More Budget Fashion Tips

Recently, The Dark Victorian posted ::this:: article entitled 'Living like a princess on a commoner's budget' that gave some really good advice about dressing Lolita on small budget. I think the advice is applicable for other alternative fashions, too, and the article certainly worth reading. This inspired me to expand on that and write about the same topic - fashion on a budget - but within a Goth context, and expanding a bit on Lolita shopping too.  

Goth Is NOT Your Priority.

Your priority should be eating healthily, paying the rent/mortgage/accommodation costs, making sure your utilities are paid for (especially if you live in a country where it gets very cold in winter or very hot in summer, or both and therefore one where you may need to pay more for things like winter heating or electric cooling in summer),  if you live in a country that doesn't have an equivalent of the NHS, then any healthcare costs are also a priority, and making sure any transport costs, household expenditures and other outgoings (credit cards, loan repayments, etc.) are all taken care of. Goth, in terms of art, music and fashion, is a luxury. That doesn't mean you can't be poor AND wear Goth, because I certainly don't have much of a disposable income, and I am still wearing nice things. Part of that is because  long before I was made redundant, and then got a part time job etc. I had a job with pretty much full time hours and at that point I could afford to put aside savings, and to buy a few nice things which I still have as I have cared for them, and another part of that is that I am really rather thrifty.

Shop Wisely

I agree with the Dark Victorian entirely when she advises against impulse buys. If you see something, and you really want it, don't buy it straight away. I always think on it, and weigh up whether the money would be better spent elsewhere. Often an impulse buy is something we purchase as a "treat" for ourselves, but the happiness doesn't always last - a nice hot beverage after work, a bottle of wine at the weekend, a scented candle, or whatnot is ultimately is a transient consumable. I give in to temptation and get these things once in a while, and most of us do (or variations there upon), but I try and avoid doing so too often because that money could be better invested in something permanent, or make the difference, as the Dark Victorian suggests, between getting something you really want and not. 

Don't buy cheap knock-off fashion. First of all, there is the questionable morality of buying something that is replicating someone's design work without any of the money going to the designer and which has a higher likelihood of being made in a factory with poor worker conditions, and secondly knock-offs are usually made with substandard materials, not enough in terms of seam allowances and hemming, and with substandard fastenings and fixings (bows hot-glued rather than sewn onto shoes and bags and buttons that easily break, for example) and therefore what you saved in buying cheaply is lost again in repairs and replacements. 

Check the quality of all that you buy BEFORE you buy it, and read reviews. This doesn't just apply to clothes. Often offers that are too good to be true are indeed exactly that, and will end up costing more in the long run. 

There's Nothing Wrong With Buying Secondhand

Buying things secondhand is often a more affordable option, especially as shops like Closet Child exist for Lolita fashion, and there are plenty of vintage shops and charity shops about. 

Look out for cool stuff on Freecycle, local recycling groups, free-to-collect adverts etc. Also look out for swap groups. I gave away a selection of ethnic drums at my old local recycling group because they were too heavy to ship for something like eBay and I needed the space more than the money (at the time... Now I would probably sell them in the local paper!).

In terms of Romantic Goth, Aristocrat and Lolita fashion, the cheapest option is to scour charity shops for bargains - there's a local charity shop to me selling everything at £1.99, and I've found some very detailed and beautiful garments there. You are unlikely to find made-for-Goth or made-for-Lolita clothes in them (slightly more likely to find Goth, almost never going to find Lolita) but plenty of clothes from mainstream stores that are 'Goth-able' or 'Loli-able'. A large section of my wardrobe comes from charity shops. My main advice is to try things on in-store, and to try and get a good view of the fabric in natural daylight because many charity shops have poor lighting, or overly bright lighting, and you can't always detect true colour or fading without standing by a window. Check a garment carefully for stains, tears, damage and for quality of manufacture and wear  - a lot of people see charity shops as a way to dump unwanted clothes, and while charity shops do check clothes before putting them on the racks, some are more careful than others. Another important point is to check the same shops regularly as stock often changes rapidly, and visit a good variety of charity shops. Perseverance is often rewarded with finding bargains. 

The second cheapest option is second-hand on eBay. I tend to avoid new clothes on eBay unless they are from a shop that I know and trust as a lot of new clothes are cheaply made stuff from China and other countries where labour laws are laxer than here and where knock-offs are abundant, and I'd rather not put money towards sweatshops and knock-offs. There is a broad selection of secondhand Goth clothes and other unusual fashions. The important things with eBay are to look at the seller's reviews and rating, and to make sure you get as much information about what you are buying as you can. It doesn't hurt to ask questions, especially about colour (as cameras and monitors can distort that quite easily) and about sizing and fit. Some sellers only give very brief descriptions, others give quite detailed ones, but read all of it carefully. Do not forget to add the shipping fee to the cost - a £3 top with £4 shipping is a £7 top, etc. 

With Lolita, online second-hand shops like Closet Child are really useful, but be wary of shipping fees, especially if you are buying heavier items (brocades, velvets, leather, shoes, bags, etc.). There is also the EGL Community Sales, where Lolitas sell between each other. The EGL Comm Sales can be a bit more expensive than places like Closet Child, as sellers are keen to get the best price they can, often to finance a new brand dress or suchlike. Some items are more expensive than others of similar quality based on print popularity and rareity, item desirability, brand etc. - this is easier to navigate as you get more familiar with Lolita fashion (for example, you will virtually never get cheap Alice Auaa second-hand, not even at Closet Child). 

If You Buy New, Buy Carefully

New clothes in Goth seem to often be the same few brands sold through various outlets for the most part - it's worthwhile shopping around for the best deal as they don't all offer the same price, same shipping fees, etc. There are boutique shops, for example Gloomth And The Cult of Melancholy (Canada), Gallery Serpentine (Australia), and Retroscope Fashions (America) where clothes are designed in-house and as they are often bespoke and small-run items, a lot more expensive. These are the kinds of thing worth saving up for, because once bought they are both gorgeous and lasting if treated well.  For those on a smaller budget, there are often Goth-friendly designs in mainstream stores, especially as Goth has become hipster-trendy recently, and a lot of these mainstream stores are pretty cheap compared to Goth-specific brands. That said, I've seen lots of beautiful dresses for the Christmas season in shop windows of high-street stores selling for well over £100 that are certainly Goth-friendly, but also not really budget shopping! 

New clothes in Lolita come from three main sources - Entry-level shops such as Bodyline and Fan + Friend (both of which have a less than perfect history, but have improved in recent years with more original designs and better quality items. For more in-depth discussions of both shops, do a bit of research in the Lolita community.), indie designers like Krad Lanrete (who have become popular with prints like Mozarabic Chant, and the famous jellyfish of Lost at Sea, and are a Chinese brand on Taobao) and Rouge Aerie (an Australian brand who tend to do colourful prints with a slightly Gothic theme such as sea-monsters, and a skeletal take on the popular carousel horses idea), and then the main brands such as Angelic Pretty, Innocent World, Victorian Maiden and Moi-Même-Moitié which are based in Japan and quite expensive. Personally, I would rather buy secondhand rather than from Bodyline or Fan + Friend, because the quality of brand items, including many indie brands, is much higher, and these can be found quite reasonably secondhand if searched for, sometimes for prices similar to new Bodyline clothes. 

Some new Lolitas get worried about buying "off brand" - things that aren't from J-Fashion brands, but this really isn't a problem and if it looks good, it won't get you a negative reaction from the community. All my bell skirts with pouf (and a petticoat or three beneath them) were never intend for the Lolita market, and nobody has ever tutted me for it.  

Make Things and Mend Things

Learn to sew your own clothes - this costs in time, but it does mean you can have nice clothes for the cost of materials and a pattern, or if you learn to draft your own patterns, then just the cost of the materials, and even materials can be thrifted - especially from things like bedding and larger size dresses handed into charity shops, even from disassembled curtains! Also, the sewing skills for making your own clothes are applicable as the skills for mending existing clothes, meaning that you can repair things instead of replace them, and often repairing is the cheaper option. I wrote an article back in July about the benefits of gaining sewing skills, which is ::here::, that I would recommend reading. Also, learn how to transform broken or worn out items into something new and different, so they can have a second lease of life, for example turning old knee-socks into arm warmers by cutting the feet off when the feet wear out, or turning old jeans into a denim bag. Scavenging materials and finding from old clothes is not just thrifty, it is recycling. 

Snow, Executions, Graveyards and Cats

Well isn't that a strange list of things!

Firstly, it snowed. I know it is mid-March, and theoretically Spring began on March 1st (for those places that use other dates than the equinoxes and solstices as seasonal starts) but it is once again terribly cold and snowy. We have had patches of warmer, brighter weather, but it seems to have plunged once again into winter. 

Snow and trees. Photograph by me.

This is a photo I took in local woodland. It was around 09:20 (I wasn't working at that point, my shift was later) in the morning, and the sun was quite low in the sky soon. Snow had blanketed everything in powdery whiteness, and the branches glittered brightly in the sun. The sky was blue, with more snow-clouds blowing in. I spent some time walking around the woods with the camera, and took a few other pictures, but this one was the best.

I caught a bus shortly after this and went into the city. I was surprised that it was so snowy in the city itself, as it is usually slightly warmer than the surrounding countryside, and often if it is snowing out on the hills, it is only raining in the city. Instead, I found great swirling flurries of snow. I wandered into the graveyard on Church St. to take photos, as I know it to always be very pretty, and the church beside it is a lovely Gothic Revival example (the church in it being much older).

Old High Church Graveyard

The sky, as you can see, had begun to cloud over once again, as more snow was falling and even more snow heading our way. I try not to photograph individual graves too legibly, but some were included as I tried to get a photograph of the overall scene. I will remember to photograph from the opposite angle in future, where I only get the backs of the stones. They are not (by any means) recent graves, and I hope I cause no offence to the families of those interred there. I tried very hard to photograph a rather fluffed-up crow that was scooting between the stones, and at one point perched on top of an urn-shaped grave stone, but he was too flighty (probably a result of the cold). 

Graveyard in the snow.

While I was there, I noticed that the visitor's board - the educational one with a brief history of the church and grounds - was buried under snow, so I cleared it off. Having cleared it off, I glanced over it, thinking I had read it all before, but then realised I hadn't, and that the parts missed included a rather gruesome episode in the Church's history. After the Battle of Culloden, Jacobite prisoners were kept there temporarily, and executed in the graveyard. There were, and are, two stones in the graveyard, one with a groove in the top that was used as a musket rest, and one 9 yards directly in front of it, facing the river, where the prisoner to be executed was placed. I think quite a few died there. Apparently the executioner missed once, and there is dent in the wall of the house opposite. Reading about it sent chills down my spine, and it seemed quite eerie that the churchyard that is now peaceful and pretty and full of wildlife and nice statuary was once witness to such bloodshed. While graveyards are often associated with death, it is rare for people to have actually died in them. 

I had to go home at this point, as I had to get ready for my shift at work, but the weather started improving again. A lot of the snow melted in the afternoon. 

There's a cat perched on me. 

On a lighter note, on the way home to change for work, this friendly cat from a neighbour's house came over to see me. She likes clambering on me, and as you can see in the photograph, especially likes sitting on my shoulders. She's a very, very cute little kitty. And yes, I am terrible at taking selfies. I often get to play with her on my way too and from the bus, and once she refused to get off my shoulders, and I wondered if she was hoping to sneak onto the bus with me... Eventually she climbed onto a fence next me and was content to be petted while sitting up there. 

Budget Subcultural Shopping

An entire Co-Ord for under £50

This was all inspired by the 'Great Brand Replica Debate' that seems to be buzzing across the Lolita subculture. I am quite firmly anti-replica; I don't think it is right for companies to steal the designs of others and then sell them, and buy buying replicas you are supporting that. I am aware of sizing issues with brand Lolita pieces, as I'm a rather tall and busty lady and do not fit a lot of brand pieces, but I think that such things are better solved by say, petitioning the brands, than by buying replicas. Anyway, one of the arguments was that it's very hard to find affordable off-brand Lolita clothes, and for some, even the 'bargain' Lolita shops are quite dear, and that replicas are all they can afford. I've put together a Lolita outfit because a) it is most pertinent to the Great Brand Replica Debate, and b) Lolita as a subcultural fashion has a reputation for being particularly expensive one to get into, but this applies to Goth, Aristocrat, and other subcultural fashions as well as Gothic Lolita.

I'm the kind of person where my per-item clothes budget is £5 or less, and I can still put together a Lolita outfit without any replicas.

Now, as you may know from my blog, my fashion choices are primarily Goth, and I only dabble in Gothic Lolita - don't get me wrong, I like it, but I don't like it exclusively, and I am primarily into Romantic Goth and Aristo fashion. I prefer longer skirts to the bell-shaped skirts, and I think that as I'm getting a bit older, that the Victorian-inspired styles suit me more than the doll-inspired styles. I am not going to say that the outfit I am putting forwards is the epitome of Lolita, but it should have all the elements. 

Not a very demure and Lolita pose, but I wanted to show off those tights.
Note the sideways spread of that skirt - theres actually quite a bit of puff to it.
Photograph by Raven, 'dreamy' style editing by HouseCat.

I have a feminine blouse with detailing, a high neckline and rounded collar, and little puffy sleeves - £2.99 in a charity shop, originally from Tesco. I have ruffled long-socks and patterned tights, the socks were around £5 (I think) in Claire's about 3 years ago, the flocked tights were £3.50 in Primark. I have lace gloves which were £2.50 on eBay and a feathered fan that was, I think £2.99 on sale in Accessorise a few weeks back. I have even managed to find an off-brand bell-shaped ruffly skirt that looks good with a petticoat underneath it! The skirt was £3.50 in a charity shop about... 6 years ago? and was originally from Gracia Fashion. The most expensive item was my petticoat, which isn't even supposed to be a petticoat; it's a very layered, voluminous skirt I bought in Primark, and that was slightly over my usual budget at around £7 in the sales. The oversized cross necklace was about £1.50 in Oxfam. 

My shoes are not Mary Jane shoes because I think Mary Jane shoes, with their rounded toe and often chunkier style make my already large feet look even bigger. I have UK women's size 8 feet (US women's 11) and I think that my pointier toed brogues do something to make my feet look a bit smaller.  They are also a charity shop find, and were £7.99 in Oxfam in Henley-on-Thames about 4 years ago.

To show detailing on blouse, as well as spectacles, cross, glove and fan.

Photograph by Raven, 'dreamy' style editing by HouseCat

Not the most elaborate and layered co-ord, but one with all the elements! The only two things in this co-ord that are outside of this are the wig, and my spectacles.  The wig was £25 at my local independent alternative style shop, but is not really a necessary item - it is perfectly fine to be a Lolita with natural hair, as long as you style it well. I could have styled my natural hair, but daylight was fading and I didn't have time. My glasses are twirly enough for Lolita, but are not a Lolita specific item; they are my glasses and I wear them to see. They were also quite expensive indeed but I consider them an investment.

If you've been keeping track, you'll realise that this is an entire Lolita outfit, except for wig and handbag,  for £36.97 Yes, you often get what you pay for, and this is not the most elaborate outfit, and it does not have the most beautiful lace, it has no prints, and some of the garments probably aren't as hard-wearing as brand Lolita outfits might be, but I think for someone who really is on a tight budget it shows that dressing Lolita is not just for those with a lot of disposable income. The best places to find bargains are eBay and charity shops. Just today a new black frilly blouse arrived for me from an eBay seller - I paid £4.70 including P.&P. 

Bargain hunting requires patience. I go through the charity shops several times a week, and I don't just visit one, I visit every charity shop in town. Most times I will come away with nothing, or perhaps a new candlestick rather than a new item of clothes. I also scour eBay diligently - very rarely do I use 'Lolita' or 'Gothic' as a search keyword, but instead search by size, colour, material, etc. and use keywords like 'lace' or 'frilly' or 'ruffled'. I also do not keep bidding past a pre-determined maximum that varies depending on what I am prepared to spend for a certain item, and I always remember to include the P.&P. when thinking of the total price. 

The photographs for this were taken by Raven in the garden at the bottom of my apartment building, and yes, it is still winter here! I got rather cold posing in the sunset for this! There's sadly not a 'standing up' photo, as the grassy slope was not very practical for posing on in those heels. I sat on a cushion because even in a lined skirt and petticoat, I was getting cold sitting on the ground.