DreamV Rakuten Review- Positive

I did a small DreamV order last month. As I have previously reviewed DreamV (search DreamV on my blog if you wish to see what I thought of the ordering process last time) I wont go in to too much detail about the ordering process. But what I will do is once again provide the ordering guide I used, as it is useful for working out what size you are- http://ciramisu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/yumetenbo-shopping-guide.html

Communication and Shipping

The guide in the link above also tells you what emails you should expect from both Rakuten and DreamV. I found the emails arrived in a very timely manner. The initial DreamV email took a day or 2 longer than stated but that was because I ordered over a weekend, so this isn't too big an issue for me. Apart from that, all the emails came very quickly. The shipping took barely any time at all. The longest delay in the shipping was once again the UK customs, which isn't the fault of DreamV. 

My order was placed inside a large cardboard box, which was very well sealed. My only complaint here is that because I ordered 1 dress and a pair of shoes, there was a bit of space in the box and the contents were moving around a bit inside. Perhaps a bit of extra padding could have been put in the empty space on top of the dress.

My shoes were very well packaged. The shoes were wrapped in tissue paper. The insides of the shoes were stuffed in the toes with tissue paper and some of those plastic rod things so that the shoes held their shape.

And here are the shoes. The pink colour does not look quite as pastel pink as the stock photos, which is a bit disappointing. The shoes were in very good condition. There were a few small marks on the shoes when I first got them but I was able to simply wipe them off without much effort. 

I was very surprised to see that the last strap nearest to the toe area was not on a popper but simply elasticated. Still, the elastic is well concealed when the shoes are worn so that is not much of an issue. The other 2 straps do have poppers so you can simply snap them on and off. I feel the straps on the shoes could do with being a bit longer. I found that with my wide feet I had to adjust the straps a fair bit to get the straps to fit.

I don't feel the bows look as neat as they do in the stock photos. Quite a lot of the white underside of this bow shows up. I did try to reshape the bow a bit but I wasn't that successful. Apart from this issue, the stitching on the shoes is really neat and tidy and the heart shaped holes have been neatly punched out.

So far I have only worn the shoes for a few hours, just to break them in. I have found the shoes to be quite comfortable so far. The soles of the shoes have a bit of padding, which is a bonus. I have heard that DreamV shoe sizes run a bit small, so I went for the 25.5cm instead of my usual 25cm. My feet are actually a 24.5cm but I always order up with Japanese shoes because of my wide feet. I found that there is a bit of empty space in the toe area, so I probably could have gotten away with my usual size. However despite being a bit big, the shoes don't seem to be causing me any issues.

The other thing I got was this dress. I had a bit of a dilemma with the sizing as my waist measurement fitted a smaller dress size than my bust did. In the end, I went for the larger dress size and thankfully, it doesn't look like a sack on me. I do feel it is a shame that the bust measurements are not more generous, but I suppose the clothing is designed to fit Asian girls. There is a zip which is well concealed going up one side of the dress, underneath the armpit area. I find the zip did make putting on the dress easier, although I do wonder if the zip would have been more efficient if placed on the back instead. I was expecting the dress to be made of thin cutsew style material and it is made from something similar. However, the dress material is in fact thicker. I probably wont be able to wear this dress in the midst of a heatwave but otherwise, the thicker material was a pleasant surprise.

The embroidery has generally been done quite nicely. You can see one slightly thicker line near the middle of the moon and one of the 'O's in the text has an extra little line underneath. Otherwise, the embroidery is clean and you can read the text clearly. 

The chiffon ruffles feel quite soft. I have seen softer chiffon than this but it is still fairly nice. They are gathered and shaped well and sit nicely on the dress. The edges are kept neat. The stars on top of the chiffon are generally quite nice, although one or 2 have slight scratches on them.

After putting the dress on, I can confirm the dress material feels very soft and pleasant to wear. I was worried the sleeves were going to be too short, but they actually did reach my wrist area. They could perhaps do with just being a centimetre or 2 longer. I was also initially worried that the bottom hem would sit too high up on my thighs but actually, I think the length was perfect for me. I am about 5'4'' and on me it sits about mid to low thigh. So I wouldn't recommend it for taller wearers, although I think you could get away with being an inch or 2 taller than me to wear this dress.

So overall I am very pleased with my second DreamV order. You get good value for the low price you pay. In fact, I would say the dress is actually very cheap considering how pleased I am with it. It definitely exceeds my expectations. The shoes are also quite nice, although I was expecting a slightly more pastel colour and one of the bows is a bit misshapen. I would definitely get more dresses in the future and possibly more shoes as well, if the shoe design was a bit simpler. I would still recommend DreamV to friends and I will be ordering again.