Ranking all of my main pieces

Last week I tuned in to Joëlle’s livestream where she ranked all of her dresses. And as she was doing that, the schoolgirl energy of ‘I want to do that too’ kicked in. Except that I’m too indecisive and too overthinking to do it in a straightforward way like she has. So in true Paulina fashion, I overcomplicated the matter, but hopefully in a way that will make this into a more interesting post.

The Criteria

To make ranking all of my dresses easier I decided to score each one on the scale of 1 to 5 across five different categories. The combined total score will be what determines the ranking.

The criteria that I decided to go with are:

• Ease of coording - how easy do I find it to coord, do I struggle in any way, does it fit neatly into my wardrobe overall
• Comfort - pretty self explanatory
• How much did I want it - was it a dream dress, was it something I kept coming back to, was it an impulse buy or something I didn’t expect to want
• How often do I reach for it - when planning future outfits (without considering specific themes, just regular wear), do I lean towards it or do I avoid it
• Do I have lots of upcoming coord ideas that I'm excited for - are there lots of unfulfilled coord ideas with it that I can’t wait to try, do I struggle to come up with new things, how heavily do I rely on my coord archive to come up with new outfits.

As a quick disclaimer, the two main pieces that are still on pre-order I’ve had an educated guess for with the points. But everything else was scored based on a gut check reaction, no overthinking, just giving it a number.

The categories above are the sort of things that matter the most to me and that my mind goes towards when trying to pick favourites or put one over another. Because we all know that something can be a dream dress, while a completely different piece can end up being worn tonnes because of comfort. Hence overthinking the ranking and going with a points-based system.

The Top 3

I did not look at the totals before writing the post. So this is as much of a reveal to me as it is to you. I was wondering whether I’d have any pieces that scored a perfect 25/25 and had some guesses as to what they could be. In the end, there were two three-way ties, so there are actually 7 pieces instead of just 3.

1. Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt = 25
2. Angelic Pretty Diner Doll JSK = 23
   Angelic Pretty Cinema Doll JSK = 23
   Haenuli Lovely Memories JSK = 23
3. Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK = 22
   BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of a Maiden ~ JSK = 22
   Innocent World Revival Sweet Teddybear JSK = 22

Whilst I did not expect the no 1 full marks piece to be the Otome Nostalgia skirt, I can’t really say that I’m surprised. It really did tick all the boxes, no stretching out the truth. My own prediction was for Cinema Doll to claim that spot and now that I can review the points that I’ve awarded it, I also totally see why it didn’t. To see not one, but two three-way ties was pretty exciting and hand on heart all of these pieces are favourites that I love going back to. And of these seven two made it to the most worn main pieces of 2021, which only sings further praises of how well deserving they are of these spots.

The Bottom 3

As with every ranking, something has to end up at the bottom. And in my case these are:

1. Dangerous Nude Gobelin bloomers = 7
2. Alice Girl Velvet Cake OP = 10
3. Metamorphose Airline JSK = 11

The bloomers are totally deserved. I love them, but they are too small for me. Ideally I should sell them on, I’m holding onto them purely for the aesthetic and because I continue to fool myself that as long as I’m standing up they’re not so bad. But the thing is, they really weren’t made for people with thighs and/or hips, and although they’re not the hardest to coord and I was kind of looking for them, since they’re from my ouji side of the wardrobe, they’re really not the sort of thing that would could do any better than middling in this ranking.

The Alice Girl OP is one that’s still in its pre-order stage, so the points here are guesswork. Based on the shirring and size chart, I estimated the comfort mark to be slap bang in the middle. However, a long sleeve velvet OP with pretty intricate sleeves is neither the most versatile nor the easiest to coord, and although I pre-ordered it, I can’t really say that it was that big of a want. Maybe it’s because it’s still not here with me yet, but compared to the bloomers the score feels less harsh and more ‘that’s just how it is’. I bought it fully knowing that it won’t be the most versatile piece I own, aware of its intrinsic limitations - and that’s ok. Not everything has to work overtime.

Having said this, the dumb Airline JSK being the third bottom does feel like a very harsh ranking. I do love this dress, I love it so much that I’m willing to get extra pieces for it. But whilst it is a dream dress, I can’t imagine myself reaching for it too often, until I get those extra pieces I am quite limited in how much I can do with it, it’s not the easiest thing to coord and the buttons being the only way in and out is too much of a faff on the comfort scale. None of this diminishes my love for the piece, just like with the Alice Girl OP, it is what it is and I love it precisely for that. But because of that it could only do so much. Maybe once I get a few more items it will score better?

Final Words

I did not set out to do this ranking with the purpose of finding items to sell. The Airline JSK is certainly not leaving my possession anytime soon and whilst I am dithering about the Dangerous Nude bloomers, I will hold onto them for a bit longer and see if I can find a way to make them work somehow. But this ranking is certainly clearing up a thing or two in relation to my 2022 goal of sorting out my wardrobe and dedicating certain pieces for seasonal wear. Because whilst it was always clear that a long sleeve velvet OP was going to be an autumn/winter piece only, having this ranking in front of me shows me that some of those top dresses may need to remain as season-less ones. And I can use the rest of the ranking (which I may or may not share in full on my Patreon, I’ll see how I feel) to determine which things might also do better as seasonal items. And I guess congratulations to Violet Fane’s Otome Nostalgia skirt for being the absolute best thing for me in my wardrobe, you keep working hard, girl!