Gap: Strapless Pom-Pom Dress Review

This is Gap's Strapless Pom-Pom Dress (style #585664), which originally retailed for $69.50, and is currently on sale online.  This dress is numerically-sized, and was available in coral, light brown, and off-white colors.  It is also available in regular, petite, and tall sizes.  Gap describes the dress as such:

This dress has all the right moves: the babydoll silhouette provides a flattering fit for all body types, while the artsy pom-poms and romantic shirring add texture and volume.

I had wanted to find this dress for awhile, ever since I saw it in one of the headers on Gap's website.  Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed by it when I did finally find it.  I tried this dress on in a size 4, in the off-white color.  I am not a fan at all, I'm sorry to say.

The dress fits true-to-size, but I would note that it isn't super light.  The dress has a couple of layers, if I recall correctly, and while the fabric itself is pretty light, I think the detailing kind of weighs it down, both literally and figuratively.  The dress does move and flow very nicely.  It has an empire waist, and is fairly comfortable (granted, I only had it on for a few minutes).

I dislike this dress for two reasons: the pom-poms, which are the feature of the dress, and the unnecesary "romantic shirring" at the bottom.  It's not that I object to the shirring itself, but there's just so much of it.  It's so long, and I think it would have looked better if it were half as long.  I think it makes the dress unnecessarily long, too.  I can usually squeeze by in a "regular" dress as far as length goes, but this one is just ridiculously long.  I mean, look at the model - it's above her knees.  Mine is at least halfway to my ankles.

And of course, there is the elephant in the room to address, the pom-poms.  Ugh - this was the main feature of this dress?  The pom-poms are arranged in a couple of half circles on the bust.  Looking at them now, it almost looks like they were trying to emulate a double-strand pearl necklace or something, but I think they miss the mark a little.  The pom-poms are hard, and I think they are too big and clunky for the material.

Looking at the first IRL picture now, they don't seem so bad, but I disliked them immediately (even on the hanger), when I saw them in-store.  Here is a close-up of the pom-poms.

These are the product details from Gap's website.

I think it's fairly clear that I did not like this dress at all.  I think Gap had the potential for a pretty cute dress, but I think they overworked the details (shirring, bottom hem, pom-poms), and ended up producing a dress that looks weighed down, when it should look fun and flowy.  I passed on this one.

What do you think?  Do you like this dress?  Have you tried it on or seen it in-store?  Do you own it?