Some things have been bothering me about the recent AP sizing discourse so I'm just gonna thread on a few things regarding fashion manufactering, audience, and Lolita brands in general

We can't have a honest dialog without understanding that AP is a small brand. While AP produces hundreds of pieces (we're not sure based on how their pieces sell, I'm not even sure if they ever pass 100-200 globally), actual big brands produce THOUSANDS of a single garment

Making a hundred of a complex piece (which the dress pattern might not complex but there's lace, trimmings, buttons, the details that makes us love Lolita) vs making a thousand of say like a shirt, the profit margins for a brand aren't even comparable even priced the way they are

That's what people mean when they say AP is a small brand and denounce fast fashion because big brands are able to produce thousands upon thousands of garments for a fraction of the cost, it paints an unrealistic picture of what it costs to produce much less profit from something

Okay hypothetically, AP makes a dress, they have to stock it in almost every one of their physical stores and have stock for their online store and they only have 100, that's anywhere from 1-5 dresses per location with the expectation that someone will buy every dress

AP is a Japanese company and even with global stores, their #1 demographic will always be Japanese people and this argument always bothers me because no one ever asks Western brands to suddenly no longer prioritize their Western audience for overseas audience who are by the sheer

nature of location, PHYSICALLY able to support the brand more just because they can walk into a store. Overseas costs aren't just the dress, it's shipping, customs, shopping service fees, the expectation to not treat these things like they're legitimate barriers confuses me

I can't ever realistically expect AP or really any Japanese brand to overhaul their business plan for their target audience when it's working for them and keeping them afloat in a time where a lot of Lolita and Harajuku brands just die instead

People here really underestimate how much AP dominates in regards to brand prescence and profit (though slim) in comparison to like Baby/Aatp who has similar sizing issues. It has been a long time since they've had back to back bloodbaths like this year EVEN with the pandemic

So what's the truth then? How is AP able to have so many successful pieces this year despite never doing anything to change/appeal to Western audience? Because we're not the ones they're appealing to and not the ones buying most of their things

The solution is to support brands that do try to target Western audiences and this is what bothers me the most. Lolita brands other than AP still die or struggle to stay afloat. People say they support other brands in times like this but being honest, do they?

How often are people actually following other brands and BUYING from them? If we go back earlier in the thread, we mentioned the cost and profit to actually produce a Lolita dress. Now picture that for brands who don't have the money like AP where their margins are even smaller

Even Chinese brands which are more affordable because they have more direct access to manufactering, are unable to produce pieces at the rate that AP can and rely on MTO structures. I've had something not get produced because they didn't hit the minimum order quantity they needed

AP will change if and only if their profit margin gets hit enough to justify it. But as long as their target audience keeps buying from them, an outlier audience will not have any influence on that, yes even with the prescence of a physical store

That's not to say people can't be frustrated or upset, those feelings are valid but all the arguments around it really bug me because 1. Fat shaming in the Lolita comm existed before people could even buy AP easily, 2. Western & inclusive Lolita brands still struggle to scrape by

3. It's not realistic to treat AP like they're a big brand, they're a blip in the fashion world, 4. It's not realistic to compare the struggles of plus sized people in Western countries and plus sized people in Japan/China or speak for them regarding this

And 5. Altering clothing is still demonized by Western Lolitas despite being a viable path that applies to more things than just Lolita

AP could be doing better on inclusivity 100% but there are so other brands that are who could use that money instead who quite frankly, get ignored by a lot of Lolitas for a variety of reasons

A part of me feels like AP gets the most shit for this because they're the most visible despite other popular brands being the same way in sizing. Like Baby still has like 82cm bust blouses/non shirred OPs as of this year too and does even less size inclusive MTOs

The only real outcome is just to please support Western and size inclusive Japanese brands that care and want your money and then actually give them your money because they could use it to make even more things you'll like and wear