Unlike coords based on visual media, such as films, coords based on books are much more open to interpretation. From tangible things like the books cover or illustrations to the book’s themes, you can have several people be inspired by one book and not create an outfit even remotely similar. Especially as even with the most detailed descriptions, people imagine the characters and scenes differently.
Although I usually struggle with prompts like this, having way too many possible options to choose from to begin with, things have worked out in the end. I decided to create a coord inspired by the book I’m currently reading: Frank Herbert’s Dune (if you’ve read it, no spoilers please, I’m still only halfway through!). For those unfamiliar with the book, all I will say is that it’s science-fiction and very much removed from what we’d consider fitting any kind of lolita aesthetic. This prevents me from doing any coords that would give anyone any obvious clues as to the inspiration source and while the book was adapted into a film in the 1980s, as I haven’t seen it, I can’t draw any similarities there.
What I have drawn inspiration from are two main things: the dessert landscape of Arrakis, where the story takes place, and the Middle Eastern references that are obvious throughout the book. And that pinpointed exactly which dress to use for this.
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| | AatP Sheherazade JSK | Haenuli x I Do Declare mesh blouse | Putumayo Celestial Light OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Angelic Pretty Rose Garden Princess headbow | Angelic Pretty Rose Princess wrist cuffs | vintage necklace | |
It’s not a surprise that with these two criteria in mind I went with my Sheherazade JSK. What is a fantastic coincidence is that my dress is red and one of the characters in the book, Lady Jessica, has been described as wearing red in one scene and this colour complementing her beauty.
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| If only I were rich enough to afford this blouse in all the colours it came in... |
The blouse would definitely be better for a court setting on Arrakis rather than desert. At the same time, the high neck, long sleeves and cuffs provide full torso coverage, which reminds me of stillsuits, the garments used to reclaim one’s body moisture and turn it into drinking water. Yes, for a lolita coord it may be a more plum shade of wine that doesn’t quite match the dress, but luckily there are a few other bits and pieces in this colour to tie it together a little bit more.
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| One thing that's a perfect colour match. |
Similarly, while the boots are not very practical for the desert because of the heel, by virtue of being boots rather than heels they look closer to what might be desert appropriate. The socks turned out to be a perfect colour match for the blouse, so while the thick knit really contrasts the mesh fabric, I feel like it works anyway thanks to the colour.
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| This is such a gorgeous headbow, I love it so much. |
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| I guess you could say that the wrist cuffs make pearls into an intentional motif rather than an accidental one. |
Accessories is where I pulled this back to being more lolita rather than book-inspired. With the blouse’s high collar and billowing sleeves, I feel like anything short of a large hair accessory just looks off. You need volume on your head to match the extra volume created by the blouse. So I’d probably wear this headbow in the centre, pairing it with some more OTT hairstyle. Wrist cuffs are there just because I like them while the necklace will help break up the monotone of the coord a little bit more, as well as hint back at the high social rank of Lady Jessica.
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| I couldn't find just a desert on the print, but surely a camel riding caravan is desert enough? |
To be perfectly honest, this isn’t a coordinate that I would wear. Having said this, I have a hunch that it would look better worn than laid flat. I wanted to avoid going for a ‘typically lolita’ book-inspired coordinate and challenge myself. Sometimes that works out better and sometimes - worse. In the end it’s still information and it will help me when making other coordinating decisions with either this dress or this blouse.
As this post was part of the Lolita Blog Carnival, don’t forget to check out what the other participating bloggers have put together!
I've never read Dune (I know, I know, shame on me as a scifi/fantasy fan!) but I really like this coord! It's overpoweringly red, but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteI recommend it. It has an odd tempo to begin with, in that it feels slow up until shit hits the fan and then you realise that things have been progressing exactly as they should be, so it's worth sticking through any slow beginnings. Again, I'm only halfway through, but I'm enjoying it for now. Plus the added benefit of the first volume being a standalone novel, so if you want a one off - that's great, and if you want more, you have all the sequels written after the first book became successful.
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