About two months ago a date was set for the swap meet and I decided it was high time I actually went to a meet. Besides, I had a lot of things that I've been needing to sell and either have not been successful at parting with online or haven't even listed anywhere yet. So I clicked "going" on facebook, and earlier this month, when we actually had to confirm via message, I did, nervous about it though I was. In the week leading up to the meet I was tagging, pricing, organising and had basically no idea what to expect.
Well, overall it was nice! It was a long day, because it was an hour and a half drive each way for me, then I was there for five hours but it was a great to finally get involved in the community. I got to speak with lots of nice girls and now I feel confident to go to other meets in the future. Everyone brought a plate to share, so there was a tasty lunch spread to partake in between browsing clothes and chatting. And I only had a like one really socially awkward moment, yay!
Unfortunately I didn't do too well on the sales side and only managed to get rid of two pairs of shoes and a pair of socks, and traded two other things. I also didn't buy particularly much, because I really wanted to watch my spending and there was nothing I really, truly loved enough to pay much for. But there was a good reason for my lack of sales because...
...there were so. many. clothes! There were two rooms filled with clothes; the downstairs room was for dresses, skirts, outwear, shoes and bags and upstairs was for blouses, coats and accessories...though it ended up with a bit of everything as some latecomers arrived. And to give you an idea of volume there were four racks of dresses, two of skirts, two of blouses, at least 10 pairs of shoes and a big dining table plus another smaller table filled with all kinds of accessories. Some girls who had been to Japan said we basically had a Closet Child's worth of clothes and I can believe it! We had around 45 girls in attendance, and nearly everyone brought a tote bag of clothes at least!
Though I did come home with basically the same things as I left with, here's a picture of my little haul! I traded for the Meta shawl thing and the Innocent World clip, and bought the socks and the Rogue Aerie chokers and bracelet (I couldn't decide between choker styles, lol).
And, what meetup post would be complete without sharing what I wore? The dress code was casual/otome for ease of trying things on and also for space constraints (and even with all the small pettis wow...it was still hard to move around!) which suited me perfectly!
I got James to snap a photo for me after I came home, so excuse the peeking petti! I wore my Jam Paradise JSK and got several compliments on it, as well as one on my bolero, which was nice. Really, the Sydney community is full of lovely girls!
So yeah, I went to a meetup! What was your first lolita meet like?
P.S. I'm tagging this post with "Lolita 52" because it can belatedly count for the "My first meetup" topic!
That is so much clothes! And a really big comm too. I'd really love to go to a swap meet to get my hands on some accessories, because they're alwways awakward to ship, but I guess this will have to wait. Did you meet anyone living closer to you? You could then organise mini-meets between the few of you that don't have such a long drive. :)
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, my first meet was literally just over a year ago and it also happened to be a big one (which for my comm means that we had something like 15-20 people). I was pretty nervous, but everyone was lovely and made me feel very welcome and comfortable. Although I must admit, the part I remember the most fondly was when the official meet was over, most people left, but I stayed behind with maybe 5 other girls and chatted. That was much more within my comfort zone (even though I was still madly in awe of how polished and sweet they all were) and it was easier to have a conversation without about a dozen other people chatting at the same time. :P
It is pretty big! The facebook group has over 200 members, and the mods recent did a cull of inactive members too...
DeleteI did meet one girl living quite close, and another who lives in a city another hour and bit further away in my direction, but I don't think I'm up for organising anything anytime soon!
Your first meet sounds pleasant! I ended up being parked on a couch with a slightly shifting set of girls for a lot of this meet, and that was really good to be able to just chat with new people.
I think it would be easier to get into a community with a meetup like this one. I actually don't have comm, but I have a friend interested in j-fashion as well.
ReplyDeleteI think so too - several girls said it was a good first meet! That's fair enough, lolita is still not really common, but that's cool that you have an interested friend.
DeleteWhoa, that is a lot of clothes... Glad you were able to sell a couple things at least, and cute mini haul, I think both chokers are equally pretty, too, haha!
ReplyDeleteSo many clothes! Now that I know what the swap meets are like, next year I will go along with intentions to buy and a lot more cash!
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