Keep her away from creepy Uncle Frank, if you catch my meaning
By Never teh Bride
Is it just me, or is a strapless dress just a teensy-weensy bit inappropriate for an older flower girl or younger junior bridesmaid. I’ll admit that I’m shite at guessing people’s ages, but the girl wearing this frock just seems a bit underdeveloped for this particular look.
If you’re wondering, this is one of the Jasmine dresses from Kirstie Kelly for Disney Fairy Tale Weddings. The site describes it thusly: Floor length, strapless A-line gown. Pleated bust with embroidered beaded trim on empire line.
That’s all well and good, Kirstie Kelly, but there’s just one problem. There is no bust there! When you put ruffles like that on a grown-up gown, the ruffles create a sort of shelf for whatever bosoms happen to be extant. Grown-up gals know about things like double-sided tape and Nippies. Little gals know a whole lot of nothing about that sort of thing.
So tell me Kirstie Kelly…What happens if the poor girl in the picture bends over? Sure those ruffles look stiff in the photo above, but they look a lot less like the unencroachable barrier they out to be in the picture below.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Where do you fall on the bikinis issue? I know a lot of people dress very young girls in bikinis just because they stay cooler, or because they want to dress like an older female relative… and if you bring up the fact that a bikini is designed to draw attention to assets they don’t have, *you* are suddenly the pervert.
Personally, I think a strapless long gown is a bad idea most of the time. It is especially on someone short who will probably be moving and bending a lot and who isn’t used to wearing something like this. Or, as I put it in David’s Bridal one time… “You are one hem trip away from a fetish.” (Although no one else shopping for bridesmaid dresses that day wanted to listen to me, both of them pulled Janet Jackson maneuvers before getting refitted and buying a jacket.) I don’t know about junior bridesmaids in Disney dresses, but most parents I know of buy clothing for special events a touch large and leave it “too long” on purpose, so…
Yeah, keep her away from the creepy uncles.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:29 am
It worries me that designers think this is appropriate and even more that there are parents that would buy it.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I’m not anti kiddie two-piece, Mcmiller, provided that it’s a longish tank top and boy shorts :-). Then again, I grew up in a European family, so I’m also not against dressing both little boys and little girls in shorts and being done with it…provided I’m in Europe or a sheltered back yard! But a proper triangle-top bikini on a little girl? Ugh!
March 24th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I think the dress is adorable - but my girls wouldn’t be wearing it without first having straps added. For me, it’s not just about the appropriate-ness but also about comfort. You’re taking a kid, shoving her in a formal dress and making her mark up an aisle and stand still for extended periods of time. That’s a lot of stress for a kid. At least, after the ceremony, they can relax, enjoy the reception, dance and play with the other kids, etc. Now - with a dress like this - you give them the added stress of trying to enjoy a long and stressful day while worrying about keeping their dress “up” where there is nothing there to hold it up. So much for playing and dancing with the other kids. NOT a nice thing to do to a little girl!
March 24th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
As I had three young girls as bridesmaids, plus a flower girl, I looked at a lot of “junior” bridesmaid dresses. Many of them are terribly inappropriate, and a lot of them venture into hootchie territory. The problem being that the designers take a regular, sexy bridesmaid’s dress and add a pair of spaghetti straps, as if that is then OK for a little girl to wear. It’s still a dress that’s too mature, it just won’t fall down–like the dress you cite above. Some of those dresses are even considered to be flower girl dresses–six-year-olds in styles designed for women in their twenties. Some people consider it cute, I guess. I think it’s terrible and robs children of their childhood. There are plenty of ways to make a child’s dress that reflects the style of the adult’s, such as, using the same color, same ruffles, same sash, same pleating, stuff like that. I ended up with two dresses from Forever Yours, a company that makes some terribly hootchie pre-teen dresses, but the ones I chose were in a tea-length semi-formal sundress style, not a long evening gown (#75115) for the two oldest girls. Then I chose two dresses for the youngest girl and the flowergirl from Pegeen. Pegeen used to be only for flowergirls, but recently they’ve come out with a line of junior bridesmaids dresses that are designed to fit young girls, not women. I loved working with Pegeen, it’s a fabulous company, the dresses are wonderfully well made, and they can match just about any color bridesmaid’s dress. Cannot recommend them more highly.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
What further creeps me out is that the only one of those girls that looks remotely her age is the little black girl. Why do flower girl/junior bridesmaid models need to look 30?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
This is why I made my flower girl’s dress. The biggest problem with a dress like that is that the girl doesn’t ahve anything to hold the dress up. Once she hits the dance floor, or gets restless, the dress is going to twist and shimmy down. A kid shouldn’t have to worry about that.
YEah, I don’t know what’s wrong with kids looking like kids. They aren’t adults, so why force them to look like them?
Not to mention, some of the bridesmaid/mob/mog stuff out there in general, isn’t wedding appropriate if you ask me.
There is a time and a place for everything, wait till the right time or place!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Wow. I’m with the consensus here: This is not appropriate for a little girl, for aesthetic, practical, and philosophical reasons.
I’m not big, actually, on anybody — brides, bridesmaids, flower kids, guests, etc. — trying to look sexy at a wedding. If you can get everybody looking elegant and dignified and age-appropriate, that’s more than good enough!
March 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I so totally agree! No little girl should be dressed like a vamp- Brittany Spears aside!!! Now we have Hannah Montana and Bratz- all teaching our children that sexy is ok! Let little girls be little girls-PLEASE!!!
March 28th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I remember getting to an argument with my mother in a department store because she wouldn’t let me wear a strapless dress to homecoming my sophmore year of high school. She taught me well.
I have no problem with two piece bathing suits on little girls. I think they can be perfectly appropriate if there’s reasonable coverage and it’s in youngish color/pattern. Two pieces are much more practical than a one piece in terms of fit and using the bathroom.