'Titanic' may have started it but I still can't stand Jack and Rose

Summer sale season is upon us once more! And this means that a few brands will be having lucky packs and online sales. At present, Metamorphose has summer lucky packs on sale while Innocent World has a 10% discount on all items going on until 1st July.

I've been on an Edwardian fashion jag lately. And not because of the 3D re-release of 'Titanic' early this year!

Rose's Boarding Suit that is supposed to be the height of Edwardian fashion in 1912. I can well believe it.

However. I did love the costumes in the movie when it first came out in 1997, just not the movie itself. But 'Titanic' probably did spark me down on the path to finding out more about this era, its fashion (and the ship as well). Not to mention, with Downton Abbey winning accolades for its costume-designs, Edwardian fashion is somewhat back in the spotlight. And there's something uniquely elegant about Edwardian fashion. While not as loose, airy and Grecian-inspired as Regency gowns, a structured outline for the well-dressed Edwardian lady was still required, it's not as constrictive as Victorian fashion which dictated the worth of a woman by the fussiness of her wardrobe and the tightness of her waist.

1910-12 evening gowns worn by Queen Maud of Norway. The detailing is amazing. The creation of exclusive custom-fitted gowns, or how haute couture was born, came about during the Edwardian era via Charles Frederick Worth.

Lolita fashion doesn't really draw as much inspiration from the Edwardian age, as say, compared to the Rococo and Victorian eras. Maybe as the 20th century progressed, Edwardian fashion for women placed a greater emphasis on the overall silhouette being narrowed and straightened with high waists and a stiff collar, unlike the lace, frills, pomp of a late Victorian bustle gown. Not that an Edwardian gown couldn't be decadent too. I especially love early Edwardian tea and lawn dresses with their pintucks and lace details.


While I did say Edwardian inspired lolita dresses are hard to find, I have come across some few that can evoke a sense of this era.

Innocent World's Lidie OP is rather reminiscent of the Edwardian sailor dress.

Of all the brands, I think Excentrique probably is the closest to having an Edwardian aesthetic to some of their clothing designs. Although I'm not even sure if Excentrique can be classified as a 'pure' lolita brand actually, so many of their pieces have a distinct old-world European charm. Or as one of their earlier collections says it, 'Euro Vintage Euphoria'. And that term kind of encompasses the whole Excentrique appeal.

So, right now? I'm hoping really hard that Excentrique has a summer sale oncoming!

'Frills and Lace and Everything Nice'

Last Saturday, I went for a workshop panel on gothic lolita fashion. The workshop itself, titled 'Frills and Lace and Everything Nice', was part of a pre-event leading up to an annual local cosplay event that's usually held in July. That annual cosplay event is called Cosfest btw. So I attended for a while and took some photos.

Besides explaining what is gothic lolita fashion, the workshop organizers also tried to give examples of different lolita styles like Gothic, Classic, Sweet etc. The end of the workshop culminated in a makeover for two of the attendees.

The workshop did have a rather rushed and incomplete feeling surrounding it. I had a chat with the organizers and they said the workshop was a last minute thing and tie-up with Cosfest actually, they only had a week to prepare everything. The workshop being held in a corner of a shopping mall was restrictive as well. The organizers also mentioned they had expected the workshop to be held in a private room with invited attendees but it didn't turn out that way, unfortunately. Still, I think the organizers did try their best with the limited time and resources they had.

Let's hope if there's another gothic lolita panel or loli related-event, more time and a conducive environment would be readily available. I'll be interested to attend such another event since they're far and few in-between here in Singapore. The last attempt at a lolita fashion panel was held in 2006 or 2007 I believe, at another anime/cosplay event. I guess it's unavoidable that gothic lolita fashion is associated with cosplay events as much as I still roll my eyes when someone on the street says lolita is cosplay, lol. And I would love to see a brand spokesperson like Atelier Pierrot or Angelic Pretty etc come to our shores for a panel, like they do for anime/cosplay events in the United States or Europe but I don't really see that happening, as Singapore just doesn't have a large enough base to warrant such a visit.