Goal coordinates for 2021

So I may have posted only recently about not really having goals for lolita, other than losing enough weight to fit back into more of my clothes, but on reflection I realised I have a bit of a goal after all. There are a bunch of things that I want to try wear in lolita to expand my horizons a little further, so I figured why not list them down here so I can keep track over the year and see how I go!

Wear my underskirt

My black Victorian Maiden skirt is actually technically an underskirt. And, given that I have never worn an underskirt in lolita, this year I'd like to give it a try!

More wa lolita

As I mentioned in my coordinate summary for 2020, I tried wa lolita in 2020 and I really like it despite know I can improve. As we all know, the only way to improve is to practise, so I want to try the style at least once more this year. 

Make it blue

While I don't own a sax blue main piece - or even a sax blue blouse - I do have supplementary accessories in the colour, and I think it would be fun to try to coord with them. I have also bought a large men's dress shirt in this colour to try and refashion into a blouse, but I'm not counting on that turning out until I actually, you know, do it ^__^

Wear my non-fawn fur

Fawn fur, at least in my mind, is petty iconic to me. However, I do have a couple of non-fawn fur collars that I don't think I've ever worn because if I go for fur, I go for fawn fur. So I want to try and wear at least one of them this year.

Coord a corset

Yes, you read that right - I want to try wearing one of my corsets in a lolita outfit. Currently I'm thinking of a steampunk lolita look, or maybe some kind of dark classic vibe, but we'll see where my whims take me. 

Probably this corset, because the thin shape will work better with lolita.

Photo by Wulf Photography.

Go OTT

Given that my style is generally quite simple, I want to branch out and try something OTT this year. Ideally, I'd love to do both an OT sweet and and OTT classic look but I'd be happy with either in the end. 

Wear my bonnet

Many years ago I bought an awesome old-school black and white Innocent World bonnet, and since then it has sat in a drawer, unworn. SO I want to make this the year that it gets worn! Given that a bonnet, and old-school as a style, are both pretty outside of my normal vibe, this will probably be a photoshoot thing but hey, it counts!

So those are some coordinates I want to try out in 2021. I'm really looking forward to all of this, and I'll definitely post an update post at the end of the year to see how I went with this.

2020 outfit summary - the great and terrible year

So, wow, 2020 huh? A shit year on so many levels - globally and personally - with some awesome highlights thrown in. But this post isn't for any of that, this post is to analyse how I wore lolita last year!

In 2020 I wore lolita 68 times, or an average of five and a half-ish times per month. This is absolutely a record for me, and it only happened because I ended up working from home since the end of March an decided to take advantage of that to wear lolita to work. My initial intention was to wear it every work day, which I promptly failed to do, but I still wore it for work a lot - 50 of those 68 outfits. During this time I also tried to wear all my main pieces in a roughly equal amount (at least for a while), so every main piece that currently fits was worn a minimum of three times (with the exception of some that fit, but are uncomfortable to wear for a full day, so they only got worn once).

Some of my favourite WFH looks.

So obviously, when we look at the reasons for wearing lolita in 2020, the biggest piece of the pie is for work. But even if we remove the 50 WFH outfits from the equation I'd have worn lolita 18 times this year, which is up from 2020 and not too shabby. And if 2020 had been a normal year, I'd probably have slipped in a few simple coords to work on a casual Friday so the count would have likely been in the low 20s. So I'm happy no matter what.

In terms of what I wore, as I mentioned earlier I tried to wear my main pieces equally for a good chunk of the year. However, I didn't stick to that for the whole year, and three dresses emerged as clear favourites with six coords each - BTSSB's Tartan Check, Meta's Rose Stripe Shirring and Meta's Teddy Chocolatier. 

So my little graph of main pieces by colour isn't really all that insightful, it really just mirrors the main pieces that I won that currently fit. Still wanted to include it though, it's tradition! And I do like that, even though my variety was "forced" it happened ^__^

Speaking of variety, wearing lolita so much and trying to wear all my main pieces really got me experimenting. I wore pieces in new ways and really had a lot of fun with the fashion.

Three different outfits with this skirt, none of which I'd have thought of before this year. 

Something I am very, very proud of is my first forays into wa lolita! While these outfits are far from perfect, it was so much fun to try out something very outside of my normal comfort zone, and to be able to do it pretty decently.

In terms of substyle, much like the colours of my main pieces this was fair strictly defined by the contents of my wardrobe rather than any choices I made, but once again, it's tradition, so I want to share the graph!

Overall, 2020 was an impressive year for me in lolita. Not only did I wear an awful lot of the fashion - more than the last three years combined - but I took another trip to Japan (where, of course, I bought things), started my YouTube channel, an even did my first twinning! While I really, really hope that 2021 calms down a whole lot and gets back to normal, I hope that I can keep up with being more enthusiastic about lolita fashion again. 

Coordinates from December 2020

Things, as they usually do, got even more hot in December. Coupled with a return to working in the office from the 14th, I didn't wear that many coords for the month. 

My first coord for December was worn to a counselling appointment. James had just presented me with this offbrand red blouse he had found for me, and I had to wear it ASAP!

JSK: Metamorphose temp de fille Rose Stripe Shirring

Blouse: Offbrand

OTKS: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

Accessories: Offbrand/Taobao

I really loved this outfit, especially my shoe/sock combo, and James was nice enough to grab a close up for me.

That weekend I did wear three lolita outfits to film my Christmas lookbook video but since they were video-only I’m not really counting them. But if you want to see, check out that video or the blog post I did about the same topic (link). Though, ahem, one is basically a repeat of the outfit above. 

I then wore lolita to my work Christmas party, very casually. I wasn't planning on dressing up this year but then the lady who organises them let slip "Oh Caroline always wears something amazing and festive" so of course I had to! I did not manage to get a good photo though, so have an elevator selfie complete with mask and backpack. 

OP: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tartan Check

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

Once again, I want to share a foot shot as well, because I worked in a bit of a cherry theme since I wanted to wear these socks that were my Christmas gift from work a few years back! I really like them ^__^

And that was it for the month! Normally I wouldn't do a post with only two coords to share, but I wanted to start 2021 fresh from a coord-sharing perspective. I think my number of outfits will be significantly reduced in the new year, but you never know!

Lolita Blog Carnival: Share Your New Years Resolutions For EGL Fashion

First of all - Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day, whether or not your celebrate it. I did - lots of food, chill, and online shopping ^__^

I thought a lot about what I want to achieve in lolita in 2020 and kept coming back to a very simple answer - I want to fit more of my clothes again. I'm currently four-five dress sizes larger than when I was a pretty fit human being, and three-four sizes larger than my average before that. Because I love my clothes, and because I don't want to be my current size forever, I now find myself in a position where I can only wear about a third of my lolita clothes. 

And I am so sick of that!

I miss wearing this dress!

So my New Year's Resolution is to actually, properly, this-time-for-sure start losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way. The non-fitting segment of my lolita wardrobe is organised by size, and I would love to be able to fit into at least a third of what's there by the end of the year.

This isn't really the most interesting or exciting goal for anyone but me, and I won't give me anything to blog about, but it is what it is.

Do you have a lolita-related resolution for 2020?

Read more from other bloggers:

The Bloody Tea Party

Christmas Coordinates Without Christmas Prints

Festive season is upon us! In celebration of that, I took part in my first Lolita Fashion YouTubers collaboration playlist and you can view my Christmas coordinate lookbook here and the entire playlist here.

But, being me, I wanted to ramble on about my choices (and more) so here we are - exploring how to dress festively in lolita if you don’t own a blatantly Christmas print.

Festive Colours

This is the easiest - wear some red and green! Doesn’t matter if they’re Christmas themed in pattern, or even the ‘correct’ shades, it still gets the gist across. Other obviously Christmas combos are red and white or blue and white, especially if you can get yourself looking a little frosty.

Red and white is so Christmas-y, and leads me right to my next suggestion...

Tartan

Tartan fabrics just read festive to me, especially in red or green. And luckily, red tartan is quite a common fabric in lolita, so it’s easy to come by and while it works very well for the season, it’s not limited to it.

Christmas Character Motifs

Another way to get into the spirit of things if your wardrobe doesn’t lend itself to Christmas colours or warm tartans, is to add allusions to festive figures in your outfit. This can be done overtly - like my use of fawn fur to bring reindeers to mind - or more subtly. Some Christmas character ideas that I can see working well in lolita without having a restricted colour palette are toy soldiers, sugarplum fairies, reindeer (of course) and ice queens 

Any excuse to pull out the fawn fur!

Other Christmas Motifs

This is similar to the previous suggestion, but instead of adding character flair to your outfit instead make references to Christmas-y things. Some ideas here are gifts, candles, fireplaces, snow, swans...or blazing hot sun if you’re an Aussie like me!

Craft Accessories

Another option is to craft some easy, seasonally themed accessories. I’m having thoughts of bauble headbands and holly brooches, but there’s lots you could do with a brooch blank or a headband, some hot glue, and some Christmas bits and pieces from a dollar store. Or you could buy something! But if you’re anything like me, why buy something you use once a year when you can just make something ridiculous instead?

There are doubtless many, many more ideas than I’ve listed here of how to be festive without wearing a holiday print but I hope these ideas spark some coord ideas in you.

Lolita Blog Carnival: 5 Holiday Gift Ideas For The Lolita On Your List

Before you read any further, please know that I am a terrible gift giver. I’m bad at thinking of new and surprising things that may bring joy to the receiver - in fact, this year, my husband and I are just both going online shopping on Boxing Day rather than buying each other gifts. So take these suggestions with a grain of salt and let’s get to it!

Small accessories

Something that is nearly always welcome to any lolita, and are quite easy to pick up in local stores, are small accessories such as jewellery, hair accessories, ankle socks and the like. Things like bracelets and hairclips are probably the easiest to get right, since us lolitas are quite picky, but a pearly bracelet or some little hair bows in the right colours are generally pretty safe bets. Flower clips can also be good, but make sure they are nice quality and don’t look like what a mid-40s suburban mum would wear to race day!

Simple, classic, and $5 from a local chain.

Craft supplies

This is only relevant if the lolita in question is a crafty type, of course, but if you know what they like to make you should be able to pick something that suits what they might like to use. Or a simpler alternative is to buy a gift card from their favoured supplier. 

A wishlist item

If you happen to know their wishlist, buying something from it is a definite winner! This can be tricky but there are guides to buying from all kinds of lolita sites online, so if you're willing to put in the work to figure out how this is sure to be a 10/10 gift. 

Vintage items

Hunting for good vintage items generally takes a lot of time, or a somewhat deep purse. So why not surprise the lolita in your life with a one-of-a-kind item to enhance their collection? My first thoughts here are things such as brooches and jewellery, but if the lolita in question is okay with it vintage furs are a luxurious gift.

Not lolita, but I love the vintage foxes I was wearing for this shoot!

Photo by The Enthusiast.

A lolita experience

Lastly, if you're not confident picking out the right physical gift, why not gift an experience? It's a cliche, but lolitas and afternoon tea go together well so it's hard to go wrong in gifting them a voucher to a nice tea parlour! Some other ideas in the "experience" category could be a photoshoot, fruit picking, or a picnic.  It doesn't have to be something you buy, it can be something that you organise.

So those are my five ideas of gifts for the lolita on your shopping list! Have you ever received an awesome lolita gift? TBH my personal favourite gift I've gotten is when James paid for a custom-made dress for me, but that was a gift I was involved in from the start, not a "present under the tree" gift. But hey, consider that bonus idea number six - foot the bill for something your lolita would love.

This was a Lolita Blog Carnival prompt that I'ma  few days late on so please check out the other posts below.

Read more from other bloggers:

The Bloody Tea Party

Marnie Merriweather

Raine Dragon

Coordinates from November 2020

November was a quiet month in terms of wearing lolita. I did shoot a bunch of content for YouTube...but since I only ever got dressed from the waist up in lolita for those, I decided they don't really count as outfits. My coord count would be higher if I included them, but oh well, quality over quantity!

My first November coord was for a counselling appointment, and as it was a hot day I kept things really quite simple. But it was nice to dress up nevertheless!

JSK: Metamophose temps de fille Rose Stripe Shirring

Bolero: Lady Sloth

Socks: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Flower: Offbrand

The following week I decided I really wanted to hit life hard, so started the week off wearing lolita to work from home. A super simple and casual outfit, because it was still hot, but still! Dressing up for work does motivate me for work and for life in general.

Skirt: Handmade

Everything else: Offbrand

The hot theme continued on and off for the month, so I didn't wear lolita much. November was just kind of a massive blur overall. However, on one 41 degree (105 in freedom units) day James and I went to some our friend's place for dinner and I decided to wear a simple coord since I was going to melt no matter what. I did forgo the petticoat though...there are limits! 

JSK: Metamorphose temp de fille Teddy Chocolatier

Bolero: Lady Sloth

Shoes: Bodyline

Bag: Coquettish Tiara

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

Sunday evening of that weekend brought with it a proper cool change, so I wore lolita to work from home on Monday. I also filmed a YouTube video in my lunch break in this, though I did forget to put on make-up...oh well!

JSK & Collar: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Socks: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

Headbow: Angelic Pretty

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

And alas, my shoes started breaking this day. I've got no standards, so I'll probably wear them until they fully break, but I don't think that'll be too long coming...

So that was it for November! Not many coords, though I'm still amazed that 2020 has skewed my perspective so that wearing the fashion four times in a month is "not many". As the weather gets hotter and I transition back to working in the office I'm probably going to wear the fashion even less over the next few months, but I've learned never to make predictions so we'll just see how the last month of the year goes for me and lolita.