We began Saturday with a panel reviewing the last two decades of Japanese street fashion. Like the presenter on Harajuku, the street fashion expert had way more material and photos than she could reasonably cram into 45 minutes. However, with her more relaxed, informal delivery and asides, she engaged the audience and entertained us a lot more than the presenter on Harajuku did.

Because the Dollfest meetup was not until Sunday afternoon, at which point we would be gone, we looked at the 1:00 PM Saturday BJD marketplace/salesroom as an alternative to the meetup. It really wasn’t. Sellers [including Lyra] laid items out on tables and watched as curious crowds filed through. Some sellers talked a bit to each other, but not a lot.

I picked up a dress for Toon Ethan from a seller’s free pile, so I got some shots of Toon Silence admiring him below. Click on pics to enlarge. I also got shots of a ball-jointed raven doll, a doll made by French dollmaker Mouton en Sucre and owned by Quebecois BJD fan Dejected Raven. The raven had four swappable heads, only two of which are shown here. I also got a shot of Lyra’s Smartdoll Infinity [in lime green at left] and Volks Lorina [in dark green dress at right]. There was also a beautiful Smartdoll Reflection owned by Caroline.

Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/03/2024: BJD sales room

Lyra and I left Essex, VT for Otakuthon early on Friday, August 5th. After a quick stop at West Meadow Farm for gluten-free bakery treats, I drove northward. With cloudy and occasional misty weather in Vermont, we encountered little traffic and made good time, crossing the border in a startling 35 minutes. From the border to Montreal, the clouds cleared, and the sun shone. Southern Quebec seems strangely flat in comparison to the rippling valleys of New England, and there are many more active farms with silos and grain elevators, neither of which are seen much in my state.

We arrived in Montreal around lunch time, checked in to our favorite hotel, the Travelodge on Boulevard Rene Levesque West, very early, and dropped our stuff in room 411. I think that, with the pandemic, people have temporarily curtailed their activities, so we saw few crowds, even in the city.

Usually we have arrived at Otakuthon in mid-afternoon on Friday, starting our days much later. This time, we enjoyed a leisurely start with a partial circuit of the vendor/dealer room. As usual, I spent most of my time in artist’s alley, chatting with artists whose work I was especially interested in. Pictures follow, mostly from booths where I bought stuff. Vendors show up in booth pics unless otherwise noted.Continue reading Otakuthon, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 08/05/2022: Hotel and dealer room