Cheap All-Brand Coords
There is a reason why a lot of
newbies stay away from brand and that is price. Whether one doesn’t have that
kind of money or doesn’t want to spend this much before being certain that they
want to commit themselves to Lolita fashion, for many people their first brand
item comes in a lot later. The whole “brand is always expensive” mentality
certainly doesn’t help to encourage anyone to try it out earlier, so I made
this post in the hope to show that actually there is brand to be had for the
price of a decent Taobao item.
I must put a disclaimer here in that
the coords below are not entirely complete. They are missing shoes, since I
don’t own any brand ones, however, everything else is here. If you have
small feet, maybe 24cm or smaller, you will find that there are loads of used
brand shoes in varying conditions available second hand for cheap.
Unfortunately, I struggle to find similarly good deals as I wear size 25cm, but
for each coord I will add screenshots of a cheap pair of
matching shoes to further prove my point that you can get brand inexpensively (there were multiple cheap shoes available, so I opted for either the cheapest matching one or the best matching one).
All prices listed below are not
inclusive of any shipping or shopping service fees, but they are exactly how
much I paid for each item. All exchange rates are correct as of March 21st (when Y100 = GBP0.71). For items
received in a lucky pack I halved the original retail price since I received approximately double the value of what I paid for
the pack (I hope my logic
here isn’t too convoluted).
Coord no 1
| BtSSB Sugar Bouquet Shirring Princess JSK (¥6590) | IW bolero (¥1500) | IW Diamond Rose OTKs (¥2500) | IW Organdy Bow Rose Clip (¥1750) | |
Alice and the Pirates Millefeuille shoes, size unknown (¥4090) Wunderwelt.jp |
TOTAL = ¥12'340 (GBP = £87.97)
Total with shoes = ¥16'430 (GBP = £117.12)
This is a very simple Classic coord
for spring/summer. Socks with blue accents instead of pink would probably have worked better, but having said that these ones accentuate the floral theme very nicely.
It’s certainly something that I’d wear, potentially even for an occasion
unrelated to Lolita fashion, since the elegance is rather timeless especially
if I paired this dress with a pair of classy heels like these. As you may remember, I received this JSK new with tag, and yet paid something like a quarter of the original price (mind you, it came with a tiny stain, but that's a minor detail). But at the exchange rate at the time of writing, you could’ve had an entire brand coord for just over £100, including shoes. If that’s not a bargain, then I don’t know what is!
Coord no 2
Angelic Pretty tea party shoes, size 22.5cm (¥1700) Mercari.jp |
TOTAL = ¥22'402
(GBP = £159.70)
Total with shoes = ¥24'102 (GBP = £171.82)
This is the most expensive of the
coords presented here, however, in the grand scheme of things it’s still reasonably
priced considering how many items there are (and granted, the last two were
bought new directly from brand). Most new JSKs from brands will cost you around this
much, so this is essentially 6 brand items for the price of 1 (with a little bit spare)! I would’ve loved
to have taken this coord a little bit more oldschool, since the dress lends
itself very well for this, but it’s not a style I usually go for and don’t have
any items, brand or not, to do a fully oldschool coord. But with this many
layers this could be a cheery outfit for a meet during the cooler months.
Coord no 3
Innocent World shoes, size S (¥1944) Violet Blue (Rakuten) |
TOTAL = ¥14'586 (GBP = £103.99)
Total with shoes = ¥16'512 (GBP = £117.72)
Last is a slightly more traditional
Classic coord. This dress was a Closet Child impulse buy bargain which sadly doesn’t fit me (I’m currently selling it on Lacemarket, if anyone’s interested). As I’m trying to not repeat items
during this challenge and had no idea how to price my IW lucky pack blouse (IW
usually make blouses specifically for the lucky packs, so it’s anybody’s guess
how much they’d really cost), it limited my options a little, but it’s not a
bad WIP for a dress I won’t be able to keep. I would’ve gone for a more burgundy coord, with Putomayo Celestial
Light socks and IW’s Millefeuille bolero, but the bolero itself was almost as
much as coord no 1, since I reserved it new directly from the website, and that
would’ve defied the purpose of this exercise (and made the coord cost a grand
total of ¥22'726 plus shoes – still a whole coord for the price of one brand new dress
though!).
I’m not trying to say that you
should only buy brand and convince you all that you can always get it cheaply.
That takes patience and an open mind (open to things outside of your wishlist as well as open to things with flaws), which we don’t always have. Besides,
there are some absolutely lovely pieces on Taobao or even Bodyline, which I’m not trying to
discredit, and if I were to use those, the above coords would’ve looked very different. What I did
want to show is that if you do have that kind of patience to stalk the internet
for bargains, aren’t on a lookout for exact colourways and cuts of specific (and
popular) prints and aren’t limited by sizes, you can create a complete outfit made entirely out of brand
pieces for the equivalent of one brand new JSK. And in this fashion, that’s a
substantial saving.
How about yourself? What’s the best
bargain on a brand item that you ever got? Would you be able to create a whole
outfit made entirely out of brand items, let alone create a cheap all-brand
outfit? Are you an avid bargain hunter?
I think I am bad at brand bargains, ok, my wardrobe does not contain many brand pieces to begin with. But I have good look out for the sales.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on what you're after. Some people are on the lookout for specific items or styles, which limits their ability to find a bargain, whereas others will take almost anything. But once you know all the websites and just spend enough time checking them, you're bound to find something - may not be a lot, but it should be something.
DeleteI really love that first coord! I'd like to try this, but don't really have enough brand (especially in the headwear department)...
ReplyDeleteI'm really digging the first coord and can't wait to wear it out! In all fairness, the majority of my headwear is offbrand/indie/Taobao as well, were it not for that IW lucky pack I got, I probably wouldn't have been able to put this many coords together. But try it out at least with one - it could be an experiment either in wardrobe cohesiveness (will all the brand pieces you have work when put together) or in how savvy you are when shopping (how much would an all-brand coord from your wardrobe cost). :)
DeleteThis is a really useful post! I am very jealous of that IW bolero for 1,500 yen - it's a really useful colour too!
ReplyDeleteThat bolero is absolutely gorgeous and comfortable, such a lucky find!
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