A Tale of Two Underskirts

I've been wanting an underskirt for a pretty good long while now, and like most other basics I've been continually putting it off. Well, with this new re haul of my wardrobe I've decided no more! It's time to buckle down and focus on those not-so-exciting staples because ultimately they're going to be the elements that really pull my outfits together and give them that spark I'm really looking for.  Many of my skirts I feel fall just a bit too short on my leg to give off a truly elegant and classy look, so an underskirt really should have been in the works a long time ago.

I knew right off the bat that I wanted a chiffon underskirt. An extra ruffle of chiffon peeking out beneath the hem of a dress just looks so delicate and pretty to me, so that immediately cut down on a lot of my choices. But nevertheless, after a bit of searching and asking around I have ultimately settled on two choices, either The Floral NoteBook or HMHM.

A suggestion from another Lolita led me to checking out The Floral Notebook, an indie Vietnamese brand

which sells through facebook. I'm a huge fan of indie brands as I really love knowing that the garment I'm ordering will absolutely fit me, and the design of their chiffon underskirts are absolutely beautiful and exactly what I was looking for. Not only that, but because the skirt would be tailor made for me, I had hopes to ask the seamstress if the skirt could be made with a drawstring waistband rather than  elastic as I find them so much more comfortable and no one would ever see it beneath my dresses anyway.

However, then I realized I had run into a little problem. In light of my gorgeous new Chess Story dress in cream, as well as my new found resolution to begin adding in more colors into my wardrobe, it occurred to me that perhaps I might do best in ordering a second underskirt in white. Unfortunately, as I'm not made of money two underskirts from The Floral Notebook will be a bit pricey if I don't wish to wait in between ordering them, so I decided to look around a bit further and recheck my options.

That's when I returned to this lovely HMHM chiffon underskirt which is available in both black and white. Like TFN underskirts these skirts can also be made to my specific measurements (though no drawstring),  are very pretty, and are delightfully less expensive!

Unfortunately, the time for their production is considerably longer so once again I would have to wait a decent amount of time before they arrived. Additionally, the hem of the skirt troubles me, since although I find the skirt in itself very pretty I worry that if too much of it peeks out then the double ruffle will wind up looking silly whereas TFN would look a bit more natural. Still, the price point is definitely something to think about, especially since I'm aiming for two skirts now instead of only one.

It definitely seems I'm in a little bit of a conundrum! I certainly intend for an underskirt or two to be my next big purchase (crossing fingers I don't get sidetracked!), so I need to put a bit more thought before making the final decision. What do you think? Do you like underskirts? Wear one yourself? Which of these choices would you prefer?