Hi! I just received this dress a few days ago, and would have posted this review a few days ago had I not lost my memory card reader, so I had to retake all the pictures with a phone. The pictures are rather grainy, so if you want additional clearer pictures, please feel free to ask!
link to the dress
Front and back of the dress
The color is a true navy, and the fabric is lightweight polyester, or a polyester-blend. It's not quite chiffon (it's slightly heavier/more solid than chiffon), but pretty close. It's a bit wrinkled from shipping, but I'm pretty sure a bit of steaming will fix it right up. You can see some of the pleating detail in the skirt.
It's completely unlined, since it's a summer dress. Fortunately it's not at all sheer in natural light, though it might be a bit see-through in really bright lights. However, it being unlined means that I have to keep rearranging the skirt and the pannier to prevent lumps from showing through, which I find really annoying.
My dress is quite a bit longer than of the stock pictures because I had it customized to a bust of 85 cm and waist 70 cm, and extended the length to 93-95 cm instead of the stock 89 cm. It's actually quite comfortable to wear, if a bit loose because I told her to make it slightly looser. To be honest I found it a bit hot, but maybe it's just because it's been unbelievably humid lately.
Details
Collar
Closeup of the embroidery, closeup of the ribbon, back of the ribbon
The ribbon is rather lopsided in the photo, but it's easily adjustable. The back has a safety pin, which I think is removable, so it's possible to stick a hair clip there instead. The lighting makes it look like it's stained, but it's really not. The collar and ribbon is somewhat off-white/ivory, while the lace is slightly whiter. The stitching on the embroidery is rather awkward and not as neat as I'd hope, and the hem stitching is slightly crooked. It looks fine from afar though? And the stitching inside the dress doesn't show when worn, so.
Sleeve
Embroidery
Again, the stitching is not particularly neat. It doesn't look bad from afar, but up close it looks rather strange.
Slightly uneven ribbon matching at the skirt
Care Instructions
Hang dry, no bleach, no washing machine, hand wash, dry cleaning ok, water ok
Souffle Song's tag
Worn pictures (sorry about the quality and weird lighting =_= it's obviously not properly coordinated, but I hope it's helpful anyway):
without pannier
with pannier
with a belt because I feel like since the dress doesn't have waist ties, it makes me look oddly shapeless on top.I feel like it can take even more poof, but it was too hot for me to layer petticoats. Petticoat worn is Closet Child's pannier.
Timeline:
I sent Yangyue an email at June 12 to ask about custom sizing and shipping and she replied the next day, explaining that custom sizing was free and shipping was approximately $20 to my country. I said I would get custom sizing as I was somewhere between the M and L size, and I wanted it to be quite a bit longer than that of the stock picture (at 5'1", 88cm would hit about 2 inches above the knee, which is a very unflattering look on me personally). I gave her my bust and waist measurements then specified that the length should be around 93-95 cm, which would hit right below the knee with a pannier. She agreed and I paid the initial $43.99, and paid the $20 before she ships out the item.
6/12/14 - sent the initial email
6/13/14-6/16/14 - back and forth replies
6/16/14 - paid the initial $43.99
7/7/14 - emails to tell me that the item is finished, paid the $20 7/15/14 - emailed her again since I hadn't received the item yet when it has been over a week, she says the item has been sent to the shipping company but she still hasn't gotten a tracking number??
7/20/14 - tracking number emailed to me
7/23/14 - item arrives through ems
Overall thoughts:
Generally I quite like this dress, despite the flaws I mentioned (the embroidery, slightly crooked seams), and it's really quite cute. I'm actually mostly disappointed by the lack of lining in the skirt because lightweight polyester+slightly lumpy petticoat = not friends at all! I'm thinking of adding an extra layer for the lining, though I'd have to learn how to sew and measure the skirt...
Quality wise, it's just probably about par with Bodyline, given the price. It's certainly not as nice as some of the Infanta stuff I have, probably more like... Boguta, possibly. But I do like that it fits really nicely because it's custom-sized. I just need to learn how to coord it properly orz
Quality 3/5
Communication 4/5
Time 3/5 (would not have minded the 3 week construction period but the 7 day delay in shipping was just ????)
Overall 3.5/5 Hopefully someone would find this helpful!
Crossposted to egl on lj
