Deteriorating Outfits

24 minutes ago, cfx said:

No personal experience, but something I think I remember reading about or at least seeing in pictures--haven't some of the Snow Miku boots and arm covers yellowed to where they look gold-ish in color instead of the silver they are supposed to be? If I'm remembering that correctly, this must be a case of poor materials as Snow Miku was only released 02/2017 so wasn't that long ago.

Yes, it was Snow Miku's set that was reported as yellowing. Mine hasn't, but I have noticed that it takes on a yellowish tint under fluorescent lighting. If I look at under sunlight it's fine.

I actually looked at your all dolls pic before I posted that. Snow Miku's outfit is mostly obscured by other girls but I thought what I could see did look a bit yellow, but the lighting explains it then.

Anyway, something that new shouldn't have already yellowed so it must be an issue with the quality of the material.

8 hours ago, cfx said:

I actually looked at your all dolls pic before I posted that. Snow Miku's outfit is mostly obscured by other girls but I thought what I could see did look a bit yellow, but the lighting explains it then.

Anyway, something that new shouldn't have already yellowed so it must be an issue with the quality of the material.

The picture of all my dolls was shot under both tungsten & warm florescent bulbs. Both of those produce an orange light. I suspect under those circumstances that silvery material is reflecting much more light from the yellow wavelength. That issue doesn't seem to be apparent to the eye with white light, but I am pretty sure the effect must still be present, just not as noticeable.

I have seen photos where the boots have pretty bad yellowing, and much more so than lighting can explain. I have no doubt that they yellow with time and that storage / display conditions can make it worse.

I know I've seen pictures where it looks much more yellow, and I think I've read someone saying theirs was obviously yellowed, but I don't remember if that was an old post here, or somewhere else like instagram.

Of course storage conditions affect how long these types of aging take, but that's still pretty quick for something released as recently as Snow Miku, especially since I think I saw the pictures I did a year or more ago.

40 minutes ago, cfx said:

but I don't remember if that was an old post here

Pretty sure its posted here somewhere. Someone started a thread asking about it iirc.

Actually, I suppose the thread could have been on facebook. I recall the topic being something along the lines of 'is anyone else experiencing yellowing on the Snow Miku outfit.'

4 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Actually, I suppose the thread could have been on facebook.

Since I seem to have seen it too it has to be somewhere else as I don't go there lol.

Does anyone know what kind of product should be used to fill cat tooth marks in shoes? I found out the hard way that my youngest cat can get into a doll slider box. The shoes in question were my favorites, from Akira v1's set. I think they might be leather? They're thicker than some of my cheaper shoes.

1 hour ago, Jezrah said:

Does anyone know what kind of product should be used to fill cat tooth marks in shoes? I found out the hard way that my youngest cat can get into a doll slider box. The shoes in question were my favorites, from Akira v1's set. I think they might be leather? They're thicker than some of my cheaper shoes.

Maybe some of that same vinyl repair stuff that growcian used on the uniform jacket?

 

10 hours ago, cfx said:

I know I've seen pictures where it looks much more yellow, and I think I've read someone saying theirs was obviously yellowed, but I don't remember if that was an old post here, or somewhere else like instagram.

So I pulled out her stuff and checked it again. The sleeve looked fine under incandescent light, but yellow under florescent like before. The yellowish tint really seems like a reflection on that material.

I did find a yellowish brown line on the boots all the way down the front seam. When I looked inside there is an orange stripe all the way down the white material lining the boots, and it's the same thickness as the stripe in front, and it follows the seam. I think it might be something with that seam, maybe they used some material that bled through or some sort of fabric glue that deteriorated and left a stain. I am pretty sure it's a stain, and it's only where the seam is, there is no other place where it's discolored.

It's not from light exposure either; Miku has hardly worn them since I got her.

I might as well provide an update.

The deterioration on Erica's jacket is getting worse by the day. For every hole, nick, or tear I patch up with the repair paste, a new hole, nick, or tear on a different part of the jacket shows up. This has become a daily ritual since acquiring the repair kit. What I just said does not mean the repair kit isn't worth it; the repair kit is definitely worth having. The problem isn't with the kit itself. The problem is, Erica's jacket is in a much worse condition than I had feared. Without the kit, the jacket would have fallen apart much faster.

There's going to come a point where I'm going to give up trying to patch every tear created by the deterioration. Before that happens, I'm going to try to get some enjoyment out from having bought the outfit by posting photos.

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by growcian
Added 2 more photos with different lighting.

4 hours ago, growcian said:

I might as well provide an update.

I checked Sakura's Battlesuit, and I see small cracks near where the sleeves join the body, but nowhere near as bad. Still, they weren't there the last time she wore it.

My very first heel i bought from coolcats would probably one of my oldest item. Imo a few scratches and the glue has yellowed but still is perfectly functional. Anything else I own has mostly was damaged from an inexperienced owner, myself >.<

On 2/2/2020 at 5:26 PM, growcian said:

I might as well provide an update.

 

I recently purchased Sakura's Battlesuit (hasn't arrived yet..) and now seeing this has me petrified. 

16 minutes ago, hats said:

I recently purchased Sakura's Battlesuit (hasn't arrived yet..) and now seeing this has me petrified.

It's a nice set, so hopefully yours arrives in good condition.

While it does seem this particular type of vinyl as used in Sakura's and Erica's outfits is one likely to deteriorate sooner than others, Volks Japan is still selling Erika's outfit which I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be doing if the ones they have had obviously deteriorated in the package. Obviously climate and storage conditions play a part, so hopefully some of these are still in good condtion.

While Mandarake has a disclaimer about vinyl and such materials on all of their listings, I do wonder what happens if you get an outfit sold as unused and shown in pictures as undamaged, but it falls apart when you first remove it from the package, or already shows damage even before opening, from the shipping process. The disclaimer removes any liability but if I got such an outfit I think I'd still contact them and see if something could be done.

7 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

It's a nice set, so hopefully yours arrives in good condition.

Crossing my fingers. Though I bookmarked a repair kit just in case the need arises. 

Volks Tree Fairy Spirit bustier.

image-20200207_203651 by Tim Solberg, on Flickr

It's not too bad, yet, but the leather like trim is showing some wear.  

image-20200207_203712 by Tim Solberg, on Flickr

This part looks worse, as the metal hooks slide over it.  

It's also easy to pull the chain belt thing off the skirt by accident, but that's easy enough to fix.  

I have that outfit as well, and I just looked at mine and it hasn't deteriorated like that, not yet. I touched those areas a bit and nothing flaked off.

However, I remember sometime after I got it and tried it on to see how it fit, and that top loop on the bustier was hard to get the hook to go into because it was sewn a bit smaller, or just was laying flat, or whatever, and just putting the hook in tore the strip there, a tiny bit, not as bad as yours looks, but that material is either just very fragile or mine is also aging some.

When I first looked at mine through the bag, I thought it had done something that turned out to just be how that suede material has a fuzzy edge on it anyway.

Disheartening to know that's what I have to look forward to though. I got this not quite two years ago from Mandarake, but it's been sitting in its bag the whole time so I haven't gotten anything out of it yet.

I see one white line on the suede from my Red Gear Accent set, but it almost looks more like a cut in the material than a crack, so it might be a little manufacturing defect that was always there. The corset on my Lady Thief outift has a crack on the side but it was creased there in the package so also not sure if that's deterioration or not. One of the belts that's part of that corset has part of the black top layer rubbed off where it passes though the buckle though; it was like that when I got it.

On 2/8/2020 at 12:17 AM, BeyondTime said:

It's a nice set, so hopefully yours arrives in good condition.

I'm so glad I decided to order the repair kit just in case. Sakura's battle uniform arrived today with several tiny little tears. They're not nearly as bad as it could have been, and it all appears to only be in the places where the outfit was folded in the packaging. The boots along with the rest of the outfit are in amazing shape though. Once I do the repairs I will have to come up with a solution for not folding it at all when I have to store it. 

My Lady Thief outfit has a little crack in the vinyl corset like that. It was there when I got it but the material doesn't really seem like it has noticably deteriorated other than that particular crack caused by a stress from it being creased.

56 minutes ago, hats said:

The boots along with the rest of the outfit are in amazing shape though. Once I do the repairs I will have to come up with a solution for not folding it at all when I have to store it

I did check the boots on mine and they are fine. Pretty sure they are made from a different material. 

It is sad to see in that state the set of clothes that you like so much and that are mostly quite expensive.

On 2/12/2020 at 10:06 PM, BeyondTime said:

I did check the boots on mine and they are fine. Pretty sure they are made from a different material. 

The boots are indeed made out of the same material. I made the mistake of touching the boots... they started cracking at the touch. 

I'm going to do repairs to the outfit and boots this weekend and see how it goes. I definitely won't be able to bend her arms before or after repairing. Not with how delicate this stuff appears to be. 

While obviously there are a lot of variables that will affect if a specific sample of any outfit deteriorates and when, I also think it's likely, and supported by what we have here, that certain outfits are prone to this, more than just saying all of the fake leather stuff will do this eventually.

With that in mind, I think it might be useful to mention outfits that we know of that have deteriorated so it would be something to look out for when contemplating buying older outfits.

So I'm going to mention one now: Researching something else on Mandarake earlier, I noticed that all 4 of the Tenshi no Koromo Lace-up Tops Sets they have in stock have the belts deteriorating. It's the lower left outfit on this page:

https://www.volks.co.jp/htd_osaka7/sumika7.html

That outfit is also 7 years old which is starting to sound like a magic number here.

It’s definitely the oldest Volks outfit I currently own. I’m curious as to the condition of Yoko’s default outfit for those who own her. If I recall, her outfit is made out of similar stuff. (She’s also on my wish list, so it’d be nice to know what I’ve got to look forward to lol)

Of the four Yoko DDs Mandarake currently has, three of them mention and show deteriorating boots. I think I've read about the bra doing it too. One of the Mandarake ones has the wig falling apart too but I don't know if that's something normal or out of the ordinary.

I know she has some owners here though. I remember Billy has her though I don't know if he has her fullset.