How to wear a goddess dress?

While it’s always fun to be ethereal (and possibly placed upon a plinth), if you know me, you’ll know I always want to bring it down to earth. After all, even Venus cavorted with humans.

So, how to wear a goddess dress without floating away (or being trapped on that pedestal)?

How to do ride above it all in a goddess frock, while not falling into the either angelic or manic pixie dream girl category?

How to maintain your gravitas, authority and inner heel-stomping ways?

• Pick a dress that floats (not enshrouds)
• Pick a color that’s ethereal (but not angelic or fey)
• Avoid needless frills
• Accessorize groundingly

Shaping up:  Wings implied, not shown

Choose a dress that has an interesting shape and echoes classic goddess lines: Grecian-style neckline (think: the Columbia Pictures lady); a skirt that falls directly from the bodice; a hemline that moves. (Perhaps winged cupids are fluttering underneath, keeping it aloft? Or drones?)

Choose a shape that drapes nicely and could float—with just the right ethereal breeze or subway updraft—but that doesn’t weigh you down or encase you with muumuu-like swathes of fabric.

Go for fabric with a soft hand. (This, literally, refers to how it feels in your hand.) Eschew the little-lost-angel or bridesmaid look by staying away from chiffon.

Likewise, minimize ruffles, flounces or lace. (Goddesses don’t need them!)

Stick with the statuesque. Let the shape of the garment do the talking.

Why this works:

This drapey garment, with a softly-gathered V-neck and silver metallic embroidery on one shoulder (perhaps ceremonial clasp for an imaginary cloak?), falls below the knees (a modest goddess length) to end in an inverted V-hem. The tulip skirt is accentuated by an unusual center seam running the entire length of the dress, creating visual interest and a long line at which the fabric is gathered to fall away again, in diagonal lines, creating even more flowy draping. (Lots of draping for those pedestal-dwellers.) 

The dress could be worn without a belt, to cinch it in, warrior-goddess style, but . . . .

The Warrior’s Bow 

. . . .the most dynamic aspect of this dress is actually seen from the side, where a long hem has been tacked up to from a hanging train.

Like Diana The Huntress’s small, short bow.

Like the Welsh longbow. (Hello, Agincourt!)

Like a draping wisteria bough hanging from a high vine.

And this is best seen if you pull away the fabric at the back of the dress to show the arc.

No Mirror Principle

Look for garments with something interesting going on in the cut, then highlight that. Don’t overpower it, but don’t quash it either. Let it show, unencumbered by extraneous sartorial clutter.

Color me Dignified

This dusty lavender is feminine, but not so much that it shifts the outfit into little girl candy canes or unicorns—which (rightly so) belong to little girls. It’s a shade that could be worn by said goddess, or a weary surgeon battling a brain bleed. Choose a color that works for you: blue, green, gray, mauve—but keep it sober and elegant. Save the candy tones for PJs (which goddesses probably don’t wear anyway). Do they even sleep?

Getting Stoned

Even Demeter (especially Demeter!) came down to earth. Grounding a flowy, floaty outfit with natural stones and metal counterbalances the drifty/dreamy with heft and weight.

This necklace of wire-wrapped stone, with metal dangles and long chain is the heavy point of the pendulum, swinging out its earthly magnetic counter beat.

These onyx and malachite silver Tiki head bracelets (picked up by my mother on her Acapulco honeymoon) add an additional weighted heaviness, with their earthbound stones, faces and silvered heft.

Calling out the Details

This Masai-beaded belt, a gift from my globe-trotting, wildlife-photographing cousin, adds an unexpected splash of tribal-bright color that works against the neutral tone of the dress.

Likewise, the embroidered and tasseled bag, the like of which might have once held a twist of cinnamon or pinch of myrrh picked up in the Grand Bazaar, in marigold yellow, surprises with a touch of the ethnic.

Be ready to stomp off:

These leather and wood platform Mary Janes, with metal tooling, kick the outfit out of delicate and into a more earthy (but not Earth Shoe) solidity, adding another unexpected element.

They’re also good for when you step off that pedestal to go right some wrong . . . or clean up a spill.

No Mirror Principle

Play with an outfit by adding an unexpected element, but be sure it forms a curious—if unconventional—harmony. Look for colors, textures and heft (literally, weight and substance) that work with the existing outfit, rather than fight with it.

You want a culture blend, not a culture clash. 

Resting goddess practices her Cobra Pose while conferring with the local wildlife.