The dress

For Halloween my little girl decided rather than dressing as something scary, she would like to be a princess. While shopping for costumes she spotted this Belle dress and instantly knew it was the one for her. She had recently received a copy of Beauty and the Beast so at that point in time Belle was her favourite princess. It is styled on the yellow dress that Belle wears, and on the middle of the chest it has a large picture of princess Belle printed. It does puff out at the bottom considerably but the dress itself is a little lifeless. Not that it does not look pretty while on it just seems to lack the Princess oomph, and I think this may because the material is a little thin. An underskirt under the dress works perfectly to bring the skirt out a little more making it more dramatic, and means my daughter can get the effect she wants as she spins around.

On first impressions the material seemed a little thin and flimsy. As my little girl is very active I was worried it would rip straight away but has actually held up really well. The material does feel a little scratchy, but my little girl has ever had any problems with it irritating her skin. She can move around well in it without it causing any obstruction, she even wore it to a party at the local soft play with no problems at all. The sizing seemed to be ok but there was an issue with the way it fitted. On the shoulders you have 2 sets of straps. There are straps that fall down to little ones shoulders as Belle's dress does, but as this isn't very practical for a child there are also 2 that sit correctly holding the dress in place.

We found that while the normal straps sat well on my daughter, the falling shoulder straps were a little out of shape, drooping a lot irritating her upper arms. She did get used to the way they sat and she was happy with the dress, but it did take some getting used to. They are not too loose that I would worry about them being dangerous by catching on anything and she does seem to have grown into them a little. The arms are elasticised so they can give little one a little growth room, so that helps with the longevity. Other than that the sizing seemed true to other clothing items, and it sits three quarters of the way down my daughter's legs. Again I would have preferred a full length dress, as would my daughter but this seemed to be a common factor in princess dress up.

As my daughter wore this for both a party and Halloween the weather was very chilly. I paired the dress with white tights and a cardigan to keep the cold Scottish weather from getting to her, but it is fine on its own in the house. There are no accessories with this dress, so my daughter chose to use her costume jewellery just to add a little sparkle to her outfit. She also likes to wear it around the house to be a princess for a day. It is fantastic for role play, by giving my daughters imagination a boost. My little girl is going through a stage where she loves to dress up so she was over the moon to add another outfit to her collection. Despite her now having a number to choose from, Belle does make an appearance fairly often as she is still my little girl's favourite.

We have washed this dress numerous times since we purchased it. The first few times it came out it really did look brand new without any damage. As time has gone on the picture of Belle has faded a little, but it is not peeling or breaking away from the dress so my daughter still uses it. A few parts of the dress are fraying a little, but again nothing noticeable unless you are doing the washing and inspecting the clothes as you go. This is perfect for keeping the dress clean without having to worry too much while she is wearing it. After washing the dress it does become creased especially around the skirt area. These creases end to drop out once it is hung up, and although it says it should not be ironed it can be straightened out on the lowest setting.

Summary

For around £8 this dress is a great buy. It may not be the deluxe version of this costume, but my little girl still really enjoyed wearing it. We have washed it a few times and although there is slight fading it is nothing too much so that the dress looks tatty and old. The sizing can be a little strange with the straps of the dress a little large for daughter. It is widely available online, but we purchased ours from our local XS stock. It seems to retail between £8 -£15 which I think is a fair price for a Disney dress up. It is in no way a deluxe costume but my little girl truly loves it so that is what matters.