There once was a girl who had a little curl
What is it about the combination of frilly white lace and black stockings? Cute, but saucy; nice, but naughty. Add some curls and a touch of red and we have a little Victorian doll blown-up life size. It harks back to a time when a glimpse of a woman’s ankle was a scandalous affair of note. A time when women submitted meekly to the men in their life – or else they sat on the shelf. A mute doll, either way: a problematic and uncomfortable notion.
Interestingly when I tried to do some research online on Victorian dolls and Victoriana, I came upon sites dedicated to the collection and decoration of Victorian style dolls – aimed at adult women. I hurriedly clicked away.
Cute, but saucy; nice, but naughty. Add some curls and
a touch of red…
And then there’s ‘steampunk’ – a much more fascinating concept, as Wikipedia describes it: “the word is … used loosely to describe imaginary, mock-Victorian worlds, where the look and technology of the Victorian era may sit alongside impossible machinery or fantastic creatures”. Which leads me to Neo-Victorianism. The rabbit-hole just gets deeper the further you go… and I would love to have gone to the conference “Neo-Victorianism: the politics and aesthetics of appropriation” held in 2007 at Exeter University.
Image credits: black and white engraving in bottom left: "Maison tournante aérienne" (aerial rotating house) by Albert Robida, c.1883. All others public domain.A few months ago (in the middle of winter) a friend and I were driving through Prahran, a popular area of Friday-nightlife, and I saw a young girl in her twenties channelling Brassaï, dressed up in an extremely short white dress and black stayup stockings. Their tops were clearly visible, falling short of the hemline by several inches. She wore bouncing blonde curls and was very pretty, like a doll. “… but, on the street?” I said in doubtful astonishment to Gigi. I sincerely hope she was hiding a few moves up her sleeves in case she had to defend her honour, because she was hiding little else.
I bought my dress in Vietnam months ago, from a great boutique called Tuyet Lan Orchids. I was initially drawn to the heavily embroidered soft fabric, but was suspicious the dress was originally designed for much shorter people. The salesgirl assured me however, that leggings – which I didn’t have the heart to tell her I Just Don’t Do – would negate the brevity of the skirt.
For me this is just a saucy party dress, but I’ll keep it cute by wearing my frilled ‘modesty shorts’ underneath and my high, high red heels on my feet. Good for stomping on impertinent toes.