Monday, August 18, 2014

Baroque : Missing Letter Keys / Rabbit Circus Comparison

I was recently contacted and asked to make reviews and a construction comparison of different dresses from one brand. Today I'm reviewing/comparison of construction for Baroque's Missing Letter Keys and Rabbit Circus. 


Communication is generally pretty good with Mana and they have also as of recent made a USA reservations page to make it a little bit easier with ordering..You can find it here.


Baroque's Missing Letter Keys and Rabbits came shortly after Pearl Drops on the Dry Flower in November 2012 and arrived around the beginning of January of 2013.



I own the black as well as the orange and although these are the same print there are a few slight differences that I'll also point out later.

The fabric for this dress was cotton. The print is pretty crisp and with some of the keys actually spell out the name " Baroque. " I thought this was a really nice touch to implementing the name into the dress. There is also a simple tag right next to the color coordinated zipper though no clasp at the top. You can also see some loose threading at the top of the dress where the lacing meets the zipper. 



The print is only on one side of the dress which is fine and there is partial back shirring as well. In this second photo you can also see that the lining is orange to match the dress which I thought was pretty cool.


 

The bottom pleated hem was sewn to the bottom of the lining as you can see here. It's.. well a bit of a mess when you look at the underside in the second photo and along the hem top right with the lace in the third. I'm not a grand seamstress by any means.. but I would have expected a little bit more from a company who is mass producing dresses. 





Another thing I would like to mention was that with my orange dress I only had one set of button holes with no option to adjust the straps, where in the back version of the same dress there are two. 


 

The print doesn't really match up very well on the side nor on the bodice ( it was a rather large issue with the Pearl drops series ) but it's not that noticeable when the sash and bows ( 2nd photo of all the bows and said sash as well as the free gift ) are worn over the dress.





It is nice however that there are little differences with the print of the ribbon details when placed next to one another.





Overall construction: 3 out of 5 
Print Crispness and Alignment: 4.5 out of 5

I have to admit even with the hiccups with the actual construction this is still and will forever be one of my favorite print dresses. It is a dress I never get tired of seeing and would someday love to own all of the colorways. I think that puts me at a somewhat biased opinion because I am willing to look over its short comings because I favor the print so much.




Baroque's Rabbit Circus came out after The Antique Chair collection in Feb of 2014 and shipped around April of this year. This is also after the Kingdom of Lolita series from which I ordered tights from Baroque. .



 I own both the black as well as the red gold colorway of this jsk with a black and white glitter star apron skirt.. thing.

The material is a heavier thick chiffon, dare I say crepe chiffon? I don't remember if this was noted during the reservation period and maybe I missed it , but I was actually surprised the dress was this material when I initially unwrapped these from shipment. The print is crisp and has a lot of details, even more than Missing Letter Keys. Again they also incorporated the name into the star designs and banners on the dress which I find very charming. There is not a tag with these dresses as there were in the prior releases however. 

With this print, the alignment is a bit better as you can see in the first photo. A majority of this print was along the border of the dress or along the bust so there wasn't a whole lot of print matching/aligning to make sure of. I'm super happy it didn't cut into any of the cameo portraits in either jsk so that's a plus.




 The print is one sided and the fabric dyed. My only complaint about this is that the black jsk doesn't really look black. It looks more navy in natural light and it it is virtually impossible to match to a black blouse. In the red x gold colorway and the navy x gold, the gold is more of a brown and not really gold at all like the trim which I would consider gold. The lace detailing is pretty intricate and is different from the original design. Though there are lots of left over threads from sewing the lace and dress together, the lines are cleaner and not as messy as before (see 2nd - 4th photo). The slip is also black to color match the dress.






On the back there is also partial shirring and adjustable straps. Both jsks this time had 4 sets of holes this time so felt no need to photograph twice.



The dress came with a lot of loose fibers / threads but the overall construction is a lot better than before.



The apron that was included with the jsks or ops came with in your preferred color option and  with or without stars. I chose stars for both colorways. The only drawback to this is that glitter gets everywhere... Seriously. I don't mind it so much, but I did have to shake out my comforter a few times after taking these photos.



Here is also the free gift that was included with this order as well as the extra bow. 



Overall Construction: 4 out of 5
Print Overall Crispness and Alignment: 4.5 our 5 The off color of the black really puts me off

I do enjoy this print and the thought and detailing  put into the print should not go unnoticed. My only qualms are of the choice of material as the dying make the colors a bit off, and since this material is a bit heavier than cotton it weights down your petticoat a lot faster. Also the straps even on the shorter settings have a big tendency to slip down during the course of the day.




The Weigh In 




 



Missing Letter Keys:
7.5

Rabbit Circus :
8.5

Missing Letter Keys is my favorite print wise, but construction wise Rabbit Circus is way better and cleaner.

 It should also be noted that for reasons unknown to me, these newer dresses by Baroque ( Circus, and from the looks of it, the cutlery dress ) can fit a much larger petticoat  ( think meta size huge poof ) and by doing so kind of makes it looks like you aren't wearing as much of one when the dress is worn. I am wearing one petticoat in the first photo and three in the second. It has also been noted that the dress pattern person, dress maker, and tights factory have been changed recently so there might be even more differences in construction, colors, and material choices in the future. In the next week or so I will be able to make a re-evaulation and review of Baroque's upcoming products as they have so graciously provided a pair for me to review.

Thanks for taking the time to read and hope to see you soon!


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