LoveShackFancy Garden Party Dress (2022)

[mamared]

Pink frilly florals might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this American Girl x LoveShackFancy collaboration is right up my dolls’ alley! Here’s the official description, along with additional thoughts and photos …



SKU#: HGY92 $44

This dreamy outfit is everything we adore about spring! Designed in collaboration with LoveShackFancy to match the girl-sized dress, it features:

A three-tier tea-length dress in a mixture of signature LoveShackFancy prints—Peony Garden, Rosa Beaux, and Aegean Coast—plus adorable details like lace-trimmed ruffle sleeves, smocking detail on the bodice, and a sash at the waist that ties in a bow - This is such a pretty, well-made cotton piece. Each tier is a different but coordinating fabric, and even though I’m not always a fan of smocking, I love it here. The large bow is firmly stitched on, and the whole thing closes with a strip of Velcro up the back. The entire dress is lined with cotton (as were the coordinating $88 little girls’ dresses, which were selling briskly when I was in the store). Grade: A+



The bodice is Peony Garden and the bow is Rosa Beaux. Tiers of Aegean Coast, Peony Garden, and Rosa Beaux are each trimmed with pink lace. I like the combinations of prints.



The Rosa Beaux sleeves are also trimmed in pink lace. The smocking is a nice touch, too.



The dress has a white cotton lining in the front and the back.



The special tag for this collaboration.



A pair of pink sandals with satin elastic crisscross straps and bows on the outer ankles - These are cute, though not as well made as the dress and clearly not the star of the show. They fit just fine and I wouldn’t worry about them coming off unintentionally; if anything, it can take a minute to put them on because of having to put the straps on first. Grade: B



A headband with satin-elastic double straps and soft pink chiffon flowers - There are two chiffon flowers, a large pink one and a smaller pale pink one, and on the opposite side from the flowers, a small bow is stitched on to the elastics. I’m really happy with the inclusion of a headband and also pleased with its functionality and appearance. Grade: B+





An activity booklet that includes three perforated paper dolls and outfit pieces for fun fashion play - I think this trifold piece is a nice extra. I won’t be using it, but I think it’s cute. I appreciate that it has different pieces from the collection and also that some diversity is represented in the paper dolls. All of the dolls and items are printed on only one side, and seem that they’d punch out of the card stock with ease (they were already starting to pop out as I handled them). Grade: B





Overall, this set earns an easy A from me.

There are three other notes I wanted to add about this set …

First, regarding the length of the dress. Someone else on the board noted that the dress can be temporarily shortened by folding the bottom tier up inside of the dress. These pictures show Gabriela holding up the middle tier so you can see how it’s stitched on, and then what it looks like with the bottom tier folded up. I like having this built-in option!





Second, a quick comparison to the Bitty version of this dress. The Bitty version is a very similar dress in all aspects of quality and construction. AG sells the Bitty version for $40 and describes it as “A three-tier tea-length dress in a LoveShackFancy signature floral print, a headband with chiffon flowers, sandals, and a paper-doll activity booklet.” The main differences with the Bitty version of the dress is that the bottom tiers and overall length are shorter, and that bodice is a little roomier. (The bodice on the 18” version fits my slim GOTY 2017 Gabriela well, and is snug but still fits my GOTY 2006 Jess. I don’t know how well it would work on larger PM dolls.) ETA: I tried it out on older dolls and added to my review in the next post.

The shoes are also different; the Bitty ones don’t fit the 18” doll as well - her toes hang a bit over the edge. The headband on the Bitty version is arguably better (with fabric covering the headband, and two chiffon flowers that match the 18” version), and it does fit the 18” doll. Here are photos showing the comparison.







Third, about the bow on the front of this dress. While it’s permanently tied and stitched on, it might be worth noting that the stitches are very easy to snip from the inside of the dress if you decide you want to take it off. I decided to take the bow off my Bitty version so I could play around with different options. Once I removed and untied the bow, I found there were some different options, as shown below, Although these show the Bitty version of the dress, the ideas regarding the bow removal would work the same way on the 18” version.

Here I’ve tied it up into a knotted headband. The ends were long enough to leave out in a bow, too, although I chose not to. You can still see a “belt” in the front of the dress, which is sewn into the side seams and goes around the front. This is what the big bow was originally sewn on to.



Here I’ve doubled it over lengthwise and used it to cinch in the waist. It’s tied in a bow in the back. (Again, this is the Bitty-length dress in the photo.)





I’m sure there are lots of other options, too! Overall I think this is a great set, and I’m very glad to have it!

[mamared]

I wanted to add on to the post above in response to requests for side-by-side photos of the 18” and Bitty versions of this dress, and to answer questions about the fit on different dolls. This post will have a lot of nit-picky details along with the photos, so apologies in advance.

First up, I’ve got my Josefinas helping me. The Josefina on the left, with the high ponytail, is one of the larger PM dolls from the late 90s. The Josefina with the braids was purchased new around 2001-2002.



As you can see, the PM Josefina is wearing the full-length 18” version dress, but it barely fits her. It was difficult to get it on, and although part of the Velcro strips can close, they don’t align or close completely.

The early 2000s Josefina is wearing the Bitty version, with the bow removed (and tied up in her hair instead). It fits her well, closes completely, and has a bit of room to spare. (It could be cinched in, but I think it looks nice as is, too. It also might have looked nice with the bow still attached, I think.)





Next up, the same two dolls, but this time I switched their dresses. PM Josefina is so happy to be wearing the Bitty version of the dress, which fits her perfectly! I think it looks adorable on her, too. IMO, this is definitely the version I’d buy for a PM doll.

Early 2000s Josefina is wearing the 18” version, long in the first few photos and then with the bottom tier tucked in. This dress fits her well once it’s on, and it’s not at all difficult to close the Velcro completely, but it did take some maneuvering to get it on. Her body is still thicker than the more recent AG dolls, even though it’s not like the linebacker PM bodies.











One note about folding up the bottom tier of the dress: each tier is stitched to the lining, and there’s also a seam that goes the center of the back, all of which results in some minor but odd bunching when the bottom tier is folded up. This only happens at that center seam on the back; everywhere else, the second tier drapes gracefully over the folded up part.



Next up, I paired the early 2000s Josefina with Jess, who’s the 2006 Girl of the Year. Bodies had continued to slim down, and unlike the Josefinas, Jess actually has a bit of a defined waist (although not like the slim waists of the more recent AG dolls).

Josefina’s still wearing the 18” version of the dress (first in the shortened style and then in the longer), and now Jess is wearing the Bitty version. The Bitty version definitely fits loosely on Jess. I suppose it might almost pass for a dropped-waist style, but IMO she looked like she was swimming in the dress, so I took out the tie from Josefina’s hair and used it to cinch up Jess’s waist in the second photo. Clipping it in the back would have also worked. I don’t think that leaving the bow on this dress would have looked quite right on Jess without also cinching up the waist.





Finally, I switched dresses on these two, so Jess could try out the 18” version. It was much easier to put the dress on Jess than either of the other two dolls, and everything fit well and closed easily. Here are some front and back photos of Jess wearing it long and short.







The more modern dolls, like Gabriela in my first post, have an even slimmer waist than Jess. It is easy to put the dresses on them, and you can see the different proportions in that post.

In summary, the Bitty version was the only one that fit my PM doll well. My early 2000s doll could wear either version, although the 18” version was a little harder to get on. My mid 2000s and later dolls could also wear either version, but the Bitty version benefitted from a slight modification to make the proportions look a little better. (I made the modification by snipping off the bow and using the tie to cinch in the waist, but clipping the back might have also worked.) Both of these dresses, along with the rest of the collection, are so much fun, and hopefully this gives some ideas about which piece(s) might work best for you.