[Bodyline] Order #1: A lot of skirts (pt 1?)

I've ordered from BodylineYokoso before for various random little things- never too much though since I know shipping quickly adds up. However during the past 2 months there has been a really awesome promo of $1 shipping for November and $5 shipping for December (oh no it's almost up!). I finally decided to take a dive and order some lolita clothes. I'm not totally new to the fashion since I've been admiring it since early 2003 but I'm totally new as to wearing it and actually OWNING it. I decided to order a few cute pieces off of Bodyline and mostly stuck with cheaper things; I'm not going to lie- I'm very frugal. I wanted to give it a shot and not invest too large of an amount into it just yet. On top of that I knew once I had something in my hands I would easily be able to make my own using that piece as a base. However I was a COMPLETE derp and only ended up ordering skirts and some shoes ~_~ Crap. I made another order fairly recently with a few blouses though and it's on it's way to my door now. I do hope to get it soon but I guess we'll see...

Onto a review of what I got!!

*IMAGE HEAVY*



The order was split into two packages. I've come to notice from reading a lot of other buyer's reviews that this is normal- it also states it as such on Bodyline's website that they'll split orders into packages of a certain weight. I really didn't have a problem with this but I was curious as to just how they would go about it. In the end though I was not overly surprised just how they were shipped.

An interesting note is that the packages arrived several days apart from each other

What got me like so many others was that the shoes were only rapped in tissue! The boots also had tissue around them but the small silver shoes had a good plastic bag containing them (as shown.)
I'll only be reviewing the skirts in this post as my camera died long before I could take pictures of everything :/



"Magical Cosmetics" [link]
L372

Length: 53cm
Waist: 64-70cm

   I chose the navy color due to it immediately catching my eye when looking at skirts. The black seemed to hars, I don't really like brown, and the red was almost -too- eye catching for me. But the navy? I feel in skirt love with it! The fabric is honestly soft and made of a good quality fabric. The seams are solid and the colors are lovely. I LIKE the simple design of just ribbon across the hem instead of lace; lace would have been just too much. But with the ribbon it has a very clean edge.
 Honestly I didn't notice the vertical "stripe" was actually little daises until I took it out of it's packaging ^^;;
This is my favorite skirt I've bought thus far!

"Steampunk Stripes" [link]
L120

Skirt:
Length: 57cm
Waist: 64-90cm
Corset:
Length: 26cm
Waist: 64-76cm

  I cannot admit to being totally crazy about this skirt when I first saw it. The photos on the website do not interpret it well in the least bit. Most noticeably the colors are much much more vibrant in person. Whereas on the site they seem much more dull and toned down. It wasn't until I discovered a photo of a girl wearing this particular skirt in green hat I really REALLY liked it. I have almost no clue just yet how I'll coordinate this skirt into a full outfit but I will figure something out! I could have easily seen myself also purchasing the red one as it's very lovely; and probably much easier to coordinate...

The stripe fabric has a very coarse feel to it and you are able to see the larger weave of the threads. However I do like that this skirt has a "rougher" feel which could easily fit into the Steampunk fashion more so than lolita. It's a harmonious cross over in a way. However the color I ended up choosing is not one generally seen in either fashion- but it is one of my favorite colors of all time. So I'll do my best to rock it ^.^v

"Fairy from Forest" [link]
L227

Length: 54cm
Waist: 64-80cm

  Slight typos on things make me giggle. And although I doubt people will be searching out my skirt to read whatever text may be on it it still causes me to snicker at the words on this skirt reading "Fairy from Forest". Such a simple sentence... it's silly such a mistake was made! But it also brings the skirt a bit of quirky charm.

  This is one of Bodyline's cheapest skirts I could find on their entire websites- and honestly I was AMAZED none of the colors were sold out when I bought this! (As of now the white is sold out :/ booooo.) I had a bit of a hard time choosing what color to get. I generally lean towards "cool" colors so blue really caught my eye.
But I know that pink also looks good against my skin tone. And as much as I love contrast within' any outfit I really just did NOT like the black. However I kept in mind that when I first ordered these skirts that I wanted to have a versatile choice of colors- no ALL one color. So since I chose the blue skirt for "Magical Cosmetics" I went with the white on this one. And honestly I'm really glad I did! I think this color has, in the end, turned out to be my favorite of the choices. I am pleased :)

  Downside is that I'll have to be extra special careful wearing it as it is white. I am a klutz about spilling things on myself and generally do not think much of NOT sitting on dirty surfaces and the like.

"Musical JSK" [link]
L025

Length: 92cm
Waist: 64-74cm

  Another very very old Bodyline product. Of course the two colors I love most (grey and sax) have probably LONG been sold out. I had trouble finding a picture of the other colors and after some various hunting and Google-fu searching I was able to turn up a few photos. I like the black and yet don't. So I chose to go with the pink to balance out the color spectrum I was aiming for. All in all I'm really glad I got the pink!

  There have been a lot of comments about the print looking "pixelated" up close. But quiet frankly I don't think people will be inspecting a skirt with such scrutiny. I actually really like the overall color and design of this particular piece; save for one fact. The construction is a little meh and the straps were placed so ill that I couldn't wear the skirt with them on. They were connected to the skirt directly under my boobs which made it pretty much impossible- so I cut them off! To be more precise though I actually ripped out the seam around the top band of the skirt and ripped out the connecting seam on the straps. After hand-stitching the top of the skirt back it was ready for another try! And, in my opinion, it looks much better without the straps. However I do plan to add buttons to the front so they can be reattached and worn as such but the placement will be a bit different and more realistic to human anatomy.

  All in all I'm really happy with my choices! It was super hard to narrow down my list so much and in the end I actually was able to stay UNDER the budget I allowed myself :D I tried choosing items with prints I couldn't easily find in fabric form myself. I also tried to order a variety of styles so I could pick apart how things were made.

  I'll review the rest of the items in due time. I also have a few more packages on the way so expect more Bodyline/lolita posts as well. Also perhaps a few of me actually showing myself? Hahaha :)