Cloaks, corsets, and other out of the ordinary types of clothing are wonderfully fun to wear. First, when and where can you wear these article of clothing? What is apporitate and what's not is often a hard question when you may be the only person in the room wearing such an article of clothing. Hopefully this page will help.
The first article of clothing I'm going to cover is the cloak. Cloaks are great but have some issues all their own when it comes to etiquette. Outside of ritual context, cloaks go best with old fashioned clothing; jeans and t-shirt and cloak is just wrong. Never wear a cloak with trainers (sneakers/tennis shoes). This sort of thing gives the impression that you don't know what you're doing and you just look like a dork. Those cloaks that come with vampire costumes for Halloween that are cheap polyester or plastic shouldn't be worn; ecspecially if it's not Halloween, they're much too tacky. Either make your own or save up to buy a good one. If money is the problem find a great looking cotton fabric for a cloak. Medieval and Victorian clothing lead themselves very well to cloaks. If you are ever in doubt if your cloak goes with an outfit just look at the lines and style of clothing. When you are wearing a cloak for warmth should be taken off as soon as you are inside. This type of cloak may be worn with other styles of clothing also (but still certainly looks best with the aforementioned styles). When dancing on a dancefloor in a cloak be careful of the people around you. It's very rude to slap the person behind you in the face, so give yourself a lot of room. Going down stairs requires some care too because trailing cloaks are easy to trip on; for you and the person(s) behind you.
Corsets are also beautiful lingerie. First and foremost be sure it fits you! This makes handling yourself in a corset much easier. Also, if you are going out, or wearing your corset as a shirt, be very careful. I'd reccomend wearing something underneath it like a chemise. One reason is this is better for the corset - it helps keep it clean.. Another reason is that sometimes when one raises their arms in a corset things have a tendency to pop out; which of course is very rude and/or embarassing! If you are wearing nothing under your corset please, keep your arms and else parts in control! On this same token; do not wear a bra with an overbust corset. First you should not need one; if you feel you do a bra your corset must not fit properly and you should either return it or get it better taliored. Also, it's not polite to walk around showing everyone your underwear (this rule is the same as for when you wear a spaghetti strap shirt) so forget the bra. Dancing with a corset can be difficult and give you the apperance of being "stiff" and depending on how tightly you are laced throw you off balance or restrict your breathing (you should be able to breathe; but if you wish not to go right ahead!) and thus you should give yourself adequate room and take it slowly. Bending over is terribly difficult in a corset. Keep this in mind. It also will be tight on your stomach/abdomen area. Because of this, over eatting, drinking "bubbly" beverages (or carbonated), and getting drunk are not good ideas. First, over eatting can make you very sick and that "too full" feeling come quickly in a corset and can be very bad. Carbonated beverageds cause one to become bloated and those gasy bubbles in your stomach are never comfy in a corset. Getting drunk is just rather silly in a corset. First, there's no room to become bloated and should you get sick bending over is too hard; thus you will most likely be sick all over whatever you're wearing (not fun). |
