A Weekend in Manchester for The Queen Is Dead ∣ Coords

 

Mid June, I travelled to Manchester for a lolita event, The Queen Is Dead. I made plans with online friends for a jam packed weekend and it ended up being so jam packed it needed it's own blog post! Please keep reading if you want to see what we got up to and all the photos we took! 

P.s. There will be a regular June coords blog as well as this soon~

Friday

I arrived in Manchester early Friday afternoon and upon arriving at my hotel immediately got changed into my coord. Clara/pipo_password from the oldschool discord had organised a tea party at Richmond Tea Rooms for her birthday, which happened to coincide with the weekend of The Queen Is Dead. 

Despite wearing the Meta Bouquet set already a few months ago, I wanted to wear it again this weekend. Originally I planned on wearing it to the old school meet I had planned on Sunday, in the hopes of twinning with people, but we ended up planning to twin a different print that day so I wore Bouquet on Friday instead.

I love this two way photo of me taking a photo of something haha

Clara with the card & stickers I gave her~

These pics Katherine and I got of one another at the same time are so cute!!

The tea room was all Alice in Wonderland themed, with all their afternoon tea options also being Alice themed (at least in name) and the decor was so so cute. One thing I really liked about this place was that they had different sized afternoon teas; I got the one with just the sandwiches and scone since I knew we'd be having birthday cake later. There ended up being quite a lot of us which was fun, and we all gave Clara our cards and gifts. As we were leaving, more lolitas from another group turned up too which was funny, but I suppose it is a good spot for lolitas!

I went for a pretty standard coord with the set but I feel like you can't go wrong with that. I'd been wanting to wear my blonde ringlet wig with this set for a while and thought when better to do it than at a big tea party. I wore my favourite vintage gobelin handbag and matched it with my rocking horse shoes. I think I would've preferred a different necklace as I forgot how long that cross one is.

Bonnet - Metamorphose

Wig - Maple

Capelet - Metamorphose

Blouse - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Skirt - Metamorphose

Petticoat - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Socks - Baby the Stars shine Bright

Shoes - Antaina

Bag - Vintage

After we all finished our afternoon tea we headed outside to get coord photos at the entrance which was beautifully decorated, as well as get a group photo of course! Then we headed back to our hotels for a couple of hours before going back out for part two of Clara's birthday. I  headed back to mine with Katherine, and she played Tamagochi on her 3DS while I got changed lol. It was so lovely to meet everyone!

Once back at my hotel, I changed into another coord for karaoke. I didn't necessarily need to get changed, but I wanted to make the most of a lolita weekend by wearing as many different coords as possible and lucky for me I wasn't the only one changing coord in between activities. I decided to go with my real hair, which was a good call as it was boiling in the karaoke room, and matched it with my pink red velveteen skirt. Although I didn't have any tartan in my coord I thought it would be cute to add my Charmmy Kitty tie, which also happened to match with my instax camera.

Headdress - Innocent World

Blouse - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Tie - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Skirt - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Socks - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Shoes - Antaina

Bag - Alice & the Pirates

Backpack - La Luice

Camera - Instax

I look so bad in a lot of these but oh well

Karaoke was so much fun. A set tab was paid which ended up being used entirely for alcohol, so once we got through that a few of us paid for some bottles of sake outside of that. We only had a couple of hours booked in the room but we all had so much fun taking turns singing along to songs while packed in there like sardines. 

I brought my digicam with me to take photos, as did Katherine, and as you can see we got a lot of fun candids! Unfortunately for me, I learned that my instax film was too old upon taking a photo and it staying white, so I wasn't able to use it. At least it looked cute with my coord though~

After karaoke was finished, we walked along to Clara's hotel where we all sang happy birthday and got a slice of cake, and sat and chatted for a while before parting ways. I hope Clara had a lovely birthday, because I had such a great time. It was so much fun meeting and catching up with everyone~!

Lola and I both had tartan Sanrio ties, but something tells me the A+Lidel one isn't official lol

Random hotel lift coord selfie

Clara also handed out these little personalised party favours which were so cute!

Saturday

Headwear - MILK
Jewellery - Vivienne Westwood, offbrand
Bustier - SteamPunkManiac on Etsy
Capelet - Angelic Pretty
Skirt - MILK
Tights - Tabbisocks
Shoes - Miho Matsuda
Teddy bear - Jane Marple
Gloves - Offbrand

Bag - Alice & the Pirates

Saturday was the day of The Queen Is Dead. I woke up early to do my makeup before going downstairs for a hotel breakfast as there wouldn't be any food at the event, then went back to my room to finish getting ready. 

Coord pic I got before leaving, don't mind the gloveless arm lol

The theme for TQID was old school, gothic, and punk lolita. I'd had this MILK crown for a while with no chance to wear it as it's not exactly something you can wear as daily wear. That and my AP capelet reminded me of 80s Vivienne Westwood, so I decided to put together inspired by that, with a tartan spin on it. 

I originally planned to wear my blonde hime cut wig with the coord, however I realised upon trying on the crown again that it probably wouldn't fit over a wig, so I improvised that morning and came up with this hairstyle. I think it works, but if I wore the coord again I'd probably attempt a hairstyle similar to the ones worn by the models below. Other than that and wishing I had more Vivienne Westwood jewellery to wear, I'm happy with how it turned out!

My inspo, I think it's all VW's Harris Tweed collection.. maybe. ^^

I got a tartan ticket, which was general admission, so I got to the venue in our time window of 11:45-12:15. Upon arriving, attendees received a tote bag of goodies, which I'll show you later on. 

The venue was Victoria Baths, an old Victorian swimming pool that now functions as a venue for events. It had the most gorgeous art nouveau tiles and stained glass, as well as some cool empty rooms in disrepair upstairs. The building was so beautiful and I wish swimming baths still looked like this. I wish I could've returned in different coords for more photos there!

The first thing I did was head to the vending area, as there were so many cool oldschool brands there. I did a once around all the stalls before choosing what to buy. Unsurprisingly and much to my dismay, the Wirehead stall was almost completely empty by the time general admission got in, so I wasn't able to get a gobelin heart headdress like I was hoping, but I was able to buy one of the last things they had lol. My favourite stall was probably Collectif Ultramimi, as I ended up buying quite a lot from them. I also loved the historical inspired Jewellery Haenuli had for sale.

 It was so cool to see so many oldschool and oldschool adjacent brands in one room!

Edit: Late addition bc I just remember Nomeda sent me this pic

Edit: The photographer just uploaded their photos and this was in there!

In the afternoon, it was time for the fashion show, where the vendors and guest brands got to show off their collections to attendees. The brands included RR Memorandum, Wirehead, Haenuli, Distant Melody, Cloudberry Lady, Naddine Atilier, Starlust Hats, Summertales Boutique, Fidel David, Raspberry Mazohyst, I Do Declare, and Atelier Pierrot. The music choices were great and the models did a wonderful job. I do however think it would've been better if the fashion show had been earlier in the day, as most things had already been bought by the time the fashion show happened, meaning if we liked what we saw it was likely too late to purchase it.

I was feeling quite anxious that day, so didn't approach as many people as I could've (I really wish I'd gotten coord photos with people T^T). Luckily I had posted about a zine project I'm working on, so a few people approached me about that and I made some lovely acquaintances as a result. I also got to catch up with lolita friends who live far from me, or who I mostly know online. I ended up spending a good chunk of the day looking for nice spots to get coord photos with Lavendealer. I also got some photos with Eloise, and also tagged along with the Scottish comm for a while.

I thought this one was funny

Towards the end of the event, everyone once again piled into the pool room for the raffle, with the biggest prize being an Atelier Pierrot dress. Once the raffle was done we got a group photo of all the attendees, which I will add here retrospectively once TQID posts it.

Earlier in the day I had told Josine we needed to get a photo together, as we were both wearing the same Milk crown. As everyone was leaving, I found her and we got a selfie, as we were both too tired to get a full photo haha.

Everyone stood in groups outside of the venue chatting, I assume as they waited for taxis or made plans for the evening. I ended up getting a taxi with Leila  and hanging out for an extra hour before heading back to my hotel to collapse, eat Indian food and watch Bridgerton.

Here's everything I got! Above is everything I bought (minus the middle print which was a freebie), and below is everything that came in the free goody bag. Above  I have 2 bags from Velvet Syrup, as well as a strawberry tie also by Velvet Syrup I picked up for a friend who couldn't make it to the event. Two prints also from the ultramimi stall, stickers from them as well as a sticker from Raspberry Mazohyst, a brooch from Haenuli I plan on wearing with historical costumes, a gobelin headdress from Wirehead as well as some free prints and stickers, and a tartan headdress (I don't remember who by but will update if I remember).

Very excited to wear this to the next historical meet

Below, the freebies include: an amazing tote bag which was really sturdy (VIP got a pink tote with black print), an event badge by Haenuli, a very handy fan (mine broke on the Sunday sadly but I'm gonna try to fix it), an Atelier Pierrot cookie designed to look like their dress they were selling at the event, some prints by guest vendors, and a Haenuli catalogue. I think the VIPs also got a hand mirror. 

Another cute detail is that the ticket tiers were given themed names of tartan, vinyl, and safety pin, and the tote bags all had the corresponding thing attatched. So my tote had a square of tartan pinned to it, and Leila got a giant safety pin. The 3 other pins weren't included, I thought it would be cool to add all my previous event pins to the tote.

Sunday

On the Sunday, I had organised meetup for members of the old school discord who didn't get a ticket to the Sunday tea party, with the help of Clara. We planned to meet at Manchester Cathedral to get some coord photos before heading around the corner to Cosy Club to get brunch. Unfortunately for us, the weather was not on our side in the morning, but we made it work~

Two film photos from Nomeda~

For this coord I'd planned to wear my Meta gobelin set again, but since I had only worn it the month prior I wanted to make my coord distinctly different. I decided to lean into the red of the print and wear it with my real hair and my bordeaux Jane Marple crown OTKs. I'd bought a gobelin bag and gobelin headdress at The Queen Is Dead, so I thought it would be nice to wear them in my coord instead of the gobelin headbow and RRM tote bag I originally had planned (the black gobelin handbag was my "main" bag and the tote was gonna be the extra bag).

Headdress - Wirehead

Set - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Jewellery - Jane Marple

Heart Bag - Velvet Syrup

Handbag - Vintage

Socks - Jane Marple

Shoes - Antaina

Parasol - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Bear - Vintage

Once we'd finished brunch the weather had cleared up and it ended up being a lovely sunny day. We headed back around the corner to the cathedral and got more coord photos. We ended up spending a good chunk of time there as it was such nice weather. Funnily enough the original plan was going to be a picnic but we had to come up with something more indoors when the weather was forecast for rain all weekend, so this ended up as a happy medium. The downside was that the cathedral is clearly a tourist destination, so we had a LOT of tourists (and probably locals) trying to snap sneaky photos of us so the free TQID fan came in handy.

One fun thing about the meet was a few of us arranged to all wear our Meta gobelin print. I've always wanted to do a big group 'twinning' so it was a lot of fun! Caroline and I also both bought gobelin heart bags from Velvet Syrup (who was also there hehe), so we both wore those as well for a little extra level of twinning.

On one hand why did I bring my parasol it sticks out so much, on the other hand I'm glad I don't have to deal with the harsh shadows bc I'm not as cute as everyone else 

 

Lulu the human coat rack while Gobey Gang(TM) get a group photo

Another film photo from Nomeda

We got some shoe circle photos, which ended up with us all putting our little guys in the middle which kind of looks like some sort of ritual sacrifice or summoning circle lmao. After we got some group photos, we decided to take a look inside the cathedral. I love a good cathedral, they're so gorgeous! Inside the cathedral there was a violin performance happening which was lovely to hear.

After that, we went to Ohayo for bubble tea, after which some of the group had to leave for various reasons. The rest of us headed to Manchester Art Gallery. In the gallery, they had a small fashion exhibition as well as lots of gorgeous paintings. We got some cute candids of one another as we looked around. I love art galleries as a backdrop for lolita.

My face is so funny in this photo

While in the art gallery, we actually bumped into Eloise, who joined us for the last half an hour. Funnily enough she was also wearing the Meta gobelin print! At 5pm the gallery announced it was closing, so we headed out and ended up chatting outside for a while and even finding two other lolitas who joined us for a while before we all parted ways to rest, get changed, or eat before the after party.

tfw youre Laura Palmer in The Return (glowing face)

Finally it was time for the afterparty! After I got back to the hotel from the meet, I rested for a while and freshened up. After that I put on the coord I'd planned, however I went with the Miho Matsuda boots again instead of the Demonia shoes I had planned on wearing due to how achy they'd made my feet walking around in them all day. I think the Demonias would've gone better with the coord, but the Miho Matsuda shoes are so great it doesn't matter much.

Headdress - Metamorphose

Wig - Maple

Set - Good Luck

Necklace - Closet Child

Socks - Metamorphose

Shoes - Miho Matsuda

Bag - La Luice

I thought the tartan Good Luck set would be a fun one to wear for the afterparty, being both punky and oldschool, but also a bit ita which feels more fitting for an afterparty. I'd gotten corset lacing added to the blouse by the same place that added corset lacing to my other GL set, even showing photos of their previous work to show what I wanted. However upon receiving the blouse back it was completely different from what I had asked for, and I didn't have time to get it fixed before the event :< 

The afterparty started off pretty chill. I got there fairly early so didn't have to wait very long for my first cosktail, however not long after the queue became massive! A lot of the playlist was very similar to the songs we'd been singing at the karaoke meet on Friday night, with classics such as All the Things She Said, Primadonna, Celebrity Skin, Girls & Boys, I'm Just Ken, as well as some emo classics I'm less familiar with. As the night went on, things got pretty chaotic and very fun! I think it's funny how lolitas somehow have a reputation for being very "proper", but the reality is very different (in a good way).

I thought it would be fun to get a group photo of all the members of the oldschool discord. We gathered who we could, though unfortunately weren't able to get everyone as some had already left. It was still a pretty good group though! 

I left at around midnight, with the party still going strong. I so badly wanted to stay and keep getting drunk but I needed to wake up early the next day and take an almost 3 hour journey home and didn't particularly want to be hungover and too exhausted for that.

I had such a wonderful long weekend, meeting people I've known online for some time, making new friends and acquaintances, and catching up with people I've known irl. I hope we have another event like this next year as it was so much fun! 

=

I have some film photos I need to get developed, which I will add to this blog post once I've done that.

I also filmed a video with my camcorder which you can see below, as well as a separate couple of videos I posted to my tiktok here and here~

Lulu also got some lovely footage of the weekend including the old school meet I organised in her vlog:

In case you missed my last blog post, I'd really love if you checked it out! There's some lovely photos I got in my Meta Gobelin set and some fun pics of an ita themed karaoke meet my comm had~