Tales of the Wood by Crown Label (meta)

Today I am looking at Tales of the Wood by Meta's offshoot Crown Label. This series comprises of 3 dresses, 2 skirts (1 long, 1 short), a headbow, bags and socks. This series will be up for pre-order soon but the socks are already available in their online store.

First up is this one-piece. With such a busy print it is good that Meta kept the dress details simple. Well, the details are not that simple but they blend in with the dress. The bodice is relatively simple with 2 simple lines of lace. All the lace used here is quite thin. It is obvious Meta want you to focus on the print more than anything else. I think the use of ribbon threaded lace on the neckline works well with the shape of this bodice. The neck straps are quite cute. I would lose the 2 bows on the straps. The back is finished with some corset detail. The ribbon hides the shirring quite well. It looks quite neat and they have matched the ribbon colour well. The waist bow is nice and simple too. I didn't even notice there was a waist bow at first. My main complaint with the bodice is the buttons. They are the same colour as the apples in the print so it tricks the eye in to thinking some of the buttons have been misplaced. Maybe they should have used buttons which matched the main dress colour instead. The skirt part has an interesting ribbon part running vertically and then a horizontal ruffle. Usually I dislike this sort of detail but I quite like it on this particular dress. The skirt part has a lot of volume which is always good with a higher waist. The bottom hem is finished off with ribbon which is a bit different. Although some people may dislike this bottom hem detail, I like how it finishes off the dress more simply. I imagine it must have been a challenge to balance out the print details with the dress details. Overall, I don't think this dress is too bad.

And then there is the high waisted pinafore JSK. This is probably my least favourite dress in this series. The front and back of the bodice on this dress are pretty much the same. So there are 2 panels of shirring and 2 corset parts. I thought this dress looked a bit messier. The waist bow has been kept simple again but this time it is larger. If it was me, I would move the waist bow a bit higher up to hide some of that corset. I also thought the straps look a little strange. However, my number one complaint with this dress has got to be the use of ribbon on the skirt part. It is highly noticeable and it causes a harsh brake in the skirt. It could just be the camera, but I also don't like how shiny this ribbon is. The ribbon is a bit too "Mad Meta Experiment" for me (I should definitely trade mark that phrase!). The finish off the skirt Meta has 2 simple bows and the bottom hem has some pretty lace with bows on it. If I wanted a dress from this series I certainly wont be picking this one.

And then there is the pinafore JSK. To show the details better I have included the draft picture-

All the little details around the bodice appear to be small ruffles. Although there are a lot of ruffles, the size means it doesn't look too frilly. In fact, I think this is quite pretty. The straps are a decent size but on the model they point outwards a bit. The straps look nicer in the draft picture but I think this is only a small problem. The ribbon theme is continued on this dress with a ribbon belt. It is not exactly risky, but I think this is the best use of ribbon in this series. The ribbon on this dress does not pull your attention away from the print. With the black dress it is hard to tell how neat the back part looks. In the black colour, the corset in the back blends in nicely. The skirt part has a lovely bell shape to it. It is not as wide as the other 2 dresses but it has a nice rounded shape. The bottom hem on this dress is similar to the 2nd dress but there is a ruffle in place of the lace. This is by far my favourite dress in this series.

And finally, the print close-up. I was thinking about the best way to describe this print. Imagine Innocent World and Meta having a love child, but Meta has the more dominant genes. This is Meta taking inspiration from IW and doing their own spin on it. It is a very interesting print. If I had to choose between Meta and Innocent World, I would choose Innocent World. However, this print is still very pretty, albeit slightly more cutesy. I am a bit undecided on the stripy part. Also, there are parts of the print which look brighter than other bits. Some bits look a tiny bit washed out.

This series is a bit hit and miss. I would possibly buy the last dress but I would not go out of my way to get hold of it. To be honest, I think if I could get a similar print from Innocent World (and fit it!) I would rather buy an IW dress. But if you have always wanted a sweeter IW inspired print, this series could be right for you. I think this series will sell well but to be honest, I don't think IW have anything to worry about.