The Selkie Puff Dress Review

The strawberry dress wasn't the only pretty frock to take the locked-down world by storm in 2020.  The Selkie Puff Dress was a huge internet sensation in its own rite.  For my part, I loved the dress, but it didn't look nice on.....really anyone I saw wearing it.  The super short skirt and the bodice that's just a boob-mashing band, it just doesn't flatter many body types, and I knew it wouldn't look good on me either.  I decided not to save up for it.  Truthfully, I had given up the idea of that particular dress until I saw a dupe dress that had changed a few key design elements and made something I found exponentially more appealing.  Soooooo, since I liked the look-alike, I thought I should probably buy the original as well so I could do a proper comparison.

Upon inspecting SelkieCollection.com, I found that there are six styles of the puff dress.  They range in price from $249 to $335, and most of them, while lovely, have the same issue of the unflattering baby doll waist and short puffy skirt that would make me look dumpy.  The Ritz dress (also the most expensive style) by contrast has a longer bodice, bustier style cups, and a floor length skirt.  This was my dress!  (why do I always like the most expensive dresses?!)

I decided to order the Ritz dress in Head in the Clouds, but the size chart was totally baffling.  It lists XXS as a size 2.  I wear a size 0, so XXS seemed like the best option, but a size 2 is typically an XS or even a Small, not XXS.  When I looked at the measurements, it gave the bust for XXS/size 2 as 29".  The bust for a size 0 is 31"; what was going on here?!  So, I left Selkie and went to the resale sites.  I began asking people who were selling their XXS and XS why they were selling, what the fit was like, what size they normally wear, etc.  The answers were basically the same--it was too small.

After speaking with one seller who offered me a veeeeery reasonable price, I decided to buy her XXS Ritz, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.  I will say of this dress that I got it on and zipped with no problems but that last centimeter or two of zipper was snug and I could feel that it squeezed my bust until it was lightly popping over the edge of the bodice.  Should I have gone a size up?  I'm not sure because the waist fits perfectly.

The dress has only two very lightweight layers and oodles of ruffles.  It's beautiful and ethereal and encapsulates all those childhood princess dreams.  Just be sure you get your measurements and really compare them with the size chart (don't even look at the number sizes!) and I would recommend reaching out to customer service for a second opinion before investing $335 for this dress.  

Having said that, it is lovely and after this I spent some time looking at all the different styles and decided not only to try another, which I did, but to attempt to make my own hybrid version combining some of my favorite design elements into one dress.  Both of those posts should be ready in October and I'm looking forward to the sewing challenge.

It took me a little longer to do a blog post than a video this time because I didn't want to take photos in this dress until I could get all the wrinkles out.  Normally I toss a dress in the dryer with a wet cloth to steam the wrinkles out, but recently I melted a hole in a very delicate dress that way.  Lesson learned.

So I decided, after five years of fashion blogging, to invest in a clothes steamer.  It wasn't terribly expensive, but it did take a while to arrive and then it took a while for me to get the hang of using it.  By the way, once I did master the technique it worked beautifully to get the wrinkles out of this dress!  

And then I found some Marie Antoinette Wigs and they took FOREVER to arrive, so this post is a little late but better late than never.  Plus, this time has given me the opportunity to not only try another dress, but also attempt to make my own.  I'll be reviewing the dupe puff dress here tomorrow, so join me right back here for more photos and in depth discussion of pretty dresses.

Shopping Info: The Selkie Ritz Gown in Head in the Clouds-$330 from Selkiecollection.com