Petticoat Potential

So, you've bought a dress with some serious vintage flare, but when you get it home it falls flat...literally.  If you love vintage styles, then there are a few accessories that can really make your style seem more authentically vintage and in this post we'll discuss a major feature from 1950s and 60s style--petticoats.

I bought this lovely Miss Lulo dress from Modern Millie, completely enamored by the print.  Notice how full and lovely that skirt looks in the product photos.  The dress arrived and the fabric is a very soft soy silk, but I could immediately tell that it had absolutely no fullness of its own. To illustrate that, check out this side by side of the product photo with me wearing the dress:

I think I've made my point.  I was frequently fooled by this in my novice days of vintage styling, wondering why the dresses always looked so authentically vintage in the product photos but limp and lifeless on me.  Then I remembered my square dancing days and the importance of wearing a petticoat to floof out the dresses.  Now to be fair, I like the way this dress looks without the petticoat, but I still want to demonstrate how this one little garment can totally change your look.  So, this is the dress as-is, from my previous post:

Petticoats are available in a huge variety of colors, lengths, and fullness.  The sky is the limit, in fact, speaking from experience, you could wind up with way too many petticoats if you're not careful because it just becomes too easy to want a certain color or length for every occasion.  For this post I'm starting with a basic tulle and nylon petticoat by Leg Avenue in pale pink.  It's allegedly knee length, though mid thigh is more accurate, and if I need it longer I wear it lower on my waist and hips; if I need it shorter, I roll up the top around the waist band.

Leg Avenue petticoats are available on Amazon and Ebay and range from $15 to $25.  They're somewhat costume-y and there are definitely better brands out there, but at the time I bought this one I was not interested in spending a lot of money.  Looking back, I would probably invest in something better, but after 8 years or so, this one is still in good shape.

Notice how it immediately fills out the skirt and makes the outfit look genuinely vintage, and keep in mind that less full petticoats such as this can always be layered to create more fullness and you can mix colors for something truly lovely and unique.

Next up is a beautiful and very full peach petticoat from Doris Designs.  This is definitely a higher quality piece and the price reflects that as these petticoats range from $43-$60 (excluding tax and shipping).  I bought mine for about $20 second hand, because the elastic was completely shot and had to be replaced.

This petticoat has volume to spare and the issue with it is that you must have a skirt that is already full enough to accomodate so much frilly girth.  If not, the skirt will pull and pucker oddly.  Fortunately, this skirt did just fine, though I don't know that photos do it justice for you to truly see how full it makes this skirt.

Last but not least, let's do a comparison of all three skirt fullnesses side by side:

Now that you see the difference a petticoat can make, here's a list of more places that carry quality pieces (these are Not affiliate links):

1.  What Katie Did

2.  Unique Vintage

3.  ModCloth