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Nov 21, 2009, 3:23am




American Girl Playthings! :: Reviews Archive :: Girl of the Year Characters :: Nicki Fleming :: Gala Outift
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HannahMontana06
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 Gala Outift
« Thread Started on Jan 4, 2007, 3:43pm »

This is a very nice outfit and comes with 6 hair clips (not pictured)

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Shirt
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Opens in the front
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the back
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #1 on Jan 5, 2007, 1:59am »

Are the silver dots on the jacket paint or studs? I was just wondering how easy they'd come off, kinda worried if they'd get worn off just by touching them a lot, the way paint beads can do.

It's so pretty, though! I love the embroidery and layering of the skirt.

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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #2 on Jan 5, 2007, 2:32pm »

Keri, the silver dots are like bedazzles. I thought they would be buttons, but they are not too bad. The shoes are a sort of brushed leather/velvet material.
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #3 on Jan 5, 2007, 4:02pm »

I give this outfit an A. The bright pink cotton jacket has velcro front closure. The silver and copper colored studs appear to be glued on and not attached by some other permanent means. I am wondering if they might tend to come off with excessive play or after a period of time.

The embroidered trim goes all the way around the jacket sleeves, neck, bottom and around the middle.

The skirt is ivory colored cotton on top with satin on the inside and under three layers of mesh. The embroidered flowers on the top layer of mesh are beautiful and nicely done.

The shoes are flat ballet type with that faux suede covering and copper and pink colored studs on the front. They look a bit confusing to me as to how to get them on. On the back of the slipper there is a loop. Inside this loop is a lighter pink elastic loop with another loop sewn in.

There are 6 plastic hair clips included. Three bright pink and three light pink.

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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #4 on Jan 7, 2007, 1:51pm »

I just got this outfit yesterday- its really pretty on Nicki. The skirt is a nice soft mesh with pretty embroidery and I think the jacket is unique. The shoes are adorable- they took me a few minutes to figure out how to get them on but its easy now- I love how they are elastic and you don't have to tie a ribbon.

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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #5 on Feb 21, 2007, 12:13pm »

The jacket has velcro closure in the front. Cadence is wearing it right now and she isn't in danger of flashing anyone!
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #6 on Mar 14, 2007, 11:21pm »

Nicki's Gala Outfit is $26 new, but I'd only pay $16 for it. I just don't like the color enough to pay full price, and the hair clasps bug me. Plus, the skirt's a little too small for my Beatrice.

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Overall, I think it's about a B, breaking down into the following grades:
Color: C
Hair clasps: B+
Shoes: B-
Jacket: A (disregarding the color)
Skirt: B

Before I start going into details and slapping up photos, I'd like to note that I have 27 of them to share. I took the challenge of intensive reviews quite seriously, you see, and somehow when I took all the photo-examples I thought would be useful, I ended up with 27. They're all the default "small" size from my camera, edited only to adjust the contrast/color (ie: whites are actually white), but I'm going to try to get them resized shortly. I realized that 27 of these guys would be a lot lot more than just a couple. -.-


Color

This thing is a really super bright orangey pink. The catalogue photos (print and digital) make it appear to be a warm, rosey, hot-pink, but in real life, it's got such a strong orangey peachy tint to it. It looks completely different. When I lifted the lid of the box, I was surprised by how incredibly BRIGHT PINK it was, and I happen to love pink. It was really strong, even through two layers of tissue paper, which I tried to show with a photo.

I also put Beatrice (wearing the jacket) against backgrounds of other pinks to try and show the difference. In the first photo, I have a hot pink gift bag, which is imo a neutrally hot pink, a bright pink pack of tissue paper which is on the purpley side, and my magenta pillowcase. The second is the same but with a white wall instead of the pillow. And I've included one of the jacket against the AG box pink, for comparison.

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Hair Clasps

I was surprised by how much these can grip. They're small, so I expected them to be somewhat useless. But, no! They're in two colors - the bright pink of the jacket, and a softer baby pink to match some of the embroidery in the skirt. There are only three of each color, though, which bugs me. I would really have liked to have four of each color, or only two of each. As it is, three is difficult to place symmertrically, and I'm weird like that. On the bright side, they have molded star shapes, which is really awesome! Only, why stars? The outfit's theme is floral...

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Jacket/Shirt

I have to say, I think this looks just <i>awesome</i> with jeans. That's why I took photos of Beatrice wearing it with her jeans, of course! :3 I think the dark color of denim helps balance the bright pink a bit, and the styles work together to look very metropolitan chic.

The jacket is made to work like a blouse. The front inside is lined with a satin-type material, so I can imagine a real girl wearing it without anything underneath - or just a camisole or something.

The sleeves are a good fit, just loose enough to go on and off with ease but not so much that they look all saggy. The cuffs aren't real cuffs, by the way: the turned-up part of the sleeve is stitched down and a bit of the darker edging was added to make it look more folded-up cuff-like. That same edging runs all the way around the jacket in a big circle - from the collar, down the middle front, and around the bottom. It's more of a purply pink than the rest of the fabric, but not much. Still, it works well. I couldn't see it being lighter or white or black or anything. As it is, the color of the jacket is so bright you have to be careful that it doesn't get overwhelming and anything that really contrasts with it would be.

The collar is very short, so it's unlikely to get folded down or wrinkled funny, if you don't wad the jacket up in a ball.

The middle part of the jacket is the most interesting feature to me. It's reminiscent of a cummerbund, almost, or one of those wide belts that're fashionable right now. It also ages the outfit up a bit, by defining a waistline and a bustline. If you look at it, the top line is angled, just like the embellishments on shirts and bodices for ladies with boobs - because angling down under the boobs helps bring attention to them. If it weren't angled, it might not look as nice, but it might also be more acceptable (in my mind) for girls in the target AG range. I think it's okay for my eleven year old Beatrice, but only barely, and I like it way better with the jeans.

The little metal dots are really confusing for me. I can't figure out what they are, because they don't seem to go through the fabric. It's like they're just pasted on top. I worry that they'd fall off with a lot of play, or just a lot of picking at them. They are dual-colored, though, which I couldn't tell from most photos. The ones down the front are silver, the ones on the waist are silver and copper. By the way, it's a trick to get the silver ones to line up properly when velcroing the shirt shut. I had to do it very slowly and carefully, lining up each side of velcro exactly. So frustrating! But at least the velcro is the anti-snag kind, so it's easier to deal with.

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Skirt

The skirt is ivory, somewhat yellow-tinted, probably to match the orangey peach color of the pinks. It has two main parts: a satin underlayer and a mesh/woven overlayer. They're sewn together in the center, forming something like a tube, and then folded at that seam to make the skirt (I've included a picture of what I mean if that's confusing!)

Both parts have a yoke, which is a simple, straight skirt shape, in my opinion. The rest of the skirt is a circle shape and gathered at the seam with the yoke, which gives it the nice, full look. For the underlayer, both parts are ivory satin. For the overlayer, the yoke is woven cotton and the circle part is three layers of mesh. Each layer is graduated, making the satin one the shortest and the outermost mesh one the longest. The difference is only about 1 or 2 cm, though.

The embroidery is on the outermost layer of mesh. It's an all-pink five-petal flower design with pink vines. It uses three shades of pink, which are found in the jacket and hairclips. Nice matchy-matchy, huh? I was impressed by the embroidery, myself, when I inspected it. It's fairly thick to feel and kind of heavy, too. It doesn't feel like a simple applique that was stitched/glued to the mesh; it's more like it was embroidered on the mesh itself, which is really nice. By the way, the embroidery cannot go anywhere but in the front, due to the way the waist/closure was done.

There is a smidge of thin elastic at the waistband in the back of the skirt, but not a whole lot. It really doesn't do much for fitting Beatrice, and is stretched out completely. The velcro is difficult to fit together evenly, and even though it's the anti-snag kind, it still pulls at the mesh a lot.

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Shoes

A lot of complaints are about how weird the ankle ribbons are on these. It is a bit confusing at first. It's basically a long loop doubled back on itself and stitched down at the crossing point to keep it doubled. That stitch goes in the front of the ankle, while the two free circles are in back - one runs through a loop attached to the back of the shoe. That bit of elastic is an orangey shade compared to the rest of the shoe, but it is awfully cute, even if it's difficult to put on. Part of it keeps getting stuck under Beatrice's foot whenever I have her wear them.

The upper is a pink faux-suede, a shade darker than the jacket. It's the basic ballet flat style with pink and gold sequin dots on the vamp, to match the design on the jacket. I'd be afraid that they'd fall off with heavy play or that the uppers would be ruined with a bit of damp.

The sole is tan plastic, textured on the bottom but still awfully shiny and slick. You have to be careful standing the doll so that she has enough friction to keep her legs from sliding out from under her. There aren't any heels or anything, though, so that's a major help with standing.

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WHEW. That took a good two days of working on the descriptions and taking the photos, off and on. I know a lot of y'all have the outfit, but not everyone does and if we're trying to get a good set of reviews, well, this is as in depth as I could figure. -.-


--- KERI
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #7 on Oct 8, 2007, 11:35am »

I bought this outfit for any of my present day dolls to wear- but curiously, Inga (FKA Nicki) is wearing it now. It looks FANTASTIC on her. The colors work well with Nicki's coloring in mind- and it seems to me they could work for dolls with other complexions as well.

The jacket was very easy to put on- although I think the velcro ends too soon and you can see Inga's camisole underneath it.

The skirt has more layers than what I thought. The embroidery is gorgeous- though I wish it had gone all around the skirt and not just on the front. It fits well on current Mattel dolls.

The shoes were easier to put on than what I imagined- and definitely MUCH easier to put on than the espadrilles from the Sweetheart Set. They fit over stockings- which is a very nice plus. I was not expecting their fuzzy texture, but it is not a drawback.

The hair clips worked well, are sturdy, and hold curly hair. They look cute too.

Overall, I give this outfit an A. It would be an A+ if the jacket closed better and if the pattern went all around the skirt.

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You can see the hair style I created from the clips.
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #8 on Oct 8, 2007, 4:13pm »

Just to add my picture amongst the many. I really think Keri must have gotten something from an entirely different batch of material!

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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #9 on Oct 9, 2007, 4:47pm »

This outfit is really cute and one of my possibilities to buy! My friend has this outfit and I think it is gorgeous. I don't mind how bright the material is because I personally like very bright colours, but I can see why the colour can be a bit overwhelming! The shoes are pretty annoying and hard to put on for me! I give the Jacket an A, the Skirt an A, the Shoes a B- and the Hair Clasps an A becuase they clasp hair very well.
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 Re: Nicki's Gala Outift
« Reply #10 on Oct 19, 2007, 12:56am »

Oddly enough, it seems like most of Nicki's clothes look better on a doll other than Nicki. My Marisol is wearing this right now, and Jess looks adorable in the ski outfit.

So yeah, I really do like this outfit. Though it's bright enough that it almost looks like it's glowing in the dark when my room is this dim. Hee.
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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #11 on Dec 9, 2007, 6:29pm »

I just bought this and am soooo happy i decided to pick it up. unfortunatly, i do not have nicki, but there may still be a few seconds left in the year....

This is really pretty on any doll and highly recomended.

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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #12 on Dec 17, 2007, 4:24pm »

I got this outfit on Friday, and i am in love with it. Its only fault is on the shirt, the velcro could go further down.The skirt I love. Excelent quality love the layering, the embroidery is beutiful.The shoes are so cute, it took me a while to figure out how to put them on though.
Overall I give this outfit an A+.
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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #13 on Dec 18, 2007, 9:49pm »

I recived this outfit as a late b-day present from my grandma. It is really well made; the only things I don't like are that the shoes were a bit hard to figure out (I think they should have come with instructions!), and the jacket sometimes pops open on Laura! (She is my plumpest doll!)
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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #14 on Aug 9, 2008, 9:50pm »

I do not own this outfit, but my friend does. I'm lovin it, it is just too cute! So, about the shirt. Nice and cute, a great mix and match peice. The shirt gets an A+ from me!

Now for the skirt. Hmm... well. Very big. I don't know if it just our dolls, but it always seems to slide down their legs. Well, its just adorable, so, it gets an A-.

Shoes, well....SO CUTE! we've had some trouble getting them on, though. Well, thats just me, so.. A.

Sorry no pic, :(


Overall grade-A


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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #15 on Aug 14, 2008, 6:35pm »

I love this outfit. My shirt is a little too short, so I have to hike up the skirt to Sophie Claire's belly button, but other than that, this outfit amazed me. I am not a big fan of the shoes, as the material seems too fuzzy for shoes. It's like the stuff on my bunny slippers, just shorter. Also, the rhinestones on the shoes don't match the shirt. The shirt has silver, and some light bronze, studs. These rhinstones (on mine, at least) are bright gold.
The skirt is what I really adore. The stitching is what I love most. It is so fine and intricate. I have a friend who does beautiful silk stitching, and her stitches are just like these, actually. My skirt, even when hiked up, still goes to *about* my dolls knees. Nowhere as short as Keri's is on Beatrice.
Overall, I give it an A, maybe A- because of the length of the shirt and the shoes.
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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #16 on Feb 17, 2009, 10:00pm »

My friend who has #3 has this outfit for her. I think it's very pretty. The shirt is my favorite thing out of all of it. It's pretty well made, and is really nice for mix and matching with different things. The skirt's cute, the shoes are really hard to get on and fall off a lot. A-because of the shoes.
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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #17 on Sept 8, 2009, 12:59am »

I got this outfit off ebay minus the shoes. It's really one of my favorites. My only complaint is that the top is a little to small for most of my girls!

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 Re: Gala Outift
« Reply #18 on Sept 26, 2009, 8:48pm »

I really like this outfit. The jacket might be a bit to structured for the floaty skirt, but I like it never-the-less. Someone mentioned that the jacket was an orangy pink, mine is not. Mine is more a vibrant, deep rose color. The skirt embroidery is gorgeous. I love the shoes and ankle straps (even if it did take me a bit to figure them out). The sleeper item in the outfit is the super cute star clips...ironically, I did not know they were part of the outfit when I bought it, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Grade: A

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