Finding Chanel at the Gap

I meant to post this yesterday as part of the "Wednesdays at the Gap" series but I had a crazy day and my husband came home early from a trip and took quarters at my computer desk (and I can't complain as he's the one who brings the money home) for the rest of the afternoon until we went out.

In any case I went to the Gap with my 40% off coupon to check out what they had (I missed the 40% off everything promo that they had in stores on Columbus Day as my daughter was sick and I could barely walk) and I found something absolutely AMAZING.
Let me introduce you the Pleated bow skirt. Actually I had already noticed this skirt online and almost put it in my cart when they had a 30% off promo last week but because of the fabric (100% poly) I didn't dare ordering it without seeing IRL first. So I was happy to see it in my store yesterday.
At first I was drawn to the ochre color (which is TDF IRL and certainly more unusual than the black one). Here are the pics that I took in the fitting room but let me say that they don't do the skirt justice because 1) I didn't have the appropriate top and 2) I still had a wrap around my calf from last Sunday injury (which thankfully is healing by itself, today I can almost walk normally) which isn't very sexy:




But let's be honest, where I was going to wear this skirt? It's very pretty but dressy and I tend to wear dressy skirts only in the evening, so I thought that I would probably get more wear out of the black one, which was also a little bit more flattering (again, not the best top to show it off):




The skirt is incredibly well done for a Gap garment (which are usually a little bit cheap in the details like stitching etc.). The fabric really has a silky feeling to it and you wouldn't say that it's 100% poly:




I paid $35 for it (with my coupon) but it looks like I paid much more and I can bet that nobody would say that it comes from the Gap.
That evening I was to attend a class cocktail party held at a NY art gallery and as I was trying to figure out was I was going to wear (initially I thought that I would be condemned to wear pants because of the my calf but the wrap came off while I was taking a shower and it looked like I could walk without) I immediately thought of pairing this skirt with the JCrew bow top from last year that you have seen recently in another post. I tried to wear this top with a black pencil skirt but the outfit was a little bit too serious (not to say funereal). It looks like this top and this skirt were made for each other: the skirt brings out the playful character of the top managing to keep it very elegant. In these pics I had untied the bow so as to wear the top untucked:




I thought that I had taken a pic of the entire outfit, but apparently my camera's battery died before (and I am too lazy today to re-wear it just to take a picture). In the end I wore the top tucked in with a black long cardigan, tights and red lipstick (and the same Miu Miu pumps). Both the top and the skirt have a Chanel feeling to them and the outfit itself was very Chanel-esque (and also perfect for the occasion as it turned out that everybody was wearing black. That's NY!)

I would recommend this skirt to anyone (especially those of you who feel let down by the length of skirts at Jcrew this year as this one hits above the knee but is not a mini).
Have you seen this skirt at your local Gap? Are you considering it?

Mother's Day Outfit (Sort Of) and the Tory Burch Kitties

I wore two great outfits this past weekend but I also managed to break my camera, so I couldn't take pics to share. What happened is that the memory card got trapped in the memory card slot (because my daughter chewed on the camera cable when she was nine months old and a new cable costs more or less like a new camera, I use a memory card reader to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer, which means that each time that I have new pics I have to take out the memory card) and not only I broke the memory card in two but also the slot (a piece came away with the card) while trying to extract it. It was quite the bad timing to break the camera because my daughter is going to turn three this Friday. On a positive note, it was time to upgrade it and the price of the camera that I have been watching for months (as I knew that we would need a new one at some point and I started to do my research around Xmas) has finally dropped, so it is on my way and I should have it by the end of the week (hopefully; if you don't hear from me it probably means that the camera didn't arrive in time for my daughter's birthday party and my husband killed me).

Back to the outfits, on Saturday I wore a variation of the outfit that I have blogged about in this post, only with white jeans and the silver Tory Burch thongs. I get compliments every time that I wear the ribbed vest and this time I got one from a lady who lives in the building and is normally very uptight (one of those persons who don't smile or speak or even acknowledge you in the elevator).

On Sunday we went out for brunch for Mother's Day. It was very cold for the season (it still is) but I refused to wear a coat, so I wore my Dauphine jacket instead. I bought the Dauphine quite a while ago, at the first markdown, and then re-bought it for much less during the last 20% off sale promo. I know that this jacket got mixed reviews and some of you don't like the fit, but personally I love it and I felt very chic in my outfit.
The details are amazing and I was impressed when Jenna Lyons said (in one of the interviews that Alexis put up on the JCA blog) that the tweed of these jackets (this one and the blush jacket from the Fall collection) comes from the same fabricant that provides Chanel. So it is the most Chanelesque Chanel knockoff that you can possibly get. My husband was impressed too when I told him (it was the first time that I wore it) and all of a sudden he got over the tweed jacket that I sold last spring on the JCA (he kind of obsessed over it and kept telling me that I Had made a mistake even if I had worn it once or twice maximum and it was brown, which is a color that he normally doesn't like to see me in).
I think that it looks great with the denim pencil skirt and that's how I wore it for our Mother's Day brunch. As I said I don't have a picture of the outfit but I wore something similar a couple of weeks ago when I was trying on the Tory Burch Kitties that I finally bought during the Saks Family and Friends Promo (only, I was wearing a navy top in these pics while I wore the cashmere tee in natural on Mother's Day and it looked much better with the jacket):



Detail of the beautiful fleur-de-lys golden buttons:



Here is a pic that my husband took in the restaurant (where at least you can see the top):



And these are the Kitties in the nude color IRL:





I have to say, they are beautiful but a little bit redundant in my wardrobe, maybe because they are almost flat and they don't change my life in terms of shoe choice, I feel like I could wear another pair of flats that I have instead. I haven't worn them yet (a sign) and in the end I think that I am going to return them and buy a pair of Sallies open-toe in navy when they go on sale (I tried them with white jeans and the check shirt and they looked fabulous and I don't have a single pair of navy shoes).

Have a nice week!

My Favorite Spring Ads (Part 1)

Dear readers, I had a big problem on my computer (it looks like it has been hijacked or something like that), so my husband took it to the office for a couple of days.
I'm writing from an old "backup" PC that I have at home. All my pictures are on the other machine (now I hope that the IT guys won't laugh at the pics of my outfits or that they won't think that I am completely crazy) and I haven't figured out how to download pics on this one yet (not that I have the time anyways, this is the busiest weeks ever for me).

This gives me the chance to take a break from Jcrew for a few days and blog about some of the new advertisement campaigns that had me swooning when I browsed a few fashion magazines this past weekend or saw them on billboards in the streets.

My absolute favorite is the new Chanel campaign for the "Rouge Coco" lipstick. I don't normally fall for makeup ads but I think that Vanessa Paradis is absolutely gorgeous and dreamy in this ad. The shade that she is wearing is "Mademoiselle" and is selling out everywhere (I can understand why):



See the movie by Modiano with Vanessa singing "What a day for a daydream" here.

Vanessa Paradis is more known in the US for being the lucky wife of Johnny Depp, but she has been on the French music and movie scene for as long as I can remember. She was only fourteen years old when she recorded the song Joe le Taxi, which went straight to the top of the French singles hit parade and has been remixed plenty of time:



And her first collaboration with Chanel goes back to 1992 when she whistled from her bird cage in the Coco fragrance ad (refresh your memory by watching the video here).

If you like her, listen to her new single L'amour a jamais featured in her new movie "The heartbreakers", that just came out in France and looks worth it at least for the remake of the Dirty Dancing classic dance sequence with the (sexy) French actor Romain Duris (unfortunately there is no video on YouTube yet, besides one of very bad quality where we can't see anything).

Do you like the new Chanel ad? Do you like Vanessa Paradis and do you think that she embodies the image of Chanel? Did you know that "Joe le taxi" was her?