Samantha's Meet Outfits

At last I'm ready to do this! I just started working full time again so my schedule has been bit nuts and it's totally cutting into my doll time. (Minecraft could be causing a bit of a time crunch too....) But don't worry! We shall preserver and I have lots of fun posts coming up.

Now, as everyone should know, Beforever is here! Which, of course, means that Samantha is back and updated. I've had the pictures for a post about Samantha's original meet outfit for a while now but when I heard she was coming back I decided to hold off and review both together.

Here they are:

We are of course going to start with Samantha's original meet outfit.

It's a long sleeve dress with front pleats, a drop-waist and it has red, black and cream checks.

The dress velcros up the back and at the wrists as is the standard for Samantha's long sleeve dresses.

It also has a dark red ribbon around the waist with a gold buckle.

The ends of my ribbon have been trimmed over the years due to fraying but it's still in fairly good shape.

Samantha came with white bloomers and black, ribbed tights.

The tights have lace around the top.

Her hair ribbon is made of the same material as her dress and has the same checks.

Mine has frayed but again, isn't in too terrible shape.

I don't actually have Samantha's meet shoes. I do have Molly's and they are just black plastic mary-janes. Horrible shoes. My Samantha wears her patent leather shoes from her shoes and socks and because I know that her new meet shoes are similar that's what I'm going to show you today.

The are very sturdy shoes with hard soles. Mine are the older version so they have snaps for the closure instead of velcro.

Samantha's original meet accessories include a burgundy velvet hat, a pink velvet purse, a gold locket brooch, an embroidered handkerchief and a penny

The locket is heart-shaped and attached to a golden bow:

 

It does open up and inside are teeny pictures of Samantha's parents.

And here is a close up of the embroidery on the handkerchief:

Samantha's new meet outfit is a pink dress with a white mesh overlay and a burgundy velvet ribbon around the waist:

It velcros up the back!

Here is the pink part of the dress:

It's feels like cotton to me and mine is slightly wrinkled. It's very plain but it doesn't need to be fancy. That's what the overlay is for!

They dress has a white lace collar and matching lace at the cuffs of the puff sleeves.

The mesh overlay is decorated with lots of little dots!

And there is white lace at the hem:

The outfit also comes with cream tights and white bloomers, which I will talk about in a moment.

And patent leather shoes:

They are very nice, solid shoes with hard soles.

They velcro on the side:

The new meet accessories include a burgundy velvet purse, a gold heart "locket" and a headband.

The headband is lace and is decorated with a flower:

The flower is made of two shades of pink mesh surrounding light pink stain and topped with three pearls.

Her "locket" is decorated with a pink and white enamel flower.

It does not open.

And now we're going to compare the two sets. The original items are on the left and the new stuff is on the right!

Both dresses side by side:

They are two very different dresses and yet the color pallets are similar enough that I can easily see these belonging to the same girl.

The bloomers:

They are very nearly identical. The old bloomers have a slight ruffle at the top and the new ones don't. My Molly is probably going to steal the new ones. Her old bloomers are in far worse shape than Samantha's.

The tights:

The black tights look bigger but it's only because they are older and a bit stretched out. Both fit Samantha fine. The new tights are obviously cream and the have a very plain ribbed top. I like both pairs. I might lean a touch towards the newer ones because they are soft and feel nice. Plus they don't have that lace that I'm always afraid of sticking a finger though.

The shoes:

These are very nearly identical. The older pair snaps while the newer pair has velcro.

The new pair is a bit narrower and is cut a bit deeper (towards the toe) than the old shoes. I know some people are having trouble fitting the new shoes onto PC feet. My Samantha is PC but I didn't have any trouble. They are a touch tight but not bad at all!

I'm only going to be comparing three of the old meet accessories to their equivalent in the new meet accessories.

Starting with headgear:

Whoops! Messed this one up. Old is on the right this time and new is on the left. Fail me!

Between the two I like the headband a lot more. I never can get the hat to look quite right and so I hardly use it. One thing I don't understand about the headband is why Samantha would have it AND a hair ribbon? That doesn't make any sense but as far just liking it goes? I really think it's cute and it looks good with Samantha's hair.

The jewelry:

THANK GOD IT'S NOT A PIN! I love this new necklace! Yes I know it doesn't open but I see some benefits to that for small children. It's not so easy to break. I love that I don't have to make holes in dresses and that brooch is a pain in the butt to get on. The necklace is much easier and it's very pretty. Now I do love that the brooch opens and has pictures in it but if I had to choose I'd go necklace.

The purses:
The new purse is bigger all around. Bigger bag, bigger chain, bigger clasp but it's very similar to the old purse. It can fit all of the new accessories in it!

So what are my conclusions?

I think that AG did a very good job of providing us with a fresh look for Samantha while still recalling her old meet outfit. If you look at the color pallets they both have the same pinks, burgundies and golds. The new meet outfit is new enough that Samantha didn't have anything like it and yet I feel that it would fit right in with her old collection. As far as the accessories go; I do miss the handkerchief and the coin was always a nice touch but neither feels vital. I can understand why they would remove the coin because it's very easy to lose and same with the handkerchief. I'm not upset about them being gone.

Now I have heard a lot of complaints, as I'm sure everyone else has, about Samantha's new collection. Other than the amateur "experts" going on about the historical accuracy, the two things I think I've heard the most is that Sam (the tomboy) wouldn't have worn so much pink or so many frills. And just looking at the meet dresses I can kind of see where that comes from but they are wrong, wrong, wrong and Grandmary liked her in frills. Don't forget that Grandmary paid the bills and Samantha would have worn whatever her grandmother wanted her to wear and whatever was in style for that time.

So all in all I say good job AG! I'm really looking forward to getting more of Samantha's new collection. Especially her new Christmas dress and the Frilly Frock. Those purple boots are amazing!

One more picture for the road:

Required Sam in a tree photo

I hope you all enjoyed this. Addy's is next followed but some very exciting updates on my boys! Till next time!