Let's Buy On A Budget! (Skiteanna's Guide To Everyday Fairy Kei and Sweet Lolita on a Budget)

Dear Frilly Colorful Angel Food Cakes,

Hi everyoneee!!!! I had an idea to do this guide in the shower (where all great ideas seem to happen!) I thought that since I was using these same tips to help myself maybe I could help others too! This is a living post and I will be adding more to it as I think of new ways to better it! Now on to the guide I was talking about!!)..

Princess Skiteanna's Guide To Fairy Kei and Sweet Lolita on a Budget 

This picture is from http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/6d7f272e68ed59764b4bec9d45c6fb391233270632_full.jpg and Shugo Chara! <3

(This is written under the assumption these readers I talk about want to increase the size of their wardrobe quickly or want to wear everyday or as often as possible.)

Step 1- What Do You Have Already? 
This is more of a step for fairy kei girls/boys(Though, a lot of accesories and things can easily be used for both fairy kei and sweet lolita), you may have many things perfect for a full fairy kei outfit already in your own home. If you had an interest in things that pretain to the style before you even knew the style existed you could have plenty of workable T-shirts you bought at the mall, thrift stores, or even Walmart! Many places sell accesories, tutus and tights that would be perfectly acceptable as well. Even if you are thinking right now that you have nothing and are going nuts just waiting for more money, you could very well be wrong. Fairy kei is all about 80s retro kid culture, ask your family members that may have even lived in the 80s if they have their old clothes stored some where then if you can maybe have some and have a ball! Even if your first couple of tries aren't what you are even willing to label "fairy kei" yet, you could always call it fairy kei inspired and wear it while still feeling good about it. I still suggest going through everything you own and laying it out and examining it. You may not see it's usefulness now, but once you learn to look at things for what they could be rather than what they are you may find you have more already than you ever thought. A good way to do that is to gather a since of what clothes can become through inspiration, which leads right into my next step!

Step 2- Do Your Research!! (Gather as much knowledge and insperation as possible)
Look up the style you love, research it, look at all the pictures of it you possibly can, and save the ones that inspire you the most and look at them as often as possible. I have one folder for outfits others out together and a folder inside it for specific items I may want to add to my wardrobe someday that are affordable and not insanely out of my price range. (Though, then I do have a folder for dream items that would be GGREATTTT to have, but right now it would be a bad investment to buy.) Good sites to just sit and look at outfit ideas are lookbook.nu, livejournal communities (Will list some), fashion/personal blogs, and tumblr.

Step 3- Buy Smart! (What can you use in several looks rather than just a few?) 
One of the most common early mistakes people make is just deciding to work really hard and spend all the money on one outfit and the matching accesories and what they end up with is one outfit. If your on a budget and hungry to get started (like many are) you may want to save the big outfits for later when you already have plenty of outfits and accessories you can mix and match infinate ways. Thrift stores and sales communities have things for very cheap and many starter fairy kei and lolita outfits can be made solely using Bodyline.co.jp, I have very few complaints on the things I have bought from Bodyline over the years and think that it is a great place to shop. If you can't shop online I would ask around your local fashion communities and see if anyone is selling and maybe you could meet-up and exchange money and items, that is a way to save on the shipping if the gas isn't too much as well. When you are ready to buy ask  yourself this question before you close the deal, 'How many outfits can I make with this useing what I already have?' This is a very important question if you want to wear any fashion daily or very often. You likely don't want to be stuck wearing the exact same coordinate, you want to be able to mix and match and always keep it fun and exciting, right? I want that and I think a lot of others do too!

Step 4- Play Like Polyvore! (You can skip this if you can just do it in your head!~)
You could use Polyvore for this, but I have noticed not everything is on Polyvore and if you want specific items you could just do it like this, take photos of all your clothes and load them on to your computer, (like Poupee girl) if you don't have a camera you could try to find pictures online that are of the clothes you own and save all the pictures to a folder to keep them easy to find. After you do that you save pictures of things you want to buy and have decided you could do something with (Possibly in a different folder). You could use paint and put together as many possible full outfit coords you can using the clothes until you decide buying whatever it is you have in mind would be a good investment.

Step 5- Build Your Wardrobe! 
Now that you know the basics, you are ready to buy! I think it would be a good idea to have the goal of at least a weeks worth of seperate fairy kei outfits and a weeks worth of sweet lolita outfits (if your interested in doing both like me and if not just a week or two of one of those fashions.) The outfits can be mixed and matched around so you can successfully wear it everyday! If you have a weeks worth of both that gives you plenty of time to do laundry and prepare outfits for the next days. I am currently in the process of reaching my goal with very little money right now, but I have very high hopes that someday I will reach it and then go even further!

I have found this to be the best way for me personally to reach my goals and I thought theses steps might be helpful to others as well~! I am so so happy to have some people checking on my blog I have seen a few views here and there and I am so glad to know that someone somewhere is reading this! <3 Much love to the readers out there!!

If anyone has other helpful tips please comment with them and help everyone reading and me to better our wardrobes~ (Please tell me if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes at ALL, this was all written really early in the morning before I lost my train of thought!

Links
Fairy Kei Sales Community- http://80s-cuties.livejournal.com/
Sales For Just Bodyline- http://bodyline-love.livejournal.com/profile
Daily Lolita Outfit Ideas- http://daily-lolita.livejournal.com/profile
Good For All Things Lolita- http://egl.livejournal.com/profile
The Sales For The Above Community- http://egl-comm-sales.livejournal.com/profile
Community for Popkei/Fairykei- http://popkei.livejournal.com/profile / http://fairykei.livejournal.com/profile


You can also just look up the community that may exist locally for you! (If one doesn't exist make one and hope for the best! Facebook pages are also good for getting the word out about your comm.

Sleepily Yours, (Again...come on it's 3am!)

Skiteanna La~Sweet