Crimson Reflections

I got an email from photobucket saying they were going to close my account, so I went and logged in to back everything up. While there, I saw that I had a folder under my lolita folder for wishlist items with the date range of Oct 11, 2010 – Jul 13, 2012 .

Let’s start from the top…

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright: Chandelier Bag

I bought this in black and I honestly love it except for one small thing. It’s pretty impractical. Like, it’s big, but the straps don’t feel strong. Also you have to set it flat to open it if you don’t want it to dump. Also, the little ribbons are forever getting caught in the hinges. Absolutely would buy it again though. It had two releases, 2007 & 2008 and I’m not sure if there is a way to tell which is which. Mine is missing the key.

Innocent World: Strawberry Field Animals

On the left we have the 2010 release, and on the right we have the 2008 release. I ended up getting the 2010 release because the sizing was larger, iirc. I love this print. The only thing I will say is that because of how light weight the material is (it’s like a linen?), the shirring makes the bodice wrinkle in a really unflattering way, even if the dress is too big for you. It really needs like a corset or something hard like a dress form under it, and then that ruins how comfy the lighter material is in summer…

I bought the re-release a few years back which is a re-work of the print in a polyester material and while I like the more yellow-tone of the orig better, I actually really like the new one a lot.

Innocent World Annette Skirt

Ah, I still love Annette and I still don’t own it. It’s not a good cut for me, and it wouldn’t fit me now. But it’s just so good.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright Cherry Cherry Fallin’ Cherry

This is a good print. I still really like this one. I don’t know why it’s not on my wishlist anymore. I think it’s because it was so hard to find in the L or LL size? I almost bought it on sale, but missed it. I didn’t know that sale items sold out fast back then.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright Pocket Embroidery

This I also almost got on sale. I love this dress in a vacuum, but I’m like 95% sure I would hate this dress IRL. It looks like it has a defined cup area and boning and that just never works out well for me. I love the idea of this dress, I love it so much. But I’ve given up on ever having it.

Innocent World Grazia Crown

I swear the first two images are not the same image, one is the blue and one is the black colorway. I wanted the blue colorway, but Grazia Crown was really popular and it sold out, so I ended up getting the black colorway. First of all, love the black colorway, very happy to own it and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I would not say no to the blue or the wine at a reasonable price if I ever ran into them though!

Bodyline Candy Skirt

I bought this in sax as one of the first lolita items I ever bought and I had a deep want for the pink which I had talked myself out of because I was under the impression that a beginner needed a single color in their closet and mine was sax. I have 2 of this skirt now, one is damaged and one is OK, I overpaid significantly for both of them. It’s… fine as a beginner item and for the price Bodyline was selling it back in the day it was a really good deal. Please don’t pay $50+ for this though!

Innocent World Classical Ribbon

This was on sale, and I wanted it so badly, but it sold out on sale and I was absolutely kicking myself about it. I ended up buying their Round Collar Ribbon OP (with long sleeves) at full price instead, but deep in my heart, this continued to be the one that got away. I really love Round Collar Ribbon OP though and I’m glad I got it. This is a really good dress though.

Innocent World Strawberry Rose Garden

This is one of those things where it wouldn’t have fit right, the color wouldn’t have worked well for me, but I was just in love with the concept of this dress. Strawberries? Roses? A V waist and a sweet heart neckline? Perfection. This dress is just everything I wanted in a dress at that time, and entirely unsuited for me. I kept it on my wishlist for years, but never bought it because I knew even then I knew it wasn’t a good idea.

Angelic Pretty Dream Magic

This and strawberry field animals are the two dresses I consider my ‘dream dress’. I have this, I adore it. It’s really short and I used to layer another skirt under it. It just makes me happy to see it. My partner and I did a thing where we wore what each other picked out once and I made her a coord with this and it was so, so cute. It’s just so good. Red and pink and dot tulle and those heart and star buttons? This is just pure happiness in a dress.

Innocent World Pompadour Bustle JSK

I got the other cut of this in a lucky pack and really liked it IRL, but it didn’t fit me right. I assumed (perhaps mistakenly) that this cut which was slightly larger would fit better. But I suspect that even if I had gotten it back then, it still wouldn’t have fit right because the problem was the fixed strap length and where the bodice sat on me. It’s a good dress though. I think if I were to pursue it today (which I wouldn’t because of the fit issues) I might go with the green colorway instead. Though this colorway is also really good.

And that’s what I had on my wishlist back around 2010-2012 ish as a fairly new lolita. I had already bought Fruits Parlor and Miracle Candy at this point, both of which had been on my wishlist as well. The vast majority of other brand things I bought between 2010 and 2012 were bought opportunistically; that is, I saw a piece for sale second hand or on clearance for cheap and I liked it, so I bought it. It was pretty common for the latest AP prints to sell for ~$150 a year or two after release back then, and most Innocent World items went on sale. So me buying the one Innocent World dress at full price, and also me buying Toy March from AP at full price in 2012 felt a lot more serious to me back then, then buying a full price AP release does now.

It’s also worth noting that Lolibrary was in it’s infancy at this time. Lolibrary was born in the summer of 2010, and Hello Lace followed it shortly after. Both sites could count their libraries of content in the hundreds in 2010. Even by 2012, the count of items on both sites was far lower than lolibrary today. Lolibrary had 18K entries as of May 2013, and Hello Lace at their absolute peak in 2013 was only at 6K. So, when I was putting together my wishlist, it was mostly things I had seen for sale either firsthand or second hand that I missed out on. The number of things I was getting from Hello Lace or Lolibrary was pretty small compared to what I was saving directly from brand sites. By the way, the count of items on lolibrary is constantly going up, but for comparison, the site is at 79K items right now.