Black Floral Velvet Puff Sleeve Midi Dress - OEM

The Leda Dress from Sea New York in black, made from a rich floral velvet with softly voluminous puff sleeves and a flowing midi silhouette, listed at 410 GBP with three of five sizes left. It is worth setting out what this run found in its chart, because it is the most consequential thing this run has turned up and it is not a matter of taste. Read the published chest against the body the size is labelled for and the ease runs 2.86, 2.43, 2.01, 0.80 and then minus 0.42 inches. It declines at every size and it crosses zero at the top. So on the brand's own chart, the 10 US, the largest size made, measures smaller than the body it is labelled for. And the cloth is 80% viscose and 20% nylon velvet with no elastane in it at all, so there is nothing to stretch to close the gap. This run met negative ease for the first time one batch ago, on a ribbed tee with elastane, and it was correct there because the rib and the elastane were doing the work. Here it is not. The run can now state the test, and it is not the number: negative ease is fine when the cloth can stretch to meet it and a fault when it cannot. The rest of the page is in keeping. The length is 122 cm for the top three sizes without comment, the sleeve barely grades, and the velvet, which is the single most specification-dependent cloth in dressmaking, is described in two words. The reference is the Leda Velvet Puff Sleeve Midi Dress in Black. Dongguan Bafinasa Garments Co., Ltd. develops comparable velvet and occasion dresses on OEM and ODM terms, from cloth sourcing by pile, weight and base 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

• Ease of about 2.86, 2.43, 2.01, 0.80 and minus 0.42 in, falling at every size and negative at the largest. See the note below
• 80% viscose and 20% nylon velvet with no elastane, so nothing stretches to meet the negative ease at the top size. See the note below
• Chest grading of 2, 2, 1 and 1 cm against a body that grades 2 in per size, which is the mechanism behind the collapse. See the note below
• Total length 119, 120, 122, 122 and 122 cm, so the top three sizes are the same length. See the note below
• Sleeve 31, 31, 32, 33 and 33 cm, growing about 0.5 cm per size while the chest grows about 1.5. See the note below
• Floral velvet as stated, with no pile height, no pile direction, no weight, no base cloth and nothing about how the floral is made. See the note below
• Dry clean only as stated, correct for velvet pile, with the reason never given and nothing about crushing, steaming or storage. See the note below

Customisable Options

• Cloth: floral velvet to the reference, with the pile height, the pile direction and the weight stated, or a plain velvet, or a burnout velvet, or a velvet jacquard, each quoted separately
• Fit: neat to the reference, with the ease at every size published and held steady, or a regular fit, or a closer fit, each quoted separately
• Grading: a grade that holds the ease steady across the full range, or grading to the reference, or a custom grade to your own block, each quoted separately
• Sleeves: puff to the reference, with the puff height, the volume and the cuff circumference stated, or a plain short sleeve, or a long sleeve, each quoted separately
• Length: midi to the reference, with the length graded across every size, or a shorter length, or a maxi length, each quoted separately
• Lining: full lining to the reference, with the weight and the weave stated, or a half lining, or a different lining fibre, each quoted separately
• Pile height and direction, cloth weight, base cloth construction, lining weight and weave, puff height and cuff circumference, neck width and depth, zip brand and length, size set, colour development, private label and care labelling

Specifications

Size Chart as Published by the Reference

The chest figures are flat half measures taken with the dress laid down, doubling to 86, 90, 94, 96 and 98 cm around, or 33.86, 35.43, 37.01, 37.80 and 38.58 in. Against a body bust of 31, 33, 35, 37 and 39 in across 2 US to 10 US, the ease is about 2.86, 2.43, 2.01, 0.80 and minus 0.42 in, so it falls at every size and is negative at the largest. The chest steps 2, 2, 1 and 1 cm, which no uniform grade produces. The sleeve steps 0, 1, 1 and 0. The length is 122 cm for the top three sizes.

Our Proposed Body Chart

Occasions and Styling

Suits autumn and winter and occasion dressing. A black floral velvet midi with a puff sleeve is an evening piece, and the neat fit makes it the kind of dress worn to something rather than to anything.

Production and Quality Control

The reference publishes three columns for all five sizes, states the self and the lining separately, gives a size conversion for every size, names the neck, the sleeves, the closure, the lining and the length, gives a fit word, gives a care instruction, names the country of production and carries six photographs. It gives no cloth weight, no pile specification, no lining specification, no sleeve dimensions, no neck dimensions, no zip specification and no model information, and publishes no fit guidance beyond one word, and it uses two different fit words on one page. Three things follow: the ease that crosses zero, the grade that causes it, and the velvet that is described in two words.

Two point eight six, two point four three, two point zero one, zero point eight zero, minus zero point four two, and that is the first thing, and it is worth being exact about what it means because it is easy to soften. The chest measures 86, 90, 94, 96 and 98 centimetres around, which is 33.86, 35.43, 37.01, 37.80 and 38.58 inches. The sizes are labelled for bodies of 31, 33, 35, 37 and 39 inches. So the ease, the room the dress has over the body, is about 2.86 inches at the smallest size and minus 0.42 inches at the largest. It falls at every single size, and at the top of the range it is negative, which means the dress is smaller than the body it is made for. Now this run has to be careful here, because it met negative ease for the first time only one batch ago and gave that garment credit for it. That was a ribbed tee with elastane, and the negative ease there was the design: the rib and the elastane stretch over the body, so the garment is meant to be smaller than the person. The test is not the number. The test is whether the cloth can stretch to meet it. And here it cannot. The self is 80% viscose and 20% nylon velvet, and there is no elastane in it. The lining is 100% polyester, and there is no elastane there either. So there is nothing in this dress that will give by the half inch needed at the top size, and a non stretch woven that measures smaller than the body simply will not close. This run had a hypothesis about negative ease and this garment settles it: negative ease is correct when the cloth can stretch to meet it, and it is a fault when it cannot, and the way to tell the two apart is to read the fibre panel, not the fit word. It is worth adding what the fit word does here, because it is doing something dishonest by accident. The bullet says designed for a snug fit, and at 2.86 inches of ease on the smallest size, snug is fair. But the same two words are meant to cover 0.80 inches at the 8 US, where the dress is nearly skintight, and minus 0.42 at the 10 US, where it does not close. One fit word is spanning three and a quarter inches of change and crossing from comfortable to impossible, and the customer has no way to see that, because the chart is published and the ease is not. It is worth closing this with the contradiction in the prose, which is the same problem in words rather than numbers. The description calls it a graceful, flowing midi silhouette with a neat fit. A dress cannot both flow and be snug, and the chart says it is snug, so the prose is describing a garment the numbers do not support. And the bullet uses a second and different word for the same thing: snug in one place, neat in another.

Two, two, one, one, and that is the second thing, and it is the mechanism, and it is worth setting out because it explains the first thing and because it is the mirror image of something this run found and admired. The chest steps 2, 2, 1 and 1 centimetres. Over the first two sizes the dress gains 4 centimetres of circumference per size, which is about 1.57 inches. Over the last two it gains 2 centimetres, which is about 0.79 inches. The body, meanwhile, gains 2 inches of bust at every size, without exception. So at every step the dress falls further behind, and the shortfall accumulates: 2.86, then 2.43, then 2.01, then 0.80, then minus 0.42. That is the whole of it. The grade is slower than the body, and slower again at the top, so the fit degrades smoothly across the range and crosses zero at the end. And this run has now seen the opposite, which is what makes the comparison worth making. On a shirt from another brand, the chest grade widened at each step, one, then two, then three centimetres, and the effect was that the ease fell for three sizes and then recovered at the top instead of continuing to drop. The run said then that the one genuinely irregular column on that garment was the most carefully considered one. Here the grade goes the other way: it narrows. And the result is the exact inverse. A grade that widens with the body holds the fit steady. A grade that lags behind the body lets the fit fall apart, and it falls apart furthest at the largest size, which is where the customer has least room to absorb it. It is worth adding the two other columns, because they complete the picture and both fail the test as well. The sleeve reads 31, 31, 32, 33 and 33, so it grows by about half a centimetre per size while the chest grows by about one and a half, and it is frozen at both ends of the range. The length reads 119, 120, 122, 122 and 122. The top three sizes are the same length. Not similar: identical, at 122 centimetres, on bodies four inches apart in the bust. This run has met frozen dimensions before and has said each time that a figure repeated across sizes is a fact about the pattern rather than a copying mistake, and three sizes at exactly 122 settles it. So the two largest sizes are literally the same length of dress. Which means midi means something different on each of them: the hem sits progressively higher the bigger the body, and nothing on the page says so, and there is no model height to let a customer work out where 122 centimetres falls on her. The 56 GBP T-shirt published in the same batch gives one. This does not.

Velvet, and pile, and nothing, and that is the third thing. The dress is made from a rich floral velvet, and velvet is the most specification dependent cloth in dressmaking. The pile height decides the hand, the weight and how it drapes. The pile direction decides the colour, because a velvet reads darker or lighter depending on which way the pile lies, which is why velvet is always cut one way and why a garment made from two panels cut in opposite directions looks like two different cloths. And this run has been asking for exactly this on corduroy for many batches, where the same property is called the wale, and it has been refused every time. Here there is no pile height, no pile direction, no weight in any unit, and no description of the base cloth the pile is woven into. There is also nothing about how the floral is made. A floral velvet is usually one of three different things: a burnout, where the pattern is dissolved out of the pile; a jacquard, where it is woven in; or a print or emboss on a plain velvet. Those are three cloths with three different prices, three different hands and three different durabilities, and the page uses one word for all of them. Two smaller things belong with it. The lining is given as 100% polyester and nothing else, so no weight and no weave, and nothing about static, which matters because a polyester lining under a viscose dress is a static problem and this is a fitted midi. And the invisible back zip is given no brand, no type and no length, on a dress that is snug, non stretch and entered only through that zip, which makes it the single highest stress point on the garment. It is worth ending on the care label, because it is right for once and still incomplete. Dry clean only is correct, and the reason is the pile: water crushes velvet pile and crushing can be permanent. But the page never says why. This run has now met dry clean only twice, and on the other occasion the reason was invisible and had to be inferred from the construction, while here the reason is visible in the cloth itself, and neither page states it. And what is missing around it is exactly what a velvet owner needs. Nothing about crushing, nothing about steaming a crushed pile back up, nothing about storage on a padded hanger rather than folded or hung on a wire, and nothing about what dry cleaning costs over the life of a 410 GBP dress. Six photographs are provided, which is the most this run has seen, and it is worth saying what they cannot do. The defining property of velvet is how it moves under light, and no still photograph shows that. So the garment is supplied with more pictures than anything else in this run and the one thing that makes it what it is remains unseen. Every bulk shipment gets a measurement report against your approved chart.

Optional upgrades include quoting the cloth weight, the pile height and the pile direction, saying whether the floral is a burnout, a jacquard or a print, giving the lining weight and weave and saying what is done about static, giving the puff height, the volume and the cuff circumference, giving the neck width and depth, giving the zip brand, type and length, grading the length across every size instead of holding it at 122, holding the ease steady across the full range and publishing it at every size, adding crushing, steaming, storage and cleaning cost to the care label, adding fit guidance and a model height, a plain velvet, a burnout velvet and a velvet jacquard, plain short and long sleeve options, shorter and maxi lengths, a half lining and a different lining fibre, regular and closer fit options, size set, colour development, 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.