Being A Tall Lolita

It's no secret, I'm a tall girl. In certain pairs of Rocking Horse shoes I stand taller than most everyone I know, and I love me some Rocking Horse shoes. If you're over 5'5” you know the angst of buying Brand. Even if it fits everywhere else perfectly, the hem is still going to end miles above your knees. It's sometimes hard to look adorable when you feel like an Amazon warrior who's just finished raiding the toddlers section. I've found the most important thing about dressing Lolita and being tall is to remember to dress proportionately. Some people think this means only ever being able to buy Tall sized Lolita clothes, or to stick to custom made clothes. But it doesn't have to be this way if you follow a few easy rules, and keep a few key pieces in your wardrobe.

The most important piece a Brand loving tall Lolita should have is a simple skirt with a ruffled hem. Get it custom made to your size, it doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to fall just above your knees and have a wide ruffle at the bottom. The sales community is full of people who would be willing to make you a skirt like this for relatively cheap. Buy it in a matching color, if you have lots of black dresses, buy it in black. If you have lots of sweet dresses, get it in white, or even pastel pink or blue, depending on your wardrobe. This skirt is going to save you a whole Hell of a lot of angst over too short pieces. Just wear it under anything you have that's too short (and over your petticoat, obviously). It will end up peeking out from under your shorter skirts hem a few inches, but those inches will really help make your skirt look the proper length. This works best with skirts that already have a ruffle, but as long as you didn't get some kind of crazy over-stuffed ruffle on your underskirt, it should look just peachy under a skirt without a ruffle.

A few more Dos and Don'ts for tall Lolitas

• Don't think a lengthening underskirt is necessary for everything. Some dresses look awesome on the shorter side. But it's just not always the look you're going for.
• Do wear over-the-knee socks instead of knee socks. This works great if you don't want to deal with wearing an extra skirt. I think that over-the-knees have a more elegant, and less school girl look than knee socks anyways.
• Don't wear Brand bell sleeved tops. Most one size Brand tops have very short sleeves. You might be able to get away with long sleeves that don't quite go to your wrist, but bell sleeves will just look silly. If you want a bell sleeved top. Get it commissioned. Or if you just have to have a Brand blouse with bell sleeves, get a blouse with detachable sleeves, and get new sleeves commissioned at the proper length.
• Do invest in a pair of wrist cuffs. Yeah, I know, a lot of people think wrist cuffs look stupid and itatastic. But you don't have to wear them with short sleeves. You can wear them with a long sleeved blouse to add an extra inch or two to the sleeve length.
• Do check yourself in a full length mirror, stand as far back as you can from it and check to see if everything is the length you want it to be. If you stand really close to the mirror you're just going to be looking down on your skirt, and not be able to tell how long or short it looks on you. A few times I've forgotten to take a step back and check and ended up noticing my skirts were way too short in photos taken that day.
• Don't substitute bloomers for missing hem length! They're underwear, so keep them under your skirt. A half a foot of bloomers peeking out from under your skirt is just going to make you look even more like Little Bo Peep than you already do.
• Do wear bloomers though! Especially if you're rocking the shorter skirt look. Short skirts with a petticoat poofing them up is going to make accidental butt flashes more likely.
• Lastly, don't be afraid to be tall! If you want to wear 6 inch platforms and have to duck to get into doorways, go for it! I know it sounds cliché, but the more confidence you have, the better you look. You can rock any style, so long as you know you can.