No Buy Support Wardrobe Challenge: A Coord with a Never Worn Shoes/Legwear

The original plan for this prompt was different, as I had a pair of socks in the post that were brand new. But as I put the coordinate that you will see below on, I realised that it not only fits the prompt, but that it fits the spirit of the challenge much better.

| HeartE Tartan JSK | Lady Sloth crop top and brooch | Innocent World Cross Lace Millefeuille bolero | offbrand socks | Alf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Two Days Slow hair clips |

The reason why this coord came to be was simply because I wanted to dress up into this particular JSK, that I wanted something comfortable enough for a WFH day and for a grocery trip after - and that I wanted to pair these socks with it. With the dress already being shorter and less poofy, which works great for more oldschool looks, leaning into that felt like the right thing to do. Though my initial thought was to use the ivory lace-topped socks that I have, in the end I reached for the black ones given the black bows on the dress.

It wasn’t when I finally cut off the tags off these socks, but several hours later, whilst sitting at my desk, that it hit me. This was the first time that I’ve worn these socks. They are never worn and have been with me for something close to six years.They’re one of those things that well-meaning family members who are ultimately clueless about lolita get when trying to show support of our fashion style, which in this case was my Mum one Christmas, if memory serves me right. Simple socks from Primark from some random time lacy OTKs were somehow in vogue mainstream, and despite not wearing black at the time and knowing from the very beginning that these socks were not the level of quality expected for lolita fashion, I held onto them. If this isn’t the actual spirit of the No Buy Support Challenge, then I don’t know what is.

A photo from only this January to serve as proof that these socks have been unopened until this coord.

Once this realisation hit, another one followed almost immediately after: the shoes are also new. Whilst by the time this coord was worn, the shoes were on their third actual outing (having had a debut at work and then a whole meetup to be showcased), they are still one of the latest pairs of shoes that I have received. Things really aligned well there as far as this coord challenge is concerned, and whatever the other idea was, it would’ve been a shame to not capitalise on this particular look for this prompt.

The bolero was also a new-to-me and an addition to my collection of IW's Millefeuille boleros. Despite being a size M, it does fit. Not as well as a size L, but not noticeably too small, which is a success.

The outfit, which had such humble origins, already gained two big points for this particular challenge, but apparently that wasn’t enough. My Discord server had a twinning challenge going on and a friend messaged me previously about working something out for it. As things tend to do, life took over until I had a thought that this outfit could also be something that they would wear and could easily get a vibe twin look going. So I dropped them a message to ask if they were still interested - and then twinning also happened.

Twinning the vibes with @coinoperatedcthulhu.

So all in all, one pretty simple outfit can end up being a multitasking hero if you play your cards right. And this is something that I really like about this challenge, as not only it encourages you to wear what you already own, but also doesn’t apply pressure for the challenge prompts to all be fancy OTT looks. Remembering that something more casual and laid back can still fit the prompt is important in the age of social media clouding our judgement with a filtered version of events. Though maybe I should set a reminder on my own phone for next month when we get to another prompt so that I don’t end up overthinking and overcomplicating things again…

No word of a lie, ever since discovering the rope curl method, it's one of my go-to's with how easy it is to do and how comfortable it is to sleep on. Very little effort for quite a significant pay-off, that's what I'm here for!