My gossamer frills suggest a ladylike disposition, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to be blunt.
First, background. I am dressed like this because Victoriana – or pretty gothic, or demure romance – is one of this season’s prime trends. The high street is steeped in white ruffles, apron-front dresses, rustling, floor-length hems and dramatic sleeves.
They are beguiling. They have a dreamy charm that lifts them above the boyfriend jeans and crop tops that fill the rest of the shop floor. But they are, I warn you, dangerous.
In your head they make you look like, say, a poet who happens to be an heiress and so wears floor-length Valentino to cook dinner. In reality, Victoriana can make you look like the ghost of a boarding-school librarian who died of a broken heart.
This is the perennial problem with the more fancy-dress end of fashion. It can be like going to a Halloween party thinking your Donald Trump wig is totally on point and everyone is saying, “Haha, nice, Boris Johnson, good one.” It’s discombobulating when you find the look in your head hasn’t translated into what others see.
The calibrations that take Victoriana from modern but lyrical and romantic (what we are going for) to tragic, pitiful and antiquated (less so) are subtle. Don’t try to sex up this look by offsetting the long sleeves with a plunging neckline. Tragic, pitiful, antiquated but well up for it is also not a great look. But we do need to project flesh and blood, rather than ethereal vibes. Usually I’d suggest a rolled-up sleeve, but that won’t work here. A sheer section on a high-necked blouse is useful instead.
Dresses with apron-styled bodices, or blouses with bib or yoke detailing like this one, are not easy to wear – they can easily look nursery school or French maid – but a high neck and a haute fabric can transform them into something elegantly appropriate for our Valentino-wearing goddess. Monochrome is the easiest colour palette, but best to mix white with black: head to toe in either can look a little witchy. And don’t forget the profound effect – which the Victorians knew all too well – of a flash of ankle.
• Jess wears blouse, £125, karenmillen.com. Lace skirt, £55, marksandspencer.com. Strappy heels, £65, office.co.uk.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Laurence Close at Carol Hayes Management.
