Alice and the Pirates Print Double

Today I shall be taking a look at 2 prints by Alice and the Pirates. Scroll down further to see Starry Moonlit Night of Sirens.

But first up is My Tiny Musical Box. This series includes 2 dresses, a skirt, 2 hair accessories, a blouse, a necklace and socks.

First up is the OP. The bodice looks fairly well fitted. It has got a simple shape but fairly well executed. The sleeves are an okay shape but I wish they were a little bit shorter in length. I like how the sleeves are finished neatly with ribbon, as it keeps things looking sharp and tidy. It also matches up perfectly with the ribbon along the neckline and the ribbon at the bottom of the dress. In addition to the ribbon, the neckline is also finished off with a line of lace on the inside. I like the way the lace sits and it is kept simple and fuss free. The neckline also features a small ribbon bow which is cute, but not distracting. The bodice is otherwise kept plain and simple. Usually I would say the bodice was a bit too simple here but I suppose with the all-over print you don't want too many distracting details. The back offers no shirring and the waist ties look very thin and flimsy, so the size flexibility is very limited. The zip is concealed quite well. The stock photos show the skirt has a reasonable amount of flare. It is enough for a typical classic lolita shape. The skirt is also kept simple so the print is displayed very well. The bottom hem is then finished off neatly with a line of ribbon and a line of thin lace. 

Here we have the JSK. The bodice material looks a bit loose and baggy in some of the stock photos. The bodice also has a lot of straight lines which look quite harsh and don't look too attractive. The straps are a suitable width for the dress. Despite being topped with ribbon, I feel the straps look a little plain. At the waist area there is a ribbon belt, which at least helps to break up the print a bit and helps bring in the waist area. The ribbon bow in the centre has a very pretty shape and is a suitable size. My only issue with the ribbon is that is is quite shiny. The bodice also features a large yoke made up of gathered wide lace. The lace used has a lovely design and the gathering has been done well. However, the yoke is simply too large. It dominates the entire bodice and gets in the way of the waist details. This gives the illusion of a very crowded bodice. The neckline is then topped with another shiny ribbon bow, which is a cute shape but I feel needs to be just a tiny bit smaller. Underneath the bow there is also a gold rose charm, but it gets covered up by the lace too much, so the placement is not ideal. The back is fully shirred which means the shirring is quite exposed and there is nothing to hide it. The stock photos show the skirt has plenty of length to it. There is more than enough volume for a typical classic lolita shape and it flares out just enough. The skirt is once again kept quite plain so the print is displayed beautifully. The bottom hem is then finished off neatly with lace. I think the lace is quite pretty but I am not overly fond of how it looks with this particular dress.

And here is the print close up. This series is available in pink, green, bordeaux and black. All 4 colours look lovely with the print. The bordeaux especially stands out in my opinion. As for the print itself, the furniture and trinkets are drawn very well and has plenty of details to them. I am a little put off by the fairy lights which feature draped over some items in the print though. I feel this print has a very nostalgic, old-timey feel to it and the fairy lights seem a bit at odds with that. I personally feel the print looks a bit sparse but perhaps that is because I have been bombarded with OTT for too long! I love the diamond background and how each diamond is decorated with gold swirls. The colours used for the diamonds are my favourite bit of the print. The roses floating around the print are lovely too. However, I do have an issue with this being an all-over print instead of a border print. If you look at both dresses, you will see the furniture part of the print repeats near the waist area, and I feel this makes the print spacing look off. I would have rather just had the furniture bit running along the bottom and just had the diamond part for the rest of the dress.

So overall, I think this is quite a nice series but it seems to be lacking something. I wouldn't say this series stands out as being anything special. The dress designs are very basic. Despite liking the print, I don't like the placement of the print on the dress at all. Would I buy this series? No, I would not. If I had to I would choose the OP in bordeaux. I am surprised to see that the JSK has sold out completely on the online store as I wouldn't expect this to be a big seller. It is a nice enough series but nothing to write home about.

Next up today is Starry Moonlit Night of Sirens. This series includes 3 dresses, a skirt, a blouse, 2 hair accessories, a pairs of wrist cuffs, a necklace and socks. 

Here we can see JSK I. The bodice looks well fitted but the shape of the bodice looks a bit weird to me. The neckline looks too straight and the straps are very peculiar. I really hate how there is a circle of lace which makes a ring on the inside of the straps and around the armpit area. It is such an odd way to place the lace and I can't stand the way it looks. At least the straps look a suitable width though, and they seem quite supportive. The waist area features this sort of built-in cummerbund, whereas the rest of the bodice is slightly gathered so the material doesn't sit flat. I feel this creates a weird divide on the bodice. There is an obvious break in the print where the bodice meets the cummerbund. It also looks a bit odd having the gathered bit in the centre, but the material for the straps and the cummerbund looking so flat. I guess what I am saying is I find the bodice very confusing in design and not that appealing to look at. The design doesn't 'flow' that well and the proportions look a bit off (if that makes sense). On a more positive note, the cummerbund has a corset in the centre and the edges are lined neatly with lace and the ribbon is spaced out quite well. The pearl chain is beautiful and I love the way it has been shaped, but I think it needs to be placed a bit higher. I love the tear drop shaped pearls and the AatP logo charm fits in nicely with the design. This pearl chain is detachable but I personally feel the pearl chain is the best thing about the bodice. The neckline is finished off with some rose shaped lace which looks quite pretty. However, despite there being roses in the print, I think the rose lace looks a bit out of place. I don't feel the roses are prominent enough in the print for there to be rose themed lace. Perhaps I am nit-picking a bit too much... The back features no shirring so size flexibility is limited and the back is quite plain. The zip is very well concealed though. The stock photos show that the skirt has plenty of volume and flares out well. The slightly rounded shape is very pretty. There is the potential to create a really nice shape here. The skirt also appears to have a decent amount of length to it. The skirt design is kept simple and so, the print is displayed beautifully. The bottom hem is then finished off with some more rose themed lace. The lace is quite pretty, although I think the line of lace is just a bit too wide.

This is JSK II. The bodice looks well fitted in the stock pictures but despite the amount of shirring, I wonder if this cut is really all that flattering. I personally think the shape is quite cute but the proof is in the wearing. I dislike the way the neckline is pulled down by a thin strip of material lined with pearls in the middle. I think the pearls are cute, but otherwise it makes the neckline shape less attractive. The straps are quite thin and a bit flimsy looking but wider straps wouldn't suit this style of dress anyway. The lace topping the straps is of a good quality and I like the cute shape it creates. I just feel there is too much of the lace. It is a bit domineering. The high waistline is lined with lace which creates a pretty shape and sits very well on the dress. If there was just a bit less lace on the straps, the waist and straps could have looked quite balanced. In the centre, the lace on the waistline stops and there is a chain with tear drop charm dangling from it. I don't feel the charm really adds anything here as the lace takes the attention away from it. This little chain is detachable and I think in this case I would detach it. The back is fully shirred which means the shirring is very exposed. It would be a bit pointless putting quarter shirring and a ribbon corset here though, as the back is very short anyway. The main thing I dislike about the back is the how the waistline lace looks on the back. It goes across in a straight line and I think it really sticks out. Perhaps the lace should have ended towards the sides. Either way, it could have been shaped better. The stock photos show the skirt has a reasonable amount of volume and flare to it but I think it could have had a bit more. The skirt seems a decent length to compensate for the very high waist. The skirt design is kept basic so the print is displayed excellently. The bottom hem is then finished off with some cute lace, which I think goes better with the print than the lace on the other JSK.

This is the OP. The main part of the bodice looks well fitted but what on earth is going on with those sleeves!? These sort of puffy sleeves have worked for some blouses but the 'puffs' didn't start so high up and also the sleeves on these blouses were full length. Having the puffiness around the shoulders on this OP makes the shoulder area look massive and also looks really frumpy. It gives the illusion that the sleeves have bunched up. Also, the length of the sleeves doesn't work with this gathered side. I don't have a single positive thing to say about the sleeves. I despise them. The front of the bodice features a shirring panel, which is also topped and lined with many lines of lace. Whilst the shirring matches up with the look of the sleeves, I don't think it is that attractive to have shirring on the front like this. I much prefer to have any shirring hidden away at the back. The lace used is of a good quality although the rose shaped lace has been used again (and I still don't feel this fits in that well with the overall theme). The wide lace along the top of the shirring panel at least hides some of the shirring. The lace running across on top of the shirring has cute ribbon threaded through it, which is tied in to bows in the middle. I still think the entire bodice looks dreadful though. The back has no shirring and is very plain in design. The waist straps are very thin too and don't look like they will hold up that well. The stock photos show there is the potential to create a lovely skirt shape. There is lots of volume and the skirt flares outwards well. The skirt design is kept simple and so, the print is displayed well. The bottom hem is then finished off neatly with lace, which has a pretty design but it could do with being a bit narrower.

And finally, here we can see the print close up. This series comes in pink, mint, navy blue and black. As I looked at the colour ways for the first time I found myself being really torn between the mint and the navy. I think both of those colours look gorgeous with the print. The other 2 colours work nicely as well. As for the print itself, I think the mermaids look beautiful! I love how the images are framed with roses and shells. It is nice the way each image is connected with ribbons and lines of pearls. The jewels go really well with the boats and mermaids. I like that the sea at the bottom has been kept relatively simple, as I think the bottom of the print would otherwise look too crowded. In fact, I think the line of pearls and smaller image frames above the big pictures are maybe not needed. The background is also quite busy, although the golden colours are quite faint so it isn't too distracting. I think the constellation theme works quite well with the sea and mermaid theme. I think the random French text in the background may be too much though!

So I feel a bit disappointed by this series because even though I adore the print, I hate all 3 of the dress designs. I guess there is the skirt, but I think it is a shame about the dresses. I really feel that the print is let down by the dress designs. So unfortunately this is not a series I will be going for, unless I want to alter one of the dresses. I suppose if I had to pick, I would choose JSK II in mint or navy blue. I think I might be able to get away with that dress cut with my figure. Overall though, I feel my initial excitement about the print has been diminished somewhat by the disappointing offerings.