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Hello everyone, Jessica here with a blog post because I would like to distribute this information easily and I don't have my own blog, and so I will use the Bay Area Kei blog for my personal purposes and nobody can stop me. (Also it's still January - happy wardrobe month, everyone! I wrote about making an attempt to complete a wardrobe post last year in my Tips & Tricks blog post. That never happened. I'm still working on it.)
You may remember back in December 2020, Sara Bread and I hosted a panel called "Organizing Your Lolita Closet" for Winter in the Woodlands, our joint virtual event with Rosé Forêt.
If you don't remember this, you can watch it here (I'll wait)
In this panel, we have a portion where we discuss digital wardrobe organization, including spreadsheets, Pinterest boards, and wardrobe apps. We very briefly mention platforms like Airtable and Notion, which can function as advanced wardrobe spreadsheet. Now, at the time I hadn't really looked into either website because I've kept my personal wardrobe on Google Sheets for years and years, but recently I went down a spreadsheet-alternatives-rabbit-hole and ended up recreating a large portion of my wardrobe spreadsheet on both platforms for fun.
I won't bore you with the differences between the two platforms - functionally they serve the same purpose, but I ended up playing around with Airtable interfaces and building a fun little coordinate planner with the data from my wardrobe. And since I am the Bay Area Kei Spreadsheet Goblin, it's a given that I must share this information with all of you.
First off - to use the interface, you must have an Airtable account - you can't even see the pages without one, which is not the most convenient thing for people who just want to look at the thing and I apologize for that.
To get started, click here and either log in to your Airtable account, or follow the prompts to create an account. Once you are logged in, you will see a view-only version of the wardrobe template. In order to duplicate this template and start inputting your own entries, head to the Airtable home page by clicking the rocket ship on the upper right have corner of the screen.
Home Page / Workspaces
Workspaces are just separate areas you can choose to keep information. You need to start a workspace in order to create or duplicate a base or interface. As you can see, I have a new workspace called "Wardrobe". Once you have created a workspace, go back to the Home tab and click on the three dots next to the Wardrobe Template base in order to duplicate it. Your copy of the base will appear in your new Wardrobe workspace. Once you have your copy of the base open, you can start editing and inputting your own information.
Base - Wardrobe Tab
This is the base with some of my example entries. I like to keep my information as sheet-y as possible, so I will usually start off in grid view. You can choose other ways to view your information as well by choosing from the options on the bottom left hand corner.
One column to take note of is the Status column - I have the sheet grouped by status (either 'owned' or 'sold', though you could add other statuses as well - wishlist, repairs needed, etc.) I like to retain information about items I sell, including how much it sells for, so this allows me to easily sort these items out. I've also formatted the interface pages so that the sold items do not appear so you can't mistakenly add it to a coord.
Side note - if you click on the arrow next to "Wardrobe Template" I have more information about the different fields and how I use them.
Base - Coords Tab
As you can see, in the upper left hand corner I have a second tab for coords. This is also in grid view and it takes information from the initial wardrobe data set and allows for you to choose items to make different coordinates. Obviously, this isn't the most ideal way to visualize a coordinate, which brings us to
✨Interfaces✨
Wardrobe Lookup
Okay! We are now in the wardrobe interface. So as you can see, these pages are easier to browse. The first page I have formatted is the Wardrobe Lookup. On the left, you can scroll through or search for your entries by name. On the top of the page, I have filters so you can look for items by various attributes, and each page contains all the information about your item from the initial grid. I can also go in and edit details directly on this page. This page is pretty self-explanatory - it's kind of like a Lolibrary for your personal wardrobe.
Coordinate Builder
This page uses the information from the Coords grid. As you can see, the gallery view allows for you to see that the items look like all at once, and once you wear it, you can place an image in this page as well. You can add items from this page by clicking on the + icon next to the Wardrobe field (above the photos).
If you are not sure what the name of the item is or if you want to browse through a selection of items, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will find an additional filter field and gallery; you can use these filters to look up specific items in the gallery. Once you have found your item, scroll back up to add to your coord (unfortunately clicking on the gallery directly will not add it to the coord automatically).
You can also choose to share this interface with other people to allow them to make coords for you! If you're worried about people seeing your data, you can hide individual pages or fields.
Wardrobe Data
This page reveals your shame. It will give you summaries about your purchase habits and wardrobe data, including:
total number of items
amount spent
amount sold
percentage/number of items by brand and item type
items by release year
number of items purchased in a year
Of course, you can also customize it to see whatever data you like, or you can choose to ignore it completely - I don't control your life (or your spending habits).
Gallery View
This is just a gallery. It's for if you just want to scroll through your wardrobe and bask in its magnificence. There's really no explanation needed here.
And that's it, that's everything! Please feel free to contact me directly via Instagram or Discord if you have any questions about how to use this wardrobe/coordinate template. I'm always happy to talk about digital wardrobe organization!