Not really a wardrobe post

Readers, I will be honest. I cannot be arsed doing a wardrobe post this year. In god news, that's mostly because there hasn't been much change - just a few arrivals and several departures. So I'm not missing out by not doing one ^__^

However, I thought it would be nice to do a little review of those changes in a wardrobe post of sorts.

New Arrivals

My most notable addition in 2021 was Meta's Camellia ~ at hide and seek~ which I absolutely adore. I've already worn it twice, and it's such a gorgeous piece that even my minimal-effort outfits look good.

I also posted a YouTube video unboxing this, so have a watch below if that's your thing ^__^

2021 also saw me finally acquire some blouses that fit from Glitter Tale, yay! I've worn the white one a lot, but the others...not so much. Oh well. It's still nice to have some comfortably fitting blouses even though I'm kind of "meh" on Glitter Tale.

Lastly, my black tea parties died and I bought a similar pair from Aliexpress. Not very exciting, but there you go.

Oh, and I nabbed a couple of classic-suitable necklaces from our model wardrobe. There are probably a few other bibs and bobs I'm forgetting but that's most of it! 

Fond Farewells

As I said at the start, last year saw a fair few departures. I did another wardrobe purge, and finally parted ways with things that don't feel "me" and things that will take a lot of weight loss to fit into. Again, I have a video on this on YouTube, embedded here for your viewing pleasure. Though be warned...it is long, rambly, and includes as much cosplay stuff as lolita stuff.

Another item I let go later on in the year was Bodyline L003 and a couple of pairs of socks. A friend James and I reconnected with expressed an interest in lolita and a lack of funds to get into it. We decided she and James would do a photoshoot where I dressed her in lolita.

When I was coming up with a coord for her, as she is significantly smaller than I am, I decided to just give her an Innocent World blouse and bolero from the aforementioned purge, as I'd listed them to Lacemarket and they weren't selling. Then I thought "those will goes very nicely with that Bodyline floral" and realised that the JSK would suit her colouring far better than mine, so she might as well have that to keep as well, since then she has the big parts of a coord. Eventually I'll learn not to buy beige or tan based things...

Then for that outfit I put her in some pretty Meta OTKS that I've never worn due to size, and when I saw that the pattern was a little stretched out even on her very slim legs I was like "fuck it, these are never going to work on me no matter now much weight I lose" (hearty Scandinavian types, you feel me?) so I gave her that pair, and the second pair of the same socks in a different colour that I own.

Though, to be fair, they look kind of wonky even on this mannequin leg!

And sadly, last year my gorgeous fawn fur handbag fell apart at the seams after years of near-constant use... genuinely, I was very sad about this, and still kind of am. It was a great conversation starter!

In Summary

Overall, more went out than came in to my lolita wardrobe, but those changes were all for the better. The make my wardrobe better more wearable for me... and I've freed up some space for more new additions ^__^

I mean, I'm actually really enjoying not buying very much in terms of lolita. Being more mindful, for lack of a better term, about my wardrobe has been good for me. I've also started sewing more again (I have a cutsew and a skirt in the works at the moment), and would love for my wardrobe to expand mostly with handmade or indie brand pieces. However, I'm not making any particular goals in that regard - I'll add what I like, when I like ^__^ 

Coordinates to try in 2022

Recently(ish) I posted to reflect on my coordinate goals from 2021. Even though I did forget that I'd set those goals for the majority of the year, I still liked having them. So I thought I'd do it again for 2022!

This list consists of some things that are carried over from last year, and some things that are wholly new.

Try OTT classic
I have sort of done OTT-ish classic before. A more opulent classic look is my go-to "proper lolita" style. But it's been a while and I want to see what 2022 Roli can do ^__^

A couple of my fancier classic coords.

Pair an OP with a blouse

Exactly what it says on the box. When I put together flatlays, I often pair short sleeve onepiece dresses with a blouse underneath, and I really like it. But I've never done it in real life and I think that needs to change!

Keen to wear this exact combo one day!

Make a "typical" sweet coord

I want to do a cute, pastel, fluffy kind of sweet lolita coord because I've never really done that before, and I want to! I'm thinking a bit like Princess Peachie in her heyday, or Rosalynn from Lolita Wonderland. Not exactly OTT by today's standards, but very, very sweet. Honestly, I think they thing that stops my more typically sweet coords from quite reaching this vibe is largely a matter of hair and make-up (and accessorising) so this may end up being a photoshoot look.

Wear my non-fawn fur
This is carried over from last year, because I totally failed at doing it at all ^__^

I mean, that's because it's mostly fawn fur...but still!

Coord a corset
Another 2021 goal, but this time I'm better prepared. Last year, I forgot that my only lolita-suitable corset does not match any of my currently-fitting clothes. This year, I'm either going to delve into ero with another corset, or (more likely) make myself a gobelin waist cincher, because I want one anyway. 

At least one kimono coord
Honestly, this is just a slight tweak on last year's "wear more wa lolita" but I wanted to be more specific about what I wanted - to wear a kimono in place of a blouse, with or without an obi. I may also be modifying some kimonos into lolita clothing, but as with all sewing plans I have, let's not hold our breath on that.

My favourite kimono coordinate so far.

Wear my bonnet
My last goal is also a repeat - I want to wear my lovely old-school bonnet! Probably for a photoshoot, as it's not really my everyday vibe, or maybe I'll organise an old-school meet up when it feels safe. Going to try really hard to make this one happen!

And that's it! That's the lolita coords I want to try and make happen in 2022. Do you have any "goal" coords?

2021 Coords in Review

2021 saw me wearing lolita 27 times (this number does not include the times where I just dressed from the waist-up to film a YouTube video). So a bit over twice a month on average. After my 2020 bonanza it feels like a bit of a poor showing, but given that 2021 was a year in many, many ways (most of which I haven't talked about on this blog) I'm still quite pleased with myself. 

Some of my favourite coords of the year.

So, total numbers aside, how did things look compared to 2020?

I'll admit I'm a little surprised to see that sweet dominated quite this much, but I suppose that's also because a bunch of my outfits toe the sweet-classic line. 

For example, in the four outfits above I classified two as sweet and two as classic...but they're all very similar. I guess it's just that simple sweet (which sometimes tends to read a bit classic by virtue of simplicity) is my vibe. So when I see a graph saying I wore lots of sweet part of me goes "but there are no pastels, no stuffed toys, no giant twin tails" and kind of forgets that my style of sweet exists.

Interestingly, the graph of main piece colours is pretty darn similar to last year. Or, I suppose it's not that interesting. I fit the same pieces as in 2020, and even though I got rid of my handmade green skirt I bought Meta's Camellia Cat so I still had the same amount of green main pieces!

In 2021 I did not have a stand-out most popular main piece. Everything that fits was worn at least once, and I had three tied "favourites" at three wears apiece - Teddy Chocolatier, Shirring Princess, and my handmade cherry skirt. I am not surprised by any of that. ^__^

And last of all...my reasons for wearing lolita. Nothing too surprising here either, really. I feel like I wore lolita a lot for comfort reasons. As in, I had to wear proper clothes for whatever reason, and lolita was more comfortable for me than normie clothes. I know I say this every year, but I really am trying to finally drop some weight, so it'll be interesting to see if I find lolita more or less comfortable as more of my clothes - lolita and not - start to fit better...or fit at all.

Overall there's nothing particularly unusual in the data from 2021. However, I still like posting these reviews to see what I was up to and now that this is done... on to 2022!

Coordinates from December 2021

Farewell 2021! You were fine, I guess. Tumultuous. Weird. But you definitely had upsides too.  

But we're not here for reflective musings, we're here for coords!

First coord of the month was worn to my work Christmas party - it's tradition, dammit. This year, we were asked to dress in Aussie colours or themes so I wore my red dress with some blue and white since the Aussie flag is red/white/blue (like lots of countries, so boring lol).

OP: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tartan Check

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

I genuinely loved this look, it was not something I'd have just come up with on my own without trying to match the colour scheme but I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I next wore lolita on a WFH day because James had a photoshoot, so I couldn't stay in my PJs with a model in the house! I hadn't planned on doing lolita, but I was having trouble finding a pair of comfortable pants and realised that I'd be more comfy in lolita than my jeans!

OP: Metamorphose temps de fille Camellia Cat

Socks & Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

It was a cute coord and I was happy to wear it, unplanned as it was.

Then my next coord was once again, quite unplanned. We were visiting a friend who's back in the country for a few months (and getting to meet her cute baby girl!) and I could not find my comfy pants, so again, went with a quick lolita coord. The base of this is a combo I wore in November but like, who cares, lol.

Skirt: Handmade

Everything else: Offbrand

You could also argue this isn't really lolita, but as usual - my blog, my rules, and I say it's lolita enough.

And that was my December in lolita fashion...unexpectedly more fashionable that I would have thought. As usual I'll be posting a bit of a "year in review" post shortly, so look forward to that!