No Buy Support Wardrobe Challenge: 1 Piece, 4 Seasons

The most involved prompt of this whole challenge. And whilst technically ‘piece’ could be anything, ‘main piece’ is the most obvious interpretation, which is the one that I’ve gone for. The disclaimer here is that none of these coords was worn for more than about half an hour at a time, because to make the prompt extra involved I decided to do a video lookbook of these and recorded everything in one day. Ill-advised in July? Probably, but it got the job done.

The Dress

For these looks I picked Angelic Pretty’s Cinema Doll JSK for two reasons. One, it is simply a gorgeous dress that I fall in love with every time I bring it out. And two, considering how it is a relatively themed piece, it’s also one of the most versatile ones out of the 50-odd main pieces in my possession. Including the four looks you’re about to see, I’ve worn Cinema Doll in 12 different ways and I’m nowhere near scratching the surface of my possibilities. That includes more casual or laid back coords as well as those more elaborate ones, this is truly one of those dresses that you can throw on and the coord practically makes itself.

The one. The only. The icon. The legend. The queen. Cinema Doll.

Spring

| New Look blouse | Angelic Pretty Romantic Angel OTKs | offbrand shoes and beret | handmade headbow and bracelets | Promised Land Creations earrings and necklace | Manda Rin Designs brooches | Star Glazed Delights ring |

There are genuinely three different blushers on my cheeks. Does the camera care to show that? Does it ever!

This necklace gets so much wear, more so outside of lolita, it's just the perfect finishing touch.

Pink for spring may be obvious, but there’s also not much point in going against the grain just for the sake of it. It’s a very spring-like colour not least because of the association with the cherry blossom season in Japan and I’ve been embracing pink in my life more in general as the years go on. The key point here is to reflect the world returning to life after winter, whilst still acknowledging that spring doesn’t just happen one day. In other words, whilst the blouse is long sleeve, it’s also made out of a lightweight fabric that can be comfortable on its own on a warmer day and easily layered with a cardigan on a cooler one. The socks are also a thicker knit that would prevent those late winter chilly breezes from bothering you, whilst at the same time keeping things light with the colour scheme.

For me spring, especially early spring, is that time of the year when I flick between wanting to wear more classic and wanting to embrace sweet. So this coord straddling the line between the two with a slightly heavier lean towards classic is a perfect reflection of that. No need to choose when you can blend both into the exact mix that you want. Especially as the gradually warming weather can get me in a very romantic mood, appreciating what I have and seeing the joy in little things, which is what spring is often about, being in the moment and being grateful for that instead of dwelling on what may be or what could’ve been.

Summer

| The Seamstress of Bloomsbury Jive blouse | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand socks, hair clip, and earrings | Dear Celine badge | handmade bracelets | Chocomint ring |

The vibe of this blouse and hairstyle continues, this time with Cinema Doll.

The most jangly ring out there.

Or more specifically, the romanticised idea of summer that we enjoy imagining. As anyone living in hot countries would tell you, wearing lolita in the summer is either to accept some suffering or simply put off until things cool down. Even for me this is the sort of outfit that I’d wear during British summer (i.e. in the pleasant 20-25°C range) and not for actual summer (like the 30-ish°C heatwave that hit the UK literally within days of these looks being photographed). Nonetheless, it’s a distinctly summery outfit, if not by virtue of being unable to wear it at any other time of the year, then at the very least thanks to its bright look.

The choice of sax blue as a secondary colour evokes those clear blue skies that we enjoy during the summer months. And thankfully, this blouse is very lightweight and breathable, so that it offers some comfort during warm weather spells. In fact, everything in this coord is designed to offer as much comfort during warm weather as possible: hair is up to keep the breeze on the neck, the socks are not just ankle length but also crochet, whatever accessories are directly on the skin are plastic so that they won’t absorb sweat and can be quickly rinsed in cold water before being put back on. Even makeup is the absolute bare minimum, just some liner, mascara, blush and sheer lipstick (and had I actually been going out - sunscreen, of course). This is very much the sort of look to wear on an ice-cream date, just as cool and refreshing as the ultimate summer dessert.

Autumn

| Infanta Swan Lake blouse | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Elf Armorie Cupid’s Heart shoes | Manda Rin Designs hat | offbrand earrings | Axes Femme brooch | Risu Rose ring | Angelic Pretty Melty Ribbon Chocolate ring |

Bringing back those Edwardian vibes with the hair and the hat.

It's a shame that the camera could only focus on one ring or the other, though you can just about make out the details of the left one.

Autumn is just like spring, but with colourful leaves instead of flowers. There, that’s the seasons cracked for you. Jokes aside, autumn also has moments of being quite warm and moments of being pretty chilly, which necessitates layers. This coord actually showcases those with the bolero, since the psychological effect of it being autumn kicks in and makes one believe that the same temperature as April is colder in September. And as things start feeling colder, together with the leaves changing colours it awakens my desire to embrace the earth tones and I once again get on the ‘want more brown’ train. All of that naturally leans towards more classic lolita looks and all that’s left to do is to bring all the vibes together into an outfit that’s appropriately sophisticated for this JSK.

It ended up like an ever so slightly more colourful version of how I wore this dress when I was in London in January. I mean, I do love a good formula and am a sucker for Innocent World’s Millefeuille boleros, so this shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, although I admit that the less harsh colour scheme makes a bigger difference than I anticipated. In a way, since this is so similar to what I’ve done previously, it also feels like the most wearable of the four looks here - I could genuinely see myself wearing this to a museum meet or just to visit some cute cafe. And as cooler times in autumn are more conducive to wearing multiple layers, this inevitably means more opportunities like those two for going out with your comm or on a solo date, without having to worry whether the weather will cooperate.

Winter

| vintage blouse and brooch | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | offbrand stole, boot toppers, and ring | Hush Puppies boots | Cutie Creator headbow | Ebony and Ivory brooch | Star Glazed Delights ring |

Fun fact, this was the second look I filmed/photographed on the day and that sparkly eyeshadow did not want to come off peacefully to let me do the matte makeup looks.

Faux fur and velvet, what could be more wintery than that?

The first idea that I put together for this was something that I quickly realised was a rehashed version of the November 2020 coord that I did with Cinema Doll. So I scrapped that plan and tried to approach it slightly differently, deciding to go down the festive route in the end. Winter is more than just Christmas, but if we’re honest here, Christmas is definitely the highlight of the season and I’m excited about Christmas at pretty much any time of the year. Once I had this direction, the rest of the coord practically put itself together, from the red as a secondary colour to the faux fur and snowflake accents. Initially I did try to do this as a sort of tricolour coord by incorporating some sax blue into it as well before remembering that with Cinema Doll less is often more and that what I had already was good enough.

Somehow, just like the spring coord, it ended up more on the sweet-classic spectrum rather than commit to just one, though this time it is leaning a touch more sweet. The whimsical atmosphere around Christmas is perfect for unleashing one’s sweeter and cuter side, though at the same time this print simply won’t drop below a certain level of inherent classic vibe. And whilst a lot of people dislike winter or only like the romanticised idea of it, I’ve always liked winter (even if I absolutely detest what that looks like in the UK, but let’s not open that can of worms). Those classic vibes work really well with the sense of nostalgia that always wraps its arms around me around Christmastime and even if winter isn’t always picture-perfect, living and dressing as if you were in that winter postcard can really improve on the dreary reality.


Last but not least, here is the lookbook of these four coords so that you can see them all in motion. The most involved prompt of this challenge definitely deserves the double treatment of blog and video. The rest of the prompts are winding down in intensity, meaning that they should be back to being outfits that were actually worn. Maybe if this one hadn’t hit the summer months but been contained to an early autumn or mid-spring, it would’ve been easier to wear all four of these seasonal looks without freezing or roasting. But such is life and the point of the challenge, I guess.