Orlando's First Decora Meet & Swap

Orlando, Florida, is home to some of the coolest things in the world. From Disney World and Universal Studios to the world's largest Checkers and now even the world's largest HMart, Orlando is certainly one of the coolest tourist destinations. However, could it also be the world's next fashion destination? That's the question I asked myself as I attended the area's first-ever Decora Meet & Swap. Hosted by the delightfully colorful Glo (Glopop.exe) and her friends, Cayla Joy and Winter Kero, in collaboration with the supremely talented folks of Goblin Market, an organization known for its creative art markets and events, their brilliant minds worked together to bring forth Orlando's first-ever decora fashion meet-up event. The event was filled with color, joy, and activities for enthusiasts and decora fashionistas alike, with the spectacular Cybr.grl as the special guest of the event. After attending, I was brimming with giddiness I haven't been able to shake off since.

For the uninitiated, decora, decora fashion, or decora-kei is a fashion sub-style that originated in Japan. The style is signified by accessorizing or "decorating" yourself from head to toe. This includes laying clothing and bags, but for many, the signature aspect of the style is laying fun accessories. Usually, decora is a brightly colored fashion style with a ton of bits and bobs covering the wearer, but as the fashion evolves, the style has seen monochrome and duochrome styling, and so much more. If you would like a more in-depth description of decora fashion or resources for the style, you can read the following article here, or you can check out this YouTube playlist from cybr.grl, who gives many detailed run-downs of the fashion.

When it came to the Decora Meet & Swap, excitement for the event was steep. Because the meet-up was free to attend, all participants had to do was RSVP through Eventbrite. However, as soon as the RSVP for the event went live, only two days passed before its RSVPs were full. With a packed-out event, everyone was brimming with excitement online about how cool this event would be. On the day of, I drove out to East Orlando, to the quaint hobby and card shop Geek'd. Once I stepped through the doors of the small shop, I was overwhelmed by color in the best possible way! The shop was split into three sections: the shop area, where participants could purchase MTG (Magic: The Gathering) and Pokémon cards, as well as other cards and card hobby accessories, the activity and swap tables, where attendees could create candy bracelets, deco hairclips, and decorate cardtopers for checkies, a small, instant photograph, similar to a Polaroid, that is typically taken with an Instax camera or other photocards, as well as two photo booth areas with brightly colored quilted backgrounds where attendees could take photos with cybr.grl as well as purchase from her clothing brand Candy Trap.

Walking around the event, I had a ton a pleasant conversations with attendees about decora fashion, took lots of photos, and tried out all of the fun activities. Starting with the candy bracelet table, the event had so many beautiful color bead options to choose from! Participants were so creative, showing off each of their fun designs and even cool techniques from complex candy bracelets. The same went for the hair clips station, where there were several options for clip types and even those badge pulleys available to decorate. The cardtopper station was my favorite activity because after you took your checkie photo with cybr.grl, you could decorate a festive cover for the favor immediately after!

One of the best parts of the meet-up was the trinket giving and item swapping. They're were folks who were trading large items like clothing and handbags, but most people traded candy bracelets and small trinkets. Even though it was a meet and swap, I do think that, because the concept of trading items is kind of new to some of the attendees, it may have been cool to see the organizers encouraging attendees to craft something to trade with others. That said, many attendees, especially folks more tenured in decora fashion, explained certain concepts to newer decora fashion wearers as well as just gifting trinkets and items, so the spirit of the meet and swap was in full effect!

I cannot talk about this event without talking about the organizers, the host, as well as the special guest. Goblin Market was the perfect organization to take up this event. They have have good handle on what it takes to run a seamless and successful pop-up event, and it was wonderful to see. Granted, this event was small, but the staff at Gobmart took great care in checking in with attendees, the host, and the guest. The host, Glo, was a whirlwind of fun, chatting with attendees, snapping tons of photos, just being a brilliant ray of sunshine for the event. Glo, as well as Cayla Joy and Winter Kero, were such fun and brilliant folks to be around. Finally, it was an absolute treat to meet cybr.girl or Kristina in person. As long-time cybr.grl subscriber and fan, getting the opportunity to see her as well as her brand in person was very cool. Kristina was so kind, gentle, and patient with each attendee she spoke with, taking time to ask attendees how they would like to take their photos, and to do multiple poses if the attendee asked. She was one of the highlights for many attendees, myself included, and I am so thankful that Glo and Gobmart put such a fantastic event on.

If you live in Orlando and didn't get the opportunity to attend this lovely event, be sure to stay tapped into but Goblin Market and Glo's socials. You absolutely have to go and show some love to all of the featured folks from the event, including Cayla Joy and Winter Kero, as well as the wonderful Kristina, aka Cybr.grl.