Indie Brand: Antique Beast

Highly sought-after by the ubergothic are the rare items from indie brand Antique Beast. They've been around since the early days of Gothic & Lolita, and they continue to turn out a handful of designs each year, always sold out in early reserves and cherished for many years by their owners. And is it any wonder? If you dig old-school gothic elegance, Antique Beast has you covered:

Antique Beast is especially well-known for their lush and detailed accessories, especially head pices. Each one is hand-crafted and the consideration given to texture and balance is stunning.

This is perhaps the most iconic Antique Beast design for me, and the first piece I saw by the brand. It's low-cut enough to qualify as Ero-Loli, but it captures the dark elegance that first attracted me to the whole Gothic Lolita style:

 
The timeless quality of their designs puts them outside the realm of trends; they're neither fashionable nor unfashionable, eschewing change for a fixed, unwavering aesthetic. That makes their pieces great wardrobe investments, but it also means they show up rarely on the second-hand market.

Their infrequent sales periods are announced three days in advance through their website, and also on their email newsletter. The designer also keeps a blog where they mention upcoming reservation dates, although it's mostly brief personal entries. Basically, they open up the shop for a few days, closing down again when they've reached the maximum amount of orders they can produce within a 6-8 week window. Once those orders are made, they re-open for new purchases. It's a smart system, one that keeps their income steady while ensuring clients don't wait overly long for their reserves to be filled.

Antique Beast only accepts payment via bank transfer and postal order, so you will probably need a shopping service to place an order, although there is a mention of accepting Paypal for internationl orders buried in their blog, so it might be worthwhile to send them an email first. They just did a round of orders from Nov 25-28, so it may be a month or two before they open up again.

Because items are made in limited numbers for pre-purchasing customers, you can request up to +5 cm on the measurements for your order, including bust, waist, skirt and sleeve length. That said, their standard measurements are on the small side, so it's not a huge amount of leeway.