Coming (very) soon: Dekoden kits!

Today's fun new thing: dekoden! We're pleased to announce that we've partnered up with dekoden.com to bring a variety of their deco kits to the US. They'll be for sale in our store within the next few days, just as soon as we can set up our display. We do also plan to sell them online.

What is dekoden? You've all seen it, but not everybody might know it by name. Check it:


Dekoden is huge in Japan, both among the fashion subcultures of places like Harajuku and even crossing over into the mainstream. There are many stores there that not only specialize in dekoden, but in fact sell nothing else. There are even street vendors in Tokyo that teach people how to do it.

We're starting with pre-assembled kits to make life easier, so you don't need to worry about picking the right crystals or coordinating deco items. Everything comes in one kit and all you need to do is apply it how you want. We've also got the tool kits to get you started, with the plastic sheet (to protect your device), tweezers and glue. If there's demand, we may carry individual crystals and other pieces later.

We'll let you know when we've got these out on the floor of our store, and when we've added them to our web site. If you really can't wait, we'll sell a kit right out of the box in the meantime :)

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VM Rose Garden series reissued

Our first-ever reserve series from Victorian maiden was the Rose Garden series, and a lot of you didn't even know about us back then and missed out. We've gotten emails asking about this series ever since, and we've always had to just tell those people that they were unfortunately too late.

Well, it's back for a very limited time! Victorian maiden is reissuing most of the items in the series, and we now have them up for reserve again. We will receive the items in spring (perfect timing for a floral print), in April or early May. There is no promotional pricing this time since it's a series reissue, but the prices listed are the same as what you'd pay if these items were in stock in our store.

This was one of VM's largest series in a while, with items of every type - everything you need to create a matching outfit. The accessories (handbag and parasols) are not being reissued, and the regular dress is already sold out, but there are still nine items available in the series.

The reserve period ends JANUARY 28 10PM EST.

Don't forget that if you do happen to want the Rose Garden skirt in classic rose, it's the one item from the original run that we have left in stock.

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New PUTUMAYO items

Today's a PUTUMAYO festival here at the store - we received a shipment of cat ear coats, skirts, spring cat ear parkas, chess crest 3 way bags (in black/purple this time), and more.

The cat ear coats are mostly already spoken for - you guys really seem to like them - but we do have one left in black with white fur. Hurry up if you want it.

If you already ordered a cat ear coat to be shipped, we now have it and it will be shipped shortly.

The rest of these items should start to go up on our web site late tonight and tomorrow. You can see them all in our store now.

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KERA 139 now in stock

The March 2010 issue of KERA is now in stock in our store:


The covergirl is, once again, fan favorite and perennial cover model Ryoko Kobayashi. This month's main feature is about makeup.

This is a transition month in the industry, so there's a mix of winter and spring styles in this issue, as some of the brands haven't fully released their spring collections yet.

For Amo fans, there's an "Amo TV" feature where she talks about all the stuff she likes (from Batman to Barbie!).

There are lots of photos of clothes we sell, have sold or will be selling, including the Atelier-Pierrot long corset skirt and Rose Bouquet Once-piece, Angelic Pretty's Star Night Theater and Dreamy Doll House series, the SEX POT ReVeNGe Fuck Him Up shirt, and more. So check it out if you want some ideas for coordinating the stuff you see in our store or on our web site.

We have this issue available in our store right now for $9.50. We also still have a limited number of KERA volume 138 at a discounted price of $7.

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New round of Victorian maiden reserve items ends TODAY

Just a quick FYI: the latest round of Victorian maiden reserves ends TODAY at 10PM EST.

Some of you have also noticed that VM has the Rose Garden series back up for reserve on their own site - we're going to contact them about this and just make sure we can do it again ourselves. Those pages are all ready to go, though, so once we get the go-ahead, they'll be up pretty much immediately. We'll keep you posted...

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PUTUMAYO cat ear coats back up for order!

We get a lot of emails about the PUTUMAYO cat ear pompom coat:


And we can't keep them in stock. As soon as we put them up for order, they're gone.

Well, they're up for order again. A limited quantity, and probably the last time this year. This time, we have both black/black and black/white.

We've confirmed our shipment with PUTUMAYO and expect to have it around the end of the week.

Get 'em while you can!

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Fitting area: done!

We know that a lot of our store customers have been waiting for this:


Simple but effective. This will be in operation as of tomorrow. (We are closed today, as we regularly are on Mondays.) No more hiding behind the curtain against the wall in the back of our store to change.

It's surprisingly spacious inside.

When not in use, it'll look something like this:



So pretty much the same as now, but with a mirror where the Angelic Pretty used to be.

Some rules for the use of the fitting area:

1. You must ASK before using it. Bring your items to the counter to ask.

2. You can take a maximum of three items into the fitting area. We'll give you a card with a number corresponding to how many items you have. You'll give it back when you're done so we can count the items.

3. No trying on of undergarments or socks. T-shirts on a case by case basis. (Generally speaking, regular t-shirts are probably ok, custom ones probably not.)

4. You will soon be required to wear a makeup mask if you're wearing makeup, though we don't have them yet so you'll probably be off the hook for now. We do ask that you be really careful in the meantime. Respect the clothes!

That is all.

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New Victorian maiden items

Today we received a shipment of Victorian maiden items - split about half and half between reserves items/special orders and regular store items. The way we're going to be doing things with Victorian maiden for the foreseeable future will be somewhat smaller store orders but with more frequency, since we need to have them ship their reserve items to us as soon as they're released. This is the first such shipment, containing our reserves for the Rose Garden series. So those of you who purchased those items, they are here! We will ship them to you within 24-48 hours.

We did also receive two different Rose Garden skirts for our store, plus an Antique Rose Doll Dress in black, a restock of the corsage and leaf comb hair accessories and several petticoats, including a long petticoat for those of you with maiden-length dresses. Victorian maiden petticoats are a little different than the Atelier-Pierrot petticoats we also carry in that they're a little less stiff, and they have a lining for comfort.

We will have these items up on our web site over the next couple of days.

UPDATE:

Pricing on the new items will be as follows:

Antique Rose Doll Dress (black/black): $329
Rose Garden Doll Skirt (Blue Moonlight): $229 (sold!)
Rose Garden Skirt (Classic Rose): $225
Tulle Petticoat (black or white): $79
Long Tulle Petticoat (black only): $105

We should have at least a few of these on the web site by late Saturday night. They're available in our store right now.

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Some random mid-January updates, plus a mini-FAQ

No big news today, but here's a bunch of stuff we've got going on or coming up:

• We still have a few SEX POT ReVeNGe desktop calendars to give away! They're free with the purchase of $100 worth of SPR merchandise. This offer is good while supplies last, both online and in store. We will just include them with online orders - they won't show up in your cart, but we'll give one to you if we have any left when you order. If you want to know if we still have them, email us just prior to placing your order. We'll then hold one for an hour after answering to give you time to place your order.


• We just posted five new SEX POT ReVeNGe shirts, plus we've restocked the Burn with Anger custom t-shirt. Also new is the Dark Rich Boston Bag (only black is left in stock).
  
  
  Check them out!


• Our main products page is now organized by creation date rather than alphabetically. So you can now see all of our newest products right on that page, from all brands, as soon as we post them.


• New Victorian maiden items should be in stock this week, including a few Rose Garden series items (though most will go to reserves). The shipment is currently awaiting customs clearance at JFK airport.


• New ALGONQUINS items will be here soon, finally! We're going all-in on Patti-chan - if you're into cute, customizable stuffed animals, look forward to that! Also new handbags, wallets, skirts and other products.


• We're also expecting new MAXICIMAM items, including a restock of the Chainsaw Girl t-shirts and scarves, various umbrellas, and some new products.


• We've ordered more PUTUMAYO cat ear coats (enough to cover our waiting list plus a couple extra), plus some new stuff from them. Once we know how many coats we're getting, we'll put them back up for order. This will be the last time we can get these coats this year.


• We have an ALL NEW PRODUCT CATEGORY in the works. Not just a new brand, but a whole new thing we're gonna be selling. What is it? It's a surprise! You'll find out soon enough. (Hint: it is not something you wear.)


• We're going to be ordering more from SEX POT ReVeNGe shortly - if you have any special orders you'd like to submit, now is a good time. For anyone who hasn't done it before, we take a 30% non-refundable deposit. We'll probably post more about this in a few days.


• UPDATE: Forgot to talk about our two press mentions this week! First, it's kind of a dry read, but AOL has a profile on us in their small business section. Then, Victoria Suzanne showed off a one-piece she bought from us in a post on Lolita Charm. Very cute.

Now, a mini-FAQ.

We've got a full FAQ on our web site, but it's long and probably not everybody reads it (though we encourage you to).

So, just a couple things we get asked all the time in our store and by email - these will be added to our main FAQ shortly:

Q: Is everything in your store on your web site?

A: No! If you can, please visit us to see everything. Certain items like socks, gloves, and various small accessories aren't on the web site because they're either too hard to photograph or just go in and out of stock too fast. We also have a few older things from SPR and Algonquins that we just never got around to posting.

Q: Why do you sell such limited quantities of items? Everything I want sells out almost immediately!

A: It's usually because that's all we can get! Most Japanese brand items are limited edition by nature, especially Lolita items. A lot of them are hand made. We've had the experience many times already where we have cleaned out all the stock of an item at the brand itself. This isn't always true, but often it is. The best advice we can give is that if you see something on our site that you like, grab it while you can - there may only be one, and we may not be able to restock it.

Q: What is your in-store sales tax policy?

A: We follow the New York State sales tax law. We collect tax on clothing items over $110, and all non-clothing items. The total tax rate is 8.875%

We do not collect tax on out-of-state or international web orders.

Q: What is your store neighborhood like? What else is there to do there?

A: This is a huge question and not one we can easily answer. The East Village is a big neighborhood with a long and varied history, most recently as the center of the city's counterculture, and it's full of shops, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and tons of Japanese stuff. We are on the east side of it. Some of the best ramen places in the city are around here (we recommend Rai Rai Ken, which is a tiny place but with great ramen). Also Japanese toy shops and more. You could easily make a whole Japan-themed day around a visit to our store. (Hey, that's an idea for a future blog post, or maybe an event!)

Q: You play too much American music in your store.

A: First of all, that's not a question. Second, you know what they were playing at the Algonquins store in Tokyo when we were there? FOO FIGHTERS.

We play what we like, Japanese, American, British or whatever.

Q: Do you need to push or pull the door of your store to get in?

A: Please PUSH, like the sign says! Otherwise you risk startling the employees and causing them to spill their coffee.


If you have any other questions about our store or web site, you can feel free to ask in the comments here.

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Victorian maiden sale is ending...

Just wanted to give you guys some notice before we pull the plug, but we're expecting a few new Victorian maiden skirts and dresses very shortly, and with that, the 20% off sale we've been running will be ending. Now would be a good time to buy if we've got anything left in our skirt and dress section that you've been eying. The sale will end on Sunday.

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Angelic Pretty Dessert Collection

As seen in KERA magazine vol. 137, we now have a very limited number of Angelic Pretty Dessert Collection Series sets for sale in our store! Limited as in... one. Yep, one. We got two, sold one. These are hard to come by.

Available in any color you like, as long as it's Sax Blue.

This is a winter velveteen print, which is traditional for Angelic Pretty at this time of year. The print itself is sparkly glitter.

For now, we are only selling this in a set with socks and Alice band. Exactly as you see Amo wearing above (minus blouse and shoes, which are not part of the series anyway). The set costs $399. If we don't sell this within a week, we will begin selling the individual items separately. The jumper skirt will be $329, the socks $28, the Alice band $45. You save a few bucks, at least, buying the set... and you don't have to worry about tracking down matching items all over the place.

This is available in our store right now, and will be available online later tonight. Keep hitting that refresh button! It will probably be up around midnight EST, if nobody pops in to buy it in the next couple hours.

UPDATE: Now up for order.

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To our store customers: an update on our fitting area

We're asked constantly by new customers about whether or not we have a fitting room, and by our regulars about when we will. And we can understand that. Since before we opened, we've been trying to figure out how to do it without knocking down a wall (which wouldn't make our wall-sharing neighbors very happy), or closing off a big part of our little store. This space has a lot of little nooks and crannies that makes any solution a little tricky.

But a while ago we talked to the guy who used to rent this space, and we ended up deciding to do exactly what he did, which is just this:



May not look like much, but hang some curtains from that pipe and we've got ourselves a fitting area.

This was taken yesterday, btw, so it's almost finished. Our ceiling support (necessary for safety) ended up being slightly too small to fit around the pipe, so we need to order another one over the internet. These things are apparently too specialized to find in New York. (I know.. in New York!) But it will be done very soon now. The hard part already is.

We will have a few rules for our fitting area, though - it is not going to be a free-for-all.

1) You will need to ask us before trying anything on, and we reserve the right to say no for any reason. Many of our items are limited or even one-of-a-kind, so we need to protect them.

2) Certain garments will not be allowed in the fitting area. We will post a short list at a later time, but we're talking about stuff like socks, undergarments and possibly t-shirts, most of which are probably obvious.

3) You can take a maximum of 3 items into the fitting area, and we will give you a card with a number on it to take in with you. When you come out, you give us the card back and we count your items.

4) Yes, you will be required to wear a makeup protection cap if you have makeup on and are trying on a garment that must be pulled over the head.

We'll remind everybody of these when our fitting area actually opens, and we'll post them in the store too.

We'll post again when we're finally finished building this thing.

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SEX POT ReVeNGe - LUCKY PACKS, new stock and BONUS!

UPDATE: SPR lucky packs are now SOLD OUT.
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Look what the cat dragged in today...

As we said before, we received a very limited number of 2010 lucky packs. This year's SPR lucky packs ("happy packs" as they called them) weren't considered regular items - they were reserve items, and they didn't make very many of them at all. What you see in the photo above is all there is, and that's all that's left in the world. SPR is no longer selling these.

Each pack contains a pair of pants, a shirt, a parka, a bag and an accessory - plus the bag it actually comes in, which is a fully usable tote bag.

We're not going to overhype this because honestly, we expect to be sold out soon (we sold two packs within minutes of opening the box). But just remember that if you want to buy a lucky pack, you can choose a size but not a type. We cannot open a pack before selling it, and there are no returns. Each pack comes in either "mainly large" or "mainly medium", meaning you could get a smaller size item in your pack.

SPECIAL BONUS! Anyone who spends more than $100 on SEX POT merchandise in one purchase, whether a lucky pack or any combination of other goods, will receive either a 2010 SEX POT calendar or day planner. This offer is valid while supplies last. (Yes, you can choose which one you want as long as we still have both.) And it's good online and in store.

The calendars are no longer being offered by SPR (their deal expired on 12/31), but you can sort of see some of the imagery used in the calendar here.

We also got in some other SPR stock, including handbags, t-shirts, and a restock of the popular Royal Border hats and scarves. (The hats and scarves are already available for order again through our web site.)



Jeff's favorite t-shirt:

SKULL PANDA.

Masayo's favorite t-shirt:

Japan: the punk soul bastard.

We will do our best to get this stuff up on the web site soon. The lucky packs may never make it up there, but we'll see what happens. If we have any left by the end of the day, we'll post them. Keep in mind these are heavy, so shipping will be a bit higher than for a standard item.

UPDATE: Lucky packs are now on the site available for order. The shipping cost is $30, which we know might put off some people, but we don't want our web customers to feel left out on this. These do weigh about 9 lbs and require a big box.

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Operational note - Monday hours

Some of you might remember that we were closed both Sundays and Mondays before December, and we added Monday hours for the holiday rush. Well, we're once again going to be closed Sundays and Mondays for the foreseeable future. Our current hours are Tues-Sat 12:30-8PM.

We will be using that time this Monday to hopefully finally build a curtained fitting area.

We'll be updating anywhere our hours are listed on our web site shortly.

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