COPYCAT DESIGNS & DRESSES #9: The Petrol Blue Dress by Imbias

It's been a while since I did one of these! I thought I'd blog about one of my sister's outfits (all three of my sisters have fabulous outfits and I thought it'd make a change from my wardrobe!). In the months before my sister got married (just a couple of months ago now!), my mum went to Pakistan to visit family and also get our outfits made. We gave her images to make it easier for her to get our outfits made, and gave her colour samples and measurements.

All of us sisters loved the designs by Imbias, particularly this rich, petrol blue coloured long kameez with the work on the collar and chest. The suit my mum came back with as originally meant to be altered to be an abayah for my eldest sister, but the tailors got mixed up (probably couldn't understand our handwriting!) and made it in the measurements of my other sister, so she ended up with it! This is what the original designs looked like:

This is the dress my sister ended up with, the look of it was more or less the same as the original except this one was made from a chiffon material and the lined, whereas the original design looks like it is made of a less transparent material, like a rich cotton. The outfit my sister got was the same shape, with plain trousers and a banarsi print hem instead of the hanging beads in the original design.

The wok on the dress mainly consisted of dabka and naqska work (they're both metal work), a few sequins, some diamante stones and some pearly beads. Because there was a lot of work on the chest area, and this is where the main focus was, my mum tried to make sure that the embellishment used was solid and wouldn't damage easily. She also asked them to add a small motif at the top of the arms, and on the end of the sleeves. The dupatta was a plain one, with the same banarsi print edging as the bottom of the dress.

THE GOOD: I can't say too much about the pros and cons of this dress, as I didn't wear it, but it did look nice on! My sister said it was quite comfortable, and it's certainly a very elegant dress which didn't need much more dressing up because it was already quite dressy and sparkly. Personally, I thought the collar of the outfit was quite flattering and looked quite pretty on (it almost looks like you're wearing a choker necklace too!)

THE BAD: The work on the chest was a bit full on - it would be interesting to see whether it would look nice with less work to make it less top-heavy. Otherwise, I don't think there were any real issues with the outfit.

THE UGLY: I think I remember my sister saying the collar was a bit uncomfortable (especially when you're not used to high collars!)

OVERALL: I think this is a really lovely outfit - I've seen a replica of this which costs more in a local shop, and the quality of the work was quite shoddy. The work on this outfit was quite solid and well-made, and we all liked what we are. Granted, that the original costs £200.00 which is not a tremendous amount for an original design in today's market - but we got a good price for this outfit (I think it was almost half the price? I forget) and it got a lot of compliments when worn. I also like the fact that the gold and silver/pearl work looks nice together, so it's easy to pick out either colours with accessories and make up. And it did look nice on my sister as she's extremely skinny and petite, so it looked quite flattering on her! :)