A fairly accurate shot of the colour for once, though it is a bit more purple IRL.
You may recall that I turned the too-short straps into a halter, only to remember that I really don’t like halterneck anything! So despite this dress fitting well and being absolutely lovely it just languished unworn in my wardrobe until I finally got around to doing this recently. And I’ll be painfully honest, if it weren’t for the fact that this JSK was next in my outfit post order it would probably have languished for a little longer. But it was time for new flatlays so I knuckled down and did it!
Before I launch into the outfits I wanted to share a little of what I did to the straps, because modifying brand is a dramatic thing. Firstly, I cut the straps off the bodice, because I couldn’t figure out how to remove them without deconstructing the bodice to an extent, then I unpicked the straps. The lace was secured to only one half of the strap, so I removed it from one edge and attached it to an edge on the other, which gave me two equally sized rectangles each with lace on one side (rather than one with lace and one without). For security, I next zig-zag stitched all the raw edges. Then I sewed what was the front and back of each strap together to make two longer straps, and secured these to the front of the bodice, but out to the sides more than they were originally, since the straps were originally folded so mine were twice as wide. Lastly, I sewed a button at the rear end of each strap at the appropriate length. Overall I did a prettyy sturdy job, but certainly not a professional quality alteration. I’m aware that by doing this I’ve basically ruined the resale value (except perhaps to a fellow tallish lolita) but I like this dress, so I don’t care. I’d rather have something I can wear, and maybe only sell for twenty dollars when the time comes, than have something I’m not comfortable wearing that I could sell for a hundred.
So that’s a little explanation of how I modified this JSK. And now that that’s out of the way, onto so outfits using it!
I love this outfit, I think it's toned down and rather elegant. However, I realised after cropping my photos that I basically already did this exact outfit last time I coordinated this dress. Oops! What can I say? Some things are just good, and I would so totally wear this outfit.
This outfit (and the next one) are definitely not repeats though! Despite ivory being an obvious choice for this JSK, and one that I really love, I wanted to try a few different coordination options. So for this coord I ran with lots and lots of wine. It's a pity the body of that cutsew is a different shade to the sleeves, because the sleeves match perfectly! This outfit is actually a good example of how flat lays are quite a different animal to actual worn coordinates because depending on how the necklines sat on a real person there may be too much of the cutsew body on display, which would make it too clashing, in my opinion. But it does make a nice flat lay!
Lastly I wanted to try really sweetening it up, and to be honest I'm not a huge fan. The blouse was, int he end, too pink and so were the flower clips. The socks are a great match though, and I also got to use a headband I made ages ago and only recently incorporated into my lolita collection, so that's nice.
Overall, though I'm chuffed that this dress is now wearable, I feel like these flat lays are a bit all over the place. But that's okay - I find flat lays are a great way to experiment with outfits without having to get dressed up yourself. Of course, there are times when a flat lay won't work well worn, and some outfits that look great one are meh as flat lays, but overall they are something I really get a lot out of doing, even if they don't turn out 100%.
That's such a gorgeous dress, I'm glad you'll now be able to wear it because you have some solid options with it. I feel like with the last one the rose clips work with the dress, but the blouse should be a bit more of a dusty pink than a pastel to tie it together a little bit better (even though it'd be less sweet then). But that all red outfit is my favourite, so elegant, yet pretty casual and very wearable!
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased I can wear it now ^__^ And thank you, it's a bit of an oddball colour wise for me so it's good to know I still have viable options for it, though I do agree with your comment on the last outfit.
DeleteI think resale value on florals and solids is rather low, so it is not a big loss doing it.
ReplyDeleteWine x pink is by my experience not so easy colour combo to coordinate with. My unfriendly cat jsk is wine x pink, luckily it is superdetailed print, which has enough in itself, because the other thing would be hard.
I think your floral jsk is same way about pink, however the flowers in hair would work with it. If it has to be a pink shade, Dusty pink would be prefered, but ivory blouse with Peter pan collar would work too.
That's a good point about resale value, and thanks for the coord tips :)
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