Once Upon A Frill recap
11/08/2026
Hello friends! As promised in my last blog, I am now a year older! It's been bloody cold recently! Just a few days ago was the coldest day of the year and we got a lovely frost. The weather was perfectly timed though as it was lovely while I was in Melbourne.
Yes Melbourne! I went to Melbourne with a number of my kiwi lolita friends to attend the Once Upon A Frill Lolita Convention at the end of July! The convention took place at The Hotel Windsor which we also stayed at. It's in the middle of Melbourne and the view from my room gave me a lovely view of the parliament building. I was only in Aussie for four days but I still had an amazing time. Though my arrival was a bit chaotic.
I got out of the airport around mid-day and took the skybus to the central station. All I had to do was take the tram on the free tram loop to parliament. What I was not aware of on this day was there was a bloody massive teacher's union protest going on outside parliament that day and it had the whole road blocked off as well as all trams diverted. So I hopped on a tram, thinking it would take me straight there, and it fucking turned the wrong way. I did this twice and started to freak the fuck out
. I'm on the right tram. Google maps says so, the map on the tram station says so, the nice man I asked said so. So why the hell does this tram keep taking me the wrong way and I keep having to get off and run back to the station??? So on my third attempt I asked some ladies at the station, double checked with them that this was the right tram and got on. Then, when on the tram I kind of just announced "excuse me! Will this tram take me to parliament station" and people just sort of looked at me like an idiot until a very nice older woman said "oh... Oh no I don't think it will. Get off right now, go around the corner and down the street". God bless her, she saved my life and holiday.
I get off the tram and follow her instructions, mind you I'm doing this while hauling a big pink fuck off suitcase full of my cords for the weekend and I came into rendering distance of my final boss. The biggest crowd of protesters wearing red t-shirts I've ever seen in my life
. On the other side, my hotel. I went up to the edge of the swarm and a teacher looked me up and down (I was probably looking very pathetic by this point) and she said "what are you doing here? Where do you need to go?" and I said "I just got here from the airport, this is my first time in Melbourne and I need to get to my hotel" and I pointed at the hotel across the road. She told me to keep repeating what I said to her and people would let me through. And they did!!! They also laughed a lot and said "oh you poor thing" and "welcome to Melbourne! Picked a great day for it". One hell of a start to my trip but that was ok as that was the most stressful part, it was only up from there lol.
Also, nobody else who arrived that day had that issue as they either arrived on an earlier or later plane, except for my friend who was on the plane with me who went elsewhere before the hotel and managed to avoid that mess.
After that mess, my holiday had finally started. I met up with a few friends, got into a very casual coord and we went a-wandering! The hotel is super close to Chinatown so we went there to find the local Daiso (all lolitas go to Daiso). We then went investigating the malls in the area! I don't know Melbourne very well, so I have no idea where we were, but we visited some really cool malls! There was a shocking amount of stores selling blind box gacha slop which I did my absolute best to avoid. I love cute slop but I hate gacha slop (unless it's an actual gacha machine). If I'm going to spend $15 on a toy I want to know what the hell I'm getting 
. Blind boxes are fun when it's like $2-$5 sure, like a regular gacha machine. But blind boxes... Uuuuuugh I hate gambling!!!! I HATE GAMBLING!!! We also went to some incredibly cute clothing stores and I almost spent $120 on a cardigan but I managed to hold back (I needed to save that money for a $160 Angelic Pretty cardigan lol). After that we went to the Hello Kitty Cafe! It was soo cute! We also met up with a few other lolitas from the various Australian communities there. The food was mid and an acceptable level of cute. Following that we split back up and did a bit more wandering. We were meant to meet more of the kiwi lolitas for dinner but I ended up having a horrible panic attack and had to go back to the hotel. I've mostly got my panic disorder under control these days so this really shocked me, until... I started having horrific tummy troubles 
Yeah the Hello Kitty cafe gave me food poisoning and I spent the majority of the night as Chiikawa toilet PNG. Luckily it seemed to go right through me overnight.
The next day was the day before the con - wandering and shopping time!!! My roommate, Bessie got up early and went out for breakfast with friends but my tummy was still a little tender so I stayed in bed till about mid-day. Eventually I got up and we went to our Melbourne-based friend Chelsea's house for Bessie's nail appointment and also because I wanted to pet Chelsea's cat and also look through her wardrobe
. The majority of the kiwi girls had nails done by Chelsea (including me), it was so sweet!! However my nails were press-ons she made me years ago that I applied the night before the con to save a bit of time. After that we did more wandering, got lunch and stumbled across The Museum of Chinese Australian History which was very different and interesting! I didn't even know it existed until we walked past it lol. After this we met up with even more friends and went out for a succulent Chinese meal. The majority of this trip really was just meeting up and hanging out lolol.
Then came day one of two of the con! This day was pretty full on and split into two parts, the fashion show and the tea party. There was also an intermission for taking professional photos and hanging out. Alas at the time of writing this the photos aren't out yet. The fashion show was for sure the highlight!! Two of my lolita friends modelled in it and we cheered so much when they walked past our little kiwi comm group!! Man I love my lolita friends so much 
. All of the models were just so beautiful. I especially enjoyed the Angelic Pretty and Morpho segments. The tea party was good, the food was nice. I think my standards for a high tea were just forever blown out of the water by the high tea at the Swallowtail Butler Cafe lol. They did offer extremely nice warm scones with clotted cream which was lovely. The fashion show and I think portions of the tea party were filmed, but the videos aren't up yet. I'll hopefully link them when they are. After the tea party I went directly to my hotel room to tear off my coord, have a bath and eat some amazing room service chicken parm.
Day 2 was actually my favourite day of the trip! This day was super chill as it was the day for the dealer's haul and panels. I woke up early, got into coord and ate breakfast in the hotel's exclusive restaurant. Probably the best eggs bene I'll ever have. I then went directly to the dealer's haul and got into line for Angelic Pretty. There wasn't much left when I got there the VIP ticket holders cleared them out
. But I still managed to get my hands on a cardigan and some socks. The dealer's haul was really nicely set up, by the way. There was lots of room to move around and chat without being in the way of the stalls. I spent a hell of a lot of money at the other two stalls I was most excited to visit: Twice As Dreamy and Loveliness Studio. I actually made a YouTube video of my haul! I'll link it at the bottom of this blog.
The first panel of the day was RinRin Doll's panel, which was sadly super rushed because she was late. But it was still cool to see her I guess. Next was the Ateliere Pierrot panel, but because I'm a sweet I had no interest in it. So me and my friend Pearl went out into town to get some lunch. We got some perfectly mid sushi to fuel our bodies and then got some absolutely godly ice cream at Anita Gelato to fuel our lolita lifestyles 
. I also got to go to a Miniso for the first time and wooow it's consoom paradise. So many blind boxes ew. I ended up buying a My Little Pony lunchbox to bring to work lol.
The rest of the con was panels. We got back just in time to meet with our friends and settle in for the final two panels of the day. The Deerstalker panel which was basically just a nostalgia-fest on classic lolita YouTube and then the OTT sweet styling panel by Pumpkin and Lani (two of my style icons lolol it was so cool to see them irl we even did oshikatsu
). These panels were again filmed but they aren't online yet. I'll link them when they're finally available as they were really good! After that the con was over. My friends and I wandered into town, had a very chaotic dinner and bid our goodbyes.
This convention totally reinvigorated my love for lolita fashion. After this event I am so motivated to wear more, to make more, to do more. I love all of my lolita friends so much!! This was an event I never imagined I would be able to attend. I don't know if I'll ever get to see that many lolitas in one place again. This convention was incredibly well run for a first time con and I would gladly attend again if it ever was to return. I also really appreciated it being an event entirely geared towards experienced lolitas.
So! What have I been up to since my return? No much lol. I uh need to save my money back up again after all that. I have been doing some serious work on the final volume of my zine. I've also been planning some new sewing projects. Oh and I've become absolutely obsessed with reading The Husky and his White Cat Shizun. I'm on volume 8 right now and ohhh boy is it painful!!! Ouuugh
so much suffering. I have the final three volumes ordered and they should arrive later this week. I also have been grinding the fuck out of Nu: Carnival in an attempt to pull the martial arts Olivine but that fucker will NOT come home 
. I really don't want to whale again but I think I might have to, girls. I brought my Olivine ita bag to the convention with me and so many of the lolitas loved it and the few that knew his source material were very sympathetic of my gacha woes. I pulled that fucker Kuya at their airport and wanted to delete the app.
I think that's about all I have to say! I'll probably make another blog soonish about my regular life as this one is long enough. Do people even read these whole things?
Until next time!
009 akiryo
— 💬 (@octpho) August 2, 2026
Feels like heaven https://t.co/G3wUz5qta4 pic.twitter.com/qDoXn60UD4