[Shu cosplay] Arknights Spring Banquet: Which Brand to Keep Between Yanzhiguai and Shuaichen?

The lighting at home tonight is honestly terrible, so please bear with the visual quality. As an office worker coming home after dark, I rushed into trying on Shu's Spring Banquet costume right after walking through the door to finalize my outfit as quickly as possible. I plan to wear this for Ambience Synesthesia, so I purchased sets from two different brands simultaneously to compare and keep the best fit.

First, let's examine Yanzhiguai's set. The inner top is a mustard-yellow strappy bandeau trimmed with grey decorative bands across the bust, edged with white ruffled frills and eyelet lace, paired with a yellow beaded choker around the neck. The outer layer is a long magenta duster coat featuring dramatic puff sleeves with oversized bows and cascading white pleated wave frills along the lapels. The bottoms are deep purple wide-leg trousers secured by a broad belt with a metallic buckle, with a dimensional white zigzag wave ruffle running down the front leg from waist to ankle, culminating in an asymmetric hem spliced with white lace. Heavy braided white ornaments hang on both flanks of the coat, composed of cotton tufts, plaited ropes, and tassels. The white waist accessory provided by Yanzhiguai was too short, but the seller promised to ship a replacement.

Switching into Shuaichen Workshop's set: their coats share relatively similar fabric textures, but for the shoulder shawl, Yanzhiguai's is longer and narrower, whereas Shuaichen's is slightly shorter. The trousers exhibit stark differences—Shuaichen's are shimmery and notably thinner, while Yanzhiguai's are significantly heavier and denser. While taking photos, Shuaichen appeared more flattering on camera, likely because its coat cut runs longer, visually elongating my overall body proportions. To the naked eye, Yanzhiguai undoubtedly boasts superior tactile quality with substantial weight, yet in dim room lighting, that richness gets somewhat lost, making Shuaichen seem more photogenic on screen.

Price-wise, Yanzhiguai is priced at 988 RMB while Shuaichen is 427 RMB, creating a price gap of over 500 RMB. Both sets boast immense detail: the patterns on the top, the pleating and ruffles of the coat, the metallic buckle and white zigzag ruffles along the pants, and the underlying lace splicing. Putting everything together with chunky white platform shoes and all the accessories requires significant effort and presents high visual complexity.

I'm terribly torn right now. In terms of cost-performance and on-camera presentation, Shuaichen seems to take the win; however, I am reluctant to let go of Yanzhiguai's undeniable tactile heft, especially knowing they will send the missing accessory piece. Considering it costs more than double, a difference in fabric quality is completely expected, but over 500 RMB is no small sum for me. After snapping photos in the mirror for ages, I still cannot decide which set to keep. You can see the silhouette and tailoring here—please cast your vote and help me choose which brand to keep! I plan to wear this Spring Banquet Shu to Ambience Synesthesia next month, so I hope to settle on one soon and return the other.