End of 2022 Lolidrobe Reassessment

The end of the year 2022 is almost upon us. And boy, what a year of ups and downs it has been! Although in this post I will skip most of the things that aren’t directly lolita-related (otherwise we’d be here all night). The lolita stuff alone kept me busy with things to do or think about.

Overview of Purchases

Dare I say that this was an interesting year for purchases? It’s hard to photograph or quantify that the things I was buying gave me very similar feels to what I’d been buying back in 2016 when I was first able to dedicate money, as well as time and energy, into expanding my collection. It’s the same vibe this year somehow.

• 2 main pieces
• 4 blouses
• 9 pieces of outerwear (1 classic bolero in brown, 1 classic bolero in sax*)
• 2 layering pieces
• 4 pairs of legwear (1 gothic tights in black*, 1 pair of sweet OTKs in ivory x gold)
• 4 pairs of shoes
• 1 basket
• 1 petticoat*
• 1 calendar
• and 42 sets of accessories (1 sweet necklace in yellow, 1 sweet necklace in white x red, 1 sweet necklace in pastel holo, 1 classic ring in navy, 1 sweet ring in sax, 1 sweet bracelet in pearl x red, 1 classic bracelet in white, 1 classic bracelet in pink, 1 classic bracelet in sax, 1 classic bracelet in red, 1 classic bracelet in blue, 1 pair of classic earrings in gold x white, 1 pair of sweet/classic earrings in red, 1 pair of gothic earrings in black x silver, 1 pair of gothic earrings in black x bronze, 1 classic headdress in white x sax, 1 gothic pin in black, 1 classic ring in green, 1 pair of sweet earrings in yellow, 1 pair of sweet earrings in beige, 1 sweet bracelet in beige, 1 sweet beret in navy)

What the above doesn’t show is that alongside making these various additions I was also getting rid of things. Not at the same rate or on the same scale, nonetheless many of the above were either replacements for things I sold or to fill in the gaps that I have identified this year within my wardrobe. I feel like true impulse purchases were quite few (within lolita, that is). How much wear the things I acquired will get remains to be put to the test, nonetheless I am optimistic. It feels like I have to be so that buying 70 things in 12 months doesn’t dampen my spirit straight away.

The Year of the Wardrobe Overhaul

This was the big goal for the whole of 2022 and so it understandably took over much of the year itself in terms of time, energy, and other resources. It was a very lengthy process that was entirely worth all the time and effort involved because it resulted in so many positive changes, from simply feeling better with and in the clothes I own to a renewed sense of excitement with my style and a clarity of direction. It’s definitely something that I can’t recommend highly enough to everyone who feels stuck with their wardrobe and/or style. Getting rid of things and replacing them with better versions is good, but understanding why you feel this way or that towards some substyles/items/looks/whatever is better and lets you address it in a way that will actually stick. I won’t sugarcoat that it isn’t tiring, because it is - the fact that it took me most of the year is testament enough - but I can wholly see the effects of this overhaul lasting me for another few years. I talked about it in more detail in the video dedicated to summarising that, which you can find here.

As far as graphs go, it's not the best one out there, but it's done so much to help me figure out what I like on myself. I still find myself referring back to these concepts when window shopping, which shows how useful it's been. You can find the whole post on how I figured out my current classic style here.

The Year of Slowing Down

Part of me feels like I may have said this one before, but I can’t really be arsed to search for confirmation of whether I did or not, so it’s included at the risk of repeating myself. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve gone down from two posts a week to one, and sometimes not even that. And when I say in my videos that my aim is to do one a month - it actually is one a month at best, rarely more. The initial freedom of working from home offered by the early pandemic is a distant memory and creative outlets like blogging or making videos is something that I have to actively carve out time for, schedule even, instead of stealing the time for them whenever. Moreover, I’ve always been a believer that it’s better to stay quiet than to force yourself to say something when you have nothing to say for the sake of making content. It’s a common term these days and I know that by definition of what I do I am a content creator, but part of me vehemently resents that label. I’m a creative person first. Blogging, videos, the outfits I wear - they’re part of my creative expression outlets. That they become something for others to consume is secondary, a by-product of my needing to release that out of my system and into the world. This year the creative flow wasn’t as strong, so running with that and slowing down was the natural thing to do. This may change in the future and the door stays open to more. But unless I do have something to say, expect this to be the new standard: one blog post a week (or fewer), one video a month, and one Instagram post a day (for the foreseeable future since I simply seem to have a perpetual backlog).

The other day my heart rate was up because despite being off work and having all the time, my brain focused on the things I wanted to do as things I had to do. Slowing down is definitely the best way forward for me right now.
Photo by Vie Studio on Pexels.

The Year of Coming Back

One swallow doesn’t make a summer and one international event doesn’t necessarily make a full come-back to that lifestyle… but it isn’t just one event. It’s one event attended this year, one already booked for next year that’s not in so much danger of being cancelled, and four meetups that I have organised (two of which were of the bigger, requires-deposit-and-bookings kind). Yes, the pandemic isn’t over, as Lord is my witness the UK has done an absolutely shit job of handling it, C-19 isn’t gone - but it’s also hard to dispute that things feel a lot closer to what I remember them being in 2019 than at any time in the last two years. It is very selfish to hope that this will come back for good, given how insignificant those things are in the face of the hardship that still persists in the world. At the same time, it’s so human to want life to be made up of only good things. And it felt so good to have those bigger gatherings back… We’ve been saying this for the last two years, that things are going to get better, and I for sure hope that this time it’ll stick.

This is what I missed the most: the goofs with other frilly people.
Photo from the booth courtesy of Pipparazzi_Cosplay.

The Year of Health

Ok, I was going to keep things strictly lolita fashion related here, but sometimes life outside of that spills onto everything and it’s impossible to neatly exclude one part. 2022 was a big year of health for me - partly by design and partly by chance. This is the first time in my life when I have consistently exercised (not counting having to during PE classes in school) and I’m still getting used to considering my mental health as consciously and actively as I do now, including seeking therapy. This was another journey of ups and downs, with my body image spiralling several times and having to reconcile myself with certain physical changes that aren’t within my means to affect. That’s just the part that’s most closely related to lolita fashion, other than the aspect that involved setting aside less funds for buying clothes and more to invest in my health. Completing my wardrobe overhaul contributed big time to improving my mental health and I am coming to terms with inevitable body changes whilst enjoying having a healthier lifestyle. Even though it’s been literal months of that already, it will probably take a while longer for my brain to register that this isn’t just a new routine that I’m implementing right now, but my actual lifestyle, that it’s who I am at the moment. With the start that I’ve made during 2022, however, I feel optimistic about it sticking this time. And undoubtedly cultivating a healthier lifestyle will continue to spill into the lolita side of things too.

For some context of how massive this is, I used to say that exercising is beneath me. Now I start every morning with something, including running, and it's bonkers that I'm still at it.

Review of 2022 Goals

2022’s goals were a journey. In some cases that journey was a bit more straightforward and/or linear than in others, and there were many lessons learnt along the way, which made the successes in achieving those worth all the more.

1. Did I create a themed lookbook: yes. There was a change of plans in the process and a whole lot of faff that went with that (way too much for an organised person like myself), nonetheless I am happy with the end result. The lookbook also ended up feeding into the No Buy Support Challenge that I was doing this year, which was a lovely bonus. Both the post and the lookbook can be found here.
2. Did I take more mirror selfies: yes. I hope to be able to carry on doing more of those and get better at them - both technically and at remembering that mirror selfies are an acceptable form of documenting my outfits. This fashion is supposed to be fun to wear, so anything that keeps it that way is welcome. In the end, there was one in almost every monthly outfits post, which is a great testament of the work that this included.
3. Wardrobe Overhaul
1. Have I done a wardrobe purge: yes, as much of one as I was able to. Items that don’t fit me properly either exited my wardrobe or were altered, and everything that was to be sold either has or is still listed somewhere. Between those two achievements my wardrobe feels a lot more true to me, a lot more enticing to wear, and a lot more suitable to the variety of occasions that I dress up for.
2. Have I divided my wardrobe into seasonal parts: yes (finally!). There was a whole lot of procrastination on this front and I am still getting used to navigating my various spreadsheets to remember that some things are packed away, however, the process appears to have worked. I don’t really miss the things that have been put away until spring/summer and that extra bit of room in my wardrobe, however small, makes it easier to get pieces in and out of it, both of which are exactly what I had hoped to get out of this. I did a video summing up this whole overhaul process, which you can find here if you fancy watching it.

This time last year I felt a little underwhelmed about the year I was leaving behind. Right now I am looking towards 2023 with a lot more optimism than I had towards 2022. The wardrobe overhaul certainly reignited that spark of excitement I had for this fashion, further brought into life by the return of big lolita events that I could attend. Even though this is being balanced pretty hard by my personal life trying to get in the way, but that’s something that I’m working on as best I can.

In these last few days of the calendar year, as I think every year, I am taking the time to rest and urge everyone else to do the same. Be kind to yourself, do not put undue pressure on yourself, and allow your mind and body the downtime they deserve. Whatever may be happening in your life, you deserve kindness and rest. If this is the last thing that you read in 2022, then I wish you all the best in the upcoming New Year!