Collections/Obsessions - Wolves & The Snow Field's Wolf in Frame JSK in Black

Hello everyone~
I've been meaning to do this post for a while...but I was waiting on one very important item to arrive, and it finally did! So I guess this is sort of a review on the South Korean indie lolita label called Haenuli and their sister label called The Snow Field. I recently purchased The Snow Field's "Wolf in Frame" jumper skirt on reserve and I feel it's necessary to do a bit of background explanation on my obsession with wolves, the animal, and show you the wolf related things I own. I don't really go out of my way to collect wolf items but I guess I've accumulated bits here and there!

First of all, I think my love for wolves began in elementary school when I read the book Julie's Wolf Pack by Jean Craighead George. I read the whole series from the school library. I vaguely remember it being about an Eskimo girl who, some way or another, is living with a pack of wild wolves...and the way that she could actually communicate with them and how the story is being told from the inside out, I found to be very interesting. Wolves are often portrayed as viscous predators and such, but in the story there seemed to be something very mysterious and majestic about them. I thought they were very beautiful creatures...and not only that, at the time I started playing Neopets, and my favourite Pet were of course, Lupes! I started drawing them a lot too. I thought people were boring and so I decided to draw wolves and animals instead lol.

I went to Quebec City on my grade 8 school trip and brought two wolf plushies home with me, the smaller one came in a can. A fond memory of that trip was when we got to visit a place where they kept sled dogs off season...they were soo cute. ;-; I don't know much about dog breeds since I've never owned a pet in my life, but I love huskies because they look like wolves, of course. The little husky plush was a gift from my uncle.

I also did a project in school about wolves (we had to pick an animal) and a teacher gave me this poster on the right. It's been on my wall ever since, haha. Needless to say, I think everyone at school knew about my obsession to the point where some joked and called me the wolf girl. ^_^" I remember one time we had an art project where we had to cut out silhouettes for an arctic scene and everyone came to me asking me to cut out wolf shapes for their piece, and I was really happy lol. I even drew a wolf on my desk and never erased it until the last day of school...!

I devoted a wall in my tiny room to be my "animal wall", with the centre piece showing my two favourite animals. I guess you could say I love animals, but it's more of an admiration of their beauty and I prefer to observe than to interact with them (as in, owning pets). But I would love to be able to interact with wild wolves in real life. Another fun fact, during my grade 6 camping trip to Kearney, we had a "wolf howl" night where we went up on a cliff and tried to howl to the wolves in the nearby Algonquin Park to see if they would answer back. I was chosen as the alpha female to start the howl...but the wolves didn't answer back, haha...I was so sad but I had a lot of fun. :)

This is another book about wolves, one that doesn't involve humans. I first saw it in the book store years ago and decided to buy it because the cover looked nice and the story seemed interesting. I highly, highly recommend this, if you like fantasy stories! In The Sight, wolves seem to have a culture of their own and overall the story is just really, really good. I don't want to spoil it. :)

 Recently, I saw this vintage rug on Etsy and added it to my favourites. I noticed later that others like this one were already sold out and since it was on sale too, I decided to buy it. I really love the stitched details, it looks like a painting from afar but up close, it is woven from individual threads of yarn. I love browsing Etsy for vintage things... yet I also love modern, trendy things...and cute princessy things! My room is quite a mish mash of all the things I love I think...^_^"


 Lastly, the item below is probably my most favourite thing in my wardrobe, ever. Once I saw this print I *knew* I had to have it and so I waited and waited for the reservation date to open and quickly placed my order!! I had never ordered from Haenuli/The Snow Field before. I don't believe they have an official website, only Facebook pages and a Livejournal. All their reservation information was on their Livejournal post so I simply e-mailed them my information. A timeline of events:

April 22, 2013 - Sent e-mail for reservation for Wolf in Frame JSK Size 1 in Black + Petticoat A in Silver
April 23 - Paid in full (items price + $30 EMS shipping)
June 1 - Received an update notifying me of delays. The petticoats were not as puffy as expected. I opted to wait an additional 20-30 days to receive puffier petticoats from the factory
July 3 - Still no news about my order so I e-mailed them
July 8 - I e-mailed them again after no news because at this point I was getting a little worried..^^;;;
July 9 - Received a reply saying that my items are ready to be shipped
July 12 - Received a shipping notice with tracking number
July 19 - Arrived!!!!! *o*

My items arrived in a plain bubble wrap envelope. It came with two postcards, one of them featuring The Snow Field's most recent print. I quite like Haenuli's older prints like the royal kitten one that's similar to Wolf in Frame as well as their Cinderella-ish looking  one but I think it's safe to say that Wolf in Frame is my dream dress and I am not interested in anything else! xD

I chose to get a petticoat too because their dresses are a little bit longer (past knee length) than most average lolita dresses, and I only have shorter petticoats. The silver color looked pretty and I thought it would go with the print. The dress I got in black color as I thought it'd make the wolves stand out more. ^_^

The dress!! *__* As I expected, the fabric has a satin-like feel to it and it's very smooth. The print is gorgeous and crisp and runs all the way around the dress evenly. I thought it would be a more green or blue-toned black, like in the photos, but thankfully it is purely black (excuse my horrible lighting) which is exactly what I wanted! It is fully lined and is finished with black lace on the hem.



The back of the dress has shirring and lace-up ribbon details. The zipper on the side works very well and the straps are also adjustable with two buttons. It also came with a ribbon brooch that you can attach on the front of the dress. I realize I forgot to take a photo of the front of the dress, but the design is plain and simple, but works well since I wouldn't want to take away from the intricate border print. (Did I mention that I love border prints?)

Here's a failed attempt at a wonky macro shot of the petticoat. It is certainly very fluffy and gives maximum poof!

Apparently the dress materials are designed and printed in Korea and then shipped to the USA for assembly, though I'm not too sure about the petticoats.

A shot of the top of the petticoat. The silver is very nice but it's a bit wrinkled after having been compressed. But it's HUGE and super puffy! Worth the extra wait time I guess but overall I wasn't anticipating the wait to be that long, haha. I'm so impatient! >_<

I am overall pleased with the construction of the dress and petti as there were no loose threads and everything looks solid. I can't wait to wear it out! Not sure how to co-ordinate this just yet though, since I didn't feel like paying another $35 for the matching head ribbons as I wished they'd made a simple headbow instead, but I'm sure I'll figure out something! ^_^"

That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed reading about my love of wolves. I guess it does come off as weird, and I still don't know how to properly explain it, but this will have to do for now. Thank you for reading!!~