J-Fashion in Self Portraiture – Photober Revisit!

This past October, I participated in a personal challege that I call Photober. This challenge is all about stretching the limits of my creativity. The first year that I did this challenge, I focused on telling stories with my photos; the second year, I experimented a lot with different kinds of light as well as telling stories; this year, I focused on those two things while adding in makeup and fashion. I wanted to see what I could do. Because of this, I got to play around with my wardrobe a lot. I managed to create some sort of J-Fashion Ouji or Aristocrat look most of the time with my small wardrobe—without repeating looks or too much of an overlap. For having only 4 blouses and two vests, that’s not bad. Here’s a showcase of some of the coords I was able to do with a little creativity:

Day 2 – Zombie

Day 2: I wore my crown from Sugar Hai and my Fanplusfriend blouse and matching jabot. I got the brooch as a freebie from a taobao order. This was also the first time I contoured with black, and I really enjoyed it.

Day 4 – Fang

Day 4: For this vampire look, I wore a blouse from Strawberry Witch and a brooch I got from a vintage seller on etsy.com. My vest is from another taobao brand called Arca et Ovis. The wig is from Gothic Lolita Wigs.

Day 6 – Mythical Creature

Day 6: This werewolf look was quite difficult for me to come up with. When I think of werewolves, I think of dark brown fur, yellow eyes—a classic werewolf. I tried to portray this well, but with little brown in my wardrobe it made coording difficult. I ended up wearing my black fanplusfriend blouse without the jabot, a brown/gold key necklace and a brown/black scarf from h.Naoto, and a wig from Epic Cosplay.

Day 7

Day 7: I actually went out in this coord, and I really enjoyed wearing it. You’ll recognize the vintage brooch from Day 4, as well as my fanlpusfriend blouse again. The same Arca et Ovis vest, homemade pants, and my first brand of the month: an Atelier Boz buttcape. The wig is from a local shop.

Day 10

Day 10: I really, really enjoyed this coord, and I’d like to wear it out someday. This is the story of that butler the king trusted but shouldn’t have. It was in response to the prompt “King’s Throne.” I had originally wanted to photoshop me as the butler onto a king’s throne—but due to time constraints I wasn’t able to follow through.

For this coord, I wore a vest and a brooch I got from Amazon, my homemade pants and a homemade jabot, and a Calvin Klein white button down. The wig is the same one from the vampire on Day 4. I love simple looks like this.

Day 11 – Mermaid

Day 11: I hated this coord! This was a day that I was wholly uninspired in both coording and concept. Pictured are my white blouse from Strawberry Witch, a taobao necklace from Tragedy Night, and the Erised vest from Elegy.

Day 14 – Fierce

Day 14: For this day, I wanted my concept to be the star, so I kept my clothes and makeup simple, wearing my fanplusfriend blouse.

Day 17 – Beauty and the Beast // Graceful

Day 17: This was the day after I got my Atelier Boz cape, and I was so excited to wear it! I paired it with a red rose in the collar and my crown from Sugar Hai.

Day 19

Day 19: Day 19 was one of the days that I had fun with my coord. Pictured are a blue/gold blouse from Little Dipper, a neckbow tie from Fanplusfriend, shorts from Fanplusfriend, and a blue/black buttcape from Atelier Boz. I also wore Alice and the Pirates gold/black diamond OTKs, which are obviously not pictured.

Day 22

Day 22: I don’t do Lolita often, but when I do, my coords always come out interesting. For this coord, I wore my Ichigo Miko Lord of the Rings skirt, the same Little Dipper blouse as Day 19, a vest from Precious Clove’s guardian Ouji set, a bear crossbody bag from Moonlight Forest, and Angelic Pretty star OTKs. My wig is from Epic Cosplay.

Day 24 – Halloween

Day 24: I made my first attempt at shironuri this day, pairing it with the asymmetrical wig from Day 7, a coat from Mint Neko, homemade pants, and my Fanplusfriend blouse. I also wore platform boots that I got a long time ago from eBay.

I hope you enjoyed my Photober 2017 J-Fashion overview. If you’re interested in seeing other images from the 2017 Photober, you can see them on my Facebook page here. To see previous years’ Photober challenges, you can see them on my Flickr here.

lightningsavage

Kal from Lightningsavage Photography specializes in creative portrait photography for J-Fashion enthusiasts and more. He has served as the J-Fashion event photographer for Oni-Con 2016–2020, as well as fashion shows, meetups, and personal shoots. He is also a co-owner of Kuroshiro Kawaii. You can follow him on Instagram at @lightningsavage_photography and @kaldec_

He is currently into visual kei and EGA fashions.