Originally posted January 8, 2013
Awhile ago I ordered for a second time from Anna House, after working out some things with my mom about money. You can see my previous Anna House review here if you’re interested.
I saw on the website that the skirt I’ve been wanting since I started wearing Lolita didn’t have a size option, so I figured there might only be one left. I sent them a message asking how many were left, and if they had an XL. The replied ‘we have one size XL left,’ which I took to mean ‘we only have one skirt left, and it is a size XL.’
So I went over to the site and ordered it. There still wasn’t a size option available. I get an email confirmation that my payment went through and go to bed happy.
The next day I wake up to find an email stating that my size SMALL skirt has shipped. I go check the skirt page and they’ve added the size option back, with an XL and a small available. I send them a message explaining the mistake, and they say that they’re sorry and I should send it back to them when it arrives.
I then send a message asking if they will pay for shipping the correct size to me, but I never get a reply. I send another message. No reply.
The skirt arrived yesterday and I decided to alter it because Anna House apparently has shit communication skills.
Now the real review can start.
Here’s the skirt:
It’s made of a kind of stiff, scratchy fabric. It’s not really uncomfortable, but it’s not what I was expecting:
It has two different floral laces running across the front of it:
It has really cute strawberry buttons that are for the straps that were included:
It has this weird white bow sewn at the front between the cute buttons:
The zipper is really difficult when it gets to the seam. I don’t know why, but it can be rather painful on my fingers to try to zip it up:
It has a very small shirring panel in the back:
Here I am wearing it before the alteration:
It was very uncomfortable, and I couldn’t get the zipper up all the way:
The back did this really unflattering thing:
And now we can move on to how I made it so much better. The first things I did was remove the two floral laces and the weird white bow. I wanted to remove the shiny ribbon from the bow lace, but found I couldn’t. I don’t mind it too much, though.
Then I cut off the button holes, opened the straps, and ironed them flat:
Then I removed the shirring panel and ripped out the gathering stitch on the skirt body.
I cut one of the straps into three pieces and used them to add to the shirring panel. I sewed it back to the skirt and added three pieces of elastic. I don’t have pictures of these steps, but here’s the final result. All of this was hand sewn.
I used the other strap to make two matching bows. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the remaining piece.
And here I am wearing the final result:
The zipper zips and the back looks less unflattering.
And here’s a picture with my amazing Bodyline bag:
Ignoring the size issues, I’d give the skirt itself a 4/5.
Anna House, however, once again receives a 2.5/5 from me.
They have decent products, though this is the second piece I’ve ordered that has misleading sizing (this time the given measurements were too small. A size small skirt is supposed to fit a 27 inch waist and it could probably go up to a 29.) and the communication is terrible from what I’ve experienced.
This is the second time I’ve been disappointed by Anna House. I usually give reputable stores 3 tries, which I will also apply to Anna House because I know a lot of Lolitas enjoy it. If they ever have something I’m interested in I’ll consider making another purchase, but I will be very wary and won’t expect much.
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