Beer gal - costume discontinued by Coquette - review by LovesAPoet

~ Material/Design/Craftsmanship
The Beer Gal costume by Coquette technically comes with five pieces. A lace crop top, apron, thong and a dress with a sewn in rigid lace crinoline. The crop top, apron and the trim on the bottom of the dress are all made from the same material. It's a white cotton-feeling material with a small floral pattern and small 'eyelet' type holes. It's a bit rougher of a material but hasn't been itchy yet. Though it can show a bit of your skin color in direct light, it's by no means see though. The dress and thong are made of a dark green velvet material that is 90% Polyester and 10% Spandex. It's very soft to the touch, nonirritating and stretchy.
I haven't seen any sewing flaws or reasons to believe that this is a poorly made piece. I believe that this outfit is well made, is made of durable materials and will last a long time if properly taken care of.



~ Dress and Rigid Lace Crinoline
Although the packaging states that this is a five piece set, in reality it's more like four. The crinoline, which is really like a small petticoat, is sewn into the dress at the hips at four places. It is not removable without tearing/removing these stitches. It is made of two layers of ridge, itchy lace. It does appear to add some "poof" to the dress, but certainly not much. The crinoline had serious potential but sadly has become my least favorite part of the set. Mostly because it irritates my hips at the points it's sewn in at. This would be so much more useful if it had come separate or with velcro/snaps to make it easily detachable.



Thankfully the rest of the dress makes up for the disappointing wannabe petticoat. It starts off with a tie halter style neck that continues down to the bust area. There is no designated section for your breasts. This means that there's no cups nor underwire and ultimately very little breast support. I personally don't find this to be a huge problem because this set could be easily worn with a bra. Down the center of the bust area there is a section that can be laced up, though it is more for appearance than actually altering the shape of the dress. It is laced up through 14 small ribbon type eyelets. All together there are 22 of these eyelets but the dress comes with only every other set or so laced up, possibly to space out the ribbon. Along each side of lace up section there are 10 daisy type flowers. In the stock photo both the ribbon and daisies look completely white, however the lace and the centers of the flowers are in fact a pale pink.
The back of the dress will leave your shoulders exposed and come around to about the middle of your upper back. There is a 6 inch zipper in the back that makes the dress easier to get in and out of. The zipper does however have the tendency to bunch and make a large lump, giving the back a strange appearance at times.
There is a seam that connects the top and bottom of the dress all the way around the dress. It's not super noticeable but you will see it fall right around your hips depending on your height. The bottom of the dress is fairly plain, only having a small amount of 2 inch white trim along the bottom.



~ Crop Top and Apron
The white crop top one of the nicer parts to the set. It has elastic all around it and can be worn either over or off of the shoulder. The elastic in the arms is very stretchy. Around the edge of the arms there is another section of 2 inch trim, made of the same material. There are two sections to the top, the one that goes along your back is the shorter of the two at around 4 inches high. The front portion which fits your breasts is taller at around 6 inches tall. As with the dress, there is no cup area, underwire or breast support.



The apron is again made out of the same white material. It is an oval shape with the same white trim around the edges. Instead of securing with a tie or knot it has snaps at the end of each ribbon. Unstretched the apron all the way around including the ribbon is around 45 inches long.

~ Thong
The thong is made of the same green velvet material as the dress. It doesn't feature a cotton panel, but does have a different material on the inside so the velvet won't be touching your skin directly.

~ Packaging and Care
This outfit comes in a clear plastic hanger bag, roughly about the size of a Halloween costume bag. It has thick paper with a picture of the standard size model, the name of the costume, a description of what the set includes, the brand name, their logo and website. The tag inside the dress calls for hand wash. The crop top and apron could probably be machine washed if they were to get dirty. There are no little ribbons inside the dress which makes it nearly impossible to hang up nicely, so I keep my set in the original bag.



~ Sizing
I personally do not believe that this set is true to size. My measurements are all at or below the suggested measurements and I feel like this costume fits me well. The only real size problem I encountered was that the waist was a bit large (though that was to be expected with me ordering up). Although I think that you could fit a person larger than me in this dress comfortably, I do not think it would work for the highest measurements on the chart.
Coquette's Queen One Size measurements are as follows in inches (mine in parentheses).

Size:18-26 (16-18)
Cup:D (D)
Bust: 46-54 (38)
Waist:38-46 (34)
Hips: 48-56 (42-46ish)

On Coquette's chart I fall right between the One Size and the Queen One Size but having larger breasts and hips, I often opt to go up a size. If you are around my size or a bit larger, I would for recommend going with the plus size. The panties on this set also seem to run small, mostly because they have little to no stretch with the velvet material.
I am 5'7" and this dress fell right about at my upper thigh. I wouldn't be afraid to wear this out but bending over might be a struggle not to show off the goods.

~ Overall
This set had some great aspects to it. I loved that the elastic in the arms was very stretchy(many other costumes with fitted arms I end up having to cut out the too tight elastic). I also liked that Coquette differed from the norm with the design and material, making this dress unique. Other things I didn't love so much. The snaps on the apron were kind of silly in my opinion, I ended up just tying the fabric because when snapped the apron slid down to far. I thought the pieces worked pretty well though. The velvet thong was very cute despite lacking a cotton panel. The crop top probably could've been integrated into the dress but it also works well as a separate piece. Overall I feel cute in this dress, so I'm giving it a 4 out of 5 stars. It had a few design flaws (the crinoline and apron could have been done better) but other than those few things the set is great.
That being said, sadly this piece may not work for everyone. I would only recommend this costume to someone who falls to the middle or below the suggested measurements for the Queen OS. Sadly this set just does not have the room or give/stretch that is needed.