My First Boden Order Has Arrived

First of all, thank you for the nice comments to my previous post. I appreciate you thinking of me and it looks like it worked because my personal issue got solved this morning for the best, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

Before leaving you for a week I wanted to do a quick post on my recent Boden order, as it could be useful sizing-wise if you are hesitating to place an order with them especially now that the UK sizes have been converted to US sizes.
I had never ordered from Boden for myself before. I place an order or two each season for my daughter, but while I enjoy to flip through the women's catalog pages, I'm not such a fan of the bright colors and bold prints for me, so I always passed.

What changed this time around? Well, when I received the catalog I was looking for a tunic for my upcoming trip and Jcrew had just let me down because by the time I had enough money on my gift card the beautiful (but probably not very suitcase-friendly) Soleil Paisley Tunic was already backordered until mid-march (boo Jcrew! In March I will be in snowy NY, not on a Caribbean island).
Boden offers several tunics in its latest catalog, but there was one that I had already seen and liked on several blogs when the Boden previews came out (sorry ladies, I don't remember who exactly posted about this besides Dinagedeon). It's the Printed tunic in the Fennel Flower print. Because of the 10% off offer that I found in the catalog I also ordered the Textured Breton tee in blue.
I ordered both items in a size 2 (the smallest US size available) and they shipped in less than 24 hours (I was impressed). Unfortunately now there are several weeks of wait for these items depending on the size/color but my past experience with "mini" Boden is that the weeks of wait end up being less than what they say on the website.

Anyway, the package arrived two days ago (in time for my vacation, and in less than 6 days from the date of my order even if the merchandise shipped from the UK). I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the sizing. I was expecting both the tunic and the tee to be on the big side but they are TTS to small.

The tunic first. Love it. It wasn't exactly what I expected because it looks more like a dress than a tunic to me (BTW, I was curious and I looked up the definition of tunic on the online Cambridge dictionary: "a piece of clothing which fits loosely over a person's body, reaches to the waist or knees, and often has no sleeves." Other dictionaries put forward as an essential quality of a tunic the fact of being a pull-on but all agree on the looseness of it). Well, it's not loose at all but gathered under the chest:





And it's certainly not a pull-over since it has a zip on the side (although I could almost pull it over without opening the zip).
I was worried that the fabric would be a little bit stiff as linen can sometimes be, but it's very soft and comfortable to wear (the website description says "washed for softness" and it appears to be a true statement). And it's not sheer, which means that I can wear it in the city in the summer.
To be honest, I kind of "hoped" that it wouldn't work because in the meanwhile I had already bought the rope Calypso dress and I didn't want to go overbudget but I simply can't return this tunic, ehm pardon me, dress. And even if it doesn't meet the requirement for my beach vacation suitcase (as it's very prone to wrinkle) I'm taking it with me on vacation as it is going to be perfect for breakfasts and even lunches.

The second item though is going back. Not that it isn't nice but is not "textured" as the description said. I had imagined a heavy cotton (a la Petit Bateau) but it's kind of a stretchy fabric (it's 95% cotton and 5% elasthanne) and form-fitting:




The thing that I really don't like is how the first stripe cuts across my breasts. However the three buttons on the shoulder are really cute:


Bottom line, it isn't what I was looking for. Turns out that the Loft has a new tee that is much more similar to what I had in mind (a looser fit). I was in yesterday because I had this 20$ off coupon valid on the new merchandise, they had just received the shipment and it was the last XS in the store (they had to take it from a mannequin) so I bought it (there was nothing else that I was interested in anyway). What's up with these retailers? A Loft striped tee that sells out as soon as it ships? Items waitlisted as soon as they appear on the website?
Anyway, here it is:




If you are interested in this tee (retail price is $39.50) you shouldn't wait too long.

My time is really up. I will read your comments even if I don't think that I will have time to respond before I'm back.

Have a nice week!