I Have Nothing To Wear!

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to be talking to something that happens to many of us all too frequently: Looking at all the clothing strewn about one's room after trying on a bunch of different items and going: "I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!" This is a bit of a follow-up to my wardrobe building series of posts (Part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4) since I've had plenty of time to build a new wardrobe. I recommend you read them first if you haven't already, since they're the foundation for this post. Otherwise, let's go!

 So I said I had plenty of time to build a wardrobe, right? So why am I saying I have nothing to wear now? Well ya see, there's this thing called changing seasons and not planning ahead because who wants to buy a sweater when it's so hot and humid you don't want to even think about leaving your nice, air conditioned room? So, thanks to my planning, I was able to build a very nice Spring and Summer wardrobe, but now the weather is turning and I have no idea what to wear anymore. So what's a fashionista to do?

#1: Re-evaluate your style preferences.
 Alright, so maybe you had the perfect, pastel Fairy Kei wardrobe for warmer weather. Do you want to keep wearing pastels in Fall and Winter though? Or do you want to indulge your inner Goth or rockstar and switch things up completely? It's time to go visit the mall or thrift store and try on everything you can again. I would suggest avoiding buying anything the first few times or keep purchases small and limited to things you already wanted for your wardrobe. If you want to try wearing a different style from what you already own, try to limit your purchases to main pieces that aren't too expensive so you aren't impacting your budget too heavily. *cough*totally did that*cough* Try wearing the new style you're trying for a few days in a row using what you have and any additions you got to see if it's really something you want to wear that'll make you happy.

Here's what happened for me: I have a very cute, pastel versatile wardrobe based around Fairy Kei for the Spring and Summer. When the weather started getting colder, I decided to start wearing Goth fashion more to go with the changing colors of fashion. However, I found myself still wanting to wear my Fairy Kei outfits more than Goth or jewel toned items. I've decided I want to start wearing Lolita more often due to its built in layers as well as ease of layering underneath as well as some warmer Fairy Kei based outfits with some off-white pieces mixed in.

#2: Decide what additions your wardrobe needs.
 Now's the time to go through your wardrobe and pull out all the out-of-season clothing you've been hiding away. Can you make your new style plans work with what you already have, or are you going to have to sell off all your sweaters or shorts and buy new ones? This is a good time to evaluate condition as well as if it fits your wardrobe, so if you have an item that's got a ton of holes and snags that aren't supposed to be there, now is the time to throw it away or fix it. (If you have a sweater that's just shrunk in the dryer, you can stretch it back out with some work. I found this tutorial extremely helpful when recovering a cashmere sweater.) Make a list of any items you feel you need to make your wardrobe more complete and wearable during the changing seasons.

 Since I'm keeping my wardrobe mainly pastel, but still need to stay warm, I decided to talk to some of my fashion friends in the area and see what they do to stay warm as well as re-watch Lovely Lor's Lolita Fashion in Extreme Weather video for ideas. I decided I needed some layering pieces as well as some patterned statement pieces (my wardrobe's mostly solid color), a long sleeved blouse, and some comfy, yet cute shoes that will survive snow.

#3: Go forth and buy.
 Now's the time to start buying the additions your wardrobe needs. Try and get more basic or generic pieces from places like Target, Walmart, or thrift stores (or your country's equivalent) in order to have more money to spend on the main pieces. Probably most of us don't have the money to go buying 1000 bucks worth of Angelic Pretty dresses new, so look into less expensive alternatives. There's a lot of US and international sales groups on Facebook, you just have to search for the type of fashion you're interested in along with sales. (In addition, if you're already in a few sales groups, Facebook will suggest some similar groups in the side bar while you're browsing that group.) Lace Market, eBay, and Storenvy are some good places to look for used or less expensive pieces and there's always Bodyline for inexpensive pieces.

 I want a couple statement pieces with prints, but I very much do NOT have $400 to drop on used Angelic Pretty or Baby the Stars Shine Bright dresses, so I'm considering a couple Bodyline JSKs as well as searching through Lace Market for some less expensive pieces. I also want a long sleeved blouse and colorful socks which can also be found on those sites. I've already got one short sleeved blouse on the way which, even though it's not great for Winter, is something I've been wanting to add to my wardrobe since my current short sleeved blouse is a bit big on me.

 I hope you all have fun with dressing for the changing seasons and that I've given you some ideas to help avoid over-spending!

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It's Procrastination Time! Dealing with Motivational Loss

Hello everyone! So today's topic is slightly different from my regular fashion, anime, and movie related posts. Today I'll be talking about procrastination and how to motivate yourself.




 So what prompted me to write about this topic on my blog? Well, unfortunately I've been dealing with a lot of procrastination and lack of motivation lately. I spend entirely too much time flopping around my room being bored, but not wanting to da anything. This is frustrating me to no extent as I have plenty of unfinished projects, video games, and room organization and clean up to do in the time I don't spend at work. So, I've been looking into myself to try and figure out why I act this way, why I don't do the things I love and really want to do. Based on my behavior as a kid as well as growing up, I determined my main problem was procrastination. I tend to wait until the last minute, then rush through everything I need to do a couple days or the night before. On the plus side, this has made me very good at writing short English papers in a short period of time, but on the downside this means that I have trained myself to finish things last minute before deadlines. So what do I do when I don't have a deadline? Absolutely nothing. I sit around wanting to get things done, but never doing them because I've either lost motivation, don't have a deadline, or don't have all the necessary components because I haven't felt the urge to go buy them. This has been affecting a lot of different aspects of my life, making it hard for me to want to do anything outside of work and necessary food shopping trips.


 Now comes the question: What am I going to do to avoid procrastinating and what can you do if you find yourself acting the same way? To start with, I intend to buy a planner for myself, one that I can write 'To do' lists in as well as appointments in. I'm going to start giving myself deadlines for my sewing and cosplay projects ("I want to wear this yukata on this date.") that way I have to force myself to work on them so that they'll be complete in time. Or at least close enough that I can finish them up within a few days. I'm also going to start planning times for when to do certain tasks such as exercising, laundry, or shopping. In addition to these, I'm going to make a list of things I can do when I'm bored or don't feel like doing anything so I can choose something to do (other than flop around on my bed) and do it. All of them will be things I can do by myself, but I'll also write down some things I can do with friends so I don't always end up doing the whole "What do you wanna do?" "I dunno,. What do you wanna do?" routine every time I get to hang out with them.


 As I have yet to try any of this, I have yet to know how effective it is. I will be sure to update you all in a few months and let you know how it's going. If you decide to try this out too, let me know! I'd love to hear about your progress as well.


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Building a Wardrobe: Part Three

Hello everyone! Welcome to part three of my wardrobe makeover series! So far we've covered clearing out your closet, research, and more research. Today we're going to start going over the next step: planning your wardrobe.


Step Four: Plan your wardrobe
 Time to take advantage of that research you've been doing and start deciding what you want in your wardrobe! Grab a notebook and start writing down what you think would be a good starter wardrobe based on your style. Don't go trying to make a full blown wardrobe like your favorite blogger or YouTuber. These things take time and they likely built theirs up over the course of years. Figure out which pieces are the most versatile for your style and what would work well for off days or events where you might want to dress up more. As an example, I'm going to list some of what I've put on my list for my wardrobe. I mostly wear Fairy Kei anymore with some Gothic as well as Lolita pieces, so I decided to build a "Fairy Kei/Kawaii fashion" wardrobe. I also still enjoy cosplay (even though I haven't been to a con in ages), so I took those into account as well as my local environment and figure.

• 8+ cutsews, tees, or casual blouses
• 2-3 Lolita coords for meetups (dressier)
• 4+ bloomers/spandex for under skirts
• 3+ pairs heels
• 1 pink, 1 light blue, 1 lavender, 1 mixed wig
• 3+ complete cosplays
• 1-2 seifukus OR 1 each summer and winter seifuku
• 4-5 various skirts
• 2-3 pairs tennis

While this is just a few things on my list, you can see that I list out each type of item I want in my wardrobe and how many of each I want to have. Also, you'll note with some things I was more specific than others. Instead of just writing "4ish pairs of shoes" I wrote a range of how many of different types of shoes I wanted. For some items I have a more specified range (2-4) and others a wider range (4+). I decide this based on how essential a particular piece is to my wardrobe and how much variety I want with that particular item type. I was also somewhat vague with a few items. For me, having a Lolita coord isn't as important as having a functional wardrobe, so I just list it as an item rather than listing all the pieces I need for a coord.


Once you've got a plan for what you want your wardrobe to have, it's time to go through your clothes and mark down how many of each item on your list you have. I just wrote out each of the article types (cutsew, skirt, cosplay, etc.) on a new page in the same order I had written them out originally for easier comparison, then I went through my wardrobe and did a tally mark for each item I had that fit under one of the categories. This gives you a better idea of what all you havein your wardrobe compared to what all you want in it. So say you have twelve wigs, but they're all cheap Halloween wigs or you have a dozen skirts, but over half of them are different shades of blue. This lets you know you should probably look to replace some of the items in your wardrobe to add more variety and to have better quality. And if you already have three pairs of pastel tennies that you regularly wear and you listed 2-3 pairs on your wardrobe list, you should probably stick to buying other pieces you're more in need of.


Next week I'll be going over the last part of this series, buying your wardrobe!
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Building a Wardrobe: Part Two

Hello everyone! Welcome to the second installment of my wardrobe revamp series! Today I'll be talking about how to plan your wardrobe to get the most bang for your buck. Let's go!


 Step Two: What works for you?
 Step two is where you'll start laying some of the ground work for your new wardrobe. You've gotten rid of the old and now you're looking to start adding ne. However, before you start adding things higglety-pigglety to your closet, get a more defined idea of what will work for you. Start off by looking for inspiration. Find bloggers, models, and YouTubers that have a defined wardrobe in the style you want. Look at what they have and how they put it together to get a better idea of what you want in your wardrobe. Look up pictures for inspiration, be it through google, pinterest, or your favorite search engine, do it. Get as much inspiration as you can so you know what to work with to achieve the look you want. Pay attention to details and find transformation or instructional videos for your style. While I was looking into the Gothic style, I looked for outfit videos as well as beginner suggestions to better define what I wanted. In one such video the author talked about how when you dress up in all black you have to make use of different textures and materials to get a good look. This helped me a lot when looking for clothes. Rather than just get all black clothing, I looked for knits, mesh, sheer detailing, and similar things to add variety. The same is true with any other style. Find out the basics of the style that really make an outfit pop and stand out. Maybe it's a distinct print in Lolita or a milti-colored tutu for Fairy Kei. Whatever your style is, figure out what it is that helps make that style what it is.


 Once you have an idea of what your looking for, it's time to figure out what works for you. Go to a local mall of thrift store and try on EVERYTHING. Alright, that may be a little much, but try on different pieces. See how different cuts and colors look on you so you know what to look for and what to avoid while shopping. This is especially helpful if you mostly buy items online due to their rarity in your local area. We can't all be Lolitas living near a Baby the Stars Shine Bright store. If you have a friend with a more defined wardrobe than you, see if you can try on some of their clothing and see how it works for you. This step has been helpful for me so I can see what sort of cuts are flattering on me and which just make me look like a Fatty-chan or a hobo.


Step Three: More research
 Once you know what looks good on you, look for that sort of clothing. Find brands that sell flattering pieces for you in sizes that work for you and start shopping around. Look for colors, cuts, and prices. There's a lot of Storenvy stores that sell similar items, so sometimes you have to dig around through other sites to find where articles originally came from and what sort of prices they have. Find out how much those sorts of items go for second hand and document some of your favorite "must-haves" in a notebook so you know what sort of price range they have for future buying excursions. This is the time to set up wishlists, not buy everything in sight. Take advantage of promotions and desperate sales later, you're just window shopping right now.


More to come next week!
Check out my store: animelolitacouture.storenvy.com
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