization. But it is. So it is that bad.


I'm enjoying my second semester classes more than first. In construction, we aren't making real garments; instead we're learning about different fabric, examining clothes to see how they're made and what kind of seam finishes are used for everything, and then sewing swatch samples of all those finishes out of different fabrics. I have more fun doing that.
Additionally, we've been doing a lot more design. I'm taking apparel presentation this semester, and it's so much work. But that's just the kind of training I need; designing under time constraints. This one is one of three pages of croquis I did this week. I think in total there are 35 designs I did this week. I remember I was struggling just to make 10ish croquis for FIT's portfolio. Those took me weeks to do. Now I draw a page of croquis in 30 minutes to an hour.

I was making a wishlist post this morning, and it was so difficult. In the past, I made on every month so there would always be enough to make a page out of them. But because I haven't made one in so long, the list just got too long. I haven't bought new clothes in months (except for last night's impulse buy...I'll probably post about that when it gets here).

I went through a lot of my old posts today and it made me really nostalgic and sad that I haven't been keeping up with posting. I wish I could post every other day. It's probably not possible, but my goal right now is at least once a week. I'll see if I can make that happen.

Love, Kaia

i want to be your favorite hello and hardest goodbye.

Here's yesterday's outfit. I'm doing a design project for juniors based on mori girl fashion for my apparel presentation class, so I dressed up in mori yesterday.
Blouse from Taiwan, sweater from flea market, dress from H&M, skirt from flea market, lace scarf from H&M, large shawl scarf from thrift, socks from flea market, shoes from Nordstrom Rack.
I didn't wear a jacket, just a big scarf that I bought at a thrift store, but the weather wasn't too bad. I think it was in the high 30's or low 40's yesterday. Today though, the sky was blue and temperatures in the 50's. I could have worn shorts if I wanted to. It's like early spring.
Lately I've been doing well. As in, I've been hitting the gym every other day and taking classes that they offer, finishing homework days before they're due so that I don't have anything to worry about, and going to sleep early.
We're starting to have more design based classes, which is really nice.
I've been designing a bunch and wanting to make stuff, but every time I go to the garment district and total up material costs, I end up leaving with just pattern paper and zippers.

I'm starting skirt patterns in patternmaking on Thursday. After this semester I think I should be able to make dresses!

Love, Kaia

when i was little i always thought the flea market was the free market.

Just a bunch of casual slapped on. Today is one of those lazy days where I don't want to leave my room, but I had to throw out the trash and buy food and go to the mail room (where I was greeted with an empty mail box, surprise surprise). The dining hall is on holiday hours, meaning they close at three in the afternoon. In addition to shorter hours, there's also less food being served.

Lately I've been doing a lot of grocery shopping and cooking all of my dinners. I was going to buy instant ramen yesterday but I forgot, but I guess that's for the better. I bought two bags of groceries from Trader Joes, and they were heavier than I could handle but I had to get it back to my dorm so I toughed it out and pulled my back.

vest and pants from free market, jacket from forever 21, shawl thrifted from Atlantis Attic

A few of the things I wore today I got for free. When I went to the flea market as a kid, I didn't understand why you had to buy things instead of getting it for free. I always thought it was called the 'free market.' The same way I thought Valentine's Day was 'Valentimes.' I'd figured valen was a synonym for love.

A while back my school had posters around for a "free market," and they went around dorm rooms asking for donations from people of stuff they no longer wanted. Then they set up a table next to the cafeteria and had all of the donated items, and anyone could go and take things that they wanted. I think it's a really great idea. Recycling is good.

I think it went on for three days? Maybe four? I went every day and took something whenever I stopped by.
I got a pair of pants with my school name on it, which also happens to be my only school gear. There's the check shirt, and then the check vest, and also a pair of hipster glasses (not pictured) and a big Urban Outfitters eco tote that I took (not pictured). But the big winner is that bow belt! I can't get over how cute it is.

While the free market is closed for now, the students who were running it said that they're trying to make it a permanent thing, where we'd have a store on campus that we can donate to and all the donations would be given out for free. I'm excited for that.

Love, Kaia

cascade my heart.

This was the final project for one of my classes. I wanted to put it in yesterday's post, but I thought it'd be a better idea to have them separate since this one was a bigger assignment.


I don't really have much sewing ability at all, so making it was a little difficult. The feather bust is detachable and ties on like a bikini. The rest of the dress is built off of a nightgown that I bought at Goodwill. I draped it off from a mannequin and sewed on fifteen yards of fabric onto the nightgown.

Because of the weight of the fabric, the nightgown couldn't hold up the dress so I added in pearl straps and a waistband.

Love, Kaia