Things I Would Like to See in 2015

Is it just me, or does this post keep coming around quicker every year? So, here we are with a brand new year and what is hopefully going to be an exciting year for lolita fashion. 2014 was a bit of a mixed year for me with many highs and lows, but after looking at my 2014 list, it appears quite a few of my lolita-related wishes came true! But what exactly would I like to see in 2015? Here is my list-

A more structured and united sales community- It feels like every time I want to go buy something lolita related now, I have to trawl through endless sales pages, often with the same people posting in every available sales community! Facebook alone has lolita sales pages for different countries, languages, brand specific, style specific, off-brand... The list goes on. As great as Lacemarket can be, there are times when the website glitches or can't handle the volume of traffic. It also seems as though the EGL Comm Sales on Livejournal is slowly dying. Sometimes I just wish we could go back to the days when there was quite a centralised sales community and I hate to think I have missed an item because it has been pushed underneath the people constantly bumping their Facebook posts. I feel it makes selling stuff a lot more stressful.

A BTSSB duck print- I wanted an Angelic Pretty duck print for so long and when they finally delivered one, I hated it! I really wanted to love Melody Toys, but as time went on I went from thinking it was cute to slowly finding more and more things I disliked. So, let's see if Baby the Stars Shine Bright can do any better! Or maybe I will have more luck wishing that AP can do another and better duck print, maybe with the duck as the main feature.

A better Bodyline warehouse and better quality control- Lately, it feels like every time I order from Bodyline, my items will arrive with make up stains, mould or just generally in a not-so-brand-new condition. I don't feel this is in any way acceptable. When you order from Bodyline, you are paying for items that are brand new and should be in new condition. However, it seems I have gotten off lightly, as I have friends who have had to open Paypal cases against Bodyline after receiving items in shocking conditions. Bodyline are not the most helpful when it comes to refunds either but ideally, it shouldn't get to the refunds stage in the first place.

More basic and wardrobe building items from brands- I have noticed that certain colours have seen a surge in popularity as of late (I am very pleased to see people are discovering the joy of navy blue!) but it still feels that sometimes I am lacking the necessary matching accessories to make a wide variety of outfits. It is all very well and good to make a hair accessory which perfectly compliments its series, but when it only matches that one series it is very frustrating. I would like to see more basic items that can be dressed up or down and can be worn with multiple pieces. Sometimes I don't want to buy the matching hair accessory for a dress and just want a solid coloured piece that I know I will get a lot of wear out of.

Less Chocolate and Alice in Wonderland prints- I am not against these sort of prints but they have been so overdone that I think we need to see something a bit more original. There has been some progress with series like Wonder Queen (which focused on the Red Queen instead of Alice) and Quartet Chocolat (which had the addition of musical instruments). However, it feels like a lot of the time we are seeing the same stuff repeated over and over again. I am not saying they should stop making them all together and I quite like that there is a new Royal Chocolate series each year, but I like it when brands bring out more unusual or lesser seen themes.

More accessory lucky packs- Am I the only lolita out there who has completely run out of hanging space for new dresses? I know I need to sell some stuff soon but in all honesty, I don't feel my wardrobe needs more dresses anyway. Dress and skirt lucky packs are great for new lolitas who are starting out and could do with all the outfit basics, but I would really like to see more accessory packs out there. There are lots of indie brands out there who offer accessory lucky packs, but a lot of the time these sell out super quick. Lucky packs can be very exciting to open, as you don't know what you are going to get. An accessory pack offers a smaller option for those who don't want dresses or don't have the money for a larger lucky pack. I know AP and Baby have offered accessory lucky packs in the past and I would love to see them offer these again. And on a similar note, I would really like to see Baby do a blouse lucky pack. Their blouse designs are so beautiful and a lolita can never have enough blouses.

More silver- I love the colour gold and have plenty of it in my wardrobe but silver still seems a relatively rare colour in lolita. Some skin tones look a lot better with silver than gold. Is this a new area to explore? Aside from the silver Bodyline shoes and a few bag designs, I rarely see the colour outside of jewellery. Maybe it would work or maybe it wouldn't. I would quite like to find out!

Slower AP releases- There are certain times of the year where it feels like Angelic Pretty is releasing a lot of series in a very short space of time. It is really difficult to keep up! I usually try my hardest to avoid the worst of the AP release bloodbaths, but it is very frustrating when you go for a while without liking anything and then suddenly you fall in love with 3 different Angelic Pretty releases all at once. And then, you find out those 3 AP releases are being released just a few days apart! I just think AP need to spread their series out so there isn't this frenzied rushed release period, especially at Christmas when people have other stuff like presents to spend out on.

Less Nun Lolita- I don't mind the odd religious element in lolita and quite enjoyed the recent Nun Lolita trend. But I feel enough is enough. It is getting a bit boring and repetitive now, seeing people wearing that Sister Maria nun OP in the exact same way all the time. I think there are only so many ways you can wear that sort of dress. Maybe it is time to give the trend a rest before it starts to feel overdone.

So that is my list of wishes for this year. I was very pleased to see some of my 2014 wishes come true, although some were more successful than others. I feel there will be many who agree and disagree with my wish list this year. I would be interested to hear what my readers would like to see in 2015. As for my personal goals for 2015, I want to focus less on cutesy sweet lolita and attempt to wear sweet in a mature way, I want to expand my hair accessory collection so I can rely less on wearing matching head bows from the same series and try to focus on building my lolita friendships.