Hello bats! Today I'm going to be reviewing a few of the new products available from Moi-mรชme-Moitiรฉ: a re-release of the St. Peter's Cross Lace OTKs (4536 yen/
$54 CDN) from and the new M+CROIX Lace Hair Clip (5940 yen/
$71 CDN). People have been waiting for Moitiรฉ to release new lace-topped OTKs for several years now, so this was a very highly anticipated release. I actually woke up early to grab them right at the release (2AM local time, oof) only to realize that they must have had a huge amount of stock because not a single colourway sold out. I purchased 4 of the 5 colourways: black x black, black x white, black x navy, and white x white. There was a bloodbath for the headdresses, though. I planned on buying all of the colourways, but everything sold out within seconds, so I only managed to get the white one.
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| St. Peter's Cross Lace OTKs |
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| M+CROIX Lace Hair Clip |
I'm a bit late to the game with my review because there was a postal strike, so I didn't receive my order until last weekend. I did see a few unboxings and reviews on Instagram so I knew what to expect - unfortunately, people's initial impressions ranged from mixed to negative, and sadly I'll have to echo that sentiment. I say sadly, but I'm actually pretty annoyed, so read on...
I purchased the items from Tenso via Wunderwelt. As usual, Wunderwelt provided a very good purchasing experience and my items arrived very quickly to my Tenso warehouse. No complaints about their service. Not much else to say here, so let's move along.
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| Thank you for your valuable contribution, Z. |
St. Peter's Cross Lace OTKs
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| I didn't pick up the white x blue colourway. |
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| White x White |
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| Black x Blue |
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| Black x Black |
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| Black x White |
Upon first impression the socks don't differ significantly from the original release from 2006: lace-topped OTKs with an unfinished tulle edge and a satin ribbon decoration on the side. The sock material is the same stretchy, sturdy fabric that they've used previously for their lace-topped OTKs. These ones feel pretty tight and the elastic is very snappy, but I'm not sure if that's because they're brand new or because they're actually smaller. Either way, they will definitely feel tight on someone with bigger calves. They fit me very snugly.
The socks are trimmed with the new run of the St. Peter's Cross lace design. Many people were disappointed with the quality of the lace compared to previous releases, and I have to agree. It looks really good from a distance, but it isn't quite on par with the custom lace on other Moitiรฉ socks and accessories. Unfortunately I don't have any older pieces with the St. Peter's Cross lace design to give a direct comparison, but when I looked at my older pieces with different designs (Cross Arch, Scalloped Rose, Holy Cross) the difference in quality is apparent. The embroidery thread on the new lace isn't as thick, and the netting is a little bit stiffer. There are a lot of small gaps and inconsistencies in the embroidery that are especially obvious in the more contrasting colourways. They aren't terrible by any means, but these socks cost a bit more than their predecessors and yet have worse lace, so...hmm.
I'm not terrible bothered - nobody is going around feeling up socks to see how soft and thick the lace is, and the little messy parts aren't visible unless you're examining them closely. But given the price of the socks and the quality of my other Moitiรฉ socks, I was expecting the lace to be better. I heard that Moitiรฉ has finally found a new lace manufacturer (they were looking for a factory to produce custom lace for a long time, and seemed to be surviving off of old scraps and samples they had left over) and maybe they're still working out the issues...? If you're really particular about the lace, the black x black and white x white colourways have the least amount of contrast and look the best at all distances.
I also noticed was that they're shorter than the other Moitiรฉ OTKs that I have. Most of them come up a few cm over the top of my knees whereas these ones land right at the top of my knees without any room to spare. I have pretty long legs for my height, but I'm still only 155 cm tall (5'1") so these socks might be more like knee socks on a taller person. This doesn't bother me because I really like the look of lace tights or fishnets underneath my socks, and this allows them to show below the hem of my skirt.
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| The elastic lands right along the top of my kneecaps, so they want to roll down a bit. |
Overall, I'm more-or-less happy with these even though I think they're a little bit lower quality than I would expect from the brand.
M+CROIX Lace Hair Clip
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| AAAAAA he's beautiful!! |
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| Look at all that soft, fluffy lace!! The roses are silky, but stiff enough that they hold their shape well. |
The M+CROIX Lace Hair Clip features a bundle of roses on a canotier made of layered Cross Arch and Holy Cross lace. The back has a pin as well as a hair clip so it could be worn as a giant brooch, since it's about as large as my outstretched hand. The roses are attached on wires sewn into the lace, so they can be moved around a little bit. There's also a tiny gold cross peeking out from underneath the roses, which is beautifully detailed and heavy. The lace is soft and thick, on par with my older pieces that have the same lace designs, so they must have used old leftovers to make these headdresses. The item page says that they were handmade by the brand staff, which made me oddly happy and gave me a cute mental image of a bunch of gothic lolitas meticulously sewing in a candelit room together.
I'd been looking for a white Moitie canotier for a long time, so I was excited to get my hands on this. Key word being
was. Last night I was at a concert - Ghost was playing at the Sony Centre, which was an absolutely amazing experience! - and while I was filming it my MMM phone case broke apart and I nearly dropped my phone onto the concrete floor. This is the phone case I bought in September at Eternal Twilight, so it's not even 3 months old at this point. The glue that holds the phone in the case is dried up in places and the sliding clip is messed up and won't slide properly anymore. I have to be careful or it launches the phone right out of the case. I barely used the slide feature at all, so I have no idea how it even broke.
Anyway, I was telling this story to a friend the next day while showing her the M+CROIX hair clip as I was getting ready to leave, and she joked that the hair clip was going to be the next thing to break. Lo and behold, the hair clip broke off 2 hours later, upon my very first time wearing the damn thing.
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| Welp. |
The clip is just hot glued straight onto the lace. I'm afraid to pull the glob of glue off because I have no idea if the gathers in the lace are held together by the glue or if they're actually stitched together. I'm just glad I was indoors so it fell into my lap instead of onto the dirty street. I can easily fix it myself, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Am I being dramatic about such a small flaw? Maybe a little bit, but this is just poorly designed. A headdress this big should be secured by something sturdier! Even a small piece of fabric or felt to stitch a clip or comb to could have worked well.
Moitiรฉ's quality has historically been a cut above other brands. Some of my pieces are between 10 and 15 years old and still look great despite hard wear - I'm far from the first owner for most of my stuff, and I wear my dresses to nightclubs, metal concerts, punk shows, work, and all sorts of places that are pretty hard on your clothes. I know that they know how to make stuff that lasts.
I think WW needs to slow their roll a bit and concentrate on maintaining Moitiรฉ's reputation for high quality and attention to detail. They've been pumping out items at a faster and faster rate, but if this is any indication of what their quality is going to be like in the future, I'm not sure that I'd feel comfortable purchasing anything else. And as a devoted Moitiรฉ fan, that breaks my heart. If I couldn't wear Moitiรฉ, I don't know if I'd even want to be a lolita anymore. I'm going to write to WW to let them know that myself and many other people have been having issues with their new items and that we're deeply concerned for the reputation and future of Moitiรฉ.
I usually score my reviews out of 5, but I'm just...I dunno. I'm at a loss for words for once in my life, haha.
Stay spooky,
Chelsea
