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Biblioethica Jul/Aug Prompt: Clutter

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The prompt for this month is clutter. I'm a bit low on energy this month as I am at home recovering from an injury. So here is some mori-esque clutter around my room! I have a lot of tiny knick-knacks from my travels around Japan. So that takes up a lot of space in my room at the moment. But it's happy clutter that reminds me of wonderful times. These flowers are from my grandmother's celebration of life service, and the little Kappa reminds me of Tsuyama! My mori magazine collection and Mashiko-yaki plates from huhbok-san. Artwork from Iingezo  and trinkets from my Japan travels. I collected one keychain or charm from each place I visited! Holly Hobby vintage blanket from my mom. Closet stuff. Lego and fake flowers, and a cute picture of my dear friend! We traveled to Miyazaki-ken together. A little memorial spot for my grandma. My favorite incense! I had to leave my cute incense burner in Japan, sadly. My inherited plants. My brother abandoned them when he moved to Korea,...
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So, does anyone else remember those Grimoire tights?

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Today's post is a bit of a side tangent that really doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. Really, I just wanted to talk about it!  So, does anyone remember those tights? You know the ones. The ones that were in every street snap in the early to mid 2010s? I spoke about the Grimoire shop a while back in my post on Dolly Kei , but something I forgot to touch on was one of their (arguably) biggest impacts on the J-fashion community at large: the infamous tattoo tights. This was such a short lived trend, but it was EVERYWHERE. Every J-fashion community, closely related to the Grimoire store and the Dolly Kei trend or not, was obsessed with these. ( There are enough image of them even in the mori community that I was able to give them  their own tag on the image archive !)  A mori influencer at the time even did a review on them (and the dress Grimoire also produced).  And let me tell you. I was hooked! Everywhere you turned, on LiveJournal, Faceboo...
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Project: Mori Kei Image Archive

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Hello everyone! As I am known to do, I have randomly started another archival project: Mori Kei Image Archive Some users on the mori discord server were discussing how it seemed hard to find images of the things they were looking for, and after I started thinking about it, I realized they were right. Finding good quality images that you are looking for in the age of ai slop search engines is hard enough, let alone looking for specific images from a certain source, or images that were not popular to begin with, or images that were shared around so many times on tumblr or pinterest you don't know where they came from anymore. So that's where this project comes in. The project is called the "Mori Kei Image Archive." Just like the name sounds, it's a place to archive any and all mori outfit images! (And a few other things here and there!) The archive is specifically for images of outfits made either a) during the period of mori's popularity in Japan (aka the early...
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Biblioethica Mar/Apr Prompt: Sprout

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Mori Kei is not a new fashion style. It has a long history and is rapidly approaching being old enough to be considered vintage (although I don't like to be reminded of that haha).  Most of us are aware of Mori's origins: the Mixi group, the name from Choco, its growth in Harajuku, etc. But there is one person who really helped mori to sprout and often gets mentioned only in side notes: Choco, the original Mixi group owner. So today, I want to take a look at her and her contributions to mori fashion! Where It All Started Choco's personal introduction in her style book Choco is a relatively unknown figure. She was a very private individual, and like many Japanese people online chose to never show her face or share her real name. Instead, she only went by the online name "Choco." Choco was the person who created and ran the original Mori Girl group on Mixi. She created the group on August 24, 2006. According to Choco herself, the reason for creating the group was no...
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Let's DIY It! Pt.2 : Brooches, Lace Borders, and Simple Circle Skirts

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Welcome to the first actual post in this DIY series! If you need a refresher on the types of DIYs in this post, or DIY techniques, please check out the first post in this series . Newbie: Hot Glue Brooches Source: The Shabby Tree One simple DIY that was actually included in the recent mori week is hot glue brooches! This DIY was featured during Mori Week by mori-no-tori  and is a great beginner DIY craft. What You Need: Scraps of lace, yarn, fabric, etc. Any size, color, or shape will work. Doilies (lace appliques will also work if you cannot find any doilies, but they will be a stiffer material) Spare buttons, flowers, ribbons, beads, or charms A safety pin or lapel pin back Hot glue gun OR needle and thread  OPTIONAL: Felt for the base Tutorial Links: DIY Brooch - The Shabby Tree DIY QUICK & EASY Collaged Brooch! Tutorial How To Make It: Hot Glue Brooches are a very beginner-friendly craft, because each brooch is unique and there are no wrong or right ways to create one....
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