#french trends shop

[lizziesangel]

RAFE CAMERON ⟢ high maintenance

x HIGH MAINTENANCE!FEM!reader ⟢ MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: 5 times rafe realises his girlfriend is high maintenance + 2 bonus scenes

WORD COUNT: 1286

GENRE: fluff

CONTENT WARNING: nothing

the first time

it started when rafe picked you up for a casual day out, only to find you carefully examining your nails in the passenger seat.

“ugh,” you groaned, holding out your hand to show him. “can you believe this? this nail tech totally botched this set. the gems aren’t even symmetrical.”

rafe glanced at your hand, blinking in confusion. “they look… fine to me?”

you shot him a glare. “fine? they’re crooked, rafe. i can’t be seen like this.”

“whatever, i’ll just go to my monthly nail tech next time,” you shook your head.

“monthly? as in, every month?” he asked, leaning in his car seat.

“of course,” you said, flipping your hair as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “you can’t just let them grow out, rafe. that’s tacky.”

you kissed his cheek and went to connect your phone with his car. he thought about at meticulously done french tips you just had done two weeks ago. if it makes you happy, right?

the second time

the first time he tried to make spontaneous plans with you was a disaster.

“hey, babe,” he said over the phone, “thinking we hit the beach today. i’ll be there in twenty.”

A horrified gasp escaped you. “twenty minutes? babe, no. i just had my hair done yesterday.”

“…and?”

“and? saltwater will ruin the toner!” you exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “do you even know how much a balayage costs?”

rafe didn’t know what a balayage was, but he learned quickly that your trips to the salon were not just occasional—they were events. events with price tags that could make a grown man cry. still, he couldn’t help but smirk as you swished your freshly done hair around dramatically during your next date

the third time

when you asked rafe to come shopping with you, he thought it’d be a quick errand—maybe one or two stores, tops. he quickly realized his mistake when you pulled him into the fifth boutique, arms already laden with bags.

two hours and three swiped credit cards later, rafe sat on a plush bench outside the fitting rooms, holding more bags than he could count.

“this season’s prada bag is finally in stock,” you announced, practically dragging him into the store. “and i need something new for dinner with my parents.”

“don’t you already have a closet full of clothes?” he teased as you rifled through racks.

“yes, but these are the new trends,” you said without looking up. “and besides, i need something for dinner this weekend.”

he laughed, shaking his head. “you already have a hundred dresses.”

“and yet none of them are right for this,” you said, holding up a sleek black gown.

“you buy new clothes every month?” he asked, watching as you tried on yet another dress.

“obviously,” you said, rolling your eyes. “what do you expect me to do, repeat outfits?”

rafe had never thought about it, but seeing how happy you looked with your fresh haul, he just laughed. “good thing i’m strong enough to carry all this,” he teased.

the fourth time

rafe was over at your place for a movie night when he spotted the lineup of perfume bottles on your dresser.

“do you seriously wear all of these?” he asked, picking one up.

“of course,” you said, settling onto the bed. “different occasions call for different scents. this one’s for daytime, that one’s for formal events, and this—” you pointed at another bottle, “—is my absolute favorite.”

rafe blinked. “you have a preference for perfumes?”

“well, duh. scent is everything. i buy a new one every season,” you say showing him a few. “like, this jimmy choo one is for summer, but this guess one is definitely for winter. but, the versace is for every season good.”

he squinted at the price tag on the one he was holding and let out a low whistle. “how often do you buy these?”

“whenever i run out or find a new one i love,” you said matter-of-factly.

rafe thought about his one bottle of cologne that he’d had for years and shook his head in disbelief. but when you leaned closer during the movie and he caught the faint scent of your perfume, he couldn’t deny that you always smelled amazing.

the fifth time

waking up groggy, rafe stumbled what your walk-in closet while looking for the bathroom. What greeted him was a wall of shoes—heels, sneakers, boots, all perfectly organized by color and style.

“jeez,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

“oh, you’re up!” you chirped, appearing behind him. “do you like it? i just added those Jimmy Choos last week.”

rafe turned to you, half-amused, half-shocked. “you have more shoes than i have shirts.”

you grinned, unabashed. “well, yeah. shoes complete the look.”

shaking his head, rafe pulled you into his arms. “you’re insane, you know that?” he said, though the affection in his voice betrayed him.

you smirked. “but you wouldn’t change a thing.”

he kissed your forehead. “not even if i wanted to.”

+1

sarah and john b were lounging in the living room, casually catching up with rafe and you. you were perched on the arm of rafe’s chair, fiddling with your phone, when sarah suddenly leaned forward and sniffed the air dramatically.

“wait,” she said, scrunching her nose slightly. “what perfume are you wearing? it smells… expensive.”

you barely looked up, but rafe beat you to it. without hesitation, he leaned back and said, “probably something from her summer collection. she switches them every season.”

sarah froze, staring at her brother like he’d just announced he was running for president. “her what?”

rafe nodded casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “yeah, she’s into, like, jimmy choo or victoria’s secret or whatever. smells good, right?”

john b raised an eyebrow, looking between you and rafe. “dude, you know all her perfume brands?”

he shrugged, smirking as he kissed your temple. “gotta stay on top of it, man.”

sarah exchanged a wide-eyed look with john b, but you just beamed at rafe, completely unfazed.

+2

rafe, topper, and kelcd were hanging out on the dock, beers in hand, waiting for you to finish getting ready for dinner. the two were deep in conversation about their latest antics when rafe’s phone buzzed.

he glanced at the message and smirked.

“she says she needs ten more minutes,” rafe said, pocketing his phone.

topper groaned. “bro, she takes forever. what’s even the holdup this time?”

“probably her nails,” rafe said nonchalantly, taking a sip of his beer. “she just got them done last week, and there’s no way she’s ruining them before dinner.”

kelce nearly spit out his drink. “what?”

topper leaned forward, eyes wide. “hold up—you know her nail schedule? and her hair appointments?”

“something to do with chrome nails, i dunno.”

“dude,” kelce finally said, breaking the silence. “you’re, like… domesticated.”

“and she’s got that fresh hair thing going on too,” he added, shrugging. “she just had an appointment like… two weeks ago? a balayage, she won’t let anything mess with it. saltwater, wind, whatever—she’s not about that life.”

topper and kelce stared at him like he’d grown a second head.

“what is a balgage?”

“no- a balayage.”

“how do you even know all that?” topper asked, baffled.

rafe frowned, genuinely confused by their reaction. “what do you mean? it’s just her routine. not that hard to keep track of.”

kelce laughed, shaking his head. “dude, you’ve got it bad. like, whipped bad.”

rafe rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the grin tugging at his lips. “maybe. but, hey, at least i get to date a princess.”

[city-of-ladies]

"Women could be found working on construction sites, if only occasionally, including in specialized roles such as carpenters and masons. The research is found in the article, “Appropriate to Her Sex?” Women’s Participation on the Construction Site in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” by Shelley E. Roff.

She surveyed a wide variety of records from throughout Western Europe, including tax records, inventories of wages paid on construction sites, and municipal accounts, and discovered numerous instances of women working alongside men on construction sites as far back at the 13th century. Most of these women were employed as day laborers, carrying out tasks such as moving water and building supplies around the sites, digging ditches and serving as assistants to bricklayers and stonemasons. For example, in the Spanish city of Seville during the 14th century, women were hired to dig trenches for the foundation of a new city wall, while at the nearby city of Toledo, one or two women were hired each day for the construction of the city’s cathedral, where they gathered lime and worked on the roof. Meanwhile in the French city of Toulouse, almost half the laborers working on the Perigord college site were women. Ross also finds several examples from England and Germany.

Roff notes that previous historians have seen many examples of women working on construction sites in their research, but they had believed that these were just abnormal exceptions caused by economic crises, or because the male population had been killed off through war or disease. But her new study suggests that women construction workers were more than just odd occurences. She explains that “the expansion of urban centers starting in the thirteenth century set off a trend of increasing female employment for day laborers and in the crafts, which only began to contract on occasion for women working in the crafts in the sixteenth century with ensuing economic crises.”

She also notes that in almost all accounts surveyed, the women were paid at a lower rate than the men, which would make the “a cost-effective solution” for site supervisors looking for ways to reduce expenses. The women who took these jobs would have come from society’s poor – those women who could not maintain their households and families just from their husbands’ (if they had one) income.

Roff also finds records showing women taking part in specialized building trades. In London in 1383, Katherine Lightfoot is recorded as the supplier of 2,000 painted tiles for bath in the King’s palace. Meanwhile, tax records from Paris during the years 1296 and 1313 reveal the existence of two female masons, a tiler and a plasterer. These women were not poorer individuals, rather they were the wives of male craftsman, and in some cases their widows. The 15th-century French writer Christine de Pizan noted in her book The Treasury of the City of Ladies that craftswomen, “should learn all the shop details so that she can properly supervise the workers when her husband is away or not paying attention.”

Women workers could be found on the medieval construction site, Medievalists.net

[donatellawritings]

Hiiiii mamacita!! Totally love your writing! Wondering if you’ve seen the trend of girls pranking their bfs by telling them they got waxed by a guy? I’ve already seen loads of fics about it so I was thinking maybe you could do a Rafe one but instead of the wax maybe she could say she got a massage from a dude? And like not even a prank but she went to the spa and actually got massaged by a guy but she thought it was totally innocent so she casually tells Rafe LOL he’d go ballistic

hi baby! omg this is actually so funny

rafe was completely aware about how serious you were about self-care - you loved being pampered and that was partly thanks to the lavish lifestyle that rafe had introduced to you. you got regular blowouts, fresh sets of cutesy acrylic nails, monthly facials, weekly shopping trips on the mainland - you were a spoiled princess through and through. rafe didn’t mind it though, you worked hard in school and never failed to be the devoted trophy girlfriend that he proudly sauntered around the island. so, when you told rafe that you’d be treating yourself and sarah to a spa day, he didn’t even bat an eyelash, only pressing his lips to yours as he slid his debit card into your purse and slapped your ass as you walked out of the front door.

it was a typical spa day for you, you’d bashfully talk about your days with rafe to your nail lady, while she engrossed you with details about her barging clients. the two of you exchanged bubbly laughs as you sipped on your mocktail, wearing nothing but the fluffy white robe that came complimentary with your spa visit. you were so involved with the relaxing environment that came with getting waited on hand and foot, that you didn’t even realize that your regular masseuse had been swapped out for a middle-aged man who had taken over her position.

now dressed in your figure-hugging, white lace-trimmed romper that rode up the plush curve of your ass, you strutted through the front door of tannyhill, chanel bag in-tow as you relished in your fluid and relaxed state. the exposed skin of your legs, thighs, arms, and chest glowed from the luxuriously creamy oils and lotions used on your skin, your face radiant from your facial as you raised your dior sunglasses to sit on top of your hair. “papi, i’m home,” you sang, placing your purse onto the couch, a low sigh leaving your lips as you reached to grab a glass from the top cabinet.

the thin fabric of your romper became wedged between your taut asscheeks as you stood on the tips of your freshly pedicured toes, a shriek coming from your lips as a harsh smack came down on your ass, “coño, raaafe,” you whined, your pained pout quickly subsiding into a smile as your boyfriend chuckles lightly, pushing his hand down against your spine, bending you over the counter.

rafe was shirtless, wearing nothing but his belted slacks and socks as he feigned a few thrusts into your clothed bottom, before leaning over to kiss the back of your head, “how was the spa, mama, y’got everything done?” he questioned, reaching over you to grab your glass, bringing it to the fridge to fill up with water.

with a smile, you nodded as you approached rafe, sliding your arms around his naked waist with a dreamy sigh, “yeah, i got my nails done, we went for a french manicure and pedicure,” you raised one of your hands to rafe’s eyesight, your eyes brightening with excitement as he kissed your knuckles in approval, “i got a facial, my eyebrows and lashes done, i got waxed,” you sang, earning an enticed hum from rafe as his eyebrows raised with peaked interest.

a giggle escaped your puffed lips as rafe’s hand slid down your back, before he gripped your plush ass, jiggling it a bit as he curved his finger into your wet taint, causing you to throw your head back with a dopey smile, “rafe, listen to me,” you whined playfully.

with a nod, your boyfriend motioned for you to continue as he brought the glass of water to his pink lips, “and i got a full body massage, they used this warm oil - ugh, it was amazing,” you mewled, dramatically leaning your forehead against rafe’s bare chest, “the masseuse was really good, i think he was new-” you continued, bringing your swollen lips together as rafe cocked his head to the side, completely unamused by your revelation.

“he? didn’t y’tell me that it was a girl who does your massages?” rafe quizzed, setting his glass in the sink as he pulled away from you, adjusting his signet ring to sit further on his finger, his jaw strained.

internally you slapped yourself - sure, you knew that the masseuse was only there to do his job, but rafe had made it a point that you were to only have a female masseuse, he wasn’t too keen on having some guy running his hands down your oiled body. now nervously toying with the laced hem of your romper, you bit down into your bottom lip.

“yeah, but she’s on leave sooo,” you stepped closer to rafe, batting your wispy lashes up at his cold eyes, sighing in defeat as he remained stoic, “look, i didn’t even know that they hired someone new, papi,” you squeaked, bringing one of your legs to snake around rafe’s waist as you pushed yourself one, wrapping your other leg around him as his hand instinctively held you up by your ass.

rafe rolled his eyes, unimpressed as he carried you, “y’not going there anymore, princess,” he decided, pecking a short kiss to your lips as you opened your mouth to speak, “m’serious, y’know how i feel about it so don’t fuckin’ ask me,” he confirmed, patting your ass as you let out an exaggerated whine against the skin of his neck.

“you’re so strict,” you spoke, your voice muffled and strained as rafe nodded, refusing to fall into your complaints while he craned his neck back, forcing your eyes to meet, “wait- what if i just let you do my massages, but i can keep going to the spa?” you beamed.

searching your eyes for any hidden intentions, rafe shrugged, “i will fuck you up if you get another massage from him, y’understand?” he warned, completely entranced by your doe eyes and plump lips, not missing the way your warm pussy strained against the fabric of your romper.

smacking a noisy and wet kiss to rafe’s lips, you nodded furiously, “i understand,” you hummed sweetly, letting out a soft moan as rafe suddenly let you drop a few inches, before catching your thighs with his large hand, causing your aching pussy to taste the perfect amount of friction against the crotch of your romper.

with lowly hung eyes, rafe swiftly placed you on top of the kitchen counter forcefully spreading your legs to reveal the sticky wet patch that sat right on your pussy. crouching to reach eye level with your wetness, rafe wordlessly pressed his tongue against the damp spot, allowing his spit to dampen the sweetly-tinged fabric of your romper before enclosing his warm mouth around your clothed-pussy in a sloppy kiss. overly sensitive from the brazilian wax, you sucked in a breath as you tried to close your legs around rafe’s face.

“don’t fuckin’ touch me,” he hummed, licking another long and slippery stripe up your covered pussy, sucking on the wet spot as he held your legs spread with a tight grip on both of your knees, “y’so fuckin’ wet, mama - fuck,” he moaned needily, leaning his face in closer to your pussy as you blissfully throw your head back with parted lips.

“fuck, papi, s’so sensitive,” you moaned, exhaling an uneven shudder of a breath as rafe pressed his tongue into your fabric covered hole, maintaining his strict grip on your wobbly knees as he swallowed your pussy in an open mouthed kiss. your eyes rolled back as your lashes fluttered closed, your tummy tightening with each drooling lick the rafe pressed to you, your freshly painted nails scratching against the smooth countertop, eager for any kind of sensation to ease the race of your incoming orgasm.

rafe's piercing eyes closed with bliss as he pulled your knees to rest over his shoulders, carefully carrying you to lay on the floor, his slick and hot tongue continuing to lap at you, a short laugh vibrating against your clothed clit at the sound of you yelping as your back hit the polished hardwood floor. with your legs now thrown over his broad shoulders, it was easy for rafe to dig his face deeper into you. softly sucking on your clit through the fabric of your glove-like romper, rafe opened his eyes, the sight of your perked nipples straining against the flimsy clothing egging him on just right.

"y'gonna cum all over yourself, mama?" he mocked, hastily spitting on your the area right above your throbbing clit, greedily watching as his spit dripped down between your puffy pussy, "shit," he groaned, returning his head between your legs as you let out a hoarse cry.

with a few more generous licks, your warm cum creamed through the fabric that clung to your pussy, leaving rafe in a cum drunk state as he sucked every drop possible, through your clothing. your eyes slowly opened, your pupils blown as your gaze met rafe's as he licked you selfishly, eager to drink you whole. your chest huffed in and out, your vision grainy as rafe finally pulled his handsome face from between your legs, his nose, lips, and chin shining from your cum and his spit. your plump lips parted as you took in rafe's messy state, before they expanded into a dazed smile.

grabbing rafe's face, you pulled him into a searing kiss, shamelessly sucking on his tongue, eager to taste yourself before pulling away with a 'pop'. the two of you lazily smiled at each other, both too fucked out without actually fucking to speak.

[saliosis]

happy halloweeen!! here's my take on a "core refresh" pack (part 6)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 + more under cut

frankie's fashion is very experimental. they like to explore themselves through what they wear since they're just learning things about the world. to symbolize their personality, they have a "quirky" style of fashion. mostly mismatched, mostly all over the place. there's not really a category for frankie's style... not that i can think of. they like to wear anything, honestly. dresses, suits, overalls, shirts, shorts, boots, heels. they're trying to figure out their style, so sometimes they'll incorporate some more colors. they like black and white, but they add teal in. yellow is another color added.

they don't wear real/natural silver because they've learned that this can harm their fellow monsters. any silver accessories they have is fake (painted grey, because that's a way to work around it)

they experiment with piercings

this was in my og design, but they have a huge patch over their left eye. it's plaid, so sometimes they try their best to match their outfits well enough for them to look aesthetically pleasing

likes patterns. stripes, plaid, etc. etc.

clawdeen's fashion is furry and bold. again, this is the fashionista of the school. she is the queen of fashion. again, she likes fur and animal print. whatever she chooses to wear is what usually sets the trends and expectations for those at monster high. she loves to explore herself though. i'd say her style evolves, but these are the main ideas of her fashion. she loves purple, but she also loves green. maybe has a french fashion inspiration? i don't really know how to label it. it's sort of mcbling, but also the style you'd expect of a very cunty aunt who likes shopping. she likes pants best, ngl. jeans are great. skirts are fine by her, she just loves pants.

i like the idea of clawdeen constantly changing up her style. yes, she can also wear something like her g3 outfits. much more coordinated. what i've displayed is the style that takes up most of her closet, tho

she wears glasses, but she has different pairs for each outfit

green is a color she loves so much but doesn't make use of it enough

the wolf family has a little emblem thing i've snuck onto each. it's a golden circle pendant with a small moon on the inside, two little bars holding up the design so it floats. it could also look like a money symbol... idk like coins. it's good luck. mostly for money manifesting and all. she runs with the gold and goes crazy. only gold, no bronze accessories. ever.

on days of the full moon, she will wear super loose clothing. the moon cycles could also impact her fashion choices.

draculaura's fashion is very iconic. a sort of gothy, classic, and romantic sort of look. i'd say she likes to take a spin on victorian styles and make them modern... while also mashing together those 2010s pink/black skull prints and tees that we all know and love. i really like the idea of her in a long dress that hits the floor. i would say she's romantic goth. she likes frills, long ball gowns, lace, and hats that can cover her from the sun whenever she has to travel outside in the daytime. lots of slip dresses if she wants to be more casual. elegance, but done cutely.

the silhouette of an outfit is what matters most to her when it comes to fashion

if she wears a skirt, she wears a big petticoat underneath. a very big petticoat

her parasol can be used interchangeably with a large hat. she always wants either or to match her outfit. and they are always kind of extra

her "victorian" style is a sort of nod to her immortality. she probably likes that fashion period best and likes to try and honor that

i like the idea of her experimenting with her hair. it was a g3 idea, kinda. but bangs, streaks, half and half, etc. i like to imagine draculaura being into the big goth hair

cleo's style is very similar to her g1 style. gold. blues. elegant, fresh, modern, and incredibly easy on the eyes. obviously, she loves to flaunt her designer clothing around school. and since she is so popular, it's expected for her to serve look after look. you will never ever see her look bad. every cleo portrayal i've seen never has enough mummy wrap. she needs it to survive and yet, she only has like, one or two bands on her arms. my cleo's fashion is all about wrap-themed clothing. she has lots of wraps. sometimes she comes up with ways to mix that or even show off her monster trait and heritage. she loves see-through, glittery material too, obviously paired on top of something. but it's glamourous. it's rich. it's sometimes a little 90s inspired, but mostly fresh.

this cleo loves pants. loose pants work, i suppose. but she likes them baggy. one of the best examples of what she likes to wear for pants would be those baggy pyramid-textued pants i designed for her once

gets custom made jewelry (braclets, earrings, etc) that spell out her name in hieroglyphics

likes shorter skirts, but secretly admires longer skirts ten times more

blue lover. any shade. try her. she will obviously mix around her makeup, nails, and hair to work around whatever blue she's feeling

loves gems. lots of gems. real ones, obviously.

doesn't like socks very much. she can literally just do the same thing socks do for feet with mummy wrap. same with stockings

[girlsdressingrooms]

Iris Barrel Apfel, Decorator and Fashion Stylist

(August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) 

Ms. Apfel was one of the most vivacious personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design, she has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic.

Her originality was typically revealed in her mixing of high and low fashions—Dior haute couture with flea market finds, nineteenth-century ecclesiastical vestments with Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers.

With remarkable panache and discernment, she combines colors, textures, and patterns without regard to period, provenance, and, ultimately, aesthetic conventions. Paradoxically, her richly layered combinations—even at their most extreme and baroque—project a boldly graphic modernity.

Iris Barrel was born on Aug. 29, 1921, in Astoria, Queens, the only child of Samuel Barrel, who owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye, who owned a fashion boutique.

She studied art history at New York University, then qualified to teach and did so briefly in Wisconsin before fleeing back to New York to work on Women's Wear Daily, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson, decorating apartments for resale and honing her talent for sourcing rare items before opening her own design firm. She was also an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

As a distinguished collector and authority on antique fabrics, Iris Apfel has consulted on numerous restoration projects that include work at the White House that spanned nine presidencies from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.

Along with her husband, Carl, she founded Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company and ran it until they retired in 1992. The Apfels specialized in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute assembled 82 ensembles and 300 accessories from her personal collection in 2005 in a show about her called “Rara Avis”.

Almost overnight, Ms. Apfel became an international celebrity of pop fashion.

Ms. Apfel was seen in a television commercial for the French car DS 3, became the face of the Australian fashion brand Blue Illusion, and began a collaboration with the start-up WiseWear. A year later, Mattel created a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll in her image. Last year, she appeared in a beauty campaign for makeup with Ciaté London.

Six years after the Met show she started her fashion line "Rara Avis" with the Home Shopping Network.

She was cover girl of Dazed and Confused, among many other publications, window display artist at Bergdorf Goodman, designer and design consultant, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Ms. Iris Apfel became a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in its Division of Textiles and Apparel, teaching about imagination, craft and tangible pleasures in a world of images.

 In 2018, she published “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon,” an autobiographical collection of musings, anecdotes and observations on life and style. 

Ms. Apfel’s apartments in New York and Palm Beach were full of furnishings and tchotchkes that might have come from a Luis Buñuel film: porcelain cats, plush toys, statuary, ornate vases, gilt mirrors, fake fruit, stuffed parrots, paintings by Velázquez and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a mannequin on an ostrich.

The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Ms. Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

Ms. Apfel’s work had a universal quality, It’s was a trend.

Rest in Power !

[rainedragon]

Mini Lolita Fashion History Lesson: MILK

Today, MILK is generally known as an 'otome' or 'girly' brand, and many of their modern items don't look like what modern lolita think of as lolita.

A recent MILK collection However, in the late 80s and early 90s, MILK was considered to be one of the quintessential Lolita brands.

1990s lolita wearing MILK In a 1994 zipper interview about the history of lolita fashion the brand representative for MILK states "I think what is now called lolita fashion is the fashion that milk has been making for a long time."

MILK was founded in 1970 by Hitomi Okawa (大川ひとみ). When Hitomi Okawa started as a designer there were not many DC brands yet and ready to wear fashion was really just starting to become more widespread in Japan. Okawa attended an art university in Kyoto because of a love of drawing that started in elementary school. She used to draw illustrations of girls and make things like paper dolls. At the age of 11, she drew many pictures of the same clothes and changed the patterns (polka dots, checks, flowers). She grew up the daughter of a doctor, in an affluent home where her mother would read magazines like Harper's Bazaar with 1950s and 1960s American fashion. She also looked at American fashion catalogs as a child, and cites this study of clothing in magazines and catalogs as her earliest sort of "studying" of fashion. 

50s/60s Harper's Bazaar In addition to drawing inspiration from the 50s & 60s Harper's Bazaar & American clothing catalogs, she also drew inspiration from military uniforms and how they have custom buttons and custom fabric and details like that, as well as current trends in London and Tokyo as the brand continued to develop. When she started however, she says that she was the only one making this sort of cute girly clothing in Japan and she felt like she had to make it because no one else was making what she wanted to wear.

50s/60s Harper's Bazaar

After graduating from Seian College of Art and Design, Department of Design, she started MILK in Harajuku. She wanted to start in the coolest place possible, so she decided on Central Apartment.

MILK Shop Front in the 70s, Central Apartment

She had come to Harajuku when she was either in High School or her first year of University and had stood in the middle of the pedestrian bridge right off Harajuku station, and she looked down at Omotesando and thought "Here is the coolest place, I want to be here!", and that's why she chose that location. The Bridge doesn't exist any more, it was torn down in 2011. She wasn't aware at the time that Central Apartment was a popular place for creators, she just thought that street was nice and that Central Apartment was modern and cool. In a 2021 interview she confessed that she sometimes still goes up to the pedestrian bridge on the Yoyogi Park side and looks at Omotesando, and when she does, she feels the same way she did when she was 20 years old.

Central Apartment (原宿セントラルアパート) was initially an apartment complex built in Harajuku in 1958 at the intersection of Meiji-dori. It was initially built for special international travelers like US military personnel. In the mid 1960s/early 1970s, the lower floors were converted into stores with offices in the upper apartment floors.

The Coffee shop Leon on the first floor was a popular spot with creative people. There were also shops like Mademoiselle Nonnon launched by designer Taro Aramaki which sold French style clothing and lots of horizontal stripes. Mademoiselle Nonnon is considered to be the source of the border (horizontal stripe) trend in Japan.

Initially, "MILK", was expensive and unrealistic for everyday wear, so it was mainly used as a stage costume for idols, however, people started wearing Milk as everyday clothing as time went on.

MILK also experimented with a Bridal line in the 70s as well.

While their runway looks were generally a bit more loud than the way the pieces would have been worn in real life, you can see some prairie revival influence their early 70s items as well as some silhouettes in the '76 collection that are starting to look more lolita-esque.

Here are a few runway examples from the 1980s, note the border print of a carousel in the 1988 collection and the knee length ruffled skirt in the 1982 one.

By the early 1990s, MILK was heavily featured in coordinates worn by young women who considered themselves lolita in magazines like Cutie and Zipper, and was also advertising in those magazines.

1990-1992 Cutie advertisements for MILK

Early 1990s looks from MILK were fairly consistent with what was on offer from similar shops like PRETTY and Shirley Temple.

MILK Coordinates from Nene magazine, 1995

Speaking of Shirley Temple, the founder of Shirley Temple, Rei Yanagawa (柳川れい), worked as a designer for MILK before starting the Shirley Temple children's brand in 1974.

As time went on, lolita fashion started to diverge from the MILK style, while MILK followed their own design concept and look more at current trends in girly fashion. Today, some iconic MILK items like their heart purse are still frequently used in lolita fashion, however, it would be difficult to walk into MILK today and put together a coordinate that would read the same as one made from items at Angelic Pretty.

While goth and punk brands typically have no issue relating themselves to goth or punk fashion, brands popular with lolita have sometimes resisted self-describing themselves as lolita, most likely in an attempt to not alienate non lolita customers, due to lolita fashion having a mixed reputation. MILK, like many other Japanese brands, especially DC brands, maintains that they make MILK style, even though their influence on what we call lolita fashion today, is unmistakable.

Past Posts: Olive Girls

[phantomsofmyformerself]

modern day madeleine headcanons

claudia in modern day

wears a lot of her own designs, dresses a lot more casual than claudia but still dresses up fancy often, last picture if claudia and madeleine in each other's signature colours like they do occasionally (ie. madeleine's shirt in the trial), does tend to keep an eye on human fashion trends, but doesn't necessarily follow them

like I said in the claudia post, madeleine is still a dressmaker but she doesn't have a shop anymore. instead she works from home and uses connections she's made across time to get customers that she ships the dresses to. whilst travelling, they both make sure to visit local designers as madeleine loves learning the different techniques across cultures.

she keeps in touch with louis, having a phone with his number in like claudia does, and she visits him with claudia now and then. she met lestat once and decided she hates him. lestat still tends to try to talk to madeleine via the telepathy occasionally to keep tabs on claudia. i can imagine daniel and her would get on, also talking telepathically sometimes.

like she told armand she would do, she kills in a very 'survival of the fittest' method. she's a very ruthless killer like claudia and does not feel guilt about killing like louis.

she never really goes back to paris as neither her or claudia like the city, but they do enjoy staying in french speaking countries

[kkanabel]

caffeine addiction - chapter 8 Bakugou Katsuki x Reader / Coffee Shop! AU

directory/m.list

⇦ previous chapter - next chapter ⇨

words: ~3.8k

warnings: depictions of alc*hol abuse, mentions of death, mentions of drugs/drug use (?) idk yall, light angst

Your aunt was an interesting character. Kindeki Takumi, at the age of 27, decided to take over her late sister’s boutique shortly after she passed. The boutique was simple. It offered retail: high-quality clothes (from other manufacturers) and some complimentary tailoring services. 

After about a year, when Takumi got bored of repeating the same process of waking up, selling clothes, and occasionally tailoring them, she decided that it was time to expand the business. She rented out the place next door and started selling her own designs. Seeking to learn more about garment creation, she attended classes and fashion shows, inadvertently gaining relationships and knowledge in the luxury fashion industry. 

She’s visited almost every major city in the world to learn about their cultures, taking inspiration for her designs. This woman learned English, French, Italian, and Mandarin simply by visiting these countries to learn more about their individual fashions and therefore has friends around the world. These friends of hers only served to expand her business, as her fashion house grew alongside her popularity with others.

In only 19 years, she created a luxury fashion house worth almost 1 billion yen (~7M USD). Those in the industry call her both a creative and technical genius. The Kindeki brand as a whole is known for its efficient and beautiful designs. And it made sense– Kindeki Takumi centered her brand around who she was as a person. 

However, she wasn’t the only person who turned the brand into what it is today. Along with the inheritance of her sister’s boutique, she also found herself suddenly having to look over a three-year-old girl. 

Her sister’s husband was completely destroyed by his wife’s death. Takumi would go over to their house, only to see him drowning himself in vodka and his own tears, the house a complete mess. His three-year-old would be peacefully napping on the couch, fully unaware of her father breaking down next to her. When she woke up, her dad would cease his sobbing only to take care of the toddler, giving her weak smiles as his daughter kept asking where her mother went. 

After seeing the state that her brother-in-law was in, Takumi decided to help take care of the toddler so that he could take his time to properly mourn the love of his life. She recognized the new need for a mother figure in her niece’s life and tried her hardest to play the role so that her late sister wouldn’t have to worry in the world beyond. She wiped her tears away as she thought about it.

Kindeki Takumi brought the little girl to the boutique, a place the girl was already familiar with. These were the toughest days for Takumi, a woman completely new to parenting. The little girl ran around, playing with the clothes and messing up displays before Takumi was able to teach her to leave it be. She’d start crying and demanding to see her mother after Takumi tearily explained to her that her mom was gone . During these days, the young woman would hold her dear niece close as they both quietly wept in each other’s arms. 

However, things got easier as time passed.

By the time she turned six, the little girl was spending every weekend at the boutique, helping her aunt with the store– counting the till, taking inventory, and even setting up displays and mannequins. Around this point, Takumi started designing her own clothing– the process eased because her niece was able to mostly take care of herself. 

Sales were also easier. Sometimes, customers would be endeared to the smart little girl showing off clothes to them, telling them about the fabric blends and the trending styles for the new season. 

At the cashier, Takumi would be sketching her new designs. It was common for her to hear something along the lines of “I highee recommen this shirt. It is very cute wight now. Jennifuh Annison wore a dress just like dis on the carpet last week!” coming from her niece’s enthusiastic voice while the customer would giggle at her cuteness for a moment before agreeing with the little girl. Sometimes, the girl would want to try doing the sales portion in place of her aunt. She always looked up to her aunt, so she wanted to try it too. Somehow, it was a great sales tactic.

“Also, also! This design wight here will give the iwwusion of your waist looking smaller, if that’s what you like. Personawy, I think it’s da best we hab in our bootique right now! Da quality is unmatched!” The little girl’s voice was so cute, and her huge dedication to getting the sale was so adorable. People in the area talked about that one boutique with the six-year-old girl who’s amazing at sales . 

Takumi would teach the girl how to sew during these weekends, letting her see every single process of designing. After starting elementary school, she would come to the boutique after her classes with a notebook filled with the history of certain countries or different religions in bad handwriting. She’d cut out photos from tourist magazines and paste them all over her notebook, showing them to her aunt enthusiastically. 

She heard her aunt talking about “getting inspiration” from random places occasionally, so the girl wanted to give her aunt as much inspiration as possible. Frankly, though, the girl still didn’t really know what “inspiration” was. She just knew that it made her auntie happy, so she kept trying to give it to her.

Takumi’s first fashion show was dedicated to her niece, who showed her photos of certain regions in Morocco and their traditional clothing. This small presentation from niece to aunt was mostly filled with photos of Moroccan food, but it still encouraged Takumi to do some more research on Moroccan culture. The line ended up being highly influenced by traditional Moroccan culture and their ancient architecture from the Roman Empire. The accents of the pieces were all created in patterns that are typically on Moroccan pottery and plates. The dresses were tiered, showing the influence of the last-standing monarchial government in Northern Africa, and were designed in a way that showcased the highly migrative and colonizer-riddled history of the area. This was the line that caused Takumi’s brand to achieve notoriety, gaining investors and interest in the brand.

While the little girl’s initial interest was only in running the boutique (because she liked showing off her aunt’s designs to the customers), she later started to gain interest in creating designs of her own. While waiting for customers to come in, she’d be sketching in her notebook. Slowly, the girl was becoming more and more involved in the design of Kindeki’s pieces. In about a decade and a half, she’d be creating essentially half of the next fashion show. 

And this little girl is sitting in a café with her aunt, legs crossed as she waits for her drink to come out. 

The Marrochino

The Marrochino (pronounced mah-ro-kee-no) is typically served in a small glass and consists of a shot of espresso, chocolate syrup/sauce, cocoa powder, and milk froth. In Alba, Italy (the home of the Italian chocolate giant Ferrero), Nutella is used in place of the chocolate sauce. The name Marocchino, which is Italian for “Morroccan”, is derived from its color. Moroccan Leather was a type of light brown, high-quality leather commonly used in the 1930s.

While the drink is similar to the commonly-known Caffé Mocha, it does not have whipped cream and contains less milk, allowing you to fully taste the deeper flavors of the espresso along with the decadence of chocolate. Those who are fans of chocolate will love this caffeinated beverage. 

As the chocolate sauce is at the bottom, the Marrochino is served alongside a spoon, as it is essential to mix up the drink before enjoying. If you’d like something chocolaty with a caffeinated boost, the Marrochino is perfect for you!

This woman is the full definition–the essence– of the “rich and crazy aunt”, and you couldn’t wish for anything more. 

Today, you were wearing something a little more dressy than usual for your date with your aunt. Your stocking-covered legs were crossed, and a white linen napkin was placed on your lap. The café you were at was really fancy– it looked to be like some sort of upscale brunch place that doubled as a café. So, you wore a dark grey dress shirt (that was literally a dress) that was from your aunt’s brand. It had long sleeves that were cuffed at your wrists, and there was a cut-out heart detail, showing the bare skin on your sternum. This cut-out detail was framed by its massively exaggerated collar that added lots of drama to the whole look– it was a regular collar at the top, but the bottom of the collar was stretched out to frame your chest. 

You paired it with a black belt with eyelets and a very dramatic pair of black platform heels. The dress shirt alongside the accessories made you look classy, but also a little edgy. It was a great look on you. You felt confident walking through the streets today with your Masaki bag, watching as people gave you the “oh shit, it’s an attractive person but I can’t look too long or else it’s rude” look. 

Across from you was your aunt, who was still looking through the menu. She was always so indecisive, but she’d normally end up on the same dish anyway. When she sighed and put the menu down, you gave her a look. “Eggs benedict again?”

She nodded, defeatedly. 

The waiter came out to give you and your aunt your marocchinos and then asked for your order. “One Croque Madame and one Italian Eggs Benedict, please. Oh, and could you get me another one of these Marocchinos?” You glanced at your aunt to make sure it was the right order, and she nodded. 

When the Marocchino came out, it was much smaller than you expected. It looked like only one shot of espresso. Even though you were trying to take a break from caffeine today, it just feels wrong to have such a small amount of coffee…

Your aunt highly recommended this specific drink to you at this café. She said she had bought a scary amount of them in the past month. You watched as she picked up the small, ornate spoon with her well-manicured hands to stir up the layers of the drink in the small glass. 

Copying her, you took a sip of the drink at the same time she did. Pretty good. Lots of chocolate. 

“The espresso at the café where Bakugou-kun works is way better,” you said, taking another sip of the drink. “Still pretty good, though.”

Your aunt raised an eyebrow at you. She was wearing a white blazer that was draped around her shoulders over a black frilly mesh blouse (which was your design) and a pair of Kindeki sweatpants. She still looked extremely classy. “Hm, does his café serve marocchinos?” 

You thought about it for a moment, downing the rest of the drink. “I don’t think so. Maybe I should ask him to make one for me. To be honest, I haven’t tried many of his other drinks other than the americanos and such.”

The older woman across from you shook her head in disappointment. “Well, we’re going to be around his café a lot more, so you should go ahead and ask him. Maybe get some coffee from his place before opening the boutique.”

You hummed in agreement, sitting back on your chair. Your aunt was opening up a boutique right next to Bakugou’s café, and you were going to work there on some days to make some extra money. The area was one she was eyeing for quite a while. It wasn’t the busiest of places like her store in Shibuya or Ginza, but the sights of Mt. Fuji in Shizuoka were something your aunt wanted to be close by. It seems this time, her main inspiration is going to be Japanese attractions. 

She wasn’t opening this boutique for profit. It was so that she could have an excuse to spend more time in Shizuoka. It was a plus, especially since Masaki mostly operated from Shizuoka, and the collaboration between the two brands would last for quite a while. 

After the food came out, you and your aunt were discussing ideas and plans for the collaboration. You decided that tomorrow morning, you’d head over to his café for a cup. 

Bakugou’s eyes widened just a smidge when he saw you enter his café at the buttcrack of dawn. Bakugou was so angry yesterday, but he felt all of his morning anger melt away as soon as he saw your sleepy face. You were wearing a turtleneck under a massive Kindeki sweatshirt and sweatpants, and you looked like you were massively hungover. Either way, your bookbag was still strung across one of your shoulders. Your hair was looking like a bird’s nest that was just raided by a fox trying to eat bird eggs. How were you supposed to detangle that? But somehow, it made Bakugou’s cheeks burn . 

“Mornin’, Bakugou-kun. Can I get a large iced americano and a large peach lemonade?” You had your card out, ready to pay, but he didn’t even cast you a second glance as he wordlessly started making the drinks. You stood there, confused, with your card still in your hand. Your sleep-deprived mind couldn’t process this action. Three or four hours of sleep can’t give you enough brain functioning for you to calculate your next actions. 

So, you were frozen at the spot until he was finished making the drinks. He went back to the cashier to give you your drinks while you were still standing there, card in-hand. Bakugou stared at you for a moment and then blinked. You blinked back.

“J-Just take it,” he managed, taking a step away from you to make sure you didn’t hand your card to him. It seemed like he forgot about payment, and just started making you your drinks on autopilot. But to you, it seemed like he was giving you the drinks because he knew you.

You tilted your head in confusion. “But wait-” you stepped closer to the counter, raising your card out to him.

“No.” He said, pushing the drinks closer to you and then going to the back. 

You didn’t know what to do. You didn’t have cash on you, and you didn’t know his Venmo or anything. You cursed yourself for being such a 21st-century girl. Why did you have to be so technologically advanced?! And why is he so stubborn?!

You’re going to bring cash next time. 

So you take your drinks and sit down at your favorite table, taking a huge swig of the Americano before getting straight to work, tossing your extremely heavy bookbag onto the seat next to you, and pulling out your laptop, aggressively typing in your password. You had a couple assignments to do today because you put all of them off for a week. They’re due tonight. It’s time to fucking grind.

That was the last thing you remembered before you jolted awake when you heard the “ding!” of the café door opening, notifying a customer coming in for their morning cup of coffee. Your head was on your keyboard. 

You slowly sat up, and you saw that you’d drooled a bit on your keyboard. You took a closer look at your laptop’s monitor and realized that you’d been sleeping on the “,” key the entire time. There were about forty pages of just commas repeated in Times New Roman font. “How long have I been asleep for?!” You thought, panicked. 

You looked around the café and saw Bakugou glancing at you after he handed the new customer their drink. He gave you a nod in acknowledgment, and your entire body froze.

“Fuck, I need to do my work,” you whispered to yourself, tearing your eyes away from his gaze. His gaze somehow tore you out of your daze. You drank the rest of your americano and quickly deleted the forty pages of commas before continuing your assignment. 

After a couple hours, you finally finished all of your assignments that were due for the day, and you sighed in relief. It’s time to get to designing. You pulled up the group chat for the brand collaboration and caught up with every single text left by the members of the chat to make sure you were on the right track for everything. 

Turns out, Masaru and your aunt were getting really obsessed with gothic French architecture and the whole dark academia aesthetic. You thought to yourself for a moment. “Hm, that’s basically me.” You looked down at your clothes and then shook the thought away. “Nah, right now, I’m more of a bum academia aesthetic… or druggie academia.”

You were a fan. You’ve been into that aesthetic recently, having Pinterest boards filled with “dark academia” photos. Actually, right now, the hella attractive guy sitting at the cashier is looking perfectly like the aesthetic. 

Bakugou’s wearing a white button-up underneath a dark brown v-neck sweater that looks suspiciously like your aunt’s brand with the sleeves rolled up, exposing his beautiful forearms. The beige slacks he wears are cuffed at the bottom, and he’s wearing a pair of dress shoes to go with the whole ensemble. Why does he always look so well-dressed? Fuck, you look like a homeless man in comparison. But you didn’t care much. He’s seen you in much worse states.

That reminded you that you should probably start looking presentable for the day. it’s around 10 am, so it’s time for you to start looking normal. Since you knew Bakugou at this point, you quickly asked him a favor to look over your stuff. After hearing him grumble out a “sure,” you rushed to your car to make sure he wouldn’t be watching your stuff for too long. 

You quickly changed into your outfit for the day– reusing the turtleneck from your current outfit but layering atop an oversized flannel and tucking it into a corduroy miniskirt from one of your aunt’s collections. You had on leggings underneath your sweatpants to keep yourself from freezing to death, so you just put the skirt over the leggings. You quickly pulled your hair into some semblance of a braid and aggressively slapped concealer onto your face. Then, the finishing touch– a pair of blue-light glasses for the “I read poetry while sipping on English tea and I’m better than you” look. 

You then ran back to the café. This all happened in less than six minutes. You timed it. You were way too sleepy in the mornings to get ready, and you were content with just being in your pajamas for the first portion of the day. You really wanted to be comfortable for the moments you were torturing yourself.

So, you go back into the café and quickly thank Bakugou for looking over your stuff. He was in the middle of drinking water, but as soon as you came in, he started choking. You opened up your Google Drive filled with mood boards and photos of gothic French buildings, grabbed your sketchbook from your bookbag, and plopped your laptop and sketchbook in front of Bakugou. “What do you think about these?”

He blinked. That all happened in such a short span of time that he was confused.

You looked at him expectantly before quickly apologizing. “Oh, crap. Will your boss be okay with this? Maybe I shouldn’t have thought we could work on it while you were worki-”

Bakugou furrowed his brows. “Boss?”

You looked back at him. “What?”

“I don’t have a fuckin’ boss.”

“Wait, then who owns this café-” and then your jaw dropped. “You own this place!?”

He nodded at you, a crooked smirk starting to form on his lips. You thought he wasn’t the owner?

“That’s so cool! I had no clue– I just thought you were some rich kid who was forced to start working here because of your parents!” You said, incredulously, as your hand raised up to cover your mouth. You were so surprised.

He started cackling. “Pffft, how the hell else would I be able to make you so many free drinks?”

Your face started heating up. “I- I just thought you were paying for it or something…”

He looked to the side, still shaking a little bit from laughter. “Well, I technically still am… but that shit doesn’t matter. Lemme see.” 

You were across from him at the counter perpendicular to the cashier, making sure that you didn’t get in the way of any of his customers. He looked through your sketches and the inspiration for them and nodded in approval. “Wouldn’t it be better if ya made the silhouette like this?” he offered in a gravelly voice, grabbing his sketchbook from under the cashier to quickly draw it out for you.

Your eyes brightened. This man was going to be fun to work with. “That’s perfect!” You made your edits to the sketch and then started showing him the rest of your ideas.

Bakugou was pretty distracted, though. He kept looking at your lips while you were explaining the details to him, so he kept reminding himself to focus on the fucking topic at hand. He didn’t know you looked so attractive while sketching something. Fuck. 

After about an hour of talking to him about designs and you telling him about French architecture and its history and how it came to be, you pulled up a chair to the counter, and you two were lost in conversation before some more people came into the café. He left to get to the cashier for a moment, getting back to his work. In your peripherals, you saw a couple people looking at you strangely. Then, you realized.

It’s probably weird as fuck that you’re some rando sitting by the counter and talking to Bakugou like this. Does it make him look unprofessional? What if less people come to his café because of this? They must think he’s just talking to a friend in the middle of working! After all, you’re just sitting by the counter with a shitton of papers strewn about the place. Also, it feels kinda weird just watching him work while you’re a sitting duck.

Trapped in your thoughts, you didn’t notice Bakugou getting back to you by the counter. The two of you quickly got back to work, but you couldn’t shake the weird looks you got. It’s probably not a good idea to be working with him like this while he’s operating the café… but you decided to finish working with him for the day before you could do something about it.

So, the next day, you entered his café with a determined look. 

“G’ mornin’. An americano and peach lemonade?” He was standing, so he looked down at your dead-set eyes. He was already tapping your order into the register.

You cleared your throat. “Actually…”

He looked back up at you with an eyebrow raised in question.

You looked straight into his red eyes. “Are you hiring?”

directory/m.list

⇦ previous chapter - next chapter ⇨

[murfpersonalblog]

I have been thinking about Louis and him being a vampire capitalist means he has to stay connected with humanity. To know art and reality trends means he cannot sever his ties.

I love this @deepalienstudentshepherd.

It really gets to the spindly roots of Louis' unique approach to vampirism, through his approach to what being human is or even means & works--for him.

"Him being a vampire capitalist means he has to stay connected with humanity."

And this is why I roll my eyes when Lestat talks, cuz he swears that vampires are oh-so-removed from humanity, and so above worldly attachments--oh, look at those silly mortals, all they ever think about is Food, Sex & Home. As if Lestat isn't the walking talking incarnation of hedonistic hyperfixations on Food ("and then there was the food"--the MEAT); and Sex ("we can have an orgy; you can F**K them, I can EAT them~!"); and Home ("I am your family, Louis").

Either as a capitalist, artist, butcher, baker, candlestick-maker--or ROCK STAR--vampires doing anything humans do (and passing as humans) naturally requires staying connected with humanity. You have to KNOW your audience; know what makes them tick. We always clown on companies being out of touch, cuz if no one's buying you ain't selling!

"To know art and reality trends means he cannot sever his ties."

And what's sad is that Louis experimented with art via photography, cuz it called to him, and he does have an eye for it--Louis is, after all, very fashionable & stylish; we see it in Ep1 when he gives Lestat a makeover & helps furbish the townhouse & design Claudia's bedroom & dress her; "it's chiffon, it has movement~!" But at the end of the day, Louis realizes & has to accept that he's NOT an artist; that's not his calling. He doesn't have the patience for photography, and what's worse; he can't connect with human muses if he himself cannot be around humans when they're living their DAY-to-DAY lives--cuz he's a nocturnal vampire. (TBH I'd love to see him take another crack at it with modern technology; around modern nightlife.)

But you know what Louis IS good at? What he's always had a real knack for? And what he's much smarter & savvier about? BUSINESS.

The unique thing about Louis is that unlike so many of AR's Old World vampires, who either lived during antiquity (Akasha, the Twins, Seth, Cyril, Teskhamen, Marius, Pandora, Mael, etc), or frikkin ye olde medieval/rennaisance times (Thorne, Armand, Gabrielle, Lestat, Nikki); Louis is a MODERN vampire. book!Louis was born in France and came to the Americas as a colonizer, but AMC!Lou was BORN in the New World. Like anyone, Louis is a product of his environment; and that shapes what drives & motivates him; as his vampirism/capitalism is all wrapped up in how he existed as a human.

The DPDLs lived lavishly in their mansion--land that used to be a slaveowning sugar plantation--waited on by Black servants; giving hefty donations to the biggest White church (vehicles of imperialism & colonialism--"Gold, God, and Glory"); gaining who knows how much money that had been seeded and fertilized by nothing but the exploitation of Black men & women--slavery & prostitution both.

Louis' character is defined by his vampirism--even before he's ever made a vampire. Vampires are predacious parasitical leeches. They are voracious insatiable carnivorous bottomless pits that just eateateat; consuming but never being fulfilled--Hungry Ghosts.

Of course Louis would be attracted to real estate (HOMES); since buying, selling & developing property is in his French White ancestors' colonial settler drug-addicting sugar-growing plantation-owning blood (FOOD). When his father up & died and Lou inherited the DPDL estate, Louis HAD to learn how to successfully run land & shops & people; so he could keep his bougie AF family afloat.

When he ran Storyville, he owned multiple businesses, not just brothels, and was apparently a very good landlord. (Ironically, we also know how quick Louis is to evict a mofo & take their deed--just ask Antoinette, Lestat & Armand! XD) Of course Louis would turn from making art to selling art as an art dealer--Louis is fashionable, and he knows what people like, even if he himself can't produce or even mimic it (like Santiago, Armand, Marius, & Lestat can). We saw Mr. "Fire Escape" Louis flex his skills with the Alderman's racist lawyer dabbling in effery in 1x3; and when Lou renovated the old-timey Fairplay and made it the slicker hipper & more popular Art Deco-themed Azalea.

Louis built a microcosm of the Savage Garden at the Azalea; a tiny corner of hedonistic paradise (full of "hookers, hooch, and cards"), where men could live out their fantasies (SEX). He inspired Armand to even conceptualize Night Island--as Armand realized he needed a better/another companion to teach him about modernity, technology, treasure-hunting, etc. And together, they lived in the neo-capitalist hellscape of Dubai for who knows how long--I wouldn't be surprised if they had a direct hand in its vampiric development.

Louis' character is also defined by his delusional hypocrisy; always tryna justify his place in the world (and the space he wastes/takes up) by tryna do "good" things, to balance out the evil.

During Jim Crow, so many Black people suffered under socio-economic inequality & oppression--even Black folk lighter-skinned than Lou, as seen with Bricktop, Lily, and even BBass!Claudia; all living in the worst slums of Storyville; deriving not a single drop of privilege/benefits their mixed/white ancestry might've given them in better circumstances; other than the dubious Pretty Privilege that made them sexually exploitable as prostitutes, etc.

book/show!Lou's a HUGE exploiter; not just as a slaveowner/pimp, but also as a father; using Claudia to boost his ego and save his marriage. Lou FAILED at being a father, cuz he couldn't relate/connect to the wants & needs of a growing girl/woman past his own self-centered aims. And Lou FAILED at being an artist, cuz he couldn't relate/connect with the human(ist) soul; and rage-quit cuz of his hurt pride/ego, rather than paying attention to what the art deal was saying (albeit condescendingly).

The one thing Lou took pride in that he was actually good at was his status as a businessman/capitalist--exploiting/relying on middle-men to produce/create things for him to buy & sell at a profit. (His failures as a businessman in NOLA were solely cuz of racist white men & the Ordinances that shut down Storyville.) At the end of the day, know thyself, and capitalize on one's strengths. So that's what he did. And cuz capitalism is evil AF, as a vampire, he's pretty good at it, LOL.

[mariacallous]

There are human activities in which both sides can win. War is not one of them. Either Ukraine wins this war or Russia does. Ukraine’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says bluntly that unless the current trajectory is changed, “we will lose this war”.

To be clear: this is still avoidable. Suppose the roughly four-fifths of Ukrainian territory still controlled by Kyiv gets military commitments from the west strong enough to deter any further Russian advances, secure large-scale investment in economic reconstruction, encourage Ukrainians to return from abroad to rebuild their country, and allow for stable, pro-European politics and reform. In five years, the country joins the EU, and then, under a new US administration, starts the process of entering Nato. Most of Ukraine becomes a sovereign, independent, free country, firmly anchored in the west.

The loss of a large amount of territory, the suffering of at least 3.5 million Ukrainians living under Russian occupation and the toll of dead, maimed and traumatised would amount to a terrible cost. This would not be the complete victory Ukrainians have hoped for and deserve; but it would still be a victory for Ukraine and a historic defeat for Russia. A majority of Ukrainians could come to see it as such. In polling the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) has shared with me in advance, Ukrainians are asked if to end the war they could (albeit with difficulty) accept the combination of economic reconstruction and EU and Nato membership for the current territory. In just the past six months, the proportion saying yes has jumped from 47% to 64%.

However, to get to this outcome with Donald Trump in the White House would require a European coalition-of-the-willing to make security commitments of a size and boldness not seen so far. There’s a growing understanding of this among European leaders, but the democratic politics in most European countries are miles away from empowering them to do it. To try to persuade Europeans to support the necessary policies, but also to understand the consequences if – as seems most likely – they don’t do so in time, the question we have to ask is: what if Russia wins?

If Russia wins, we should realistically expect the following consequences for Ukraine, Europe, the United States and world peace. Ukraine would be defeated, divided, demoralised and depopulated. The money would not come in to reconstruct the country; instead, another wave of people would leave it. The politics would become rancorous, with a strong anti-western trend. New possibilities for Russian disinformation and political destabilisation would emerge. Necessary reforms would stall, and hence also progress towards EU membership.

Europe as a whole would see an escalation of the hybrid war that Russia is already waging against it, still largely unnoticed by most blithely Christmas-shopping west Europeans. Not a week passes without some incident: a Russian destroyer fires a flare at a German military helicopter; there are exploding DHL packages, sabotage on the French railways, an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned business in east London; undersea cables in the Baltic Sea are cut; there’s a credible death threat to a top German arms manufacturer. Not all can definitely be traced back to Moscow, but many can.

Full spectrum hybrid warfare includes election interference. In Georgia, the election was rigged. In the Moldovan EU referendum, about 9% of the votes were directly bought by Russia, according to the president, Maia Sandu. In Romania, the first round of the presidential election will be re-run, because a court found large-scale violation of campaigning rules on TikTok. “Ah, that’s eastern Europe!” cries the complacent Christmas shopper in Madrid, Rome or Düsseldorf. But the head of Germany’s domestic security service recently warned that Russia will try to interfere in next February’s German general election, which is hardly marginal to the future of Europe.

This week we saw Vladimir Putin again supremely confident in his annual end-of-year marathon press conference cum Call-the-Tsar phone-in, despite the recent Ukrainian assassination of his WMD general. His is now a war economy, dependent on military production for sustaining growth, and a dictatorship defined by confrontation with the west. It would be beyond naive to hope that diplomacy can achieve some magical moment when Putin’s Russia will suddenly become “satisfied” with an outcome in Ukraine, and return to peacetime business as usual. When Nato planners say we should be ready for possible Russian aggression against Nato territory by 2029, they are not simply peddling horror stories so as to increase military budgets.

Maga voters in the United States may say “well, what’s all that to us? You Europeans look after yourselves! We have to worry about China”. But Russia is now working more closely than ever with China, North Korea and Iran. Putin may be indicted by the international criminal court, but he still travels half the world as a welcome guest. He himself has talked of a new “global majority” and “the formation of a completely new world order”. In that new order, war and territorial conquest are entirely acceptable instruments of policy, on a continuum with poisoning, sabotage, disinformation and election interference. Victory for Russia in Ukraine will encourage China to step up its pressure on Taiwan and North Korea its needling of South Korea.

That brings us to the most serious consequence of all: nuclear proliferation. Remember that Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994, in return for security assurances from the US, the UK and Russia – and then got hammered by one of the powers that promised it security. In the latest KIIS polling, 73% of Ukrainians support Ukraine “restoring nuclear weapons”. Remarkably, 46% say they would do so even if the west imposed sanctions and stopped aid. In effect, Ukrainians are saying to the west: if you won’t defend us, we’ll [expletive deleted] do it ourselves. On recent visits to Ukraine I’ve been told several times, “It’s Nato or nukes!” But this is not just about Ukraine. Vulnerable countries around the world, also looking at what is happening in the Middle East, will draw the same conclusion. The more countries – and possibly non-state actors – acquire nuclear weapons, the more certain it is that one day they will be used.

In the German election, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been shamelessly and shamefully trying to exploit the fear of nuclear war for electoral advantage over his chief rival, the Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz. In fact, it is precisely the consequences of the west’s self-deterrence for fear of Russian nuclear escalation in Ukraine, personified by Scholz and skilfully exploited by Putin, that are increasing the likelihood of nuclear proliferation and therefore the long-term risk of nuclear war.

The conclusion is clear, and depressingly familiar. European democracies’ reluctance to pay a high price now means that the world will pay an even higher price later.

[sammymeraki]

1920s

1920s Fashion

For our third fashion history lesson, we studied the 1920s and Art Deco. The 1920s was an incredible decade that changed fashion as we know it. Skirt lengths shortened and women were finally liberated from the dreaded corset. The silhouette became more rectangular, undergarments were abandoned and women showed no cleavage. However, the waist was still aparent at the start of the decade.

By 1923, the waist had dropped, women became more flat chested and embroydery was heavy and glamorous. Fabrics such as sheer and chiffron were used (see through fabrics).

La Garconne

French for the bachelor girl, this word was used as a derogatory word by the elderly and a complement by the young. It was used to describe rebellious, tom boys with short hair and who wore men's clothing. They took part in pre-marital sex and other 'rebellious' activities.

By 1924, trousers were boudoir attire. For example, Paul Poiret's satin pajamas.

During this time, women began to reapply their makeup in public. This wouldn't have been allowed 20 years prior.

Despite the liberation of the corset, some women still used them to make their busts look flat. This was achieved by the freedom corset.

Menswear

The Prince of Wales became the 'it boy' for men's fashion. He was an idol, making fair Isle knits fashionable, and others such as: loose fitting tailoring 'bum freezer'; white flannel trousers and blazers; checkards; stripes; plaid. In 1925, the Oxford stripes became the trending trousers type. Loose fitting that had an average size of 40 inches! Despite the change of fashion from formal to casual, evening wear for men was still black tie and tails.

Lucian Lelong 1889-1958

Known as the man who saved Paris, Lelong stopped Hitler from moving Haute Cauture to Germany during the Second World War. Born into a family of designers, Lelong started a fashion business. He was a very smart business acumen. Unfortunately, he had to go to war. But once the war was over, he came right back into the fashion business. His business flourished with 1200 staff. Lelong was influenced by sport, due to this his designed are associated with fluidity. His dressmaking became engineering; he was a great innovator. Not to mention his 40 fagrances.

He developed the talent of up and coming designers, for example, Christian Dior. And in 1948, after nearly 30 years, Lelong closed his house for good.

Jean Patou 1887-1936

Not only a business man but also a ladies man. The two things Patou loved was women and business. That much so, he opened a dress shop after the First World War. He named it the House of Patou and got his family to work for him. Patou was inspired alot by Russian and Eastern influence, including his love of fur. He brought mens fabric into womens sportswear; similar to Coco Chanel. Patou saw trends like cubism and art decor, so used these in his work. Jean Patou did many iconic and unique things, such as; the first person to brand his work; brought over American models to work for him; created the most expensive perfume at the time, using 10600 jasmine flowers and 336 roses; created mens silk ties from biased cutting waste.

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (Coco Chanel) 1882-1971

Chanel did not start off wealthy, she was poor and didn't like her background. However, she lived a good life, despite the fact her mum died when she was 6. She lived and grew up in a nunnery making hats. Chanel was the first designer to create womens jersey taken from men's underwear. She paved her way into fashion by using sex and her sexuality. Her house was established at 31 ru cambon in 1909. At the time, Chanel No.5 was one of the best selling fragrances in the world! And the interlocking 'C's are the most famous fashion logo.

Art Deco

The Art Deco period is a movement in the decorative arts and architecture, originating in the 1920s in France after the First World War. It was developed into a major style in western Europe and United States during the 1930s. It was graphic, strong patterning with rich Egyptian colours; exoctic. For example:

Hoover factory, London 1932-1935

Chrysler building NYC.

An example of an Art Deco artist was Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

[goetiae]

The Ouija board is a spiritual and magical tool from the 1890s with a long and complicated history. It has long since been treated as one of the most popular and most commercialized methods of communication with the dead, though this is not the only means of its usage: throughout its time of existence, the Ouija board has been used to solve mysteries and justify committing crimes.

The first commercial advertisements for the Ouija board appeared in the beginning of the 1890s: in 1891, a Pittsburgh toy and novelty shop published an advertisement about the board. The publication stated that the Ouija board answered questions "about the past, present and future with marvelous accuracy", could be used by those of any social class, and provided connection "between the known and unknown, the material and immaterial."

However, the Ouija board goes back to an earlier time period. It can be traced back to the Spiritualist movement that reached America in the middle of the 19th century, following a trend set by Europeans a long while prior. In 1848, the Fox sisters made an appearance, claiming that they received messages from the dead. As the board did not exist yet, the spirits still used a technique called rapping - they would allegedly tap on the walls to answer questions of the mediums.

Spiritualism in America quickly grew, aided by numerous spiritualists coming forth to the national press to share their experiences; the second half of the 19th century became the peak of it. Its popularity was not affected by the prominent religiousness of the population. One could be a spiritualist and a Christian at the same time. It was also rather selective in its adepts as claims were often spread about particular temperaments being more suited for spiritualist seances; alongside specific atmospheric, mental, and physical conditions. There was much basis for criticism and much unknown. The movement offered solace to those who lost the loved ones due to disease or wars of the difficult century. It reached as high as the White House with Mary Todd Lincoln practicing seances to contact her son.

With the growth of the spiritualist movement came the need for better, faster methods of communication; rapping was becoming obsolete. The Kennard Novelty Company from Chestertown, Maryland, was the first to respond to the popular demand and set up a manufactured production of the Ouija board in 1886.

Initially recorded in Ohio by the Associated Press, the talking board quickly fell into Charles Kennard's focus of attention. He and other investors set up a company in 1890 to produce and market the new talking boards. None of them were spiritualists, merely keen businessmen.

The name "Ouija" was not invented yet at the time. Despite common misconception, it is not a combination of the French and German words for yes. Robert Murch, a Ouija historian, considers Helen Bond, sister of one of the company's investors Elijah Bond, to be the source of the name. It is claimed that "Ouija" was a name given by the board during one of the seances when asked what they should call it. It is alleged that in order to receive a patent for the production of the talking board, Bond had to demonstrate its abilities. A patent officer requested that his name is to be spelled, accurately, with the help of the board; when that was granted, Bond and Co were permitted a patent to their "toy or game" - it happened in the year 1891.

In 1892, the company was renamed into the Ouija Novelty Company with its former employee William Fuld in control. Him and his brother Isaac initially worked together, but in 1901 Isaac Fuld & Brother's agreement was void and William received exclusive rights to produce the Ouija. Legal feuds led to the two brothers bringing the issue to court where William Fuld Manufacturing Company received an injunction against Isaac, prohibiting him from manufacturing the boards. Interestingly, and eerily enough, he never claimed to have ties with the invention of the board - and died from a fall off the roof of the very same company the board "told him" to build (1919 Baltimore Sun).

The Ouija board was met with enthusiasm by the general public. The murder of Joseph Burton Elwell, a well-known NYC gambler, attracted spiritualists in 1920s who attempted to solve it with the help of the board. In 1921, a Chicago woman was attributed to a psychiatric hospital: she was claiming that "the spirits" told her to leave her deceased mother's body in the living room for two weeks before burying her in the backyard. In 1930, two women in Buffalo, New York, murdered another woman, supposedly encouraged by the talking board. In 1958, a will of a deceased Mrs. Helen Dow Peck made the news as she left an insane $152,000 to a bodiless spirit she encountered through the Ouija.

One of the most popular cases regarding the use of the Ouija board refers to a housewife named Mrs. Curran, from St. Louis, who claimed to be speaking with a spirit of a 17th century lady called Patience Worth that passed down messages to her. It was published about in the New York Tribune in 1919. The case was taken in with much critical acclaim, the psychologists working with Mrs. Curran claiming that the spirit must have never been a real person; but the apparent difference in its intelligence as compared to Mrs. Curran must denote a degree of "subconscious" thinking.

Objects of similar properties to the Ouija board have been present in different cultures since long ago. In China, for example, there were fuji (扶乩/扶箕) boards for planchette writing that are most commonly cited to be one of the inspirations for the modern day talking boards.

After the invention of the talking board, many others followed. in 1900, George Foster Pearson invented the Cablegraph, a horseshoe magnet for spirit communication - but it was made out of wood and the creator still claimed it to attract spiritual activity. This board and earlier homemade inventions of a similar kind were titled dial boards and were practically rotating discs manipulated by the medium or the spirit.

The mysterious Spirit Planchette rose to popularity fast and steadily: it was spoken of in the press and in multitudes of books released in the 20th century. One of such books, Looking Into The Future by Will Goldston (1906), speaks of "the planchette" with much enthusiasm. It is interestingly marked that it isn't for everyone that the Planchette would write or even move - a convenient notion indeed.

The Cablegraph, or Wander Board, was said to be used at, ideally, evening hours with the person sitting down in front of it and using their fingers, which are to be "magnetized" through the help of another or without it. Then, using one's judgement of the spirit's intention, they are to rotate the disc. The concept relied on the idea of "magnetism" inherent to some humans - and, of course, possessed different degrees of reliability.

Another invention to resemble the Ouija board came forth at around the same time: created by Hudson Tuttle, it was a circle on a cardboard base with a dial attached to it so it would rotate to spell out messages. The invention was meant to be a cheap alternative for those who could not affort a proper spiritual tool from one of the bigger manufacturers. The tool was called the Psychograph by the creator himself, though, unfortunately, not many survived to our day.

Prior to the invention of the Psychograph and other similar boards, a table was a common tool used for spirit communication. Participants of seances were seated around the table, which, once the spirit was called upon, tilted in order to rap the leg against the floor. The number of taps means yes, no, or doubtful. An alphabet held up over the board could be used for more complicated questions. In 1853, a Spiritual Telegraph was invented: a round dial with a needle to point between letters.

Robert Hare, a chemistry professor, initially wished to expose table-tipping seances as a fraud but fell a believer into spiritualism himself. In 1885, he released a book Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations in which he detailed on the methods he used to prevent mediums from tricking participants of seances. Those included obstructing the mediums' line of sight, adding weights to the spiritual tools, and more. After those tests, Hare invented a Spiritoscope and presented it as a new tool to contact the spirits of the dead. Due to his obvious acceptance of the spiritualist movement, he was refused by the academia but readily welcomed into the spiritual circles: his tools flourished.

In Europe, similar devices to Hare's Spiritoscope were created in 1860s. Allan Kardec, the father of French Spiritism, invented Pytho or the Thought Reader - a variation of a dial pointer board. Little is known about the history behind similar objects in England but early patents for "spirit boards" survive. The popularity of a dial planchette never rose up to that of the Ouija board, but there are some similar devices scattered across the ages: Leonardi Studios' 1966 Phantom Wheel, Milton Bradley's 1895 Genii, Telepathic Spirit Communicator from Britain, and more.

[torahoes]

(IDOLiSH7) Touma Inumaru - VD Winter Date Rabbit Chat: Part 2 - Touma's Eating Habits

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Tsumugi Takanashi: Inumaru-san, good work today! Thank you so much for the chocolate muffins you brought earlier!

Tsumugi Takanashi: I had one right away and it was incredibly delicious!

Touma Inumaru: Takanashi-san, good work! I'm glad you liked the muffins.

Touma Inumaru: It’s nothing much, just a little thank-you for lending me your phone the other day!

Tsumugi Takanashi: Oh you didn’t have to! But thank you so much...!

Tsumugi Takanashi: I’ve been curious about the muffins from this store, so I’m really happy! They taste great, of course, but the little bear cookies on top are just so adorable... > <

Touma Inumaru: Yeah, that’s Haru for you.

Touma Inumaru: I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I asked him for advice and we decided on these.

Tsumugi Takanashi: Oh, I see! I’ll make sure to thank Isumi-san as well!

Tsumugi Takanashi:

Touma Inumaru: Students really are always on top of trends. It's kind of amazing.

Touma Inumaru: I looked it up and there’s only one store in Japan, but it’s popular overseas, right?

Tsumugi Takanashi: Yes! The muffins became popular because the main character of a popular overseas drama is often seen eating them. The store just recently opened in Japan.

Touma Inumaru: You seem to know a lot about it as well, Takanashi-san.

Touma Inumaru: Haru told me a bunch of other things too, but the shop's name sounded like some kind of code so I couldn’t remember it at all LOL

Tsumugi Takanashi: Sweets shops often have names in French or other unfamiliar languages, so it can indeed be tough to remember...!

Touma Inumaru: Exactly. When I kept asking him to repeat the name, he was like "What are you, an old man?" and told me off. It was brutal LOL

Touma Inumaru: I know a lot about ramen shops and diners, but I’m not familiar with trendy places that girls would like.

Touma Inumaru: I knew asking Haru was the right call! I was a bit hesitant about relying on Mina and Tora.

Tsumugi Takanashi: I appreciate your thoughtfulness...!

Touma Inumaru: Don't mention it! Those guys don’t seem to know much about what girls typically like anyway.

Tsumugi Takanashi: Is that so…!

1) What is Natsume-san knowledgeable about?

Touma Inumaru: He doesn’t seem like he visits trendy places, but I'm pretty sure he knows a lot about ramen shops. He might even know more than I do.

2) What is Mido-san knowledgeable about?

Touma Inumaru: He’s pretty knowledgeable about places that girls would enjoy. However, the places he goes to seem very upscale, and I feel like it would take a lot of courage to even enter them, so I didn’t ask him.

3) What are you knowledgeable about, Inumaru-san?

Touma Inumaru: Family restaurants, diners, burger joints, and Chinese takeout spots, I guess. I’m not at all familiar with places girls would like LOL

Touma Inumaru: I considered asking you directly, but I remembered Riku told me you like sweets.

Tsumugi Takanashi: Thank you so much for putting so much thought into this!

Tsumugi Takanashi: I do really love sweets, but I also enjoy ramen!

Touma Inumaru: Seriously?

Tsumugi Takanashi: Yes!

Tsumugi Takanashi: When I need to grab a quick lunch between work, ramen is fast and delicious, so it’s very convenient!

Touma Inumaru: Do you go alone during those breaks?

Tsumugi Takanashi: Sometimes I go with the staff, but I usually go alone.

Tsumugi Takanashi: There are a lot of affordable and delicious places near the TV station, so it’s fun to find hidden gems...

Touma Inumaru: Oh, I know right!

Touma Inumaru: I’ve been to almost every chain restaurant and diner near the TV station, so I’m thinking of exploring new places.

Tsumugi Takanashi: In that case, have you heard of the place in the basement of a small building right after you turn right at the signal from the back entrance of the TV station? There’s a family-run Chinese restaurant there.

Touma Inumaru: I don’t think I know that one!

Tsumugi Takanashi: They have a wide variety of xiaolongbao and seasonal dishes, not to mention their yurinchi (fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce) from their set meals menu is delicious!

Tsumugi Takanashi: If you'd like, shall I send you the location?

Touma Inumaru: Is that okay with you?

Tsumugi Takanashi:

Touma Inumaru: Thanks! I’ll definitely check it out next time!

Tsumugi Takanashi: Please do!

Touma Inumaru: You’re surprisingly the type that's okay with doing things on your own, Takanashi-san. That’s kinda unexpected.

Tsumugi Takanashi: Unexpected?

Touma Inumaru: You didn't seem like the type that would go to ramen shops alone, I guess. But you’re pretty tough.

Tsumugi Takanashi: I’ve never thought about it, but I suppose I might have gotten tougher because of this job lol

Touma Inumaru: Well, managing seven male idols isn’t an easy task so it makes sense.

Tsumugi Takanashi: I’m still inexperienced, so I rely on everyone a lot. But I’ve been working out lately to build up my strength so I can do more on my own!

Touma Inumaru: Being a manager is a physically demanding job, after all. I think you're very dependable!

End of Part 2.

[l3viat8an]

Can you do one where reader just spoils asmo. Like taking them on dates buying clothes for them. Basically fluff I think it would be really cute if asmo got really sentimental because he's being treated as a person instead of the avatar of lust

Fluff!!! Getting your nails done and some shopping with Asmo!-

Ofc, ofc! There’s more then one way to spoil a demon~! and I’m mixing theses two asks a bit because yea- lots of shopping with Asmo & some teasing! Ignore any typos I’m dyslexic as fuck- sorry

First things, first going to get your nails done at one of Asmo’s favorite little nail salons!

They always treated you and Asmo like royalty (which you basically are in hell lol), getting matching sets of baby pink french tips for Asmo’s birthday!

The demon himself insisted on picking the style and color, something simple and cute!

Laughing and making small talk the whole time with the salon tech as she works and she even joins in on a few of Asmo’s party stories, telling you a few embarrassing tidbits about the demon as he blushes and tries to shush her “Don’t tell MC that!” “But you looked so cute with your head in a punch bowl! You blew up on devilgram if I remember right.” She stops to think for a moment, “Oh! That’s right! Top meme of 1820!! I still see a few of the old ones my nieces and nephews send me.” Asmo groans and would hide his face in his hands if she wasn’t in the middle of painting his nails. You raise one eyebrow and look over at him, “Top meme?” “Don’t!! I’ll show you pictures from that night where I actually look good but forget about that one!” “Alright, alright.” You’ll just have to ask Satan or Mammon about it later-

You and the nail tech giggle at Asmo’s protest and start talking about other stuff, a few of the models currently trending on devilgram, Asmo’s upcoming party and so on. Stuff the demon was more than happy to chat about, mixed with some gossip.

When your nails are done and you move to pay she stops you. “I can’t change you on his birthday. Besides, it’s been ages since I’ve seen him laugh so….” She trails off for a moment looking for the right word “Well, genuinely. You always bring out a special side of Asmodeus. I wish others could see more often.” it’s your turn to protest and you tell her you didn’t do anything special and he’d have a cow if he thought you’d gotten a discount/cheated her out of money and she laughs, “Don’t worry I’ll still give you the recipe. I just won’t take your money.” you try to convince her one more time, but as you start too, you feel arms wrap around your middle and a quick kiss on the cheek “Almost ready sweetie~?” Asmo had caught up and was ready to go-

The tech smiled again, and gave you one last wink. Handing you a fake receipt and telling you to have a good day and continue treating Asmo~!

————————————————————————

Next up taking him clothes shopping! Not that either of you needed new clothes but it’s his birthday and you want to spoil him! “Oh!!” Asmo squealed walking down the racks and racks of clothes and picking out outfit, after outfit. Some for him to try on and some for you~!

After picking out ten or twivlve outfit Asmo dragged you back to the fitting rooms and pushed you into the biggest one, following right behind “Oooh~ cozy.” Asmo giggles turning away and starting to strip and try on his first outfit, “Come on sweetie! No need to be shy it’s just you and me~” he teases seeing you haven’t moved from your corner yet. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about, Asmo.” Your own voice is light and teasing but, he looks at you dead serious for a moment, “I’m not going to try anything. I’m honestly having fun just hanging out with you~” and he turns back to his mirror and start, putting on his first outfit. You just stare at his back for a minute, before shaking your head as if to clear it and starting to try on your own outfit.

You try on all the outfits, a few are only Asmo’s style, sure you look cute but he’s the one who looks gorgeous. and a few are more your style! For every outfit he picked Asmo found a complimentary / matching one for you or him. Snapping a few selfies in the outfits he loved and giving a “Meh” face at the ones he didn’t. It was fun, Asmo had little compliments for all your outfits and everytime you tried to compliment him he’d giggle and give you a little kiss on the kiss or nose. Just small little drops of affection before trying on the next outfit. Eventually you had 3 outfits each and made you way out of the try on room and towards the counter to pay passing several more displays, you stop for a moment and grab two hats. They’re fairly plan looking baseball caps, but both have “Bad bitch” embroidered in pink across the front and the idea of getting Asmo to wear one makes you laugh.

Reaching the checkout counter a few steps behind him, you can’t exactly hide the hats from Asmo, and he raises one eyebrow in question, “Needed a hat?” you shake your head “No, but I wanted something to wear right away and I wanted to match with you.”

Asmo blushes but laughs, asking the cashier to leave the hats out of your bags and even puts yours on for you, then quickly putting on his own. “There! Now everyone will know we match.” and breaking into a fit of giggles.

————————————————————————

After paying for your new outfits and putying on your new hats it’s off to your next stop! But this time Asmo’s leading, half dragging you through the Devildom side streets until you get to some small shop that looks much smaller compared to the others. The little shop sign is crooked and a little faded.

You can’t imagine this being somewhere Asmo would shop. It’s so different then, the big stores like Majolish. “Ahh, Asmo? Is this the right place?” You ask as he reaches for the doorknob “Yes! We’re here just for you~” and he leads you inside.

It’s a quiet little shop with only one salesperson at a little corner absolutely full of cosmetics and empty makeup pallets. “Amaymon! We’re here for MC’s appointment!” Asmo chirps happily, still holding your hand and helping you into a seat at the counter, Amaymon gives you a small smile, looking over your face carefully. Almost as if he’s inspecting you, “Hello, MC. Asmodeus, told me you’ve been interested in makeup.” You nod, it’s true. You had asked Asmo if he could give you some pointers. But you didn’t expect to go to a different demon- “Good. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to give you classes or anything. No, I’ll leave all that to Asmodeus. I’m simply going to match your skin tone and create a makeup pallet with you and a few things Asmodeus told me about you.” “Oh. Is that all?” You ask, still a little confused. but Asmo’s still beaming next to you, so you feel safe. “That is all.” Amaymon says, before going completely quiet.

He grabs a few things here and there moving much faster then, you expected. He grabs small bottles of what look like concealer and foundation, although you don’t ask. Mixing them, occasionally looking over at you before going back to his work.

Asmo watches for awhile before looking around the little shop, he grabs a few new lipsticks off of a different counter and even calls you over to help him pick out some eyeshadow, “We can try all of that’s together when we get home! Now what we really need is a few dark reds or maybe a blueberry-ish shade…” Asmo looks at your face and grabs a few more things, explaining how the colors might look a little bright but he can tone them down or how they’ll bring out your eyes. He just seems so happy, getting to spend time with you and it makes you smile!-

A small cough interrupts your thoughts as, Amaymon has apparently finished. A rather large box is now sitting on the counter with your name written on a little note at the top “Oh, perfect!” Asmo claps his hands and tells Amaymon to add the other stuff you picked out to the total and add it to Asmo’s tap. Amaymon nods as he bags up the other items. “I hope you enjoy your new makeup MC. Don’t let Asmodeus go too overboard on your makeover.” Asmo laughs as he grabs your hand in his and the bags in the other “Amaymon! You know me~ I just can’t help myself.” you laugh and squeeze Asmo’s hand as you both leave the shop and head home.

That night Asmo does your makeup and after much whining and pouting convinces you to do his. It’s not the best, but you’re still learning!! His lipstick is a little smudged and the eyeliner is crooked, but Asmo loves it he takes so many pictures of both you and himself even posting them on devilgram with “Best birthday ever <3” in the caption.

[b4mpyre-k1zz3s]

can u make one about maybe telling bam you’re pregnant??😭🙏

Y/N Tells Bam She’s Pregnant HCs!

Bam Margera X Fem!Reader

Warnings: None!

An: Thank you for the request!! I’ve noticed a trend recently with a lot of baby related requests XD Bam has a tendency to get carried away with whatever he gets into, so I don’t think raising a child would be any different!

Bam doesn’t know what to say

I mean, what man does when his girlfriend tell him she’s pregnant?

“Wow. Wow. I mean…wow.”

He stumbles over his words for like a solid minute in disbelief before asking if you’re really sure it’s his

When you tell him that yes, not only is it his but you also want to keep it, the only thing he can can come up with is,

“A-awesome…?”

The thing is, despite his usual antics, Bam can be a pretty sentimental guy, especially when it comes to you, so even though you thought it was sorted and done, he was still processing it

Until that evening you caught him playing some skateboarding video game in the living room after all his buddies went home

He doesn’t notice you standing behind the corner, so it’s totally genuine when he passes the game and sits back with this sorta bewildered smile on his face.

And he murmurs to nobody in particular, “I’m gonna be a dad.”

The following months were filled with Bam tending to your every need

Sure, you liked it when he made sure the castle was stocked with your favorite foods or massaged your feet, but it was a little excessive

You waited until week three of breakfast in bed to say anything. Digging your fork into the fluffy French toast your boyfriend told you he made but you could obviously tell it was April’s cooking, you laughed, “You know, you could really ease up on it. I’m pregnant, not dying!”

Still, he wasn’t discouraged

One day, Bam surprised you with a custom baby inside he got made- black with a hot pink heartagram on it

He held it up proudly, “He’s gonna look so awesome in this!”

When you asked how he knew it would be a boy, he said it was just father’s intuition

“Plus, if it’s a girl, it’s got pink on it!” Well he had a point.

Don’t even get me started on names

You know he would suggest Ville, and there’s no way in hell you would benaming your baby after some Finnish rock star your boyfriend was obsessed with

And when you go shopping for baby stuff Bam insists on trying everything out

Even if they don’t offer samples of baby food, he will be asking for them because,

“Our kid deserves the best, Y/N! If I wouldn’t eat it, he’s not gonna eat it either.”

Evidently, he didn’t like anything he tried expect those puffed rice snacks so he bought as many as he could fit in his arms (and he will 100% eat them all before the baby is actually born)

The soon to arrive baby was giving Bam a bit of a crisis of conscious

You assumed the whole wearing a tie with his usual blazer and t-shirt combination was some Avril Lagvine fashion thing

And you didn’t mind him spending fewer nights out at the bar with his buddies and the decrease in trips to the ER

But when he brings up selling the lambo for a ‘more reasonable car’, you put your hands on his shoulders and took a deep breath

“Bam, I love you, but there is no way in hell I’m letting you sell that car.”

That’s when your boyfriend admits to you that he has no idea what he’s doing

You could tell

[maaarine]

Bibliography: articles posted on this blog in 2024

Posted in January

Men Just Don’t Trust Women – And It’s A Huge Problem (Damon Young, Huffington Post, Mar 16 2015)

Amsterdam sex workers protest against plan to move red light district (The Guardian, Oct 19 2023)

They were Israel’s ‘eyes on the border’ - but their Hamas warnings went unheard (Alice Cuddy, BBC News, Jan 15 2024)

The Heteronormativity Theory of Low Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men (Sari M. van Anders, Debby Herbenick, Lori A. Brotto, Emily A. Harris, and Sara B. Chadwick, Aug 23 2021)

A new global gender divide is emerging (John Burn-Murdoch, Financial Times, Jan 26 2024)

The secret of OnlyFans: It’s much more than porn (Marta Biino and Madeline Berg, Business Insider, Jan 18 2024)

—

Posted in February

Half of Spanish men feel discriminated against amid feminism backlash (James Badcock, The Telegraph, Jan 16 2024)

Parisians vote in favour of tripling parking costs for SUVs (Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, Feb 04 2024)

Ireland kickstarts vote on constitution’s wording about women and family (Rory Carroll, The Guardian, Jan 25 2024)

Divorce rates plummet to lowest level in 50 years ‘due to cost-of-living crisis’ (Kieran Kelly, LBC, Feb 22 2024)

—

Posted in March

‘There are some really extreme views’: young people face onslaught of misogyny online (Clea Skopeliti, The Guardian, March 01 2024)

Johnson: Why men interrupt (The Economist, Jul 10 2014)

France makes abortion a constitutional right in historic Versailles vote (Kim Willsher, The Guardian, March 04 2024)

‘My self-worth plummeted every month’: the hidden disorder that can ruin women’s lives (Chloe Aslett, The Guardian, Oct 16 2023)

The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same (Kyle Chayka, The Guardian, Jan 16 2024)

DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest (Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, March 18 2024)

Finland is world’s happiest country for 7th year while US drops out of top 20 (France 24, March 20 2024)

Swedish pharmacy bans sale of anti-ageing skincare to children (Miranda Bryant, The Guardian, March 20 2024)

Women are being diagnosed with ADHD at unprecedented rates. Here’s why. (Kaelyn Lynch, National Geographic, Jan 16 2024)

5 Takeaways From an Investigation Into Hysterectomies in India’s Sugar Industry (Megha Rajagopalan, The New York Times, March 24 2024)

English Just ‘Badly Pronounced French’, Paris Academic Says (Tom Barfield, Barron’s, March 09 2024)

—

Posted in April

Why are women more prone to long Covid? (David Cox, The Guardian, June 13 2021)

French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris (Carlton Reid, Forbes, April 06 2024)

Long Covid may be the body trying to fight off other viruses (Sarah Knapton, The Telegraph, April 08 2024)

The Troubling Trend in Teenage Sex (Peggy Orenstein, The New York Times, April 12 2024)

Sydney knifeman who targeted women ‘was desperate for a girlfriend’ (Andrea Hamblin, The Telegraph, April 15 2024)

Revealed: Israel has sped up settlement-building in East Jerusalem since Gaza war began (Jason Burke, The Guardian, April 17 2024)

‘I was only a child’: Greenlandic women tell of trauma of forced contraception (Miranda Bryant, The Guardian, March 29 2024)

Hormones and their Interaction with the Pain Experience (Katy Vincent and Irene Tracey, 2008)

—

Posted in May

Study suggests injury risk varies in menstrual cycle (Katie Gornall, BBC News, May 01 2024)

‘Urination equality’: Amsterdam women win fight for more public toilets (Ashifa Kassam, The Guardian, April 29 2024)

You can want things you don’t like and like things you don’t want (Shayla Love, Psyche, May 07 2024)

‘A new abyss’: Gaza and the hundred years’ war on Palestine (Rashid Khalidi, The Guardian, April 11 2024)

The important link between eating disorders and past trauma (Giulia Suro, Psyche, May 14 2024)

Hostile Intelligence: Reflections from a Visit to the West Bank (David Graeber, 2015)

—

Posted in June

AfD: How Germany’s far right won over young voters (Hans Pfeifer, Deutsche Welle, June 10 2024)

—

Posted in July

Coloniser le sud du Liban ? Un fantasme d'Israéliens messianiques à prendre au sérieux (Ha'Aretz via Courrier International, 3 juillet 2024)

Tampons found to contain concerning levels of arsenic and lead in world first study (Vishwam Sankaran, The Independent, July 10 2024)

South Korea politician blames women for rising male suicides (Jean Mackenzie, BBC, July 9 2024)

“Violence against women a ‘national emergency’ in England and Wales, police say (Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, July 23 2024)

—

Posted in August

Menopause was a French invention at a time of revolution (Alison M Downham Moore, Psyche, July 30 2024)

Misogyny to be treated as extremism by UK government (Helen Catt and Charlotte Rose, BBC, Aug 18 2024)

—

Posted in September

What Is Synaptic Pruning? (Jacquelyn Cafasso, Healthline, Sep 18 2018)

‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public (Annie Kelly and Zahra Joya, The Guardian, Aug 26 2024)

Elon Musk suggests support for replacing democracy with government of ‘high-status males’ (Ariana Baio, The Independent, Sep 03 2024)

‘Not our tradition’: calls in Sweden to ban fathers walking brides down the aisle (Miranda Bryant, The Guardian, Aug 31 2024)

Olympic runner Cheptegei defied her violent ex. She lost her life anyway (Ammu Kannampilly, Reuters, Sep 14 2024)

—

Posted in October

The outside world knows Wim Hof as the eccentric Iceman. His family suffered domestic violence (Anneke Stoffelen and Robert van de Griend, De Volkskrant, Sep 28 2024)

The mothers who regret having kids: ‘I wished I were holding a cat and not a baby’ (Adrienne Matei, The Guardian, Sep 26 2024)

At a Loss for Words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers (Emily Hanford, Amp Reports, Aug 22 2019)

Vu d’Allemagne. Le procès Pelicot, une honte pour tous les hommes (Leo Klimm, Der Spiegel via Courrier International, Oct 10 2024)

These Two Rape Cases Are a Lot Closer to Home Than We Like to Admit (Elizabeth Spiers, The New York Times, Sep 22 2024)

How The Netherlands Built a Biking Utopia (Michael Thomas, Distilled, March 09 2023)

It’s not just Trump v Harris: America’s men and women are also locked in battle now (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, Sep 27 2024)

Violences routières : « Plus on adhère aux stéréotypes masculins, plus on est enclin à prendre des risques sur la route » (Olivier Razemon, Le Monde, Oct 25 2024)

You Might Not Recover from Burnout. Ever. (Devon Price, Oct 25 2024)

—

Posted in November

Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Here’s the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)

Russia bans ‘child-free propaganda’ to try to boost birth rate (Reuters, Nov 12 2024)

My PMDD hell: why I went abroad to have my ovaries removed (Sarah Gillespie, The Times, Nov 27 2024)

—

Posted in December

Feeling nothing can be as devastating as feeling too much (Christopher J Hopwood, Psyche, Dec 12 2024)

Al helps scholars read scroll buried when Vesuvius erupted in AD79 (Ian Sample, The Guardian, Feb 5 2024)

‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine (Megan Twohey and Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, The New York Times, Dec 21 2024)

Telegram ‘rape chat groups’ with up to 70,000 members uncovered (Jörg Luyken, The Telegraph, Dec 19 2024)

Dreams of jewellery, phones and makeup: how young Iraqi girls are lured into marriage (Zainab al-Mashat and Maria Talal and Hala Abdullah, The Guardian, Nov 22 2024)