Crimson Reflections

In honor of Card Captor Sakura’s 20th anniversary, it’s been announced that Tomoyo Baby the Stars Shine Bright will make a collaborative piece based on the dress worn by Sakura in the 20th anniversary art book cover shown below.

Nakayosi60 reported the following:

また、こちらの表紙イラストの衣装を実際に作って販売するという「BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT」さんとのコラボ企画が決定！！
なんとCLAMP先生描き起こしのデザイン画をもとに作られた服が販売される予定です！
※「BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT」の公式HPはこちら→ http://www.babyssb.co.jp/

And Natalie.mu reported this:

CLAMP「カードキャプターさくら」と、ロリータ服ブランド「BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT」がコラボレート。3月24日に発売される「カードキャプターさくら 連載開始20周年記念 イラスト集」の表紙イラストで、さくらが着用している衣装が発売される。

Update 3/24 – Baby the Stars Shine Bright has confirmed that they will be making the collaboration piece:

『カードキャプターさくら 連載開始20周年記念 イラスト集』表紙イラストをもとに
CLAMP先生がデザインを起こしたお洋服を発売いたします♪

随時情報を公開してまいりますので
どうぞお楽しみに♪

Baby the Stars Shine Bright hasn’t given any details yet other than saying it will be based on the image above, which has lead to a lot of speculation.

Apparently, a sketch of Sakura in the dress standing straight up and down is on display in the Card Captor Sakura cafe right now, and someone snapped a picture.

The above photo was found on facebook, where it was posted by Himitsu Spica.

This is a little more clear than the more dynamic illustration. We know can see that the tie and hair accessories are supposedly detachable in the illustrated version, and it seems to have front corset lacing, 3/4 length sleeves, and matching peeking bloomers. In the illustration, it appears that the oink is shorter than the white under layer, but in reality this could be handled multiple different ways.

Below this point is only my own speculation + some historic info on past pieces. I will update ABOVE this break point when more information becomes available.

Baby has done other collaborative pieces for anime series in the past, but most of them have not been mainstream, cutesy magical girl stories which have the level of following that Card Captor Sakura has.

This Macross Fontier Collaboration Set was released in 2011 and retailed for ¥36,750. Macross Frontier was a 25th anniversary reboot of the anime Macross. Macross was one of three anime titles that got spliced together to create the show Robotech in the united states in the late 1980s.

This set was meant to emulate a pop idol outfit, and uses bright orange and costume-like elements.

This Macross Frontier OP Dress [Sayonara no Tsubasa movie Collaboration] was also released in 2011 and retailed for ¥34,440

I believe this was based on a stage costume (there is an amazing post that I stumbled upon while researching that has some anime source images for some of the collabs) which of course is a little limiting, but the thing is, it looks costume like.

While Macross has serious historic significance as an anime, one must admit that the art style of the original and the reboot isn’t exactly inline with BTSSB’s normal aesthetic.

However, both of these pieces look pretty lack-luster compared to the average BTSSB piece from the same time period.

This Dangan Ronpa Celestia Ludenberg Set from Alice and the Pirates retailed for ¥30,240 and is from 2013. This is one of those cases where the baby costume actually looks lower quality than the character’s actual art, which is unfortunate.

Dangan Ronpa is a video game, so again, it might be a case of an audience miss-match; people who want to cosplay video game characters might not be the same people who want to pay a lot for a Baby the Stars Shine Bright dress.

This Jellyfish Princess OP was also released in 2011, and it retailed for ¥57,750. This collaboration is much more successful as a design than the ones above, IMHO.

However, it also was more expensive.

However, the “Dantarian no Shoka” Darien OP, also from 2011 was even more expensive at ¥123,900. (you can see the rest of this collection here)

It is a longer dress, and it does come with a bonnet. The quality is fairly high, and the design is pretty good. The source material was written by a mangaka who also does work with the GLB, the characters do wear lolita, and so there likely was a lot of cross over between fans of the work and fans of Baby.

Looking at these collaborations, and looking at the source image, I think there are likely two ways this could go. They could make a cheaper, costume like piece like they did with the Macross Frontier pieces. It would still likely sell well, but it probably wouldn’t be particularly attractive as a dress on it’s own.

Or they can go all out and do a higher price make to order piece. CCS’s target audience was primarily girls. If a girl was 7 when CCS was on, she would be 27 now. A 14 year old girl would be 34. That’s right in that window of older lolita who have jobs and who likely can spend some money. On top of that CCS is fairly timeless, inspires nostalgia, and still has a pretty strong fan base. It’s also one of those anime that while appropriate for kids is absolutely still enjoyable when you are older.

That said, I would predict a price tag between ¥45,000 and ¥165,000. I would guess make to order, and I would guess a pink OP with no back shirring, fitted sleeves, an upside down V opening in the front of the skirt showing a while ruffled unskirt (faux). Red x white stripe ribbon sewn about the hem with lace and bows.  A white bib with a neck ribbon, and maybe matching hair combos or a headbow in the same stripe ribbon. Maybe also long bloomers?

Of course, that’s totally a guess for now!