Today the dog days of summer are upon us and the cicadas are keening in the trees. July fourth feels like it was long ago, the start of school is just around the corner, and the next holiday (Labor Day for us) seems an eternity away. But who needs Labor Day when you've got your American Girls dressed in Lilly Pulitzer?
The late, great Lilly Pulitzer's fashions remind me a little of Pucci and those cute but ridiculously priced scarves that make me drool with delight and shake my head in disbelief. Lilly's dresses are simply made numbers, made special by the busy fabric. Thus is the case with my four girls. It should be noted that these dresses were not made by Ms. Pulitzer's company, but the fabric was! Zoe's dress was the first to come, and it's kind of the oddball of the bunch.
It's the oddball because so far it's the only dress that came from LillyObsession. I like LillyObsession's dresses and will likely return to them in the future, but for now this is the only one. The print is called "Sun Drenched," and it's dominantly purple with splashes of pink.
Some Lilly Pulitzer prints have animals on them, as we'll soon see, but Zoe's dress is strictly floral. The flower on her skirt reminds me of one of my favorite flowers, the chrysanthemum...but I think that it's actually a sunflower.
Fine by me, since I love sunflowers too. Funny story about this dress now, before I move to the next one. I keep all my American Girl clothes in Ziplock bags so that they won't get dirty, moldy, stinky, and/or inhabited by spiders and moths while in storage. Zoe, Lark, and Luciana didn't have storage units at first, so I kept their stuff in separate piles on my roll-top desk. One night this dress slipped off my desk, and Tommy absconded with it, bag and all! The funniest part is that when I yelled at him to stop it he didn't drop the bag! He kept running with it, so I had to chase him down and pry his lousy little jaws off the bag. Usually when I scold my cats for playing with something they shouldn't they drop the item and book it out of the room, but not Tommy! If he wants a plaything he wants it, and he's gonna have it or know the reason why. Tommy never grew up, by the way; he's probably a year old now, but his favorite pastimes are still chewing on things and rassling with my arm. He's ornery, but he's also one of the sweetest cats I own.
Since Luciana's meet outfit is pink and purple I figured she needed another pink and purple getup. Her dress and the other two dresses are from ChlozzByLibby. In a way Luciana's dress is also an oddball since it's really a top and a skirt.
Libby had the option of ordering these pieces separately or together, so I just chose to be unoriginal and ordered both pieces (as of writing, a single-piece dress is also available in this fabric). The pink patches are...giraffes. From a distance it's a little hard to tell, but I can see a head here.
As a nice little hippie touch, the collar of the dress and the front are trimmed with white daisies.
Doesn't really match that necklace that Luciana wears everywhere, but Astro-Luci gives zero flying burritos about that.
Given the hippie styling of these dresses, I got one for my resident hippie, Julie.
Again, Julie stands out a little from the crowd in that her dress is blue rather than purple or pink. The pattern is both floral and a little tribal in style, perfect for some critter to hide, but...no critters on this particular dress!
Julie's dress has some floral trim like Luciana's does, but the daisies are gold this time.
I got her some gold shoes just for the occasion, LOL!
Those are Isabelle Palmer's shoes, by the way. When my little friend showed me her Isabelle I fell in love with her shoes. These aren't exactly period-accurate shoes for Julie, but...well, who's gonna notice?
Lastly, my clothes horse, Justine-Marie.
Actually I exaggerate, as Justine-Marie doesn't have as much stuff as I thought she did. Most of what she does have is winter garb, hardly appropriate for the warm weather we're having now. Mama and I are slowly rectifying that, and I started my part of rectification with this dress. This is my favorite of the Lilly dresses, because it's got...I initially thought these were monkeys, but I think now that they're supposed to be wildcats of some stripe.
I'll have to invert the image to make sure.
Yep, that's a wildcat, alright! There's also some unicorns in there, and a few birds.
No wait, I do see some monkeys! There's one upside down under one clump of daisies and another right-side up near the left seam.
The neckline and some faux pockets are trimmed with white daisies, just like Julie's and Luciana's dresses are.
The skirt of this dress also has two little bows tied into it like Julie's does.
The only problem I can find with these dresses is that I've yet to see them in sizes for other dolls. It would be nice to have one for Sasha or Crissy or Ana Ming or (spoiler alert) a Disney Animator doll. I bet if I asked someone politely they'd do it! They do come in sizes for Bitty Babies and Wellie Wishers, so that's something.
I'm not sure what else to say, so I'll just end it for now. If all goes well I should have a review up this week.
Best wishes,
RagingMoon1987
Indeed, I made a post some years ago noting how Rebel and #92 were doppelgangers of a sort. Anyway, Justine-Marie's wig has the same colors and is the same style and length, so the aesthetic is there. I had been waffling on buying #92 despite not needing her, but I guess now I REALLY don't need her!
