Wishlist that Works for You

The New Year is approaching fast, which means that many of us are thinking about our wardrobes. While some of you are doing wardrobe posts, others are refocusing on what they want and need. A well curated wishlist can be your ally in sticking to all those spending reducing resolutions, so here are 4 tips to help you achieve that!

1. A Detailed Wishlist

The more information you include in your wishlist, the more useful it will be. Specify as much as you can think of: the cut, colourway, how much you’re willing to spend, etc. If you’re after some generic things rather than specific items, e.g. blouses, consider exact details like sleeve length, sleeve shape, neckline and bodice fit. It’s also useful to prioritise how much you want certain pieces in comparison to one another. Or colourways and cuts of pieces, if you’re open to more than one. Whatever is important to you and however much you know about what you want, list it!

If your wishlist only says ‘a white blouse’, then that’s not detailed enough. List as many details that matter to you as you can think of. And if you do indeed need some blouses, then read more about how important they are in lolita here!

2. Wish vs Need

One thing that helped me last year was clearly separating the wishes from the needs. When you know that a piece is actually useful and needed in your wardrobe, you look at it differently than something you simply fancy. Once you separate your big detailed wishlist into needs and wishes, you can start putting money aside for certain bits. You can also decide which of your needs are dire enough to come first and which of your wants are desperate enough to outweigh the needs. Keep the two lists together, but distinct from each other, and you will never lose sight of what truly matters.

Do you want Melty Cream Doughnut as much as you need a long sleeve white blouse? Weigh those decisions out!

3. The 3 Coordinate Rule

To ensure that your wishlist items match your wardrobe, try to coordinate each piece with what you already own. Hopefully this will be an easy and fun exercise, as you realise how many outfits you can make with these items already. However, don’t despair if you struggle! This doesn’t mean you have to get rid of this piece from your wishlist altogether yet. Identify if you could use any of the missing builder pieces with other dresses you own or from the wishlist. This is useful information for your need list. And if a particular piece is just wildly different from everything else you have, then ask yourself if you like it enough to commit to it. Will you buy those necessary builder pieces to coordinate it well, even though they might not match anything else? Or will this be the beginning of your style expansion? Make those decisions consciously, not impulsively, and you will be fine.

When your style is quite cohesive, making different coords with wishlist pieces should be easy. In this Halloween gothic lolita edition you can see how one dress can be very versatile. And here you’ll find more examples of both printed and non-printed pieces being styled in three different ways.

4. Keep Your Wishlist Handy

The best wishlist is one that you have on you when you need it. Especially when you split it into wishes and needs, you might not always remember everything that’s on there. So ensure that you have a copy of it readily available to check whenever you need it. It could be anything: a Facebook album, a Pinterest board, a Google Spreadsheet or Document, a list on your phone… Having an offline copy will help when you’re at events with poor reception or no roaming. On the other hand, an online copy will likely be easier to keep up to date. As you’re browsing the vendors’ hall at events, it will help to check if they have anything you might’ve forgotten about. Whatever method you prefer, have your wishlist on you when you browse lolita and you may obtain those items sooner.

You can keep your wishlist on your phone or in your journal. Whichever one you are more likely to use and have on you when needed.

What are your tricks in keeping a wishlist that’s useful and that works for you? Will you be changing yours for the New Year? Or has your wishlist remained unchanged for years now, as you look for some truly rare pieces? Whichever one it is, we wish you the best of luck!

Paulina Pejka

She/her.
29-year-old Capricorn, Polish-born, UK-based and in love with Japanese fashion (predominantly Lolita). I enjoy a good bargain, OTT coords, cats and baking, and when in Japan I’m a self-confessed purikura addict. When I don’t blog, I work in the education sector, overseeing international exchange programs, and sometimes I get to do some exciting freelance translations on the side.