How Austentatious ..... ;)

I mean, seriously???? Mark that isht on my Calendar and call me Mrs. Darcy. OMG OMG OMG! {{{jumping up and down}}} My secret is out! I love Jane Austen! Absolutely brilliant. To prepare for her celebratory day, there are even helpful vocabulary guides such as THIS one. {{{More Jumping}}}

Interestingly, I discovered the most fantastic clothing genre at the same time as I have been watching Austen movies on Youtube. FYI - PeriodxDrama has ALLLLL the bestest period dramas (who would have thought) and I am now BFF with KeepVid.com. While not the best quality (you get what you pay for), I have been falling asleep to Persuasion and Mansfield Park for the last 3 nights in a row. PeriodxDrama even has oooodles of BBC versions that I would have never heard of otherwise. TeeeeHEEEE!

Back to the clothing though... I am possibly the LAST person to be in this loop. It is a bit like Steampunk but with a Victorian flare. It goes both into a goth realm but also a frou frou girlies ruffled realm! What more could I want. I have apparently been in LOVE with LOLITA forever and never even knew about it.






















(From Morrigan NYC)

On the surface it would seem that it evolved as a union between victorian girly girl clothing mixed with the highly provocative Japanese "innocent" schoolgirl/childlike (ICK) clothing style. However, there is actually a very intelligent undertone to the whole thing. I quote:

Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in Russian and published in 1955 in Moscow and 1958 in Paris, and later translated by the author's step-brother into English. The book is internationally famous for its innovative style and infamous for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, middle-aged Humbert Humbert, who becomes obsessed and sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze for whom his private nickname is Lolita.

After its publication, Nabokov's Lolita attained a classic status, becoming one of the best-known and most controversial examples of 20th century literature. The name "Lolita" has entered pop culture to describe a sexually precocious girl.

Don't you just <3 Wikipedia.

Furthermore:

But Lolita thumbs its nose at Japan's fashion establishment.

The look is little girl, tea party cute, starting with black hair ribbons or tiny bonnets and moving to frilly dresses and thick platform boots or Mary Jane flats, often augmented with a lace umbrella to protect the as milky as possible complexion on sunny days.

Designer Naoto Hirooka: "I think many Japanese women feel intimidated by high fashion in the West and feel that they can never live up to the refined beauty that they feel Western women strive for," he said. "So, instead, they shoot for a cute look, one that doesn't require tall, curvaceous bodies and instead emphasizes girlishness."

Hirooka said the escapism of Lolita is also a reaction against conformism and the expectations on young Japanese women to quietly assume their adult roles as wives or workers in this country's male-dominated society.

"One of the salient points about Lolita is that it is really a fashion that is not intended to attract men," he said. "The women are creating their own world into which they can get away from the pressures of the larger society."

Now how interesting is that? It is exactly Victorian mentality! You can read the rest of it here.
























While I am not going to wear anthing extremely sexual out in public, I am seriously drawn to the highly tailored Modern Victorian peices I am finding. I just can't get over it. Most of what I like is extremely expensive but then, look at it. It actually has structure to it and took work. This stuff isn't just a single layer of cheapo material with some print all over it. There are layers, and boning, and complications! I am certainly not going to pay hundreds each for separates (some of those skirts are freakin $$$) but I may invest in a beautiful overcoat. Particularly if they are stinkin fabulous, right down to something like a little rabbit cameo!



























To be continued.............