Imogen Sequin Mesh Midi Dress - Fully Sequined Dress for OEM

A midi in a mesh listed as 100% polyester and fully covered in sequins, fully lined, closed with a hidden side zip and a hook and eye, with adjustable straps, spot clean only, made in China, at 495 dollars. It is ranked first in the retailer's embellished and sequined list, which makes it the best performing garment in its category on that site, and it is the first rank one listing we have covered in this series. There are no reviews and no fit votes, so there is no score to quote. This garment is worth writing about for three reasons, and the first is that it gets something right that most listings get wrong. Its care instruction is spot clean only, and for a garment covered in sequins that is the only honest instruction there is. We have now found four garments in this series where the stated care instruction was in direct conflict with a component on the garment, and it is worth putting this one beside them, because it shows what getting it right looks like. The second reason is a structural one about sequins that we do not think is obvious until it is pointed out: sewing sequins all over a fabric removes that fabric's ability to stretch, which has a direct bearing on whether the published measurements can be right. The third is that a mesh base is a weak thing to hang that much weight off. The reference is the Imogen Sequin Midi Dress by SIMONMILLER in Peridot Combo. Dongguan Bafinasa Garments Co., Ltd. develops comparable sequined dresses on OEM and ODM terms, from base fabric and embellishment sourcing to retail or FBA ready packing. We publish this as a development reference and build your own version of it, and we do not supply the branded original or reproduce anyone else's label.

Key Features

• Mesh fabric fully covered in sequins as stated
• 100% polyester as stated
• Fully lined as stated
• Adjustable straps as stated
• Hidden side zip with hook and eye as stated
• Spot clean only as stated
• Midi length, 50 inches for size S as published
• Ranked first in the retailer's embellished and sequined list

Customisable Options

• Fabric: polyester mesh as the reference, with the base weight and mesh density set from a tested sample
• Base: we would check the base carries the sequin load, for the reason set out below
• Sequins: type, size and coverage, and whether they are sewn or heat set
• Straps: adjustable as the reference, and we would consider leaving them unsequinned
• Measurements: we would measure a worn sample, because the published bust is hard to account for
• Length from mini to maxi, size set, colour development, private label and care labelling

Specifications

Size Chart

The published size S gives a 30 inch bust, a 30 inch waist, a 38 inch hip and a 50 inch length against a model at roughly 34, 23 and 36. The waist and hip are generous, and the bust is four inches under her own. On a plain mesh that might be explained by the give in the knit, but this mesh is fully covered in sequins, which do not stretch, so we would not rely on that explanation. We would measure a sample on a body and publish the worn circumference rather than the flat one.

Occasions and Styling

Suits parties, evenings, celebrations and events. A fully sequined dress is bought for occasions where being noticed is the point, and it should be photographed in movement and in low light, because sequins are at their best catching light as the wearer moves and look flat in a still shot under bright light.

Production and Quality Control

There are no reviews and no fit votes here, so there is no score to quote, but this listing is ranked first in its category, and it does one thing better than almost anything we have covered. There is also a structural question about the sequins that we think is worth thinking through before anyone makes this.

Spot clean only is the first thing, and it is the right answer, and we want to be clear about why it is the right answer because it looks like a disappointing instruction. A sequin is a small rigid plastic disc held onto the fabric by a thread. There are thousands of them on a garment like this, which means thousands of threads, and thousands of points where a needle has gone through the base cloth. Now consider what washing does. Water swells cellulosic threads and relaxes set, and the agitation of a machine drags thousands of small rigid discs against each other and against everything else in the drum. Consider what dry cleaning does: it avoids the water but it still tumbles the garment, and the solvent can attack the finishes on the sequins themselves. Either way you lose sequins, and you lose them in a way that cannot be repaired, because there is no way to put back thousands of individual discs evenly. So spot clean only is not an evasion. It is the only instruction that is true, and the manufacturer has chosen to tell the customer something unhelpful because it is accurate. We would rather have that than a label that sounds convenient and destroys the garment. It is worth setting this next to the other four we have now found in this series: a metallic fibre garment instructed to be dry cleaned, a flocked garment instructed to be dry cleaned only, a glass and brass trimmed garment instructed to be dry cleaned only, and a polyurethane belted garment instructed to be dry cleaned. Four components, four failure modes, and one cause in common, which is that the instruction was set by looking at the shell cloth and never checked against what was attached to it. Here, the instruction was set by looking at what is attached to it, and it is correct.

Sequins remove the stretch from the cloth they are sewn to, and that is the second thing, and it is why we would not trust the published bust. A mesh is made with holes, and that structure gives it some give in most directions. That give is probably how a 30 inch bust was expected to accommodate a 34 inch bust. But the mesh here is fully covered in sequins, and a sequin is a rigid disc that does not stretch, and the thread joining one sequin to the next does not stretch either. So once the surface is covered, the cloth underneath can no longer open, because the covering is inextensible. The garment is effectively rigid, and a rigid garment measuring 30 inches at the bust will not go around a 34 inch bust. This is worth stating as a principle you can apply to any embellished cloth: heavy embellishment does not sit on top of a fabric's properties, it replaces them. Whatever the base cloth could do, the finished composite does what the embellishment allows. We have had the opposite case in this series, a pleated dress published at a 24 inch bust where the pleats were precisely the mechanism that allowed the garment to open, and we accepted that figure. Here there is no mechanism, so we would measure a worn sample and publish the worn circumference rather than the flat one, rather than repeat a number customers will read as impossible.

A mesh base carrying that much sequin weight is the third thing. Sequins are light individually and heavy collectively, and there are a great many of them. Mesh, by its nature, is a light cloth with holes in it, which means it is one of the weaker bases you could choose. So there are two loads on it at once: the weight of the sequins hanging from it, and the damage done by the thousands of needle passes required to attach them, each of which removes a little strength from the base. Those two together are how a sequined garment fails, and it fails by tearing at the base rather than by sequins falling off, which is worth knowing because it means the failure looks sudden. We would do two things. Specify the base by strength and not by appearance, and be willing to use a denser mesh or to back the sequinned panels with a second cloth, even though both add weight and cost. Then test it loaded: hang the finished garment and leave it, rather than only looking at it on a hanger for a minute, because a base that is failing under its own weight takes time to show it. On the straps, one more small point. These are adjustable, which we have recommended, but on a sequinned garment the strap sits against the neck and the shoulder, and sequins there will rub. We would consider leaving the straps plain and stopping the sequins below them. Every bulk shipment gets a measurement report against your approved chart.

Optional upgrades include a base mesh specified by strength and load tested, a denser mesh or a backing cloth behind the sequinned panels, published worn circumferences, plain unsequinned straps, a hanging load test on the finished garment, a sequin attachment and abrasion test, alternative sequin sizes and densities, alternative base cloths, alternative lengths, extended sizing, colour development and private label, hangtag and care labelling.

Pre-production sample approval, in-line inspection during cutting and sewing, and a final AQL inspection before packing, with measurement reports and photos shared before shipment.

Send us your tech pack, a photo or a reference garment and we will quote within 24 hours. Contact bafinasa@bafinasa.com or WhatsApp +86 13827222469.