Lolita Blog Carnival: Your Favourite Commissioned Handmade Piece

Hello, everyone!

Today's Lolita Blog Carnival theme is to tell something about your favourite commissioned handmade piece. It was quite hard to make a decision between this unicorn print dress by Mimi and my Winter coat made by her also. Finally I chose the dress because even though I wear the coat much more (half of the year, every year, seeing that the Winter in Finland is cold, dark and wet) the dress is more interesting coordination-wise. You can't really see anything other than the hat and the shoes from under a long coat, but with dress you can have more variation. And of course as I wear the dress less, wearing it feels more special.

So, the dress in question was inspired by the Reneissaince fashion of England, as well as the medieval times. The print features "The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead" unicorn from the tapestry series called "The Hunt of The Unicorn" made between 1495 and 1505. As you can see, this dress has plenty of historical inspiration, which I love dearly in lolita fashion, but at the same time it's very modern and in touch with today's lolita trends. The Reneissance inspiration can be seen in the upper part of the dress, namely the rich materials (dark blue velvet and gold embroidery).

Unicorn is one of my favourite motifs of all time - I have been fascinated by them since I was a kid. Being able to finally have a unicorn themed dress meant (and means) so much for me. There are unicorn themed brand dresses, of course, but I have always felt that they do not capture the spirit of this animal properly. They tend to be sugary, cute and fluffy, when I always imagined unicorns to be noble, beautiful, fierce, and powerful - creatures that can't be tamed. I wouldn't want to wear tamed unicorns, because it's just wrong.

I was also glad to be involved in the designing process. The fact that this dress was especially made to my measures and fits me perfectly makes it even more special. Somehow this dress has so much more soul than brand name dresses (which I also love, of course). This dress was made just for me with love and care by my dear friend. How can a dress be more special than that?

I could go on and on about this dress, as it is one of my absolute favourites! Well, one more thing I like about it is its versatility. It can be worn in countless different ways. It looks equally lovely with just one petticoat and more casual accessories, as well as with three petticoats and a more festive coordinating. I never imagined a dress with this huge hem would look good in more relaxed looks too, but it truly does. It also works with all of my lolita wardrobe basic colours, black, brown and white, which is also awesome.

And one more thing; Mimi has this dress, too, so we can twin. I have always felt that lolita is more fun when worn with ones dear friends, and sometimes twinning or even matching with your friend can be very special. ♥

A bonus picture; this is the Winter coat I mentioned in the beginning of this post. It deserves a lot of love, too. ♥ Right now me and Mimi are working on our next "project", and I have a feeling that this new dress will also become one of my favourites. Mimi's sewing is flawless and she has an excellent eye for materials, as well as timeless design, so commissioning dresses from her is always wonderful.

The other LBC participants this week:

The Bloody Tea Party