The Elena Dress Goes to a Party

I am so sorry for disappearing for almost two weeks without notice. The first week I was just busy with regular stuff and couldn't squeeze the blogging into my schedule and last week something happened at my daughter's school that I had to take care of and took out all the energy from me (nothing extremely serious, but upsetting nonetheless). Also, a bulb went off in my head and I this revelation that I was letting my daughter watch too much TV so I could blog (the two hours and a half that I have for me while she is at school are not enough to get everything done and blog on top of that), so I decided that I had to stop because it can have consequences on her and this is an age where I can really make a difference on her development. As much as I like blogging, I love my daughter more as you can all understand. That means that I will keep blogging but won't put as much energy and time into it as before and I will blog when I have the time (as opposed to making time in my schedule to blog). First my life, then the blog. I hope that you are going to stick around even if I blog less frequently (I hope to be able to write a post or two every week).

To go back to less serious stuff like clothes, it's about time that I update you on my nude shoe dilemma. I really enjoyed reading all your comments to my post and appreciated all the good advice that you gave me. Inthe end I decided to return the shoes and I have already received the payment from Amex, so that's a closed chapter. The reason why I ultimately went ahead is that if it weren't for the dress I would have returned the shoes because there was something about them that bothered me, probably the fact that as someone said they were a little matronly or the fact that I could have used a higher heel (they didn't elongate my legs as a pair of nude pumps are supposed to). In any case I think that I made the right choice because I wore the Elena dress this past Saturday to my best friend birthday party and I didn't regret them at all.

I have to say, I had a hard time to find something to wear over the Elena dress. I literally tried every black or ivory (or even colored) cardigan that I have in my closet and only one worked. If you are eyeing this dress and plan on buying it when it goes on sale, keep in my mind that it's probably meant to be worn alone. First of all, the cardigan must be embellishment and ruffle free because those tend to find with the lace pattern. Second, the sleeves tend to bunch up and create a bulk under a cardigan and it's probably why the only one that worked is a dream sweater from HO07 that has pretty loose sleeves being a size S (I was pregnant and I had bought it for New Year's Eve, even if I wasn't really showing, and at that time JCrew cardigans didn't suffer from tight sleeves disorder yet) and a very delicate ruffled trim that is barely noticeable.
The other option that I found working well with the dress is a boyfriend/unstructured blazer. I think it enhances the "cool" factor of the dress. Here is a try-on pic taken on Saturday afternoon. I decided not to wear it because I know that my husband doesn't like this blazer (which is more than 20 years old), but I wanted to show you that you can wear it this way (especially if you dare wearing it with motorcycle boots instead of pumps):



Instead, I wore it like this:





I have to say that when wearing the dress alone (sans cardigan) I really like it without a necklace (or with the Cartier Trinity pendent that I wear everyday and it's very understated), because the lace suffices to itself and a necklace can be distracting. But the outfit with the cardigan definitively needs some light, if not sparkle. I am growing a little bit tired of all the sparkly and bling-y Jcrew necklaces and I found that the knotty pearl necklace complemented perfectly the dress (it's a little bit more cream-y than it looks on the pics):




Not only my husband loved the dress (which was my biggest fear after putting so much money into a dress) but I felt VERY comfortable and we danced the night away (my husband is a very good dancer when he is in the mood).

Well, that felt good to be back to blogging. I have a couple of posts in mind for you because if took a break from blogging I didn't take a break from shopping and there are a few new purchases that I want to share, especially one from Ralph Lauren that I bought at the new Madison Avenue Flagship store. So stay tuned and please be patient. I promise I will come back soon.

Nude Shoes Dilemma: Advice Needed!

Way back at the beginning of the summer I impulse-bought on sale a pair of high-end shoes that I almost immediately regretted buying, for two reasons. First (most important) reason: they were not my size but a half size bigger. I wasn't loosing them but you could see a gap of half an inch between the back of the shoe and my foot. The SA talked me into wearing them with pads and I was stupid enough to buy into his sale pitch.
Second reason: they are a beautiful pair of shoes but not something that I needed and they are expensive, even on sale. What I really liked about them (besides the fact that they are nude without being pinkish or tan which is pretty rare to find) is the fact that they are very classic and they have a very low heel, which (to me) makes them the perfect pair to wear with non-black party dresses (as I am pretty incapable of wearing a pair of high-heeled pumps without looking, and feeling, like a foolish woman).
They are by Bally, a Swiss brand that is maybe more well-known in Europe:







I wanted to return them but the problem was the final sale policy of the store. Luckily for me I used my Amex so after getting back from my vacation I filed a claim through my Amex return protection program and I finally received the go-ahead from Amex to send the shoes (that must be unworn and in the original packaging), which is the final step before they can refund my credit card for the amount that I paid (something like $250).

But in the meanwhile I caved and bought the Elena shift dress (which is almost sold out on the website, as I just found out!) I have to tell you that I am still a little bit in shock about the price that I paid (even with the $25% off) but it's the "cool factor" of this dress that I find quite special and very suited to my personality/lifestyle and I thought that if I were ever to buy a lace dress it had to be this one.
So what the Elena dress has to do with my shoes? Well, the shoes happen to be the perfect pair to wear with the dress IMO (when I am not in the mood to wear it with my motorcycle boots, lol) because they are exactly the same champagne shade of the dress lining. And quite magically I tried them today and they fit like a dream (no gap). Don't ask me how's possible that a grown-up woman's feet grow up half a size in a few months but I have noticed recently that many of my old shoes feel quite tight. OK, now if this is a known symptom of incipient menopause, don't tell me!

So as I am ready to put them in the mail and never see them again, I am hesitating and I would appreciate a little help ;-). You maybe see something that I don't see and that can help me taking the right decision.
I am going to show you the shoes with the Elena dress but this is not a post on the dress itself as I didn't have time at all to style it (but I think that less is more with this dress so there isn't much to style). I am perfectly conscious that these are a more springy alternative to black tights/black shoes but I think that that's how I prefer it (without tights or with nude tights) and I don't think that there is a better pair of shoes for it out there, also because the dress is pretty short and a higher heel would create a disproportion. The downside of lower heels is that they don't lengthen the leg as, say, a 4" Laboutin.
But enough words, here are the pics:






What do you think? Should I keep them or you think that I can find better? The only contender would be this pair but it feels silly to return a pair of shoes that I already have and go through the hassle of ordering another pair very similar if it's not to save money (and these are basically the same price). Obviously I don't plan to wear them ONLY with this dress (incidentally I think that they should also look great with pants, even if I haven't tried) but this is the mean reason for me to keep them.

Your advice is greatly appreciated!