Story of Declining Quality: Angelic Pretty Socks

The lolita community has been talking about Angelic Pretty’s declining quality for a good few years now. The conversation predominately involves dresses, citing rise of polyester fabric over cottons and various construction issues (e.g. Romantic Cat’s wonky lace) as examples of that. The dresses are just the tip of the iceberg and personally, as a self-confessed lolita OTKs addict, it’s socks where I’ve really noticed that change the most.

For the purpose of this post, I am using three different pairs of OTKs from Angelic Pretty: Lovely Ribbon (2019), Diner Doll (2016) and Odekake Ribbon (2013). While it is coincidence that these releases are even 3 years apart from each other, it will help track the changes a little better. The primary reason I’ve chosen these ones is that they are all the same material (99% nylon and 1% polyurethane blend), similar colour base, lengths and busy-ness of the pattern. Fair adjustments will be made in areas of significant difference (e.g. comfort of wear will be adjusted for the pair that was bought used) to keep the comparison fair. And for reference, my leg measurements are: 25cm foot, 42cm calf length, 49cm circumference at the knee, and 50cm circumference at my lower thigh, where OTKs usually sit. Someone with slimmer legs or who’s taller/shorter will have a different experience of wearing these, so keep that in mind. 

Odekake Ribbon, closeup.

Diner Dol, closeup.

Lovely Ribbon, closeup.

The most noticeable difference is that the Lovely Ribbon OTKs are much thinner. When folded this way, the red from the underside bleeds through the white. I did a test whereby I put a dark blue folded ribbon into all of these socks and while the differences are minute, the dark colour showed up most through the newest pair.

Folded ribbon test, Odekake Ribbon.

Folded ribbon test, Diner Doll.

Folded ribbon test, Lovely Ribbon.

What is interesting to note is that up close the pattern of weaving of the socks themselves is visibly looser on Lovely Ribbon. Although Odekake Ribbon look very similar in comparison, those were bought used, while Lovely Ribbon were purchased brand new and I have not even worn them yet (besides trying them on for this post). This means that a pair of OTKs from 2013, which has been worn several times by its various (at least two) owners, has stretched out and its weave has loosened as much over those 6 years as brand new 2019 release socks already are before they are even worn. In that respect, Diner Doll OTKs come out on top as they were bought brand new and worn once, yet the weave remains pretty tight and closed.

How loosely the socks and their pattern are woven usually indicates comfort of wear and how plus-size friendly they may be. As such, combined with the sock’s length when unstretched, all of the three pairs should be pretty good considering how the longest ones measure 50cm from heel to the top of the elastic, a whole 1cm longer than my calf legth.

Odekake Ribbon, worn. These barely reach past my knee.

Diner Doll, which easily and comfortably stretched to my mid-thigh.

Lovely Ribbon sat roughly where you'd expect OTK socks to be, about 5cm over my knee,
though they did so pretty uncomfortably.

Sadly, that is not the case and yet again Diner Doll socks come out on top. These went very comfortably over my knee and felt more secure there. The pattern on Odekake Ribbon turned out to be more thickly woven than I remembered and they did struggle to stretch length-wise. Lovely Ribbon also put up a bit of a fight to reach past my knee, despite the fact that these are the longest ones of the three.

Odekake Ribbon at the knee.

Odekake Ribbon at the calf.

Diner Doll at the knee.

Diner Doll at the calf.

Lovely Ribbon at the knee.

Lovely Ribbon at the calf.

While the looser weave of the pattern made for a slightly easier time stretching these over my leg, Lovely Ribbon also had the most pattern distortion of the three. Although up close they look just as strained on the individual fibres as Odekake Ribbon, from the top the pattern looks much more filled in on the latter than on the former. When comparing how that pattern looks worn vs laid flat, Lovely Ribbon is the worst one of the three and looks pretty patchy, especially on those thinner scallop lines. Odekake Ribbon loses a bit of colour saturation on the bows and some definition on the side decoration, but otherwise remains recognisably the same, whereas Diner Doll only looses a bit of colour saturation when worn and once more come out the best of the three.

Despite only trying these on briefly for the pictures, Diner Doll were also the best in terms of comfort of wear. I was surprised at how easy they were to put on and how little I struggled to get them over my knees, I didn’t remember that from when I wore them last. Of course, in my case all of those would still require sock glue to stay up, yet Diner Doll would need the least amount of it. As for the other two, I’d probably rank them something similar, though for different reason. The tightness of the pattern weaving on Odekake Doll meant that these were a struggle to get past my knee, though at the same time given that they hugged my thigh a bit tightly, they would probably stay up mostly on their own, even if uncomfortably. On the other hand, Lovely Ribbon may have been somewhat easier to put on, yet I found the elastic to be a little bit thin and the overall sensation of wearing socks this much thinner kept me worried that I’d put a hole through them. Although here I am using the white x red pair for comparison, I do also own Lovely Ribbon OTKs in white x gold and the gold thread is incredibly scratchy – even when I put it on briefly for another OTKs comparison content, I was relieved to take them off.

A quick side note – do remember that Angelic Pretty socks vary wildly in terms of comfort of wear, pattern distortion and stretch. Whilst I don’t own any OTKs made out of a tights-like material, I have both AP socks that are amazingly comfortable and ones that are utterly uncomfortable. For example, the pattern on my Drained Cherry OTKs (2015, bought used) and my Harlequinade OTKs (2016, bought new) is woven very tightly out of thread with very little stretch, so these are always a pain to put on and are not comfortable to wear for long periods of time. On the other hand, my Brigitte Regiment (2014, bought used) and Sugar Ribbon OTKs (2017, bought new) stretch wonderfully and are incredibly comfortable to wear, even though they are both very different in terms of pattern weave. However, of the OTKs that I own, Angelic Pretty’s vary the most widely in those aspects, especially compared to socks from Innocent World (my second most represented brand in my sock collection) or Meta (third most represented), although those two rarely do patterns as busy as AP’s.

Again, for all the negatives about Odekake Doll that I am mentioning, please remember that these are the only ones of the three that were bought used. Considering that they would have been worn by their previous owner and their age, they are in pretty decent state. To see brand new 2019-release OTKs look and feel barely distinguishable from socks that are 6 years old and worn speaks volumes of how the quality has changed over the years. The price tag for brand new Angelic Pretty socks remains roughly the same, so considering inflation, their choices were either to lower the quality or up the price, and I understand why they went with the former. Having said this, as many lolitas are uncomfortable with the idea of buying used socks and would purchase brand new (after all $30-40 for a pair of brand socks can be easier to stomach than $300 for a polyester dress), it is sad that they can no longer expect the same quality for their money. There are plenty of printed and patterned lolita legwear options, particularly tights offered by various Chinese brands, although many of those cater to classic and gothic more than they do to sweet. Which means that sweet lolitas wanting interesting legwear will either have to look for other brands (*cough* Meta *cough*) or wait for enough indie brands to start releasing sweet options. Or factor in lower sock quality compared to the past when purchasing from Angelic Pretty.

What are your favourite brands for lolita socks? Do you shop Japanese brands or indie? What is your most comfortable pair of legwear that you currently own?