My Adventures at Rufflecon 2017

This year I was one of the lucky attendees at Rufflecon located in Stamford, Connecticut. Rufflecon is an alt j fashion convention that has tons to offer its visitors that are into lolita or j fashion. I am going to go over my experience and talk about shopping in the dealers room as well as some of the fashion shows that went on during the weekend.

I opted for the weekend plus ticket which gets you: A full pass to all days of the con, a food pass to eat at the hotels buffet, and a Rufflecon branded drink tumbler. The buffet cost is usually at least 12 U.S.dollars during lunch time so the pass easily pays for itself.

One of the main things alot of people attend Rufflecon for is the shopping. My dear friend Alexa *featured above*, is shown with bags from the popular lolita brand Metamorphose Temps de Fille. There are different brands in attendance at Rufflecon each year. For 2017 we had Meta along with Triple Fortune.

There were also plenty of indie brands in attendance at Rufflecon. Some of which include Victorian Angel, Twylite Fashion, Sweet Mildred, Ikemen Mode, and Puvithel. I was able to interview Puvithel for this article. (It ended up being shorter than I originally intended as I wanted to have this interview done for my last article.)

Puvithel is an indie brand focusing on Gothic Lolita. She also does pins, jewelry, accessories and more. Recently she has been doing some menhera inspired pieces and incorporating pink into some of her items. It’s no wonder her brand is quickly growing in popularity.

Questions:

You seem to have come so far in such a short time, what do you think contributes to your success?

While I’ve only been doing conventions for a couple years, I’ve been crafting jewelry for a lot longer. I have also been a graphic designer for most of my life. Additionally my engineer training and work experience has helped me manage manufacturing. That said, I had support from a lot of people to get me here, most notably A. Gato Designs. She sews most of my lolita clothing and works with me on a lot of designs as well as conventions. Then Lolita Collective, who has done so many amazing things for me that listing them would take forever.

Puvithel as a brand seems to possess a darker Gothic theme, do you plan to release things that apply to more genres/varieties?

I have recently been passionate about menhera, so I hope to release more menhera things in the future. However even when working in pastels, I like to keep a punky, gothic feel. I find that my best work comes out when I make things that I like, and I am a very American-punk person.

Fashion Shows at Rufflecon

Other than the shopping, a huge pull-in of guests at Rufflecon has to do with fashion shows. This years brands in the shows included Metamorphose Temps de Fille and Triple Fortune, as well as plenty of indie brands. Some of the notable indie brands: Victorian Angel, Mossbadger, I Do Declare, Ikemen Mode, The Bloody Tea Party, and SA design by SASA.

I was overjoyed when I was selected for both Metamorphose and Victorian Angel. I recommend taking part in the fashion shows if you can, they really enhanced my Rufflecon experience.

Metamorphose is such a wonderful prestigious brand and I loved working with them. It’s such an amazing feeling to be behind the scenes and in such close proximity to the designers. Meta really cares about their models and I was pleased with how courteous and helpful they were with us. I felt so special wearing their new designs and I even got to wear brand shoes to match! The show was beautiful and I’d love to model for them again.

On the flip side Victorian Angel is a fast growing indie brand by my wonderful friend Amy Marie Couture. Her designs are cute or breathtaking depending on the print and I was so happy to be apart of her modeling crew. We seemed like the perfect example of teamwork, the models were so kind to each other and everyone helped me throw things on for my quick change. I would gladly walk for Amy anytime.

In conclusion, Rufflecon is a magical wonderland of shopping and fashion, but that is not all it is on the inside. It’s a place to meet people, develop new friendships, and explore something we love together.

naturally cute