Okay maybe I'm late but did anybody else find
this post completely bizarre. I know, it's yet another "making my own lolita brand is my ONE AND ONLY DREAM IN THE WORLD yet I don't really know how to sew lolita and haven't done any research, lol" but this one has a little extra flair, much of which is lost in the comment ether because
People are telling me how to use LJ correctly but I would rather put all my replies where no one will see them, thankshttp://egl.livejournal.com/19220556.html?thread=433955148#t433955148"The reason why I don't want to sew the dresses myself is because I live in a Caravan in the middle of a field, it's awesome but we currently don't have electricity and I don't own a sewing machine or have the space to have my own sewing room yet. Also, I don't trust myself to sew to the standard that say AP dresses are made to because I've never attempted Shirring." Not even sure to begin on that one. I want to start a blog! But I don't have electricity! Or a computer. Or a camera. I also don't know how to write. I'm not a details person, okay.
"I think I'll start out with just making 50 dresses and see where it goes" WAT girl no stop, please. People are trying to help you out and save you money. Please listen before you end up with 49 dresses nobody buys.
"You have to pay a months wage for 1 dress" girl evidently makes $350 in a month but she's going to pay for fabric, materials and labor for FIFTY of the SAME DRESS. Yeah, us "brandwhores" sure are the crazy ones
"I'm trying to put my own spin on lolita and make my brand less Sweet lolita and a bit more Classic or Dolly kei or Vintage in the use of faded lace and darker shades of pink that aren't as sickly as the Sweet lolita pinks." Wow, nobody else does that. Darker shades of pink? Classic lolita? Stop the madness.
"I've also got 4 kigarumi (sp?) designs but I'm not sure if they are a bit too 'out of the' lolita 'box' for people to want to buy them. They involve prints of renaissance paintings of naked ladies and bone shaped ID tags that dogs wear on their collars amongst other things!" Okay, that does sound pretty out of the box.
"I also want to have a Tumblr, etsy, Facebook and Instagram all linked to my main website so I maximise free online advertising. Also I'm going to show photos of behind the scenes, like photos of the fashion shoots and the models getting their makeup done or a sneak peak of my next design or the custom tights when they arrive from the manufacturer, stuff like that." Free online advertising.. for your business...
with Facebook? You know, that's so crazy, it might just work. Yet more unique ideas that nobody else is doing! Except you know, everybody does them
"I don't want anyone stealing my ideas or the photos and calling them their own." Nobody is going to steal your designs gurl, AP you are not. Especially not "rough sketches in pen." replica makers are not that hard up for ideas.
After all that I just have the nagging impression that she thinks she can pay other people to sew these with high quality materials and they will cost like $10 each and fly out of her caravan because her designs are just so brilliant and unique. Because they're aren't 100 other indie brands that have already gone down this road and KNOW what this all costs and what it takes and we can see that in their pricing and the occasional revelation that they have actually
lost money on a product. Nope, she's the first one. Or maybe those other indie brands were just stupid and didn't have Facebook pages. I also like the underlying anti-brand sentiment in her comments. Who wants to bet that when she releases her designs and doesn't fill up 100 orders immediately, she'll accuse everybody of being elitist brandwhores who hate creativity?
I also feel for this girl who's dealing with parents that think buying things from someone they don't know, that they can't see or try on, then shipping them overseas, makes sense:
http://egl.livejournal.com/19222433.html Did you guys have problems like this when you first started buying lolita? I think my first online order I didn't even bother telling my parents because I thought they would be against it, and just sent some sketchy money order overseas. Somehow, everything went better than expected. Not trying to snark on the girl, it sounds frustrating.
I'm at work so no caps until I get home :