Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2023.01

Words cannot describe how excited I am to wave winter goodbye and get into spring properly. And hopefully I won’t jinx anything weather-wise by saying that.

New additions

As always, whenever I review what it may be that I need or should get, it prompts some form of a shopping spree to try to fill those gaps in.

• 1 JSK (gothic in ivory*)
• 1 skirt (sweet in black)
• 1 blouse (classic in red)
• 2 piece of outerwear (1 classic bolero in sax** and 1 classic bolero in ivory*)
• 2 pieces of underwear (1 petticoat in white and 1 underskirt in navy)
• 1 pair of legwear (sweet OTKs in white x gold)
• 1 pair of shoes (red tartan platforms)
• and 16 accessory items (5 pairs of ribbon shoe laces in: sax, navy, wine, pink, and gold; 1 classic headbow in pink, 1 pair of sweet earrings in red, 1 sweet necklace in red, 1 sweet brooch in red, 1 sweet brooch in pink, 1 sweet brooch in navy, 1 sweet belt in sax, 1 sweet headbow in red, 1 classic brooch in brown, 1 gothic necklace in silver, 1 pair of classic bracelets in gold x emerald)

The bolero has sadly proved to not be flattering on me, which is a massive shame, as I’d hoped it’d tick that bit off my need list. So it went straight into a sales pile and thankfully got sold pretty much immediately. Still sad about that though as it means my search continues. Everything else feels like pretty sensible purchases or at least nothing here has been particularly extravagant or outside the box, plus a fair bunch were Secret Santa gifts. Maybe that’s why I feel like the quarter has gone alright? I did manage to avoid a lot of lolita temptations - it’s outside of the fashion that I’ve fallen a bit…

Possible new looks

On the upside, buying things to fill in wardrobe gaps means that I can do more with what I own and do fun things, and that is always the exciting part. And I’d like to think that I did some exciting things in the last quarter.

Replacement and need list progress

I’m actually going to remove the navy bonnet from this list. It’s been on here for years because in my head I thought that I needed one, but not once in all that time have I actually found myself thinking “oh, what a shame, this coord would’ve looked much better with a bonnet”. It certainly took me a while to realise that, but better late than never. Nothing else has managed to get replaced yet, sadly.

List as of April 2023.

And then along came my Discord Secret Santa who only went and managed to tick off so much from my need list! These pieces are exactly what I’d been after, even if I wasn’t able to articulate it well, and having them gave me a massive boost of motivation. One of the ways that manifested itself was that after two years of procrastinating I finally made the emerald bracelets too, so now that’s available for me to use.

List as of April 2023.

Current wishlist

Predictably no major changes here. Whilst originally I have specified an A-line black skirt, the addition of BtSSB’s Snow Dot skirt actually functions in a way that I wanted it to, so I am considering that ticked off, I do not need any more black main pieces. It also serves as an addition for more casual pieces added to my wardrobe, though one skirt alone is not enough to make me tick off what is basically that bottom row, so for the time being that stays as it is.

List as of April 2023.

The navy underskirt is now ticked off (though boy, was it a chore to get because of Royal Mail fucking up time and time again!). As is, surprisingly, the 2010 tulle lace Millefeuille bolero (though in a different colourway than the one pictured - one can’t be too choosy).  I’m not sure if it was just the January season of sales, but I saw a few of the Millefeuille boleros crop up on Lacemarket etc., though not at prices that I was able to pay at the time (January turned out to be pretty spendy for me). Life, it seems, meant for me to expand that collection anyway because one popped up at a much better price on Tokyo Alice in March. Though apparently not satisfied with having something ticked off, life also reminded me about the dumb Girly Sticker pochette from AP that I still kind of want, so that’s two things out and one thing in.

List as of April 2023.

New Year’s goals: progress summary

In 2023 I’m working towards four main goals when it comes to lolita fashion, with no sub-goals to any of them, which should hopefully deter procrastination at least a little. Or am I deluding myself?

1. Did I take at least one coord photo outside this quarter: yes! The very first one I took back in January was quite a nerve-racking experience, as I hurried to take advantage of a quiet corner, but despite the imperfections with that photo, I ended up really liking it. Going to an event in February also helped, since there was no choice but to take a photo somewhere that wasn’t my living room, though I haven’t managed one in March. Still, that’s more than one a quarter already, which is great!
   
2. Did I obtain any pieces of lolita art or home decor: yes. Excluding a commission I ordered just before the end of 2022 and the French dresser that’s just general (if aesthetic) home decor, at Divina Commedia I purchased an A4 print from @erikariegl that has since been added to my wall (alongside the commissions) in a nice frame. And I also used up my various lolita stickers to turn them into magnets that now adorn my fridge. But I still want something more before I will consider this goal met, like maybe finding something to do with my Sakizo prints.
3. Did I make at least one item from Otome no Sewing: big ol’ nope on this front! I haven’t even picked anything to do yet and every time I flicked through what I have, I either got overwhelmed or gravitated towards quite involved things like bustiers, which I’m not sure I have it in me to make just yet.
4. Have I transferred my entire wardrobe to Whering: yes, but. The goal was to have the lolita side of things added to the app by the end of March. Along the way I had to adjust what that goal meant and reduce it to strictly clothing and fabric pieces. The more items were in that app, the slower it was to load and as I still have my non-lolita wardrobe ahead of me (which is probably equally sizable), entirely cutting out jewellery was the best way forward to have a working app. I also haven’t added all of my smaller hair pieces, as that is also a very numerous category that would’ve negatively impacted the app’s functionality. So yes, I have all the clothes on there and am actively using it to plan outfits - but it is far from what I had envisioned when I first set this goal.
   

We're only past the first quarter of 2023 and I'm already battling temptations almost everywhere I go. Not even necessarily in the sense of having unexpected finds pop up for sale at reasonable prices, but more in that my list of other things that I would like to save up for is growing (alongside day to day expenses getting higher and me feeling the cost of that financial independence as the expense of funsies). On the flipside, despite my usually feeling very unseasonal when it comes to what the weather is doing vs what I want to wear, splitting my wardrobe has helped that somewhat. My winter stuff is getting packed up and I feel like I've given it a good run, and am looking forward to the mini wardrobe refresh that getting my spring/summer stuff out will provide. Hopefully that high will last a while because if I keep the warm weather stuff out until as late as I did last year, then it has to carry me through good seven months. We'll see how that goes though. For now I am ready to wave winter goodbye and stop having to drink hot water just to warm my fingers up with something whilst I work.