2021 Lolita Goals

Happy New Year, everyone! We made it to 2021 - not let’s hope that we can make it a better year than 2020 was.

Full disclosure: I wasn’t even sure whether I was going to do a lolita goals post this year. With the pandemic situation still not improving in any permanent way, anything that I actually would want to achieve is up in the air on whether it will happen. And making goals for things that are uncertain and could get cancelled is just a sure way to make yourself feel bad.

At the same time, it felt weird to start the year and not have any lolita-centred goals to keep me focused. Am I supposed to just exist now without any clear direction and nothing to hold myself accountable to? It sounds melodramatic and extreme, but I’m the type who enjoys structure. And right now, at times of great uncertainty, having even a semblance of structure can help in calming down some of the anxiety stemming from not knowing what will happen next in the world.

So I am doing 2021 goals. I don’t want to set too many, to ensure that the goals are manageable and achievable. At the same time, it can’t be anything too simple, like another thing on my to do list, and instead should be a little bit more challenging. That way, when I do accomplish that, it will give me a real sense of achievement. Lastly, each goal has to be something that doesn’t depend on the state of the world. However the pandemic progresses, whether I’m back at the office or not, whether in-person meetups and events resume or not, these are things that I should be able to complete regardless. Which, after much thought, led me to these four goals.

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1. Create 1 Lookbook for Charity Video

Inspired by @paigeloe’s #HogwartsClosetChallenge, I would like to create at least one lookbook video centred around different elements of a particular theme. When published, the video would spread some awareness about a particular charity (related to the chosen lookbook theme), as well as offer something fun to look at. Unlike the Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates challenge lookbooks, these wouldn’t be as in depth at showing all the detail, but rather create a quick story and give off an overall aura under whatever umbrella theme I’ve selected. I do have two potential ideas so far, one being the actual #HogwartsClosetChallenge and the other one being about Henry VIII’s wives (of course), which makes for a video of 6-7 outfits. As long as I get it done by the end of the year, I’ll be happy, though ideally I’d love to have the video out during the week corresponding to the charity/cause it was done for. That gives me a deadline of October/November, unless I come up with another lookbook theme and charity cause that would have its awareness week/month at another time. But these two appeal to me the most and give me a reasonable deadline to work towards.

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2. Plan Disneybounding Outfits

Next year I will turn 30 and for a few years now my plan was to celebrate that by going to Walt Disney World. Whether that will be possible is still very much up in the air, however, whenever it does happen I would love to experience WDW in style. This, of course, means Disneybounding coordinates, and those I can plan regardless of when (or if) the trip will go ahead. And when I say “plan”, I mean blog about those with some flatlays to show. The challenge here is that what’s in my wardrobe isn’t directly compatible with my Disney favourites, and whilst crafting or buying smaller items to complete the looks is acceptable, I want to avoid buying new big pieces just for the sake of Disneybounding. I’ve jotted down a couple of ideas already and thankfully this is something that I can work on little by little. Although my initial idea was to do one singular blog post for all of the Disneybounding outfits by the end of the year, I’m now wondering whether separate posts for each outfit might be better. This would allow me to set myself a deadline, say one every two months, and instead of procrastinating on everything, I could focus on one look and the related crafts/gathering of items. Thoughts? Would you want a more recurring post type like this or would you prefer to see them all in one?

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3. Have One Lolita Photoshoot

Whilst neither was lolita-themed, in 2020 I was lucky enough to do two professional photoshoots. And they kind of got me hooked. I would love to be able to do at least one lolita-specific photoshoot in 2021, even if I have to do one myself. Which isn’t to undermine the work and skill that professional photographers do and have. I realise that this goal is heavily toeing the line between what depends on the outside world being a certain way and what doesn’t. So if it turns out that contacting a photographer to do something in the open whilst socially distanced won’t be possible, there are a couple of ideas that I might be able to manage myself at home with just a tripod and a remote controller (like recreating Milkyfawn’s iconic lying on brand photo - I think we all at least thought about doing that). Of course, the proper option is much more preferable, though if it genuinely won’t be possible, the accomplishment of orchestrating and doing something like the lying on brand photo all by myself would be a feat to be proud of regardless. I may have shot myself in the foot with this one, but it’s out there now, so let’s see how it goes.

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4. Overhaul My Earrings Collection

Although I’ve been looking at my stash of earrings for a long time now, meaning to overhaul it, it was always one of those tasks that gets put aside for another time. After re-piercing my ears at the age of 14, I had a very intense phase of collecting earrings and wanting to have 100 pairs, which turned out to be very easily done with Primark multipacks. And then at some point I stopped wearing earrings every day - but still held onto the ones I bought because I liked them and had plenty of variety to make them match something. In 2020 I rediscovered how much I enjoy earrings, particularly the big ones. So if I’m going to invest in earrings for lolita a bit more, I might as well look at everything that I own and decide what I want to keep. I don’t want to get rid of all of my smaller studs, because sometimes that is precisely the kind of unassuming touch that I want. But do I really need every single pair that I currently own? Probably not. I’m not sure yet how to approach that or what criteria to set regarding what to keep and what to get rid of, this is something I’ll think of nearer the time that I am actually ready to do this. Ideally I’d also like to find a way to repurpose them somehow instead of throwing them away. There is some potential for interesting crafts, making new jewellery pieces or adorning things like jackets, which in a way would allow me to not throw them away at all and still make space on my earrings rack.

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It feels silly to throw the usual stuff like “don’t buy outside of wishlist before 48 hours are up” and “wear every main piece at least once”. Whilst I will certainly continue with my impulse buy tracker and have managed to wear everything once even pre-pandemic, at this point these aren’t goal-worthy enough. It’s great that the goals I set here are entirely focused on creative things. Being creative and engaging with lolita fashion more in that way contributed to keeping me sane last year with all the meetups moving online. Without the social aspect, all that’s left to lolita is the creative expression, so if I can continue doing that, then 2021 will have at least one thing going for it.

Are you braving making any goals for the New Year? Or is the current situation too shaky for you to want to commit to anything or even to motivate yourself to think of something? There’s no shame in giving New Year’s resolutions and goals a miss, 2020 has worn us all out and just doing the bare minimum for a bit, while we recover, is absolutely valid.