bibliotecha – Luna By The Lake With Cake

When Something You Once Loved Becomes Clutter

It’s been slowly time for me to face the music, the majority of my Lolita dresses are now clutter. That is heartbreaking to realize. The hours of love and care and saving of money put into obtaining them just for them to sit in my closet for months on end at this point.

It’s not that I am “leaving lolita” or “quitting the fashion” as those sales on Lacemarket often exclaim when people are trying to sell large lots of items. It’s just that lolita fashion has slowly no longer become a central part of my life. I still love dressing up, but what fits me and who I am has changed as I have changed and it’s hard letting go. I mentioned in my last post that I have been really drawn to Gyaru lately, and I have been! I also haven’t really let myself collect pieces with the same fervor that I did when I got into egl.

Honestly, that’s probably a good thing. I have greatly refined my tastes and spending habits. I am much better with money than I was when I got into Lolita fashion. However, even if I were to fall in love with the fashion again head over heels the same way I did when I first discovered it the dresses in my closet no longer fit my style even within EGL. I now know that I prefer the way drop waists and A-line silhouettes land on my body, and that empire waists are a nightmare for me. This unfortunately eliminates 80% of the dresses I own!

I brace myself for selling 80% of the dresses I own. In some weird way this feels like a failure, even though I know it’s not. I’ve just grown, my tastes have changed. There is nothing wrong with that. Lolita Fashion in its own way often feels like a way to stop time. To give ourselves the girlhood we may have never had, to make up for something we missed. To become women who never gave up the privileges of girlhood or chose to take on the burden of the expectations of womanhood. Honestly, I think that’s part of the appeal.

Maybe once I sell what no longer fits who I am, I’ll discover that I’m not quite ready to move on in the way I think I am. But maybe I will, and that’s okay too.

If anyone has any tips for moving large amounts of items on Lacemarket, any comments are greatly appreciated.

lolita fashion

Cycle: Past & Future Combined!

I decided to take old Instagram photos and edit them with a new photo editing app I got to make something new! The photos here are pulled from my Instagram between 2020-2023ish and then edited with Juxtaposer and stock photos!

lolita fashion

Lolita Fashion Resolutions 2023 | Bibliotheca: Challenges

Afternoon tea and a book by Jakub Kapusnak is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

I have some pretty intense goals for 2023 all around this upcoming year! My lolita fashion life is no exception. I will be submitting this as my biblioteca “challenges post”

1.) Full Lolita Fashion No Buy

I will be going on a no buy for Lolita fashion! I will not be buying any new pieces for Lolita this year, I already have a great wardrobe but unfortunately can only access about 50% of what I own right now due to pieces needing to be repaired, altered, or not fitting. I have already gone through and sold what I want to give up so it seems impractical to keep buying clothes when I have so much I can’t use already. This no buy extends to other parts of my life too I am trying to keep discretionary spending as low as possible without losing my marbles this year. Cupcake Kamisama made a great comment on how to deal with the “itch” and I think playing video games where I can buy things (with in game currency, not real money) will be a great help. I’ll develop more ideas for the itch going forward.

2.) Use What’s In My Closet More

I have a habit of wearing the same 5 things recently and I want to switch it up more and try more combinations of things going forward. I think it’ll be fun to push myself and see what I can come up with. I bought the app stylebook forever ago and I actually used it consitently for about 6 months but then my wardrobe changed significantly and I just never ended up updating it again and stopped using it entirely with the exception of using it to store inspiration. I think I’ll try to add 10 pieces to it at a time so I won’t feel so overwhelmed.

3.) Read more blogs

I always have so much fun reading the articles when bibliotheca comes out each month! I want to try to read the blogs more frequently even in between articles! People post amazing resources and thought pieces and I want to support the art of the Lolita fashion blog going forward. I am always amazed at the diversity of people who blog those who started 10 years ago, those who are brand new sweet, gothic and classic blogs. Everyone contributes wonderful things.

4.) Fill Out the Resources Section of my blog more

I was taking a look at the pages on my blog and I realized that I have gotten to use a lot more resources in the past year than has actually been posted on my blog! I want to collect as much information as I can from as many active/recently active creators to shine a light on their work and share resources with people who want to learn more about the fashion. I love seeing the ingenuity of people on a budget and the special skills that people will bring to this hobby from other hobbies whether that be textile restoration, tailoring, millinery or jewelry making.

5.) Sew More

I really love sewing! And I have done next to none of it in the recent year. I have a giant pile of scrap fabric and patterns I inherited from my late grandmother 4 years ago and it would be wonderful to make them into something. I have this weird pressure that to sew means I need to make it a big grand event but a lot of what I could use in my wardrobe are things like accessories and wrist cuffs, stuff that I won’t be able to buy for the next year but I certainly can be able to make!