BLESSUME Victorian Dress Double Pannier Petticoat

Wore this for Eliza Hamilton costume and it was perfect. It fit great and worked perfect for the look. It would be weighted down by a super heavy dress but I wore several layers under my dress on top if it and it was strong and wasn’t affected. It is super light and doesn’t drag you down. It gave the perfect figure for the time period I was going for. Super easy to put on and wear.

I honestly wasn't expecting much from a cheap Chinese costume product, but I was very surprised with the quality of these panniers and their service. I expected something flimsy, barely serviceable, but these panniers are actually much better make then many of the hand-made panniers I've seen on re-enactors. The cotton fabric is suitably heavy. The boning is a sturdy spring steel, good quality stuff.. It should be able to support any reasonable ensemble. I wear it with three layers of petticoats, plus substantially embellished overskirts and I've not encountered any problems. The craftsmanship is neat and sturdy. Everything is accurate to the description. The shipping was incredible. These are coming from China, after all, so a month or two would have been a reasonable wait, but I received my panniers in less than two weeks. The delivery guy decided he was going to dump my steel-boned panniers in my driveway on a rainy day, but thanks to Blessume's watertight packaging, the panniers survived in pristine condition. Overall, very satisfactory. ---- If you're into 17th century costume then I assume you've come prepared to make at least minor alterations to your costumes, so I'm not knocking off any stars for these potential fitting concerns. I just think you might want to know: -- The most secure way to tie on panniers is to tie each pannier separately around the waist, as shown in the picture. Because the ties are a bit short, this will not be possible if you have a waist measurement over 28-30 inches. Bigger folks could still wear them by tying the waists to each other, up to about about a 45 inch waist measurement, but they might prefer to attach longer waist ties instead. -- The slits for the pockets are a bit small. Most women should be able to fit their hands inside without too much of a struggle, but getting them in or out while holding a wallet or phone will be a different story. -- Panniers can be worn low or high depending on preference. The lower the pannier hangs, the more rounded the curve of your hip will be. These panniers hang very low, exactly like you see in the picture, which is NOT the way most historical panniers were worn (most ladies had their panniers jutting nearly perpendicular to their body) but I think it's a good thing that Blessume makes their panniers this way--it's much easier to take up panniers that hang too low than it is to let down panniers that sit too high. If you find that your panniers are too low, but can't sew well enough to take them up, you can simply roll the waistband down a few times. -- Chinese clothing is notoriously teeny-tiny, but these panniers are VERY generous in size. They are long enough for even the tallest of ladies (I stuck mine on a 6'2" drag queen) and wide enough that they should accommodate people who are slim, average, or moderately overweight. If anything, people who are very petite should be prepared to make some simple alterations to bring the panniers down to size.

bought these for an 18th century costume and loved them! gave great support - the ties can be a little tricky as you really gotta tie them tight to hold up a dress- my biggest con is they do have small pocket cut outs but they are VERY tiny thus not easy to get in an out of

Good materia and easy to use.

First, pay no attention to the name. This is not for Victorian styles, this is for 18th Century dress. The construction of the panniers is fine. The materials are of good quality and will stand up to repeated wearings. They fold down nicely for storage and can be flattened down if you need to wear your dress in a car or into a chair with arms. These panniers have a fabric panel on the inside to hold the curve of the hoop, which actually make for great places to keep light little odds and ends, especially since there is a pocket slit on the top. These will probably be excellent for women wearing sizes smaller than an 16-18, but I wouldn't recommend these for plus size women as I found the front and back ties to be almost too short, and proportionally they felt too small for me and my gown.

It does the job for me, this is my first time wearing something like this!

Unfortunately they kept collapsing, which meant it was like wearing nothing under my costume at all. They are quite flimsy, so I had to order a sturdier set from elsewhere. If you have anything heavier than tissue, plan to order something different.

Great for 18th-century costume.