Wardrobe Farewells

The darker winter months are here and with them, the gloomier theme of Farewells, as chosen by the Bibliotheca bloggers. What a perfect coincidence with The Big Northern EGL Bring & Buy that I happen to be co-organising and using as the grounds for getting rid of some of my bits. I won’t talk about every single item that I am bringing, but will give a farewell nod to the main pieces that will be leaving my wardrobe and why. (And don’t worry, if one of those is something you had your eye on, if they don’t sell at the event, they will be listed up somewhere, probably Vinted and Lacemarket.)

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels.com.

Angelic Pretty Crystal Dream Carnival Tiered JSK

Picture from Lolibrary.org.

Yes, the time has come to finally bid Crystal Dream Carnival goodbye. This idea has been on my mind for a while, after all I very much gave myself permission to keep it as a collector’s piece maybe two years ago? But I’ve literally not worn it since October 2023, putting it off because it’s such a fancy dress that I don’t want to tone down for the sake of wearing it. Then when I finally found the right occasion, it turned out that I grew out of the dress, which was the final straw for me. Thankfully, I have a buyer ready for it, my Crystal Dream Carnival was always promised to one specific person first and I’m in no hurry, I’d rather she took her time gathering up funds than for the dress to be thrown out there to the wolves. I’d like to thank one of my first ever dream dresses for the number of great coords and memories, and I cannot wait to see it actually be worn by someone who will truly love it.

Resailan Jewelry Box JSK

Picture from My Lolita Dress.

This is another one where the love was slowly fading away and I found myself either struggling to coord it in a way that I liked or simply putting off wearing it. And this is after getting it altered as well! Which also fell into the bag of no longer fitting with how my body has changed. For a long time there was a part of me that was reluctant to sell it because of the sunk cost fallacy, as well as the perception that no-one would buy an altered piece. However, we are living in much better times now, when an alteration doesn’t immediately mean that donating a piece is your only option. So whilst I won’t be pricing this one too high to reflect the changes to the cut, the time has come now to part with it and make room for something that I won’t be dreading to see come up in my last worn tracker. I still love the print, but feel that my style may have grown out of this style of prints? I’m definitely growing further apart with navy blue.

Metamorphose Classical Sister OP

Picture from Lolibrary.org.

This is the dress that started my list of items to sell at the Bring and Buy. It had spent the last few months packed up in storage for spring and summer, during which time the thought of parting with it had solidified. I don’t even know if it still fits me since I haven’t worn it since February this year, but the fit was never my gripe with it – it was the fabric. Every time I put it on, it felt like being encased in polyester and I was uncomfortably sweaty within minutes. There was never a choice to maybe ‘just air it’ and not even pure alcohol spritzes managed to refresh it, which led to having to launder it every time I had worn it only to deal with the same discomfort the next time. Moreover, of all my OPs, four are solid red and of those, three are long sleeve ones. It’s not doing anything in my wardrobe that I couldn’t replicate, so whilst I will always hold the fold memories of the Metamorphose staff in Osaka kindly reserving it for me at the Harajuku branch to collect during my 2019 trip, I don’t need to keep it to remember that. Bye, bye, Classical Sister!

L’Esprit de la Noblesse La Bibliotheca JSK

Picture from Lacemarket.

Maybe a surprise entry on this list, since I don’t see that many more people except the designers wear it, but sometimes you just know that the time has come. In my last coords roundup post I mentioned having a right palaver with looking for coord ideas, where I got people involved everywhere (Discord, Instagram, private group chats etc.) with putting outfits together and not liking a single suggestion, despite them being objectively good coords. This is the dress in question. It then turned out to also not fit, which is far less surprising given that it was made to measure 4 years ago and it has no shirring – even last time I wore it, it was a bit of a struggle to zip up. As some of you may know, I’m not a fan of bustles, which would be the most obvious alteration that could be done on it to make it bigger and I doubt that this would be easy to find a matching fabric for (though maybe something complimentary for a panel of shirring?). Still, the fact that I’ve struggled to find coord ideas that I was actually excited by was the big push that I needed to finally part with it. If it doesn’t sell at the bring and buy or later, then I may end up asking someone to consider an alteration after all – but for now, I am ready to bid it farewell.

Lady Sloth Look at My Dreamy Sky Casual OP

I've mulled it over so long, even had this whole post written out, before finally deciding a week before the event that I wanted to include this dress too. It's lovely and whilst I get that the point of a casual OP is so that you can just chuck it on, it's long since stopped being that for me and became a bit of a point of stress. My preference shifted towards longer lengths, the sleeves are just a touch too far apart, so my bra straps would always show, no longer fitting very comfortably... If I'm really honest with myself, I've thought about parting with this one for a while, but have not had the guts to be honest with myself about it. But you know that it's serious when I take it out from storage, which is inconvenient AF, just to wash it and sell it. I still have the postcard from this print on my wall, as well as the many photos of wearing it and even a lookbook video, it is time to pass it on.

These are all the main pieces that I am selling for now. There may be one or two more joining later, but I don’t need to get rid of everything all at once. There are a few other bits coming with me to the Bring and Buy, so between them all I will hopefully generate enough money to fund some replacements. Because on top of the various individual reasons listed here, the biggest push to part with these pieces is that I’ve found my style to have shifted once more and I want to make room for a more traditional kind of classic lolita in my wardrobe. I may write more about this some other time, since that’s not very on theme for this post.

What kind of wardrobe farewells have you made recently? Or maybe you’ve had to do some other lolita farewells? The other Bibliotheca bloggers will definitely talk about a range of things that aren’t just what they’re getting rid of, so make sure to subscribe to the mailing list, if you haven’t already!