When I was studying theatrical costume design in college, one of the most unexpectedly valuable things I learned was the importance of a good spreadsheet. At first, I approached the idea with a groan—weren't they supposed to be teaching me exciting things, like color theory and clothing history? But I soon discovered that not only was the creation of a solid spreadsheet a tidy way to organize information for a production team to work from, it was also easy and approachable to apply to my lolita wardrobe!
(Above: Some of my old homework, a sourcing document for an imaginary production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Still would love to actually work on this play one day! Try to read or watch it sometime if you can; it's a comedic look at post-9/11 race relations through the lens of wrestling.)
The above style of spreadsheet is fantastic for planning things like coords you want to build for conventions and other large events, or for tracking items you plan on buying. But what if you want to keep better track of the clothes you already have? The horizontal rows of color separating out each actor gave me an idea.
BEHOLD, THE WARDROBE COLOR GUIDE!
This spreadsheet logs every main piece I own and every color they contain. There are three "levels" a color can have: Main, if it takes up half or more of a dress; Secondary, if it's the main color of a print but not the background; and Accent, if there are only small amounts of the color on the dress.
As an example, let's take Royal Princess Alice's Witch Academy OP in Wine:
The main color here is wine red. It's one of two colorways this print has and is probably the first color you notice when looking at it. Next is the secondary color, black. Black takes up the second-highest amount of space on the dress, and it's the color of the lace and the large bow on the front. Then come the accent colors, white and gold, with a smaller but still noticeable presence. There are a couple other colors visible if you look closely, like the pink inside the cats' ears, but I don't consider them prominent enough to include on the spreadsheet.
So, how do we use this information now that we have it? One way is to figure out how many dresses you can coord an item with when you're trying to decide if it's worth buying. For example, if I want a pair of navy shoes but don't know if they'd be a worthy investment, I can consult the spreadsheet. Right now I have seven dresses with navy in them. That gives those shoes a pretty decent usefulness score, even before I consider pieces like my Shirring Princess JSK, which is solid ivory but could be coordinated with navy accessories in the right context. You can also use the sheet to help find new ways to wear your pieces if you find that you keep wearing them the same matchy-matchy way every time.
Here's an example of a simple coord using the Witch Academy OP without any black or red.
The Antique Beast headdress nods to the bat wing collar and the cats' ears at the same time, so it matches in more ways than just the color. I love seeing boots coordinated with school-themed outfits so I chose these gold boots from Meta. To complete the look I opted for these white crew socks from Putumayo. They keep the youthful feel of the coordinate and the exposed leg gives the dress's print room to "breathe" without risk of being overpowered by white. You could also add a gold academic-style bag like Cotton Candy Feet's
Frilly Academy bag for even more of a magical schoolgirl vibe, and I think this coord would really shine with dark brown or black hair if you're a stickler for balance.
I guess this concludes my first post! Eventually I might make a follow-up logging all my accessories by color, but that's a far bigger beast to tackle. I hope you found some use from these tips, and if you have your own different way of organizing your lolita pieces, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
🪻See you next time!🪻
