geek style · out & about

Geeky Fashion Finds @ SDCC

I can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks since San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) happened! I feel like I’m still recovering from it and that it only ended a week ago. My suitcase is seriously still hanging out on my bedroom floor and I haven’t unpacked everything yet… except for my dirty clothes which I laundered, of course. <– that’d be so gross if I had a week’s worth of dirty clothes just hanging out. Eww!

Anywho, let’s talk about fun fashion-y geeky things now!

Conventions like SDCC definitely helped influence my personal style ever since I started attending in 2004. Naturally, I’m all kinds of excited to see how fashion targeted towards lady geeks (and dudes, but mostly ladies because I am one — duh!) continues to grow more and more each year!

Fashionable con attendees don’t have to wait until July to fulfill all their geeky fashion needs with stores like Hot Topic, Spencer’s, Torrid, and online retailers such as Think Geek, and the abundance of Etsy stores and indie geek clothiers online like Gold Bubble Clothing that have tons of great fandom related clothes and accessories. But that still doesn’t stop me from looking for brand new geek inspired attire and accessories at SDCC though! 🙂

Well-known geek retailers such as Her Universe and We Love Fine are always a no-brainer when looking for something super cute and nerdy. As you know from a previous post, Her Universe nearly took all my monies! Both companies had two booths this year (2 of which were located in the Star Wars pavilion). I was THIS close to picking up the Han Solo skater skirt (pictured below), but then I stopped myself since my friend already made one for me. And the R2 knitted pullover is something I regret not going home with. – le sigh

Loungefly also had a booth at the Star Wars pavilion with tons of cute coin bags, backpacks, wallets, and purses. They had two exclusive SDCC items this year, one being a sparkly Darth Vader coin bag (which seems more like a wristlet to me) and a hot pink Stormtrooper coin bag. I picked up the sparkly Darth wristlet because resistance was futile (I KNOW. Wrong Star franchise reference).

Another great geek fashion line I came across was Lace & Lore. I remember passing by their booth at Anime Expo, but I didn’t get to take a look at them until SDCC. Lace & Lore has tons of fun skater dresses and leggings that are similar to Gold Bubble Clothing and Black Milk Clothing. Some are obviously geek themed such as their pastel pink dress with 20-sided dice printed all over it (I don’t play Dungeons & Dragons, but I want it!), 8-bit hearts, and a few Naruto prints, but there’s also a few designs with kawaii Asian cuisine, donuts, and strawberry shortcake. Everything about their booth made me squeel with delight! From the novelty purses, the sweet pastel hues of their dresses, right down to the decorations of their booth — SO. FLIPPIN’. CUTE. I don’t know what else to say but that.

The one panel that I was able to go to was the Business of Geek Fashion that included Ashely Eckstein of Her Universe, Sara Scargall from We Love Fine, Ed Labay from Hot Topic, Jed Seigle ThinkGeek Solutions, and Arthur Gibree from Sanshee. It was interesting to see how many big name franchises have the licence to create tees and other apparel geared towards women, but they never did anything with it because they didn’t think there was a market for it. Like Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Big. HUGE!” There definitely is, and the fashions that are out in stores and online for us geeky fashionistas just keeps growing thanks to those that were on the panel. I also love the fact that Ashley Eckstein specifically stayed away from the color pink in Her Universe’s first few lines to show that us fangirls don’t always want to wear pink. I personally love the color, and Ashley said she did too, but it was very important that the color be used in limited amounts during Her Universe’s early days to stay away from the stereotype.

You can watch the full panel here thanks to the folks of Fashionably Nerdy : Geek Chic TV!

What are some of your favorite companies or stores to shop at for geek apparel that I might not have mentioned? I definitely know I wasn’t able to get everything, so lemme know in the comments section!

 cheers

geek style

A Non-Otaku’s Adventures at Anime Expo

Hey my little ponies! Right now I’m hanging out at my sister’s apartment in San Diego getting ready for Comic-Con!!! I can’t believe it’s already that time of year. It always seems to creep up on me out of nowhere. I’ll be at the convention itself Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and a few parties throughout the week including Game of Bloggers tomorrow night, Geeks Go Glam on Thursday, and the Fashionably Nerdy cocktail hour on Friday. If you happen to be going to any of these events and see me, please say hi! And also forgive me for being socially awkward.

#shy #introvertproblems

Anywho, I’m still recuperating from my weekend spent at Anime Expo. I feel somewhat fine, but at the same time I don’t want to do a damn thing except for veg out on the couch like I’m a sloth and watch things on YouTube (I’m currently obsessed with Thug Notes). Back to back conventions just might be a sign that I am getting too old. Wah-wah-wah. But despite how low my mana is, I still had fun hanging out with my best friends and my sister!

I even got to write another article for Wear Your Voice Mag about casual cosplaying. You can read it here.

As you can see, I did a casual Totoro cosplay during one of my days at Anime Expo with my My Neighbor Totoro dress by Her Universe. It was perfect to wear to Anime Expo considering what a popular character Totoro is in the anime community. In case you’re not completely familiar with him, his popularity is equivalent to that of Mickey Mouse. And how effing adorable is he?! My Neighbor Totoro is a great film too, so go watch it if you haven’t yet!

I went to Anime Expo for a day last year and had fun, so I decided to buy a pass for this year too. Plus my friend Jen constantly told me that it’s not all just anime, other geekdoms are represented there too. And while the exhibition hall was full of cool vendors, I found myself not completely being into the whole thing. Like I mentioned in my last post, I’m not huge on anime and my knowledge on the subject is limited to a few Studio Ghibli films and Sailor Moon, and this convention’s main audience are those that roll in the otaku crowd… which I don’t find myself part of. By no means am I dissing Anime Expo, or anyone that’s super into it, I’m just saying that I feel like Anime Expo turned out to not quite be my thing. Oh well! I guess I’m just used to Comic-Con as it’s more up my alley where geekery is concerned. My friend Shanice and I saw all these great cosplays except we felt really awkward about not knowing where it was from.

One of the things that I really liked about Anime Expo though was their photo shoot area. There was a whole space with different kinds of backdrops set up for cosplayers to take photos of their cosplays, ranging from a space station, forest scene, classroom, graveyard, Japanese garden, etc. That’s where I took the cherry blossom pictures and some outfit pics of me wearing my Captain America dress (up on the blog later!). 🙂

cheers

13932753164_59cedb28abdress: Her Universe (no longer available)
cardigan: Old Navy (buy similar here)
flats: G.H. Bass (buy here)

belt: A|X Armani Exchange
headband: Made by me (tutorial here)

geek style · giveaway

Unicorn Crafts

Hey ponies! The Unicorn Crafts giveaway I’m hosting was supposed to end tonight at midnight, but I decided to extend it until this Saturday, the 23rd at midnight PST to give you all a bit more time to enter for a chance to win it. Yaaaay!

Be sure to go –> here <– in order to enter the giveaway. 

Anywho, I want to showcase some of the other cute little trinkets that can be found at Unicorn Crafts as well so you can all get a sense of just how awesome Faheema’s shop is! Though it may be called Unicorn Crafts, there is certainly more to it than just adorable little unicorns — you can also find necklaces, rings, earrings, and pins with narwhals (technically the unicorn of the sea… oops), Totoro, Doctor Who, R2-D2, kawaii looking snacks like bacon, donuts, cookies, avocados, macarons, (etc) with little smiley faces, and many, many, MANY more things!

Besides the necklace I got at AnimeExpo, I also picked up a Game of Thrones pin with House Stark’s sigil of a dire wolf and motto “Winter is coming” for my sister since she’s a huge GoT fan. This was a few weeks before I started watching the show, so now I’m bummed that I didn’t watch it any sooner. * le sigh *

Your teeth are totally throbbing from all the sweetness that is Unicorn Crafts now, aren’t they? Sorry I’m not sorry about that. ☺

Be sure to check out Unicorn Craft’s online shop for more goodies, and,  of course, don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Cheers,
Nina