The Asian Persuasion Costume by DreamGirl is available in sizes S-XL. I purchased the size XL. The outfit arrived in a durable plastic bag attached to a hanger with a snap closure. I don’t usually use these bags to store costumes since I keep them in a drawer but I like to keep the bags to store stockings, underwear, etc. in my closet.

The bag has a cardboard insert stating the company name, product name, package contents, size, suggested weight bracket for the size, and company website. The cardboard insert also has a front view and back view of a model wearing the costume. This can be recycled.

The costume includes the waist corset, dress, chopstick and flower hairpiece, and umbrella. The hairpiece and umbrella are separated in a plastic bag while the corset and dress are wrapped around a thin piece of cardboard. The outfit is 98% polyester and 2 % spandex. The solid black material to the outfit is stretchy while the patterned areas are not. The material is not sheer.

The dress is open down the centre front, similar to a robe. There are 2 ribbon ties at the centre front that act as the only closure to the dress. The ribbon is gold in colour. One of the ribbons measures 15 ¼ inches in length and the other is 35 ¼ inches in length. Both ribbons are 3/8 of an inch wide.



At first I wasn’t sure how to close the robe-like dress so that there was no skin revealing through. There weren’t any instructions on how to tie the ribbons to make it look like it did on the model in the stock photo (overlapping). It wasn’t until I tried the outfit on that I realized that there is a tiny hole at the very side of the dress. When you put the dress on, the longer ribbon goes through that little hole, around your back, back to the front, and ties at the front with the smaller ribbon. There is also a hook and eye closure approximately 5 inches above the ties that help to cover beneath the breast area.

The bottoms of the sleeves to the dress are very wide so they droop off of the lower arm. They measure 11 ¾ inches in length and 14 ¼ inches wide. These large areas to the sleeves begin 8 inches down the sleeve from the armpit. The length of the dress is approximately 26 inches (armpit to bottom). The bottom back of the dress is longer since the centre bottom back meets at a point (like an upside down triangle). The back of the dress, from the collar to the very bottom, measures approximately 38 inches in length.



There is no padding or underwire in the chest area of the costume. The black material is quite thin so you’ll want to wear a bra, pasties, or similar item if you are concerned about nipple outline. Also, you’ll want to wear a dark coloured bra. The material isn’t sheer where it would show your belly button, etc but I had worn a white bra beneath the material and it was very obvious.

The hairpiece is attached to a single bobby pin. The flower has 6 petals and is rather cheap looking. The flower measures just less than 4 inches x 3 ¾ inches. The chopsticks are 7 inches in length, each. The one chopstick has gold ribbon wrapped around it. This is the chopstick that holds the bobby pin to attach it to your hair. The umbrella is 15 ½ inches in length. It’s pink with a floral design and the handle is wood.





The waist corset is just less than 16 inches in width when not stretched. The corset has a Velcro closure down the centre back. The Velcro is approximately 7/8 of an inch in width so there is a tiny bit of room for adjustment. At the back centre of the Velcro piece, there is a huge pink bow made of fabric. The bow is 7 ½ inches wide and approximately 8 inches in length. The centre back of the waist piece is stretchy. There are no boning pieces in the waist piece.



You can see that the waist piece that I received is slightly different than the stock photo piece. The differences are at the back. The stock photo shows the bow sitting near the bottom back of the waist piece but it’s actually at the centre of the one I had received. The other thing that is different is that the entire waist piece has the dragon pattern in the stock photo.

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The one that I had received has 2 panels (1 on each side) of the solid black, stretchy fabric sitting at the centre back. Not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless.

I’m 5’6 in height, wear a C cup, have 41 inch hips, and weigh in the high 160’s (last time I checked). The dress fits me but not how I imagined it. I expected the dress to be a bit longer at the bottom centre front. You can see in the photo below that if I weren’t wearing pants, my crotch would be exposed.



Then there is the chest area… I assume that the stock photo does not show a straight-on front view of the model so that you don’t see how open the top front is. My chest fit fine into the dress, but I didn’t expect it to be that open. I will probably wear a tank top beneath the dress if I ever wear this out in public just so there isn’t so much showing.

The waist piece didn’t really work for me. I have a wider mid section so the Velcro undid itself every so often. It would have been nice if it had a more secure closure at the centre back. It also would have been nice if it were adjustable in width. Unfortunately, it has neither.

The outfit only had a couple loose threads. The material to the outfit is comfortable. The part of the outfit that irritated my skin was the gold ribbon that ran through the inside of the dress. It’s a very scratchy ribbon and scratches against the skin. You’ll want to wear a tank top or replace the lace with someone softer. The care tag states that the outfit should be dry cleaned only. Gently hand washing the outfit should be fine too. I plan on hand washing mine and will update the results in the follow up review.

Overall, I don’t like the outfit. I’ve given the outfit a 3 out of 5 because while it didn’t work for me, others may enjoy it. I’m not sure what I expected but I can tell you that I didn’t feel like a sexy geisha in this outfit. I felt more like an awkward, ugly, wizard. It doesn’t have the length, the inner ribbon is itchy as heck, and the waist piece is not adjustable and has a weak closure. I was considering wearing this for one of the Halloween parties I was going to attend but now that I’ve tried it, I changed my mind.