Review: Lief Sacred Night Skirt

[amy_the_yu]

Just before heading out for dinner, the doorbell rang and there was the mailman with some eye candy. =D



Reservation:  I ordered during the reservation period from December 3rd - January 1st.  It was pretty easy and skimming through their LJ entries, I found all the info I needed.

I reserved the skirt in Ivory x black and in black x gold.  It was such a pretty print I couldn't resist.  Made me think of Juliette et Justine if they ever decided to do a more "sweet" print.

January 4th:  Everyone who reserved was contacted that there would be some changes to the black and wine versions.  They would no longer have the trim and waist band a different colour.  I was glad to hear that I would get a solid black skirt, so this was a welcome change.  As a business move though, I think it would have been much better idea to finalize these decisions before the item goes up for reservations.  Since reservations were by comment on LJ, it was a lot of work for Lief to send out notifications to the change to every buyer and several orders were left as anonymous comments, so those people wouldn't have received the comment notification (I'm assuming/hoping they were contacted by email as well).

January 6th:  Invoice was sent and I paid.  Nothing complex or interesting there.

January 15th:  General info email was sent out about the master reservation list being handed over and production beginning.  It also mentioned that some people had missing invoices, but I'd imagine that that would be fixed quickly since they had been very quick to respond to everything else.

January 29th:  Shipping notification was sent out.  The first batch was sent out at this point.  Considering the first batch of packages were shipped out "a few days ago" by the time this email was sent, they were very close if not dead on with their estimated production completion date of Januray 23rd.

January 31st:  5pm, the doorbell rang and it was the mailman with a box for me.  I was perplexed by the Korean sender address at first (I used to be really into BJDs, so Korean mailing slips aways makes my mind go straight to BJD stuff), but when I opened it, I realized it was my skirts!

Stock images:


The only stock/sample images for the skirt version were all for the wine version.  I had one heck of a time picturing the black x gold version in my head with the ivory trim and waistband.  I do wish they provided sample pics of all the colourways.  It's...just a good idea if you're planning to sell something (like, let the people know what they're getting so they can't complain if it doesn't turn out like they picture in their heads).



I just cropped down the stock/sample JSK pic to figure out the ivory x black one.  Worked pretty well.  Actually more accurate than the sample pic for the actual skirt...

Cost:  $120 each for the skirts, includes the skirt itself and a removable black velvet bow).  I think it's a fantastic deal.  It's a lovely print with an almost absurd amount of details.  Quality is A+ as well with thick velvet fabric and the skirts are lined as well.  The skirts are about 80cm long (waistband included), so there's a fair bit of extra material compared to the typical knee length loli skirt.

Communication: 5/5.  That was probably some of the speediest responses I've ever received.  They sent out multiple emails reassuring and updating everyone on the process.  Very happy there.

Accuracy:  4/5.  Aside from the changes they notified everyone about, the width of the waistband and bottom trim was not the same as the sample photos.  Even if it wasn't a huge change, I would have appreciated being notified about this (or at least a disclaimer somewhere saying that it might vary between reservations and delivery).  =/

The print quality is definitely spectacular.  I've come to prefer embroidery to printed designs, but there is no way this amount of detail would have been possible with embroidery (some of the snowflake details were just a hair's width).

Shipping Method:  I had chosen Airmail to save a few dollars, but the package that arrived was shipped by EMS.  Considering the weight of the skirts (over 1.5kg together), I don't mind if I was charged a little extra for EMS (the cost of shipping written on the packing slip matched what I was invoiced for shipping), although I know from experience that at higher weights, the cost of airmail is sometimes so close to express services that it's worth the extra couple of bucks for the speed and security.

Shipping Time:  5/5.  Mines must have been part of that "first batch" shipped cause I received it 2 days after the shipment notice.  No complaints there. XD

Photo time!  (Hopefully this won't crash my Flickr like the wardrobe post crashed my Photobucket...repeatedly  ='D )

Ivory x Black colourway:



Notice that the waistband and the bottom trim are no where near as wide as the sample pic of the skirt (or the JSK for that matter).

Close up of the print:


Review:  The colour is darker and richer than the sample/catalog pictures.  I was hoping for something that was like a soft off-white colour, but the actual colour of the velvet was a rich, cream (the full shot I took is pretty true to colour).  Not Lief's fault (colours show up slightly different on different monitors anyway), but sadly, this throws off my plans for how I was going to coordinate it.  I'm planning to sell it since the black one is more beautiful than I expected (since there were no sample pics of it at all) and I can see myself wearing the black one a whole lot.

Speaking of the black colourway:



Close up of the print:


Review:  Absurd (in a good way) amount of details is pretty much what I felt.  The velvet is ever so slightly thinner than the ivory velvet, but still wonderful and soft (and NOT shiny).  The print is beautiful.  The waistband is also not anywhere near as wide as the sample picture, but with the changes made to the black colourway (elimination of the bottom trim and the print being moved down for balance), I'll probably coordinate this with something covering the waist anyway.  I think as an overall skirt, it's a bit bottom heavy with the giant detailed print and then a foot of *plain black* between print and waistband.

I think it would be a great print to use with tops/jackets that have a tapered "tail".  Threw one of my BPN jacket on it and the print fits perfectly below the bottom hem of the jacket.  It works especially well since the back of the skirt is completely black, so the jacket's tail actually frames the print and eliminates the chunk of *black* above the print.

Not an actual coordinate, but it works well enough to demonstrate my point about the jacket framing the print. ^^;;



Overall: 4.5/5.  I'm very happy about the purchase.  The only complaints I really have are about the changes that happened between the time of reservation and the time of delivery.   However, I'm a big believer in accuracy of the product, so while I was glad they contacted everyone about the changes regarding the colour of the trim and waistband on the black and red colourways, I'm still a bit irked by the difference of the width of the waistband and bottom trim from sample to end product which was changed without notice.

Edit:  Someone requested it, so I took a quick pic of myself wearing it in my room (no shoes, no make up, barely combed hair). I put a tulle underskirt from a long Meta skirt under it cause I still feel that the bottom of the black is a bit unbalanced with the bottom of the skirt being pretty much right below where the print ends.  For reference, I'm 5'7/170cm and the skirt rests about 2 in below my natural waist (so it'll look a tiiiiiny bit shorter on anyone wearing it at their actual natural waist).



Kudos to anyone who's read the whole thing.  I do write a lot (and I talk even more IRL). ='D

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.  I'll do my best to answer what I can.

No request for flat scanned images of the print though.  I don't feel that it's my place to be providing any images that might be misused by someone out there to copy and redistribute the artists' hard work.  Not accusing anyone here of doing it, but once an image is on the net, all sorts of people can get their hands on it.  (I'm one of those people who supports off-brand, but is against replicas since it copies the artists' work stroke for stroke without giving proper credit or compensation to the creator.)