sword_logic | year in fashion: 2023 (Reply)

wow, i have a lot to say this year; decided to turn these into a general "year in fashion" since i'm really starting to think of lolita fashion and my normie/work/whatever wardrobe in the same way.

noteworthy acquisitions:

Metamorphose Dozing Cat Hakama Tuck JSK, black
Summertales Boutique Nostalgia Collection skirt, stuart plaid x white lace
BTSSB Babydoll JSK, black x white
Metamorphose Dim Light Holy skirt, green
AP Schoolmate OP, green
rocking horse shoes :^)
AP Lucky Key JSK, black
AP Melty Whip Chocolate JSK, brown
AP Little Witch JSK, wine
Metamorphose School JSK '05, mini length, red plaid
BTSSB Tartan Plaid Jacket, red x white (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
BTSSB Elizabeth Bonnet, black x black

noteworthy farewells:

i only sold two things 😐
one of these was a very damaged jsk i thought i could salvage, and i realized i couldn't, so i sold it (which was the right move)

ha... ha... that's a lotta main pieces. my comm held a swap meet in december and immediately after the tables sold out (and i declined a friend who asked if i want to share) i was like... i should sell some of the stuff i don't wear. WHOOPS. that's a goal for next year - downsize appropriately. my style and taste have changed a lot since i started wearing the fashion, and changed even since i started being active in my local comm.

of the main pieces i bought this year, only 3 of those were bought new from the brand; the summertales skirt had been an MTO from last summer. similarly, dozing cat was purchased at the very end of 2022 and so didn't arrive till january of 2023. aaannnd for this year............. elizabeth op is in shipping limbo because i'm out of town currently 🤡 and the black ribbon's forest floor jsk is currently in production. i don't count new purchases till i have them in my hands (due to shipping mishaps, seller/production mishaps, unforeseen damage, etc.) so those'll go on next year's list of acquisitions.

i bought a lot of things in person this year! that was really, really cool. the local anime con had a huge j-fashion department run by local comm members, and my local comm also hosted two giant swap meets, one of which was a part of a j-fashion convention. 6 of the things listed up there were swap meet, con, or in-store purchases, alongside a good selection of staples that i'd been sorely missing (solid blouses, otks, bloomers).

i feel like my wardrobe has really come into itself this year, and i've also found myself gravitating a lot towards solids/non-prints in an old-school kind of way. not that i wasn't interested in old-school before, but this year i found myself leaning into old-school coords more than ever. the bonnet i bought at the most recent swap meet was kind of a surprise purchase; i've never really been interested in bonnets because i have short hair and a lot of bonnets are like, Full Baby Mode Style, but this is an absolutely beautiful half-bonnet (black x black; stock photos do not do it justice) that looked cool as all HELL when i tried it on and i'm excited to coord it.

in terms of social things, i hosted a meet this year! it was really fun but also pretty chaotic; our comm was still mandating rsvps for contact tracing and a bunch of people didn't rsvp, including people from out of state (?!), but it was a lovely day out and i'd go back to that botanical garden in a heartbeat. i also misread the time for our summer ILD picnic as 11:00 not 1:00 along with one of the people i was twinning with, which was REALLY funny and it was so nice to hang with a smaller group before we became a crowd of 50+ people. i went to a ton of meets this year, i think with cons included it came out to about one meet a month. there's a local monthly art market that happens in [popular central-ish location] and i loooove going, so maybe i'll do like a standing monthly casual meet ("i'll be there at 12pm, let's say hi" or w/e) or something? someone else hosts monthly meets around the region, but they're usually >1hr drive from me so i quite selfishly want to go to monthly casual stuff that's more close by.

goals for next year:

downsize my wardrobe.... lmao
host another meet
participate/volunteer in larger events again!
get better at posing for coord photos
wear some character-inspired coords! i would honestly love to do a coord based off perona's pre-timeskip look, and i've had an oikawa coord kicking around for ages; unfortunately both of these would be better with a crown headpiece, which i do not have. 😐

this year i read ametora: how japan saved american style by w. david marx, in itself a miracle considering i've been in a years-long reading slump, and it was a DEEPLY fascinating book. i don't really remember how i got into menswear except that it happened at some point when i was in undergrad and i could never really fully realize what i wanted, but now i can and i do. it feels great. anyways, that spark got really reignited for me earlier this year, and ametora was a big part of that; and also for like, full context, i got a huge raise this year (lmao... at what cost) so i've been able to comfortably buy myself nice things.

in the past couple of months i've spent a lot of time hunting things down secondhand for cheapsies, and i've also gotten a lot bolder when it comes to doing my own alterations. i bought a 2-piece houndstooth YSL suit from the early 90s at a local non-profit's pop-up thrift store for $75 whole buckaroos (insane!), and the pants had that ye olde 90s straight leg; i tapered them myself and they look very nice, thank you very much. i also bought a jacket and pants secondhand for really cheap (separate, but they definitely look like they're a matching set; black wool twill MVP) and got them both altered at a local place and man it really makes a difference - it feels so nice when clothing fits You, Specifically. i also learned how to tie a tie this year! i found a nice repp tie (deep red with navy/gold stripes) that i'm learning how to feel bolder about still, lol. (i've known how to tie a bow tie for like, over a decade by this point. never reached for ties before. 🤷‍♂️)

i took a big Winter Vacation this year and i've spent a good chunk of it so far altering a (men's) brooks brothers dress shirt i bought from marshall's -- also something i'd never done before! my dress shirt options have always been either "get lucky with women's ralph lauren at tj maxx" or shell out for wólczanka (who have been slowly moving away from cotton in recent years..... augh) so successfully a) shortening the sleeves and b) adding contour darts to this men's shirt feels amazing. once i get back home i'm going to dye it a nice mustard-gold; i've got a top-loading washer + a good local place that sells all kinds of dyes, etc. nearby, so i'm sure that if i bring in the shirt to be dyed + something in the target color, they can help me find what i need. i also widened the sleeves on a (secondhand) RL dress shirt! this was achieved by.... undoing the flat-felled seam and just doing it back up as a regular seam, lol.

both of these recent alterations have made me feel much bolder about tackling lolita alterations. i know for a fact that elizabeth op will need the sleeves widened at the biceps (fucking cmon, btssb) and i couldn't find pics of the construction, but if it's how i think it is, i think i'll be able to handle adding a panel in there. i tried on elizabeth op at a swap meet in july (which is how i got in the whole mess of wanting it For Real in the first place) but it didn't fit my biceps and i didn't zip it up all the way -- i was sweating and feeling Anxiety™ at wrestling so hard with the dress and taking up time in the limited fitting room that i think that's at least part of why i was like OH GOD IT DOESN'T FIT so we'll see. the shoulder measurement also blows (35cm? really?) but i have another op with the same general measurements -- possibly even smaller, actually -- and it's wearable.

on that note, the whole elizabeth op thing was totally wild, lol. that dress has been one of those "lmao it'll never happen for a good price... unless? 👀" things and when i saw it In Person in july i knew i was fucked; the black x black is so insanely gorgeous and honestly the next day i was already regretting not going back to buy it, panicky "aw fuck it doesn't fit" aside. i was airing my woes about this to the comm member who was selling the elizabeth bonnet at the recent swap and we commiserated about the op's terrible measurements, etc., but i mentioned (while buying the bonnet) that One Day i would love to own the black op and the bonnet's the first step (lol). literally the minute i got home this comm member messaged me a lacemarket link to someone selling the black x black op for the lowest price i have EVER seen any colorway go. bought it immediately. insane shit.

anyways! this was a really, really good year for me fashion-wise. here's to more comfort and fun in the coming year.