I've been endeavouring, albeit slowly, to include more white layering pieces in my collection. I feel like I've got black layering pieces sussed and I'm pretty solid with red too (if I do say so myself) but I'm completely lacking in white. I was going to finally get myself another
Creepyyeha Ravish Me set in white to start off with but then I stumbled on
BunnyRibs on
Instagram and decided to take a chance on someone new. Generally I stick with Creepyeha or Hopeless for my harness needs because they're tried and tested, high quality, versatile pieces but I was taken in by the interesting designs and mix and match possibilities offered by
BunnyRibs.
So I took the plunge, visited their web store and decided on my pieces. Their storenvy says international orders need to email for a shipping quote before purchasing so that's what I did. I received a speedy response of the amount and told to email if I had anymore questions. Me being dumb just went and purchased my items, leaving a 'note to seller' about my shipping quote since there was no other guidance given online or by the designer in the email. Which clearly was the wrong thing to do as I was charged a standard shipping fee that was more expensive than my quote. When I emailed I was told i should have asked them to set up some kind of listing for me if I wanted to pay the actual shipping cost I was quoted and even though it's completely possible, there was no mention of a partial refund through PayPal. So I ended up paying $45 for shipping, when it was only $35. I just let this slide because it's only £6-ish but it is strange practice to accept an overpayment from someone who has tried to follow your vague guidelines.
I ordered my pieces in March and received them in May so overall a 2 month wait for production and shipping, on a par with Creepyyeha and Hopeless and within their guidelines. All of my emails were replied to exceptionally quickly as well. My items arrived in a sturdy box, however not discreetly packaged as the store name and an illustration of an arse was stuck on the outside (so something to think about if you like buying discreetly and considering this store's imagery is heavily fetish based and entirely nude you may not feel comfortable with some people seeing). Inside my items were wrapped in tissue paper and upon opening I realised each piece was laid flat in the tissue paper and stuck on with clear tape. Queue me spending 15 minutes cleaning sticky residue off the hardware of my harnesses. Possibly not the best packaging idea in my opinion.
I ordered the
Justine and
Valentina harnesses in White. All items are made in one standard size and custom sizes are available on request. For standard sizing i would say this is a pretty good fit. Most straps are adjustable and so it will fit a relatively large range of body shapes and sizes. The option of custom orders is also great as it doesn't disclude anyone from owning a piece however i'm not sure if you pay extra for a custom size. The smaller elastic is of silk-satin finish so is soft against the skin and the thicker elastic has more of a cotton finish but is still very soft. None of the elastic has an abrasive edge and so you could comfortably wear these pieces for long periods of time. The suspender clips are great, they're metal and very very sturdy, there's no possibility of your stockings falling down whatsoever and they're a lot easier to get on than regular suspender clips (especially the ones in the back). I get a very hardy feel from these pieces and i have no fear of them breaking with wear or the hardware snapping. All the material components seem like they're good quality.
And here's where this review takes a turn to a more negative side. Honestly I hate writing less than positive reviews because I feel like I'm letting people down (why?) but overall this order was very disappointing for me and I've had moments of genuine regret in purchasing these items. First off, the waist band of my
Justine garter belt is completely a different colour to the rest of the elastic (same for the elastic attaching the suspender clips), it's an off cream as opposed to a brilliant white. You can't see it in my main photos because of my post production colour work (i.e. filters and level work to make a photo look more pleasing) but I've included a photo of this so you can see clearly. I immediately contacted
BunnyRibs and sent photos on their request and was told some conflating info; that it may be discolouration due to shipping and I should try delicately washing the piece and that the fibres of the elastic were different and therefore the larger elastic wasn't going to be as white as the smaller elastic.
BunnyRibs then went on to say they hoped it wasn't noticeable in all lighting (?!) and that they wished I lived closer so it was easily rectified. No actual solutions were given except to wash the piece so I came to terms with this being a construction flaw that they weren't willing to rectify.
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| This photo is completely unedited as you can tell from the cotton bobbles on my bedsheet... |
Unfortunately the quality issues didn't end there (big sad face). When I finally tried this set on I realised something kind of devastating. One of
BunnyRibs' biggest selling points is that their top and bottom harnesses can all be worn together and mix-and-matched through the clips on the top attaching to the o-rings on the bottom:
"All Bunnyribs harnesses are designed to be worn interchangeably with any of our garter belts, and vice versa". Every photo with
Valentina (even on their Instagram) shows her attached to the o-rings on waist bands that lie diagonally to the side of the clips. Which looks amazing. But the only o-ring small enough for the clips to attach to on my Justine was the middle o-ring and not only does this look awful aesthetically but it's clear these clips are made to have a minimum length more suited to the larger o-rings, i.e. The clips straps are too long. So these two pieces look awful together and I'm left with a top harness that has detachable clip hardware that needs to be clipped to something metal... Basically
Valentina is unwearable unless I buy another
BunnyRibs piece.
Not only that but
Valentina has one other large design flaw. The heart o-ring is such a cute idea and it was what drew me to the otherwise plain design but alas, it is just not working. The straps aren't secured to a specific position on the heart hardware so with minimal movement it turns sideways and won't stay still which leaves all the other straps akimbo and all over the place. And it does this almost immediately on wear, maybe if the straps were sewn on tighter it would have less movement so I could attempt to do this myself but I wish I didn't have to.
Other little issues with this set were things like one of the suspender clips on
Justine having rust discolouration in places and the sewing not being neat in places but these are things i'd usually overlook.
I know that although
BunnyRibs put out a very polished image that makes them look long term established but they are a fairly new venture. All of these problems can be put down as teething problems that are especially present in harness designs which may look great on a mannequin but don't wear as well. Complicated harness designs can take a while to perfect. But the idea that they send out pieces with different coloured elastic and don't seem open to rectifying flaws like that for international customers isn't sitting well with me and I'm wholly aware that I have two fairly expensive pieces (in total I paid $225 or £165 for these pieces) where one is genuinely unwearable and the other is aesthetically unwearable. It seems to me that
BunnyRibs are trying to run before they can walk but their designs aren't living up to the image they're putting out. I'm very understanding of the issues indie designers go through when setting up their stores and i'm often very generous in overlooking any issues especially since as a blogger I do see a lot of lingerie but sometimes I have to step back and be a customer with expectations that aren't met and empty pockets. I was so rooting for
BunnyRibs to be my new favourite store but unfortunately that didn't happen.
All I can say is that I hope these are teething problems that go away with a bit more experience and i hope
BunnyRibs take their customer feedback on board and are open to changing their designs. I also hope that any of my readers can make informed decisions about ordering from
Bunnyribs. My recommendations would be to avoid any of the white or coloured designs since there's no guarantee the two sizes of elastic will be the same colour, stick to buying pieces that are definitely pictured together to make sure the clips on the top are compatible with the o-rings on the bottoms and if you're international make sure to email asking for a listing so you don't unnecessarily lose money on shipping.
