Phoenix [Ж] Renaissance: [Lolita] F + F Review (English)

Welcome to my first review ever. I'm a rookie lolita, and this is the first time I have bought online. I started off with fanplusfriend.

Products I ordered:
Elegant Gothic Lolita Choker - Flower&Cross in Black - USD $6
Gothic Elegant Lolita Pearl Side Rose Bow Hair Band in Red & Black - USD $12
Classical Lolita Tuxedo Tail Long Sleeves Blouse&Ruffle Choker Jabot in White, Lady 90 - USD $50
Classical Lolita Square Collar Shirring Back Long Sleeves Embroidery Blouse in Black, Lady 85 - USD $25 (was on sale)
Classical Lolita Bias Skirt & Built-in Frills Cotton Petticoatin Red & Black, Custom Size - USD $65
Sweet Lolita "Unicorn Carriage" Polka Dot Dress/JSK in White, Lady 90 - USD $100

Order made on January 18th, 2013.
Order shipped on January 25th, 2013.
Order arrived on February 2nd, 2013.

Communication: Communication was quite fluid. They would answer my questions before 24 hours, which is quite good in my opinion, considering the different time zones (the time span must be around 12 hours). After I made my order, they also wanted me to review the sizes I chose since a smaller size would also fit me. I declined since I was afraid it won't fit me/would look bad if it was too stretched. I also had to pay an extra custom fee, and they were kind enough to inform me through mail that TNT needed my personal info so the customs would release my package. 5/5

Shipment: Throughout all the reviews I've read so far that contain pictures, there's always this picture displaying a parcel that looks like a black garbage bag. This was no exception. I don't feel like the people handling the package in the process will rip it out, so I don't have much problem with that. I'm quite surprised as to how they fit everything in that size.
F + F won't let you choose a different shipment option, and it seems to me they choose the most expensive one (cost $50 USD) but at least it's fast enough. Unfortunately, customs decided to apply taxes on my package, and I ended up paying an extra fee of $60 dollars ¬¬. That's why although the order arrived on Feb 2nd, it didn't arrive home until Feb 6th.
Also, I had problems with the tracking number. I ordered one of the blouses through Ebay, and that number worked perfectly, but the second time they failed to send me the correct number until the package was in customs (not sure if the issue was theirs or EMS/TNT's though).
My biggest concern is that the name and the address were awfully written. How come (my boyfriend's name,) Joaquin Jaramillo turned into Joaquin Jarmailco and his street address "Eia Imein" from "El Alamein"? 3/5

And now, to the garments!

All of the stuff in their respective package

Choker:
There's not much to say about the choker. It's a fair price, and I ordered it since I really liked the design. Not very fond of the cross there, but oh well. 5/5

Hair band:
This hair band is quite pretty as well, and besides liking the design, I thought it would go well with the red of the skirt, and it did! I was expecting the flowers not to be that good, and in fact, they look like they were taken from a fake bouquet. You can actually see the little spot where the stem would go (although I kind of expected this to happen). There's also a part of the lace popping out in front my face, but that can probably be fixed with ease. 4.5/5


Close up to the flowers

The black lace that kinda sticks out and covers my face

White blouse:
I ordered this blouse because I totally fell in love with the musical lace design. The lining, the confection and the fabric it's all good. My only niggles would be that first, my most accurate size with F+F is Lady 85 but since there was only Lady 80 and Lady 90 available (and I didn't want to order a custom size), I went with Lady 90 and I'll have to make a few fixes to it. They sleeves are too wide in my opinion, and a little bit long for me. Second, the buttons are quite simple, I think I'd like transparent ones better. There's also tiny stains behind the buttons, I don't know where they come from. According to my bf, the machine used to made the buttonholes could have made them. He also thinks I look like a music director. I'm sure going to use this for some classic lolita musical coord 4.5/5


Wearing it without collar


See? Had to tie it up quite a lot in order to fit me.

With collar

Black blouse:
I totally love this one too! No complaints on this one, although I also think the sleevees are wider than they seemed in the original picture. In F+F website they offered Lady 80 or Lady 90 for this one, but I found Lady 85 in the ebay shop, and I think it fits me perfectly. Unfortunately, the shipping for this cost 2 dollars more that the price of the blouse. 5/5

Red-Black Skirt:

I really like this skirt design an colour, but I expected more from some of the details, especially the corset part. This is my biggest turn down in my whole order: the lacing in the back it's terrible! It's not even proper for a lolita garment, it looks like something made for a sport sweatshirt! Fortunately, it's quite easy to replace.

Even though I knew the waist ties were removable, I thought it was some kind of stripe that would go all around the waist, but instead it has buttons to move/remove the ties. I don't think this is really good.

The bow is also removable. All this removables thingies are quite good since this allows to use the skirt with a blouse inside or outside the waist of the skirt.

The skirt has also a kind of built-in petticoat that makes it puffier and you can't tell my petty's dead just yet...
3.5/5

Wearing it: front. Sorry for the lack of shoes.

Back. Don't mind the waist tie, the lace is terrible, haha.


I think I look a bit pirate-ish.

Dead petty :(.

White Dress:

...but it was obvious that my petty was dead when I tried on this dress. I took the pictures without it on because it made the dress look worse instead of better.
This was one of the first F+F dresses I fell in love with, especially because of the carriage print. I think it's really, really cute, and although I'm not that fond of white clothing (because I'm quite messy) I knew I had to order this in white color.

This is also a Lady 90, so it was a bit larger that needed. This was fixed using the laces in the back, but I still think it looks a bit too long on me (sorry, I was wearing trousers when I took the pictures). The ties in the back were also removable through this button system I'm not fond of. I do think this dress doesn't need them, I do believe the back is one of the prettiest parts of it, and for that, it needs the waist ties.

The white fabric is a bit too thin, so I have to be very careful of putting the inner blouse below my petty. If I don't, you can see it throught the dress. I don't know much about fabric types, but I can say that I don't really like the texture of the white spotted black fabric. It's quite stiffy.