2019 Year in Review + Goals for 2020 and Beyond

Normally I've done this within the context of my wardrobe post, but wanted to make it a separate thing this year because I have a lot of thoughts.

WHAT I WORE

I feel like I moved away from sweet style a little bit and got more comfortable in classic and oldschool. I deliberately tried to make gothic outfits and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. You can find individual links for outfits in the Coordinates section (I'm still adding outfits from 2019) or browse them through the coordinate sorter on the side menu.

WHAT I BOUGHT AND SOLD

Despite a net gain of items (which I was trying to avoid), I feel like I did a better job of acquiring fewer main pieces but more things to go with them. I now have a wide variety of options for blouses, which makes it easier to choose a blouse that works well with the feel of the outfit and shape and features of the dress neckline. My jewelry more closely matches my wardrobe now. I started by collecting mostly very sweet stuff and then found that I don't wear most of it. This year I sold or gave away a bunch of the jewelry that I do not wear. A lot of what I sold was sweet items that I bought because they were on my wish list a long time ago and I still wanted to try them, but once I got them and tried them on I found that I didn't like them as much as I thought I would. I have also accepted that I don't generally wear lolita casually, so I have been selling items that I bought specifically for casual wear and then ended up not using.

FAVORITE EXPERIENCES AND MEMORIES

• Going to two conventions with friends and dressing up all of both weekends. My feet hated me for all the uncomfortable shoe choices I made but I had a lovely time.
• International Lolita Day (ILD) celebrations. I made more of a point to make them special days for me personally. For summer, I planned an afternoon tea service and walk in the gardens and retro arcade. My friends just happened to be available and interested, and it was one of my favorite days of this entire year.
  
  
  For winter, I tried to plan something similar last-minute and my friends weren't available and it made me a little sad even though I knew it'd probably not work on such short notice...and then my partner offered to take me on a date instead, which I thought was incredibly sweet. He is a sweetheart, and also the best bullshit armor. When you're out and about dressed to the nines and A Man^tm is with you, people definitely still stare but practically no one dares to ask questions about your clothes, make comments about your appearance, or surreptitiously attempt to take your photo. While I lament that this is still the reality of our society in the year 2019, I loved being able to go out in public in peace.

• Hosting a tea party at my house in September. We had a really fun photo shoot, lots of good food, and no actual tea, just prosecco. Whoops. My sister also let me dress her up :)

• Being a guest on the Dreamy Coordinate podcast! Honestly I was surprised a stranger from the internet wanted to talk with me for a whole hour, lol. Liz is a lovely, friendly individual and easy to converse with. She made me sound less awkward and we got to go on a violet-tinged imaginary adventure while being halfway across the world from each other. I have since gathered most of the items I need to create the coordinate I dreamed up!
• Lolibrary's item creation going back up at the end of December after 2+ years. I've got so much catching up to do, but gathering all the information scattered across the internet about our treasures and neatly preserving it in one place is so satisfying to me.

THINGS I LEARNED

• I'm getting a good general sense of the amount of time that it takes for me to get ready: roughly 90 minutes if I'm wearing a wig. Maybe a little more if I'm doing makeup I haven't tried out before. More like 30-60 minutes if I'm using my natural hair, depending on makeup and how much hair styling I need to do. I have my under-wig hair and wig securing method down pat, and I have a reliable method for tying headwear ties behind my head (thanks lapis_child). While ties in front looks particularly nice for doll style outfits, I feel it usually looks so much cleaner with ties behind the head.
• I have been trying out more colorful and bold makeup looks. I am starting to get a sense of what I think looks good on me, and I'm working on being able to reproduce it consistently, though I will admit that sometimes I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm trying my best anyway. The trick was not being afraid to put color on the area outside my eyelid (whee hooded eyelids) but also getting a sense of exactly where outside the eyelid that should be. I am finding I like dark colors and pink the best. Am I just going through the learning cycle that most teen girls do? Still don't know, but I am trying my best.
• I very recently learned that the DSLR camera my partner owns can be remotely controlled from my phone via WiFi. This is WAY quicker than the previous method I used. I can also transfer the photos directly from the camera to my phone! I look forward to learning to use it better.
• The sewing goals didn't really work. Even though I would like to make more of my items, I am coming to realize I need something else to motivate me besides a nebulous future goal. If I am sewing the thing for an outfit I know I am wearing to an event, I think that's when I'm most likely to get it done.

GOALS FROM LAST YEAR

• Downsize the collection to no more than 45 main pieces, excluding ones I wear with/as my normal clothes (this means a net offloading of 10). I do not need 55 and I really need to be honest with myself about what fits well, and what styles I am most likely to wear.
  I still managed a net gain of items. While I'm not great at downsizing, I am good at selling pieces when I have decided I no longer want them. Most often the motivation comes from making a new purchase, though.
• Complete alterations on the two pieces I bought specifically for altering. Metamorphose Swan Embroidery Skirt will be turned into a bustle skirt, and Metamorphose Wonder Card/Card Playing Kitty Sweet Heart JSK will be turned into an apron skirt.
  This did not happen. I am still scared to take apart the JSK, even though I have a pretty good plan of what I need to do to it. The skirt is taken apart. I think the thing holding me back is that I have no specific set of directions to follow. I am skilled enough to make it work, just need the confidence to not worry about messing it up.
• Throw a tea party at my house. I didn't have any in 2018 and I miss them. My friends have expressed interest in me dressing them up, too!
  I did this in September and had a great time, and even got to dress up some of the attendees. I would love to make this at least a once per year thing.
• Go to a brand tea party for a brand I like (Metamorphose, Physical Drop, Atelier Pierrot, Baby, maybe Angelic Pretty) if funds and time allow.
  This did not happen, mainly because opportunities that would really excite me were inconvenient because of where they were taking place and/or how they were timed; I found out about them too late to attend them in a way that I could easily plan for.
• Attend at least one meetup in each community I am part of.
  Done! I went to a convention dinner in Milwaukee and an old school themed tea in Chicago.
• Sew two pairs of bloomers. I have materials, I have a pattern I want to try out, and my serger is all set up. I just need to set aside some time.
  This didn't happen either, probably because I found cheap ones to purchase.

NEW GOALS FOR THIS YEAR

• Reduce wardrobe size, or at least continue to keep my wardrobe at a size where I can store everything. If it gets much bigger I'm going to run out of places to store things, and I sometimes FORGET WHAT I HAVE even despite my very meticulous record keeping. The concrete number to meet didn't work, so I think it's going to take a lot more being honest with how things fit and only keeping the stuff that is not only cute but also comfortable to wear for multiple hours at a time. Another huge thing to think more about as I make purchases: yes it's cute and yes it will fit and I even have a coordinate in mind for it, but will I actually make time to wear it?
• Attend at least one meetup or event in each community I am part of. I like this goal because I want to be more social in person, and I finally feel like I'm starting to make some friends in the comms maybe because they've started to recognize my face, so I'm doing it again.
  
• Long distance twinning! I already have one in the works and it's been fun so far, and I feel like I have enough acquaintances on the internet that I could ask and it wouldn't be weird. If you have a similar style/piece and are interested let me know!
• Go to a brand tea party for a brand I like (Metamorphose, Physical Drop, Atelier Pierrot, Baby, Triple Fortune) if funds and time allow. I am seriously considering Paradiso because Atelier Pierrot and Triple Fortune will be guests there, and people seemed to have a really good time last year, and I have enough time to plan for it financially. However, I think I want someone to go with, and because a major anime convention that interests many of the people I'd ask is being held during the same weekend, I'm not sure I could convince them to ditch that in favor of something both less interesting to them and more expensive.
• Take more photos with the fancy camera. As mentioned earlier, I am looking forward to learning how to use the remote control capabilities of the camera to explore the kinds of photos I can take with it.
• Try false eyelashes to see if they're for me. I bought a pair several months ago but haven't tried them yet. Afraid of gluing my eyes shut, or something like that. I would feel better about it if someone who has worn them before were there to supervise me when I put them on.
• Read Rocking Horse Ballerina. I have a copy, and I've been wanting to read it for a long time. I don't have to finish if I don't like it. I have read a bunch of Kenji Ohtsuki's short stories and liked most of them, so I think I'd like his longer format stuff too.
  

BIG GOALS FOR ANYTIME THEY FIT IN

• Attend the Brilliant Star Decorations event in Japan (usually happens in early February).
• Attend an ARTiSM Market in Japan and especially their gothic/lolita/kawaii specific event, Alice in Märchen, if they have another one. ARTiSM Market is not lolita specific but it's a giant art and craft market that lots of Japanese indie fashion brands attend. They happen about 2-3 times per year at irregular intervals, so I could possibly build a vacation around it. The issue is having enough advance notice, but I think if I actively watch for announcements of dates it shouldn't be too big of a problem.
• Attend Tekko. This probably won't happen in 2020 but it looks like a really great time for people interested in J-fashion, and I might even be able to get my partner to go with me because he knows people in Pittsburgh that I bet he'd like to visit.
• Meet Kuniko Kato, owner of Physical Drop and founder of Metamorphose.