Reflections on the June Coordinate Challenge 2018
It was lots of fun! Also a lot of work, as anything worth doing often is. A full list of themes, my coordinates that went with each, and thoughts on participating follow below.
Themes and my coordinates
See my Instagram for larger pictures, detail photos, names of dresses, and comments on each.
Strategy
This was my first time doing something like this and I knew that making something new to post every day for a month was going to be the most difficult aspect of participating. Here are a few things I did to make sure I would have fun and not get stressed out:
- The day after deciding to join, I made a list of main pieces for each of the rest of the days ahead of time (along with ideas for things to go with them) instead of walking into my closet and deciding that same day. I was able to lay everything out, photograph, edit photos, and get the post up in about 60-75 minutes. I also wrote the text of many of the posts ahead of time since I wanted to explain a bit about each outfit.
- Having a list of what I own with photos (my 2018 wardrobe post) helped immensely with assigning pieces to themes, especially when I wasn’t home standing in front of my closet. Wardrobe posts are a lot of work and feel like a lot of work when you’re doing them but wowee did it come in handy for this.
- When I had time, I took the photos for multiple days in advance and had them ready to post as each day came. I had a 4-day vacation during the challenge and because of this advance planning, I didn’t fall behind!
Planning ahead seriously made all the difference for me.
Would I do it again?
Yes! But maybe after a considerable break from posting every day :)
Things I liked
- It was good to flex some creative muscles and feel the joy of letting my imagination run amok. Once the creative gears got going, new ideas bubbled up pretty regularly while I wasn’t even actively thinking about coording. There were a bunch of ideas that didn’t work, but your brain surprising you with good ideas is so much fun.
- Ideas I had bouncing around for months and years found a way out. I have a great stash of ideas now for outfits to wear in the future. Even if I don’t wear them exactly as they’re laid out, they’re good starting points for tweaking.
- It motivated me to finish a lot of craft projects. I made a lot of accessories I had planned for a while (and even some spur-of-the-moment ideas). Now I’m that much closer to feeling like these coordinates are complete and ready to wear! Below is a picture of all the things I managed to make in June.
- I connected with a lot of new people! Helps me toward what I want out of online participation in lolita. I don’t want to be internet famous or a celebrity type figure, because I don’t like lots of attention, and I don’t think I’d be good at it anyway. What I DO want is for people to know I am here and I think I do generally good, generally well presented, somewhat unique stuff. I want to display my ideas for others to see and possibly get inspiration. I own many pieces I haven’t seen coordinated much or at all, and it feels good to be one of the first to put something out there, labeling it so other people can find it because I care about that sort of thing. I’m not posting another Day Dream Carnival outfit in a sea of hundreds of people doing the same thing. That’s fine if you do that, but I don’t think that makes you stand out. My other main goal is to add something to the community at large. Making said photos of coordinates and translating information to enter into Lolibrary is fulfilling that goal nicely. Making some like minded friends (people with additional hobbies who are in the fashion primarily for personal enjoyment and growth, whether or not they like the attention it gets them, and who use their talents to lift up the community) would be a great bonus.
- Re: coordinating, I feel I’m past the point of needing general guidance and validation that I’m doing it right. Not that I feel like I have no room for improvement (I definitely do) but I generally understand how a coordinate works, and now I need to learn to identify and consistently nail finer points, and especially make future purchases accordingly. More practice should fix that.
- I identified (figurative) holes in my wardrobe. In particular, my blouse/tops selection could be improved. I only have three colors (whites, black, wine/red). I would like to have pink for sure, and brown and navy would also be good additions. I found myself really wishing I had an offwhite bonnet, a good versatile pink ring, more arm accessories that are not wrist cuffs, and white rocking horse shoes. I also still don’t have a proper coat.
- Coordinates look different when worn vs. laid flat. Even if colors match, they might not look quite right once you put them on. Conversely, even if something looks a little weird laid flat or colors don’t quite match it may actually look good when you wear it.
- I have too much stuff. I acutely felt how large and sometimes unorganized my wardrobe is. I identified quite a few things I can sell and probably won’t miss. I most definitely need a better way to store some pieces, like jewelry.
- More regular coordinate posts. I’m motivated to continue doing regular flatlay posts. Daily is a hard pace to sustain. Once or twice a week would be doable. It has to have some kind of structure (same days every week? thinking Monday and Friday) and themes like this challenge did or I’m going to end up not sticking to it. First I’m likely going to start with dresses I didn’t coordinate for this challenge, but then what? Will continue to brainstorm.
- I want to make more things. I have a long list of things I would like to make, and many of them I’ve bought materials for and haven’t made. However, there were some items I wished I had multiple times throughout the month and now I’m more motivated to make the ones I know will get a significant amount of use. Especially quick projects like rings.
- Sell some things. For July, I’m going to focus on selling the things I don’t wear now that I figured out what a bunch of them are (and before I forget what they are, haha).
- Go to a swap meet soon. Might help me get rid of some things, especially inexpensive things, which are a pain to sell online. (Honestly why bother spending the time and effort to list it online and promote it and find someone to buy it and bring it to the post office to mail it if you’re going to sell it for less than 15 dollars?)
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