/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

$529.

https://victoriaskingdom.com/collections/dresses/products/copy-of-saint-valentines-dress-pre-order-mourning?variant=40322930829

>>9753272
That just looks like a take on chemise a la reine. What's with the price tag?

Any thoughts on the newest Lady Sloth reservation?
I was pretty excited after she posted some closeup teaser photos, but after photos of the whole garments were posted, I'm incredibly disappointed by the silhouette and quality...

>>9753302
I think the bottom is very lacking, also it would be more appealing if it was longer.

>>9753275
Don't you know? Shortening a Chemise a la Reine takes YYEEAAAAARRSSSSSS of work and research.

>>9753320

>>9753302
This looks like something you can grab at that edgy corner of H&M for 25usd....

>>9753302
Looks like the quality you'd expect from a modestly priced Halloween costume.

>>9753320
Now that was some tasty drama

>>9753302
The OP is meh, but I'm planning on getting the JSK. It's going to be my first Lady Sloth item and I'm excited.

>>9753302
I think she just has a problem with taking good photos of things on dressforms. Hopefully she releases some photos with it on a model

Ive never heard of this before. Are they new? http://www.amymariecouture.com/victorian-angel/ I dont usually pay attention to western brands so maybe Im just living under a rock

>>9753302
fuck. I can't choose between the short sleeve and the long sleeve

>>9755420
>tacky, ugly prints
>boring plain cuts
>underskirts
Pass.

>>9753302
It's so shiny, and simple looking. I am dissapointed.

>>9753267
Persoanlly I hate Dolldelight or Dollbe or whatever they call it, because their prints are ugly try-hards and they are obesity-enablers.

Opinions on Eat Me Ink Me? Some of her designs look ita-tier but a few of her newer things have caught my eye, I'm just too worried about what the quality will be like to get them.

>>9755420
They have been around for a surprisingly long time despite how little they've released. They strike me as pretty 'meh' in person. Not bad, not great either.

>>9755424
Same, I feel like they only get sales from plus size girls who feel like they have to support the plus size designer, despite the fact most other indies offer custom sizing anyways

>>9755669
I like their stuff, design is hit and miss sometimes, but quality is always nice

>>9753302
I don't like the collar. I get that it matches the sleeve cuff, but I wish there was a highneck version with nice detail, like pic related

>>9755430
>not knowing the difference between DollDelight and Dollbe
fuck off and read a book, newfriend

Bump

>>9753302
wish it had some lace or trim at the bottom.

>>9755779
this would be nice too.

>>9755779
>That thin ass raschel lace
One hole and that entire collar is trash.

>>9753302
I think it's nothing special. There was that one German designer that used to make clothing out of the same fabric and it looked better than this.

>>9753302
The dress is kinda meh but I´m thinking about buying the blouse. It would look really nice with solid black jsk

>>9764413
Dropped pic

>>9755780
I was drunk, it was late, you know which one I meant.

Does Voodooodolly usually take over a month to ship out a premade item? I'm sure preorders take some time, but should a singular already made item take that long?
And is the quality going to be worth my waiting? I know a lot of people cream themselves over her stuff, but I just want to be sure that's not just bandwagoners.

>>9764625
She's too busy riding I Do Declare's coat tails.

>>9753302
Western brands can never be as good as Japanese or even Taobao, and honestly barely even up to Bodyline standards. Yes the bat fabric is cute and some might even make ok prints but the detail and lace just isn't there. Most Western brands look plain af because it's just far too expensive to get the proper materials and they can't afford to manufacture it all.

Most brand, Taobao and even Bodyline has more than one type of lace trim, ruffles, some sort of extra details in the ribbons, etc, but you rarely see that, or if you do the rest of the piece is just so plain.

I don't know what it is about Western designers. Are they just bad at design? No one can figure it out?

>>9765179
I always assumed she was just as popular, if not more, than IDD. Haven't they been around about the same amount of time.
>Most brand, Taobao and even Bodyline has more than one type of lace trim, ruffles, some sort of extra details in the ribbons, etc
Yeah and it's all shit quality. I'd rather have a plain, boring but well constructed, longer lasting piece than "only looks good in photos" taobao.

>>9765329

>Yeah and it's all shit quality. I'd rather have a plain, boring but well constructed, longer lasting piece than "only looks good in photos" taobao.

Yeah I don't think western brands for the most part provide that. They're just as gimmicky as taobao, with no detailing other than shittily printed fabric.

>>9765334

>>9765338

>>9765334
You know, I'll give you that. But I will say the few good Western indie brands will always be superior to the hundreds of taobao stores.
>pic related 4 O'Clock/Linda Frieson

>>9765311

I think Western indies often start from nothing, like most times it’s either a girl with a sewing machine, or a graphics designer who has some ideas for clothes. But they quite often don’t really have the experience with large-scale suppliers, and simply spend a lot of time and energy tracking them down. Afaik only Eat Me Ink Me knows anything about fashion design in general, and the other western indies aren’t even located near fabric districts, so it’s no surprise they have trouble tracking down the better suppliers.

Taobao and Korean indies do have this leg up, there’s entire wholesale warehouses where everything is sold in rolls of a few hundred meters, it’s intended exactly for small business to buy supplies from. So it’s quite easy to walk in empty handed and walk out with several rolls of different lace and different fabric to put together decent dresses with instead of having to hunt them down across different factories (and being a small indie you’re quite often ignored in favour of bigger corporations).

Brand will always have the best stuff — they have the largest customer bases, so they’re able to meet the MOQ from the best suppliers. If you look on Alibaba the custom fabric places will often require an MOQ in hundreds or even thousands of yards. Most of these use specialised equipment, the majority of the cost will be in things like custom die stamp for the design or custom ink mix, which means a high overhead cost, so it becomes really expensive to print only a hundred yards instead of a thousand. Even taobao and Korean indie can’t pull those numbers, so while the indies are stuck with some inferior laminate print tech because it’s print-on-demand with no MOQ, brand will always be able to order much better custom fabric.

Bodyline has the same customer base size as brand, but of course they’re not going to use the good stuff. They have to keep things cheap to turn a profit, after all.

>>9765343

Honestly, she's sort of in a category herself since she's basically couture. I'm just surprised she continues to deign us lowly street fashioners with her presence.

>mfw I want her to design my wedding dress and lolita dress at the same time

Honestly though, I've been consistently disappointed in every other western brand. Even brands that I continue to support, such as Mulberry Chronicles and Peppermint Fox, have subpar details and construction that kind of varies from release to release. They're ok quality, but for the pricing, it's really not ok. At this point, I'm sort of doing it because I really like their customer service and I want to support that type of illustration design more than anything.

>>9765347
I feel like Linda could create the most beautiful lolita wedding dress if commissioned.

I admit I've only bought from I Do Declare and I'm not quality expert, but it's definitely better than a recent taobao OP i received. I'm waiting on a VooDoooDolly order and would like to compare that to some headwear from taobao, but I have no idea when the piece is coming in.

>>9765347
>>9765354
do we know her current price range for a commission? She doesn't list the cost of anything she's made.

>>9765354

The complicated thing is that I don't want to be really married in lolita, but I still want a lolita dress from her. I'd want an Edwardian inspired gown for the wedding, but that's an entirely different discussion. In any case, it's a lot of money that I have to save, but hey I'm looking to triple my salary in 1-2 years so that will hopefully happen.

At the risk of backtracking, I will say I'm really intrigued by IDD. I wanted one of I Do Declare's renaissance dresses actually, but alas, I'm poor at the moment. Which dress did you buy? Also, I've heard VoodooDolly's hat are wonderful. Taobao hats I've bought are kind of shitty, so I don't think you'll be disappointed for comparison.

I guess I end up comparing everything to brand. Inevitably, I just end up comparing to Mary Magdalene and Victorian Maiden anyways.

I really liked the Spooky Animal Zoo print Lady Sloth had, but what peeved me with all of the Western brands is why tf would you release a spoopy print the month of Halloween only to produce them for November/December sometimes even January.
I never understood why they don't just do the pre-orders earlier if they know it's gonna take a while to produce.

>>9753386
Deets?

Has anyone bought anything recently from Miss Danger? I kind of want one of their headdresses.

>>9766253
The girl who made the headpieces for MissDangerShop left the company. She goes by Hide Vi and you can just commission her directly.

>>9765357
I hate how when you ask about this, everyone gets crazy snippy. It's not in poor taste to at least get an estimate of how much something costs. I found some earlier pieces she charged about the same as expensive burando prices (300-400 USD). I'm sure that's gone up since then since she's improved her craft and became an established couture designer rather than a small time indie brand.

>>9765359
I don't want a lolita wedding dress either, but I feel she could put BABY's $1000 ones to shame. Good luck on your salary though, I hope it works out!
I should have mentioned I actually have blouses from IDD and they're lovely. Really solid material and well constructed. My taobao OP is some kind of weird jersey type of material. It feels like a low quality tshirt and not something like an OP. I've seen and felt IDD in person though and it was great.
Nothing wrong with comparing everything to brand imo. Brand really has been the standard for most of the fashion's life. I don't own MM because it's not really my style and the VM items I want always sell out by the time I can purchase, but I have a friend who owns pieces from both brands and they do really stand out in terms of quality. Moitie and older Meta pieces too.

>>9766291
Precisely
I want to commission her, and I'm sure her tailoring and such is worth it, but it would be nice to know if it only sets me back $300-$400 or if I have to save up and expect $800+

Even when I have a lot of extra money I'd still like to have a ballpark so I can plan for when I can drop the cash.

>>9765357
>>9766291
>>9766396

It's not too hard to send her a message and just ask for an estimate? IDK, I do it all the time, making sure to say that I'm just looking to get a price range even if the range is wide, and I've never had an artist deny telling me, because they also understand that you need to know their range. *shrug*

It's important for independent artistic creators to keep prices private though, because as they grow and improve, their prices need should go up and reflect their skill levels. But if they post their prices publicly at any time it suddenly becomes: "But 3 years ago, your dresses were only $400! Look, I have a record of it! Why is my dress now $800 instead of $400 like you were charging 3 years ago? Look, the dress I wanted was similar to her old ones, but needs to be made for me with some extra things, but it should still be about the same price as what I saw 3 years ago! That's not fair! This designer is scalping me! This designer is singling me out for 200% her normal price! Bad review!" ETC ETC...

>>9764417
Nayrt but they’re both trash, so it’s all good.

>>9766291
>>9766396
Do you mean Linda specifically or couture in general? I’ve never seen anyone get snippy just for wondering what Linda charges on commissions because it’s a perfectly legit question, but she does have a few vendetta-chans who are quick to jump in and say that whatever she’s currently charging, it’s definitely overpriced for what you get ~or so they heard~. Those are the kinds of posts people get snippy with because they’re not informative in any way.

What's the straight up worst experience you've had with a western/indie brand?

I had a jsk arrive with a lumpy waistband, lumpy to the point that I couldn't wear it comfortably. I left it too long to get in touch with the designer (literal months because I was busy and also stupid) so now I'm hoping someone might be able to salvage it or be less bothered by it than I am.

I know its just a small etsy store but I'm starting to hate a brand for constantly teasing updates and never putting them in their shop.

>>9769050
Who, anon?

I wonder what Christian Siriano lolita dress would look like...

>>9764625
If you're talking about the star crowns, those weren't ready made and from the looks of it she sold a ton of those.

I've only bought from her in-person so I can't say anything on shipment time. Quality is amazing though.

>>9765329
>>9765179
Pretty sure VoodoooDolly has been around longer than IDD. I think they became friends after they were both more well known.

>>9769045
I ordered a Lady Sloth blouse a couple years ago, I filled out the form that asked for my measurements. When it arrived it was too small, it had been made the size of my measurements but not to fit my body, I think she forgot to add seam allowance.

>>9765311
Agreed.

A while ago I bought a dress from her, Look At My Dreamy Sky. The print was gorgeous, but that was literally all it had going for it. It was almost like she got the fabric in and then went "oh shit I have to make it into a dress don't I?" There was no lace at all, the neckline was just a half circle and had just one black ruffle, the sleeves were just long cylinders with another single black ruffle on the end and that was 100% it. It was comfortable but in the end I wore it once and now I'm not even sure I want to keep it. If I do I'll definitely want to alter it.

It isn't necessarily anything wrong with her, because this is the trend in less-than-brand "brands". The value is placed all in the print and how flashy or unique it is, but the other details completely suffer as a result.

I cut my teeth on a lot of mid-late 2000s classic brands, so to me this is almost like a complete inversion of the hallmarks of the fashion. Everything I loved about the fashion was the beautiful detail you could only see up close, the perfect lace and the gorgeous quality of the fabric, that sort of stuff. Now the dresses I see most commonly at meets are these taobao and Western sub-brands, and I just can't understand their popularity.>>9765311

>>9772383
It wasn't a star crown. It was something that was already in the shop in December.

>still isn't here and no updates either
I'll probably send an email soon since it's been over a month.

>>9772561
Yeah send her an email or Facebook message, she's always nice in person. Best of luck anon

>>9772548
Wow it's almost like people keep buying flashy prints over everything else so designers keep making them.

>>9772591
>it's almost like the community's standards have gone to shit so now the fashion went to shit too
ftfy

>>9765311
>I don't know what it is about Western designers. Are they just bad at design? No one can figure it out?

I think it stems back to the earlier days when brand wasn't as readily available. Western "brands" were awful, but for a lot of people there wasn't anything else available. There was on on etsy back in 2007 or maybe earlier but the name escapes me, it had a lot of typical borderline ita or babby's first coord stuff.

I feel like there's no real standard line for quality ever since. Nobody feels they can be as good as Linda Friessen, so everyone just tries to get something that looks the part.

That said, I've had good experiences with indie brands, just not any of the ones hyped up beyond reason.

>>9772593
...I don't disagree.