After years of lurking on Trashy Diva‘s website and watching the brand grow from a weirdly named purveyor of brightly colored, vaguely swing-style dresses to a full-fledged reproduction vintage powerhouse, I have finally made my very first TD purchase. And I could not be more pleased!

I beheld and tried on a TD dress for the first time at the Hourglassy Big Bust Clothing Swap, when fellow blogger MissShapen brought one with her. It was a size or two too small; I couldn’t zip it all the way. But the shape was certainly something to behold.

TD is one of the rare repro vintage companies that does cut its garments for a much curvier shape, even more so than Pin Up Girl Clothing, which is already pretty boob-friendly. I would say this is the one and only time I’ve ever bought a dress “off the rack” and had it fit, literally, completely perfectly. The only other dress I own that fits this way is an actual vintage dress from the 1950s that I inherited from my grandmother.

TD sells their samples and slightly damaged dresses at slashed prices on eBay. A few weeks ago I found a Mini Doll dress there whose only flaw was a broken zipper. Since I own a sewing machine with a zipper foot, I knew I could just replace it. And since it was listed for a ridiculously low price of less than half its retail price, I jumped at it even though it was a size 6 and TD’s size chart for this dress indicates I’m an 8. I figured, what’s one size? I’ll be able to squeeze into it!

Haha no.

The Mini Doll dress is 100% rayon with no stretch and a double layer of fabric at the waist. I could not zip it even halfway. I’ll say this for TD’s size chart—trust it! Every item has its own chart, and it’s noted whether it has stretch or not. Those charts are accurate. Please listen to them.

As for that broken zipper, well it wasn’t actually broken. It was all open though the zipper pull was halfway up. But it just needed to be re-set. I pulled it all the way down to the base, held the zipper teeth in place, and zipped it right back up. I then zipped it up and down over and over, and it was fine. So I highly recommend buying from TD’s eBay store even if they claim a zipper is broken. Don’t believe it!

Anyhow, back to eBay went the dress, now for sale in my own account, my first TD foray a failure.

But then TD announced a coupon code for half off the entire sale section. And then they added more stuff to the sale section. And then more. And then more! And then, lo and behold, the Mini Doll dress appeared. The very same dress I had just bought, and now with the coupon code it would cost almost the same low price. So I bought one, this time in size 8. Oh, and I also bought a Jenny short-sleeved dress, but that’s for another review. With shipping, the two dresses came to under $130, which is less than the cost of one of some of their full-price beauties.

Oh my god. You guys. It is glorious. The dress is so awesome. It fits like a dream, it’s totally adorable, the quality is amazing, it even has pockets. Pockets!

I love it so much. So, so much.

Okay, let’s go top to bottom:

The puff sleeves. Adorable, yet not too princess-y or exaggerated. Arm holes big enough to move comfortably without showing any bra. Love the gathered shoulders, should allow the bust to fit a nice range of shapes and sizes.

The boobs. The boobs! Oh gosh so perfect. Tiny bit of cleavage, but still work-appropriate. Nice flat gathering. Tall enough space for my long torso so the waistband stays under them. (I’m wearing Comexim’s “Paradise” bra here, by the way.)

The waistband. Double layered with horizontal rows of stitches. Trust the size chart on this! Invisible zipper on the left side, which is rather difficult to get over the seams, but I find this to be a common occurrence with side zippers and I’ve read TD reviews for other dresses that complain of this. I guess it just comes with the territory. Makes me look sooooo tiny. Just…could not be more flattering.

The skirt. So full and has so much movement, yet it did not fly up and flash my undies when it caught a gust of wind. Can’t believe how much it poofs out without a crinoline underneath. Started out quite wrinkly, but they fell away as the day progressed, and all the gathers camouflaged the wrinkles in back that I got from sitting on my butt at a computer all day.

Length. It’s hard to see with black tights, but on my 5’6″ frame, it was just short enough to not touch my knees. It’s right above them. I really like this length on me. It’s short enough to be youthful and summery, but still long enough that I feel comfortably covered up. I can sit down on the subway without my butt cheeks touching the seat.

This dress is just… I mean… It’s perfect in every way, I don’t know what else to say!