Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 3

My Lolidrobe is expanding so much this year that I’m struggling to find room for all these new additions, especially as the Wicked and Whimsy event in London made me buy new pieces (though fortunately smaller ones). I think this may be the last Lolidrobe Reassessment post before the end of this year. For the actual end of the year I plan on doing a summary of the whole year before moving onto New Year’s goals, so I’ll mark somehow any acquisitions made between now and then in that very last post.

New additions

At first I thought I slowed down with purchasing things compared to the previous post, but that was before all the money-eating releases, big events and impulse purchases. So I’m actually praying that I haven’t gone too overboard and added myself more work thanks to those impulse buys. I’ve included my order from DreamV (cutsew, cardigan and bag) because even though I intend to use them with my regular clothes, they’re very loliable items. As previously, items marked with a star (*) signify that something’s been ordered, but hasn’t arrived yet.

• 3 JSKs (1 Classic in navy*, 1 Sweet in sax and 1 Sweet in mint)
• 1 skirt (Classic in cream – intended to be used as an underskirt)
• 4 blouses (1 Classic in cream*, 1 Classic in off-white, 1 Sweet in off-white and 1 Sweet in pink)
• 1 cutsew (Sweet in brown)
• 1 overblouse (Classic in cream)
• 1 cardigan (1 Sweet in beige x brown)
• 2 boleros (1 Classic in off-white and 1 Classic in beige)
• 10 pairs of socks (Classic pair in navy, Sweet pair in blue x white x red, Sweet-Classic pair in white x gold, Sweet pair in white x mint, Classic pair in off-white x pink, Sweet pair in off-white x gold x pink, Sweet pair of ankle socks in pink, Sweet/Classic pair in sax x gold*, Sweet pair in pink* and a Sweet/Circus pair in ivory x red*)
• 4 pairs of tights (Classic in white x gold and black x gold* [same print in two colours], Classic in ivory x wine and Classic in ivory x rose)
• 1 pair of shoes (Classic short boots in white)
• 33 sets of accessories (1 Classic headbow in navy*, 2 Sweet headbows in sax, 1 Classic headbow in wine, 1 Sweet headbow in mint, 1 Clasic barette in navy*, 1 Sweet whipped cream barette, 1 Sweet necklace, 1 pearl waist belt, 1 pair of cream wristcuffs, 1 straw hat, 5 handmade Sweet and Classic hair clips [not pictured], 1 Classic/Sweet rose gold necklace, 1 pair of Classic/Sweet rose gold earrings, 1 Classic bonnet in ivory, 2-way doughnut clip, 1 pair of Classic earrings, 1 pair of bow hair ties, 1 Sweet/Classic necklace in gold x pearl, 1 Sweet/Classic choker in ivory, 1 Classic necklace in gold, 1 Classic book necklace, 1 Classic/Sweet necklace in pink, 1 Classic/Gothic necklace in black, 1 Sweet ring in ivory, 1 Sweet ring in sax, 1 Classic ring in wine, 1 Classic/Sweet headbow in gold, 1 Sweet headbow in red x white*)
• 1 handbag (Sweet in red)
• 1 underskirt (cream)
• 2 petticoats (1 A-line and 1 bell-shaped - not pictured)
• 1 wig (Classic long, brown curly - not pictured)
• 1 parasol (ivory)

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Together this makes for a whopping 67 new additions (!), which, as you can tell, I couldn’t fit on one photo. I know that I did go a little crazy with main pieces, but two were dream prints which I fell in love with at first sight and the other one is plain (and insanely comfortable) and as such a justifiable and very versatile purchase. Besides, only Diner Doll required me to get some new things for, which overall isn’t too bad.  (I’m very good at justifying things to myself, am I not? ^^”) Other than those new releases though I only spent a lot on the petticoats, but I expect these to last me a long time and get tonnes of wear out of them, so they’ll pay for themselves pretty quickly, and the rest are builder pieces and accessories. I’m still chuffed with myself at how I managed to not buy anything bigger than a bonnet at Wicked and Whimsy, when there were so many temptations to do otherwise, that’s a true show of some strong will!

Possible new looks

Having said that, rather than create entirely new looks, these additions predominantly help me complete some of the ones I had a go at earlier and make them that little bit more polished. Some of the pieces here were bought specifically to finish off my Wicked and Whimsy outfits, although I’ll definitely be able to use them with other dresses as well. At the end of the day the little things can make the biggest difference (and there will be something specifically on that at some point on this blog too, stay tuned!), so whilst they may not seem to have such a dramatic impact on my wardrobe, I know that they’ll go a long way toward making the coording process a lot easier for me.

Again, to really show off how my new additions impact my Lolidrobe, I’m not using any of the new main pieces – not even that Bodyline skirt which I intend to use as an underskirt. 

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How to make my Lolidrobe go even further?

I’m slowly approaching a point where I’ll have all the builder pieces to do pretty much whatever I want without having to worry about missing that one element of an outfit – which is in no small part thanks to being able to get the things from last post’s list! Yeah, Diner Doll added a fair few things which I don’t own and should add if I’m to get the most wear out of it, but even then I doubt it’d be an overwhelming number.

Before I splurged on new brand, I was already considering adding a new colour into my wardrobe. Back then everything pointed towards brown, which I guess would still work quite well with the pieces I already have. Now pink seems a more reasonable choice, but in all fairness, given what I’ve bought already, I could probably do both. I managed to get a pink blouse and some socks and tights with pink in them, in both Classic and Sweet styles, so I’m only really missing hair stuff. As for the brown, the cutsew helps a lot, but it is quite a casual piece, so an actual set of blouse, socks and headbow is what I need. Let the hunt begin then!

As you may have guessed, I’m still not 100% happy with the state of my legwear and headwear, even though it’s improved a lot already and continues to improve. Taobao and offbrand shops have helped massively by providing a cheap source of hair accessories and shoes, and I could even double the efforts to improve my crafting skills, so I only really need to worry about socks. The only offbrand pieces I’ve been able to find were either ankle socks or solid colour tight, and that’s not always good enough. At this point the only way towards achieving this one is patience: patience in browsing through Facebook sales as well as patience with brands, with releasing the styles I’m after and with waiting for sales. Although if any of you know some places that do cute printed over the knee socks and/or tights (ideally with some decent stretch properties – I may not be tall, but I’m also not size 0), share them, please!

Anyway, here’s what I identified as the next additions I should make:

• Brown blouse (ideally a detachable sleeve one for versatility, but not that fussed about it)
• More OTKs:

o   a Sweet pair in white with sax (preferably a different shade of sax because none of my saxes really match each other)

o   a Classic pair in ivory/cream (AP’s Princess Rose or similar)

o   a Sweet/Classic pair in red or white with red accents (Baby’s Sweet Dot or the AP’s Two Shoes or similar)

o   a Sweet/Classic pair in brown

• More headbows:

o   a Sweet/Classic one in pink

o   a Sweet/Classic one in brown

o   a Sweet one in navy

o   a Classic/Sweet one in ivory or ivory with gold accents

o   a Sweet/Classic one in white

• Shoes:

o   sax tea parties

o   pink heels or tea parties
o   white heels or tea parties (?_

o   rain appropriate boots (?)

• Ivory short-sleeve bolero (preferably chiffon)
• A short coat/jacket

Current wish list

Again, things have changed, though this time there are additions – mostly because of my floral phase, but also because of seeing certain prints or dresses so much that I’ve started to like and want them. I started to use my Lolibrary wishlist as a way of keeping track of the things I like, even if I wouldn’t necessarily get them. You can view the current wishlist here, and below is a screenshot of its contents as of September 13th.

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New Year’s goals: progress summary

1. Number of times I wore Lolita to date: 8 (plus 8 from last post, so 16 total)
2. Number of meets attended to date: 2 + 1 big 2-day event
3. Did I have the agreed amount of money in my account at all times: Yes
4. Did I pay more attention to seasons with Lolita: Partly – I’ve done alright by getting a rain and sun appropriate parasol and that boater hat, but not a lot beyond that.
5. Is my wardrobe more versatile than it was when last checked: Yes (the devil’s in the details)
6. Boyfriend Ouji-kei-fication status: No change. Putting this on hold until Japan next year.