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Thursday 2 February 2017

My Lolita Room (Mini Wardrobe Post)


Every year in January, lolitas from all over the world make a "wardrobe post" – a detailed entry on I-can't-believe-it's-not-dead-yet LiveJournal. These posts are often extremely labour intensive as Japanese fashion lovers document every detail of their dresses, blouses, shoes, and accessories. I thought about making this kind of post, but even though my wardrobe is small, it felt like an intimidating prospect when I could use that time drawing or journaling instead. There are so many beautiful wardrobe posts that I don't think mine would be of much interest, too. So, I'm doing something a little different: I'm showing where I keep my clothes instead, a glimpse into my wardrobe, and organisation tips.


I'm lucky enough to have a small room to myself to store my lolita clothing. There isn't much room in our shared bedroom, and there is an antechamber before the bathroom, so as my boyfriend doesn't have many things, I am able to use almost all of it for myself. I feel kinda guilty about that ^_^;

The room has a chest of drawers, a shoe rack, a shelving unit and a mirror. The actual closet is next to it in the hallway (it's a strange house). Some of my pictures look untidy as I still don't have much space (there isn't room for a wardrobe instead of units). I follow the konmari method for keeping only the things I love, and it all fits in the space, but it isn't airy and light. I'm sorry Mari Kondo, I love too many things!


I tend to buy Japanese fashion and sewing magazines as soon as they come out, as I love sewing patterns and seeing how the fashion is coordinated in different ways. It's a bad habit really as it would be better to save money, but I love looking through them for ideas.


The closet is small and I put a blouse, dress, and sometimes a bolero on each hanger to save space, with petticoats in a suitcase and general fashion shoes on the floor. Cramming everything in means it looks very untidy, but there isn't much I can do about that.


I like to hang lolita art in this room, and I picked up these prints by (artist) at Hyper Japan. The hooks were put there for when I get changed, but I like to hang my favourite bags there the rest of the time.


I stack my hats in this corner, but at some point I'd like to hang the straw hats on the wall in a decorative way.


I keep straw baskets on top of the units, with flowers to make them more of a feature. Inside the baskets, I keep tins organised by accessory category (one for brooches, another for hair clips etc). I keep headbows and wristcuffs inside the white basket. This way, everything is nearly put away and easy to get to.


In addition to buying too many magazines, I have a shoe addiction that is getting out of hand. There was a point where I wanted shoes to go with a lot of different coords, but I've now stopped buying cheaper shoes and will just buy quality pairs in neutral colours like black or brown. I say this, but I will probably end up adding navy or sax shoes at some point. I keep bags stacked inside each other here, too.


Above the chest of drawers, I laid out some of my favourite headdresses and lace accessories because I love looking at them when I enter the room. I know it looks messy to some, but I would get bored if everything was hidden away. My brother gave me a Harry Potter crate for Christmas, and I put in everything fluffy here. My alpaca earmuffs live here, but it gets so cold I forgot to take them off my head...


I organise my costume jewellery into different sections, and I love opening the pearl compartment! I keep my special jewellery completely separate.


In the top drawer I keep wigs, flower crowns (waiting for them to go in fashion again) and faux fur collars. I got all of these in spring sales, along with my berets.


I'm sorry it's so messy to look at, but again everything has to be a little crammed in. I keep cutsews, cardigans, some blouses, and socks in here.


Finally I keep my skirts and bloomers in the last drawer.

I hope you enjoyed a peak into my wardrobe! Maybe I'll get around to posting a proper wardrobe post this time next year. Did you make one? If so, I'd love to see! How do you store your collections? Do you have plenty of space, or is it a struggle? I must admit, it's a nice struggle to have.


2 comments:

  1. I use that trick, too, where I'll hang multiple items on each hanger. I've not got any choice, really-- I simply do not have the space to have everything really spread out!

    It's cool that you have a little dedicated space for all your lolita items, and it looks very nicely organised. I'm especially impressed by your shoe storage, and how it looks like a decorative feature! My shoes, on the other hand, are shoved haphazardly into a big plastic crate underneath my bed!

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    1. Thank you! My shoes used to be lined up around the edges of the room (under the bed is full of CDs and old vinyls) until Olly got sick of tripping over them and we got the storage rack from IKEA. I love opening it up and seeing everything all in one place!

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