Weekend at the Festival of Vintage in York

Finally, after a one-year break Mum and I went back to the Festival of Vintage in York. And for both days too! I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to wear something frilly, so out of the two outfits I brought one was fully lolita.

| Innocent World Georges Rose JSK | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | offbrand blouse | AatP Lace Up Ribbon OTKs | Sosic Shop heels | Cutie Creator headbow | Claire's flower clip | Violet Fane brooch | 

I was going to curl my hair, but it was so rainy that it wouldn't survive stepping out of the door.

Georges Rose is one of those dresses that if you’re not too knowledgeable about either lolita or vintage fashion, people just assume you’re dressed in something nice from earlier in the XX^th century. The super simple cut and timeless floral print makes this an excellent piece if you’d rather blend in and have fewer members of the public bother you. What’s more, that cut can’t handle any big poof, which is excellent when navigating large crowds, half of whom are wearing giant rockabilly petticoats themselves. To save on suitcase space, I wore this with brown, as these pieces could double up with my other outfit without being too shoehorned. Selfie was taken literally on the go, I was walking when I remembered that I didn’t take one and I really like how it turned out. Rainy days can be excellent for lighting!

I was going to take so many more pictures, to blog about the event properly, but didn’t. Between holding my jacket in one arm and browsing the wares with the other, I didn’t have the energy to take. So other than the sweets stand outside and this pretty shot of rainbow petticoats, I have nothing to offer you.

Fluffy rainbow of dreams. I was really tempted, actually.

Which in other words means that the event was absolutely amazing and I had a blast! Festival of Vintage in York is a true celebration of the first half of the XX^th century, particularly the fashion. You can find anything, from clothes to homeware, from the 1920’s to the 1960’s, both original and reproductions, with occasional slightly earlier or later bits. On top of this there is a classic car display outside (which seems to have grown since the last time we were at this event), several stages with fashion shows, musicians and dancing taking place – including some dance lessons here and there – a vintage hair and makeup salon, and even a men’s barber shop! This is seriously a lot and while the York Racecourse, where it all takes place, has plenty of room for all of this, it can still be a lot.

So many classic cars in so many colours! You could easily do pretty photoshoots there.

Which is why it’s great that Mum and I managed to make it to the full weekend this time. On our first visit two years ago we only managed one day (and I’m pretty sure it was a Saturday) and we were absolutely dead by the end of it. Trying to see everything in one day (and still unsuccessfully) was a big ask and we came a little ill-prepared, not knowing what to expect. This time we knew what to anticipate: we brought some light lunchtime snacks to keep us going and decided that if we get too tired, we’ll just stop after the first hall and leave the other one for the next day. What’s more, Saturday was definitely the busier day and as the organisers have tried to squeeze as many vendors as possible, much of our time was spent in queues to even get to the stall to browse it. Pro tip: if you want to shop, but don’t want to battle literally hundreds of people, go on the Sunday. All the stuff that I had eyes on (whether it actually fit me or not) was still there on the Sunday and fewer people made the shopping experience much more pleasant.

Treat events like this like you would a con: bring a bottle of water and a snack!

So what did I buy? Well, much less than I had anticipated to. I came armed with loads of cash to spend on some amazing vintage clothes, but came back with only four items, two bought each day. While I purchased these mostly with lolita in mind, they will also compliment a lot of my vintage outfits. That hat is by far my biggest pride and joy! I completely did not intend to buy it, when I saw it on Saturday – but it was still there on Sunday, so I thought “I’ll just try it on”. Which turned into “Well, fuck, now I have to buy it”. I did not expect it to look this good on me and at a whopping price of £10 (for a 100% pure silk vintage hat!) how could I say no? At first I thought that it wouldn’t go with anything I own – and then I remembered my Flower Garden JSK, which is also an awkward dusty, pastel-y grey/lavender/pink/whatever shade. I haven’t put the two together yet, but I’m sure it’ll look stunning, even if it will make it look like a clash of historical fashions. Good thing lolita isn’t about historical accuracy, right?

Small haul that should see plenty of use. All of this cost me £40! (Wish I made a note of that flower clip's seller, they had loads of other gorgeous ones - the prettiest flower clips at the whole event!)

Bonus add-on – I have spotted another lolita on Saturday too! I regret not walking up to her and asking if she was in the comm, because I couldn’t find her later via Facebook (at least not in the York comm or via the event page). She was wearing Meta’s Daydreaming Goldfish in blue, so if you’re reading this, say hello, please! :)

Stock photo taken via Lolibrary.org - I do not own.

What sort of non-lolita events do you like wearing lolita to? Do you try to match the event’s theme or feel with your coord or just enjoy having an excuse to be frilly?

Kitai Fuku Ga Aru Review

A while back, thanks to Misako Aoki’s Instagram post and excerpts posted in KERA Online, our community got a whiff of a new manga called Kitai Fuku Ga Aru. The unmistakable figure of a lolita on the cover against the background of Harajuku’s Takeshita Street was precisely what got everyone so excited and Netaro Tsuneki’s story is indeed about a lolita. She’s not somewhere in the background, nor is she a minor character - right at centre stage. Since I was going to Japan anyway, I made it a point to get a copy there to save on postage from Amazon and I have finally read it.

A new must read for lolitas? Let's find out!

The manga follows Mami Kobayashi, a university student. She balances trying to become a teacher with part-time job, yet she struggles with confidence, having in the past been teased and bullied for being tall. Because she lacks confidence, she dreams of wearing lolita fashion and the dress she already owns, yet doesn’t have the guts to go through with it. Although things begin to change when she discovers that her new co-worker unashamedly wears flashy Harajuku fashion outside of his work uniform.

While the title literally means ‘[I have/There are] clothes I want to wear’, the cover has another English title: ‘I show my true colors shining through’. And while it could be a somewhat cheesy reference to the 1980’s pop song, I feel it reflects Mami’s story so far well. Through volume one we learn about her struggle with confidence, as well as see the first glimpses of her embracing her frilly hobby. Her true colours are shining through, but not quite fully showing yet.

Usakumya owners, how many of you have done that too?

For us, as lolitas ourselves, the plot is highly relatable. Many of us have had rocky starts to our journeys into the fashion, trying to find the confidence to wear it outside, hiding it from the outside world and/or building the courage to attend a tea party. Moreover, the height struggles will be familiar to many of non-Japanese lolitas too. The feeling like we may not be pretty enough to wear the fashion, yet conversely feel ourselves most beautiful when wearing it, is a fairly universal one in a world where women are still taught that their value lies in their physical appearance. Many of the things in Mami’s life will sound familiar to lolita readers, which makes the manga that much more realistic. If we know that these things have happened to us, then certainly they could have happened to Mami, making the reading that much more enjoyable.

This is a loud fashion, so concerns about the public's reactions are a common worry.

What I also enjoyed about Kitai Fuku Ga Aru is that it’s not a platform for direct advertising for any particular brand. There are certainly cameos and some of the dress styles may feel familiar as belonging to a particular brand, but none are mentioned by name. The only familiar name in the story is that of KERA Online (and the fact that it’s the online version and not the magazine also places it in contemporary times) and it’s there naturally, as one of the sites that Mami frequently uses to get updates from the lolita fashion world. As charming as it was for Momoko in Kamikaze Girls to be obsessed with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, keeping the story free of brand names means that readers can project a little bit of their own style onto what Mami is wearing, making her a little closer to our hearts. Or just makes for a fun ‘guess the dress’ game for those more experienced in the fashion.

KERA Online does actually post a lot about upcoming events or cute
places to visit, so it makes perfect sense for Mami to regularly browse it.

This review is based solely off volume one. Going forward I am very intrigued to see how Mami’s relationships with other people develop. Right now it’s too early to tell and things could go in a variety of directions. Particularly I am curious to see how her relationship with Ozawa-kun, her co-worker, and Minayo, a fellow lolita, will develop. I would very much love for the story to focus on girl power and women building each other up, as this is what I feel we see most in our community, although as long as the author stays away from cheesy love plots, I’ll be happy. It will also be fun to see how Mami’s experiences as a lolita will feed into her future career as a teacher. This particular subplot has had a good start and it is one I did not expect, so I look forward to seeing how it will develop. Like I said, right now it’s too early to tell anything, so let’s just wait and see.

As a community, we are very supportive of each other. We also want
others to experience the joy of wearing this fashion. I think this is
something that the manga should explore more.

The style of drawing itself is not something that I am keen on. I don’t read a lot of manga or watch a lot of anime. The bits I have read/watched usually had either a cuter, softer style of drawing (understandable, as it was shoujo) or were more cartoony, for a lack of better word? What I mean to say is that with something as visual as lolita fashion I may have expected some panels to capture my eye and attention on a purely aesthetic level and make me want to have framed copies hung on my wall. However, there were none that I would’ve liked that much. The characters are well drawn and their personalities are well sketched out (although Mami’s two friends sort of blend for me, but they also haven’t appeared that frequently), the style of drawing does not detract from the story or the characters. This is purely personal preference and I imagine that as the story goes on, I will probably get used to it or even grow to like it.

That feeling when you finally get your dream dress!

At the moment I believe the manga is available solely in Japanese. I have read on Rufflechat that the snippets on KERA Online are translated, as well as that someone on CGL had managed to post some translations, though I can’t vouch for the quality of either of those. If you are learning Japanese, I would say that this is more of an intermediate read. It is fairly easy going for the most part, yet there are plenty of parts which get either a bit more wordy or have slightly more complex vocab/kanji, so it would be great for someone who wants a bit of stretch-and-challenge.

I would definitely recommend this manga to all lolitas to read. This has the potential to be the next Kamikaze Girls: something iconic and relatable, which is explicitly about us, lolitas. It would be great to see it translated well into English to make it accessible to a wider audience. And depending on how the story continues, it could also make good material for adapting onto a screen, a TV show or a full-feature film. That’s quite a far-fetched future for now though.

Have you had a chance to read Kitai Fuku Ga Aru? What did you think? 

Easter Weekend Outfits

Easter has come and gone and, thankfully, we’ve been blessed with some truly stunning weather. Finally! I wish it were here to stay, but as I type this post out, the forecast already predicts some cooler temperatures and rainfall for later this week, so I’m glad I made the most out of it now by wearing lolita twice over the long weekend.

| BtSSB Sugar Bouquet Shirring Princess JSK | Millefleurs Georgette blouse | Angelic Pretty Romantic Angel OTKs | Sosic Shop heels | Angelic Pretty Dolly Chiffon headbow | Claire's flower clips | Enchantlic Enchantilly necklace | offbrand earrings |

Squinting hard in that bright sunlight, though my makeup was simple anyway, nothing to show off.

Starting with Easter Sunday itself. I actually had some creative block and absolutely zero idea of what to wear. Even the last two years, when I had been away from home on Easter itself, I had worn lolita, it’s an easy dressed-up option for the occasion that it is in my house. So I decided to let my followers on Instagram decide my coordinate and over the course of the week prior they’ve been helping me put something together via Instagram Stories. I am very happy with this look - it’s bright, colourful, very comfortable and very classy. The only thing I would’ve changed would be the hair. I had originally planned to curl it, but ran out of time and energy that morning, so just left it as I normally do it. Maybe another time.

The day itself looked pretty much like all Easter Sundays we spend at home. We had our traditional breakfast - this time on the balcony, as the weather was too good to stay inside. I am normally in charge of baking for Christmas and Easter and this year I set myself an extra challenge of trying my and at making croissants from scratch. Unfortunately, they did not come out at all - I am much better at cakes and bread than pastry, clearly. Maybe another time I’ll try again, for now if I ever do it will be with store-bought pastry. So we mostly spent the day eating, resting after eating, then eating again, with some play time in between, even managing to squeeze some family board game time (where Mum and I lost miserably to my Dad too many times).

Our Easter table of plenty (or what could fit on it).

Easter Bunny brought me Lindt bunnies - I am very happy!

*~*

| AatP Side Frill JSK and brooch | Imperial Fiddlesticks headbow | Tutuanna socks | Innocent World shoes | handmade/offbrand bracelets |

Another sunny day and another squint. This time with even less makeup on - just eyeliner, blush, translucent powder and lipstick. And a good Instagram filter!

Then on Easter Monday Mum and I went to Harrogate - so of course I had to dress up for that too! Because the weather was warm and sunny again, I did toy with the idea of wearing something, well, not lolita, but in the end I’m glad I stuck to my guns. This dress was surprisingly light and comfortable for an all day of walking and all I needed to do was adjust my hoop skirt to a little smaller. The blouse is actually a new acquisition from Primark and is already my favourite: light, breathable and super cute. If you’re near a Primark, get yourself one of these now! For a dress as fancy as this, it’s a pretty casual coordinate too. Kind of ended up having that dirndl vibe too, I’m only two beer jugs away from full Oktoberfest realness. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this look.

Despite not being physically that far, I’d never been to Harrogate before because it takes a while to get to. Granted, due to it being a Bank Holiday, all busses ran on Sunday service (so less frequently), but still the bus journey took an hour and fifteen minutes one way. If we had a car (and a driver), it would’ve been more like forty minute tops, since the bus goes round al the little towns along the way too.

Eat dust, Kim Kardashian, this is how you balance things on your bum!

Queen Victoria looking stern as always.

Such a posh hotel, would love to have a peek inside!

The back of the Royal Pump Room Museum.

Either way, we finally made it and it was such a lovely day out! Harrogate is a lovely town, with lots of pretty Victorian architecture, plenty of green spaces (parks, squares, public gardens and even lawns in front of hotels etc.) and a decent selection of shops and cafes to satisfy most people. We wandered into Lush (I’m deeply hurt by the fact that a small town of 75,000 people like Harrogate has a Lush, but my half a million people city does not) and as many charity shops as we found on our way, since second hand shopping tends to be better in posher areas (though we only actually came across one or two, probably should’ve ventured out further for that). Harrogate is also home to another branch of Bettys tea rooms and while it had a queue outside, we waited barely 5 minutes to be seated. I braved trying something new and went for the chocolate and passionfruit bombe, which was the perfect chocolate lover’s treat for a day too warm for rich chocolate delights.

Mum snapped this cute photo of me in one of the pavillions.

A-grade dessert, definitely would eat again!

Bettys Centenary range is too adorable, I want it all!

Afterwards we strolled round one of the parks, the Valley Gardens, and even had an impromptu museum visit to the Royal Pump Room Museum. It’s such a tiny place, yet full of everything they could relate to the town, from displays about its history and landmarks to bits about Egyptology and a special exhibit of historical wedding dresses. We ended the day at Ask Italian for dinner, which was super nice! I hadn’t tried that particular chain before, but of the Italian cuisine chain restaurants in the UK I’ve tried it’s my favourite so far.

There was a stained glass in the museum and this girl totally captivated me!

What the Royal Baths looked like.

More stained glass.

This is how you do a blush wedding dress - with tonnes of lace!

The entrance/exit to the Royal Pump Room.

A Columnade in the Valley Gardens park was so stunning, would love to see it when everything is at least full of leaves!

The Pavillion at the end of the Columnade.

All the trees in the UK are still in bloom and many are 'snowing' petals. Finally my dreams of warm hanami came true!

Somehow the picture of my dinner didn't save, but look at Mum's asparagus and pancetta tagliatelle with that rainbow salad. We both loved our food, it was delicious and perfect for the weather (I had a spinach and ricotta ravioli, probably the best ones I ever had).

I definitely wish that I either had a car (that I could drive) or that Harrogate was easier to get to. It’s one of those places you just want to potter about more regularly, especially on nice weather days like that one. Having said this, there are still so many places in the UK we’ve not been to before, some of which we discovered during our bus drive there, so we’ll probably prioritise new places.

How was your Easter weekend? What did you do? Did you take the chance to dress in lolita or went with something else?

Angelic Pretty Flower Garden JSK Unboxing

It has now been three years since my original post about wanting to get some floral pieces. I even made a moodboard for that one and looking at it now, including this one I managed to get three pieces from it, mostly without really thinking about it (since it wasn't a strict wishlist or anything). Although there is only one dress left on that moodboard that I wouldn't mind owning and I wouldn't go out of my way to get it. So it's safe to say that this will be the last one for now.

Easter Frills at Annie's Meet

Easter is this weekend coming and I am excited. To have an early Easter celebration, I joined the Manchester comm last weekend for an afternoon tea – it feels like a while since I went to Manchester for a meet.

| BtSSB Polonaise Brillante ~ Ideas of Maiden ~ Apron JSK and OTKs | Infanta overblouse | Cutie Creator headbow | Advent Store headdress | My Inspiration brooch and long necklace | handmade bracelets | waist ribbon off Haenuli's Whipped Cream Kitty | offbrand shoes and red necklace |

Long time no false eyelashes. Or this wig, for a fact.

It still amazes me how long it takes to do simple makeup like this. Blending takes forever, people!

And for the occasion I turned into my best Polish self and lived the dream through my new dream dress. This definitely isn’t the most Polish I could be, there’s room left for improvement, but that’s for another time. It wasn’t even that massively shoehorned into the Easter theme of the meet, since the colours are very spring-like and there’s lots of flowers – or I could just pose as a traditional Polish Easter egg (Google ‘kraszanki’ or ‘drapanki’ for those made with the most traditional techniques). This is already my favourite coordinate of the year, definitely top 10 favourite coords ever and a strong contender for top 5 ever.

The meet was held at Annies, which may not have had the most Easter-y décor, but it was really pretty nonetheless. The fact that it’s literally tucked away in a tiny street means that you have to look for it, so no random people looking through the window and everyone in was there because they had a booking. Our hosts made up for the lack of seasonal décor by giving everyone a chocolate egg, a glitter egg with sweeties inside and a fluffy little chick. Since I wore green, I swapped things around until I completed my collection in green.

A holy trinity of green Easter things.

What was great was that there were so many of us, I think around 17 people? Given that this was just going out for afternoon tea kind of meet, no ILD grandness or anything, it was amazing to see so many people both new and old. To anyone out there thinking that the lolita/J-fashion community in the North of England is not “popping”, I say go suck on a bag of bricks. Apologies for the digression, back to regular programme.

As far as the tea spread itself goes, I was actually underwhelmed. Many around me have enjoyed theirs, but I only liked the cakes. The egg sandwich, usually one of my favourites, was way too salty (I’m a lolita, I have enough salt inside me, don’t need any extra on my food), there was too much mustard on the ham one for my taste and only the beef one was palatable. I can’t comment on the scone, as I couldn’t manage mine, I got quite full from the sandwiches and sweets, although it was very big. It’s a shame because for the same price or less I have definitely had much, much nicer afternoon tea spreads. Anyhow, at least the sweets were genuinely lovely and the staff were lovely and attentive (made sure to get everyone’s dietary requirements down first, though some people struggled to get a tea refill).

Looked great, had better ones though.

After chilling inside and even taking some pictures, despite it being very dark indoors, we headed outside for more pictures. Our first stop was just outside an arcade entrance just outside Annies, which had the most gorgeous Easter display. Such a shame that that turned out to be a day a lot of douchebags also decided to venture outside – I do not remember the last time we have had to deal with a street paparazzi being this bad. Most of them were just regular arseholes, who moved on when being told off, but there was this one who got defensive and aggressive as soon as he was told ‘Please, can you not take pictures without asking’ and wouldn’t even back off when someone else started filming them.

The Easter display behind me was too cute, I want it in my house!

Mother Easter is here!

Still, we didn’t let one sorry excuse for a human being ruin our day, got more pictures there and then went over to the cathedral, which had some cherry blossoms around it. More pictures ensued and we even found some pansies in pretty much the same colours as those on my dress, so of course that had to be documented.

Purple pansy? Check. Yellow pansy? Check. Only missing the red and pink.

Oh look, pansies!

If I could change one thing about that meet it’d be the weather. We are now past mid-April and we’re only just getting some warm weather (after a brief spell maybe a month back?). I am sick of having to layer everything and sick of being cold. I want to enjoy my impromptu hanami without having to wear gloves and a warm coat. I. Am. Sick. Of. It! The weather forecast predicts some actual warmer temperatures for Easter itself, so keep your fingers crossed, please.

Pretty from up close.

Pretty all around.

A genuine candid.

In the meantime, I will look into creating that 110% Polish version of this coordinate. I am missing only two pieces (maybe three, depending on which version I go for) and have a major inspiration for a photoshoot (only Mana-sama knows if I’ll actually be able to ever realise that). Let me also leave you with this ‘ita to lolita’ comparison for some light giggles. The pictures were taken just over 20 years apart, my pre-school had this thing when they made us wear the national dress for all functions and events. Truth be told, in my memory the dress itself was much nicer than this (closer to the lolita coordinate), but clearly the gigantic plastic bows for decorating presents instead of ribbons that my crafty Mum adorned me with have blinded me to all the rest that wasn’t quite right with the original outfit. Remember, every lolita was a newb once, so accept concrit, learn from your mistakes and improve – else you’ll forever be in your ita phase. :P

Take 20 years to learn from your mistakes like me, if you have to, but bloody learn from them.

Lolidrobe Reassessment Post 2019.01

Well, the timing of this first reassessment post is conveniently right after I came back from Japan. On the one hand this means a certain degree of excuse if I had gone overboard (we shall see if I have or not), while on the other – that means that we can already check if I succeeded with some of the Japan-specific goals! I’m actually a little scared…

New additions

For the duration of my being in Japan, I have given myself a free pass on having to wait before buying something. This was both to allow myself to truly indulge, as well as to see how well ingrained my principles of having a cohesive, versatile wardrobe really are. There were a few purchases done before that, but the bulk of this list below was bought between March 19^th and 30^th.

• 2 OPs (1 Classic in navy* and 1 Gothic/Classic in wine)
• 3 JSKs (1 Classic in wine, 1 Classic in green and 1 Classic in grey*)
• 1 skirt (Sweet in red)
• 4 tops (1 Classic blouse in gold, 1 Sailor cutsew in white, 1 Sweet cutsew in red and 1 Classic/Gothic blouse in wine*)
• 2 cardigan (1 Sweet cutsew cardigan in sax and 1 Classic bolero in brown)
• 5 pairs of socks (1 Sweet/Classic in white x pink, 1 Gothic/Classic in black, 1 Classic in ivory x green, 1 Sweet/Classic in white x gold and 1 Sweet/Classic in white x red)
• 1 pair of shoes (Classic in green*)
• and 6 sets of accessories (1 Classic necklace in white x red, 2 Classic brooches in gold [that annoyingly I can’t find right now], 1 novelty brooch, 1 pair of Sweet/Classic wrist cuffs in wine and 1 Sweet ring in pink).

All the January to March loot.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

That gives us 11 items bought before Japan, 8 bought during the trip and 5 sort of bought during my trip, but online and from other places. Or a grand total of 24 things. Somehow it felt like a lot more in my head – must be because I know that I wasn’t supposed to be spending much before Japan and then caved in anyway. As well as that many of my purchases are brand new direct purchases, so they might’ve felt like more because I spent bigger sums at once. But then in the grand scheme of things, with a few exceptions these fit into my wish/need/replace list parameters and I love every item I bought, so all is good in the end.

Possible new looks

Oh trust me, that gold blouse has been sooo needed! I absolutely cannot wait to wear it with Crystal Dream Carnival. Or with Royal Unicorn. Or with Sheherazade. Or with Bright Starry Night. Or Sugar Plum Fairy Princess. Or maybe even with Repose of Queen. Do you see what I mean? We use so much gold in lolita as accents that a gold blouse is such a welcome way to balance that colour out in a coordinate – and I don’t have to resort to my gold cardigan, which sometimes is a bit too warm for the occasion. Because of that, this reassessment post’s new looks segment will be exclusively about Lady Sloth’s gold mesh blouse – just to prove how awesome it is!

This one is a WIP at this point in time, but I'd like to one day fully realise this idea!

Also featuring one of the new pairs of socks I got.

The nicest one of these three. I now need a reason to wear this.

How to make my lolidrobe go even further?

Am I repeating myself when I say that I don’t really, actually need anything? Probably. Truth is, I can make perfectly varied coordinates with everything that I have right now. Anything I might be missing is either a small piece (potentially one that would only go with one dress) or is something I’ve been getting by without for long enough. My heart wants more shoes, but that’s not a viable option until I have more storage space.

As it stands I guess the most important thing that could make my lolidrobe go further would be to complete all the replacements I identified in my wish/need/replace list. Having access to better versions of the pieces I already have/had would mean that I’d actually wear and use them, opening up actual cording possibilities.

Other than that, the list remains mostly unchanged from before, so to recap:

• A classic/gothic hair accessory in navy
• A gothic appropriate hair accessory
• A neutral sax bag
• A neutral navy bag

Current wishlist

While the bulk of it remains largely unchanged, I have managed to make a few dents in it. On the other hand, before my trip I started making a list of pieces that I wouldn’t mind owning if I found them at a reasonable price whilst in Japan. These aren’t necessarily strict wishlist additions, many probably won’t stick around for long and I don’t necessarily intend to search for these (certainly not in the same way as I search for the other pieces). But for the sake of honesty I will include what was on that list here as a separate photo.

Some slightly less expected additions, as well as some much needed ticked off items.

New Year’s goals: progress summary

The big question is: did I or did I not manage to stick to my goals? Let’s find out!

1. Did I wait a minimum of 48 hours before purchasing something outside of my wishlist (not including Japan): Yes.
2. Did I buy anything outside of my wish/need/replace list prior to going to Japan: Yes. See below for details.
3. Did I do a wardrobe cull: Yes and no. I have put things up for sale and managed to get rid of some bits, but not everything. So I am still doing the wardrobe cull. If you’re interested, check out my Lacemarket listings.
4. Did I learn how to crop cardigans: No, not yet. Life’s been too busy before Japan, I need to make some down time.
5. Did I wear lolita at least once while in Japan: Yes, three times actually. Check out the outfits here, if you haven’t already.
6. Did I take part in 1 outfit prompt challenge: No, not yet.

Fewer goals mean fewer things to review. That was nice and breezy!

Now, as for goal no 2: it all started with that gold Lady Sloth blouse. I have actually been looking for a gold blouse for maybe 2-3 years, however, as I didn’t anticipate to find one, I never put it on this blog’s wishlist. And then that pre-Japan haul happened (combined with the ‘no-one knows what will happen with Brexit, let’s just have nice things now before that gets screwed up too!’). I think that overall the no-buy outside my list idea was good. Combined with the 48-hour wait before buying it meant that I stuck to meaningful spending and purchased things I felt I had genuine need and/or want for. However, the second hand lolita market can be a fickle creature and it’s not always possible to predict what will come up for sale or what will be around long enough to get it later. Had I known that some things I thought were easy-buys wouldn’t be there (like the white long sleeve Peter Pan collar blouse) and some would totally be a thing despite me losing hope on them (like a gold blouse), I probably would’ve adjusted that list accordingly. Overall: I have failed at that goal, yet don’t feel like I’d done too badly and it was a great learning experience.

And on that note let’s end this review. I hope that you haven’t abandoned your 2019 lolita goals/resolutions yet and that you’ve had a good first quarter of the year!