Biography

Are you born a gothic lolita?

When Xelyna reached adolescence, she found she was not like other girls. When not wearing a school uniform, she was the only girl dressed in black, to the taunts of "Who's funeral are you going to?" to which she replied with a sardonic "Mine!". Always the bookworm, she was soon swept away by the allure of the endless amounts of information on the new-fangled "Internet" which her high school had installed. Through their creeping connection she soon was able to come in contact with people all around the world, and made many friendships which endure to this day. She also became interested in Japanese animation and in turn Japanese culture. Because of this she gained a pen-pal in Japan who introduced her to the world of Visual Kei by accident when she sent her a Japanese music magazine as a gift. From then on, Xelyna was a fan of the amazing gothic VK band "Malice Mizer", and soon became interested in a fashion that their guitarist, Mana, was designing: Gothic Lolita.

Apart from her interests in anime, manga, visual kei and gothic lolita, Xelyna also became interested in Japanese traditional culture. She was captivated by images of kimonos and geisha in the textbooks of her school library, and after the "Memoirs of a Geisha" fad came and went, she found it easier to get books and information about traditional arts. For her high school project she made a gothic visual kei-style kimono, which was the first of many Japanese/Western designs and the start of her unique art style.

She studied Multimedia with a Major in 3D Animation at the Queensland University of Technology, earning her a Bachelor of Fine Art. The next year she went to Japan for a "gap year"... which turned into 4 years after she fell in love with Japan and couldn't bring herself to leave.

In Japan, Xelyna had many jobs, but eventually due to the economic crisis in 2008/2009 she lost her job and her visa ran out and she had to return to Australia. However, during her time in Japan she gained invaluable experiences in all her areas of interest. She saw over 200 visual kei concerts, visited all the gothic lolita brand shops, went to fashion parades and tea parties run by the brands themselves, was featured in Kera! magazine among others, was interviewed on TV several times, went to gothic nightclubs, and built up an impressive wardrobe. She also got to witness many of the traditional Japanese arts first-hand, and learnt to wear a kimono by herself. Last, but not least, she learnt to speak and read Japanese and passed the JLPT Level 2 in 2008.