When I was at uni, I went through a phase of wearing long draggy baggy things all in multiple layers in greys and blacks, topped off with scruff knee high Converse and a slouchy grey beanie. This was my daily mooching around the library uniform which got the seal of approval from a fellow Japanese coursemate who comes from a streetstyle culture where making the body look its absolute best is not their main goal. I may have looked like a dumpy potato but I was a potato with many variations of grey jersey pieces, deconstructed t-shirts, long voluminous skirts with some sort of a bustle, doing a streetier version of elderly, poor, female Charles Dickens characters. Since then, I now tend to wear sleeker long skirts but this has never fully transferred to wearing long dresses. People will take up height as an issue but seeing as I‚Äôve never wanted to appear to be taller than I am (which at 5‚Äù7-8 is neither tall, nor short….), stunting it with something full length has never bothered me.
There‚Äôs a sort of air of formality attached to wearing a long dress, not least because there‚Äôs normally a fair amount of material you‚Äôre carrying, making you walk differently and because you have to sometimes actually pick it up and make some sort of a sweeping gesture with the excess fabric. I own perhaps five long dresses which I think of as a bit special when wearing them for the reasons above and somehow, when your legs are totally concealed underneath a gown like construction (being the bottom half of the dress), there is a serene way of wafting about that I tend to do which for everyday wear can sometimes be impractical. However, the champion of the long dress as daywear, Roksanda Illincic has inspired me to take it upon me to go for that neither here nor there length of just above the ankles so as to not trip up all over myself. She is so consistent in pushing that length (the woman herself is often dressed in a long dress…) in juicy satins, a material that I have a fetish for against bare legs that is compelling me to go for a dress of this sort, not for a special occasion but for everyday wear. Worn with not extravagant heels or ankle boots, instead of looking draggy baggy as I did back in my UCL days, I hope there will be an injection of freshness in the look.
Marios Schwab proposed a more restrictive long look that’s a wee bit longer but not quite floor length either. Some were horrified that models were hobbling along in these tight bandaged creations but I say hobble away. There’s something very intriguing about a silhouette that is both comfortable and uncomfortable (jersey/lycra=comfy, shape=not so comfy). Surprisingly enough, I’m all for taking baby steps in a dress that forces you to take a certain stance when walking.
beautiful dresses…voluminous pieces are great because you can wear them large or even rein them in with a skinny belt….for more on my personal style, go to my blog @ RADICALPROPER.blogspot.com
I like the two color dress of Roksanda Illincic . I love satin.
I like the long, wide skirt version more so than the tight. Though I’m afraid I might get swamped in them!
i like the roksanda illincic dresses very much, but frankly, i can’t imagine wearing them as daywear. i don’t like the marios schwab dresses very much.
and i think it’s always interesting to hear what you were wearing in the past, before you started this blog (as in this case, the baggy look).
I’m rather fond of sweepy skirts myself (and I’ve been through the baggy-layers phase too, only I didn’t realise or intend it to look the way your Japanese classmate understood it), though ease of movement is an absolute must- those skirts at Marios Schwab’s aren’t exactly conducive to things like taking the stairs two at a time!
I find it hard to do long without looking like my body is much longer than my legs
and your description of student dressing is so accurate/funny
I love the idea of long dresses for daywear – when they’re not all studenty (aaah, the blissful slouchy potato phase!) and/or ren-fayre/gothy velvet affairs, they feel so sleek and fresh. But for some reason I always find them very obstructive in a way skirts aren’t… that, and the fact I’m tiny and I risk tripping over hems constantly.
I love the idea of the jersey hobble dresses though – the contradiction between the comfort of the material and the streamlined look with the very constrictive sensation of wearing them – must be an interesting experience.
I liked both the looks, and which one to choose depends on what mood one is in, I suppose.
The Roksanda Illincic frocks are some of the prettiest I’ve seen this week!
Those dresses are gorgeous! I love dresses with embellishments; you should look at artfulwears.com they have some really amazing dresses-
long hems are totally underrated. in fact, one of my favorite looks from the recent fashion shows was from 3.1 phillip lim–a long glam, dress topped with a little leather jacket.
I love the harder industrial looking dresses- it gives such an edge while still looking feminine… I just bought the most fabulous one from shopgoldyn.com by Diabless… its linen but studded along the neckline- fabulous with a little jacket as mentioned above!
I love these new edgy looks.. Generally when I try to find fashion trends like this I check out shopgoldyn.com 😉 The clothes are unique and edgy!!! Kind of like a vodka martini straight up with a lemon twist!!!