Your Favourite 2020 Releases
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve last done a Lolita Blog Carnival post. However, it’s December, so every little post helps make sure that I have something going on, while I work on other stuff and don’t expend too much energy reserved for festive cheer. It’s also that time when we start to reflect on the year and as crappy as 2020 was, at least lolita releases kept coming and brightening our days.
In this particular post I will focus on favourites as pieces that I have not bought, but was very tempted to. Otherwise it could much too easily run into “this is everything I liked and would’ve liked to own”, which will just be too much. Limiting this to items that I seriously pondered spending my money on is the best way to ensure that the list doesn’t get out of hand. So in order of strongest to weakest temptations we open with…
1. BtSSB’s Kumya’s Christmas Market
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| Image from Lolibrary.org |
I mean, come on! Baby completely and 100% won Christmas this year with this release. It is everything you want in a Christmas dress: lovely cuts, adorable print, a festive theme, lots of Christmas trees, cute characters, custom lace, cotton fabric, fantastic colourways… Not buying this one genuinely pained me, but I was in no position to indulge on a brand new from brand dress. And I didn’t help myself by being undecided about both cut (both look cute, but each has tiny strikes against it) and colourway (I love the red and how festive it is, but the print pops so much more on the sax!). If I ever find it second hand at a good price (hah, good luck, mate!) I will probably indulge. Which means that I better add it to my official 2021 wishlist, won’t I?
2. Lady Sloth’s Tea Time at Grandma’s
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| Image from Lolibrary.org |
How come it took us this long to get a proper tea-specific print as a fashion community obsessed with tea? Nevermind, this one is the only one anyone should ever need. It’s sweet and cutesy enough to satisfy sweet lolitas, yet elegant and refined enough to work for classic. As always, @antygea’s art is beautiful and full of detail that one can admire the print for hours and still find something new. Do I regret not getting it despite having a chance? Kind of. I still don’t know which colourway I would’ve gone for, since both green and red appeal to me equally, procrastinating on which was the big reason I decided not to buy the dress after all. At the time I also wondered whether a skirt or a JSK would’ve been better for me, though looking back now, JSK really is the way forward. If I ever decide on the colourway and if Lady Sloth re-releases this, I’ll see if I’m in a position to indulge then.
3. Innocent World Emma OP
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| Image from Innocent World's website. |
Argh, this is a dress I’ve gone back and forth on so much that it ended up slipping away from me and selling out. Technically it’s a re-release, but I wasn’t even aware of the original, it somehow bypassed my attention entirely, which is why it’s on this list. My fear of fit, despite the full back shirring and measurements looking ok for the chest stopped me, since I was worried about the shoulders (I’m 4cm off the listed measurement, and that’s without adding the extra few for comfort). This is ideally something that I would’ve preferred to try on before buying, particularly at brand new price. For a good second hand deal I might risk it - which once again leads me to the “but which colourway” dilemma. At the time I pondered that greige lavender, hoping that it’d lean more grey and thinking that it’d be such a good choice for formal non-lolita occasions (as well as elegant casual wear), but how could I really resist the sax?
4. BtSSB’s Belle Harmonie ~Melody of Resonating Wishes and Reunited Maidens~
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| Image from Lolibrary.org |
Here’s one that sent me on a very wild emotional ride. This is a release that I completely slept on. It wasn’t until summer ILD when I was putting together a quiz for my comm that I *really* looked at it - and then something in me cracked. It’s gorgeous! All of the wisteria, those windows, it’s like a Disney princess’ castle in a print done so elegantly! The colours of Tangled meet the castle aesthetic of Sleeping Beauty, meet lolita fashion. Sadly, no matter which colourway you looked at, this print always reads as lavender - and after a brief dip, I decided that I am not ready to commit to the lavender way of life. Begrudgingly I had to let it go, even more begrudgingly as this whole release went on a 50% off sale during summer, when the temptation intensified! Whilst my mind knows that not buying this was the rational decision, my heart is still not consoled from the pain.
An honourable mention goes to Meta’s re-release of Magical Artefact, not only because it’s an amazing print that has all the fit for spooky season without the more typical take on the spooky season, but also because they used it to cross the bridge of making their releases openly plus-size and not just very stretchy as they have been so far. This was completely the right move and 100% the best print to test that new direction on, and they deserve all of the success that came out of that. The Western lolita community is eternally grateful, we don’t deserve Meta, and hopefully one day they will extend this option to their plus-size customers in Japan, as they also should have that possibility.
What were your favourite releases from 2020? Any that you regret not getting your hands on after all? Or did you get any because you couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on them? I only bought one brand new main piece this year (Violet Fane’s Otome Nostalgia skirt), which I’m still waiting for, but besides that the above are the only ones that seriously tested my will and that I still remember without having to scroll back through Lolibrary to jog my memory. I still did, to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but the above 4 + an honourable mention are really the favourites.
As always, make sure to check out the posts written by other bloggers participating in this week's Lolita Blog Carnival prompt, see what they enjoyed over the past 12 months.
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