He loves his nurse fantasies. I love dressing up. Coquette just so happens to make a nurse costume that got both of us drooling. How could I refuse?

The Operating Nurse costume was what I'd hoped for: sexy, good quality, comfortable, not cumbersome, and by golly, it fit! When it comes to lingerie, I am notoriously difficult to fit. 40"-30"-40" with a 32 band-size may sound like fun, but many stores in America are convinced that such ladies don't exist. Hence my worry that off the rack sizes would leave me looking silly, as usual. Coquette, though, has managed to make a cute little number that really flattered my figure. It flattered it so well that I never wanted to take it off. It’s also long enough that I could, potentially, wear it out of the bedroom to a sexy Halloween party.

Quite a change from the usual stretch multi-size costumes that leave me looking either chubby (which I'm not), like boobs with legs (that's debatable), or they squish me into a uniboob while bagging around my waist (not sexy).

The lycra fabric strikes a stretchiness balance: stretchy enough to fit a range of sizes and shapes, but not so stretchy that it reveals every imperfection. It's not prone to snags or runs, and withstood repeated assaults from my boyfriend's somewhat ragged nails. It feels soft and smooth against the skin, both that of the wearer and the caresser.

The stitching is machined, but it is tight and strong. The detailing on the dress is cute without being overdone, and is all firmly attached. The grommets with which the back laces up are stronger than they appear, and are reinforced by a pair of plastic bones that run down the outer edge of the rows of grommets. The plastic boning also smooths the back and prevents warping of the dress when it is laced to fit. The end result is a rather sturdy dress that survived all of the abuses I could think of to put it through.

Cleaning was easier than expected. To be on the safe side, since lycra can be finicky, I hand-washed it with a small amount of detergent, then hung it up to dry. Unlike other garments I've had to clean by hand, this came clean easily and dried quickly without deforming.

Unfortunately, after gushing about this very sexy costume, I must clue you in to the downsides.

The headband is not up to the quality standards of the rest of the costume. Where the dress was tight, firm stitching, the bow of the headband has little skipped areas where stuffing leaks out. Where stitching held down the detailing on the dress, the layers of the bow were held to each other and the headband by blobs from a hot glue gun. I was rather disappointed by this letdown, and after wearing it once I have not donned it again. It’s not overly uncomfortable, but it looks like something I’d expect to find in a much less expensive costume.

This is not a costume you can expect to be in and out of in a hurry. The neck, when laced to anything approaching the size of a human neck, does not fit over the head without loosening. Make sure you hold onto those ribbons when you’re getting in and out of the costume to save yourself a lot of re-lacing time. (a second set of hands here helps a lot!) Due to the stretch in the material, once you lace the back of the dress to your size, you may never have to unlace them. However, this makes yet another set of holes and laces to navigate while getting into and out of the costume.

While getting in and out of the Operating Nurse costume takes a bit more work than many bits of lingerie, this does not have to be a deal-breaker for a sexual role-playing costume. The stretch of the fabric allows the bottom of the dress to be hiked up over the waist easily, while the cutout at the chest stretches down to provide access to the breasts. It may take a few minutes to get out of the dress, but since the main attractions are accessible without taking off the dress, you may not want to.

My biggest complaint with the Operating Nurse costume is mostly personal. I wish it had some sort of bra, even just a shelf bra, built in. It’s hard to wear most styles of bra unseen underneath the costume to lift the boobs into a lovelier position, and the cutout demands to be filled with luscious cleavage.

Other than these few, relatively minor quibbles, this is a fantastic costume. It’s sexy and flattering at an affordable price, and it’s not going to die after 3 uses.

When this costume came in, I was at the start of a week away from my boyfriend. I couldn't let a whole week go by with this costume languishing in the package, so I spent a few evenings taking pictures. I usually dislike the way pictures of my body come out, but this dress made me surprisingly photogenic.

That weekend, the time finally came to wear it again for my boyfriend. It was a hit. Though we usually prefer to remove all costumes and clothing before the end, the design of the dress was such that we had no problems playing with and around it, even when I donned my strap-on.

We also discovered that the dress is much easier to get in and out of with an extra set of willing hands (to hold the laces so things don't come unlaced if nothing else). As someone who can't stand to see the laces not overlapping and laying just so, this saved me quite a bit of time before and after.

After a week of hard use, the costume has yet to show any signs of wear.