Recently I completed Raine Dragon's lolita buying habits survey and it made me think a bit about the make up of my wardrobe, how it has changed over the years, and what it says about me as a lolita.
The specific question was about the amount of main pieces in your wardrobe from various sources. I had to count, but it turns out I own 14 main pieces from Japanese brands, 9 from Bodyline, 1 from an indie brand, 4 handmade, and 2 custom-made by a designer who doesn't typically do lolita (so I don't count them as "indie").
I was incredibly surprised to discover that almost half of my main pieces were brand, and I was curious to see how this ratio was in the rest of my wardrobe. So I went and counted my blouses and outerwear as well, though I didn't go into socks or accessories or shoes.
In terms of cutsews and blouses, I have 12 from Japanese brands (though not all lolita brands, this includes Axes Femme and similar brands), 6 from indie brands, 4 from Bodyline, and 2 offbrand options. In the outerwear category I have 15 items from Japanese brands, 1 indie, 1 handmade, 1 custom-made from Lyris Design, and 3 offbrand.
So in tops I have a little less than half from Japanese brands, and in outerwear I have around three-quarters brand. Which means that my wardrobe as a whole really is about a fifty-fifty split of Japanese brands vs other sources.
This really surprised me. I knew that over the past 5 years I have definitely been buying for brand items than when I started, but I didn't think that fully half my wardrobe was brand by now. And that realisation leaves me in a bit of an odd position when thinking about who I am in this subculture.
I bought my first brand in mid-2014 and since then my buying habits have skewed, slowly but surely, to more brand focus. Not exclusively, and I don't think it will ever be exclusive, but I certainly buy more brand than anything these days, though it's pretty much all secondhand.
While this was a bit of a shock to the system, I like that I am actually now more than ever living up to my intention of having a wardrobe full of things I like, regardless of source. There's nothing wrong with loving a particular brand and stocking your wardrobe with that brand and that brand only, but that's never been my preference.
I don't quite know how to wrap this up as it's probably the most rambly post I've done in a while and I don't really have a point to make. But it's interesting to look back at my loltia buying habits and wardrobe make-up and see trends that I wasn't aware of.
I was going to say that it's impressive that a similar split continued through your tops and outerwear pieces, but then I looked at my own spreadsheet and was also surprised that, if I included Axes Femme, Fi.n.t., Ank Rouge etc. in the same category as Meta, AP etc., then it's the same story for me. Whilst with main pieces I think I was more intentional on getting Japanese brands, I never considered myself to be like that with blouses and outerwear, so that was an interesting realisation. Though also one that I think follows a pretty typical lolita journey? I think a lot of us start out in this fashion wanting or having to prioritise budget to a certain extent, because starting out you need so much and it could eat your entire savings if you let it. As we grow into the fashion, not only our tastes solidify, I think we also grow to appreciate quality more, which leads us to either stick with the places we know we can rely on or to buy less in favour of spending more on individual purchases with places that we know/have heard are of good quality (both Japanese and non-Japanese brands). I don't know of that many lolitas who have been in the fashion for several years who enjoy experimenting and trying out new brands, particularly the Chinese ones which often start and disappear after one release only, the majority of the people I know stick to what they know is quality. And when quality also has to meet budget in some way, this naturally leads to either buying second hand brand or indie brands (depending on style preferences and budget).
ReplyDeleteThat's fascinating that it's similar for you! You make a good point about this probably being fairly typical...I hadn't really thought about it that way.
Delete