Kate-Inspired Purchase Review: L.K. Bennett Addison Dress

As far as iconic looks go, you can't get much better than the outfit Kate selected to host the President and First Lady of the United States for dinner at Kensington Palace in April 2016. It was not the first time the Cambridges had met the Obamas (hello, Reiss "Shola" dress 😉), but the April visit proved to be a historic occasion in more ways than one. The final visit to the UK at the end of President Obama's eight years in office, it came just after the Queen's 90th birthday and provided a chance for a bathrobe-clad Prince George to be introduced to the presidential couple - a fabulous photo op for us royal watchers!

Given the historic significance of the occasion, it comes as little surprise that I was keen to replikate the outfit Kate wore, particularly as back in 2011 I had missed out on the "Shola".

Kate's dress was quickly identified as the "Addison" printed silk dress by L.K. Bennett.

Described on the L.K. Bennett website as "an eye-catching dress, timeless in its style and fashion forward in its execution. Addison is ideal for events, both formal and casual, with its jewel-toned print, feminine transparent sleeves and ankle grazing length. A dress you'll wear for seasons to come", the dress is made of a semi-sheer 100% silk gauze, while the bodice and skirt are lined in 100% polyester.
Still available in very limited sizes on the L.K. Bennett UK/International website (it's sold out on the US site), the "Addison" does not come cheap, retailing for £325/$525 plus shipping (now reduced to £243 on the UK website). So, what's a replikater on a budget gotta do? Scour the web for a more affordable version, of course!

Thanks to the invaluable help of a lovely Instagram friend, I was able to locate an ebay seller who offered "Addison" dresses at a fraction of the price. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Listed at £179, with free shipping, that's a saving of about 45% on RRP. The catch? The label is missing. I can definitely live with a missing label, so I took the plunge and placed an order. I was slightly doubious to begin with, as the seller is based in China, and the photos on the ebay listing were mainly stock photos lifted from the L.K. Bennett website, and the ones of the actual dress for sale were very poor quality. However, I figured I'd take the risk.

I emailed the seller for more details and got another £10 off the total price, bringing it at £169, including DHL shipping. Result!

Shipping was very quick and straightforward: the dress was posted on a Saturday and I received it on the following Monday afternoon; I could follow its progress all the way via text message updates and there were no nasty surprises in terms of hidden customs charges, because the seller had stated a very low value on the export declaration (I know you're not supposed to do that, but I really, really love it when sellers do that!).

So, what did I think when I finally opened the parcel? The dress is breathtakingly beautiful, and definitely, 100% authentic. I'm leaning towards thinking it's a factory sample...It's certainly not the first time I've heard of Chinese sellers dealing in un-branded designer goods, and it makes sense in this case as even the original, labelled "Addison" is made in China anyway (see photo below of a shop-bought dress offered on ebay, although I have never seen a "made in..." label attached so prominently in an L.K. Bennett item):

The dress I bought does retain the internal care and composition labels, as seen below:

Some details of the dress, which has grey mother of pearl buttons at the cuffs and neckline:

To give the dress the final replikate touch, I added a belt which I made from a lenght of navy velvet ribbon and a couple of metal snaps. The whole thing cost about €5 from my local haberdashery, but if you prefer to buy ready-made, you can find some alternatives on Etsy:

 And now how this beauty looks tried on:

Overall I'd give the dress a big 5 out of 5! If you're planning to treat yourself this Christmas, you've still got time to place an order. Personally, I'll be channeling my inner Duchess at the office Christmas party - now I just need to find the perfect replikate of her tanzanite earring and necklace set!

Budding Heart Dress Repli-Kate Review

Here's my review of a repli-kate for the green silk "Budding Heart" tea dress by Suzannah the Duchess of Cambridge first wore in New Zealand and then, most notably, for Prince George's first birthday photoshoot.

 

You can just about get a glimpse of the dress in this photo taken during a walkabout in Cambridge, New Zealand, 12 April 2014.

 

 

And a much clearer view here, holding Prince George on one of his official birthday photos, at the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at London's Natural History Museum.

 

As I was saying, Catherine's original dress was quickly identified as the "Budding Heart Silk Tea Dress" by British label Suzannah. Suzannah is a brand that creates "flattering, beautiful investment pieces" with a modern edge, but still infused with plenty of vintage charm, as is very much the case for the Budding Heart dress, which is based on a 1930s design.

 





Suzannah.

 

From the Suzannah website product description: the dress is made of "matt silk crepe de chine with skirt part lined in 100% silk habotai", and remains available in UK sizes 8-16 for £475 (about $770).

I loved this dress, and thought it'd be a perfect choice for summer, as it could be easily dressed up or down, so I was thrilled when numerous fashion blogs came up with repli-kate suggestions.

 

I ordered the "Green Floral Heart Print Tea Silk Vintage Style Dress" from eBay. It was a bargain at £29.99 (about $50), plus £5.50 standard international postage (about $9). I have to say first of all that I wasn't exactly impressed with shipping times: I ordered the dress on 17 August and it only shipped on 26 August. Afterwards, it took about a month for it to get to me in Italy with registered postage, and I received it on 29 September. The original listing stated the dress was going to be shipped from the UK, so I assumed it wouldn't take long for it to arrive. When I contacted the seller about it, I was told (as I had imagined...) that the dress was in fact shipping from China, hence the delay. The listing has now been amended to reflect this. Anyway, apart from this initial glitches, I was on the whole happy with my shopping experience: the seller always replied promptly and helpfully to my emails and when the dress arrived I was not disappointed.

 

Listed as being 80% viscose and 20% silk, the dress is, thankfully, much less shiny in person than it looked in the listing photos. The fabric is good quality, and tolerated a medium-hot iron, although I doubt very much the silk content is as high as 20%.

 

 

eBay repli-kate.

 



The cut looks a lot like the original Suzannah dress, down to the skirt part being lined in a white fabric, and the print is almost identical. The main difference I noticed is, in the eBay copy the white hearts have a black/dark grey contour (as shown below) which is absent in the original print:

 

 

eBay repli-kate.

 

I'm usually a UK size 12, I got the size 14, as I was worried it'd run small, and it fits me perfectly. The dress is available in UK sizes 8-18. I found the measurements supplied were fairly accurate; plus, at 101 cm long, the dress is the perfect lenght for me (I'm 168 cm tall).

 

 

The lowdown: you can definitely tell this is mass-produced and not the original, £475 dress, but for the money I paid I think it's a great repli-kate and I'm looking forward to wearing it in this first mild day of autumn!

 

Has anyone else purchased this or another repli-kate of the Suzannah dress? Let me know what you think!