Traveling Lolita : a blurb about packing lolita style

Hey there! With October fast approcahing that also means Rufflecon is almost here! Rufflecon is an alternative fashion convention coming up October 3rd in New Haven Connecticut. And as well as writing about my adventures during this event, I felt that it might be also handy to write about how I've packed for said convention. 

For my trip north I will be bringing three lolita outfits, one going out evening outfit and then a couple of shirts and a couple pair of pants when not wearing lolita. I'll let you know now I'm a bit on the ocd side and organizing things is a must for me. So lets start with the lolita outfits!

Accessories are an essential part to every lolita outfit but sometimes they can get lost or misplaced or you just don't have a way to keep it organized and neat while on the go. For me I like to use little craft bead boxes. If you look at the image below you can see I've got my three main accessories for each lolita outfit at the top. Whats nice about these boxes is that they come with dividers which you can arrange the sizes of the compartment to fit your needs. I've also packed a tide  on the go stain remover stick ( You never know when there might be a stain crisis.), my lipsticks, a nail file, eye liner and any other pencil type makeups. I also like to bring along oil absorbing sheets, bobby pins both long and short, safety pins, hair ties, qtips and meggrubs for luck. ( I've brought it with me every time I leave home on a lolita event. It began it's humble life in Louisiana and came to live with me in Texas. So far we've gone to Japan, and now it will be going to New York! )

I am also a big fan of packing within packing. Here you see one of the bags I'm taking and in the first pouch I have my makeup bags and eyelashes. The second compartment I'm putting all of my accessories for my coords that are too big to fit into the above mentioned jewelry compartment  box. So rosettes, flower corsages, anything that is a part of my coordinate but isn't big enough to hang on a hanger. It takes up space and cushions fragile items as well as organizes!

 Another reason I like to do this  is because it ends up cushioning some of the more fragile accessories as well as making packing a little bit more organized for me. In the second bag I'm bringing,I placed all of my wigs in order from Saturday to Monday. I've written on the bags with a sharpie marker to indicate which wig I've picked for each day and placed them in the bag with Monday at the bottom to Saturday at the top which makes for easy retrival when unpacking at my destination.

So hopefully, even when you're bringing a lot, you can cut down on the space by packing this way. Now I'm sure you could also try vacuum sealing but I don't have those bags so maybe next time.

For my lolita outfits I usually keep quite a few of my dresses in garment bags. I took three garment bags ( my going out outfit is doubled up with my sunday coordinate ) and cheap plastic hangers to hang my outfits on.I always pack one or two extra just in case one should break or that you can always loan out as well. That way it holds everything together and if the hangers break they were maybe 10cents. Or if you're in a room with quite a few girls, you aren't fighting for hangers. ( hanger fight! )

So in the photo above you'll see my main piece, blouse, jacket, ties, and tights all together. The garment bag in the second photo keeps everything neat and together and easy to hang when you get to your destination. 

So once all of what I want is bound into their specific garment bag with hanger, I fold the bag over onto itself as close to the hanger as possible to ensure a tight and snug layer and then roll it again until the bag can't be anymore. It looks like a long folded towel really. I then tape the end of the bag to the overlapped side to keep it in place. Since these bags are nylon it won't harm the bag using a heavy duty tape like duct tape.

I do this to each garment bag until I have three neatly folded bags like you see below. Everything is together and that way you don't have to search to see where you left that waist tie or where did you tuck away your blouse.

In the last photos you can see all three bags neatly tucked into my carry on and in the top flap portion you can see my shoe bags with shoes for said coords. In the top pocket on the front of my bag holds my accessory case and thats my everything!  I'm really quite weirded out by the thought of losing my dresses in the sea of checked bags so they usually fly in my carry on to ensure if anything happens; my dresses stay intact and with me.

So now that all my coordinates are packed up, it just leaves my regular clothes and my petticoats! My regular clothes as well as the gold bag I packed previously, will be in my backpack that I'm also carrying on ( and those are boring so I'm not featuring that. ) I am however going to show how I packed my petticoats and other essentials. 

In the first photo I've packed two petticoats into a quart sized ziploc bag. Outside of that bag I wrap a nylon white bag which will ensure that if the ziploc bag breaks or is lost that I can still keep the size of my petticoats down in my luggage. I then wrap that bag again in a large black nylon bag. This bag will be used to house my dirty clothes and unmentionables while on my trip and as a bag for the trip home. My petticoat bag and my brown bag will go into my checked luggage as well as leave a lot of space in the case I buy items while out.

 You can also wear your petticoat but I feel that it takes up much too much space and especially if you're flying coah, sometimes that's not always the best nor most comfortable way to fly. And since I've got a pretty empty checked bag, I thought why not. So all in all here it is, five days worth of necessities, three lolita coordinates, and a partridge in a pear tree.

 I hope this has been a helpful and handy dandy look into how to pack lolita style. And for those of you not attending Rufflecon, I will be making a couple of journal entries about my experiences and time at this first year event. If you happen to be attending, please say Hi! I'm pretty opposite of shy and would love to meet you. Thanks for reading and pop by again soon!