What Is Shrimps & Why Do I Love It

I first got to know about Shrimps through its Antonia bag, specifically when the beaded pearl bag started appearing on the pages of most, if not all, the top fashion bloggers. When I first saw the bag, it intrigued me. Not because I instantly fell in love with it, but because I thought, “Who would ever take out a beaded pearl bag?” But then I saw more and more fashion girls pairing this bag with all kinds of outfits. It changed my perspective instantaneously and the next thing I knew I had landed myself on the homepage of shrimps.com where its featured banner features the cutest, most whimsical scenario, a theme the brand Shrimps is going/pushing for and a lifestyle it means to entrap interested patrons into. On my own end, I call this theme or idea the Dutch Maiden look, the Dutch Maiden lifestyle. Let me give you an example:

While the Antonia successfully drew me into this brand that I know of just a month ago, I am now a fan of this brand all because of their Cara Dress in the Daffodil print, which is the dress the model above is wearing. It’s the prettiest dress I’ve seen in awhile and absolutely quirky at that.

Apart from the dress, it also has to do with the imagery and overall campaign that Shrimps is bringing out of its brand. I appreciate the pastoral, greenery feel that Shrimps products are put up against. Without much words, the Shrimps lifestyle has already been dictated. To me, that lifestyle is a classical English combination of the countryside and old money wealth. Though I say English here (and the fact that Shrimps itself is a London-based fashion brand), I like to think of this pastoral imagery from the point of view of the Dutch maiden/milkmaid. I guess it’s largely because I grew up drinking the Dutch Lady milk brand and eating Sun-maid Raisins. To add on to that, I also remember an editorial called Living Green photographed by Steven Meisel in Vogue Italia . Karlie Kloss, then the newest and freshest face on the runway, was part of the shoot and I especially loved the photograph of her holding two chickens in her hands, all dressed like an old-time European girl from the countryside. The ladies on the front of these boxes and Karlie as farm girl remain embedded into the subconscious of my mind that they emerge again when triggered by connecting ideas, such as the images presented by Shrimps.

Let’s jump right into the things about Shrimps that I love (not including the high price point, sad).

Styling Shrimps In The Dutch Maiden Style

While Karlie Kloss  in Living Green looked more farm girl than the Shrimps model mentioned above, I thought I’d like to reach a middle ground between the two ‘social statuses’. While I love the idea that the farm girl has to hustle to earn a living, I also like the idea that girls can dress as fabulously as they want, no pressure on their pockets. This brings me to the idea of the modern day girl, much venerated by the feminist ideal, which is the girlboss who works hard, puts in that extra effort, so she can achieve whatever it is that the patriarchy or the patriachally influenced society says she can’t. Imagine wearing big fur coats and shuffling green paper money out your hands with manicured nails, only to let those banknotes rain around you, a smirk for a smile on your pretty face. That’s the dream.

Shrimps Cara Dress In Daffodil // Brought to life in the form of the vintage era, this supremely whimsical dress features puffed sleeves that cinch midway up the upper arm. The rubberised middle to me intends to imitate the corset look of the 1890s, but seeing as it’s not the 1890s, and as corsets are actually detrimental to the physical body, we have here a rubberised middle section, seemingly easy to breathe and move in. The skirt is flared, again in the fashion of the era of the big skirts. Perhaps another modern twist to the seemingly vintage dress apart from the rubberised middle is the fact that the entire dress is made from organza, meaning it‘s sheer and translucent. Something that comes with this dress is an inner slip so that you can still don on this dress without worrying about what’s peeping through the threads.

1. MANGO Embroidered Midi Dress In White // Perfectly white and embroidered in more white, this midi dress with long sleeves and solid cuffs could very well be the spitting image of the dresses of the Victorian age. The darted midriff imitates the cinched waist of the yester-era , while the simple and sleek v-neckline and knee-length skirt bring in contemporary personas. In the end, what you get is a woman in a timeless dress, classical and modern at the same time, possibly powerful in the subtlest ways.

2. ZARA Floral Print Dress In Greens // Those Victorian milkmaids and Dutch maidens didn’t always dress in clean whites. Perhaps the idea of clean whites i depicted more through media than real life. What I’m saying is, dark times do fall upon them too, and here’s a dress, though floral printed, doesn’t exude the same angelic cleanliness all-whites. Accented with yellow flowers, the dress is just a step away from full-on Victorian gothic. The sewn-on ribbed neckline is another modern twist in this collection of milkmaid-inspired clothing. Instead of layering the yellow-green dress over a black turtleneck top (albeit not frilled like how they usually have it in the Victorian age), the black ribbed piece is forever attached to the dress’s collar. And of course, to complete the milkmaid-countryside-maiden look there will always be the puffed cuff.

3. Shrimps Floral Bag // I can’t resist throwing this bag into the list. Patterned in coloured pearls, this pink floral beaded bag is obviously not a part of the milkmaid’s or Dutch maiden’s possession, seeing as they are either servants or from the working class, and at that time, pearls were only worn by the upperclassmen, the aristocrats and royalty. But today, pearls can be worn by anybody, as long as you know how to wear your clothes, specifically the milkmaid outfit, well and not make it look disconnected from the rest of your getup. Pink ribbons and silk or satin materials could be added to the look to bridge the floral bag to the rest of the look. You might like to exaggerate the look and turn your milkmaid/Dutch maiden look into a gardener girl, picking flowers from the bushes in her servant’s uniform while having that chancing liberty to be in possession of a cute basket, in this case, a bag.

4. MANGO Linen-blend Midi Dress In Ecru // A little different from the first two dresses, this linen-blend midi dress sports fleeting short sleeves and a square neckline, two patterns you’d normally associate to post-Victorian sleepwear. At least that’s what I thought of when I first saw these two patterns combined together. The flowy skirt further solidifies my thought, that this dress must have come right out of the past. Except now it’s not sleepwear; it’s street-wearable, and no one’s complaining.

5. H&M Long Dress With Lace Details In Black // A long matte-black dress with modern see-through threading and large frills on the shoulders, this dress is a contemporary lady’s version of the Victorian apron. Can you imagine the frilled aprons with even more frills around the neck strings? I can imagine it too. The difference between the apron and this dress is that this dress is actually cute to wear out, unlike an apron. Featuring a mock-tiered skirt, this dress screams milkmaid/Dutch maiden. And though it’s sleeveless with only frills on the straps, you could always layer this dress over a white top/blouse with puffed-up sleeves and solid cuffs. Then, the Victorian/Dutch maiden look has been achieved.

6. ZARA Rustic Check Dress In Natural // This yellow check dress, all slim and very un-milkmaid or Dutch maiden, can be turned into one with simply layering it over a top with puffed sleeves. If you’d like to maximise the sunny garden girl look, add a basket or rattan bag to the outfit to your look and you’ll have completed the look. Mind you, the back of this dress is slitted up the middle. If you like the contemporary version of this slit, you can keep it as it is layered over a puffed-sleeve top. But if you’re anything like me and prefer not to have those calves pop out the back, I’ve got some ideas. First idea: find yourself a lightweight (or light-looking) cotton skirt in a colour that’s complementary to the yellow of this dress and wear it under the dress. That way, you’ll really look like a milkmaid/Dutch maiden from the back, with an apron wrapped around your waist. Second idea: Get a piece of light cotton cloth, fold it into the accordion–style, then sew the entire length of the edges of that cloth to the left and right flap of the slit. This is another idea that achieves the milkmaid/Dutch maiden look wonderfully.

7. H&M Patterned Cotton Dress In Natural White/Lemons // In a similar fashion as Shrimps’s Cara Dress in the daffodil pattern, this short dress offers a little (or a lot) more freedom to move about one’s busy daily life. Add a straw hat and a rattan bag to your look and you’ll be achieving the look, just on the short side.

8. Puff-sleeved Mesh Top In Black // As seen on @idasjunnesson’s Instagram page, this sheer black top can be layered underneath sleeveless dresses to convert those dresses into the milkmaid style. Because of its eminent blackness, it’ll bring about more Victorian goth than the other pieces mentioned so far. At the same time, while it leaks off goth, it does it in the gothic princess style, with its feminine sheer. Turn the Victorian princess goth look into a pared-down country goth style with a straw hat and an accompanying black ribbon for the hatband.