Shopping for Brand Coordinates: Fril Edition

If you know me, then you know that I’m a very vocal advocate of Fril and Mercari. They’re my favourite places to shop for lolita because you can get stuff for a steal if you’re attentive and fast enough. In the past I have shared some tips on how to find those bargains, plenty of hauls obtained from there, as well as some cheap all-brand coordinates that I made myself. Today will be a mix of all of the above and we will go shopping! Well, window shopping.

The Challenge

To prove that you can find some absolute gems if you’re willing to dig hard enough, I will put together outfits using only brand items found on Fril. Each coordinate will be composed of items from the same brand and they will be sorted by brands, with some general comments on the search as well as the outfit. As Fril listing photos vary in quality, the collages will be made out of stock photos, unless I can’t find one, and I will link to the original listings. Of course, I will also disclose the total cost of the outfit (excluding any shipping costs and shopping service fees), so that you can see for yourself what you can expect to spend when putting together an all brand outfit. Some of those coordinates will be cheap, while some may not, as each brand’s resale value differs and as I prioritise having a complete, wearable look versus going for literally the cheapest pieces. But more on that with each of the coordinates.

The Rules

A couple of rules I am setting for this challenge:

1. No single item can be priced above 5000 Japanese Yen. Given the British Pound’s current exchange rate fluctuation, I will also add approximate price in US Dollars.
2. All items must be available to purchase at the time of my putting together the collage. (Availability may change later.)
3. JSKs only. Skirts are notoriously cheap and OPs require one element fewer to complete a coordinate. The point of this post is to prove that you can get a versatile item for cheap.
4. All items have to be from the brand named, not simply listed under its tag. 
5. All listings must have a proof photo (basically, if I wouldn’t feel comfortable purchasing it myself, then it’s not allowed) and in case of items that may be harder to identify, a picture showing the inner tag.
6. All items must be in a wearable condition (again, if I wouldn’t buy it for myself, then it doesn’t go).
7. I will try to get as many different items as possible, from bags to jewellery, but they must all form a part of a coordinate (so no novelties or items that cannot be worn).

A couple of extra notes:

• I won’t take sizes into account. This may mean that some coordinates will not be plus size friendly. If there’s interest, I can do a plus-size version of this post in the future.
• I will not try to get different substyles represented in the outfits. They are literally what I found within the price range that worked best together. 
• These coordinates are not necessarily things that I would wear or styled in a way that I would wear. These are simply complete and shoppable lolita outfits that are possible to put together.

So let’s see what kinds of coordinates we could make!

Angelic Pretty

| Cotton Lace JSK (¥5,000) | unknown blouse (¥2,500) | Triple Ribbon bolero (¥3,800) | Happy Garden headbow (¥1,200) | Dream Star Tote Bag (¥500)* | Dreamy Horoscope OTKs (¥800) | unknown shoes (¥1,555) | Cross Choker (¥1,500) | Dot Cute Ribbon Ribbon bracelet (¥1,200) |
TOTAL = ¥18,055 (approx. US$170)

As the most popular lolita fashion brand, Angelic Pretty had the most stuff priced up until ¥5000. However, out of those at the time of my searching only one was a JSK (though there were several skirts and a handful of OPs). Although this changes depending on who lists what, it generally remains true at most times. Finding an Angelic Pretty JSK at ¥5000 or under takes a lot of time, patience, as well as often being very unpicky (old, unpopular, usually unprinted designs), very slim (unshirred pieces) and even very crafty (pieces with more extensive damages).

The upside to this situation is that once you have a dress, you can style it in almost any way imaginable with almost every colour imaginable. There are enough tops, socks, shoes, bags and smaller accessories to match pretty much any aesthetic. During my search, even though I have settled on making a sweet kuro outfit, I fluctuated between wanting to do one that’s more military, more oldschool, more gothy or more classy with pearls. That’s just within the black colour scheme alone.

* Technically you would spend ¥1000, however, for that price you get two bags, so the one that’s needed for this coord technically works out at only ¥500.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright

| Pup in a Cup JSK (¥2,500) | School cardigan (¥2,500) | Snow Dot blouse (¥3,800) | Grosgrain Double Ribbon headbow (¥2,500) | Ribbon Heart bag (¥1,800) | Princess Drop Embroidered Border knee high socks (¥850) | Strawberry Cake shoes (¥2,000) | unknown wrist cuffs (¥1,800) | Mirror necklace (¥2,000) | Meltaine Ribbon ring (¥1,000) | Twinkle Gingham Ribbon ring & Lumiere Ribbon bracelet set (¥3,500) |
TOTAL = ¥24,250 (approx. US$229)

The situation with Baby is very similar to Angelic Pretty. Having said this, generally there are more JSKs being listed at ¥5000 or lower, but do look out for significant damage and don’t expect things to be too new or too popular. Again, you will have a wide range of builder pieces available at your disposal to create a host of different looks with, both in terms of style and colour. Majority of those will be sweet lolita and maybe something more classic, as BtSSB delegates most of their darker stuff to Alice and the Pirates. I wanted to break away from the safe colour bases of white/ivory/black and show that certainly within sweet lolita it’s possible to get all sorts of other pastel coloured pieces. Despite this coordinate being more expensive than the Angelic Pretty one, do notice the few more accessories here, the printed dress and the novelty shoes. If you are a sweet lolita, your best value strategy would probably be checking listings tagged under both AP and BtSSB and compare what you can get for similar prices. Still, this whole outfit costs about as much as a brand new simple non-printed BtSSB JSK on their website, so for a coordinate of 12 pieces this really is not bad.

Alice and the Pirates

| Sailor OP with Ribbon Ties (¥3,980) | unknown blouse (¥5,000) | Waist Rib-Stitch cardigan (¥4,000) | Rose Lace boater hat (¥4,500) | Marine Border OTKs with Emblem (¥2,399) | Christopher shoes (¥3,500) | Mini Fairy Tale Pochette (¥3,900) | Gears of Time necklace (¥4,800) | unknown brooch (¥1,500)
TOTAL = ¥33,579 (approx. US$317)

Whilst I anticipated Alice and the Pirates to be the hardest one to find a coordinate for, this ended up being the most straightforward to put together. And both of those were for the same reason – Alice and the Pirates had the fewest number of lolita listings within that price range. This is common for that brand: some of their pieces are boystyle, some are too coveted to drop below that price, and yet other ones are actually mislabelled and filed under Baby the Stars Shine Bright. Generally speaking, Alice and the Pirates retains a lot of its value second hand and in my experience, the cheapest JSKs are usually around the ¥6000-¥8000 mark. However, luck favoured me this time around and provided enough pieces for this simple sailor outfit. Whilst I have found a pair of these same shoes for less (approx. ¥1600), the damage on those was quite substantial and you would certainly need to take them to the cobbler before wear, as one of the heels has lost its sole. Certainly compared to the Angelic Pretty outfit, which cost less than a brand new Angelic Pretty JSK, this one is on the expensive side. However, in the context of this being a complete and wearable coordinate, with several pieces being sold BNWT or BNWOT, as well as being highly versatile for future wear, an entirely Alice and the Pirates coordinate for a little bit more than one of their pricier OPs brand new, this is not bad value.

Innocent World

| Candy Pattern Flare JSK (¥3,500) | Rose Lace Short parka (¥2,777) | unknown cutsew (¥1,500) | Emblem Ribbon combs (¥1,700) | Chocolate Fountain OTKS (¥1,300) | Roseline shoes (¥4,200) | unknown necklace (¥1,050) | unknown bag (¥3,500) | Heart Scallop umbrella (¥3,000) |
TOTAL = ¥22,527 (approx. US$213)

In my experience, Innocent World is the brand that’s most likely to have JSKs priced at ¥5000 or less. There are a number of reasons for those, including age, condition and popularity, though I suspect that since Innocent World often ‘passes’ for regular vintage clothes outside of lolita settings, they may also have been worn the most by their owners on a daily basis. As such, many sellers probably don’t feel that their solid coloured or simple pattern dresses are worth a high asking price and will mark these lower. But this is purely a guess.

Whilst you will find a decent range of builder pieces to complete your coordinate with, I would say that their accessory range is the smallest of all the brands. This is likely because compared to other brands Innocent World doesn’t release jewellery as often. Moreover, their simple, elegant classic style doesn’t require branded jewellery, so as many lolitas wear offbrand or antique pieces, they naturally have fewer branded ones to sell. It’s a little funny how for such a classic brand I managed to put together this cutesy and pretty casual coordinate. Innocent World’s kind of sweet is usually pretty toned down, though they’ve done some quirkier stuff in the past. I can certainly think of people who I think would wear this.

Metamorphose temps de fille

| Girly Note JSK with Collar (¥3,000) | Cameo Embroidery bolero (¥4,000) | unknown blouse (¥4,663) | Magical Moon Light OTKs (¥1,300) | Triple Ribbon shoes (¥4,200) | Heart-Shaped Ribbon Bag (¥3,500) | unknown necklace (¥700) | Acrylic Ribbon bangle and ring set (¥2,000)
TOTAL = ¥23,363 (approx. US$221)

Ah, good ol’ Meta. As you’d expect, majority of main pieces under ¥5000 are their skirts, predominantly the fully shirred ones. I love these so much, so it was tempting to break the rule for lolita fashion’s OG rulebreaker, but I resisted. Although I couldn’t find one this time, many Meta JSKs that are sold this cheaply are fully shirred too, which makes them very size inclusive – if size is your concern, then keep a hawk eye on that. This particular JSK is an interesting one, as it’s a great example of a piece that balances that line between sweet and classic. We have a sweet motif and colourway, but very retro-inspired classic A-line cut. Sadly, there weren’t enough red pieces to make a pink x red coordinate, so I decided to play up the classic vibes by adding gold. Also, although the collar of the dress is detachable, the neckline underneath it is still quite high, so I aimed to find a blouse that would work with the collar on. This wouldn’t be an ideal first piece for someone completely new to the fashion, probably even one of the skirts would’ve been easier to coordinate for a newbie, so if you go Meta, make sure to see what the piece looks like with and without any and all detachable parts. Again, if you had this much money in your pocket, you could just about bag yourself one of their non-printed JSKs brand new, but with no money left over for any accessories. And considering how often gold appears as an accent colour, any of these pieces would work great in a princessy sweet lolita wardrobe, which makes this a nice investment.

Final words

As stated at the beginning, these coords were created to show that you can get a whole brand coordinate if you shop smart on sites such as Fril. These are by no means the cheapest coords possible, but I hope you can see how they could be made even cheaper by replacing or removing certain pieces or going with a skirt/a cheap OP. Of course, this way to shop will not work for everyone for a number of reasons, and shoppers outside of Japan will have to include the cost of shopping service and international postage fees to their total. Still, with enough patience and as few guidelines as to what you want and what condition you want it in, I believe that everyone can bag themselves a bargain. I sincerely recommend this video from Petticats, who are incredibly thrifty bargain hunters and have managed to snag even better deals, regardless of their plus size needs, simply by patiently and consistently searching sites like this. (And also, subscribe to them in general because they’re great YouTubers and the sweetest people I know.)

Are any of these coordinates something that you’d consider getting for yourself? Is there anything here that you’re surprised to see at that price? Let me know, if you’d like me to do similar posts in the future – I could definitely do a Mercari edition, as well as a plus size friendly one and one where I literally put together the cheapest pieces I find. I’m open to further suggestions too, so don’t be afraid to make a request!