I debated whether or not to do a review of the Volks Balloon Dress Set, since many people already own it, but Innocentsaké gave me a nudge, so I’ll do it – this was third outfit that I was able to get from the Dolpa 33 After Event. I was extremely lucky to be able to acquire three very sought after outfits in one click war. This outfit was originally released in April 2012 to not a lot of fanfare and then all of a sudden it became a highly sought after outfit and it was at the top of the wish lists for many Dollfie Dream owners.

I’ll be honest, I was more interested in the white shoes and the Freesia Flora set when the items of this small collection was announced back in 2012. I jumped on the bandwagon much later after seeing owner photos of the outfit. The Balloon Dress set was so popular that Volks re-released it in a pink colour-way for Dolpa 29 and it sold out right away. I wasn’t a huge fan of the pink version so when Volks announced that they were re-releasing the “Green Apple” colour-way again I was quite excited! This outfit is labelled to fit the SD/SD13, SDGrG, and Dollfie Dream (S/M/L busts). Everything except the jeggings (… jeggings. Jeans + Leggings = Jeggings) will work on the SD16 or DDdy as well, which gives it a lot of versatility. The jeggings would be far too tight to fit on the SD16 or DDdy bodies. My SmartDoll Mirai will be modelling today and she has the Small bust (which translates roughly to the M-bust on a Volks Dollfie Dream).

This set comes with the headband, white shirt, knit vest, dress and denim leggings. The headband comes packed flat and can be gently shaped to fit the doll’s head, and then flattened again for storage.

The white shirt is made of a fabric that reminds me a bit of sports jerseys. It has little holes in it and is the type of fabric that can easily snag on velcro or other sharp objects and create horizontal “pulls”. With that said – the shirt does up in the back with velcro! Be careful not to get the “hook” side caught on the shirt! At least Volks put the “hook” side facing out so it’s less likely to cause any mishaps but I still somehow snagged the front of the shirt a little bit. It’s not very noticeable but I’m pointing it out so you can see what I’m talking about.

There is a cute elasticized ruffle at the neckline and a couple of straps that are worn halter style around the neck and have a snap under the bow. If you don’t like these you can tuck them into the shirt. The bow is made of a cute polka-dot chiffon fabric.

If you’re wondering why this is set is called the “balloon dress” – this puffy type of skirt is called a Balloon Skirt. Really – google it, I’m not making this up! ^__~” The little dress is made of a strange polyester fabric that reminds me of what I use for dress-linings. The little buckles on the shoulder are functional so you can adjust the length of the straps. It closes in the back with metal snaps and is lined with the same fabric inside. I love the little pleats down the front and the lace details.

The denim leggings are really beautifully made. They have been weathered a bit to make them look “worn,” have a little bit of ruching at the ankles and have a elasticized waistband. The waistband makes it easy to dress the doll since there are no buttons or snaps to fidget with, and this makes them fit a variety of doll sizes, but they are also a bit reminiscent of hideous high-waisted jeans my mother had in the 80’s @__@”

Luckily the dress covers up this crime of fashion! The leggings are too tight to fit the DDdy and will be a bit long on a DDS, however you can shimmy them up a bit under the dress to make the bottoms of the jeans fall where you’d like. Alternately, although they do fit the Smart Doll the jeggings are a bit too short (Smart Dolls have longer legs than Dollfie Dreams) so I shimmied them down about 1cm.

This is how low I had to shimmy down the jeans to adjust the length to fit the Smart Doll. It looks so silly like this T__T” Thank goodness the dress hides it all! ^__^”

The weathering pattern on the jeans is different on the front and the back. How you want to wear these is open to interpretation but at I put the side that looks like “bum wear” on the back and the longer pattern in the front looks like “thigh” weathering to me and it actually looked odd in the photos so now I flipped them around. It turns out this is how Volks’ stock photos show the jeans being worn too – hehe!

The most important thing I need to mention about these jeggings is that even though they are not lined THEY DO NOT STAIN! This has been tried and tested with the previous 2 releases of this outfit, and I had Mirai wearing the jeans from this set for 48hrs and there’s not a spot on her. This is wonderful news for DD owners! They are sewn with white thread on the inside, and there’s no “VS” label on the inside.

The grey vest is an asymmetric knit piece that layers on top of the ensemble. Be careful not to get it snagged on things long fingernails, cat claws or velcro 😛 It actually has some pleats pressed into it which is a neat little detail.

This set retails for 6,480 and is a really good value for the number of pieces it includes. I’ve paid much more money for just a pair of nice Dollfie jeans 🙂 This set is extremely popular and is currently sold out on Volks International. North American customers will get a second chance when it comes to Volks USA in several weeks and hopefully Volks will release it again in the near future. At this Dolpa they released the pink colour-way in MDD/MSD size and it also sold out very quickly!

– ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

The packaging actually says this will fit the SDB (super dollfie boy) which is similar in size to the SD/ SD13 so I believe it, but it also says SDGou. Ummm that’s the biggest boy that’s taller than my SD16 girl. Volks, you’re being weird on me. o_0″

Spooky approves of this outfit.