This is an "unpacking" in two ways: an unboxing of the newest 2025 release of Mary Magdalene's Arabesque Rose, and additional information and photos about the releases called "Arabesque Rose" over the years.
You can check the unboxing video here (on tumblr) or on instagram here.
I'll note that Innocent World also has a JSK series called Arabesque Rose, which Mary Magdalene's Arabesque Rose is not to be confused with!
Mary Magdalene has 3 Arabesque Rose releases, all with slightly different design adjustments:
The initial release, Arabesque Rose Jumperskirt (2014), in 4 colours:
Caramel Meringue
Iris
Navy
Offwhite (mail order limited colour)
(this probably means that offwhite was only sold online via Mary Magdalene's webshop—i.e. physical stores carrying MM such as Atelier Pierrot did not stock the colour.)
Arabesque Rose Midi Dress (2018/2022), in 3 colours:
Caramel (It's listed simply as "caramel" via the add to cart area, but in the image description the name remains "caramel meringue")
Iris
Navy
Note that these stock photos all appear to be the actual dresses/colourways, no photoshop recolouring this time!
This dress was originally presented for reservation after the Le Panier event (little more info about this on my blog) in 2018. I believe it could be reserved via the le panier webshop or via DM to their social media account (weibo or others).
MM had also brought a sample navy JSK to the event for people to look at before reservations opened. (Arabesque Rose was not offered during the event like Faltetto, only afterwards.) I believe that at some point, Aria Fleur was available for reservation as well, although I am less sure of the time period and colour/variation availability.
Due to delays in shipment, those who pre-reserved were given what Iooked like a 2-way head bow/hairclip for free (the design is similar to what I received but without the lace)
The dress design differed significantly from the 2014 release in 3 obvious ways:
longer "midi" length, 5cm longer than previous
no back shirring panel (making the bodice design more similar to Rose Basket/Valeria/Felicia Rose/others which share the same cut)
no rose lace accent at the hem, only tulle (again, similar design as the JSKs noted above)
other differences:
3 detachable bows (2 small, one large) were included instead of 2, and a simpler, straight-edged design than previous (the 3 bow style is also similar to the dress designs named above). The larger middle bow is a bit long.
For Iris only: the contrast braid has been changed to a blue-gray, and the dot tulle changed to light pink.
In 2022, Mary Magdalene offered the dresses for sale on their website/webshop as "stock", ready to ship. My guess is this is stock made during the same time as the Le Panier reservations that MM had been planning to release on the website, but was delayed.
Around this time MM also added Arabesque Rose Ribbon (2022) to the webshop. This was only available in offwhite and is an adapted version of the KC that was released with the 2014 JSKs, with pink lace accents instead of brown. Perhaps MM didn't have enough offwhite fabric left for a JSK so they used it to make a few KCs instead.
Since to my understanding the original fabric had been out of print for many years, these JSKs were likely made from fabric leftover from the 2014 production cycle. However MM must have still had even more fabric left, as they released Arabesque Rose Midi again in 2025:
The price was increased from previous, but it's understandable given increased demand for MM & the increased cost of production (¥27800/¥30024 tax-in for 2014, ¥28500/¥30250 for 2022, ¥42000/¥46200 for 2025)
The release included the same 3 colours as 2022:
Caramel
Iris
Navy
Compared to the 2022 version:
Caramel Meringue now uses Chocolat coloured braid (changed from the gold beige), and the detachable ribbons for both Caramel and Navy are "dark chocolat" (changed from "chocolat" last time)
All other listed details seemed to be identical to 2022, with the same stock photos used.
But wait!
If you watched the unboxing video already, there is another surprise difference...the JSKs aren't "midi" at all!
After a reservation period in late October, with the dresses scheduled to ship in November~December (delayed from this estimate, but that's hardly a surprise for anyone purchasing from MM these days), buyers were notified of a production error in late December: the dresses were made 5cm shorter than initially specified.
Which means that the dresses are in fact the same length as the original Arabesque Rose JSK (+ other well known MM designs sharing the same cut). It's unclear whether or not this was due to lack of fabric or due to the factory making a mistake/possibly being given an older pattern or spec for the shorter cut.
In any case, the notification also mentioned a few key points:
The fabric has been discontinued by the manufacturer and there is not enough left to remake the dresses at the proper length (as would be normal protocol)
If the shorter length is not desired, it is possible to cancel and refund.
A free headdress (design depending on remaining fabric) is offered as an apology for the error.
It makes sense that MM wouldn't be able to have more fabric manufactured this time, but I hope they can have it reprinted some time in the future (as they were able to for Marine Rose) as it is quite a beautiful fabric design!
For me, the length difference didn't matter at all and is in fact the ideal since where the shorter length hits is actually my preference.
Comparing the colourways:
These KCs are from 2014.
(note that while it may look like I own copious AR JSKs, most of these are not mine—the 2014 Caramel JSK/KC has been generously loaned from a friend, the Iris JSK is not intended for me/I will likely not be keeping it, and offwhite is a fabric swatch)
Even though MM gave matching KCs for the dresses, somehow I also have the 2014 navy, iris, and offwhite KCs collected from long ago. Funny story about the iris KC actually...I purchased the offwhite KC from Closet Child but they sent the wrong one (iris, with the colour clearly written on the original tags). When I contacted them about it, they said I could just keep it and they'd send the offwhite in my next order 😭
A flat length comparison of 2014 and 2025 releases. Starting from the top of the bodice, the main fabric of the skirt ends at the same point. Unfortunately I do not have a 2022 Midi JSK to compare, but at least it can be shown here that the length is the same as 2014. I also compared the hem circumferences and they are overall the same (yes, even despite the shirring on 2014 caramel—seems the skirt pleat depth is adjusted somewhere for this).
The back—of course, 2014 has shirring and 2025 does not. The lacing is different to accommodate the change, and the pleats around the shirring are longer/wider as well.
The bows of the 2025 AR are more similar to my other MM pieces of the same cut (mentioned previous), which supports my personal theory that the dresses may have been (accidentally) made to a different spec.
2025 AR's bows also have slightly shorter "tails" than other MM bows of dresses with the same cut. I kind of view it as a halfway compromise between the shorter tails of 2014's pointed bows and it makes the bows look just a bit smaller and 'cuter'.
Here's a photo of AR 2022 for bow reference.
photo credit to framboise, thank you!
I always found it a weird quirk of 2022 AR that it has a long middle bow compared to "normal" MM bow proportions, it has a more droopy and gentle feel.
This is what the free "gift" headwear looks like:
The gifted KCs have a kind of...slot in the back that you can use to push a headband through. Although you could also just push it through the bottom of the middle fabric strip as well.
I think a clip or barrette can be used here as well which is convenient.
I was actually surprised that these head bows came with a lace accent on the edges (and it's matching dyed lace), I wasn't expecting that. I would usually assume MM was just using up leftover materials on hand, but I can't recall MM releasing something that used purple lace like this...could it have been lilac lace intended for the cancelled lilac Faltetto?
It's hard to not prefer the original 2014 release with its rose lace hem, pointed bows and stretchy shirring, but at least I can fudge the first two things with a little DIY 😛
I dyed some lace beige and light pink for navy and iris, respectively. I put snaps on the trim/dress lining so it's detachable.
I also made some additional bows.
For navy, I made some lighter (chocolat) bows so I would have the option of choosing the brown tone I wanted. The dark chocolat bows the JSK comes with are quite dark (it still matches fine, but definitely sticks out compared to the lighter brown tulle!)
The material used for the bows of Iris (2025) is a cotton burberry. Navy (2025) uses a cotton sateen, which is thinner and flimsier than burberry, so the larger bow definitely feels like it has some interfacing added to add structure. The smaller bows do not have interfacing. The bows of 2014 caramel were officially listed to be made from burberry, but I don't think it's what MM usually calls burberry (a sturdy cotton fabric with a fine twill weave; it's used in most Whyteleafe colourways for example) because the material feels like polyester and is quite wrinkle resistant. To make my 2014 style bows, I used a similar 100% polyester material (although I don't think it is exactly the same).
More minor observations...
Checking the location of the cameo part of the print on each dress, the attention to print distribution seems to be less consistent than the original release. Upon inspecting photos of various colours/dresses of the 2014 JSK, the central cameo in the print is quite reliably placed in the middle of the bodice, with the ribbon ending right at the bottom loop. Additionally, the cameo placement on the skirt front always seemed to have one right below the waistline, and then another slightly above the hemline braid. In comparison, while the print alignment is about the same vertically (i.e. the cameos are still aligned to the middle of the dress), it's isn't horizontally. the cameo placement seems to be a bit more inconsistent with 2022 and 2025 JSKs (it's clearly visible on the bodice but seems to be slightly higher or much higher–if you check my photos of the 2025 iris and navy it's not consistent between those either) and the alignment on the skirt is pretty much random. One one dress, the cameo falls approximately similar to 2014, while on another, it is cut off by the braid.
Overall not a big deal at all and hardly something the average person would notice, but it's interesting nonetheless that MM bothered to keep the print distribution so consistent for those dresses.
Additionally, the straps on the 2014 JSK are thinner and a bit longer (by about 3-4 cm). This causes the JSK to sit ever so slightly lower than other MM dresses with this design (valeria, rose basket, felicia rose). Comparing the 2025 JSK with my valeria, the strap width, length, and overall design seems to be pretty much identical–once again reinforcing that MM probably used that pattern to produce 2025's (and probably 2022 as well) Arabesque Rose.
The bottom tulle portion that sticks out of the dress is also shorter with 2025 (unclear if this is the same with 2022). I would say by about 1-2cm. I think this is just due to design differences with the dresses...the tulle is attached to the lining with the 2025 release, whilst with 2014 the tulle and lace are sewn directly to the main skirt fabric. It's quite plausible that MM slightly lengthened the amount of tulle used in the design of 2014 to create a more even proportion of lace to tulle sticking out.
In photos of the 2022/2025 JSK, I feel like there is a kind of optical illusion (because of the lace?) where it looks like the tulle portion is longer than 2014 even though when you directly compare the two this is not the case. Pretty weird!
MM didn't seal off the edges of the corset lacing on either of my JSKs, but this isn't the first time this has happened (one of my Marine Roses randomly had unfinished lacing ribbon) and I can easily do the job myself, so it's fine in my opinion.
The original 2014 JSK has thread loops at the waist for what probably was intended to be a waist ribbon, but a ribbon was never included with these JSKs. The 2025 release does not have anything of the sort. Of course, none of these things stop a wearer from adding their own ribbon!
washing tags miscellany:
all JSKs were made in Japan.
I forgot to take a photo of the hangtags, but you can see them in the video. The tags are MM's usual jewel/floral design (with illustration by sakizo) with a small fabric swatch attached.
Lining material is a generic satiny polyester for all JSKs, but the 2025 lining is a little thicker and has a visible diagonal weave to it.
brief worn photos with the same blouse and shoes (+worn comparison with 2014 JSK):
Worn I think the JSKS look pretty similar, but the 2014 release definitely seems to sit a tad lower due to the slightly longer straps.
And here are a couple worn photos of the iris & modified lace-added navy JSK.
I think that's all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
Let's compare the different releases of Mary Magdalene's Marine JSK!
Before I start, let me cross-link my friend Kaya's Marine Rose comparison! She goes over a lot of the same points I write here—in fact, there are even more details!
This is a loose companion post to my Marine Rose (mint & beige) unboxing, and also my pink MR unboxing (which also contains some brief comparison footage)
So far, there have been 3 distinct releases with what I would call 4 variations:
(click on images to enlarge them)
Marine JSK from 2004
Released in 3 solid colours: misty gray, cloudy rose (pink), and black.
Marine Rose JSK from 2024
Antique Mint colour with a discontinued wide rose motif chemical lace (the same as 2004's JSK)
Rose Beige colour with a slightly narrower lattice, rose and leaves motif chemical lace
Later, a "Antique Mint 2" variation using the rose and leaves motif lace (sold via lottery)
Marine Rose JSK (Made to Order) from late 2024
3 colourways with a remade tulle lace variation on the discontinued wide rose lace
The braid accents have been swapped for chemical lace. There is no braid/lace added before the hem frill on this release.
Order volumes appear to have been unlimited as order placement stayed open the entire duration of the stated reservation period (vs. previous release which sold out quickly)
I have the black colour JSK from 2004, the initial release antique mint, rose beige and the MTO pink colour. This is almost all the variations aside from "Antique Mint 2", but I think we can expect that version looks the same as the rose beige JSK I have, just in mint.
All the JSKs look quite similar design-wise. MM probably used the exact same pattern from 2004 as the fit and construction are also pretty much identical.
One thing that was weird about my mint JSK, though, is that it seems to be smaller than the other dresses. It's only about 1-2cm smaller; I would guess, but this is enough for the dress to not zip on my mannequin 🥲
Sizing on Rose Beige and Pink seem to be similar to the original 2004 Marine JSK.
Bodice comparison:
All of these are pretty similar aside from the top braid/lace, I don't have much to comment on it!
The original Marine JSK did not include detachable strap bows, to my knowledge.
I may as well use this opportunity to comment on the contrast ribbons:
Pairing brown ribbons with the mint colourway, and no brown anywhere else is certainly a choice! They don't match badly, and I do like brown and mint together (it's like mint chocolate!) but the safe and basic side of me would have preferred something like an ivory for coord versatility. The plus side is that we can change out the ribbons easily, and I think it changes the impression and coordination possibilities quite a bit!
I like ivory and deep reds/pinks together a lot and I was expecting the rose beige to have more pops of deep pink based on the fabric preview MM provided. Now that I can see what the colours actually looks like on the dress...I have determined it is very much a beige colourway, but we can still bring out the pink with this berry toned contrast ribbon!
Lace Comparison:
As expected, the lace on antique mint is exactly the same as the old Marine JSK.
Although it somehow feels to me like the new tulle lace is larger/longer/wider than the old lace, it appears in reality their width is effectively the same.
One super interesting thing I noticed is that the edges of the lace of the beige JSK are tacked down by hand!! Each leaf has been carefully sewn with small running stitches. this allows for the lace to lay completely flat on the skirt without any bits sticking up or folding back on itself. You can tell by the way the stitching is done that it is definitely done by hand. And, I expect that every dress with this lace probably has the same attention to detail. Although I personally prefer the look of the wider lace, this detail is incredible. It may be why the Marine Rose JSKs were delayed so severely, as MM likely wanted the earlier reservations with this lace to ship before the newer MTO run.
Can you see the running stitches?
The rose beige/antique mint 2 lace is made from cotton and has a more dull/matte appearance than the other lace (likely made from rayon). I personally prefer rayon lace because it's more shiny and glowy! I don't know why MM didn't opt for rayon lace as I know this lace came in a rayon variation, maybe the rayon version was discontinued as well.
Lace/Braid:
The original Marine JSK uses a wavy and slightly thick braid contrasting along the top of the bodice and right before the hem ruffle. This has been swapped for a sort of lacy, abstract pattern beige braid for the 1st release of Marine Rose, which was further replaced by floral lace on the bodice only for the MTO (2nd release). The MTO has no lace on the hem.
Although the difference is fairly negligible, I like the enhancement the second row of lace/braid gives the skirt, it's too bad MM decided to eschew it for whatever reason (it could be for a small cost and labor savings?).
Back:
The dress back has 3 panels, with 2 additional darts. There is no shirring, which makes the slightly small antique mint extra unforgiving.
The back of the skirt is open to accommodate a bustle (in the case where one wears it with the included under-petticoat), with the topmost ruffle sewn to the dress. I assume this might have been done to aid a clean appearance of the back bustle, but it does also mean that the dress might be a little more difficult to coord without the underskirt. Personally, I don't care that much about the reduced versatility + the ruffle isn't that noticeable once the waist ties are tied so one could get away with various underskirt combinations still.
Washing tags:
The 1st run of Marine Rose (including the lottery version) are made in Japan. The 2nd release is made in China. Oddly, the outer material of the 1st releases of Marine Rose are labeled as 100% polyester. The outer is definitely 100% cotton and is labeled as such on MM's website, so it might be a mistake or have something due to with a shortage in these printed tags? It's unclear and my personal theory is that these are tags that were meant to be sewn into Faltetto/Faruetto JSK.
Underskirt/petticoat:
(western lolita uses the term "petticoat" differently than Japan, MM calls this a petticoat but it is more of an underskirt in English lolita terms)
I forgot that the under-petticoats of the mint/beige Marine Rose are a slightly different colour! The listing page on MM's website of the 1st release lists the petticoat colour as such, but I guess I forgot because the MTO version has the same colour for all the petticoats. One is ever so slightly darker than the other—a slightly darker ivory (officially, "unbleached", or "ecru") for mint, and "offwhite-ish ecru" (オフ寄りの生成, please let me know if you have a better translation for this) for beige. The difference in tone is quite subtle in real life and you could probably use either interchangeably with each dress. The 2nd release/MTO release has a universal "ecru" (生成) underskirt for all colours.
I can't really tell the difference between both "ecru" underskirts, I assumed the fabric and colour is the same, but I'm not sure...
The construction of the original Marine JSK's petticoat is quite different than Marine Rose. The hem is sewn a little wider (with the stitching also less close to the edge by consequence), and the material is a little bit rougher than the newer petticoats. Also, you have probably noticed by now that the colour is much different with a grayish beige tone.
The last tier of the underskirt especially changes in design depending on the release. Marine JSK and the 2nd release/MTO of Marine Rose have the tier hemmed off square, while the Marine Rose 1st release underskirts (both of them) are rounded off.
Here is another comparison between the underskirt tiers' attachment of Marine ('04) and Marine Rose (1st release, mint used here). On Marine's underskirt, the tier has been hemmed (with a narrow hem) before attaching. Marine Rose's underskirts have the tiers gathered into the hem and topstitched.
Underskirt waistband differences:
Marine JSK has 1 wide channel for elastic, and so does the 2nd/MTO Marine Rose. Compare to 1st release Marine Rose with 2 channels (also, the top of the channel is topstitched down). Also unclear why MM made the change, it could be that the factory who made the 2nd release underskirts was referring more strictly to the original specifications.
Also compare the interior of the waistband. Marine JSK + 1st release Marine Rose have the waistband neatly folded over twice and sewn. 2nd/MTO Marine rose has a serged edge that is folded over once. The hanger loops of Marine + 2nd/MTO release MR are a loosely woven tape, whereas the 1st release Marine Rose uses a ribbon.
It seems like there is also a length difference between the underskirts. I didn't notice a big length difference between the Marine Rose underskirts, Kaya notes that the 1st release is slightly longer (this is probably true)
Both MR underskirts are notably longer than Marine's ('04) underskirt. You can also see that there is a big variation in the length of the tiers between each underskirt.
Side note...these under-petticoats don't really hold as much poof as I'd like...even though the back is—and looks—very poofy with its many layers of frills and goes great with the JSK, the hem circumference isn't as large as expected and fills up fast. The front here is looking especially balloon-like. I also think that for this reason, it's not easy to get the skirt looking as full as the stock photo...or maybe just for me...(I love big poof, maybe to an unreasonable level 😅!)
Misc. construction/the inside:
The construction for these dresses is very clean! The bodice and skirt is completely enclosed in the lining (lining is sewn along all sides except the very bottom) with no visible seams, unless you lift the skirt lining of course.
The lining material used on the original Marine JSK is a typical slippery, shiny polyester, while the other dresses use a more breathable lining material (previously called "shirurido/sillead" シルリード by MM) that is more suitable for Spring and Summer (note that it is also 100% polyester). I might go so far as to say that this lining is characteristic of MM since I've never seen it used by other brands, even though MM obviously doesn't always use it (mainly on their spring/summer collection). I do like this lining a lot, as it feels lighter and less stifling than most synthetic linings, and also has a little bit of slipperiness and doesn't stick to itself as much as some cotton linings might.
You can see there are a few differences in finishing with the bodice here. 2004 Marine JSK has no topstitching at all, 1st release Marine rose has topstitching around the top of the bodice (it is not visible from the outside), and 2nd release/MTO Marine Rose has 2 rows of topstitching (not visible from the outside either), + 3 rows of stitching that were used to sew down the bodice braid. From the looks of it, the braid was secured after the dress was constructed. Or whomever was sewing that day was lazy. (Unclear—but regardless, I don't really mind this that much since you can't tell from the outside.)
Here is a close-up of the dress hem (forgive the dusty black fabric!). Like the underskirt, the hem is much narrower on both Marine Roses compared to Marine.
And...I think that's all I feel is worth sharing for now! It's a little crazy that I have all these Marine JSKs 🤯 about 3 Marine JSKs too many 😂 But it felt really nice to support Mary Magdalene...already I'm looking forward to their next release! ☺️
Thank you for reading if you got to the end here ❤️
AKA an attempt at putting the butt in Farutetto..if I can say that?
Note: I will be referring to Farutetto as Faltetto in this post as MM has previously translated the dress name as such.
I'm honestly not really sure why I wrote this post, and I'm regretting it a little having finished writing it because the topic seems pointless, but if you like maximum poof, then maybe this niche blog topic is for you.
Related posts about farutetto/faltetto dress: Unboxing (2023 mist and navy), Mary Magdalene faltetto history (long), 1st coordinate post
Mary Magdalene's stock photos for Faltetto picture it bustled with a highly raised back, but they really left it as an exercise for the reader when it comes to achieving this effect ourselves.
Bustle-able skirts are common enough in classic lolita, but we don't have a lot of lolita petticoat options that provide a historical-style rump. Not to mention that the bustle effect going on above is quite extreme.
Some petticoats that I can think of that have increased back volume are Sheglit's Victorian pannier, and some of Victorian Maiden's old petticoats.
left: VM Hip Up Middle Tulle Pannier, right: VM Hip Up Pannier
The VM petticoats appear to be designed to be used with their bustle skirts, with a few extra tiers of hard tulle to help provide a slight volume to the outer skirt.
Sheglit Long Bustle Pannier
Sheglit's is similar, with a large amount of tulle gathered near the hips for an Edwardian silhouette. I don't own this petticoat, but it might work with faltetto if the petticoat is wide enough to stuff more volume underneath.
For me, I think these types of petticoats weren't quite going to cut it... I needed huge back poof. Or at least needed to try...
Here is faltetto without any petticoats. The dress itself has no additional volume built in, so it's pretty flat. The lining is as densely (or nearly) gathered as the outer chiffon, so you could argue it is giving a tiny bit of volume. But still, quite flat.
I have collected too many petticoats over the years and own about a million at this point, so note that the petticoats I am layering here are only a guide and should be achievable if you own 2 or 3 relatively poofy petticoats of your own.
I use a couple not very poofy petticoats as a base layer to help hold up the larger upper petticoat layers.
Layer 1 is a Malco Modes 580 ("Zooey"), which is a light-poof petti.
Layer 2: Just a deflated Mary Magdalene Pannier-skirt for a tiny bit more volume
You could probably use one decently poofy A-line or 1 quite poofy, slightly longer bell petti instead.
I layer a short bell shaped petticoat on top of these to give more volume to the upper portion of the skirt. A-line pettis tend to be quite bottom heavy and I think the delicate chiffon fabric of faltetto needs consistent support along its silhouette, or else it looks weird.
Layer 3 is AP's "short organdy pannier"
These are the base layers. Next I add a back cushion to help hold up all the layers that will follow. It helps a lot in creating a "shelf" effect at the back.
The cushion itself is made from kona cotton (scraps can also be used) with a pattern that I freehanded off of examples of edwardian back pads online. I don't think the exact shape matters that much--you could probably tie a literal tiny cushion to your hips. But the dimensions of this one are approximately this if you want to try it yourself:
You can round off the sides into a kind of 3-oval shape, or cut out a smooth semicircle, I don't think it will make much of a difference for this purpose.
After trying this setup with the upper layers added and finding the bustle effect not jutting out enough, I decided to add an extra volume layer just to the back. I don't have anything purpose-made right now, so I made do with a deflated bell shaped petticoat folded in half (and folded again slightly around the edges to keep the total pinned width about 3/4 of the waist) and pinned to the cushion.
The result so far is weird, but maybe it works...
The last actual petticoat layer is Angelic Pretty's "Long Organdy Pannier". I don't think AP makes these anymore, but they are a approx. 50cm long, gently bell-shaped petticoat designed for the longer dresses AP was releasing around 2016~2020. I find the longer length quite good for sweet-classic when the skirt of a JSK or OP is a little longer, or achieving a little more poof around the upper part of the skirt with certain longer classic pieces. It's not extremely poofy on its own, but I personally enjoy using it for various poof purposes.
Layer 6 or so (?) (AP Long Organdy Pannier)
This final petticoat layer also helps smooth out the bustle silhouette, from the front to the raised back.
Finally, on top of all that a tiered underskirt is layered on top. Faltetto doesn't have any built in underskirt (just a lining, which is expected to be bustled up with the main fabric), so it's more attractive to add some ruffles to the back that are visible when the skirt is lifted. Unfortunately, at this point the petticoats are so wide that I don't seem to have any underskirt wide enough for the entire circumference of the poof.
This is the result, but I actually wouldn't recommend positioning an underskirt like the above because the length of the underskirt didn't end up matching the length of the skirt, being quite a bit too short instead (and not really in a nice bustled looking way, in my opinion). In my initial worn photos, I instead fold the underskirt in half and pin it to the waistband of my petticoat (and then pin the underskirt up a little bit since doing this made it a bit too long), which kind of worked but also wasn't really a great solution. I might need to make my own super wide underskirt, or something...thoughts for another time.
Lastly, the dress can be added over top everything! And don't forget to bustle the dress. It's not an entirely intuitive process for first-timers, but there are loops on the back of the dress that you thread the bustle ties through and further tie into a knot. I might try to post a reel of this process eventually (and will update later if I do), but here are some pictures which muddily attempt to express how the bustle is tied:
It was about at this point that I realized that this JSK had a minor factory defect, but thankfully it was easily and very quickly fixed.
And so, here is how the dress looks with all those layers underneath from different angles!
From the front, it looks pretty much like a normal petticoat is being worn with it. I hope this is enough back poof, but what do you think...?
And here are some extra photos of this coordinate to show the set up worn. I can tell that this arrangement might not be very sustainable for a full day, so I will probably be tweaking the petticoat arrangement further in the future.
Last note: As you might be able to tell, I don't own any hoop or wire petticoats, so I can't really give good advice or opinions on where they would fit in here. A hoop skirt that has a rump in its silhouette would be historically on point and probably work quite well, but you would likely have to make a custom one with shorter length. I really don't know enough about mid 19th century fashion to comment on this either, though. But maybe I might attempt it some day!
Mary Magdalene’s Faltetto/Farutetto Dress: Remnants of 2017
Mary Magdalene recently made a few sample and leftover stock items available for purchase on their website, and I was very, very lucky to be able to get not one, but both colours that I had been wanting for years.
In this post, I’d like to share some pretty pictures of these pieces (especially the “new” colours which we have seen so rarely), but also talk about a little bit of my history (and Mary Magdalene’s history) with these dresses. Because I feel like this little-known knowledge must be documented somewhere....
Companion posts: 2023 Faltetto unboxing+some details (mist and navy), initial worn post, petticoat/bustle post
Note: while this dress is most often known by the name of “Farutetto” due to this translation being used on Lolibrary, I will be calling it “Faltetto” since Mary Magdalene has translated it this way on their website.
Table of Contents
Prologue Rambles: Mary Magdalene (the brand)
Faltetto (2017)
Faltetto (2018/Le Panier event)
Le Panier/Fée d’une Fleur incident
Faltetto (2022)
Faltetto (2023/Samples)
Unboxing
Faltetto comparisons
Epilogue Rambles: Mary Magdalene’s Future
Faltetto dress. This dress design was first released in 2011, with a rerelease in 2014 that included a new colour, amethyst (a purple). This was basically Mary Magdalene’s last good year, with no more original main piece designs being released since. I don’t think anyone knows for sure why Mary Magdalene dropped off after this, but common theories are factory issues or management issues. The brand has pretty much been on life support since, with demand outpacing a near-nonexistent supply.
Mary Magdalene has always been a small brand, with a very small number of each release being produced. Secondhand prices for many coveted items are incredibly high, making for an overall depressing outlook on the brand, and in similar ways classic lolita in general, which currently appears to have a much smaller number of wearers than the other two main substyles sweet and gothic.
Mary Magdalene is the brand that got me into lolita, and remains my favourite, beloved brand--and I think many others feel the same. It feels both rewarding and disheartening to obtain some items directly from the brand (a first for me). I have always tried to keep an eye on the brand’s activities since releases started dropping off, but as updates started dwindling to once a year, or sometimes once every two years, I don’t always stay on top of it.
Still, Mary Magdalene’s activities around 2017~2018 in China are largely unknown or misunderstood, so I hope writing about what I know may provide some knowledge to the community.
Finally, into the Faltetto content. The Faltetto dress was actually rereleased in 2017 at an event in Guangdong (I believe it was an anime/culture event with some Japanese lolita brand guests, but I can no longer remember the details). As far as I know, it was intended as an early reservation/MTO with a general reservation intended to be made available to the public shortly afterwards. Mary Lou OP was also available to reserve, with a few new colours. The general reservation did actually happen for this dress later in 2017, but Faltetto never did. Which is only the start of difficulties with this release...
Promotional image of the event. I’m glad I saved this, because it doesn’t seem to be viewable on weibo anymore.
Two new colours were introduced:「 枣红色」, or what would later become known as “maroon”; and 「雪灰色」”snow gray”, or what would also later be revealed to be “mist”. The maroon colourway was supposed to be an event limited colour, though I don’t know if this meant that it was originally intended to be only available for the event or maybe only available at the event + the online shop (it seemed like historically Mary Magdalene limited colourways were “online shop limited” or “online shop and KERA shop limited”, so it would be rare for a colour to not be available online)
I think a lot more people ordered the maroon colour vs. the mist, as I have seen the maroon a few times on xianyu since, but never the mist. Red is a lucky colour, so it makes sense. But I had always been in love with the mist. I came very close to reserving the mist through two levels of SS (CN SS talking to a event SS via xianyu), but the fees and conversion rate made me balk (I was quoted about $430 USD for everything but international shipping, which in retrospect was probably worth it to not live through the heartache. For reference, the event sell price was 2127 RMB), plus I thought that Mary Magdalene themselves would make the dress available sometime soon, so I never followed through. Terrible regret on that one.
The dresses were scheduled for shipment some time near the end of 2017, but production was slightly delayed into spring of 2018. I believe that the dresses didn’t necessarily ship out all at once, so some of the orders that were fulfilled later came with a free headdress.
The picture of the maroon headdress I have saved seems to be the Claudia Headdress with ivory side ribbons instead of red ones. The picture of the mist that I have saved seems to be totally different, with one single strip of lace (similar to Rose Cameo Headdress, except without the ruffles) used for the hairband part.
This is a picture of my regular release Claudia headdress, which has red side ribbons (I am trying to avoid posting pictures that aren’t mine if I can). The lace matches that used for the free headdresses, although the included hairband was a very thin ribbon-covered wire band, not a plastic one.
A couple weibo users posted pictures of their mist, and knowing that the dress both exists and basically doesn’t gave me terrible heartache....I wouldn’t doubt if it gave you, the reader, terrible heartache too, since the numbers remain few. But I believe some hope out there exists that Mary Magdalene will have a larger reservation intake for these someday...
I later found the maroon secondhand on xianyu in 2018, and purchased it.
The dress has a few differences from my (probably older) other Faltettos. I’ve added a few comparison photos at the end of this post, as well as a few comparison pictures in my unboxing post.
About halfway through 2018, a new lolita magazine, “Le Panier”, was released. A number of other lolita blogs have posts on the magazine, but the general concept was a more premium, artistic “high fashion” lolita magazine. The magazine was published in a Chinese and Japanese version. Mary Magdalene was featured in the magazine (which was a surprising and very rare thing to see), in just one page:
Not the best picture of this page, but hopefully it’s readable. The dress is indicated as “Faltetto Dress 2018″. I also forgot that there were a number of coords in the magazine styled to each sister in “Little Women” (I wouldn’t say all of them hit the mark, but lolita works okay for Meg).
Midori Fukasawa wearing Faltetto in mist. The coord uses a brooch and tights from Mary Magdalene’s personal collection seen in a number of their other stock photos. The blouse is Faltetto Blouse, bonnet is Bisque Doll Bonnet and the shoes are Lace-up Ribbon Strap Shoes. While I think Mary Magdalene’s intentions here are genuine, the description just feels like betrayal.
This page is, I think, proof enough that Mary Magdalene definitely intended to open a general reservation for Faltetto at the time. Along with the publication of the first volume of the magazine, Le Panier announced and held a large tea party in Shanghai, featuring many Japanese brands as guests (including Mary Magdalene, Metamorphose, Victorian Maiden, Juliette et Justine...), as well as touting exclusive items and reservations. And this was the start of the problems...
It’s hard to not bring up Le Panier without also mentioning the Juliette et Justine Fée d’Une Fleur incident. This is in fact also relevant to me, as I preordered that dress💧
I can’t remember all the information regarding the incident, but to keep things hopefully brief, it boils down to the dress not being what was promised.
Fée d’une fleur is quite a coveted dress in China (and it is incredibly rare, being from 2008, I believe was made to order by reservations, and also was expensive for the time), and it sounds like lolitas had been requesting JetJ to rerelease it for some time. Soupir d’ange had been released a few years prior with similar design elements, but was not the same (notably, the skirt “petals” are not placed and do not drape in the same lovely way). It seemed unlikely that the original would ever be rereleased because apparently the original pattern had been lost, and manufacture would be incredibly costly.
So when Le Panier announced that JetJ would be taking exclusive reservations for the Fée d’une Fleur, Chinese lolitas were incredibly excited. The original Fée d’une fleur stock image was used in Le Panier’s announcement post.
Among this, reservations for Faltetto were presented for two new colourways:
Navy and a lilac (I do not know the official colour name, but one Chinese poster called it “light purple”. And yes, the provided photo quality was extremely bad).
The price for Fée d’une fleur was significantly higher than previous (original price: 37800 JPY, le panier price: 4600 RMB [converts to about 77400 yen at the time]), which I think bothered people, but the bigger problem appeared at the event...
The sample Fée d’une fleur looked nothing like the original that was promised.
The sample dress can be seen in the background of this catwalk picture.
The colours and drape were just off. The response was so bad that Le Panier had the designer of Juliette et Justine come up and promise that it will be exactly like the original. But few seemed to be convinced.
I ended up going ahead with the preorder anyway, because I had already paid my SS. I didn’t mind the differences as long as the colour was corrected on the final product. Juliette et Justine ended up releasing reservations for this “Fée d’une Fleur 2018″ to the general public, with a "lavender pink” colorway as well.
By the way, the price on JetJ’s website for this was ¥68000 without tax (¥73440 with tax, which I think was 8% at the time). Le Panier later did also give those who reserved a discount of I think 300 RMB off the original list price because of the price difference (I can no longer remember exactly how much, it was maybe 300-400 RMB).
There were two blue colorways released. The one on the right, “sax blue” was the one shipped to Le Panier reservees and was labeled on the site as the colour of the original, while the one of the left, “mint” reminds me more of the sample...I wonder if it was meant to evoke the original 2008 dress better with a more pronounced difference between colorations (it still feels off, though)
Le Panier reservations received a few extra gifts: a matching floral brooch-clip (with small JetJ charm) and some Le Panier gifts (I chose the JetJ rabbit tote, which I believe was a gift available for a small additional fee with the Chinese release of the magazine, and washi tape selection). I also think the Le Panier reservations shipped first, but that’s whatever. I almost would have preferred the lower JPY converted price without SS fees and getting points from JetJ’s site, but the brooch is nice with the dress, I guess, and the dress itself turned out okay as long as you knew what you were signing up for (the stock photos of this 2018 release were accurate to what was shipped).
To this day I’ve never used the tote. I think it says Le Panier on it.
Closer look at the washi tape and the back of the brooch with JetJ charm. Le Panier made (I think) 3 types of washi tape with 3 different brands, and I think I was randomly given this JetJ one. No idea why we weren’t able to get all 3, but whatever.
The final dress still has some shortcuts taken like a few tulle/mesh petal panels instead of all chiffon, and the length is also very long (ankle length on me, vs mid calf for the original). Also, the petal placement is still wrong (closer to soupir d’ange), but it looks okay if you don’t think about it too hard.
My old fairy coord (from 2018) with Fée d’une Fleur 2018.
And now, back to Faltetto again...
Mary Magdalene designer Rieko Tanaka herself attended the event, which was nice to see. A booth was set up with a few stock items (notably Aria Fleur, which went on sale on the Mary Magdalene website in 2022. At that time, a few of the OP variations were sold out, so I can only assume they sold out here. Other pieces for sale were a single Copine Georgette JSK in pink, and a preview of the rerelease of Arabesque Rose).
Price for the navy or lilac Faltetto was 2000 RMB, plus shipping fees from Japan. Depending on the ticket level purchased, 2 or 1 piece per colour could be reserved (I think the might have later been increased to 3?). Apparently, these colours were supposed to be limited to the Le Panier event.
A sample version of the lilac Faltetto was on display, and the navy was shown during the fashion show.
The bodice lace on this faltetto is the same as mine! I think the navy sample sold in 2023 is likely be the very same as this one presented in 2018.
I am unsure if I should upload a photo of the lilac here as I think the photos I saved were posted by individual participants of the event, but I’ll consider it if someone would really like to see it (the colour is quite similar to the grainy stock above).
I wonder now why Mary Magdalene didn’t post the sample of the lilac for sale along with all the other faltetto samples, but it may be because the lilac was missing the lace/braid at the front (for the event, the detachable bows were placed there to make the area less lacking).
I am quite fond of navy colourways, so upon hearing that a navy faltetto was something that was going to exist, I searched for an SS for it (I think I used Chinese Lolita Updates because I didn’t want to use two levels of SS), paid the deposit, and waited.
It looks like this particular attendee/SS reserved the maximum of 3 dresses for VIP ticketholders.
I can’t remember if the dresses had an estimated ship date, but they’ll ship when they’re ready...
...right?
After much silence, in 2019, about a year exactly since the event, Le Panier announced that Mary Magdalene would not be able to produce the dresses, and everyone would be refunded. Mary Magdalene posted an informational notice on their website, which had an unfortunate translation error:
This follow up was added later:
I’m surprised that it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge what the “gift” that Mary Magdalene gave to people who reserved, but it is very minor--a small Mary Magdalene logo mirror.
I had to ask my SS to ship this to me, actually, as I think they deemed it too minor to bother spending the money to ship (shipping ended up being fairly cheap because the item was so small and light, though). It sounded like they were going to throw it away if I had not asked!
Le Panier also mentioned that they would give an extra gift and 100 RMB voucher, but I can’t remember what that was and/or if I ever used the voucher. Probably not, since all the things Le Panier sold were a bit expensive (imagine brand new Japanese brand retail prices plus SS fees, and then conversion... much easier to just buy directly from Japan)
Anyways, this whole thing just... sucked, really. Le Panier seemed to have dragged multiple brands’ names through the mud (I will not talk about it here, but there is the infamous VM Classical Doll incident as well), had a track record of numerous other hiccups and operational issues at their events/booths/sales, and overall was losing Chinese lolitas’ trust very quickly.
I should note that Mary Magdalene had attended another Chinese event some time in 2018 where they took reservations for a rerelease of Perfume Bottle, but production of that also failed with much silence from the brand (there was even going to be a new dark purple colourway). It’s very strange that the 2017 Faltettos were able to be manufactured, whilst planned pieces from 2018 weren’t, but I think these two incidents mean that the factory problems are real.
Later in 2018 Le Panier also took reservations for the rerelease of Arabesque Rose that was previewed at the event. These were in fact manufactured and shipped successfully around 2019 (+ I believe the Le Panier reservations came with a free headbow), and extra stock was uploaded to the Mary Magdalene website in 2022 as “Arabesque Rose Midi Dress”. The fabric used was identical to the original, with fewer colourways (caramel, iris and navy--no offwhite), no rose lace at the bottom, no shirring/less corset lacing loops, and slightly wider (weirder in my opinion) bows. While I am happy these were in fact produced, the rerelease looks like a sad shadow of the original, and the long bows with skinny, tight middles look like replicas (why is this type of bow so common on replicas? Not cute, in my opinion).
Le Panier continued to (attempt to) sell a few extra Mary Magdalene items on their website, but their bad reputation along with interest in Mary Magdalene being quite scarce at the time meant that selling the stock took a little while.
Le Panier’s original shop URL no longer functions, but they remain modestly active on Weibo. Le Panier volume 2 was published in late 2019, including a small report of the 2018 event, and there hasn’t been any more publications since. Perhaps Le Panier was started by a well-meaning lolita enthusiast who was a bit too ambitious and wasn’t able to manage their brand and event well. Or, perhaps it was a poorly executed plan to make a profit off of Chinese lolitas involving convincing Japanese brands to overpromise exclusive items and reservations, as well as resell Japanese lolita goods...potentially run by someone who doesn’t fully understand lolita/lolitas.
After this, Mary Magdalene went silent for a while...and maybe I don’t blame them after all these Chinese events kind of exploded on them. It’s a little disappointing how much attention and exclusivity was turned to China during this time (I was seriously mourning that Mist had turned into a “2017 China event reservation only exclusive”), but most everyone came out empty handed, so was it really that exclusive in the end...?
Mary Magdalene saw a small return to activity in 2020, with a rerelease of the Génoise coat. But, after that...silence...for 2 years.
In 2022, Faltetto in maroon was uploaded, plus a few in stock items which appeared to be leftovers or extras from Le Panier (Aria Fleur and Arabesque Rose as mentioned earlier; plus the Arabesque headbow in offwhite only which I feel like was just extra unsold stock from 2014, and some small number of perle lace bolero which MM stated explicitly that was just old stock from the original 2016 release).
This release of Faltetto was particularly interesting, as the listing stated:
Google translate: This sale is a special version that is consistently produced by one craftsman unlike normal mass production.
(the second portion apologizes that the price has been raised due to rising production costs, but the price difference is 30000 yen (excl. tax) vs the original 26800 yen (excl. tax), which is hardly egregious)
So, this release is not mass produced and should be quality controlled very carefully. How nice, I thought.
Although I already owned a maroon faltetto, I put in an order request through Mary Magdalene’s overseas form anyways, in the slim chance that the dress wouldn’t sell out before Mary Magdalene processed my order, and so I could perhaps compare a mass produced vs. non mass produced faltetto.
Unfortunately, the dress sold out shortly afterwards. And I received this response:
Disappointing, but at least this reiterates that Mary Magdalene has an intention to have a general release/MTO of faltetto. (But it hasn’t happened...yet...)
I heard that the quality of this faltetto is good and “Mary Magdalene quality”, but I have never seen it in person. I will note that I don’t have any issues with my 2017 faltetto (aside from the fabric choice being a bit thin) and I’m not sure what would be considered “better quality” or more “individual craftman-like” than a normal faltetto.
All other items on the website sold out quickly, as expected.
And then silence again...until now. Almost a year exactly after the last update. Like before, the update came suddenly and without warning, simply mentioning that a few leftover stock/sample/B items were going to be added the next day between noon and evening (what a big help!...though, I think this was intentionally vague so that the website wouldn’t crash with condensed traffic at a scheduled time)
Special thanks to rabbitreverie to letting me know about this update. I had kind of lost hope by this point and was not checking the site regularly. We were both refreshing all night! The site update came suddenly, with some sample items already being sold out by the time I saw the update (and I think I was quite on the ball, too...). What an odd treasure trove of an update, though...I imagine the sample items were only one (and potentially one of a kind).
(In some ways, I’m just glad with this update that we finally get a better quality stock photo of mist. You don’t want to know what blurry, artifact riddled pictures I’d been gazing at before this.)
A Faltetto “2017″ was available! In maroon and mist. This lines up with the 2017 guangdong event, with likely the same product number (my maroon faltetto did not come with tags to confirm, sadly). Mary Magdalene must have made a few extra pieces of stock that they never got around to selling...maybe? It’s impossible to know how many pieces were available.
Everything on the website sold out in about 5 minutes or less, which is impressive considering there couldn’t have been many people who knew about the update. But there was also very, very little stock.
Sample Faltetto dresses were also available in a separate listing (Mary Magdalene labels the second section, mostly older items, “outlet”, with discounted prices to match the sample or flawed status of the items. But why is it cheap when people would definitely pay more?? I suppose it is the principle of the matter...).
Peacock, Amethyst, Maroon, and Navy (!) are all available as sample versions. From the provided pictures, it looks like Amethyst and Maroon are a bit more saturated than the released versions.
Of course I go for the mist and navy, given my history with the colours...and somehow I manage to check out with both of them whilst fumbling around trying to enter my information.
A few weeks later, I have them in my hands! It’s a bit of an emotional moment for me since Mist had been on my “dream dress but impossible” list since it was announced.
Given that this post is already getting so long and superfluous, I have the unboxing and detail pictures in another post.
And here is probably the most interesting part, the comparison pictures:
I have 5 Faltettos now... which is quite a lot...
Overall the dresses I own are quite similar, aside from the navy having some obvious differences due to being a sample, and the >2017 dresses having their skirt tier lace gathered with the main fabric. Note that I obviously have not laid these out in chronological release order, it just looked aesthetically pleasing in this arrangement.
I used to own a different version of the ecru faltetto, which I believe may have been an older release, and that one definitely had some more prominent differences (such as placement of the chest lace being a tiny bit lower, with the first row of embroidered dots clearly visible [like the stock photos], and the bustle loop being sewn on the same edge as opposed to being a strip folded in half [it’s hard to explain]). Thus, my brain wants to tell me that the pink and ecru faltettos I have may be from 2014, a little more on the recent side.
Anyways, I won’t comment much on the following photos since there isn’t much to say anyway (except 5 of the same dress as eye candy!)
Bodice details--always the same lace, although the colour might vary a bit between dye lots/releases
The gathered (or not) lace at the skirt.
The braid used also seems to be quite consistent.
If you look closely, the second row of stitching securing the braid down can vary a little between releases. Also, the navy has clear buttons instead of same-colour buttons, which is as expected.
They all look pretty similar from the back.
I tried to make the bustle loops of each dress visible in this photo. The way they are sewn is pretty consistent across the faltettos here that I currently own. I didn’t have the heart to untie the navy ribbon ties that had come pre-tied! But I imagine they’re about the same as all the others (the ecru is wrinkly because I had it tied up while I stored it)
While finishing up my photos, I pondered what other areas of difference might be of interest. So here’s a picture of all the linings. The mist and maroon are pretty consistent with each other, which makes sense since they are from the same year. Navy has the least nice lining (also makes sense as a sample), with pink having a satin lining similar to the others, and ecru having a thinner but potentially still satiny lining (It’s hard for me to tell looking at this photo because the dress is so wrinkled from storage)
The inner tags are also not of much interest, but dresses released in 2017 and onwards have the country of manufacture specified (Japan). It’s pretty unusual for Mary Magdalene to list where their clothes were manufactured, but it can be found on the occasional piece. While I don’t own enough modern pieces to know for sure, I have a feeling that all of their newer pieces from 2017 have the country listed.
The older dresses (in my case, pink and ecru) have a tag like above, with no country of manufacture (qnd no extra button attached). The navy has no washing tag at all--again, likely because it is a sample.
These were all the photos I thought worth taking--the interior of the dresses seemed to be quite similar when I checked them. Although, I did notice that the navy had the skirt seams pressed open, whereas all the rest have the seams pressed to one side. It makes very little to no difference to how the seam looks from the outside, so I’m not sure why it is like that (maybe a minor difference in pressing decision in a mass manufactured factory environment?)
So, now that Mary Magdalene has updated their website, what does this mean for the brand?
One depressing conclusion could be that they were clearing out stock of whatever they had left in the office, and will close soon...
But I am hopeful. Or choosing to remain hopeful, in any case. It has been over 5 years now since a rerelease of Faltetto was planned and promised, which is so long that it’s easy to conclude that those plans are dead. But...why would Mary Magdalene sell the one of a kind navy sample, the colour that was sold to way more than just one person, and cancelled on more than one person? And mist... that colourway was in a magazine, expressing to thousands of readers that they will be able to order it someday. It’s too unfair to only have some 5-10 mist and 1 navy in the world, especially with how constantly apologetic Mary Magdalene’s site messages are (heck, the “add to cart” buttons broke/displayed incorrectly after the update and MM added an apology message about that). So... could Mary Magdalene be clearing out Faltettos in preparation for a larger release of navy, maroon, mist, among others? Everyone who wants these unique colourways deserves to own them if they want, and we need more Mary Magdalene pieces in the world. I hope that a larger release of main pieces from Mary Magdalene is coming...
(note: since initially drafting this, Mary Magdalene opened up reservations for another release of Génoise coat. So, I’m hopeful, but it’s not a dress yet!)
Other notes:
I recommend Tamie’s video about Mary Magdalene for a little bit of further information and a different account. Complaints and problems with LePanier actually are more numerous than just the issues that Tamie brought up (which sounds ridiculous considering how many were mentioned), but I won’t talk about them here, especially because LePanier’s presence seems to have almost disappeared.
I do not know Chinese, so my information is limited. If there are any Chinese lolitas that know more or have read more detailed posts from the Chinese communities, please let me know anytime!
Mary Magdalene Faltetto (Farutetto) Dress Unboxing + Details
2023 edition, navy (sample) and mist (2017) colorways.
Please keep reading under the cut for more detail pictures, descriptions, waxing poetic etc.
Note: This dress is commonly translated as "Farutetto", but I will be calling it Faltetto from here on as Mary Magdalene has previously translated it as such.
Other note: If the video isn't loading on my blog, you can view it on my instagram, but the quality is a lot worse and it's split into parts.
Words cannot describe how elated I am to own these two pieces, which I have had quite the history with! And, I feel incredibly lucky to have obtained not one but two pieces from Mary Magdalene's sudden update.
The mist colourway especially had been an item that I had been pining over for a long time and had always regretted backing out of paying a SS to preorder it when advance reservations for this new colourway (which later became "exclusive reservations" when MM failed to open any general reserve to the public after, and to this day) opened to attendees of a Chinese event in Guangdong, in 2017.
And the navy...I had preordered it via a Chinese SS for the Le Panier event in Shanghai in 2018 (announced to be an exclusive colourway, along with a lilac), only for it to be cancelled a year later! So I am very happy to own this sample version which is likely the same one used for the Le Panier event.
I have written a long, rambly post that goes into more detail of the history of where the Faltetto samples might have come from, + Mary Magdalene's activities that I am aware of from around 2017, so please check it out if you like.
Actual worn/coord photos will be in a separate post (or a few separate posts), but following will be some detail photos with a little bit of overlap from the video.
The bedspread I used is super wrinkly in the video and my photos, so I apologize in advance for that.
This was my first time purchasing directly from Mary Magdalene! I'm super thankful to rabbitreverie, who let me know that MM had suddenly updated their website with a message that they were planning to upload a few items the next day (or that night? I can no longer remember), with only a vague time frame given (in the evening). We both stayed up all night refreshing, and everything MM uploaded sold out in about 5 minutes (a lot of the stock was sample pieces, so only one was available, I reckon).
So as it follows, this was my first time receiving a Mary Magdalene branded box. I had the package sent to a forwarding service and asked them to keep the shipping box for this reason!
Unfortunately, the box did get super banged up not only in shipping, but also when it was consolidated, and it's quite misshapen now. Plus, the warehouse clearly opened up the box so I don't get that "freshly cracked open" experience, oh well. At least the pieces inside seemed to be untouched.
Both dresses came in a plastic garment bag with a very ordinary, flimsy plastic hanger, which was then folded into a thin non-woven dust bag, and further packaged in a "Mary Magdalene" logo branded plastic bag (without handles).
Since I'm a terrible hoarder of branded items, it was nice to get some more Mary Magdalene bags. I have just a couple that came with some coats I bought many years ago. I believe there was a point where Mary Magdalene shipped branded wooden hangers with their pieces, but no longer (I am not sure if such a thing was a special novelty for larger items like coats, or if it was commonplace back then).
Here are the hangers--at the point of photographing I had removed the dresses, so just imagine the dresses in there like the video. For whatever reason, the hangers are different, but they are both cheap plastic so it's whatever.
Only the Mist colourway came with a fabric swatch--I assume this is because it was a non-sample and was considered to be the 2017 standard release (so, this is how the dress would have shipped in 2017). One interesting thing is that both tags have the pink tag design, even though I swear I saw a red tag design on the maroon faltetto dresses from last year.
It's somewhat impressive that Mary Magdalene printed a tag for the sample pieces at all, as they really didn't need to bother (I feel like most brands don't)!
On to the dresses! I didn't take any extra photos of the two pieces side by side, so you can reference the very first photo in this post for that.
The colours are just gorgeous. I had wanted the mist for a very long time, but I'd be hard pressed to choose only one out of the two if I needed to. The mist is a lovely blue-toned gray which seems to change depending on the lighting, but the mature dark tone of the navy is also lovely!
Mary Magdalene had noted two differences between the navy sample piece and regular releases of faltetto: first, the chemical lace at the bodice is different; and second, the buttons that secure the neck ties to the bodice are different (regular release have sort of matte textured buttons that match the dress in colour, the samples have plain clear buttons). Both are minor and the construction of the piece seems to be the same as a typical release of faltetto.
I have to personally wonder if the sample pieces are handsewn by the designer (Rieko Tanaka) herself, though!
A closeup of the skirt section. One difference I've noticed between newer faltetto dresses released in 2017 and after is that the rose lace on the tier here is gathered along with the skirt. I don't think I've seen it gathered on the older faltettos (or at least, not on the other ones I own, of which their release year is technically unknown).
Hopefully this photo portrays the difference in lining. Usually faltetto uses a kind of satin textured lining, but the navy lining is a very ordinary polyester lining with a slightly cheaper feeling. It doesn't change the dress very much, but I can see the choice of material adding to the "sample" factor of the dress.
This is the back of the bodice. Part of faltetto's design appeal is the partial shirring panel at the back, which makes its sizing a lot more forgiving than a lot of other Mary Magdalene.
The image might be a bit small, but perhaps you can also see the difference in neck tie buttons.
The bustle ties are tied in bows at the back of the navy! I wonder if tying them is something leftover from when it was worn for the Le Panier fashion show...?
A closer look at the bustle ties and the little loops that you thread the ties through to bustle it.
The fabric of both is a textured chiffon--I think it's sometimes called georgette or pearskin by brands? I was concerned that the fabric would be thin because the chiffon used on my 2017 maroon faltetto is quite thin, but the fabric on both mist and navy seem to match my other faltetto releases.
That was all the mist/navy faltetto photos I took, so while we are on the topic of 2017's maroon, here are more comparison photos between those two. I figured it might be interesting putting them side by side because allegedly both of these pieces were produced in 2017 for Chinese lolitas who had pre-reserved (I bought the maroon secondhand in 2018, so I can say relatively confidently that it is the 2017 release and not 2022).
As far as I could tell, aside from the main fabric used, the construction seems to be pretty identical. The lining on the maroon might be a bit wrinkly from storage, but it has that satin sheen like the mist.
Maybe not the best photos, but hopefully these close-ups express the difference in fabric texture and thickness between the two. The chiffon used for maroon definitely feels somewhat cheaper and common, somehow.
Lastly, here's the washing tag. They also seem identical, except unfortunately it looks like the previous owner of maroon cut the tag and removed the extra button for some reason (the other side of mist's tag has an extra necktie button attached). The navy has no washing tag at all, which I suppose makes sense with it being a sample (however, it does have a "Mary Magdalene" brand tag sewn into the inner facing of the bodice).
By the way, while I was loading petticoats under the mist JSK for photos, I discovered that it had a minor factory defect!
It seems that one of the threads tacking the main skirt fabric to the lining was sewn down to the wrong seam of the lining. There is both a side seam and a side back seam to the lining, with the side back being where the lining's snap is attached (for the bustle). With the skirt fabric attached like this, when you try to raise/bustle the lining with the snap, there is a puckering effect.
Thankfully, it's an easy fix (I undid the thread tack and re-knotted it to the right seam), but not what I expected from the mist colour technically being first-run quality!
Fixed, and now the skirt can be bustled nicely!
That's all for this post, I think! At this point I have all of 5 faltetto dresses, which is...ouch. I never thought I'd end up with so many. I may need to find some way to utilize all 5 at once...
