1. Loliable items - especially blouses - are not always that easy to come by.
I spent a lot of time in the beginning searching thrift stores for pieces that could fit my wardrobe and fulfill the requirements of lolita. Remember the phrase time is money? If you do actually have some money to spend, you'll probably be better off just sucking it up and spending the money on actual lolita pieces. All that time and effort spent searching thrift shops for bargains that could fit my wardrobe could have been better spent learning to make my own, tracking down deals on the secondhand market, or learning about shopping on Taobao - which brings me to number 2:
2. Shopping on Taobao is not as scary as it seems.
Taobao is such a great resource, and it really is very easy to use - find a translator plug in for your internet browser (I personally use Google Chrome), find a list of recommended shops or spend some time browsing the pages on the site with the help of the above plug in, and contact a shopping service with the links of things you want to buy. I personally use Taobao Spree. If you've ever done any shopping on eBay, you probably already have a PayPal address that you can use. Also, there are a number of internet resources out there to help you figure out the wonderful world of Taobao if you only take the time to look.
3. There are a lot of Japanese websites that sell secondhand brand and welcome overseas buyers.
Of course you don't need brand to put together a great outfit, but there are a number of amazing websites out there that welcome your overseas business. The Western secondhand market tends to be a bit pricier than what you'll find on the Japanese secondhand market, and since lolita is a Japanese street fashion - naturally they have a lot more items, meaning more variety for you to choose from. Closet Child is one of the more well known webshops, but there are many others. Lots of these shops ship overseas and are no more difficult than ordering from than Amazon! When you consider that a simple secondhand brand JSK can often be found for less than $70, and similar Bodyline dresses go for similar prices, you're getting a much better value and will get far better returns on your investment should you decide to sell in the future.
Some of my favorites include:
Some of my favorites include:
Mbok (okay, not a webstore, you need a shopping service, but I've found some of my best deals!)
What do you think? What are some of the things you wish you had known as a new lolita?
OMG if I had only known that I could get brand pieces for taobao prices at the beginning... My wardrobe would probably be 100% brand right know. Secondhand japanese shops are so wonderful. Like you say, brand is not a requirement but it is a great investment and if the price is reasonable enough, why not? I wish had known Closet Child before. I also wish I had held back my enthusiasm at first because I was posting reviews on egl that were not really good or helpful and I was pestering other Lolitas asking silly questions ("is this obviously non-lolita dress pretty enough to be called lolita?" "May I call myself a Lolita even though I don't own any Lolita clothes yet?"). Ha ha ha. Everybody was really nice to me because I was sweet but man, was I acting like a total noob. XD
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