When I saw that UK group order for Taobao was being hosted I couldn't resist making a little order. I had so much difficulty deciding what to buy, you wouldn't believe! In the end I settled on a Little Bear's Café replica (Angelic Pretty) and a Merry-Go-Round replica (Innocent World). However, the second got left off of my order which annoys me a lot as I'd wanted that dress much more and I'm dying to get some red in my closet since people keep telling me I look good in red! I don't know which stage the error was made at so I can't go round blaming people...
The group order was put up at either the end of December or beginning of January. 'But why, if set up so long ago, are you only now posting this review?', I hear you ponder. Well. It only arrived at my house yesterday morning when nobody was in so I had to pick it up this afternoon. I can see why a group order would take a long time - getting people's orders, invoicing, contacting the shopping service who would then order the items from Taobao, items being sent to the service and then to the organiser and then to the buyers. But things somehow got a lot messier than that. People kept changing their orders. This went on for months at a guess, at least one month. Probably it was this confusion that resulted in my dress being dropped. I was very irritated and wanted to cancel my order but I was pretty much told I wasn't allowed to (despite the fact that loads of other incosiderate people did) and I didn't want to push it as I didn't want to delay it further for others.
Time went by.
Dream of Lolita seems to be the source of the next cock-up. They pretty much forgot to do our order, cancelled it and the service had to replace it. This was probably to do with the release of the Sugary Carnival replicas at a guess, but that isn't really any excuse. The order was posted from the shopping service on the 26th of May and arrived around the 2nd of June, avoiding customs by some kind of miracle.
Finally it reached me on the 14th June. Of course, sorting out, packaging and weighing the orders took a lot of time. However my package was posted 2nd class by accident when I'd asked for 1st class. This wasn't too much of an issue as I had to wait for Dream Sky to arrive anyway and my postage was refunded, but I am trying to move out right now. If I didn't live so close to uni I'd have had to move out without it though.
So after all that polava, the items themselves!
At first glance they look well made.
...Oh dear. Fabric is upside down. Wire headband that I will have to replace. Wonky.
However! The fabric itself and the print and colours are lovely. The fabric is a lot thicker than I expected, so I'll have to wait until Winter to wear it.
The JSK is reasonably well constructed. The materials seem quite nice for a replica (the Milky-chan replica I had from K.Star was awful) and it is lined. However when held up it does feel decidedly wonky.
Bad stitching in the shirring, but should be stretched to look normal when worn (and my hair will cover it anyway).
The lace holding the ribbon at the back looks ready to break the second the ribbons are tightened. Not the end of the world, but pretty annoying.
Ribbon not stitched on straight. The other side is stitched along the seam but this one is pretty screwed up.
A few stray black threads in some areas...
...Not least on the headbow. My god, this is the worst sewing I have ever seen. It is really not difficult to sew so that it doesn't show, even I can do it! And black thread on such a light print, WHY?! It won't show, but still. It's the principle!
You may wonder why I am being so harsh on a replica, but it did cost me around £60. I don't remember the true figure as, let's face it, I paid for it A RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME AGO. If I had realised how much it would cost overall I would not have bought it as I could have bought a really nice brand dress for that price! I even found the real version of this for only £100 but couldn't buy it as I was stuck with my money tied to this rubbish!
That said, it isn't a bad dress. I haven't had a chance to try it on but it looks like it should fit fine and it isn't too long (although I'll need a good petti to keep the weight of it up, especially as it's long enough to hit my knees without one). The problem is me here, I've changed a lot since I ordered it and don't really agree with the idea of replicas anymore as I'd rather buy the real thing wherever possible. However since this was desired but not a dream piece I'm not going to be too hard on myself. If I get lots of wear out of it, then I may buy the real thing. But this is good enough quality to be getting on with, and to be honest when worn it'd probably be impossible to tell the difference between the real and the fake.
I have been very put off of using these kinds of stores again, however. I had been tempted by the Milky Planet replica as I have no chance of getting the real one (also so I could get a Sugary Carnival replica headbow as they are few and far between as well), but I will certainly have to think long and hard before taking the risk.
The group order was put up at either the end of December or beginning of January. 'But why, if set up so long ago, are you only now posting this review?', I hear you ponder. Well. It only arrived at my house yesterday morning when nobody was in so I had to pick it up this afternoon. I can see why a group order would take a long time - getting people's orders, invoicing, contacting the shopping service who would then order the items from Taobao, items being sent to the service and then to the organiser and then to the buyers. But things somehow got a lot messier than that. People kept changing their orders. This went on for months at a guess, at least one month. Probably it was this confusion that resulted in my dress being dropped. I was very irritated and wanted to cancel my order but I was pretty much told I wasn't allowed to (despite the fact that loads of other incosiderate people did) and I didn't want to push it as I didn't want to delay it further for others.
Time went by.
Dream of Lolita seems to be the source of the next cock-up. They pretty much forgot to do our order, cancelled it and the service had to replace it. This was probably to do with the release of the Sugary Carnival replicas at a guess, but that isn't really any excuse. The order was posted from the shopping service on the 26th of May and arrived around the 2nd of June, avoiding customs by some kind of miracle.
Finally it reached me on the 14th June. Of course, sorting out, packaging and weighing the orders took a lot of time. However my package was posted 2nd class by accident when I'd asked for 1st class. This wasn't too much of an issue as I had to wait for Dream Sky to arrive anyway and my postage was refunded, but I am trying to move out right now. If I didn't live so close to uni I'd have had to move out without it though.
So after all that polava, the items themselves!
At first glance they look well made.
...Oh dear. Fabric is upside down. Wire headband that I will have to replace. Wonky.
However! The fabric itself and the print and colours are lovely. The fabric is a lot thicker than I expected, so I'll have to wait until Winter to wear it.
The JSK is reasonably well constructed. The materials seem quite nice for a replica (the Milky-chan replica I had from K.Star was awful) and it is lined. However when held up it does feel decidedly wonky.
Bad stitching in the shirring, but should be stretched to look normal when worn (and my hair will cover it anyway).
The lace holding the ribbon at the back looks ready to break the second the ribbons are tightened. Not the end of the world, but pretty annoying.
Ribbon not stitched on straight. The other side is stitched along the seam but this one is pretty screwed up.
A few stray black threads in some areas...
...Not least on the headbow. My god, this is the worst sewing I have ever seen. It is really not difficult to sew so that it doesn't show, even I can do it! And black thread on such a light print, WHY?! It won't show, but still. It's the principle!
You may wonder why I am being so harsh on a replica, but it did cost me around £60. I don't remember the true figure as, let's face it, I paid for it A RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME AGO. If I had realised how much it would cost overall I would not have bought it as I could have bought a really nice brand dress for that price! I even found the real version of this for only £100 but couldn't buy it as I was stuck with my money tied to this rubbish!
That said, it isn't a bad dress. I haven't had a chance to try it on but it looks like it should fit fine and it isn't too long (although I'll need a good petti to keep the weight of it up, especially as it's long enough to hit my knees without one). The problem is me here, I've changed a lot since I ordered it and don't really agree with the idea of replicas anymore as I'd rather buy the real thing wherever possible. However since this was desired but not a dream piece I'm not going to be too hard on myself. If I get lots of wear out of it, then I may buy the real thing. But this is good enough quality to be getting on with, and to be honest when worn it'd probably be impossible to tell the difference between the real and the fake.
I have been very put off of using these kinds of stores again, however. I had been tempted by the Milky Planet replica as I have no chance of getting the real one (also so I could get a Sugary Carnival replica headbow as they are few and far between as well), but I will certainly have to think long and hard before taking the risk.
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