New to Lolita: Petticoat Help!

[afinedenouement]

I'm fairly new to lolita and want to finally get a coord together, but I'm still really struggling with telling whether or not a dress needs an A-line or bell shape petticoat. I know that some people recommend drawing lines to better see the shape, but I'm still struggling. Any tips? Also, what type of petticoat would you recommend for Angelic

Comments

[birdy5678]

A lot of the time it's hard to tell and you really can use an A-line petticoat under either, though obviously it won't look bell shaped.

This looks like a bell shaped dress that they may have put an A-line petticoat under. Typically dresses with gathers at the waist are bell shaped. Dresses with flat fabric at the waist like this -- http://www.lolitafashion.org/images/aline.jpg -- are A-line the majority of the time. Note how your dress has a gathered waist and a soft curve at the bottom, and this dress has a flat waist and is completely straight.

If you can afford it, it's a great idea to own several petticoats of different shapes and levels of volume 'cause some dresses look ridiculous with a massive petticoat and some look bad without a really strong petticoat.

[afinedenouement]

Thank you SO much. I own Classical Puppets A-line petticoat and was wondering about buying their bell shape one. Are bell shape dresses more common? Also, do you think wearing an A-line petticoat with the JSK would be okay or should I just wear it with a bell shape one? c:

[birdy5678]

Bell shaped dresses are more common, yes. Most Sweet dresses are bell shaped, I would say. Bell shaped pettis are pretty hard to find so I say get the CP. For an A-line, I recommend Victoriangirldress on ebay. They make child and teen pageant pettis and mine is perfect for lolita. A petti from them is going to cost nowhere near as much as a Classical Puppets. :) Then when you get a new dress you can try both and see which looks best.

[ladynerdess]

Either Victoriangirldress changed their name or they don't exist anymore, which is what ebay is telling me.

[silveretoile]

Cupcake, but it seems they didn't use a cupcake petti for the photo? The silhouette looks kinda weird.

[afinedenouement]

I'm glad that it's not just me that's confused by the picture haha because I remember reading somewhere that people said the majority of my most lolita dresses use bell shape petticoats. That's why I was confused with the picture because it doesn't look bell shaped.

[silveretoile]

If you look closely the lower half of the skirt does have a bit of a curve to it, which is kind of a leftover from the cupcake shape. The top is flattened, which does make it seem like a kinda weird hybrid, haha.

[bubblegumribbon]

If a skirt has a gathered waist then use a bell shaped petticoat.

If the skirt has no gathering or is a dress that is "princess cut" then use an A-line.

This rule hasn't steered me astray so far!