No Buy Support Challenge Summary
This year my monthly challenge was completing the prompts from the list called No Buy Support. Although I can’t really speak to how much it actually supported me through a no buy, as I haven’t really been on one, prompt challenges are always a fun way of doing things with what we already own instead of pining after what we don’t yet have. So I thought that I’d do a brief wrap-up post about the challenge as a whole, similar to what I’ve done after the Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates challenge.
The Stats
It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do a bit of pie chart work. I did my best to keep to one main colour and one substyle per outfit, without splitting into tricolours or sweet-classic or whatever. The only deviation I’ve allowed myself was to include ‘casual’ as a substyle instead of sticking it under any of the main ones. Granted, that does appear to be to my detriment as casual swept in and took over - but if I didn’t have it, I reckon sweet still would’ve won since most of my casual looks were still sweet.
I am pleased to see that red was so prominent in this challenge. It is arguably my favourite colour (as much as I have one) and without manipulating anything it was the one to dominate in my chosen looks, if not through the main pieces themselves, then through how the whole coord was styled. Again, arguably some of the coords, especially the ones for the 1 season 4 looks prompt, should’ve been put down as ivory, but even had I done that it wouldn’t have changed things here by much.
Favourite Coords
In no particular order, my favourites in this challenge were these three:
- Least Worn Main Piece look 1
- Never Worn Blouse
- Favourite Piece look 1
The first one has won me over because it is so bonkers and not something I would’ve thought of without the incentive of the prompt challenge. The 60s influences still appeal to me a lot and the white x red x orange colour scheme fits into that quite nicely.
The second coord is very much the kind of gothic that I’m most likely to be seen in - i.e. just very dark classic. This combination had lived in my head rent free until it was realised and I am extremely pleased that I was able to realise it properly, with all the styling involved. It came out as I had imagined and I’d happily wear this again sometime.
Lastly, I’ve added this third look because, to be completely honest, when I was looking for an outfit to wear for some casual occasion, this exact same idea popped into my head. So if months later I still thought the concept to be exciting and cute enough that I’d consider re-wearing it, then it’s worth putting on this list.
In a twist of events, however, I won’t talk about the least favourite looks. There were some that I was less pleased with, but some of that is more the photo than the coord and the rest is just because I tried to do too much on a day when I wasn’t necessarily feeling it. So I’ll keep things positive by not talking about the parts that I’m less keen on now.
Favourite Prompt
As a special shoutout, the final prompt of the challenge was a particular favourite of mine. Not so much as the coord, but specifically as the prompt. The non-seasonal lolita coord prompt challenges, by their very nature, can get a bit repetitive. It’s not a bad thing, as the results will constantly change with how open to interpretation they are, just that if you do a handful of those you’re going to come across the same few things in each. This was the first challenge where I saw an explicit invitation to mix releases, which is something that I do and enjoy anyway. Lolitas who love a full set can be a bit more than hesitant to mix these up, if the thought even occurs to them, so a prompt like this is the right kind of encouragement in my opinion. I’d love to see more prompts like it.
Overall Impressions
This challenge would definitely go down differently had I done it to the time scale it suggested, i.e. on a weekly basis rather than monthly. For one, with the challenge surfacing around January, it would’ve been quite heavy on wintery and layered looks. Another reason is because when you push yourself to frill up to such a regular and tight timescale, you’re going to end up having to make more accommodations for things like energy levels, current body state (bodies fluctuate a lot, people), weather conditions, activities etc. On a monthly basis this was a lot easier to factor into the planned looks, so that if I was set on wearing a particular coord, I could simply wait for the right day to wear it as opposed to adjusting the coord to fit the day.
Having said this, had I pushed myself to do the timeline suggested, I think the challenge would have been a little bit more effective in staving off the urges to buy stuff. With so much more time passing between each prompt there was also more time to find things I liked or notice new gaps. Being made to wear something week to week should translate into at least having the motivation to use what you have and at best - to rediscovering your love for what you already own.
All in all, I had fun doing this challenge and going through the prompts, they got me to wear some outfits that I probably wouldn’t have come up with otherwise (like those with the Airline JSK). As we approach the end of the calendar year and the new one looms over us, I definitely would recommend it to people who are looking to keep to their no buy. It will probably work better for those with medium-to-small sized collections, since that will eliminate the extensive deciding on which piece to use, so if you have as many main pieces as there are prompts, you’re probably in the perfect spot to give this a go.
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