BABY and Alice and the Pirates are my favorite Japanese brands. I'm always watching for their newest releases! And this past week has been a flurry of releases from them. Three new sets have been released for reservation, and they're all quite different from each other.
That sure is a mouthful. What a ridiculous name. But this print is quite lovely in my opinion. It features delicate angels flying around with crosses and candelabras. The series has two jumpers, a skirt, a bonnet, an Alice bow, some socks, a blouse, and plenty of jewelry to match. The designer used delicate chiffon fabric to give the jumpers a light and airy feeling, like they could float away. Both jumpers also feature bustle backs, which I'm a big fan of. The skirt is simple, a great piece to fit into almost any wardrobe. The blouse has princess sleeves, which seem to be back in style. None of the pieces are over-designed in my opinion and would work well in many different styles. It went on sale on the 11th, but most everything is still available for reservation!
This is my favorite of the three. If I had the funds for it, I'd be tempted to buy it. It's perfect for Christmas! This is an Alice and the Pirates design based off of a Christmas classic, The Nutcracker. I don't know why, but I associate this type of plaid print with Christmas. The border has toy chests, nutcracker soldiers, rocking horses, stuffed bears, and all sorts of other classic toys one might find in the ballet. It comes in four vibrant colors: yellow, blue, green, and red. This series also has two jumpers, a skirt, a one-piece, two tops (one blouse and one vest-bustier sort of hybrid), an Alice bow, a hat, and some socks. I wish they had made this into some stuff for boy-style too, since the hat would be perfect for a military-inspired coordinate. I'm not a big fan of the blouse at all, but the Mary jumper and one piece remind me of the sorts of Christmas dresses my mom would make my sister and I wear for church. The reservation period starts on the 16th, so if you want to get this, be ready. I think it will be popular.
This set is a collaboration with the popular vinyl doll, Blythe. The series has one dress, a headbow, a pair of tights, and some jewelry. The print is of the night sky, full of constellations and different types of stars. The back of the dress has an enormous bow complete with smaller bows as decorations. It has a bustle front, princess sleeves, and a scalloped hem, making it a very opulent one piece. The cost reflects this, at over $600 US (that's around 450€ or 387£ for European readers)! Also available for purchase is the matching Blythe doll, complete with her own, tiny version of the dress and headbow. This reservation starts on the 18th, and does not include the doll with any purchase.
The first (crazy long name) and the last of these three series can be seen here in the videos from the Hoshi no Namida Princess Tea Party held in October in Tokyo. Make sure you get the right videos though, as they also have ones of their tea party held back in February. I'm not sure why the Nutcracker print isn't in the show, since they use it on the video at the beginning. I love that BABY made their own YouTube channel and is taking film of their shows in Japan for all of us that can't go to their shows over there. I hope they continue to do that in the future~ Will you be buying any of these? Which is your favorite?