Angelic Pretty Marine Print Appreciation Post

Can we talk about how on point Angelic Pretty's marine themed dresses are?

Recently, a friend and I were discussing marine prints. I noted that I really admire them, but have never paid much attention to them because they aren't featured in my wardrobe. I started browsing on Lolibrary (a dangerous activity) and noticed something about marine themed dresses. Oftentimes, both the print and the construction are marine themed. 

Let's appreciate some of these dress designs!

First up is Aquarium Carnival. Just look at the top of this dress. If you look closely, it looks just like a jellyfish! The tiered ruffles on the bottom remind me of scallops.

Chateau d’ecume is an underappreciated print. Is it because there are too many frills? Or is it the name? To me, Chateau d’ecume evokes the feelings of an underwater princess. It's extravagant, the pearls along the neckline, the excessive ruffles evoke a bubbly/frothy underwater feeling. 

Dream Marine also has the jellyfish vibes going on. The ruffles on the bottom are so jellyfish/translucent sea creature to me. I imagine the wearer of this dress might start to float away! The sleeves also give me a kind of jellyfish or squid effect.

Jewel Marine. The bodice of this dress is amazing. It looks like a shell!! The bottom of this dress is also great. It makes me think of something like shells or coral.

Jewelry Aquarium is simpler, but still the cascading ruffles on the bodice looks like water pouring over a falls.

Marine Kingdom is another dress with a great bodice. The pearls, the scalloped neckline. When I look at the top of this dress, it almost looks like I'm staring at the water's reflection on a grotto. 

I saved Sleeping Deep Sea Stars for last because it's just incredible. The lace, especially down the front of the bodice looks like waves. The bows along the front of the skirt remind me of some sort of bow-shaped jellyfish. There are many construction details to appreciate. This is the dress I image a queen of the sea to wear.

Have you noticed the blending of the theme into dress construction in any other themes? After doing so much searching on Lolibrary, I have seen it done in other prints, but for some reason, the marine ones really stand out to me. 

The reason why I probably am so surprised by all of this is because I tend to have animals as my theme. I'm not sure how well animals lend themselves to dress construction. Sure you can add a fuzzy pompom to the waist-ties, but that really doesn't compare to making the entire bodice look like a jellyfish.

Reasons to Make your EGL Wardrobe Post

My masters degree has been consuming most of my time. I haven't even felt like writing or doing much in the way of creative things. 

But! I wanted to write about something today: wardrobe posts and why you should do them.

The first question to ask yourself is what is your relationship with egl fashion? How frequently do you wear the fashion? Are you more interested in wearing it or collecting it?

If you are more of a collector, this is of course a good reason to document your wardrobe. To me this point is enough, no more convincing should be required as cataloguing is an important part of collecting.

If you use egl primarily as a conduit for socializing, even then it's a good idea. It could show that you care about adding to the community. It could be a good conversation starter. It could help you build relationships with others, for example, by opening up new opportunities to twin.

What about how frequently you wear the fashion? Maybe you barely wear it at all and nothing has changed in the past year. Maybe it's a good chance to pull everything out and appreciate everything you have. Lolita clothes don't lose value over time, looking upon your collection (even if it's small) should bring you happiness (during the duller winter months for northern hemisphere lolitas and for southern hemisphere lolitas during a time when it might be too hot to wear lolita). If it doesn't bring you happiness, that is an important message to listen to!

If you wear egl very frequently, consider the wardrobe post as an appreciation post to your clothes. "Thank you for being so wonderful, we had a great time this year!" (sorry if this sounds silly, but being thankful is important, it is good for your mental health) It would also give you a chance to re-evaluate where you are at (e.g. gaps in your wardrobe? a changing style?) and see which items you didn't wear too often that might need more love (either from you or from someone new 😉).

Should the size of your wardrobe have an effect on whether or not you're going to do a post? 

I'm going to say no. And I think that the smaller your wardrobe is, the less of an effect size should have in the decision to make a wardrobe post. I have seen people say that they don't think they should do a wardrobe post because they only have very few items. 

But you should make a post anyway! It's not a significant investment to document only a few items. The benefit is that you will be able to see your progress over the years. It should be about yourself and your collection, not showing off to other people. Don't feel discouraged! Maybe you think you will remember everything you had, this is only anecdotal evidence, but I definitely don't remember my small collection I had at first. I think if I had done wardrobe posts I could be filled with so much nostalgia looking at them right now. 

If your wardrobe is very large, I can understand not wanting to do a wardrobe post because if the wardrobe is quite large, then it can be unmanageable to do the post. 

I have some thoughts on this:

1. Cataloging your items is a good way to check their condition. Are there any items that need repairs or maintenance? 
2. It is good chance to go through everything you have and ask yourself if you should let go of any items.
3. It gives you an opportunity to reorganize your closet. 

So regardless of size, consider doing a wardrobe post.

Maybe you do not want to do the post because you feel like you will be showing off to people? This is a personal thing, of course. I can only speak from my perspective that I've never considered wardrobe posts to be boasting. For me, it is about appreciating the collection that someone has curated. A lot of thought can go into an egl wardrobe. Gathering pieces to create coordinates, multiple coordinates per dress or items that can work with many different dresses. You can get a taste of that person's style. A peak into their internal world, perhaps. And when you reflect back on your past posts, it could remind you of that year of your life in the fashion.

The last thing to address:

"January is already over, it's too late!" No! It's never too late! Make the wardrobe post anyway. I don't care if it's March or April! 😊 If you are a person concerned with getting a lot of "views", then it could even be beneficial to post later because you won't be competing with everybody else.

Those are all my arguments for why you should make a wardrobe post! I hope I convinced you to create one this year because I really love seeing people post their wardrobe! (The selfish ulterior motive has been exposed!!)

NOTE: I interchangeably used the term egl and lolita because I want to include people that do other fashions that fall within egl.