September Coords Roundup

Green Day sang to “wake [them] up when September ends”. We’re not here to make jokes at Billie Joel Armstrong, because if you know anything about the song, you’d know how insensitive that is and how mean it makes us come across. But half of this month felt for me like I was putting out fires, so I would actually like to get some sleep when September ends and not to be woken up. Which I think comes across in how visibly fewer outfits I wore this month compared to the last few.

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Coord 1: Double Gobelin

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK and headbow | Dangerous Nude gobelin bloomers | Sosic Shop shoes | offbrand blouse and socks |

I think in the future I will stick to a more traditional-looking oldschool blouse. But this was great for comfort.

These bloomers are probably the most ridiculous thing I own. They're literally hiked up to be just peeking because they go all the way down to my ankles! But I still love them.

This is from the very end of August which didn’t fit into the August coords roundup post. I can’t explain it better other than that I just felt the urge to wear these bloomers with this JSK, you know? I’m not massively into oldschool lolita on myself, but it is such a wearable way of styling your pieces since it doesn’t require a lot. That week in particular I’ve been feeling all over the place emotionally and in an attempt to help myself a little, I went for a sanity walk to Ordsall Hall gardens. Photographing the different fruit and plants (and a couple of bumblebees) whilst listening to music was incredibly healing. It may not have solved all of my problems, but it allowed me to get back home somewhat emotionally refreshed, which helped a lot.

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Coord 2: Preppy Pastel

| Innocent World Revival Sweet Teddybear JSK | Axes Femme blouse and cardigan | Red Maria tights | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss shoes | handmade headbow | Madillustration brooch |

Blue eyeshadow was very effective with very little effort, definitely will do again.

Feel free to use as a reaction meme a'la the Arthur one.

Quick storytime first: the day before I wore this I was dressed in the most ‘normal’ ensemble I wore for years. I’ve been feeling quite down and my brain suggested that as an outfit. And you know what? It made me feel even more miserable and depressed, to the point where it was almost a eureka moment how much Not Me mainstream clothing styled in mainstream ways actually is. It jolted me back into wanting to wear something cute, so that I could escape feeling so bad and as soon as this outfit was on, I felt like myself again. It was all put together around this cardigan, since I thought a preppy look would be cute and not too much for a day with work meetings on Teams, and I even bothered with simple makeup, which helped elevate it that little bit more. Not that long ago I’ve been moaning about not having an excuse to wear a fancier coordinate and here I am, back at the “I am the occasion” train. Let’s hope that lasts. Also, fun fact: I recorded an introduction clip for students in this coord. The video only catches me waist up, but this is still different enough to typical office wear that I am bound to stand out. If any of the students who will see that clip clock me as a J-fashion wearer, I will be very impressed, but I don’t have high hopes.

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Coord 3: A… Meetup?

| Metamorphose Sailor Tiered skirt | Ank Rouge cutsew | Dancing Days cardigan | Angelic Pretty Candy Fun Fair OTKs | Primark shoes | Angelic Pretty Twinkle Sky headbow | offbrand hair clips | handmade choker and bracelets | After Midnight necklace | Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings | Angelic Pretty British Ribbon ring | offbrand ring | Dear Celine badge | Tea Party Club’s Dream Masquerade Carnival pin |

I am enjoying wearing false eyelashes more, at least in terms of the difference they make for a look.

Is this all of my tricolour accessories? Nope.

I wrote more about the coord and the day here, so to keep the post at least a little bit shorter, I’m sticking with only the pictures.

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Coord 4: Summer Never Ends

| Angelic Pretty Flower Garden JSK | offbrand blouse | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Innocent World Rose and Diamond OTKs | Sosic Shop heels | handmade headbow | Enchantlic Enchantilly necklace | Fluffy Tori Tea Party Hard pin | Dalao Home half wig |

Sometimes I get tempted to dye my hair. And then I remember how well this half wig matches, and the clip-on fringe, and how much I like my couple gray hairs, and that stops those ideas going further.

Although this is quite a ridiculously OTT dress, I'm glad that I was able to somewhat tone it down.

What I mean by this is that mentally summer continues for me for as long as I have to deal with bloody exam boards and their aftermath at work. And as we know, exam boards mean that I dress up to make myself feel better during what is otherwise a pretty miserable time. Having said this, while the boards mean that it’s still summer in my head, emotionally I am totally ready for autumn, which I embraced by coording this dress with brown. It makes for a very typical classic lolita combination, which I enjoy a lot, it gives me Innocent World vibes and those are never inappropriate in my books. It’s also one way to get around coordinating this awkward colour. Oh yeah, because temporarily I have reverted to letting Random Number Generator pick my main pieces again and it landed on this. Honestly, it’s so much easier with one thing fewer to think about and without forcing myself to coord this dress, I’m not sure when would I even consider coordinating it  with brown, you know?

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Coord 5: Something Similar

| Bodyline L380 skirt | offbrand blouse and flower clips | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Baroque Secret Garden tights | Hush Puppies boots | Fluffy Tori Tea Party Hard pin |

That fake leaf on the flower kind of looks like some flyaway hair, but it's fine. Noone is 100% perfect 100% of the time.

The damask-like pattern on those tights is perfect, it deserves a closeup because no-one could ever get close enough in person to see it properly without coming across as at least a bit creepy.

Since that week I had to prep as much as possible in advance, this included all my outfits. And when time is of the essence, forcing myself to come up with drastically different outfits is too much effort given the circumstances. So I reused a few pieces and ideas from the last outfit to make this one. The tights add a nice bit of interest to what otherwise looks very much like the previous coord with a different skirt and hair. But hey, you don’t have to sacrifice time for the sake of cute.

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Coord 6: The End Is In Sight

| Angelic Pretty Royal Unicorn Switching JSK | I Do Declare x Haenuli blouse | Peacockalorum underskirt | Angelic Pretty Toy March OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Vierge Vampur bonnet | Haruhi Clover headbow | gold bow from Dear Celine’s Magic Book OP | AatP The Mouse King*Gualtiero Medal Pin II | Angelic Pretty Rose Princess wrist cuffs |

These glasses are great for distracting people, it is impossible to wear them without someone pointing them out.

I will never tire of the textures on this dress.

It may seem like I’ve only just worn this dress (at the beginning of this post, actually). And it’s true, I have. But it was the last exam board meeting and I used Random Number Generator again. The simple idea of pairing this dress with red morphed into using this blouse and ended up in this quite fancy form. Which I must say that I enjoyed, it was a good coord which I probably wouldn’t have worn for an exam board meeting had I not moved to using my office desktop which has no camera on it, so no-one could see me. It does, however, use a headset which together with this whole getup resulted in about 5 minutes of me feeling like an Angelic Pretty call centre operator. And given the size of Angelic Pretty’s head recently, as well as the general nature of call centre work, this would inevitably involve keeping people on hold and pretending like it’s not on purpose. Though a friend made a very valid point that AP could provide cute call centre-chan uniforms had they actually had a call centre, so I am now considering this completely impossible hypothetical scenario. I mean, I already have experience of wearing a headset over a bow, I guess?

Hello, you've reached the Angelic Pretty call centre, please, stay on the line.

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Coord 7: Filming Day

| BtSSB Full of Stars “Bright Starry Night” JSK I | Angelic Pretty Musee du Chocolat OTKs | collar from an Axes Femme cardigan | everything else is offbrand |

I would love to master the art of up-do's, especially if I can make them so that they're visible in photos. Up-do's and classic lolita seem like the perfect combination.

Also, I might add vintage fur collars and stoles to my regular eBay searches, I'm into the look that creates.

I had some videos that I wanted to record (that weren’t Around Your Wardrobe in 30 Coordinates!) and took this opportunity to put on something fancier. The idea was to create an elegant vintage look with this dress, which led to working everything around that faux fur collar. After the success of this outfit I would love to add a couple of more faux fur accessories to my wardrobe for more looks like this. With this I’ve also decided that it is now Cosy Season and I can’t wait to whip out my cardigans, it feels like too long since the proper warm ones have been out and I missed them. In the evening I took my Cosy Season further by lighting some scented candles, putting on fuzzy pyjamas, making seasonal tea and playing Fairytale of New York. What? I never specified which season I meant. Let me live my Christmas all year round life, I’m not the one interfering with other people’s Halloween celebrations, it’s just me on my own in my flat enjoying simple pleasures.

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Coord 8: More Otome

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt and Post Office brooch | A.R.W. blouse | Fi.n.t. Cardigan | Innocent World Origa OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | vintage flower |

Look at those fluffy curls! They came out so much better than I expected given how little effort I put into them.

It's fun to see that the brooch is exactly the same size as the sign on the skirt. Now I want to style it with the other pin from this series that I have (the Esoteric Shop one).

Having seen @frochan put an actual fluffy petticoat under their skirt of this print, I wanted to try the same and I’m positively surprised how nice that looks. I was worried that it would look overstuffed, but it turned out just fine. An almost entire week without anything nicer felt like an eternity, so it was time to change that. And since it is officially autumn, which I do like a lot, I wanted to embrace the autumn colours and cosy feelings. The Charming Town print seemed perfect for that occasion and whilst the coord is arguably more otome than lolita, both because of the pieces themselves and because of styling, I like it nonetheless. That flower probably needed a more thought-through placement, but eh!, it’s a minor thing. Instead let’s appreciate how I bothered to curl my hair during a week filled with extra work shoved my way and several hours of overtime. Overtime whilst working at home is the worst, 0/10, would not recommend!

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Coord 9: Cake in the Park

| Innocent World Georges Rose JSK | offbrand blouse | Axes Femme cardigan | Enchantlic Enchantilly The Crown of the Rose Princess tights | Hush Puppies boots | After Midnight beret | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand brooches | Coscraft wig |

Oh my gosh, finally different and nice aesthetic outfit photos! And all of these ones came out so nice! The one above is in the park that's adjacent to the university I work at, whilst this one is at one of the campus buildings, which is actually an old fire station. And look at the autumn leaves! It's too perfect!

This wig enables me to live my dream of being ginger. I should get more ginger and red wigs, actually...

The beret has this amazing design, which is never seen on photos. Time to showcase that!

The Great British Bake Off had started on Tuesday of that week and to celebrate, I made a cake on Monday. Thing was, not only do I prefer to bake for others than just myself, the cake (although delicious) was quite rich. Even trying to eat the whole thing myself would be a lot, it probably would’ve taken me two weeks and I wasn’t sure if the cake would last that long. However, after sharing my woes of how the pandemic means I can’t even invite friends for some cake, the idea was born to have said cake in the park. Just like with the MOSI meetup, it’d only be three people myself included, and a park is an open public space, so the plan didn’t seem that illegal against the current regulations.

The other two quickly got excited about ‘last day of summer’ kind of coords, which I had neither the right pieces nor the mood for, so instead I went with ‘first day of autumn’ as my inspiration, giving rise to this coord. And I have to say, I really like how it came out, down to the makeup which I went more browny and peachy with. The wig served a double purpose of adding to that autumnal theme and hiding my hair being all in pincurls for the evening.

We shared the cake (which I’m so pleased they liked!), took some photos, saw many doggos and inadvertently ended up crashing the coolest wedding party ever. We were sitting on the benches by the flower beds to eat the cake when we saw a wedding party approach. I don’t know what language they all spoke, but everyone was black and the women all wore white flowy dresses with cuts and patterns that reminded me both of Middle East and some central African countries, with the most amazing hairdo’s ever. (It really bothered me that I didn't know enough to recognise their culture at a glance, so I Google Imaged traditional wedding dresses of every African country until I hit a match and discovered that they were most likely Eritrean.) The men all coordinated their suits too and everyone was just strolling, eating and taking photos, celebrating the occasion. They all looked incredibly beautiful, those women were absolute goddesses and I felt lucky to be able to bask in their glory, even if only for a little. At one point one of the wedding party’s photographers has asked if we wanted a picture too, which may be the first time I agreed to it thinking that this is someone much cooler than me asking. Although I’m not sure whether the bride and groom would really want to remember the three randos in frilly dresses eating cake as part of their wedding.

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Coord 10: Murder at the Tea Party

| Haenuli Just One Bite JSK | What Katie Did stockings | Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Anglomania heels | vintage gloves | offbrand jewellery and hair clip |

Proof that I was wearing seamed stockings!

Thankfully I didn't have to change my makeup much from earlier, just add eyeliner and change lipstick to red. And the Hair Gods have smiled upon my attempt at pincurls, I must leave them an offering of gratitude.

I have shoulders? Scandalous!

Two coords in the same day, wooo! Of the two, this was the one I actually anticipated wearing because I had been planning this virtual murder mystery meetup for literal two months and it finally took place. I will write more about the meetup itself soon, so I’ll keep this part brief and just about the coord. Whilst I still don’t have a dramatic hat, I basically took the WIP idea I had for this dress and ran with that. The glam film noir vibes felt appropriate for an evening meetup trying to catch a horrible EGL murderer. Since I was the host, I didn’t necessarily have a character to match, although I ended up stepping in for someone who couldn’t make it in the end and luckily my outfit still fit that character. It was elegant and quick to change into, and while I will re-wear this in its complete form once I acquire a suitable hat, I am very pleased with this result. It may be a bit of a stretch to call this lolita, even an ero one, it swings heavily to the glam vintage side, but whatever we call it, I was really feeling the entire look!

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And that is it for September. Yes, technically there’s still tomorrow, but honestly, I’m still putting out fires at work, so my energy levels likely won’t be up for that. However, things hopefully will start calming down soon. I really want to capitalise on the cosy autumn vibes and outfits that I can make before I fully switch gears for winter and Christmas. The spooky season holds little appeal for me, but I do have one idea that I would like to make happen. It requires some crafting though, so if that happens, you should see a post about that before I share the outfit. So here’s hoping for a calmer, more creative October. I would really like that, it would be amazing for my mental health as well as this blog. And to those of you excited for the spoopy season - may the month of Halloween be as good as you can make it in the current circumstances.

Once again I'm frustrated with Angelic Pretty

This time, however, the frustration is with the second hand market, not with what AP themselves are doing. I have come to terms with the fact that AP have opted to stick to a handful of cuts that either don’t fit or don’t flatter me, as well as with their design choices. It’s been nice to not feel like every one of their releases is coming for my wallet and be able to dedicate my money elsewhere. And judging by what’s happening on the second hand market, I’m probably not the only one. This will be a ranty post, so buckle up, grab a drink and enjoy the ride.
 

Traditional sweet lolita, like the kind that Angelic Pretty was releasing between around 2008 and 2014-ish, has never really died down in popularity, though recently it has had somewhat of a comeback. It was apparent in the number of releases from Chinese brands that aimed for that style, as well as the made-to-order rereleases that Angelic Pretty themselves have been doing.

 

Just some of the recent Chinese releases that exude Big 2010 AP Sweet Energy.
From left to right these are by Walnut Deer & Shiny Two Cookies, CC Cat, and Lolita & Colitas.

This on its own is understandable. Sweet lolita is the most distinct of the three substyles, which continues to attract people, both newcomers to the fashion and those already in who may either remember those releases and/or who are exploring their sweet side. Angelic Pretty’s prints from that time are a delight to look at, and thanks to high quality materials used to produce them they are still in great condition. This in turn translates onto people continually wearing them, regardless of what trends may currently dominate in lolita fashion overall.

Moreover, the current world situation doesn’t leave much room for pastimes as they were at this time last year. As a result lolitas will either hibernate their frills or go all out when playing dress-up at home, which again drives the popular sweet lolita prints to the top of social media algorithms. Without much else to distract themselves with, people also turn to online shopping for some temporary comfort.

And that is where my frustration stems from. I’ve always been of the opinion that Lacemarket is fantastic for sellers, but less so for buyers. Over the years I’ve noticed Lacemarket sellers to have a tendency to want break even or even profit from their sales, ignoring that this isn’t how the second hand market works, certainly not all the time or for every release.

Recently, i.e. at least in the last 6 months when I’ve started paying attention, this has gone to new extremes. Older Angelic Pretty releases, often damaged or stained, are selling for literal hundreds as people enter serious bidding wars. Even some of the newer ones that still fit the look of the height of AP sweet popularity, like Diner Doll, are being listed with starting prices at 250% of the original retail price for a used piece (pre-sale price because I will never forget that this went fully on sale a mere month after I bought it). If you have anything from that era, however small, you could set the opening bid low and still come out with a hefty profit of around 100% of what you paid, especially if you yourself purchased it second hand.

 

Whachu doin' in the comp'ny of Honey Cake and CTP, Diner Doll? You're positively lost here!

I understand how supply and demand works. There is very clear demand for that kind of sweet lolita, that style of prints, those fabrics, those trims and details. There is also nothing wrong with matching your opening price to reflect the demand. But with each listing that circulates because of its crazy price or bidding history it seems like this isn’t about a simple supply and demand anymore. It feels that certain people list purely to profit because they saw how easy it could be. By doing so, and by people buying at those prices, lolitas themselves are driving prices of certain pieces up irrespective of whether the release is actually rare (I’ve again seen Diner Doll JSK listings marked as rare, which that print is anything but) or how sought after it may actually be.

Moreover, it feels like a lot of people are buying those listings and getting wrapped up in the bidding not because they have been looking for them for years (though those are out there too), but because of status. Owning AP has always been a sign of status, the more popular or rare the release that you owned, the more status you had. All the proof you need is in the fact that even after the re-release of Cats Tea Party, that print continued to sell for way above its retail price, even if a little lower than what it used to before the made-to-order.

Of course, that mentality isn’t present everywhere. People have commented that Facebook sales remain more reasonable, which I’m inclined to agree with. This could be because of the buy-it-now-only sales format there, but it could also be because people selling on Facebook aim to sell more locally first, whereas Lacemarket is by default open to a global audience (though not every seller will ship everywhere). The Japanese and Chinese second hand markets continue to follow their own trends, with slightly different pieces remaining popular and as such expensive or cheap. But the fact that it is still possible to find popular releases cheaply in Japan is leading to scalpers buying them to resell in the Western market. I’ve seen that happen on eBay, where it’s easy to spot dodgy sellers as they will often use photos from the Mercari/Fril listings they bought from themselves, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was happening on Lacemarket too.

All of this begs the following questions: is it just the pandemic driving those sales, as people have nothing better to do but shop or nothing worthwhile to save for like events? Or is it a sign that lolita fashion has grown too big in popularity and like so many niche hobbies before it, became victim to people seeking clout at the cost of those genuinely wanting to be a part of it? Is it a response to the Western community’s frustration with what Angelic Pretty is releasing currently (and if so, how come so many of these releases are still selling out like hotcakes, including on the AP Paris sites, which points to the fact that it’s not just the Chinese lolitas going for those releases)? Or is it a side effect of social media cultures that drives people to quick-win popularity, which gets them hooked on the likes, and then teaches lolitas that having the popular stuff is more valuable that having your own style?

Honestly, it’s probably a combination of all of the above. Whilst I occasionally get pangs of wanting to expand my own wardrobe’s pastel sweet side (mostly when I watch Tyler Willis’ Frock Talks), seeing the investment this would be right now stops me before I even realise that there aren’t that many releases that I’d genuinely like to own these days. I at least have the entirety of the rest of my wardrobe to play with - I can only imagine how disgruntled someone newer to the fashion must feel when they see auction after auction be snatched away from them because some people out there are willing to drive up the prices to insane amounts for items that previously sold for under retail.

 

There are some pastel AP pieces that I wouldn't mind owning. But I would mind spending my own money on. (And tbh, the AP dresses that I really gravitate the most towards are usually true tones or jewel tones.)

Thank you all for coming to this episode of A Lolita Shares Her Thoughts on This Bitter World. If anything within this post’s contents has upset you and you need help, please, seek out the comfort of your local lolita community and/or personal friends. When the council funding comes through, I will be sure to set up a formal anonymous support group for lolitas affected by the second hand market prices.

Adding Colour to Your Lolita Wardrobe

Whilst plenty of people start in lolita with an attitude that can only be described as “meh, it’ll be fine in the end”, equally many, especially recently, do actually research and read all the advice. This includes people starting off with a limited colour palette and expanding gradually, as is the sensible thing to do. However, once your wardrobe reaches 2-3 colours (with or without your base neutral), adding more can start feeling overwhelming. As someone who went from sticking to only three to expanding into anything I fancy, these are some of my tips on how to make that transition.

 

Go for different shades

When making the first tentative steps into expanding your wardrobe’s colour palette, one of the easiest ways is to do so by shades and tones. Adding navy to an all-sax wardrobe isn’t as intimidating because those are two shades of the same colour, so the naturally complement each other. They also look good paired together, when balanced right, making it easier to coordinate things right away.

 

Pairing this dress with light blue was quite the breakthrough moment for me. Shades of the same colour are guaranteed to work with one another.

 
Another way you could do that is by adding new colours within the same tone group. In other words, adding a new pastel colour to a wardrobe that’s all pastels requires less of a stretch. Not only will you have at least something complimenting the new colour already, but chances are that the colour you’re adding is already featured somewhere else on another piece that you own. This again results in making life and coordinating easier for you by not forcing you to immediately purchase a whole load of new items to support the colour you’ve added.

 

You know me, I will grab every opportunity to pair reds with blues. And as long as they are the same tone, they work well (although undertones also matter, sticking with the same ones helps).

Stick with neutrals

Having said this, there is also nothing wrong with sticking to your substyle’s base neutrals (generally: black for gothic, white for sweet, and ivory for classic). They are called base for a reason, which is that they will support and work well with any colour you may wish to add to your wardrobe. Not every person and not every substyle are meant for wild colour experimentation either, for example oldschool usually sticks to those neutrals.

 

Green isn't the most common colour in lolita, so using a neutral like white helps to wear the dress out. Thanks to different cuts and patterns of the white supporting pieces these coords are still distinct from each other.

Moreover, a limited colour palette doesn’t have to mean limited coord options. As you could see for example in my last 1 Dress 4 Looks post, having pieces with different cuts/trims/patterns is as good for creating variety in coords as colours. Particularly when the new colour addition is a JSK, having blouses with different necklines and sleeve shapes will make as much of a difference as blouses in different colours would. Don’t take the more difficult route if you don’t have to and/or are not comfortable with it yet.

Create a builder piece set

I’ve talked about builder piece sets on this blog waaay back and while now I would improve some of these coordinates, the principle still stands. Having a set consisting of a blouse (or cardigan/bolero), some legwear and a hair accessory - and shoes if you have the means to store them - is a quick and versatile way of incorporating new colours into your wardrobe. It can also be a very budget-friendly way as these additions can be sourced inexpensively, depending on your size and style needs. A beret and solid tights are easy to find and don’t cost a fortune, whereas a blouse, even if you require a custom-made one, would work out as a worthy investment when you translate it to price-per-wear.

Whilst the shoes and hair pieces are different between these three coords, even excluding those the cardigan and socks base combo makes an impact with different main pieces. And the head pieces and shoes could've stayed the same, they'd work with each coord equally well.

At the beginning of my serious lolita journey I had a spreadsheet (of course) listing every main piece I owned and every colour I could think of to coordinate it with. This allowed me to see the most common complimentary colours I could use for my dresses and track whether I owned a blouse/socks/headpiece/shoes in that colour or if I still needed to buy one. That’s how in the early lolidrobe reassessment posts I was able to keep tabs on what bits I still had to get.

Opting for adding colour through a builder piece set like this, depending on the colour you’re aiming to add, will be faster and cheaper, as well as potentially more versatile. After all, you can mix and match blouses, headpieces and socks between different coordinates, which you can’t do with dresses.

Be conscious of versatility

The fact is that not every lolita out there is as obsessed with versatility as I may be. And that is ok. If you fall into this category, you are no less valid and no less of a lolita for not wanting for everything to work together. However, if that is you, you must recognise that your outliers will require their own sets of builder pieces if you are to wear the dresses - and that you will have to buy them if you want to wear the dresses. Only collectors would be satisfied with simply owning a piece and most lolitas will agree that the joy of this fashion comes from wearing it. 

 

Diner Doll is one of my wardrobe's outliers. Whilst since this collage I've worn it a couple of more times in distinctly different ways, I realise that I could do with a few more pieces to work with it, so I keep that in mind when browsing. Notice how many builder pieces and themes are repeating between these outfits.

On the other hand, those who know that versatility is important to them, will have to come to terms that they won’t end up owning everything that they like. At least not immediately. This approach demands a lot of strong will and patience, but pays dividends in the long-term. I’m a fan of the three coords rule before purchasing anything and it has helped me stay on track during my early days. Once you build a large enough collection to support more colours, you won’t have to consider each decision so hard. If you also expand your wardrobe through the builder piece sets, once you have enough of them, you may find yourself not needing to add that many extra pieces to support the new colour thanks to all the time you spent collecting and carefully curating your wardrobe.

There was a lot of toing and froing (as well as a few years) before I finally decided to get this dress. And even though I knew that I could make at least three coords with it when I bought it, I am still adding bits just for it to my wardrobe.

Final words

I think what scares most people away from expanding their wardrobes with more colours is the fear of getting it wrong. Truth is, you probably will get some things wrong. That’s how learning new stuff works. But this is fashion, not open heart surgery, so your mistakes are either reversible or fixable. Embrace trying out a new colour and then selling the piece on if it turns out to not work for you. There is no shame in doing so and trust me, every lolita has had an experience like it at least once (usually more than once).

The good thing about the tips above is that while they work great together and complement each other, you can pick and choose the ones that suit you best. Everyone’s wardrobes and styles are different, so grow yours in a way that suits you.

This post is also available as a video, which you can watch here:

Are you the type to stick to a limited colour palette? If so, is that across multiple substyles or do you also stick to only one substyle too? Or are you embracing the rainbow and unafraid to add more colours to what you already have? I’d love to hear your thoughts, as well as any other advice you may have on this topic.

1 Dress 4 Looks Take 40

And on a very different side to the last one of these posts, with Meta’s Classical Sister, despite also being a long sleeve OP, I feel like I still haven’t scratched the surface of possible outfits. This is probably in big part thanks to the several detachable elements that really help in making distinctly different looks, as well as due to being a solid colour dress. And for this post I haven’t even gone particularly wild colour-wise!

Look 1: Victorian Lady

| Vierge Vampur bonnet | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | offbrand brooch and rings |

When using the detachable yoke and cuffs, this OP gives me very strong Victorian vibes, so I wanted to highlight those. Although the bonnet is pretty dressy, somehow this outfit still feels low-key enough to just be worn for a morning stroll around the park. Very impressed that the bonnet matches in colour this well too!

Look 2: Cosy Snowflake

| Axes Femme Snow Embroidery and Pearl cardigan | Metamorphose Snow Crystal OTKs | Irregular Choice Flickety Kiss heels | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand necklace | vintage brooch |

Ok, but I love this? This came together so much better than I anticipated it to and I want to wear this asap! Some people were keen to bring Halloween earlier since the pandemic ruined most of the fun, but I am Team Christmas all the way! The mixed golds and silvers should bother me, but they really don’t. The silver glitter shoes end up balancing out the tiny bits of sax blue on the cardigan, whereas the golds balance each other out. Besides, don’t you think that the glittering snow shines with all kinds of colours and the mixed golds and silvers reflect that? No? Just me then. (Also, those shoes are brand new and unworn, hence they’re directly on the bed.)

Look 3: Vintage Lady

| Innocent World Origa OTKs | offbrand shoes | vintage hat and necklace | Innocent World gloves |

Hats are the new(ish) area that I’m trying to invest in and get more of, so naturally I wanted to pair this dress with this one. Who can resist the drama of some veil? Although looking at this now, I probably should’ve added something red at the top to fully balance out the colours, this would hopefully be easily rectified by either a pair of earrings (which I don’t usually photograph because effort) or red lipstick. Every vintage lady wears red lipstick!

Look 4: The High Priestess

| vintage haori | Angelic Pretty Lovely Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | My Inspiration necklace |

If I loved the second look here, then this one I’m obsessed with. I thought that pairing this dress with a haori could work, but I genuinely did not expect it to work this well! This coord is proof that even if the colours don’t match, if you have enough of each shade to make it look intentional, it can turn things around and make for an amazing coord. Someone give me an excuse to wear this, please!


As I said, unlike Dear Celine’s Magic Book OP, this one keeps on giving. To date I’ve only ever worn it with whites and reds/wines, now there are four more coords with those colours in my bank and if I tried, I could probably come up with a couple more. All this before I even dip my toe into layering other colours such as gold, pink, navy, brown or black. Full disclaimer, I did have a coord with black prepared for this post, but whilst I liked it, these four were simply better, so it didn’t make the cut.

How Do You Approach Your Coords?

Here’s another loose thought that has been at the back of my mind for some time. When I read more about how other people coordinate their pieces, their thought processes behind each choice, I noticed two distinct categories that lolitas tend to fall into. People either go down the route of polishing each main piece’s coordinate until its final form or the route of making as many different coordinates with each main piece as possible. And today I would like to stop and dwell a little bit more on that.

Personally, as you probably gathered, I am the latter kind. To me coming up with new ways to wear the same dress is exciting and it allows me to experiment with creative self-expression. This isn’t to say that I am totally against re-wearing outfits. I’m not, certainly not in principle. But I am also very aware of how many individual smaller pieces I own, so wearing different outfits each time forces me to use what I have at least that little bit more evenly instead of constantly reaching for the same couple of favourites. As such it can sometimes feel like I don’t have the time to re-wear lolita coords because there are all these other ideas that I have in my coord bank that I could’ve worn just as easily as re-wear a past outfit.

Just look at August if you really need proof that I am Team Many Outfits.

From my perspective, going down the ultimate polishing of each coordinate route seemed like something only newer lolitas do. When you have fewer pieces and keep adding things, it’s sensible to focus on improving the outfits you do have until you are completely happy with them, that’s the smart way that most of us would advise newbies to do, often based on our own experience of not doing exactly that. That is until I started reading Kyra’s blog more. She is far from a newbie lolita and continues to document her outfits not only through the “this is what I wore” lens, but also evaluates what she liked and what could be improved about each coord. Moreover, she regularly does a ‘one year on’ look at the same outfit, comparing a coord from a year prior, talking about what changed and why. There is nothing newbie-like about her reflection on what she wears, in fact, it reads as the sort of very advanced responsible behaviour all lolitas should continue to cultivate. If you haven’t read her blog at all, I highly recommend it, what I wrote will make more sense if you’ve read at least a couple.

Those blog posts regularly get me thinking on why I don’t do the same. Yes, wanting to wear my clothes as frequently and fairly as possible is an important factor. Having said this, I enjoy having a timeline snapshot of coords with each dress that I add to my AYWi30C posts. People like to track progress and see how they improved over time. It’s also good to reflect on the things that we wear and consider what worked and what hasn’t. Whilst I do partly subscribe to the idea that dressing in clothes isn’t an objectively measurable hobby (like sports may be where you can track how much longer/faster you are running and that is kind of the goal to constantly improve), I also don’t think that there’s anything inherently wrong with wanting your outfits to be better because you yourself aren’t completely happy with the outcome. But for all the times that I do say “I’d change this” or “this could be better”, it’s not often that I actually go through with those thoughts, at least not through wearing the same outfit again with the changes mentioned.

This is from the last AYWi30C post and with my 2nd lolita JSK ever. Seeing both the improvements and the variety with just this one dress is quite inspiring, as well as lets me see what things I haven't yet done.

Now that I am wearing lolita more often than ever, the idea of rewearing outfits comes to my mind somewhat more often. With the increase in casual coords, I think more often about which outfits I could do again easily once we do actually get back to the office (side note: a prospect more imminent than I would like, though of course nothing is said out loud with any degree of certainty). In those cases, where I would end up wearing the same outfit regularly, wouldn’t it make sense to evaluate it each time and tweak until I had a version I was genuinely happy to keep wearing so often?

Though if I’m completely honest, those thoughts are coming from the rational part of my brain. When I listen to my heart, it wants to keep trying new things and keep proving that the same dress can yield multiple distinct looks. At the same time I doubt that the appeal of those detailed reviews and polishing of the same coord until it is in its best version will stop appealing to me just because I realised my heart wants variety. However, it certainly made for an interesting introspective look.

Could some of these make it to my work wardrobe? The outer two could as there are enough elements I could simply add once I got to the office. But for the most part I'd rather think of something new with these pieces.

And I’m curious to see where other people are at with their approach to coords. Are you Team Many Outfits or Team Perfect Outfit? Have you ever even thought about trying out the other approach? Why do you think you lean into this one instead of the other? It’d be interesting if we could identify whether there is a strong preference amongst lolitas for one or the other!