The Sateen Soiree Jacket

Today I lived in the fear that the UPS guy with the first of the two Jcrew purchases that I made last week wouldn't show up before 6 pm. Normally I'm the one who receives the packages, even late, but I totally forgot that I had a movie night with a girlfriend tonight and I had to leave at 6. My husband agreed to come back from work earlier so that I could go and when the package didn't arrive at noon (UPS makes two deliveries a day, one around noon and one in the late afternoon-early evening) I started to sweat. If you have been reading this blog for a while you know that my husband doesn't necessarly approve of my spending habits, especially when it comes to Jcrew so I really didn't want him to get the Jcrew box instead of me. I don't order on the website very often because he can immediately see what I buy on the credit card online statement (by the way, not to channel Sophie Kinsella's Becky, but couldn't credit cards companies give us, wives and girlfriends with illecit spending habits, a break and NOT mention on their statements what we spend on in the most embarassing details? Like it wasn't hard enough to smuggle shoes in the apartment, they have to tell our husbands that those $300 spent at a mysterious Chuckies went in a MIU MIU pair? Thank you Amex for getting us into troubles. Seriously, is there a class suit against Amex for violation of wives privacy that I can sign up for? If not, it means that the world is ruled by husbands...)
Just when I was trying to come up with a backup plan for the delivery (a plan that would only work with the complicity of the doorman), the UPS guy showed up (around 4) and saved my day.

Anyway, I ordered two sateen soiree jackets, one in spice olive and one in slate in two different sizes, a 0 and a 2. I had tried the spice olive in store when it was $99 and although I really liked it, I wasn't ready to spend that amount on a jacket because I don't get to wear jackets very often. It's funny but at $39.99 the same raisoning becomes an enabler (hey, I don't have many jackets, I should wear them more often, I should buy this one) and I pulled the trigger. In order to get the free shipping I also bought two pairs of the cocktail capris in a petite size that I couldn't try in store (the regular 0 was way too big on me).

Now, I thought that it would be useful to post a quick review of the sateen soiree blazer as many JCAs mentioned it in the "sale watch" post last week and there were different opinions about it (it seems to be a love it or hate it item). I tried it on very quickly this afternoon to post IRL pics in case some of you want to take advantage of the 20% off coupon, which makes this jacket even more of a bargain.

First of all, this was the first time that I have ordered a jacket from Jcrew and I was impressed with the wrapping and the fact that they came on a hunger (you are maybe used to it but I didn't expect that). The jackets were in pristine conditions and clearly they had never left the warehouse before:



The details are beautiful, look at the lining with the pink inserts (the inside of the sleeves are also pink, actually a bummer that it'is not supposed to be shown):




Now the fit. The most important thing to know about this blazer is the lenght. It is short (that, and the fabric, is why it's supposed to be an evening jacket, I guess) and if you have a long torso it might not work for you.
Also it's not very fitted through the waist but the overall look is very nice because of the shortness. I know that it looks plain on the website pics but it definitively has a little something, it's a fit that you don't see quite often. Here I'm wearing it with the stretch cocktail capris:



I put the Cate slingbacks on just to show the proportions (I know that the color is not good):



In store I tried it with the orange gateau skirt and the ensemble looked gorgeous. It works well with a full skirt IMO. The closest that I have to the gateau skirt is this cotton-taffeta A-line skirt from early fall 2008, but really, the effect is not the same:


The fabric wrinkled a little bit during the pic session, which means that it will definitively wrinkle a lot if you wear it for an entire evening. Which means that it will probably need dry cleaning after each wear to look fresh. If this really bothers you, this jacket is not for you.
Regarding the spice olive color, because of the tissue (sateen) I find it a little bit lighter than the same color in the cardigans. It's more light chartreuse than spice olive if you master the Jcrew color palette lol. I didn't try the slate on because the 0 is clearly my size, so I'm not going to bother (plus, I think that the spice olive is more of an unexpected color for this kind of jacket and it contributes to its charme).

I urge to try this jacket, especially now that it comes to the price of a tee shirt. For me it's definitively worth it a try.

Do you own or have you tried this jacket? What do you think?