Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2017.3

Spending continued as summer sales season and Dreamy Masquerade Carnival took place. But now I really will have to buckle up and stop as I have a pricey holiday coming up and, unfortunately, with my new job I don’t have enough paid holiday. Yikes!

 

New additions

I’m not even going to pretend to feel any shame, I own up to spending loads of money on pretty things and I’m happy to have them!

• 2 JSKs (1 Classic in ivory and 1 Sweet in beige)
• 1 pair of shoes (Sweet in pink)
• 3 bags (1 Sweet pochette in white x red [magazine freebie], 1 Sweet heart bag pochette in pink and 1 Sweet pouch in light pink)
• 5 pairs of socks (2 Classic in navy, 1 Classic in wine, 1 Classic in brown and 1 Sweer/Classic in white x lavender)
• 1 pair of tights (Classic in white x navy)
• 35 pieces of accessories (1 Sweet letter necklace, 1 Classic crown necklace, 1 Classic crown ring, 1 Sweet headbow in mint, 2 Classic headbows in navy, 1 Classic headbow in sax, 2 Classic headbows in green, 1 Classic headbow in ivory, 1 Classic headbow in wine, 1 Classic headbow in gold, 1 Sweet headbow in pink, 1 Sweet headbow in sax/powder blue, 1 Sweet crystal hair clip, 2 tiaras, 1 pair of Sweet wrist cuffs in sax, 1 pair of Classic wrist cuff in navy x gold, 7 Sweet rings, 1 pair of Sweet hair clips in lavender, 1 pair of bloomers in sky blue, 1 Classic bonnet in ivory x sax, 1 Classic beret in wine, 1 Sweet-Classic headbow in dusty mint, 1 Classic flower headband in ivory x pink, 2 Sweet pins, 1 Sweet-Classic barette in lavender/sax/mint)

As I said, I’m very happy with these things, all 47 of them. Many were cheap items, from Taobao, Japanese auctions or brand sales – even the more impulse buys, like the shoes or some of the socks, were cheap! And despite many being plain fancies, they do fill up the gaps in my wardrobe nicely. As for the DMC purchases – I have been saving up cash for that since January, which makes it feel like less of a blow to my finances, even if I only bought one thing over £100. Here’s some good advice to you, people: you know that these events will be coming, so start saving at least six months in advance. Taking out £20 every week out of your bank account (or less or more, whatever you can afford) and putting it in a piggybank/biscuit tin/sock won’t hurt, but it will be good fund for your event (cash is king at cons and events). Or just an emergency fund, should you need it.

Possible new looks

Oh, all these new headbows and little bits! This is the best part of getting accessories: when you start putting coords together and realise that you can complete or accessorise certain outfits better, now that you have the right complimenting pieces. I’m glad to be at this stage now where all I need is one little something rather than the “oh no, I need a blouse and a bow, and socks, and shoes, and jewellery, and bag, and pretty much everything else” stage. (That first coord might become my outfit for the Christmas dinner this year, by the way, though I think the middle one is my favourite. Also, I did the flatlays way in advance, so you’ve already seen the last outfit worn.)

How to make my Lolidrobe go even further?

Last time I reassessed my Lolidrobe I wanted to complete the colour sets. And all of a sudden, I managed to do that. Pink – check. Brown – check. Green – check. You could argue that I started lavender and haven’t quite finished it (I have a cutsew and two pairs of socks, would need a bigger hair piece than one pair of clips and potentially a pair of shoes as well), but that’s a more distant future for now, so it can wait. I must say, I’m quite impressed with myself for that.

So what would help me now? I’m still after weather appropriate pieces, like the coat or the boots, and I’m still after a couple of cutsews (to perform double duty: casual and warm). A navy bolero and some more Classic wine shoes would help bring more style as well as colour balance. I started thinking about a pair of dark brown/chocolate wrist cuffs (for that one blouse that I have that has slightly plain sleeve seams). I’d love more brooches, I’ve gotten quite into that, to fit various themes and colour schemes, but those I’ll be mostly hunting down second hand and vintage. However, none of these are urgent, I’d rather wait for a good deal to come up somewhere. Sooo… I really can’t add anything that’d be actually needed! There’s no such thing as too many accessories in my books (which to me includes headwear and legwear as well as jewellery), but I don’t have any particular needs or major gaps at the moment and I am free to get bits as and when I need them.

As such the list is pretty much the same!

• White or ivory low heel boots (under 6cm)
• Long and short sleeve cutsews (various colours, primarily white or ivory)
• Short winter coat/jacket (ivory or white)
• Navy long sleeve bolero or short cardigan (preferably Classic)
• Wine heels
• Dark brown wrist cuffs

Current wishlist

The wishlist is gradually getting smaller as luck stays with me and I manage to grab the dresses that I want at prices that I want them. Very unhealthily, I’m uncomfortable with having a tiny wishlist, so of course I had to go off and look for things to add to it. I mean, there are always some wants and fancies, but while I don’t think that I’ll be chasing after these in any particular way, since storage is actually bursting at this point, it’s often difficult to help yourself when the dress appears and it’s the right price too. Once Lolibrary allows us access to our accounts again I will have quite the spring cleaning over there! Still only a simple collage for now.

Click to enlarge

 

New Year’s goals: progress summary

1. Did I have the agreed amount of money in my account at all times: Yes.
2. Did I try Wa-Lolita: No.
3. Have I gone to Summer ILD: Yes.
4. Did I apply to model in a Lolita fashion show: Yes and was accepted to model, yay!

Honestly? I don’t think I’ll do Wa-Lolita anymore. I don’t have the right pieces to do what I would like to do and for the sake of one try-on it’s not worth me getting them, at least not right now. If an opportunity ever arises, I’d still love to try, do a style swap or just a makeover, but for now this will have to go on the backburner. For the time being my focus shall remain on developing the styles that I do wear.

Will I be adding any new goals to this list for the remaining few months of 2017? Hmm, the ones that come to mind first are either not directly Lolita related or would be about buying items, a habit which I would like to curb on. But let’s try these few:

1. Until the end of the year every coord I take out for a meet or a fancy outing has to be based around one of my least worn dresses. These are: AP’s Crystal Dream Carnival, Meta’s Shirring Tiered Ribbon, Baby’s Secret AIR MAIL from Sweet Kitty, Baroque’s Repose of Queen and AP’s Sweet Cream House.
2. Make a non-haul Lolita video.
3. Craft a display stand for my brooches and make a tutorial about it.

That seems alright, doesn’t it? Well, hopefully this will be just as manageable as they seem. We’ll find out in late December!