support Mr. Yan

Hi all. As you know I made my first Bodyline purchase (first = new, from the website, not secondhand) a couple of weeks ago, because Mr. Yan's birthday sale is too tempting to miss, and I've been saving for it since the last birthday sale. It was more of a compulsive decision really, as I intended to use the money to buy me a nice pair of boots (an attempt to lose the pants in my lolita coord without having to expose the shape of my legs). But since I was so smitten with this particular print since the first day of its release, I thought what the hell, Mr. Yan punya birthday setahun sekali so yeah (the decision was also fueled by the roommate, who I guess was already exasperated with my reluctance to spend over RM50 for a single item, and me continuously pestering her with questions like 'Ko tengok dress ni, lawa tak?' and 'Ko rase patut tak aku beli ni?Sekarang tengah sale, Mr. Yan tengah mengamuk. Harga asal $50, aku memang suka sebab dia macam AatP punya Castle of Nightmare. Ade group order lagi, boleh jimat shipping. Aaaa, tapi reluctant doh!'. Something along that line XD)

So to cut things short, I went on and gave the link of my desired JSK (l188 in red) to Akiko, the GO organiser, paid for it and waited for my 'dream dress' to arrive. This part was perfect and swift; by 23rd September the parcel arrived from Bodyline, and a week later it arrived at my place. I was also very satisfied price-wise, as the shipping is just RM10 per item, postage was free (I opted for e-parcel. Apparently the free postage is going to be discontinued after 20 October so cepat2!) and her charges are way cheaper than those of the other GO organisers (included in the item price so you might be inclined to think there are no charges applied).

The parcel arrived in a double-membraned brown envelope (double membrane means just that.) and beneath that, the familiar red Bodyline packaging. I'm making a collection of these Bodyline plastics. The packaging was not much of a problem, since a JSK is less fragile than, say, a pair of shoes (which I heard would be shipped without any shoe boxes whatsoever).

On to the JSK, this is what I got:

I am absolutely in love with the print. It features ornately framed rose bouquets, ribbons, cosmetics and accessories over a gingham-like background. I didn't get a clear picture of the print from the website at first, just the impression that it was something like a classic lolita-ish version of the AatP's Castle of Nightmare print (which encouraged me even more to buy it). Upon receiving the JSK, however, I knew I have made the right choice.

I was at first mortified with the absence of waist ties on the JSK, thinking that Bodyline had somehow forgotten to include it with it, but after checking I found out that indeed the JSK doesn't have any form of waist ties. Which is bad because apparently, the JSK is a bit too big for me on the bodice part (you'd think having shirring will make it wearable for small and big girls alike, but no, it's still too big for my 24.5 inches waist). I might need to add corset lacing on the back, granted I can find me a nice roll of grossgrain ribbon. That, or sew a couple of red waist ties/ add buttons so that I can attach the waist ties from my Baby JSK to it / leave it as it is and walk around looking pregnant.

Although the JSK is not lined, the fabric is of good quality and is thick enough. The crochet (?) lace is also lovely; although it doesn't have that much of details, it's better than having tons of itchy raschel lace on it really. There is also a nice row of rose lace on the ruffles, though it's not of the best quality (kind of stiff, not much of details, but satisfactory).

And as usual, whenever there is a big bow on a Bodyline JSK, you can bet it is removable. I don't like the idea of wearing the bow on my chest, so I will probably put it on my waist or make a head-eating headdress out of it or attach it on my bag. Another thing I must metion about the JSK is the fact that the shoulder straps are halter-styled. It might be great for regular lolitas (with an ability to tie a bow correctly) because it's more interesting than the usual styles of straps, but since I'm wearing a tudung, having a big bow on the back of my neck would not make much of a difference; if anything, they would make me look as if I have a big frickin tumour over there. Even if I were to tuck my tudung inside my blouse, I don't know how to tie a bow properly like that in the stock pics, makanya sia-sia sahaja. So we'll see about that later. If I need to cantas them, I'll cantas them.

Anyhoo here's a coordination pic. Bows are there partly for the lulz, and partly because I want to balance the reds in my coord.

Overall I must say I am happy with my purchase, and would probably buy a lot more from Mr. Yan after this (since it's the only way I could get lolita items apart from sewing till my thumb is broken/ searching for loliable items and altering them till my thumb is once again broken).

I make a bad EGL reviewer, don't I?

With love,

Alice/Siti Fatimah/Maya Arielle/Vryzzer/Katharin Vallion/Emma de Lumiere