Born and raised in the United Kingdom, I discovered Japanese culture in my early twenties which completely changed my life. My goal became one where I was to live and work in Japan.
I eventually made it to the Land of the Rising Sun where I worked in the IT field and started to write a blog about life in Japan. I ended up working for the Japanese government as a board member on various committees for what's known as the "Cool Japan" initiative.
"Cool Japan" is everything that attracts non-Japanese folks to visit and consume Japanese products and contents.
It wasn't until I started working on Cool Japan, where I discovered an actual "Cool Britannia" movement back in the '90s.
Having lived nearly half of my life in Japan, I do miss the UK and planned to visit at least once a year after making a trip back to London in 2019 - and then the pandemic happened...
In the meantime, this Britannia Dress will keep my spirits high knowing that when I can visit the UK again - I will feast on fish n chips, saveloy, kebab, scotch eggs, crumpets and raid our local Tesco in Hackney for om noms.
The Britannia Dress went through many (many) prototypes as we tried to figure out how to print and position the flag in the center. I wanted the dress to have a soft look and feel so we opted for a fabric that is slightly fuzzy.
The graphic of the flag is printed on the surface of the fabric so if you stretch it then it will...look stretched - the same way all our printed tees behave.
As the surface is fuzzy, depending on which direction you put pressure on the fabric, the fiber ends (hairs) on the fabric surface will lay down causing the print to look slightly faded - again this is the same behavior as our printed tees.
Printing on this fabric has been a challenge too which has left some areas slightly darker than others - this is not noticeable if it is being worn on the Smart Doll but may be noticeable if you are glaring at the dress on its own.
You will notice that the top of the red cross curves inwards to give a better-looking shape around the bewbs. The dress has been designed with the Medium Smooth bust in mind but also looks good with the default Small - I'm not sure about the Large bust though which will probably stretch the fabric too much causing the print to look very faded.
While the dress has a low stain risk, the panties that come with the dress have black lace, which could leave a stain. If the panties were sold on their own then they would get a stain rating of "High" - no plans to sell separate though.
The lace panties were designed in a way to leave minimal fabric buldge through the dress. The dress hem is very low so if your girls are not wearing panties then...they will get embarrassed and slap you with a spoon.
If you get something sharp caught on the surface of the dress like a half bitten fingernail (wait until after the pandemic to bite fingernails) then you could damage the surface.
You may want to complete the "Cool Britannia" look and feel with the "Keep Calm and Carry A Smart Doll" Dog Tag and Bangle.
Due to the delicate nature of the dress and the amount of rejects, I'm not sure how often we will do repeat runs so if you want it then get it now. Made in Kyushu Japan.