Category: victorian maiden

victorian maiden

Recycling designs

christinahopgood
So it looks like Victorian Maiden is going to recycle their designs once again. I had a look on their Press Room Blog and found this lovely dress, which I think is similar to their very old designs:

As well as a corset. I haven’t seen a Victorian Maiden corset for years! So I thought I’d do a post about some of their recycled designs. I found all of these pictures on the Victorian Maiden Press Room blog, and their online shop. The blog is amazing, it goes back years and has some really cute pictures!
Here’s a cute thing. Coming soon in 2009: Regimental Stripe series!

And this is from the Press Room blog this month! Coming again, with an identical bag and fabric but new dress and hat:

This is an old dress I found on the blog, from 2007.

This dress is currently for sale on the Victorian Maiden website. The design is almost the same, but the fabric is different.


This dress is from 2007, from Beth. Beth was a sub-brand of Victorian Maiden, which does not exist any more. I think that Beth had sweeter designs while VM stocked more adult, dark clothes. This is just speculation. Now VM has both!

Last year, VM was selling this new version on their website, in new colours.

Here’s another one from Beth in 2007: a sailor-type underbust dress.


Here’s the new version which just came into stock. It’s not quite the same, but the buttons and underbust elements are still there. I prefer the old Beth one because the buttons don’t go all the way down the front, BUT I prefer the new A-line cut. Both cute!


Another Beth dress – in a cute grey check fabric. Super puffy sleeves!

And here’s the 2009/10 Dorothy Doll Dress. I tried this on in Japan in pink, but didn’t have enough money to buy it! The sleeves are less puffy, and it’s in solid colours.

There are many more examples!
Some people might think that recycling designs means that the designers have no new ideas. I think that it’s more because they want to sell more of their classic designs which were very popular previously. I think it’s a good idea because it gives people a second chance to get a dress if they missed out the first time, or get a new one if they loved the first one to bits. It also gives me hope that they’ll have a dress again. I really loved the Dorothy Doll Dress and the Diana Dress, and they’re gone now. But knowing that they repeat their designs, maybe they’ll be back, better than ever! What do you think of design repeating? Do other brands do it too? VM is the only brand I follow obsessively, so I have no idea!
blouse, clothing, dress, shopping, skirt, victorian maiden

What I Like vs. What I Wear

christinahopgood
I admit that I get obsessed with clothes sometimes. When there is a super wonderful item of clothing on the wubs that is in my power to buy, I go a bit crazy. I ask everyone I know, Will this look good on me? What do you think of this? I even ask the Internets.

If I do cave in and buy the item, it’s true love for a few days, but after that… sometimes that wonderful dress/blouse/skirt doesn’t look all that great on me.

Remember when I went to the Victorian Maiden Press Room? It was so much fun. I bought a lovely blouse and a lovely skirt:


Lovely right? And they go together well. I tried them on at the shop, and I wore them out on the town. I felt frigging beautiful. But then I got back home, into the sweltering heat, and I couldn’t wear them any more. Too hot. When Autumn came around, I had trouble coordinating them. It looked too dark. Now I sometimes wear the skirt with a different top, but rarely wear my blouse. Which is a shame because I love it so much. The fabri c is so nice, it fits so well, but it just looks overdone. I need a cream coloured blazer to go with it, I think. I’ve been looking! I want this one from Mary Magdalene, but it’s super out of stock.


This is an R-Series blouse that I bought from Qutieland a couple of years ago. Quite nice, right? I thought so too, for a few months. The fabric is an interesting texture which I like, ribbon and lace collar is cute, the buttons are nice, and it’s a good fit. However! It’s really short! Observe how the shirt curves up over the hips of the mannequin. This means that you can only really wear this with a high-waisted skirt. I like wearing jeans sometimes, and this looks really good with jeans, except you have to wear another top to cover the gap between top of jeans and bottom of blouse. The other problem is that it looks kind of schoolgirl-ish. I’m 23, and I don’t want to look like a schoolgirl. Changing the ribbon might help.


We all know about this blouse – pretending to be off white in this photo! It’s a Mary Magdalene replica. It’s really good quality, and not short on me. But! IT’S TOO FRILLY FOR ME. I can’t handle it. The cuffs are SO frilly – they really puff out and make it hard to wear a cardigan. And maybe because I’m quite fair – it’s hard for me to pull off having a white high neck blouse.
Next there are two items I bought from FanPlusFriend. On the mannequins, they look so lovely! I think I was going through a pirate kick when I bought these.
This blouse is made of satiny clingy fabric that would probably melt if I ironed it, and the creases won’t fall out. It has corset lacing so it does fit well, but the arms are really long. And who wears a jabot?


This skirt was one of my obsessions for a while. I was amazed at the drop pleats! They are pretty cool. But when it arrived, I noticed that it was GIANT. It is TOO LONG for me. I can’t walk in it without tripping. It’s just very voluminous. But pretty rad still. The fabric is super soft and lovely. I plan on selling my two F+F items soon, if at all possible.

Time for some success stories! Yes, I have some! I’m just going to share my three favourite pieces.
Firstly, my gorgeous Adele Bustier Dress. I think I can safely say that this is my favourite dress ever. It is so choice. I highly recommend picking one up.
It cost me a LOT to get this. I used a shipping service, Gosurori Order, who bought the dress for me in Japan and mailed it out. That cost me a fee, and the AUD wasn’t so good at the time either. It was super expensive. But since I adore this dress so much, it was totally worth it. I wear it all the time, usually with the next piece I’ll show you.


This is another R-Series blouse I bought from Qutieland. This blouse is practically perfect in every way, plus it was a lot cheaper than brand. The fabric is a light polyester (I guess) that feels gorgeous against my skin. The blouse has corset lacing so I always fit well. I adore the buttons – little faux pearls – and the details. I’m considering buying myself another one while they are still for sale. Mine has been loved almost to death! The buttonholes are fraying and the pearl paint is coming off the buttons. It’s getting a little pilly. But it’s still so beautiful. I wear this with the above dress and it’s lovely.

Lastly, my most recent purchase. I got this high-waisted skirt off the sales comm about a month ago. It’s VM, it was cheap, I thought why not. It had a little damage. Since it arrived, I’ve probably worn it more than ten times. It is nice enough that I can wear it to somewhere posh, but I can also dress it down to wear to uni. It’s A-line, which makes it easier to wear casually. Not a great photo I know, but this is a super lovely skirt! Top marks! I do plan to take photos of myself wearing all this stuff, but who knows when that will happen.

SO NICE.
Well that’s the end of my rant, for today. I omitted some of my other clothes, because they’re Summer clothes and I haven’t worn them in ages! Who knows whether I still like them or not?
Is there a lesson to be learned from this? I think the lessons are: Don’t Buy Dumb Colours, You Look Silly In White Blouses, Don’t Buy Something You Have Nothing To Wear With, Don’t Buy Extreme Things, and It Helps To Try It On.
I’d welcome advice about what to wear with my neglected clothes. I’d love to wear my old VM skirt and blouse more often…
dress, victorian maiden

New (ish) dress

christinahopgood


This is my absolute favourite dress. Victorian Maiden’s Adele Bustier Dress, from 2009. I tried this on while I was in Japan, but didn’t buy it. I bought it recently through a shopping service, GosuRori Order. They were really good, and it came extremely quickly – but – gosh it was expensive.

Worth it. This dress makes me feel like a princess. No matter what kind of posh place I visit, I’ll always look good enough in Victorian Maiden. I’d visit the Queen in this dress.
This photo was taken the day before a bit percussion concert last term. This was the dress rehearsal. And that’s Charles.
dear celine, dress, gothic and lolita, victorian maiden

Predictability lol

christinahopgood

So about 5 weeks ago I ordered a dress from Dear Celine – a black/grey classical high-waisted affair. It’s been 5 weeks, so stuff is bound to happen in that time. I look at dresses online every day.

I’ve also been obsessing over a particular Victorian Maiden dress – which happens to be on sale right now. I keep telling myself that the reason I love it is because of the print – flamingoes! I just love flamingoes. And pelicans. But they don’t have a pelican print.
Tonight I was just thinking about stuff I like. I thought about these two dresses, amongst others. I looked at the pictures. Then I thought… wait a second. Flip the Dear Celine dress. Enhance… Enhance.


SAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAME

Does anyone else agree with me that these are pretty much the same?

I can be so predictable.
I’ll be receiving the Dear Celine dress in the mail probably this week, so I’m going to write up a review. I’m quite excited.
(I still want the Victorian Maiden dress, too.)
japan, lolita, victorian maiden

Visit to Victorian Maiden Press Room

christinahopgood

The “Victorian Maiden” head shop is in an apartment building in the middle of urban Osaka which seems totally weird. They seem to have another apartment in the building which I guess is their office where they run the business, so the shop is their special show room.

I had sent them an email (in Japanese) saying when I would like to visit their shop but they didn’t reply which was a bit upsetting. I didn’t know whether they expected me or not. We decided to go the shop anyway but the directions on their website was in Japanese and really confusing even after translating. So we went out to the place on the map which was tricky in itself and followed the directionts to the highlighted building, but it didn’t seem right. In fact we went up the correct apartment and it just seemed like a normal apartment. Then we went to about 3 other local apartment buildings looking for the right one. Eventually we decided to have a break and get a coffee. In the shop, I was looking at the map and asked the waitress if she knew where to go, she got her manager who knew about it and led Charles outside to point to where to go.

Here are some directions on how to get there for anyone else who would like to go.
Take the JR Tozai line from Osaka station to Osaka-jo Kitazume station. Take exit 2.
Cross the road using the big pedestrian crossing in front of you, go right and walk down the street.

A few blocks later you’ll see a coffee shop (called Coffee Kan or something) and a hairdresser next to each other. Turn left at the road after the hairdresser, and then right, so that you’re behind the block of flats. Walk a little bit, and you’ll see Osaka castle on your left through a vacant lot. There’s an apartment block on your right, where there should be a little VM sign on the letterbox. Use the intercom to call room 601, which is where they hang out, and then go up to room 201 which is the shop. There are signs in Japanese telling you this.

When I used the intercom, the girl asked if it was Christina so she did know I was coming. We went up to floor 2 and she came down from floor 6 and opened up.

At the VM shop, there was a small ante-chamber where there was a mannequin and some bits and brochures. The main room had several racks of clothes, two small tables and a display cabinet with beautiful hair things and jewellery and ornaments, a fitting room, and the soundtrack was Easy Piano Duets (a book I know well). Frilly parasols adorned every other place. Everything was old-fashioned and pretty. The shop girl was extremely cute and helpful, although she couldn’t speak a word of English. I tried on lots of clothes, many were too big for me. Every time I was interested in a dress she went and got a different colour for me in case I was interested. She was most helpful!

Here is a list of all the clothes I tried on:

Noble Stripe Pintuck Blouse in both brown and blue. It fit like a glove. I didn’t like the brown so much, but it was hard to find something nice that went with the blue one. It’s made of light semi-silky fabric which is slightly striped.
Tulip Garden Scallops Skirt in the dusky colour. This skirt fit well because it had lacing at the back. It is lined and the fabric feels delightful. I liked this skirt.
Charlotte Mermaid Skirt in black (they didn’t seem to have the cream). I really loved this on the website, but in real life it didn’t fit me at all. I don’t get it, it just looked completely wrong. Too big for me, and so it sat too low on my waist, and so it ruined the hipline.
Christina Dress in black. Everyone knows how much I love this one. The girl got it out for me especially because she realised that it is NAMED AFTER ME. I had high hopes, but it was too big. It should be called the Slightly Bigger Than Christina Dress. The collar was cool though, I would have liked another like that.
Ribbon Mielche Dress in red flowery. It was pretty but a bit overwhelming and too big for me.
Lady Check Mermaid Dress in black and white tartan. It was a totally weird fit. Looked cool on the website!
Reginental Stripe Frill Dress in light grey. This was really beautiful. It fits well and has a nice shape. The fabric is beautiful. I can imagine myself wearing this one to work!
Dorothy Dress in pink. What a lovely dress! It fit well and suited me, and had the look of a collar at the top – all pintucks and lace edgings. Super lovely. I might buy this another time.
Adele Bustier Dress in black patterned. This was really nice, I tried it on twice actually, once with my blouse and once with the VM blouse. It was really pretty and fit perfectly.

In the end I bought the pintuck blouse in blue, and the tulip garden skirt in dusky. They go well together and I’m so happy with them!

I spent a good hour and a half in the shop, because I wanted to be sure about my purchases. When I bought them, the girl also put two postcards and a lovely VM phone strap in the bag too. She told me they were presents and we had a small conversation. Charles told me later that she’d been writing me a postcard every time I was in the changeroom (often) using a little translator which beeped (I had been wondering about the beeping) and she’d asked him which colour phone strap I’d prefer. Then Charles took a photo of her and I together in the part of the shop where photography was allowed. She told me I was cute! The cutest girl in Japan told me I’m cute! I didn’t stop smiling all day.

She looks a little bit shocked, but that was nice.


Bag!


The presents I was given.Me playing tower defence on the iphone in our tiny hotel room. I’m a bit messy because I’d just had a shower and it was midnite.

In the hall with my new shoes on. These are just teasers, I’m sure there will be many photos to come.