Anything Can Be A Coord Idea

It seems an idea so obvious that it shouldn’t need stating. And yet I still pretty regularly see people (usually newer to the fashion) try to wrap their brains around coordinating around a tiny ring or some vibes.

The question of how has been answered multiple times by various people. But not many have stopped to consider the why. Why should you follow those sprouts of wild ideas and make them happen? Why should that even exist?

Since Bibliotheca’s theme for the early spring is Sprout, this post is an attempt to answer that why – whilst following some of my own slightly more unorthodox places that a coord has started out from.

Because you probably own too much stuff

Call it an attempt at assuaging guilt caused by hoarding every imaginable bit of tat you’ve acquired. But a lot of us simply own too much. Objectively. Subjectively, of course that all of it is necessary and needed in our wardrobes. But objectively, that necklace that you can only wear with this one dress, which you don’t even wear that often because it’s too fancy and your comm doesn’t throw fancy meets more than twice a year and they’re themed anyway, which this dress won’t work for every theme… You get the point.

But as creatures with free will, we can take back control of that narrative and prove to ourselves (and to the one naysayer in the immediate environment who’s just that little bit too good of a human being to cut them out of our lives just for that) that we do, in fact, use our whole wardrobes. By forcing our creative brain cells to work extra hard to come up with something different and justify our questionable spending habits to ourselves.

Not that you can even see the necklace here, but the point is that this is what it inspired. December 2025.

Like this pendant. Did I need the Ferrero Rocher pendant? Is being fun and from one of my favourite jewellery makers enough to justify adding to a collection of necklaces that was already at 79? I would like to defer this question to my lawyer. In the meantime, I can get on with life by putting it into a fun coord to lounge around the house in and pretend like that makes my purchase valid somehow.

Because the occasion calls for it

Probably more frequently one would find themselves in a situation where a meetup or event with a particular theme is coming up – and that theme really calls for a specific idea. From as commonplace as being a strawberry cake for the annual strawberry picnic to as niche as evoking a particular tapestry for a tea party that’s all about myths. Themed events are there precisely to get your creative juices flowing and to provide an opportunity t do something different. Sure, you can be just another person in Holy Lantern for your comm’s Halloween meet or you can let your obscure and even more niche interests show by doing a coord inspired specifically by the 1931 “Dracula” poster.

I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole... September 2022.

I am still really quite proud of this dwarven-inspired coord for the Fantasy Foret virtual tea party. And for the panel on coordinating around things other than main pieces the day before. People say fantasy and most immediately go to elves, maybe hobbits in more recent years, and I feel like my dwarven kind get overlooked when they’re objectively super cool. That sprout of an idea doesn’t have to be obvious to anyone, what matters is that I know where it all began and that I’m happy with it.

Because it’s a fun challenge

For those like me, who like wearing their main pieces differently each time, there quickly comes a point where you’ve exhausted the obvious ideas. It turns what should be a perfectly normal moment of trying to wear clothes into one of stress. If I’m out of ideas, do I now need to sell this dress? But I don’t want to do that! But I also don’t want to re-wear something for this incredibly arbitrary, completely made up reason that doesn’t matter in the slightest and that I’ve chosen to cling onto like a dingbat.

That’s where challenges come in. They can be about themes or abstract prompts that allow your mind to wander towards the places yet unexplored. They can be a tangible notion of starting your outfit with a smaller piece of the whole coord: socks, bag, shoes, hair accessory, whatever. They can even be entirely about relinquishing control, getting something randomly generated or handing the decision-making burden over to another person. The point is that, conversely, applying some sort of a restriction might open your mind to totally unexpected ideas that you can then follow through to completion.

An as-yet-unpublished coord! But based off the JSK x OTKs combo from December 2022.

This year one of my goals is to wear every piece of legwear (of which I own 78 that are lolita-specific). And although it’s still early days where I have alternatives to circle through and to wiggle my way out of some truly tricky items, I’m also trying to spread things out a bit better. I don’t want to get to the end of 2026 and have to magic a coord into existence with a pair of socks that I no longer have things to pair with since my many wardrobe culls. So since this JSK and OTKs combo worked really nicely in the past, I ran with that sprout of an idea and then tried to make it just that little bit different from how I’ve worn it before. Not everything needs to be groundbreaking or the best coord you’ve ever seen. That’s taking the challenge element just that little bit too far. But if that’s your cup of tea, then suit yourself.

Because no-one else will

Look, I’m not saying that you are our only hope and that you are the one to save lolita fashion from stagnation. Yet the fact is that every person is different. So even bound by the same hobby with the same general principles of what makes something lolita or not, our individual accumulation of experiences and personal style/creative/comfort wirings will result in things that nobody else would have even attempted, let alone thought of. Certain coords are more than just having the right combination of pieces – they also wouldn’t have come about without that specific person and everything that made them who they are.

ALL the tartan all AT ONCE. June 2024.

Tartan was by far the least unique thing to wear to The Queen is Dead. Look at the group photo from the event and the many red tartan wearers will blend into one. But no-one else took tartan to the same extreme that I did. For no other reason than that it amused the hell out of me to make pattern overload work and be silly with that. Similarly with Etoile Reverie where, whilst others had celestial inspiration aplenty, I was the only one to consider interpreting stars as in a celebrity and to add my own fascination with the 1920s into it. So yeah, in short, if you have an outside-the-box idea for a coord and you’re wondering whether you should follow that thread to completion – do it! Who else will make it happen if not you? And based on my experiences, you’re missing out on a tonne of genuine compliments.

In summary, whilst the how is very important when executing non-standard coord ideas and trying to make them look good (both objectively and in the context of lolita fashion), don’t let the technicalities distract you from why you’re doing it. You are given these little sprouts to take care of them. Water them until they blossom and stay patient through the making it happen. Your efforts will be rewarded. (That sounded almost ominous, but it is meant merely as positive manifestation, don’t read into it.)