OTTD: Foxy!

So it's critter-mania this Fall at various retailers. Some of the critters, like the puffins, chickens, sheeps, doggies and now the kitties (new sweater at JCrew) are cute if a bit regressive, some others are just plain weird (see the rhino).

I have always been attracted to the fox of all the animals, especially after seeing "Fantastic Mr. Fox". If you haven't seen the Wes Anderson animated movie with the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep, among others, I urge you to rent it. It is incredibly witty and the drawings are so beautiful:

Luckily for me and the other fox fans out there, this could be the year of the fox in the fashion world. Both Tory Burch and Burberry had mini "fox collections". Tory's fox in particular bears a strange resemblance with Mr. Anderson's Mr. Fox. The fox was declined on various products (most of them now sold-out), from a tote to a cuff to fancy slippers (how could I miss on those!) and an iPhone cover (which is still available on the Tory website and makes me want to throw away my Samsung and run to buy an iPhone):

I went as far as going to the Tory boutique to try on the Samantha embellished sweater when it went on sale as I liked that little fox applique so much. Unfortunately this sweater wasn't worth the price tag, even on sale, it is a blend of wool/angora/nylon and incredibly itchy. I wouldn't say that I wouldn't be tempted to buy it for $100 or less but the original $495 price was absurd, even for a Tory hardcore fan like myself. If it were 100% cashmere I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat.

So I was extremely happy when I saw on a few blogs (thanks shopwithm and gigi!) that Old Navy had a fox critter sweater for the holidays. Even if a cotton/acrylic blend the price was too tempting so I decided to order it along with a few things for my daughter. I must have ordered it at the right time because it then sold out. Since I never order at ON and the few things that I tried on in the past seemed to run small, I ordered two sizes, a XS and a S to compare.
The good news is that the fox, even if more sketched than the Tory version is adorable and I really like the warm share of orange. The other good news is that the sweater is very soft and comfortable to wear, if not warm due to the fabric content but again, for the price I won't complain. The bad news is that the sizing is off on me, the XS was very big in an unflattering, sloppy way. I almost returned the S without even trying it on thinking that if the XS was too big already I would be swimming in the S but then when I realized that it was soldout and there was no petite to try, I decided to take it out of the plastic bag and give it a run for the money.
The problem with the XS is that it is too long on me but not long enough to be a tunic, while with the S (being the S even longer without being much larger) I can pull off the tunic look. The scoopneck is wider too, which I prefer because more flattering (it also better if you want to show off a necklace). If you are tall, you may want to stick to your regular size. If you are petite like me and you can't size down, you may want to try to size up like myself. If you have missed on this sweater, rumors are that it will be in stores this week.

This is the S with old matchstick cords:

This one is the XS, for comparison (I know it is difficult to see the difference probably but it is shorter):

The fox sweater looks great with the factory chessboard mini that you have seen on me before and this "could" be my Thanksgiving outfit.

Have you given into critter-mania? Are you interested in the ON fox? What's your favorite critter?