In late July, Korean lolita brand Lief advertised their new print “Perfume Coffret”. This French inspired print featured perfume bottles and boxes, set on a lush backdrop of Victorian interior decorating. The soft colors and romantic art got me bad.
The JSK was available in 2 sizes M, which covered sizing from bust sizes 88 cm to 106 cm and waist sizes 74-92, and XL which covered sizing from bust sizes 100 cm to 118 cm and waist sizes 86-104 cm. It came in 3 colorways: “cream rose” “blue moon mush” and “black santal”. It also came with a making headband, which I did not purchase. The JSK was $230, plus $40 shipping to the US. Their Facebook page estimated that the dresses would be shipping in September.
Business (not quite) as usual
Lief, like many indie brands, doesn’t have a shopping cart service for it’s overseas customers. Instead, you place an order by emailing the brand with details about your order. Their Facebook has detailed instructions for placing an email by email.
I emailed my order on July 23, 2022, the last day of the reservation. The same day, I received confirmation of my order and a Paypal shipping invoice. My payment was confirmed the same day. On Tuesday, August 16, 2022, I received an email letting me know my dress would be shipped the next day with an EMS tracking number. On Monday August 22, the dress arrived at my door in Los Angeles!
Details of the dress
The dress is a satin polyester and lined with polyester. It has an invisible side zipper, half shirring in the back, and detachable waist ties. I was disappointed that the shoulder straps weren’t adjustable. However, the length of the bodice is generous enough that it sits nicely on my waist.
As with most polyester prints, the art is crisp and clear and stands out beautifully against the textured background. This is mostly a “border print”, so the most interesting part of the design is the repeating pattern on the skirt.
Though I’m smack in the middle of the M size range for this JSK, the princess seams aren’t cut generously enough to accommodate my bust nicely. As a result, the shirring pulls the JSK tighter than I’d like across my bust, resulting in the dreaded “boobloaf”. I think if I’d gotten the XL, it would have been too large, so this is just a problem with the cut of the dress. Obviously, with ready wear dresses, it’s impossible to account for every body type and something that I’ll address with my own styling choices.
Classical beauty
This dress is perfectly classic. While the cut of the JSK isn’t very interesting, the print more than makes up for this. With a variety of colors, this dress can be styled with pinks, greens, golds, creams, brown…honestly the possibilities are pretty endless. The roses allow for styling beyond just the perfume bottles, so you can accessorize with florals.
I styled this with both a bolero and an over the top hime sleeve blouse. This print looked great with both of them.
I love this release. I will definitely be keeping an eye on feature releases from Lief!
Perfume Coffret was actually a re-release, Lief did this print once years back. When they did the re-release, I seriously pondered getting it because a friend in my comm has it, so I knew first hand and up close how stunning it is. But in the end, even though I know I would’ve worn it, I had to say no, the price was a bit too prohibitive for my pocket at the time. Glad to see that you got it though and can’t wait to see you style it (definitely would love to see this with green!).
Someone else mentioned this as well! I think I would have liked it in cotton (and with adjustable straps), but it’s hard to beat the beautiful crisp print on polyester!