Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2020.03

Blink and you’ll miss it. Days blend into one when the only change of scenery one gets is the occasional supermarket trip and there are fewer truly fun things to break this up. One gets a lot of thinking, reviewing and reassessing done in that time.

New additions

This may be a first in the history of these posts for me where we have so few additions...

• 1 skirt (classic/otome in ivory*)
• 1 jacket (classic in wine)
• 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of classic in wine and 1 pair of sweet-classic in silver)
• 11 sets of accessories (1 pair of opera gloves in black, 1 classic necklace in red, 1 classic necklace in pink, 1 classic ring in pink, 2 classic rings in red, 1 sweet bracelet in red x white, 1 classic ring in white, 1 pair of sweet hair clips in blue, 1 witch hat, 1 sweet character brooch)

This looks… almost sad? Of course, quality over quantity, I do believe in that. I am also painfully aware how I don’t have any pressing needs or gaps within my wardrobe, so anything more than this is genuinely excessive. But for months this last quarter I have been almost overwhelmed by the mood to spend. On a rational level I know that it’s because there were no meetups or events that I could attend, nothing to cheer myself up with, and shopping feels like a quick and easy way to get that serotonin boost. I’m proud of myself for not giving in to those urges to spend (too much, there has been some happiness spending happening outside of lolita), even though at the same time I am sad that there are only 15 new things for me to enjoy.

I never would've thought that I'd cave in and get a witch hat...

Closeup of those smaller bits.

Possible new looks

With fewer things bought, there are fewer possible new looks. Of course, the accessories always help fill in the gaps in coords and make them more interesting, though these are not major improvements. The jacket was bought with ouji in mind, but I think it could work with some lolita? I’ll certainly try that in the future. The shoes will probably make the biggest difference to my wardrobe, followed by the gloves. Although I guess the witch hat will, actually, I finally caved in and bought one. Home Bargains delivered a great one and at £1.99 I couldn’t resist. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Replacement and need list progress

Finally, I found a pair of classic shoes in wine that I’m happy with. They’re the right shape, height and colour, were bought used and completely offbrand for a great price. I’m getting into the swing of eBay bargain hunting, so whilst most of it is for non-lolita stuff, with things like shoes they will inevitably work for my whole wardrobe, lolita or not. I guess now’s the time to sell the pair I had before that wasn’t working for me. Although the brand whore in me doesn’t want to...

Progress! Small, but nonetheless.

However, I’ve had no such luck with finding loliable pink shoes. I am still reluctant to turn to buying something new, but after scrolling through not even remotely appropriate stuff on eBay, neither in shape nor colour, I may need to start considering some alternatives. At this point the only place that could potentially come to my rescue is Irregular Choice, which at least does pop up second hand, but can be just as sought after as Angelic Pretty for the more popular designs and/or cheaper listings. Since chances of my needing to go anywhere are slim to none this year, this is in no way urgent and I probably won’t start seriously considering alternatives until at least next year.

And then no progress here...

Lastly, I was able to make a couple of additional sales. These aren’t replacements as such, mostly getting rid of things that I neither wear nor really need. This wasn’t enough to call a proper wardrobe cull, nonetheless every little helps, both in terms of making more storage space and having a few extra quid to spend once something worthwhile does pop up.

Current wishlist

Some of you may know that I almost ended up getting the Airline JSK in orange. I fought valiantly in that bidding war and unfortunately my funds were not prepared to stretch quite as far as my opponents’, so I had to give up. Still, seeing it pop up gave me hope - as I say, if something comes up once, it will do so again. And now I know what sort of budget to prepare.

Otherwise there has been no progress made with my wishlist. One or two minor additions or subtractions, but the bulk of it remains the same. Curse my very specific nature and tendency to get swept up with the various moods!

Has anything actually changed? I can't even remember at this point.

New Year’s goals: progress summary

When I set these goals up, I really had a very different year in mind.

1. Did I set up my PayPal for lolita and only make lolita purchases using cash stored in it: yes and that pot has grown nicely, in no small part thanks to the small sales I made.
2. Did I wait at least 48 hours before buying something from outside of my wishlist: I hardly bought things, so yes.
3. Have I prioritised events over purchases: haha, what events? Although again, I bought so little in general that we can count this as a yes.
4. Did I organise another Man Meet and OT-Tea Party: welp, I guess this is prime time to scratch this goal off the list because it’s not like either of these will happen this year. Having said this, I have been organising virtual meetups, both simple gatherings and more elaborate things (I’ll write more about one in due course). The whole point of that 2020 goal was to keep giving back to my community and offer events that people would like to attend. Which means that this sort of happened through the virtual meetups that I did, even if none of them were Man Meet or OT-Tea Party specifically. That is some consolation...

As we are entering the last quarter of this really miserable year, I’m trying to mentally prepare for what’s to come. My work decided that my office won’t return fully until at least January, though we’ve been scheduled on a rota to have one person per week return to help out a little. Meetups are almost definitely not happening, the UK is anticipating a second wave and a second national lockdown, and no-one in my immediate comms feels that it is truly safe to have meetups beyond the most careful ones of only a few people. Whilst I am on a creative high, with plenty of ideas for new videos and posts, my time doesn’t match that. Still, this will probably be the only way I’ll be able to engage with lolita fashion meaningfully and beyond casual coords worn for working from home, so I would love to plan my time more efficiently to allow me to do at least that. Here’s to hoping that next year won’t be so bleak (although given the pace of developments, it feels like wishful thinking).