This is my new Malco Modes petticoat. It is the single funnest piece of clothing ever!
It is my considered opinion that the single most important item in the lolita wardrobe is a good petticoat, because without this you will not have good poof, and it's really all about the poof. I made a petticoat not long ago. It was a disaster. It has only mild-moderate poof, is extremely scratchy, sticks together in weird ways on humid days (and really I only barely put up with that from my hair, so I am really not okay with it in underwear), and has a very unfortunate tendency to bunch up between my thighs making it look very convincingly like I was wearing a diaper. It turns out this is because tulle is a really crappy fabric. A good petticoat is all chiffon (or organza, that's okay too). A lot of chiffon. That right up there is about 45 yards of chiffon. Now, I could buy 45 yards of nylon chiffon, gather it up into multiple tiers and multiple layers, then sew it all together. I could also stab myself repeatedly in the eye. I could do a lot of things.
What I actually did was buy this, it's a Malco Modes, model 582. Model 580 is also all chiffon and has lace trim instead of a bottom ruffle, making it slightly less poofy but more naturally bell-shaped. This was also a legendary ebay find, but had I paid 61$ including shipping (the cheapest price I found online) it would have been worth every hot cent. It is the stay-puft petticoat and will not deflate under any circumstance, it is also soft and comfortable all day. It is also the funnest!
I defy you to shimmy and twirl around your apartment to the strains of Goth Rock, collapsing into a giant pile of chiffon ruffles and tell me its not a good time.* It has an independent momentum that is just plain entertaining.
Okay, now that's over with, back to the serious review, on sizing: It comes in a wide range of sizes including a good range of lengths. I bought the large size which is 23" long and has a listed waist range of 27-50". My waist is 46" at last check and it fit, but it was really uncomfortably tight. I added a few inches of elastic to the band (that's why it is black and white, I only had black) and that fixed it completely. It's usually a good rule of thumb that if a petticoat has an elastic waist and a wide size range listed you should probably not get it if your measurements are close to the end of the range; it will be uncomfortable and the more it is stretched the less poof you get. In this case I suspect the large and the extra-large to be the same thing, with the XL having a longer elastic band. Even after adding elastic there was still a lot of room in the casing. The length can easily be adjusted by putting the elastic waistband into a different casing (it can be made shorter, not longer). I will report back after I have saved up for another one in black (because I obviously need it in black too).
As far as the shape and poof. Out of the box it is very A-shaped and somewhat flared. I think this is okay sometimes. A-lines tend to look better with empire-waist dresses, and that's not just me saying that, but beyond that it is crazy easy to modify this to get the bell-shape. The petti has two layers, so pull the top layer up in about three places, swag-style tuck it over the waist, then safety pin it down.
I drastically increased the contrast in photo editing to make it clearer, but the petti is not so blindingly white in real life.
It looks like this under a dress after modification:
Contrasted with the dress with no petti.
It is my considered opinion that the single most important item in the lolita wardrobe is a good petticoat, because without this you will not have good poof, and it's really all about the poof. I made a petticoat not long ago. It was a disaster. It has only mild-moderate poof, is extremely scratchy, sticks together in weird ways on humid days (and really I only barely put up with that from my hair, so I am really not okay with it in underwear), and has a very unfortunate tendency to bunch up between my thighs making it look very convincingly like I was wearing a diaper. It turns out this is because tulle is a really crappy fabric. A good petticoat is all chiffon (or organza, that's okay too). A lot of chiffon. That right up there is about 45 yards of chiffon. Now, I could buy 45 yards of nylon chiffon, gather it up into multiple tiers and multiple layers, then sew it all together. I could also stab myself repeatedly in the eye. I could do a lot of things.
What I actually did was buy this, it's a Malco Modes, model 582. Model 580 is also all chiffon and has lace trim instead of a bottom ruffle, making it slightly less poofy but more naturally bell-shaped. This was also a legendary ebay find, but had I paid 61$ including shipping (the cheapest price I found online) it would have been worth every hot cent. It is the stay-puft petticoat and will not deflate under any circumstance, it is also soft and comfortable all day. It is also the funnest!
I defy you to shimmy and twirl around your apartment to the strains of Goth Rock, collapsing into a giant pile of chiffon ruffles and tell me its not a good time.* It has an independent momentum that is just plain entertaining.
Okay, now that's over with, back to the serious review, on sizing: It comes in a wide range of sizes including a good range of lengths. I bought the large size which is 23" long and has a listed waist range of 27-50". My waist is 46" at last check and it fit, but it was really uncomfortably tight. I added a few inches of elastic to the band (that's why it is black and white, I only had black) and that fixed it completely. It's usually a good rule of thumb that if a petticoat has an elastic waist and a wide size range listed you should probably not get it if your measurements are close to the end of the range; it will be uncomfortable and the more it is stretched the less poof you get. In this case I suspect the large and the extra-large to be the same thing, with the XL having a longer elastic band. Even after adding elastic there was still a lot of room in the casing. The length can easily be adjusted by putting the elastic waistband into a different casing (it can be made shorter, not longer). I will report back after I have saved up for another one in black (because I obviously need it in black too).
As far as the shape and poof. Out of the box it is very A-shaped and somewhat flared. I think this is okay sometimes. A-lines tend to look better with empire-waist dresses, and that's not just me saying that, but beyond that it is crazy easy to modify this to get the bell-shape. The petti has two layers, so pull the top layer up in about three places, swag-style tuck it over the waist, then safety pin it down.
It looks like this under a dress after modification:
Contrasted with the dress with no petti.
*It does occur to me that this may be more of a window into my soul than I should put up on the interwebs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment