End of 2024 Lolidrobe Reassessment Post

Considering the deafening silence from me over the course of December, it is pretty safe to say that I have had my fill of 2024. Not that it was bad, to the contrary! But a year packed with good stuff is still quite tiring when you consider that it’s been 12 months of it.

Overview of Acquisitions

Kicking things off with the usual tallying everything that I gained this year. I’m no longer calling it ‘purchases’ because even though ‘acquisitions’ sounds so very formal, a bunch of these were gifts or handmade bits, so ‘purchases’ isn’t exactly the catch-all term that it should be.

• 2 JSKs
• 1 skirt
• 8 tops (1 gothic bolero in navy)
• 2 over-layers
• 1 under-layer
• 3 pairs of legwear 
• 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of classic heels in green)
• 1 bag
• 25 sets of accessories (1 classic headbow in ivory, 1 classic necklace in gold, 1 sweet ring in brown, 1 pair of classic earrings in bronze, 1 pair of sweet earrings in blue, 1 sweet brooch in beige, 1 sweet beret in red, 1 classic headbow in navy, 1 classic hat in grey, 1 classic headdress in offwhite, 1 sweet neckerchief in blue)

Compared to last year’s nearly 90 things, 2024 has really slowed down with acquisitions at half of that, even though frequently it did not feel like it. Probably in part because not buying lolita didn’t necessarily stop me from shopping, I just focused more on my non-lolita wardrobe. I still think that that’s where my energy is most needed and will carry that into 2025 with me, but with at least one big lolita event already on the cards, I’m not sure how well that will go. And of the things that I purchased this year, many have featured repeatedly in my outfits, be it more of the same (Elf Armorie shoes are unbeatable!) or something new (the Naddine Atelier bow top is a joy to style).

The Year of Big Event Organising

Between running the fashion show at The Queen is Dead and subsequently co-organising The Big Northern EGL Bring and Buy (not to mention some smaller events in between), I have sure been busy. And it felt great to do both. Often challenging, but with great challenges comes a great sense of accomplishment and great rewards. Whilst I have also organised some smaller meetups, I’ve been very content to simply attend the smaller bits and channel my energy into the bigger projects. If my new role continues at the pace that it has been at so far, then I should continue to have the energy to do precisely that, which I would love. But if that’s not what turns out to be on the cards for me, then that will be fine too. I probably won’t stop stretching myself out too thin at times, but maybe I could compromise with one big thing done jointly with someone else.

Doing important jobs dressed in silly stuff, that should be my tagline!
Photo with Zain Zia courtesy of Theresa

The Year of Wardrobe Cleansing

That actually sounds way grander than it was. However, between another style shift and a big burst of motivation to get rid of things that no longer served me, it was quite a cleanse. It isn’t quite complete yet, in the sense that I haven’t even begun listing things due to consistently running out of daylight after the Bring and Buy to photograph things, so this will be a task for the new year. That and a few things will need to join the alterations pile, so they’re not so much of an official cleanse as a refresh. Still, I have found a new direction for my style that actually has me excited and I am humbled by the reminders of being a new lolita when you just want to get to the goal now and not through the long, patient journey. But the important thing is that I am getting there, one change at a time.

And clearly I wasn't the only one with that idea, as the picture is from the Big Northern EGL Bring and Buy.

The Year of Captain Chris

I mean, you can’t have a 300% increase of Captain Chris in your collection in the space of a weekend and not count that as a raging success. Given December 2023’s acquisition of Kinnōsuke, the Kumakumya, this should probably be called the year of plush mascots, but as much as I love my firstborn, Captain Chris’ charisma is simply irresistible. It’s all in that blep.

May the power of blep compel you!

Review of 2024 Goals

Four goals of mixed effort levels for 2023 have yielded some mixed results. Looking at them now, I think that the ones I succeeded in were a little bit less effort or more of a concentrated very short burst of effort as opposed to a sustained one.

1. Did I finish the craft projects I started in 2023? I finished one! The blog post about how the beret got made is up here. That only leaves the collar, but in a true crafter style, I found another project to distract me, which is on a bit of a deadline, so we’ll have to see about the collar… Half completed goal is better than none.
2. Did I learn a new hairstyle? Absolutely not lol! What I did learn was to scale down my outfit ideas on work from home days, when I am most likely to have freshly washed hair and the will to dress up, saving the more elaborate things for the weekends. Clearly what was important here was my comfort (which includes laziness) over aesthetics.
3. Did I sort through my bags? With some redefining, I’m going to count this one as a success. I got rid of the bags that I definitely don’t use and don’t envision myself using. I replaced the peeling strap of one non-lolita bag. And I had a very long, hard look at the Innocent World bag, which is the other main culprit for peeling, but am yet to make a decision on what to do with it. The right thing is to probably replace it. But it is such a cute design that I can’t quite bring myself to do it.

What else can I say at this point? This has been a pretty packed year – and I clearly burned myself out a little by the end. Well, actually… Not quite burned out. I found another project that got me excited and took over my time and creative energy. As much as I’d love to, it is physically impossible to give myself to every single creative project and I don’t want to blog/make YouTube videos just for the sake of it. So expect a lot of slowing down of the content here, only putting something out when I have an idea that I’m excited by. And if you’re here as much for me as you are for the lolita fashion stuff, then keep an eye on my Instagram because that new project will be being advertised there once it is ready. And it’s not like I’m planning to stop wearing frills either, so there will always be pictures and the coord roundup posts to come back for.