Most Worn Items of 2021

This time, knowing that this was something I wanted to write about, I have spent the entire year tracking every. single. thing. that I've worn. So this post is getting upgraded - for your reading pleasure, hopefully. Despite having a few sneak peeks throughout the year, I don't really know what to expect for most of these, shoes is the only one that I am somewhat confident of, and I cannot wait to see what the most worn items of 2021 will reveal about my style over the past 12 months.

Top

Whilst I didn’t have any intentions of doing so, based on what I found from my tracker spreadsheet I am splitting this category into an outer layer winner and a blouse/cutsew.

Outer layer

Predictably, the Pretty Rock Baby cardigan won here by a landslide. Whilst it was aided by my trip to Poland, even without that it would’ve outperformed everything else. It is soft, thick, warm, the perfect length, with an amazing sleeve, and just the right amount of detail to really spice up an outfit. All of the above alone make it a totally valid win. What did surprise me is that all seven instances of me wearing it came in the second half of the year. It shouldn’t have surprised me given that it only arrived shortly before the first half ended and just as the weather started warming up, but still.

Blouse/Cutsew

Meanwhile in the blouse department we have a tie between the Infanta Swan Lake blouse and the high neck white cutsew from New Look, each being worn five times. I think what worked in their favour is how easy they are to layer. The New Look cutsew is particularly great for that thanks to having completely mesh sleeves which will fit under even the tightest cardigan, whilst also having a solid bodice. Meanwhile the Infanta blouse adds both a classic touch with all the lace and frills, and an extra layer of versatility by working beautifully for both masculine and feminine looks. It’s a nice bit of justice for it, considering how it was my first proper lolita blouse, and it’s great to see that it still works so hard for its place in my wardrobe. And I always take pleasure in proving that totally offbrand bits can work with lolita if you style them well, so the New Look cutsew also making the cut here makes me pretty pleased with myself.

Legwear

For some weird reason my tracker has one more wear of these white fishnets than I can find pictures of. Oh well, nevermind, I can’t be bothered to recount everything else, and these Snag fishnets claiming the title of most worn legwear of 2021 feels quite fitting. I was already pretty late to the fishnet party (not even for the typical lolita reasons, just growing up in the late 90s and early 00s reasons). But once I jumped on that train, it’s taken me to so many cool places. Because that’s the main thing with all of these looks - they are the ones that helped me explore my cool side, which I never thought I had (growing up as a thoroughly uncool bookish kid), and which I totally loved. The variety of these coords is making me smile and even if the fishnets don’t feature as much in 2022, hopefully the cool looks won’t stop.

Shoes

This is the one that I knew was coming. With every update of my tracker it became clearer and clearer that these shoes were just what my wardrobe needed. Neutral yet cute, comfortable and stylish, the Irregular Choice’s Flickety Kiss shoes in white glitter have certainly proved themselves indispensable - at least those 11 times, and there were certainly opportunities for more. They have naturally found their place with classic looks and seeing how well they fit in with the more elegant sweet looks is the cherry on top. Granted, Flickety Kiss is currently my favourite design from Irregular Choice and I have half a mind to collect all the colourways. If my shoe storage expansion plan works out, this may even end up happening…

Hair accessory

Never in a million years would I have guessed this particular headbow, the Maiden’s Prayer from Cutie Creator, to take the top spot. Really? I mean, I do own it in four colourways because it’s that good, but this particular one falls right into the curse of sax blue. Yet here we are - it featured in 6 coords across the year, beating all the runner ups by two coords. Although I guess given how often I’ve worn a hair accessory at the back of my head, this is a better winner for this post since at least it can be seen. And to be honest, except for one look, all the other ones I still like a lot, so I guess despite the curse of sax blue, this headbow really helped put together something great.

Jewellery

For a moment I considered doing a most worn of each kind of jewellery, but then decided against it out of pure laziness. That’s too many collages to bother with. So here we have the one to rule them all - the Big Pink Boutique earrings times 7. Whilst it probably would’ve been better to show them off as a collage of selfies, it’s also good to see them in context of the whole coords to see what sort of looks they featured in. Because what a cool variety this is! Casual looks, travelling looks, more conceptual looks, so many colours and inspirations that this one pair of earrings fits neatly in. Just proves that they were one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Main piece

Let’s finish off on a big one - and it really is a big one. Not just because we’re talking about main pieces, not only because there is a draw, but because there are *two draws*! Ok, you could argue that this is actually a four-way draw, however, two of these pieces made it to the top spot by being used as layers, whereas two made it purely on their own merit. All that despite me trying to wear everything evenly (which, by the way, I didn’t manage, but that’s ok, everything I own was worn at least once and I’m happy with that).

Layerable pieces

The layerable pieces that drew at 5 wears each are Dear Celine’s Magic Book OP and BtSSB’s Dreaming Sherbet skirt. Arguably as a layerable item the skirt should have won, since the OP was only a layer once, but let’s not split hairs quite like that. The OP x JSK trend may have been short lived online, yet I think that for me it will live on, especially with this particular OP. As for the skirt, all I can say is that I am very grateful to my past self for giving in and getting it when I had the chance, it really proved to be an amazing purchase.

Non-layerable pieces

Also at wears each, in the non-layerable main piece section we have a draw between Angelic Pretty’s Diner Doll JSK and Violet Fane’s Otome Nostalgia skirt. The latter one I could have predicted, again, that trip to Poland really pushed it along. Diner Doll on the other hand? Maybe if I thought about my 2021 coords hard enough I would’ve guessed it, but not straight away. But I am super stoked that it became the one that saw the most wear during the year! Whilst with Otome Nostalgia I know that it will get plenty of casual wear anyway, with Diner Doll there was genuinely a time sometime in the first half of 2020 when I started wondering if I’m creatively burnt out with this print as I found myself struggling to come up with ideas. Turns out I was simply stashing them all away for “a special occasion” and 2021 luckily delivered on those.

Conclusion

When I did this post last year, the results felt a bit more all over the place. If there were any outfits that featured more than once across multiple categories, then I missed that. Moreover, my predictions for most worn items of 2020 were a lot more off, as I predicted more versatile and neutral items to claim those spots. It appears that in 2021 there was a bit more… consistency, I guess? My most worn main pieces were often coorded with other most worn items, from as significant as a cardigan to as small as a pair of earrings. Even looking at the breakdowns of the individual most worn bits, I can see common threads, not just literally in the form of shared items, but in terms of the looks that I have favoured over the course of the year. Combined with the fact that 5 out of the 12 of my favourite coords have made this list, whereas only one favourite look of 2020 made it to the list of most worn items of that year, this really seems to point to some sort of consistency. What kind of consistency, I’m not necessarily sure myself, but it does seem to tie together a bit more, doesn’t it?

What were your most worn pieces of the past year? Any firm favourites or were your preferences all over the place? I’m very curious to know if anyone else has also found themselves surprised by what they’ve actually worn the most times compared to what they thought that would be.