Review: Victoria's Secret Ruched Convertible Dress
I love trying on dresses :) Ever since my friend Cherilyn showed me this dress I've been wanting to try it, so when I found it on eBay for $29.99 (Retail $88) I had to buy it for her birthday. And of course I had to try it out first (just to make sure it was as awesome as it looks in the catalog)
First of all, I apologize for my obvious novice-ness in modeling clothing. It took almost the whole time for me to realize that my hair was down and I was wearing white stockings.
This is in the Twisted Front Halter. To style:
1. Step into dress with the top of the dress just under your bustline.
2. Cross the straps in front so that no hole is present.
3. Re-cross the straps in the back
4. Wrap then ends under the bustline and tuck in or knot the ends.
The is my variation on the Strapless version. To style:
1. Step into dress with the top of the dress right above the bustline.
2. Cross both straps in front right on your bustline and continue wrapping in a crossing style under the bustline. Try to keep straps as flat as possible and wrapped as tightly as possible.
3. Tucking in ends or knot together.
Capsleeve Version. This one's pretty simple. To style:
1. Step into dress and the top should be right under your bustline.
2. Bring sleeves over so they are flat on top of your shoulders.
3. Cross them in the back and wrap around (Try to cinch your waste)
4. Tuck in or knot ends.
Knotted Front Crossed Back
This one's my favorite, probably because by this time I was getting the hang of wrapping the ends and tucking them in so that it was tight and flat. For me it also shows off my back and shoulders, which I like. To style:
1. Step into dress so the top is under your bustline.
2. Tie a knot in each strap that would lie somewhere between your shoulder and your breast. (I liked closer to the shoulder)
3. Bring the straps up and cross them in the back. Wrap around under the bustline and tuck in ends.
It took a lot of practicing, especially wrapping the straps around my body so that they would be flat and finding a way to tuck them in so that they would be flat. This dress definitely requires time and respect, and unless you can afford to add extra inches to your look, you'd want to practice to ensure that the wrapping wasn't bunchy or shaped weirdly. It's also pretty intuitive after awhile, and you start to come up with more ways to style it (pics to follow!).
Something that worked for me was that as I was getting towards the end of the straps, I would only continue wrapping one strap, and instead of tucking in that end I would hold it flat and wrap the other strap on top of it. That way I would only have to worry about tucking in one strap. I'm also not model-sized in any way, this dress is a M and it fit pretty well (although with my pair-shaped body I'm not a big fan of ruching). Looking at the model, this dress would probably work better for taller people so that it ended above the knee, but overall I'm really satisfied with the purchase. The material was comfortable and airy, and the color (berrylicious) was pretty consistent with the picture online. So even with the extra effort to ensure a good look, if you can find this dress cheaper than retail, it's definitely worth it--think about it, you're getting at least 5 different looks (the website outlines 7 different looks) for the price of one!
Comments
Thank you so much for your review and photos. They really helped a lot. I am very interested in buying this dress for a special banquet in May. I am 5'1, 110 lbs. You mentioned that this dress was a little long on you, do you mind me asking how tall you are? I figure I can get it altered so that it sits above my knee.
I am interested in wearing the dress as it is displayed on the photo to this review - with the one shoulder cross thingy. did you try this style? And are the straps loose ended and not connected to the dress? I got a little confused when you said you had to tuck in the straps. The website doesn't give much information. what do the dress instructions look like, is there an illustration?
Thank you so much for your help! You look great in the photos my fav look on you was the strapless version.
@MochaMnd02 - How much are they on sale for? I would say anything over $60 would be pushing it, because it is nice material and can be multifunctional, but anything more than that would be too much in my opinion.
@Marilyn - Buying this dress with a specific event in mind is definitely the way to go. And with your height and weight I suggest getting the smallest size possible. I'm 5'4, 140lb (and pair-shaped too), I wasn't wearing any shoes though. I think getting it altered could work, the only thing is that the dress tapers and the bottom is pretty snug around your legs. There are other variations on this dress too that you could look into that might be easier to hem.
As for the one should cross thing, I did try this style and I'm pretty sure it worked well. Imagine the straps to be really long pieces of fabric like in a halter dress where you tie the straps behind your neck, except the straps are about 4 feet long each. Sorry if this is unclear, let me know if you'd like a more detailed explanation! And I'm sorry, I got this dress on ebay so it didn't come with instructions :( basically I followed the directions on the website and spent a good amount of time trying to figure it all out.
Like I said, please let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks for your comments!
~Elaine
Would you say that this dress is "nice enough" for a bridesmaid dress? It's a garden wedding and I want my bridesmaids to each have a different look.
Thanks!
~Elaine
The pictures are really helpful. I was just wondering how similar the color is. The quality of the pictures might be changing up the actual color, but it seems a bit off from the victorias secret online picture. The one there is a little more purply
http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/onlineProductDisplay.vs?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=GN-256524&page=1&cgname=OSCLODRSBLK&rfnbr=3198
Is there any way you could upload a clearer picture? Or what do you think? I kind of like the color in your pictures more, and I'm trying to decide what color to order :/
As for the color, I did buy this dress on e-bay, and looking back the seller simply put "Berry" as the color -- and so the dress could be either Jazzberry or Berrylicious, and looking at both I think the dress I have on is most likely Jazzberry because it is much more pink/red purple than a deeper purple. And sorry, I couldn't see which color you were referring to because the link just sent me to the overall page, but if you like the color in my pictures I'd go with Jazzberry!
And as for the picture quality effecting the color, I have a feeling that something in the material reflects light in a much greater way than it appears (which you can see in some of the pics there looks like a whitish sheen), but otherwise the color is pretty accurate, especially for sunshine--it's definitely not as dark as the one in the VS picture of this review (although the jazzberry example on the website looks like a good representation).
Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions!
~Elaine
I'm 5' 5.5" and 130 lbs and the dress Elaine bought fit me fine. It's also a stretchy fabric, so it will mold to your shape.
Have you actually worn this dress to an event? Do you feel comfortable in this dress? I'm worried that the dress will unravel on me as I'm dancing at a wedding reception.
Thanks.
As for the comfort level, the material was really soft and so I felt really comfortable in it. My friend has a smaller frame than I do (5'3, about 125 lbs) and so wrapping the straps was easier--we just tried knotting it after wrapping the straps once and then wrapping the rest of straps and tucking it in like I said in the post. The knot didn't look bulky on her and we thought that would be a good precaution for the potential unraveling :) Hope this helps!
I was wondering how the back of the dress looks like. and what kind a bra should you anticipate wearing. I have a big bust so I'm just a little worried about that.. Thanks
I bought this dress and just got it in today. For the past hour and a half I've been trying to figure out a way to wear it, but can't seem to be satisfied.
At first I wanted to try styling it like that first picture, but after several failures I gave up and just messed around. I was able to do a halter cross back, but now my problem is that I don't like how my back is exposed.
I'm always insecure about everything, my back being one of them. And I would like to know if know know any other way, aside from strapless, to style this dress?
Thing is, I'm trying to wear it as my bridesmade dress for the end of october. Just as I'd like to cover my back, I would also like to not be so exposed, while still looking very stylish...
It's been extreamly hard finding a red dress to wear and after finally finding one, it's so hard to wear!!
If you know anything to help me, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for this entry!!