Shinku Rose Tulle Overdress review

Although this has already featured in an outfit post, I’d like to do a more thorough review of Shinku Rose’s Tulle Overdress. Indie brands need all the rep, they are amazing and the world deserves to know that!

Ordering Process

The overdress was a made to order and the pre-order period was between June 12^th and July 12^th, which is a very generous time frame; I placed mine on June 18^th. While I provided most of the measurements, I was asked for a few extra ones to ensure that the overdress would fit well.

I did not hear again from Shinku Rose again until August 6^th when they told me that my overdress is being made now. Ten days after this I received the postage notification, but it was actually already waiting for me when I got home on the same day (domestic shipping). As far as I’m concerned, everything was on time and given that this was a handmade item, I’m more than satisfied with this!

The Overdress

While I didn’t take any photos of it when it arrived, it was packed in a pretty large box. Inside it was wrapped in multiple layers of tissue paper to protect the delicate fabric from snagging on the cardboard. I can’t remember now whether there was any plastic to protect it in case of rain, however, as it was a recorded and insured first class domestic shipment (sent at the back end of a heatwave), it probably wouldn’t have been needed anyway.

A refresher in what it looks like since I don't have any other photo of it.

As you had the chance to see from my coord photo, the overdress is absolutely gorgeous and fits very well. It is absolutely billowing with tulle, light and fluffy as a cloud – I can only imagine the feeling of drowning in tulle when sewing and hemming this. The skirt part feels like an entire full circle of fabric, which it may well be (I’m not a seamstress, so can’t tell). Similarly, the sleeves are made with a very generous amount of tulle, so that they float nicely over the clothes and I reckon you could probably fit a medium-sized bell sleeve underneath it.

The overdress is finished to the highest possible standard. It is adorned with lovely satin ribbon above the ruffled tulle and where it opens it features gorgeous floral lace. Elastic at the waist and neckline ensures a good fit, regardless of how many layers you wear underneath; on the Alice and the Pirates JSK I wore the waist seam sat almost exactly on the waist seam of the dress. It closes with hook and eye fastenings, which I found are best done up bottom-up. This is slightly unnatural for me as I’m used to buttoning things top-down, however, when I do that I find that some of the middle hooks open when I try to do the bottom ones – it seems like this is because of the loose fit rather than a design fault, so just keep that in mind. The neckline is scooped fairly low, leaving plenty of room to show off either collar details or some gorgeous jewellery.

Detail of the lace at the neckline covering the elastic.

Detail of the lace at the opening.

Detail of the satin ribbon and ruffled tulle at the bottom.

Detail of the hook fastenings.

Final Thoughts

Shinku Rose have been incredibly responsive and kept me up to date throughout the process. A little under a month has passed between the preorder window closing and my order arriving. While I ordered a pretty standard overdress in ivory, they did have something like ten different colour options to suit a variety of styles. A made to order and to my exact measurements, to an exceptionally high standard of finish, the price of £110 + postage was more than reasonable. Do remember that this overdress is made out of tulle (not the easiest fabric to work with on such a large scale) and a cubic bricktonne of it too. I would 10/10 order from Shinku Rose again and encourage you all to do the same.

You can follow Shinku Rose on Facebook and Instagram, as well as keep an eye on their Etsy store. Absolutely recommend them and if they ever open preorders for this overdress, you should totally get one!