Ah, remember the OVAs of the 90s? After a series ended, a few years would go by, and then someone would make a reboot movie, featuring the characters you knew and loved looking slightly different, and a plot that, if you were lucky, bore at best a nodding acquaintance with the original story, and more often than not was darker, grittier, and completely insane.

That being said, I knew we'd do these costumes eventually--I wanted to because I actually really like the "Catholic school uniform" design (such a refreshing change from the usual sailor collar), and Arlette and Lady Terentia because of their love of all things Rayearth. I think Lady Terentia's like me in that we prefer the happier tone of the original manga and anime, but Arlette is really into the grimdark stuff, so this made her disturbed little heart happy.

Alyce was kind enough to offer to make my and Lady Terentia's dresses for us, and even came up to my mother's house for a barbecue-and-fitting that we all enjoyed immensely. I bought a new wig from Arda, both because I wasn't really happy with my last Umi wig, and because Umi's hair looks darker (seriously, when I said "darker" above, I meant in color as well as in mood), and did a much better job of cutting bangs into it than I did with my last wig, Lady Amalthea. I had a white headband and white dress socks already, and I bought black ballet flats off of Amazon on Terentia's recommendation--for being Dr. Scholl's, they *killed* my feet until I finally broke them in by wearing them to work with *two* pairs of very thick stocks and stockings. Terentia also found a *perfect* petticoat on Amazon that not only worked perfectly for these dresses, but should give our Lolita dresses the correct "cupcake" silhouette, as opposed to the A-line fluff we've been ending up with. Lastly, Patti & Steph made the "ova" the girls get on their hands, and Arlette attached lengths of peach colored nylon to help keep them in place.

Photo by Angelina Levina

Angelina Levina on Facebook