Lolita Charm: Modern Maiden

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Modern Maiden

Classic lolita, morigirl, chocolate, mocha, and muted roses are all in this season - and with them I think should be one more trend to complete the style. It's dignified, romantic, and floating; it brings images of Camelot, Pride and Prejudice, and Victorian girls who are not quite children and not quite married. I am speaking, of course, of the maiden-length hemline. The typical lolita skirt ends at or slightly above the knees, more the length of a Victorian children's dress. But the more classical or offbeat brands - like Emily Temple Cute, Innocent World, and sometimes Metamorphose - often bring a different style to the table. The longer hem line falls about at mid-calf, or at the longest, shin-length. Due to its length, a few considerations must be taken! Be careful of:

bulky socks that may cause the skirt to ride up or catch; or worse, static cling! To avoid this, wear a half-slip (if you decide to forgo a petticoat, which you sometimes may with longer hems
knee-high boots can show oddly under longer skirts - make sure they don't catch at the fabric
choose the right petticoat, if you choose to wear one - Candy Violet makes the perfect long, chiffon petticoat. They also offer hoop boning for their princess-length skirt, perfect for a full, almost ballgown appearance. If you'd like to fit the boning under a different skirt, however, make sure there is enough fabric. I know that my maiden-length Emily Temple Cute dress wouldn't fit a set of hoops to save its life!

Not only can these lengths be more wearable to every day life, as they may omit or soften a bell-shape - they also stand out from the crowd and have something to say for themselves. They do possess a certain quiet elegance in my opinion!

Here are a few examples of beautiful, maiden-length skirts and dresses. They are from, in order of left to right: Metamorphose, Emily Temple Cute, and Moi-Meme-Moitie.

A maiden-length hemline can inspire all kinds of romantic fairytale coordinates! Here are a few additional ideas at bringing the maiden look into your everyday style:

wear unusual sizes of braids in your hair - looped, in buns, across your head, or lots of tiny accenting ones. Use a hair elastic with a ribbon stitched to it to braid ribbons through your hair;
add fur stoles or detachable fur collars to the collars of your dresses;
tie a skeleton key around your neck with a velvet ribbon or a piece of string;
embroider a small design like a crown or rose and use a jewelry frame to make it into a brooch or pendant;
wear shoes with huge bows on the toes;
Buy stand-alone bodices or bustiers to layer over blouses for a medieval, Sleeping Beauty look;
any bodice with lacing ribbons is also very Renaissance style and will look sweet for a maiden style!

Use illustrations from Andrew Lang's fairytale books (I have the Pink and Blue Fairy books!) for inspiration, or the more flowy gowns of animated princesses - not just Disney, but also Don Bluth's Thumbelina or The Swan Princess. (Is anyone else a big fan of these not-Disney movies? If you haven't seen them, do! They're very beautiful.) Look for inspiration everywhere - you never know where you might find it!

I recently bought my own maiden-length skirt - the pink and bordeaux version of the Metamorphose Swan Lake skirt shown above! Photos to come!

Labels: fashion

7 Comments:

At October 24, 2009 at 6:54 PM , Tokyo Rebel said...: All that about Victorian-style maiden-length skirts and no mention of the most obvious brand, Victorian maiden! :)

btw, we love your pink hair.
At October 24, 2009 at 7:58 PM , Victoria Suzanne said...: @Tokyo Rebel: ahaha, how could I forget! The top photo is by Victorian Maiden, however :) and thank you very much!
At October 24, 2009 at 10:10 PM , tomi said...: The Swan Princess~ I remember when I was 3 years old, Odette was my idol. Haha, she still is, I love her! *___* And I used to know all the song lyrics because I bought the sing-a-long video! xDD
At October 24, 2009 at 10:54 PM , Victoria Suzanne said...: @tegonyan: that's so cute! I rewatched my VHS copy the other day, I still know the songs too :)
At October 25, 2009 at 7:57 AM , Wniny said...: I love your blog! I haven't taken time to read it all yet, but I will! ^__^
You are my first Lolita idol! You inspire me so much and keeps me wanting to do wear lolita everyday. (even though I only own four dresses, so I don't.)
Oh, and sorry for me fan-girling on you... I just had to. XD
At October 25, 2009 at 8:56 AM , Anonymous said...: i fell in love with the maiden-length hemline a week or so ago, when i tried my promdress on again, just for fun. it is rather classic lolita in style, creme coloured with some dark dusty pink roses on it and a brown ribbon tied under the bust, but i fell in love with it the moment i saw it on me again. to be honest when i made it (and went to my prom wearing it) i wasn't half as comfortable in it as i am now. perhaps because i gained a few pounds wich makes the dress fit even better ^^ and it looks just define paired with a brown turleneck and brown tights *.* i just have to tie one of my panniers at the hips, wear the other one at my natural wiast et voila: classic lolita silhouette ^^

i just love the feel of it. i feel so much more elegant than in my usual sweet atire... which is also an contra to the style, but i just lovd to play around with it!
At October 25, 2009 at 11:50 AM , Victoria Suzanne said...: @Wniny: Thanks so much, I'm glad you like it! It makes me happy that people read my work :)

@Jinfeng-im-juli: how sweet! The elegant princess feel we might very well have inherited from prom dresses, huh? My favorite part of long skirts is lifting the hem delicately - it just feels so romantic :)

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Modern Maiden

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