My Not-so-Lucky Lucky Pack

This was my very first experience with buying a lucky pack. I got this one as a part of Baby the Stars Shine Bright's Valentine's Day event. As I’ve mentioned before, BABY is my absolute favorite Lolita brand, and so I really didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to get a good deal on some clothes. This event was unlike previous lucky pack sales in that they had to be bought in person at the Baby the Stars Shine Bright shop in San Francisco. Having lucky pack sales that have to be bought in the store isn’t uncommon; it was simply unexpected for me. I never thought I'd have to hire a shopping service for a store in my own country. Nevertheless, I hired my first shopping service and began the wait.

Now what exactly is a Lucky Pack? Basically it's a pack of items coordinated to go together. Many brands sell them around New Years to clear out old stock, but sometimes they're sold in the summer. Many brands offer different types of lucky packs for different prices. There’s usually a “deluxe” pack that can have one-pieces, blouses, jumper skirts, accessories, headpieces, bags, and even jewelry inside.These are the most expensive packs and sometimes contain an original print. Also, the shop may let you choose a color or style. For example, you can indicate that you wear black or pink or blue most often, and they’ll give you that color of pack. Of course, you don’t know what's inside, so there’s still a surprise there.

Then they’ll have a “medium” pack or a casual pack. That’s what I got. It’s usually priced pretty well (for generally expensive Lolita clothing.

For example, in my pack, I got a jumper skirt, a blouse, a head bow, a pair of socks, a cell-phone strap/keychain, and a gym bag (why I would need a gym bag for Lolita, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll use it for travel).It contains a complete outfit, but it’s not going to be as complete as the deluxe pack/it will lack something that the more expensive pack has.

The third pack that is usually sold is an accessory pack. This is the cheapest pack offered. It’ll have a headpiece, some socks, maybe some wrist cuffs, jewelry, a wallet; it just depends on what the brand offers. These are great deals if you’re in need of accessories, want to get a lot of little things for not a high price, or even to get the pack, split it up and give them as gifts. This pack also will usually come in different colors or styles. Sometimes they’ll let you choose, sometimes they won’t. It varies from sale to sale.

Different sales will have different packs available. I’ve also seen packs with skirts and blouses, shoe packs, jewelry packs, and all sorts of other ones. If the brand offers it for normal sale, chances are, they will eventually offer it in a lucky pack. The only exception I can think of for this is for parasols. I’ve never seen a pack offering parasols. But if they did, I’d be all over getting one of those.

Anyhow, now you know more about lucky packs. Now for my lucky pack. I got that medium size pack, the one with the jumper skirt and blouse and accessories. It’s a complete outfit and it’s very well made.There are all sorts of little details on the different pieces, like the crown embroidery on the detachable bow, the BABY logo embroidery on the blouse, and the different types of lace used on the blouse. The jumper has shirring on it, but no corset lacing, which I found odd. The other problematic thing about the dress is that the straps are uncommonly short. This makes the dress sort of not make sense to me. In the photos provided by BABY on their San Francisco blog it looked like it would fit one way. However in real life, the dress does not fit this way at all, which is very disappointing. The pack came in three different color options: pink, brown, and black.

I was hoping for black, and I got brown. A friend of mine ordered two packs, and so she was hoping for a black so that we could trade, but she got two browns! So between the two of us, we ended up with three of the exact same pack. I ended up buying a black one on the sales community and selling my brown pack to my sister.

I wish I could have included pictures of my black lucky pack for you. However, I haven't been able to get all the wrinkles out of it. It has a bustle in the back, which makes ironing it tricky. I don't have a steam iron either. So when I am able to get all those pesky wrinkles out, I'll take some pictures and update this post. Is that alright? I'll be updating again on Saturday, so look forward to it!