2023 Lolita Goals

 This time I started preparing for this post a little earlier. As always, I want my goals to be meaningful, as well as easily measurable, so they’re not of the “buy/don’t buy X” variety; that’s what the wish/need/replace list is for. Some may seem like they’re going against the trends I started in 2022, but that’s not quite it - they’re there to add another layer to how I engage with lolita fashion rather than override anything that I’ve done last year. With that beating around the bush done, here are the goals that I am setting for myself for 2023.

1. Take More Outfit Shots Outside

Might as well kick off with the heavily hinted contradiction. I still want to continue with taking off the pressure to document every single outfit that I wear through mirror selfies or even by allowing myself to not take a picture at all. However, I’ve enjoyed the variety of outfit shots that I was able to get in the latter half of 2022. My stance has always been to take outfit shots before leaving the house, so that I could enjoy the meetup/event/activity instead of stressing over getting that coord documented and potentially bothering someone to retake the photos when I don’t like the outcome. The point of this goal isn’t just to have more of a variety of backgrounds, although that would be nice as a confirmation that I do things outside of my house too. I mainly want to get over my own self-consciousness at taking photos outside by myself. It’s not that weird anymore to grab a tripod and take some pictures, and it’s not like being perceived as an influencer is that bad of a thing either, so I should stop making it into such a massive issue in my head and just do it. As simply saying “more” isn’t quite specific enough, which was the trap I fell into with last year’s mirror selfie goal, this time I will say that I’d like to have at least one photo like that every quarter. Once a month is the true aim here, but as that depends on so many factors (activity, weather, time, what I can pack etc.) once per quarter seems more realistic.

Motivating myself to j u s t  d o  i t !

2. Invest in Some Lolita Art/Decor

One of my wider goals for this year is to make my flat more aesthetically pleasing to me. It was supposed to be the goal for 2022, but it fell flat on its face, so I’m carrying it over into 2023. There is still a lot of hesitation within me regarding doing anything too permanent because where I am now doesn’t feel permanent enough to some part of me. However, I can work on that at the same time as making changes that aren’t too big of a commitment. Therefore, I would like to obtain at least two pieces of lolita art or home decor this year. And it’s phrased like this, i.e. pretty broadly, on purpose. This will allow me to meet the goal more easily, regardless of how it happens. I could get a commission from a lolita artist or of one of my lolita outfits. It may be that I find a novelty item for sale that could be displayed somewhere. It could even be that I finally get my act together, gather the various pieces of lolita art that I already have, like postcards, brand bags, calendars etc., and create something out of those. I don’t know yet what direction I will take. All that I know is that I’d like my flat to be prettier for me and that lolita, being as big a part of my life as it is, is the perfect starting point for more. Oh, and I know that with the sort of vague aesthetic/home decor styles that I have in mind for the various places around my flat, it will be something either for the living room, for my bedroom or for the tiny box of a corridor that is probably the most drab and the most in need of some livening up.

Starting a collection of teacups and saucers is the dream that my storage space stubbornly refuses to give in to.
Image from Lolibrary.org.

3. Make One Item from Otome no Sewing

Turns out that just buying Otome no Sewing doesn’t magically make one a proficient maker of clothing or accessories. It’s prime time that I put those mooks to some use and make at least one thing from there. I’m deliberately not committing to anything specific at this stage so as to avoid getting overambitious. I will definitely not be making anything at all just to tick this off, it has to be something that will enhance my wardrobe one way or another. Whether that ends up being a hair accessory or an entire garment, that remains to be seen. Hopefully once I get started and familiar with using patterns, the high of having made something will kick in and motivate me to try more, building my skills and getting me to a stage where I’m less reliant on what’s available to purchase for when I am planning a specific coord or simply in need of an item.

At the time of writing volume 17 is on its way to me, which will give me more options to choose from.

4. Transfer My Entire Wardrobe to Whering

Right at the end of 2022 I downloaded Whering and gave it a stab, after seeing a friend have much success with it. Although I still plan on keeping my wardrobe spreadsheet as the primary means of tracking my wardrobe, I have found the app to be pretty neat and would love to explore its flatlay option more. However, as is often the case when you own a lot of stuff, the task is very time consuming, particularly as the app’s AI is still not fully able to identify what it’s looking at, requiring manual overwriting of all the tags. Ideally, I would like to transfer not just my entire lolita wardrobe, but literally every single piece of clothing that I own onto there, so that my outfit planning can become a bit more consistent. So to keep the goal more focused and relevant to here, let’s say that I’d like to have all of my lolita pieces uploaded to Whering by the end of March and everything else - by the end of June (to give those spring/summer pieces a chance to come out of storage). If I can manage that, it’d make putting together hypothetical outfits easier for me, as well as enable me to create capsule wardrobes with my own pieces faster, since my stalling in that area is a direct result of how much time putting things into collages is.

The app is very obviously aimed at mainstream fashion, but you can definitely make it work for lolita.
Picture taken from Whering.co.uk

As per tradition, the overachiever within me kept trying to add more to this, restrained by the rational and sensible side. There’s no point in overexerting myself, that’s just a fast track to burnout. The four goals above, whilst seemingly quite broad, reflect where I am at with my life now, at the start of 2023. They will be a guide towards the version of myself that I would like to become and an anchor to the values that I hold close. And whilst there will inevitably be procrastination (when isn’t there any?), they are neither too overwhelming nor overly broad so as to make them harder to achieve. This is practically the definition of SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) and I am excited to get started on them.

What sort of goals or resolutions are you putting on yourself for this year, if any? Are you also trying to scale down to one or two things that you know you’ll manage or going all out with everything that you can think of in the hopes that something will stick?