Clearing out my lolita wardrobe

As I mentioned a little while ago, at the end of 2019 and start of this year I did a very significant purge of my loltia wardrobe. Because I always talk about wardrobe building on this blog, I wanted to also take this opportunity to discuss my thoughts behind wardrobe reductions.

In terms of my own process my purge was actually a series of smaller purges over the course of a couple of months, and my thoughts and feelings were different each time. My recount below is not entirely chronological, as I went through my wardrobe in sections and there were also elements of each stage in each review. But in an ideal world, where I get everything right in a smooth and predictable way, there are really three stages to the process; joy, practicality, and changes. Let’s go into those in a bit more depth.

Not a pile from the purge, but visually very similar!

On the first review of my wardrobe, I did a Marie Kondo. I touched each piece in turn and really listened to my feelings. If there wasn’t a spark of happiness, out it came. This was a pretty simple process and is a great place to start.

The second time I went through my wardrobe I added a dash of practicality to my search for joy. I asked myself if the piece fits, if I like how it makes me feel when I wear it, if my love for it is an actual love or just familiarity. This purge was a big one and saw me removing things like Anniversary Rose, a dream dress that was still new with tags that I had to honestly admit I may never lose enough weight to fit. Did I really want to hang on to it for several more years as I tried to get to a size where it would fit, or would I rather sell it and have the money to buy something more suitable? It gave me a pang to let go of items like this but it was the right decision.

Farewell beautiful!

I will admit that a couple of pieces I removed here shortly made their way back from the sales pile to my wardrobe - specifically my Flower Bottle skirt and my Icing Cookie JSK. Flower Bottle I had thought I was just keeping so it ticked the “pink skirt” box, but I realised I felt really sad at the thought of it not being in my wardrobe. Icing Cookie is not hugely flattering on me but I realised I’d still rather have it than not. Perhaps in future if I find a similar but more flattering piece I may let it go then.

I also went through my accessories at this point and as well as removing items that did not spark joy I got rid of things like bows that didn’t sit well or comfortably on my head and socks that didn’t match anything. It’s very easy to hoard accessory items since they take up so much less real estate than a dress or even a blouse, but it’s important to go through these as well.

The last stage was to look through my newly reduced wardrobe and remove any items that now didn’t make sense - like the socks I mentioned that don’t actually match anything else. It’s okay, great even, to have some oddballs or to start adding new colours to your wardrobe. But some things just aren’t right and you shouldn’t just have them taking up space.

Yes, I even sold off some socks, believe it or not.

Ultimately, these purges really made me fall right back in love with my wardrobe. I still have some items that are too small for me to wear right now, but less of them. I still have items that aren’t wholly flattering, but I’ve made a conscious decision to keep them despite it. I do have some gaps that feel a little odd but time will tell if they’re gaps I need to fill.

Overall, my wardrobe feels sleeker and cleaner - and it is! I didn’t realise that I had actually started feeling overwhelmed by it, but now I’m inspired instead. I don’t miss anything that I parted with and to be honest, my wardrobe is more than adequate for my needs - I still have 29 main pieces and I don’t wear the fashion more than a couple times a month on average. I’m intending to be a lot more mindful with purchases in future, and hope to keep my wardrobe in a position where I feel this happy about it all the time.