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.
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. -.-
ColorThis 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.
Hair ClaspsI 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...
Jacket/ShirtI 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.
SkirtThe 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.
ShoesA 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.
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