Chiffon trimmed mesh chemise set - chemise discontinued by Leg Avenue - review by Dawn (Lilac Distraction)

Summary

Something about this chemise told me I had to have it. It looks super sexy in a flirty pin-up style. Not overdone at all, and not completely distracting which is what I enjoy in lingerie. Simple things that are classy. No coochy cutting everything hanging out pieces for me. (Plus, look at the model. She's a bit of a departure from the fake tanned blonde with overly photoshopped boobs. I was sold.)

Material/Quality

The set is made out of nylon and polyester. Something I've learned about nylon is that you can't count on it always having the same or even a similar quality. Sometimes it's rough and scratchy and cheap, and other times it's smooth, soft, and silky. This piece happens to fall in the first category. When I order lingerie I usually get multiple pieces at a time, and I'm a chemise kind of girl, so I had another one on the order with this one. Seeing and feeling both of them at the same time made it clear how cheap this one is. The material is stiff, wrinkly, and looks like something you'd find in a $10 Halloween costume. Most of the sheer chemises I have are made of material that doesn't wrinkle at all and is awesomely slinky. Nope. Not here. It's like sheer black paper. If you fold the material between your fingers and try to slide it against itself it goes nowhere. The higher quality stuff glides on itself. Looking at it up close it even looks rough with a larger knit than most of the others I have. So yes, lame all the way. This also happens to be the case with the pink trim. Again, stiff, slightly rough, and papery. Likes to get all wrinkly and refuses to look right and fall where it's supposed to. You can even see this in the model's butt ruffle. I don't think it's really supposed to be sticking out like that. And if we didn't have enough here, the stitching is less than desirable, it's kinda itchy, and there's a huge tag hanging out on the inside that should probably be cut off. Wonderful!

The only really positive side to the material is that it's super stretchy, unlike some of the nicer ones, and conforms to your shape. If you overlook the crappy materials and design flaws that I'm about to jump on, it's not half bad, really.

Design

Ugh! This could be the most adorable thing in the world if they had put a little more thought into how they put it together and used better material!

It's a chemise that has a classic mini-dress style (no open back or sides). The front has a bit of a raised scoop to it that exposes your lady part coverings, so it's not really something that can be worn by itself without looking slightly strange. The back swoops down over the booty and gives a little cheeky peekage at the bottom of it. Four garter straps are attached to the bottom edge which keeps this pulled down and your stockings pulled up. How nice of them? The little lace panels on the sides are super sexy and add a little bit of flirtiness just like the ruffles do and accent the hips nicely.

Now let's get to those design flaws, shall we? The freaking straps aren't adjustable! How the hell are you not gonna have adjustable straps! Not only do they, well, adjust, but they also serve the purpose of helping to adjust the cups so that they can accommodate differences in breast sizes. Not to mention, tinier girls like me who have a petite frame usually have to shorten the straps because they tend to be a little long If I pull this up so that the cups fit I end up with a couple of extra inches on the straps and that's no fun at all. They're about 16" long, so you've got a lot of shoulder area there. Because I have some sewing skills, I'm going to fix them, but part of me wants to fix the whole thing and their technical flaws that they have going on with this.

Now let's move on to the ruffles and pink stuff on this thing. They're cute, but they don't ever feel like cooperating. Because of the issues with the straps the trim around the cups wants to get all funky and not lay down which is pretty lame. The ruffles at the bottom, just like the ones in the picture, kinda agree on the front, but the back sticks out all weird. Plus, they get wrinkly. Such a sad day here.

Oh, and the garters? Not adjustable, either. The ones in the back are about 3 1/2" long, and the front ones come in at about 5". I always have to fuss with my garters because they're too long even if they're adjustable, and these work for me, so it goes without saying that they're short and may pull your stockings straight up to your butt.

See, if they just upgraded the quality of the material and gave it adjustable straps and garters it would be perfect. I almost want to take it apart and make my own

Sizing

It fits . . . awkwardly. Damn those shoulder straps! They tend to create a little sagginess in the boob area if you don't fill them completely up. Adjustable straps usually solve that problem

Company Sizing, S/M (my measurements):
Dress: 5 - 8 (0-2)
Cup: A - B (30C/32B)
Bust: 32 - 36 (31)
Waist: 23 - 27 (25)
Hip: 34 - 38 (31)

Their sizing is kinda awkward. Size 5-8? Nope. Anyway . . .

I fall really weird into these measurements, but it works for me. Kinda works for me. Everything fits but the cups, really. It's all stretchy so it should work for the whole range of sizes here, but with the non-adjustable straps and the short garters it may leave you a little awkward unless you're really short and have huge shoulders/boobs. This piece did have some real potential, but it fell short of that in quite a number of ways.

I'm planning on coming back and adding pictures once I'm on speaking terms with this thing again.