Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2018.1

The time has come to look back at the first quarter of 2018 and see what’s new, what’s changed and what stayed exactly the same.

New additions

I am very proud to say that despite many a temptation, I have managed to stick to my limiting spending goals so far. Yes, the few purchases I have made were pricier, but they were all from the wishlist or made after a minimum 48-hour cooling off period, usually longer than this. Hence compared to all the previous reassessment posts, this list looks rather poor:

• 3 JSKs (1 Classic in navy, 1 Sweet-Classic in ivory and 1 Classic/Sailor in navy, currently for sale)
• 1 bolero (Classic in black)
• 2 pairs of legwear (Classic tights in ivory and Classic OTKs in dark brown)
• 7 pieces of accessory (4 Sweet brooches, 1 Classic red x gold brooch, 1 OTT Classic wine x ivory x gold headpiece and 1 white enamel pin)

And that is it! Mind you, the bolero wasn’t a strictly Lolita purchase, it was part of my Axes Femme lucky pack which I got to pad out my regular wardrobe, but it’s loliable enough to work should I ever need it. The tights were a freebie with a dress, the pin was a tea party freebie and the headpiece was a raffle win, so not purchases either. This makes for a rather frugal first quarter, if I dare say so myself. Excuse the dark, awkwardly lit photos, I haven't had time during the daylight to take any pictures at all. Click on any of these to enlarge them.

Possible new looks

Granted, with so few purchases, there isn’t much change in my wardrobe that could affect how I can style things. However, I don’t intend to leave this section bare, so I’ll use what I can to show that even little bits and bobs like this can make a difference to a wardrobe. This is for anyone out there who feels like one pair of socks or one bolero can’t make a difference. I know that it’s tempting to get a new dress instead, but those little bits make your coords so much better! 

How to make my Lolidrobe go even further?

Now, this is where you should all say: you don’t need anything more, you’re fine. After all, that’s what I claimed in the past, for example here. But especially after I had finished my 2018 wardrobe post I realised that I do, in fact, have a few gaps that don’t include the items mentioned in my wishlist post. Sometimes you have to see everything all at once, especially when you’re like me and all your stuff is packed away and hidden most of the time, to see what you’re missing. So to add to the pieces I identified in January, here are a few other bits that I could use to make my wardrobe a bit more cohesive:

• A neutral sax bag
• A neutral navy bag
• A beige headbow/hair accessory

That’s all that I can think of. Luckily, these can be hunted down offbrand or on Taobao, meaning that they’ll cost less, which would be ideal. Although as they still have to fit a certain aesthetic, it may take me a while to find the right pieces in the right colours and at the right prices. To clarify, when I say ‘a neutral bag’, I simply mean one that’d look good with both Sweet and Classic coordinates, so that it could do double duty. A heart bag would probably be the most versatile style, although I’m not averse to other shapes either. As for the beige hair accessory, this is to better match some of my less-white-beige pieces better, such as Royal Unicorn, the King Eleven JSK or the Meta sailor skirt. They are either too muted or too yellow to work with the ivory accessories I have, so while it will be tricky to find something that’ll work for all three, I’m not getting too hung up about it, I’ll just see what I can find.

Current wishlist

Really early on I managed to score two high priority wishlist dresses, which is a big change to my wishlist already. On top of this, discovering how well Mary Magdalene Paulina JSK actually fits encouraged me to hunt down one or two more of their shirred pieces, since I have always adored their style, but lived convinced that they’d be too small.

On top of this, I have been reconnecting with my Gothic side recently – not massively or intensively, but enough to feel that pang of wanting to try out actual EGL. In my early teens Gothic Rock music has a big influence on my life, especially bands like Within Temptation and Nightwish. I still love their music and adore the aesthetic of their earlier fashion styles. I never had the guts to live out my Goth fantasies back then, but now that I have both the confidence and the means, I feel like I should at least try. Of course, the more sensible way would’ve been to do a style swap, but that may be trickier to arrange than it seems, so I have been looking for dresses I’d like and added a few to my wishlist. Although I don’t want to commit myself to a big spend, I feel that buying a second hand brand piece would be much better since it’s a little bit more saleable should I decide not to continue with EGL after all.

In other words, some things have left, some were added, the majority stayed the same. No collage this time because I had no time for one, so for a still mostly complete detailed wishlist go here and for pictures only go here.

New Year’s goals: progress summary

There are a lot of goals for 2018, some pretty complex and made up of multiple parts, so I’ll elaborate on those below the checklist.

1. Did I have the agreed amount of money in my account at all times: Yes.
2. Did I wait a minimum of 48 hours before purchasing something outside of my wishlist: Yes.
3. Did I try on the dresses mentioned: No – my trip to Japan is now set for March 2019, so that’s when this goal will be brought back. For now it’s suspended.
4. Did I learn how to crop cardigans: No, not yet. Since my practice run with the sewing machine I haven’t picked it up again, although I’m still determined to nail that skill down this year. There’s at least one cardigan I want evenly cropped.
5. Did I wear every new main piece at least once: Partly. Unworn new main pieces = 4. New main pieces worn = 2. One’s destined for sale and there’s still nine months left to wear the final one so that’s actually pretty good.
6. Did I organise the Winter ILD: Obviously, not yet. But I am continuously working on it and my plans have clarified somewhat compared to January.
7. Did I attend at least one Lolita meet or even outside of the UK: Not yet, but planning to attend 2 already and waiting for tickets to be released. (One’s already released information about ticket release date, one I’m still waiting to do so.)
8. Did I connect with my Lolita lifestyle: Yes. See below for details.
9. Did I improve and boost my online presence and content: Partly, see below for details.

To add to point no 8, while I have done several things from that list, almost none of them were done in Lolita, not even a casual outfit. This made me think whether I should revise the goal to include that caveat, but ultimately I decided against it, at least for now. I am not yet in a position where I could wear all of my Lolita pieces at home without exposing them to stinky smells (living with smokers), but once I live on my own, this would definitely come into the equation. For now, I will aim to do these activities whilst dressed in Lolita when possible and practical, but the point of them is to enjoy the finer things in life, regardless of how I am dressed. And getting up to fancy homemade brunches (there were lots of pancakes this quarter), having quieter days/evenings reading and getting crafty definitely made me feel more inspired and motivated to participate in the fashion as actively as I can!

As for point no 9, I have made some steps towards improving my online presence and its presentation. The last few videos I uploaded to YouTube were shot in a different part of my room, which will hopefully improve the viewer experience. And whilst I am yet to get started on monetisation, I have enabled ads on the blog. I am still looking into redesigning the blog so that the ads would be visible, yet unobtrusive and non-invasive for the viewer. I need to figure out my blog’s layout and overall design and colour scheme first, then I can think about anything to do with branding. I’ve also started on my resolution to focus more on content and showing things that were done, not just those that were purchased. This is more of a lifelong goal, but I feel like I made a good start. I mean, fewer purchases certainly helped with that, but it’s still not quite what I had in mind.

Overall, it’s not a bad start to the year. Given that January is always rife with purchasing temptations – sales, people getting rid of stuff after doing a wardrobe post, wanting to fill the general quietness of the early New Year with something, birthday money/treats pouring in – I feel like I’ve overcome one big hurdle in the calendar. Of course, there are always more to come, but if I’ve done it once, then surely I can do it again, right?

How was your first quarter of 2018? Already ditched your goals or do you still carry on? Has it been eventful or boring for you?