Anime Los Angeles

By the second day of Anime Los Angeles, it was clear that the angle for my LA Weekly coverage had to be the amount of incredibly talented, young artists are emerging from the convention scene. In some ways, it reminds me of the goth and klub kid scenes of the mid-1990s, the creativity knows no boundaries. In terms of fashion, clothing isn't determined by gender and the more fantastical (and impractical, by the standards of our unfortunately casual society) the outfit, the better.

The dresses above were created by Megan Amo. The hat are by her sister Cecilia. I loved the steampunk elements in top Lolita look (the mechanical clock parts and the use of brown and cream). The model, Michele McArthy launched her accessory line Cute Land at the convention. It consists of little clay candy and cakes that you can wear on your fingers or in your hair. Since I wasn't photographing the event, I forgot to get some pictures of her table (bad, Liz).



I loved the back of Jonelle Abitong's samurai princess dress. If I didn't hate my upper arms and fear leaving the house without a bra, I would wear this to M/R/X. It's so cool.

Oh, and the dolls were amazing too. Check out this unicorn boy.



And these are pretty amazing too.

Elfdoll Christmas Party, 12/06/08

With every story I'm assigned, I meet new people, experience new places and usually pick up new interests in the process. That's the best part of the job.

I didn't know anything about ball-jointed dolls before I started researching for the assignment. Through the course of the story, I met so many wonderful and interesting BJD collectors, who were quite helpful in teaching me the ways of the culture. I became fascinated with the dolls, probably because I used to collect dolls as a little girl, and have continued my research in the weeks since the story went live. I want a BJD. Actually, I want two. But, being the Party Pauper, I can't get one just yet.

Last Saturday, I went to Artmaze in Glendale for Elfdoll's Christmas party. Inside the showroom was a lot of new merchandise, including three one-of-kind dolls commissioned for this event.

If I had a spare $690, I would have picked up this steampunk Emma doll with a face-up by a girl named Cristy.





Also on hand was Mir with a face-up by Lilyko. The dragon tattoo on this is stunning.





And here's K with face-up and body blushing by SDink. The body blushing here is incredible. He looks like a Calvin Klein model.





I have been talking about getting a doll that I could David Bowie-ify and my friend Darci suggested the Lupin doll from Soom, which you can see below.



Here are some more beauties.