5 Pieces I Regret Not Buying When I Had the Chance

It doesn’t do well to dwell on regrets and ‘the one that got away’. It’s a fashion, so let’s enjoy it and have fun with what we have or look to the pieces that we may yet acquire instead of looking back at the things we couldn’t obtain. Although having said that, there are some bits when you just can’t help but hear Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time in your head.

In no particular order, here are the top 5 pieces that I regret not buying when I had the chance.

Innocent World Cool Rose JSK

I still really want it.
Photo from Lolibrary.org

I had spotted it one day on Wunderwelt for a fairly attractive price. I hadn’t seen that print before then, but as it was around the time that I started looking for floral pieces, I kept it bookmarked. The listing was for the ivory and wine colourway, it’s fully shirred around the waist (so no having to worry over size) and was the right balance between understated piece that I could even wear daily and grandma’s couch Classic. In other words: it ticked all the boxes. And yet being a greedy skinflint and having learnt that Wunderwelt periodically puts brands or pieces on sale, I waited until that 20% off came round for this one. And in the end someone beat me to it. Up until that point I kept telling myself that I was only casually interested because with simple pieces like florals you can fall into the trap of thinking that there will be another one just like it, but as soon as I saw that it had sold out I was gutted. Not long after someone on Facebook sales, from the UK nonetheless, was selling theirs and I was beaten yet again by someone faster. So this one has escaped me twice now. I definitely should’ve bought it when I had the chance, although I do take comfort in the fact that it’s not irreplaceable and that something just like it may still come along, so I keep my options open with this one.

Dear Celine coat

I was after this one, but in white.
Photo from My-Lolita-Dress.com

The reservation for this one came up shortly after I started working full time. So while I now had actual disposable income, at the time even the price directly on Taobao seemed a little high to me (I think it was around $50-60 on preorder). I thought to myself that I’ll get it another time or that I’ll find something similar elsewhere for less, but never did. By the time I finally made my mind up, the colourway I wanted (ivory) had sold out and I think my size has sold out too, so it was a rather painful lesson in ‘when a Taobao item sells out, you will struggle to find it second hand’. And it’s true: if you miss out on brand, it will resurface somewhere, even if not very often, but once an indie brand or Taobao brand item is gone, then it will take incredible luck to find it again. Between then and now, as you may know if you follow my Lolidrobe Reassessment posts, I had been after a short coat in ivory, but struggled to find a design I liked at a price I liked. Luckily, my search is now over as I have placed a preorder for a really cute one from Little Dipper – but there’s still a pang of regret about this one.

A Dream Holic or Lockshop wig when I was at an event

They're so pretty, but how do I know
for sure that I'll get what I ordered
and without issues?
Photo from DreamHolic.storenvy.com

This isn’t a regret about a particular item, but more about a type of items. I had been meaning to try a Lockshop or Dream Holic wig for a while, but keep being put off by the mixed reviews. For both brands I found as many positive reviews as I have negative and some people seem luckier than others. Together with the price this has put me off placing an online order – however, I attended two events where these retailers have sold their stuff. At Wicked and Whimsy I had a look at one wig I was eyeing online (Sweetheart in Honey, I believe), which was there, but when I saw it in real life the colour wasn’t what was pictured. I could’ve had a look through other colours or styles, but instead left and regretted not giving it a second look. And then this year Dream Holic were remote vending at Dream Masquerade Carnival. By now I was a lot more open minded about styles and colours and simply wanted to browse through their stock in person. Unfortunately, when I got to their stall (and that was considerably late during the morning, when everyone else was in full selling swing) they still seemed like they haven’t finished setting up and had only put out one or two wigs. There was no way of browsing what they had brought (Lockshop brought a tablet with photos of the stock they brought), the room was crowded and I wanted to get to other places before having to go volunteer, so I left again and never had the chance to go back that day. Again, this isn’t just a ‘I wish I had bought a wig from them’ kind of regret – it’s a regret that I haven’t taken the time to browse their wigs properly, to have a closer look at them, feel the textures, examine the quality and make note of the colours, so that even if I didn’t buy anything there and then, I at least had something to look back on as a reference when purchasing online later. As is, I’m stuck between the mixed reviews, either until another wig shop that I know and trust gets something that will fill my wig gap or until I attend another event where either Lockshop or Dream Holic will appear.

Omnia Vanitas ticket

This one still cuts me deeply.
Photo from StreetFashionEurope.doomby.com

While I’d like to think that my decision in this matter was well and truly justified, the regret is still strong and, if possible, has grown since. While I couldn’t attend Under the Sea in Amsterdam because I found out about it too late, I had every intention of going to Omnia Vanitas. However, between me deciding to go and the tickets going on sale, something very major has happened: Brexit. Since the Brexit vote in June the GBP-EUR exchange has taken a big hit, making travel to Eurozone countries more expensive than it had been. At the time I was also in my previous role which was term-time only, meaning that I had very little annual leave to use at my disposal (about 6 days total for the whole year) and despite the event being at the weekend I’d have to take some time off around it to allow for travel (my nearest airports don’t have daily flights to Barcelona that I could take advantage of). On top of this, at that time I was still thinking that I was going to go to Japan with my boyfriend and I already knew that I’d be going to Florida, both of which would eat up that tiny annual leave allowance in one go. So since none of my friends were going, I decided that it would probably be better to give it a miss, given that it would end up being a pricey trip. By the time it got nearer to Omnia Vanitas itself I realised that I actually could’ve afforded it, my Japan trip has fallen through, the exchange rate has improved ever so slightly – and yet I still didn’t go, thinking that it was too late to plan it and not even bothering to check the tickets resale thread. I regretted that decision as soon as the day of the event came and both my Facebook and Instagram feed were flooded with beautiful people in beautiful coordinates, and then once the end of Tea Party Club was announced, I looked back at my decision to not go to Omnia Vanitas with even more regret. We already knew about Omnia Vanitas, the theme and where it would be held, by November before the event, yet November 2017 has come and gone and there’s still no further news regarding the next Street Fashion Europe event (other than a brief announcement that the group was looking to hear from comms/individuals in countries that haven’t hosted an SFE event yet), so the rumours about an SFE hiatus are running wild. Which brings with it what? Even more regret.

Angelic Pretty Astro Academy JSK

How would I even coordinate
that? I've time to figure that out!
Photo from Lolibrary.org

When this came out last year, it was one of very, very few 2016 AP releases that has genuinely caught my eye. Its release was overshadowed by the re-release of Strawberry Whip and the release of Diner Doll, so as a non-print design it was mostly just ignored. I kept my eye on it, deciding that I’d get it when it went on sale. Lo and behold, it did go on sale, it was discounted twice, if I remember correctly, yet I still didn’t buy it. I can’t remember which came first, but it was definitely a combination of not quite low enough for what I was willing to pay (which was really dumb given that this was a brand new piece), my favourite colourway selling out (I wanted the white, although did sort of consider the navy and the light blue – I refuse to call it sax!) and thinking that I didn’t have enough pieces to coordinate it with. Compared to my other clothes, this piece has a very pronounced school/military vibe and I was worried that I’d either not wear it because of not having the right pieces or that I’d end up spending extra to get the pieces that’d only match this one dress. And then it sold out or was taken off the website, can’t remember, and that’s all I ever saw of it. Now I’d love to obtain it, so I hope that I’ll be able to find the white JSK for a good price somewhere and that I will be able to wear it and wear it well. Just like Cool Rose, I’m not too hung up on this piece because there will be very similar ones yet to come (or this one will resurface), although I still regret not getting it.

Wow, for a ‘let’s just do a quick, snappy post’ this ended up quite long! I guess the regrets cut me deeper than I was willing to admit to myself. Anyhow, I do my best to not dwell on regrets and not let them affect my ability to enjoy what I already have or the anticipation of things to come. I’ve been lucky enough to replace one of these regret pieces already, which brings me hope that I will be able to do that with the other ones.

What are your pieces that you regret not buying when you had the chance? Do you have any? Have you managed to find something just like them to fill that gap or are you still looking for the one that got away to resurface somewhere? You can check out what regrets these other bloggers have and whether they managed to find any consolation:

Sweet Expedition
Poppy Noir
The Bloody Tea Party
Roli's Ramblings
Floating Macarons