Dance of the Black Cats by AatP

Today I will be talking about the new series by Alice and the Pirates. This series is called Kuroneko no Dance or Dance of the Black Cats. So far I have seen two dresses, a skirt and a necklace.

Here is the first dress. Some people have been calling this a One-Piece but Baby has called it a JSK so I will be calling it JSK version one.

Initially, I was very impressed with this design but I have since decided I prefer the 2nd JSK. One of the first things you notice is that this dress falls off the shoulders. It is similar to one of the Twinkle Journey JSKs Meta did. I think the design works a little bit better on the Alice and the Pirates one. There is a bit more puffiness in the sleeves and more stretch room which will help lolitas with wider shoulders. I also feel this design looks a little less awkward than the Twinkle Journey one. However, it will still cause a lot of problems if you wanted to wear a blouse underneath and I know there are a few lolitas out there who don't like bare shoulders. I also noticed there is a bit of looseness on the bodice. This could cause fitting problems on some, especially if the person wearing it has a small bust because there will be loose material hanging. I do like the way the lace has been used, especially around the top of the bodice. There is a row of rose lace and then some gathered lace underneath. It suits the off-the shoulder style. There is also rose lace running along the two thin shoulder straps. The gathering in the skirt suits the bendy keyboard on the print and I think this is one part of the design that triumphs over the 2nd JSK.

Then we have the 2nd version of the JSK.

I love the slight heart shape of the bodice but the lace looks a little untidy. The bodice on this one fits a little better and the corset part really helps. The ribbon on the corset does not look too shiny. The corset is actually in two parts so it ties up at both the front and the back. I am guessing this helps to accommodate somebody with a bit more weight on their waist. I would have preferred it if this corset only tied up at the back so it looks a bit neater but it is great that this dress fits a lot of sizes. The waist on this dress goes up to a surprising 90cm. The stock photos appear to show that you can remove the corset if you so desired. I think rose buttons would look better because the ones used look a bit out of place. I prefer this JSK to the first one but my main reason for this is that I think this 2nd design would be easier to wear.

And then there is the skirt. I think it would look better with a little less gathering. It doesn't show off the print as well as the dresses. The waist band might have looked better if it was a solid colour instead of the print. The print tricks the eye in to thinking the waist band is uneven.

Here is part of the print close up. I think it is great that the keyboard bends instead of going in a straight line. Prints using horizontal lines can make you appear larger but by using a bendy keyboard, it doesn't look so bad and as I said before, it works really well with the gathering on the skirt. I like the bronze/brown colour of the instruments and in my opinion it looks stunning on the bordeaux colour. The green and black colourways look good but for me, the bordeaux colour looks the most special. At first I didn't get the cat reference in the name but if you look at the keyboard, it has some muddy paw prints on it. I feel a bit indifferent to cat prints so I like having a cat print that doesn't actually have a cat on it! The flowers are also a nice touch.

I was very tempted to get some of this series (fingers crossed, I will get some money over Christmas). The 2nd JSK is top of my list but I wouldn't mind getting the skirt. I do really like this series but the 1st JSK's design looks hard to wear. Overall, a good series but a few details let it down.