Bodyline's Like Brand Looks

The last time I really wrote about Bodyline was quite a while ago and they have definitely changed since then, and luckily that change has been for the better! For those you you who aren't too familiar with Bodyline, they are a very cheap and easy source for Lolita (dresses costing between $30 and $65) that started off as a costume shop knocking out cheaply made and overpriced Lolita-inspired lace monsters but they soon discovered that there was quite a huge market in selling "real" Lolita clothes for a fraction of the price of brands. True, Bodyline Lolita pieces are also a fraction of the same quality as brand Lolita but they usually look nice and hold up well to wear, and for the price, who's going to complain?

Over the years Lolitas have had many different feelings towards Bodyline. The relationship between Lolitas and our favorite discount dress store is sometimes complicated. They started out the butt of everyone's joke, then they shocked and divided the Lolita community when they released nice quality print replica's of highly sought after brand dresses for $50, then very slowly they started releasing better and better pieces with better and better original prints. I think some of their recent additions are seriously on par with brand, at least as far as design and print goes, and are often even a bit inspired by various brand prints. I have been considering these new Bodyline pieces something like the "Runway looks for less!" features you can often find in mainstream fashion magazines, the ones that show off a runway look and then feature similarly styled look-a-like pieces from department stores for much, much less.

Stripe Balloon Bears is a cute print featuring cute bears all lined up around the hem of the skirt. The print design is a bit reminiscent of Metamorphose's Honey Picnic or one of the many other bear prints that Metamorphose and even Innocent World has put out. Design wise, I think this is a very solid dress, it's a pretty standard OP style with a few extra bows and lace thrown in for good measure, and I'm such a fan of square necklines with the criss-crossing ribbon!

This perfume print is reminiscent of Angelic Pretty's famous Rose Toilette, only instead of a series of pastel colors, it comes in a variety of deeper jewel tones, perfect for the Classic Lolita who flirts with Sweet Lolita (or, if you will, the Sweet-Classic hybrid), which is something I think that the Rose Toilette print could have definitely used. I would actually love to see this in a JSK, because I am not too much of a fan of the OP styling,  it's cute, but it doesn't seem very versatile. Bodyline often releases several different versions of their prints on the English webshop at different times, and this dress just hit the English webshop from the Japanse one, so, who knows, a JSK version could easily be on the horizon. I hope so, because I do really enjoy this print.

This macaron and dessert themed print is undoubtedly cute! The styling of the print is very Angelic Pretty, and even features the desserts AP helped make famous in the Lolita community with  Dreaming Macaron, in fact, the print is a bit reminiscent of it, only featuring a polkadotted background and coming in much bolder colors than the AP print.

Sweet Cream is another adorable and relatively new Bodyline original print. This one, I do not believe, was not meant to pay homage to any particular brand print, but I think it definitely has a Baby the Stars Shine Bright feel to it, especially with the ice cream's neatly lined up along the bottom with the little ribbon swags. Ice cream and ribbon swag border prints are something that always reminds me of BtSSB. This is another piece from Bodyline that I think gets the Lolita JSK design down perfectly, it's simple, but it's elegant and can work well however you want to wear it.

This Bodyline Strawberry print instantly reminded me of the new direction Angelic Pretty has been going in, and even features strawberry slices along the border like in the recent Triple Tart print. I actually like Bodyline's version of the style much better! The print has much more details and gone are the questionable giant gingham blocks.


This Jewelry themed print practically screams Baby the Stars Shine Bright to me! Especially the pink and black colorway! I was instantly reminded of the black and pink colorway of Salon Music, a bit of the styling from Dripping Lace, and even a little bit of Metamorphose's Perfume Bottle print. Needless to say, this is one of the new Bodyline prints that I want to get my hands on most of all, even if it does seem a bit lacking in the poof department.

This waffle and fruit themed print is another print that reminds me of some of Angelic Pretty's more recent prints, the ones where they go a bit Emily Temple Cute. There's no directly similar piece to this dress that I can think of, but it certainly does remind me of something along the lines of AP's French Cafe or even Honey Cake, if simply because of the use of a more breakfasty looking print in a styling that is a bit simpler than most AP prints.

I'm not actually sure if these are supposed to be balloons or lolly pops, but this print reminds me a bit of Candy Treat, only with stripes, because of the use of such bold colors. Angelic Pretty is known more for their soft pastel, sort-of-blend-together-into-a-big-pastel-blob styled prints and Candy Treat was one of the first of their recent prints to start featuring bold pastel colors in a way that Metamorphose is more known for.

Could this print be any more Angelic Pretty in the height of their pastel-explosion-o-rama? From far away it could be anything from Toy Parade to Dreamy Dollhouse or any number of their other cute animal and/or dessert themed prints. It even comes in a lavender colorway, which is a lovely, but infrequently seen color for Sweet Lolita prints.

These are actually just a few of the new prints that Bodyline has come out with in the past few months! There are a bunch more on their webshop and hopefully there are more prints like this on the horizon for them. Now that Angelic Pretty seems to be going in a bolder and almost Otome inspired direction (at least as far as prints go!), Bodyline is a nice alternative for those not yet ready to let go of their love of pastel rainbows. I think any of these dresses would be an excellent way of building a print-based Sweet Lolita wardrobe on a budget or even for those of us who enjoy Sweet Lolita, but not really enough to fight girls for the newest Angelic Pretty release, who are looking to add a few creative Sweet Lolita prints to our wardrobe.

Personally, I hope to pick up a few of these! I have a very limited number of Sweet Lolita main pieces in pastel colors (I think I have exactly 2 pink skirts and 1 pink JSK I'm in the process of selling!) and at between $37 and $62 dollars a piece, these Bodyline pieces are the perfect way to add a little more color to my wardrobe for cheap!

10 comments:

  1. I love bodyline. I think what I like the most about it is that their quality of dresses has gone up at about the same pace as my understanding of what good quality lolita dresses are. I have one piece I bought from the dreaded separates section back when I first found out about bodyline and finally had enough to buy something. Later, I got one of the gingham dresses with the alice apron and a good while after that, I got a rose macaron dress right when it came out. I'm definitely looking forward to being able to get one of their newer prints. They've really improved. I've never been ashamed of wearing bodyline since people have always really liked whatever I wore from there, but lately, I definitely feel like I can have even more pride in wearing their stuff. :3

    ReplyDelete
  2. i do love bodyline...and i agree that some prints are reminiscent of brand dresses but not all of them are. For instance the soft cream, the macaroon, squirrel fantasy, and the waffle dresses seem like original bodyline designs. I also know for a fact ( since i'm a bodyline fan-tard) that the waffle jsk came out waaay before ap honey cake did :/

    i'm really hoping that bodyline keeps up the cute prints and such, i love their stuff ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this commentary on the brand/Bodyline similarities in a non-negative way. The most recent Bodyline/Brand similarity that jumped out at me, though, was a design that Bodyline did first- does anyone else think that AP's Chocolate Chess print looks a bit like Antique Clock?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm very happy to see Bodyline's improvements. There are less Lolitas who criticize this "under-brand" and I think it's a good thing. Ok, this brand (yes, it is, even it's not in the opinion of the elitists) had unglorious beginning with his awful Cosplay Lolita dresses, very cheap and plastic laces...
    But today ? Today, I think Bodyline really can be see as a brand, the best one for quality-price value.Sometimes, their prints looks even more cute, because it doesn't have the letters of the brand hidden somewehere (AP, Baby, etc.).

    And even it continues to release some cosplayish-dresses, the majority of his new products is really good-looking. And maybe in some years, they will release the first 100% cotton dress ?! Ok, maybe I'm dreaming, but... I really wish it to arrive !

    For the moment, I can't wait to command the mint "Choco Berry" JSK !
    Lolitas, have pleasure to wear something you like and that doesn't cost all your salary !

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LOVE the last dress! I can now create an Angelic Pretty look with my hobo budget!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like Bodyline, but I don't have paypal. TvT

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really like the look of the waffle dress but I can't seem to find it on their website. Does anybody know if where I can find it or if it's been discontinued? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try Lace Market or Lolita Sales in English (the second of which is on Facebook). Bodyline frequently shows up for great prices second hand.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...