When I first stumbled upon this adorable salopette back in 2011 (I can't believe it has been that long!!) on Angelic Pretty's Japanese website, I think I had a mild heart attack from how absurdly cute it was. The print, silhouette, and of course the hooded bunny ears are what really sold me on it. I was almost immediately struck with Cupid's arrow, just head over heels love sick, with perhaps a little hint of lust thrown in. It had just been put up for sale, and for a moment I was struck with a desperate need to have it in my life! The white colorway resonated to the perfect harmony of my heart, it was so clean and crisp, and the pastel bunnies, bears, and giraffes stood out staring up at me from their places with wide eyes calling my name, saying "Buy us, Annika, let us follow you home!" I could imagine swishing around it, twirling and skipping about, tugging the bunny ears and chasing around our own little fluffy daughter, Hopscotch, and going "weeee!" in my head all excited.
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| AP: Toy Fantasy Salopette 2011, Sax Blue Colorway |
I remember just staring at the photos, and clicking through them over and over again then looking at the price tag with a heavy sigh... ¥19,740, or $250 USD, and that wasn't even with international shipping. At the time, I was in the middle of my junior year in the midst of finalizing the last of my core fashion design classes and was drowning in expenses for all the supplies required for our projects... it wasn't going to happen. Simple as that. I had to worry about the priorities and necessities first. I barely was scraping by as it was, going to the store and wondering if I could afford food or medicine, and what could I get right now and what could I worry about later. I bookmarked the page because I thought at the very least I could just look at it, keep an eye on it, and perhaps by some miracle it would go on sale later and perhaps I could ask Santa for it. With a heavy heart, I closed the open web page.
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| Our little bun bun, Hopscotch |
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When I reopened the web page for a peek at the salo a few days later, I was crushed. It had sold out as quickly as it had been listed. I knew it was a long shot, and I knew in all reality that there was no way I could have gotten it but it still filled me with such a heavy heart knowing I would probably never see it again. Out of the Toy Fantasy series, the salo was the most rare of all the garments as Angelic Pretty had only made a specific quantity of them, and had no hope for a re-release. When a print strikes you like that, you can't help but feel a little less fulfilled and disappointed when the opportunity passes you by. For a couple months after selling out, I scoured the internet (Google, Japanese sale sites of all kinds, auction sites, EGL comm sales, you name it) just in hopes to see it for sale again from anyone, anywhere. But no luck. So I gave up on having it.....
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| AP: Toy Fantasy Close Up Print |
Then with a pleasant sort of surprise in my slow hunt for other prints this summer of 2012, I started seeing the salopettes emerging from the woodwork of girls' closets in Japan and showing up on different auction sites, especially Mbok. Every time I saw one, I had to bookmark the page, even if it wasn't the colorway I wanted. I was just excited it. It was impulsive. I had to. It excited me, and sort of reignited that hope that perhaps now that I had graduated and had been saving up money from Etsy sales that just maybe...maybe I would find the white colorway, and it could be mine. Black, black, black, pink... these were the colorways that kept showing up on the Japanese auction sites. While I loved the silhouette, but I didn't want these ones. I only wanted the white one, my infamous white whale as it was, and I was determined to have it or nothing at all!
Then... out of the blue, just purely by accident, I clicked on a link in the EGL Comm Sales and there it was...
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| Original Photo by LJ user: sweetjuju0425 |
My heart stopped! I stared at it with wide eyes. It was there. It had just been posted that day, literally minutes ago. And no one had asked about buying it yet. For sale by Livejournal user,
sweetjuju0425! I read the requirements/rules for purchase from the seller with haste, pouring over the content as fast as I could take it in. The girl selling it explained the piece, especially the color of the salo, was very rare and had been difficult to acquire. It was one of the most popular. She even had the little purse that went with it! I looked at the line "payment plan available" and my breath sort of stuck in my chest. I immediately started pounding away on the keyboard logging in to my Paypal account, then on to my calculator.
I had saved enough... it was a lot of money, but if I wanted to I could actually do it. I think that scared me more than the idea of not having it, the idea that I
could actually have it! ---how long had I waited for it? what was the likelihood of me seeing it...EVER again? and for heaven sake's just message the girl and stop hesitating about it, because it made me happy it was worth it.
With bated breath, I pushed the send message asking the seller, fingers crossed and praying that someone else had beaten me to it as usual. After dancing around Livejournal being glitchy, we finally got in touch and within an hour Judy and I were emailing. Right away, I knew how super sweet and nice the seller was, and she kindly offered me a very generous payment plan so long as I could make the deposit. It took me about a month and a half to finish paying off the last bit of the salopette, and Judy was always in contact with me every step of the way and always so sweet about our transactions. She was such a peach, and made me more excited to have one of my dream pieces because she was excited for me to have it! In mid August, I finished! And then began the wait!
I stalked the post office's website, tracking the movements of the salo like a lion stalking a gazelle across grassy plains, to cuddle with of course not to eat! : o My little feet wiggled happily when I saw it coming closer and closer to where I lived, but I was also impatient in my head grumbling, "Come faster you beautiful salo! I can't wait another moment! I want to be a bunny, I want to be a bunny!" I was fairly convinced that I would attack the postman or postwoman when I saw them, raid their little white truck, pitching out boxes and packages until I found mine and then scurrying away into the house with it clutched to my chest. It would be my first Angelic Pretty purchase!
I waited and waited, and waited for what seemed like forever! The tracking info said it was finally in my city and I was even more impatient... I didn't want to leave the house because I was afraid I would miss the mail. The time dragged by! It was 3:30 pm and the mail should have come. But no mailman!! Where was the devious postal deliverer and were they skipping around in my salopette?! I checked the tracking info:
"Delivered at 1:00 pm."
WHAT? What are you talking about. I went out to the mailbox, no postman or truck in sight, no one had rang the doorbell to deliver, and opened the box. The mail person had just crushed the package into the box. Oh what a heinous crime! How blasphemous! Cradling the poor package against my chest, I ran back inside to rip it open like a kid in a candy store, too excited for words!
Wrapped neatly in a plastic packaging, along with a violet teddy bear key chain, and a hand written note was my Toy Fantasy Salopette. Finally, just waiting for me to open it up and swing around the room like a long lost love! The mailman had irrevocably caused it to be very wrinkly but I didn't care, I wanted to take photos!
Oh gosh, it is so cute, so cute, so cuteeeee! Even more adorable in person! Angelic Pretty has done a fine job with their intricate top stitching details, the heart buttons, and I was surprised to find that it was fully lined with a nice white silky fabric.
The pink chemical lace trim they have at the faux center front is decorated with tiny little stars, and polka dots with just a hint of gather for a more frilly feel. I kind of like that they didn't use hearts for the lace, not that hearts aren't cute, but I think stars are less used. The other lace they used was a 1/4 inch scallop lace tucked inside the princess seams.
The straps of course are adjustable, but I think i would have preferred if the little metal things weren't there that attach to the heart button. I would have rather they were fastened from the inside with another button so it didn't take away from the neckline of the blouse. The hood is also fully lined, and the ears accented with a pink polka dot contrast fabric. I kind of like that the fabric is a gauze-y material, which makes it a little sheer, and allows me to see the details of the insides. I like seeing how things are made, where they clipped the curves, how much, that sort of thing.
I really, really love this salopette so much! It looks simple, but is really intricate in the little details which is what makes it so special. I love the tiered gathered ruffles, even if they are very difficult to iron out. But the print of the tiny animals and the bunny hooded ear just delight me in every way! I am so glad I waited! ^-^ <3 I can't wait to make myself a cute blouse to go with it, and plan a proper coord!!!
