H&M Finds: A Horse Print Tunic And A Mod Dress

H&M is one of those stores that I can stay away from for months and then all of a sudden I am there every other day.
I went in last Friday to look for underpants for my daughter and happened upon the horse print tunic that Louise from Cosmetic Bee blogged about in this post. When I read her post I had already seen the button-down and the scarf in my store, but not the tunic.
Louise was right, this print is too good to pass up and if the navy version of the shirt and tunic didn't call my name, I really liked the tunic in the other colorway it comes in, a brownish red (or reddish brown) perfect for fall. For some reasons I found the print a bit too crowded in the navy version because of the contrast between the colors of the horses (beige and white) and the navy background (it looks great on Louise though) but in the red I found that the print was just perfect (because it also has some darker brown horses that give the impression of sparser horses overall). However I was a little bit shocked (so to speak) by the price: at $39.95 it is definitively on the high-end of the price spectrum at H&M, I was expecting something between $24 and $34. So I put it on hold and came back the day after with a 20% coupon that Gigi mentioned in this post and forwarded to me (it is good on one item and I can forward to anyone interested but it expires today).

This is the tunic on me. I used to be a 4 in H&M but I find that their dresses/skirts are shorter and shorter so I now size up to a 6 when possible and it generally works. In this case the 6 gives a little bit more length and comfort in the sleeves but doesn't make it a dress (also because it has slits on the sides and it is longer in the back than it the front). It is still a tunic that you need to wear with leggins or, in my case, skinny jeans:

The poly is of the silky type and a sign that this tunic is very well-made is that the belt loops are made in the same fabric (and aren't just a couple of threads that are sewn at the sides). You can substitute the belt with another one but I find that the one the tunic comes with is actually great:

I have to tell you, I can't wait to wear this tunic but here the temperatures went up again and I had to take out my summer clothes again in the last few days. A challenge for me when it gets colder is going to be what to wear over it because I don't own any knee-lenght sweater or sweater-coat (except one that I am unable to find, it must be in the storage bin downstairs). I can wear it with a light coat left open (like my Zara camel coat from last year), any other suggestion?

While I was there to buy the tunic, another tunic-dress caught my eye. It is a shift in a houndsthood print, very 60s. In this case the price shocked me positively (only $17.95) so I decided to give it a try and in the end I took it home with me (I could use the coupon again, so it came down to $14!)
It is a nice and inexpensive way to do "mod". The fabric is sort of a heavy jersey, not exactly breatheable but substantial enough not to look cheap. I went with a XS, even if it a bit short (if I can size up when the styles are numerically sized, I almost never can when they are sized XS-XL, the S is invariabily too big in the body for me):

I happen to have the perfect shoes to wear with this, an old pair of patent Michael Kors with a silver heel and medallion:

Anybody else is falling for the H&M horse print? Any H$M great find to share?

OOTD Featuring The Heathered Playa Skirt (And More Fun at F21)

Well, I thought that I would have more time to blog with my husband being away, but my daughter is keeping me busy. This afternoon for example I had to take her to the doctor because this morning she wanted to take her shoes off at the playground and she cut her foot. I didn't even know that it had happened at all because she didn't complain until we were getting ready for school after lunch and I noticed the cut while putting her shoes back on. As soon as I uttered the words "Did you cut your foot at the playground?" she started to cry, more out of fear of me getting mad at her than out of pain, I think. In any case it is not clear if the has a splinter or not in her foot (reason why I took her to the doctor in the first place) but I have to monitor her. Did I mention that we leave for Italy at the end of the week and it's really bad timing to cut one's foot?

So because I don't have the time to post my fitting room pics, I will post my OOTD and a mini-review of the heahered playa skirt in indigo stripe. I am seriously in love with this skirt and would recommend it to anyone, this is one versatile and flattering skirt that you will wear for years to come.
I bought my regular size 0 but I also tried on the 2 and there wasn't much of a difference but the 0 sits a little bit higher because more fitted at the waist (there is no way that I can wear it on my hips or as they say on the website "Wear it hiked up and belted or slung low so it sweeps just above the knee". So in case you want to wear it "slung low", size up, but personally I find the 0 long enough and more flattering than one size bigger). When I bought it last week it rang up at the promo price of $69.50 but it seems a bit weird since it just came out and apparently is selling well, so if you had the same experience let me know (maybe it was a misticketing in my case).
It is a skirt that you can easily dress up (it can look very polished with a jacket) or down with a casual top and shoes. I wore it this morning with a white tank top from years ago that some of you will probably remember. This top always gave me the pregnant look and I wore it very little but it never crossed my mind that I could tuck it in, like I did with this morning. Genius, I know. In any case I really liked it with this skirt (the slub texture of the tank kind of matches the pattern on the skirt), even if pretty much anything will look good tucked in this skirt:

Above I was just trying on, but this is the outfit that I actually wore, with shoes:

The lovely Slastena recently posted a great Polyvore set with this skirt and a yellow cardigan and I would have happily copied it if I had a yellow top. It turns out I don't have anything yellow for summer, at least not in plein sight (closet cleaning is still overdue). Actually I don't have much to wear with this skirt, beside white and other neutral colors. And Slastena is right, this skirt deserves a bright top.
Well, I found the perfect little top at Forever21 this afternoon. I was in Times Square to buy some presents at the Disney Store and what do I see right next door? A brand new F21. At least it looked sparkling new and not that I go to TS every other day but I had never noticed it before (and, you know, I tend to notice stores). Anyway not only it was brand new, very civilized for a F21 with clothes orderly displayed and no messy racks, but it was the biggest F21 that I have been to, on 4 floors! Needless to say, I spent a lot of time there.
Have you heard? Stripes are out, ikat is in. At least at F21. And there is a lot of ikat at F21, or "tribal" as they say, more ikat that you though could possibly exist at a retailer.
The little top that I found is more of a geo-print actually. The colors are more vivid than in my pics and the blue is perfect with the skirt (I think that F21 does prints very well). This is a "barely there" top, with a double v-neck and horizontal straps across the back (nothing excessive):

I can't seem to find it on the website (but I am not very good at findng things on their website, it is hard to navigate, and slow) but at $13.80 it's a great alternative to wear with this skirt.
Of course I tried other stuff that I am not sure any of you would be interested in seeing (in particular I was looking for a maxi-dress, but sadly they were all too maxi for me. I think I will stick to mini, as a general rule), but I have to show you this (after all if you really want to adventure in romper territory, you should at least have some fun):

I know, it's very "Boogie Nights" (I forgot my rollers)! Don't worry, I didn't buy it, but I was seriously considering it in this other print as a cover-up:

OK, now I am going to go to sleep before you think that I have completely lost it ... But let me know if you have this skirt or if you have any question/suggestion.
Have a good night!

Easter Weekend Outfits

I hope that you had a great Easter, filled with eggs and sun. I didn't have time at all to blog yesterday but I wanted to post my Easter outfits anyway even if I'm a little bit late in the game.

Saturday we went for a pre-Easter brunch at the Central Park boathouse (for those who are not familiar, one of the nicest settings for a restaurant in the city, right on the water of a small lake where you can rent a rowboat). Brunch at the Boathouse is first come, first served, so we tried to go early to get a chance to be seated without waiting (with a toddler ten minutes is the maximum wait that one can tolerate). We were very lucky because the parties before us were all large parties and we were seated immediately. We also got one of the best tables, in the front row just on the water.

I wore the H&M "maritime" blouse, the Jcrew funnelneck dream cardi from this fall (that has the same golden button details as the blouse) and a denim pencil skirt, bought last week on a popback (it's the one from Fall 09 and not the one that is currently available FP). Actually it was a little bit chilly and the temperature dropped even more during the day, so I would have been more comfortable wearing a jacket but I made the mistake of asking my husband (who had gone jogging before we went to lunch) if I could go outside like that (never ask the husband). Once we were on our way to the boathouse it was too late to go back and get changed so I shivered a little bit during lunch. At least my husband said that I was classy (and by now you should now that it is one of the best compliments that I can get from him), even if he didn't know that the blouse was from H&M!
Instead of showing you my pics in front of the mirror, I will show you the pics that we took on location:



This is right outside the boathouse. See? I wear shoes in real life! In this case the Marjorie leather ballet flats in this nude color that I don't remember how it was called but really goes with everything. I should have bought two pairs because they are very delicate (they get stained very easily) and I would be heartbroken if I had to throw them away anytime soon:



We can't compete with DC but we have cherry blossoms in NY too and they are in full blossom right now. This is a local favorite spot to take pictures at this time of the year. Even if technically there isn't any cherry there, it's very idillic!



On Sunday we celebrated Easter at home with a couple of friends and their son (same age than my daughter). My husband cooked a delicious rack of lamb and we had the traditional italian Easter dessert, the "Colomba", which is a cake shaped like a dove (I didn't think of taking a picture of it but it was really good).
I hadn't really planned my outfit and in the end I wore the Liberty of London for Target blouse and a pair of pink cafe capris. While I was taking the pictures I thought that this top must have been a Easter favorite all over the US, let me know if anybody else wore this too or another item from the Liberty of London line.




I'm still not sure that this top is really me with the big ruffled collar but if there was an occasion to wear it, that was Easter. It is very festive and I felt a little bit like a easter egg myself!

I have some new purchases/reviews and OOTDs to share but this computer (I still haven't gotten mine back) is incredibly slow, so I will do my best to post as frequently as I can given the technical difficulties (and the tons of laundry and ironing that I have to squeeze in this week).

OOTD: an Arty Blouse for an Arty Afternoon

First of all, I'm extending the deadline to enter the Jcrew canvas tote giveaway until Sunday Feb 28th at midnight. If you haven't entered the giveaway yet and you would like to, please leave a comment in my post here (and not in this post).

Second, I apologize for not posting since Tuesday. I'm trying to have a post a day (as the only negative thing that many of you had to say about the blog is that I don't post often enough, which I find truly amazing), but sometimes there isn't enough time in my day.

I wore this outfit on Wednesday and it feels like ages ago as we are under the snow since yesterday. One of my best friends invited me to a member's preview of the Whitney Museum Art Biennal on Wednesday afternoon. It wasn't something that we had planned, I called her around lunch time to see if she wanted to do something in the afternoon and she told me that she had an invitation and that if I wanted we could go together. I should add that this friend of mine has a toddler too (actually he's my daughter's "boyfriend") so the idea was to go with them and see what happened.
In deciding what to wear I had a precise goal in mind: I wanted to look like someone interested in art who happens to be a mother and not a mommy who happens to be in a museum. You get the difference. In fact, I WAS a person interested in the art world a not-so-long time ago. Then, for some strange law of motherhood, you become less and less interested in things like the latest tendencies in art and architecture and more and more interested in things like your daughter's poop.
Anyway, I always liked to dress up a little bit to go to a museum. We could say that people interested in art aren't interested in clothes, but that's the artists. The museum-goers are a totally different crowd, especially in NY. I could have gone all intellectual-black but then I thought that my friend would be a little bit surprised to see me wearing black in the afternoon and we were with toddlers anyway, so I decided to grab my favorite artsy blouse instead.
It happens to be an old H&M blouse, so it makes for an "all H&M blog week" (I will be back to Jcrew right after this post!) and it's one of those rare cases when something that is meant to be disposable makes its way into one's closet's "permanent collection". I always reach for this blouse when I feel "artistic" because the pattern reminds me of a painter's palette (the cardigan is the Zara cashmere cardi that I had bought to wear with the Jcrew beaded ribbon top from the fall):




OK, so maybe I still looked like a mommy with toddler in toe who was at the Biennal preview by mistake but at least I felt like I made an effort.
My daughter stole the scene because she was rocking a skinny-jeans-with-long-sweater look that got many compliments (and I, as the mommy, got the compliments). Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me but she was wearing the Stella McCartney leopard minidress that I got for a real steal during the crazy sales at the Gap:



It's fascinating to go to a museum with a toddler because they go to the basics of painting, like colors and shapes. The highlight for my daughter was a big painting with a little Santa upside down. That one got many giggles. The exhibition is spreaded through four floors and by the time we got to the 4th floor my daughter and my friend's son were running around and trying to climb up many of the pieces (is not their fault if many of the "sculptures" looked like toys for toddlers) so we had to cut it short. Personally I didn't like much of what I saw but I was a little bit distracted and I can't say that I really took the time to enjoy any of the video installations. I guess that I should go alone if I really wanted to understand what I saw.

Next up, a few Jcrew new arrivals. And I know, I still owe you the Tory Burch shoes review (it's coming, it's coming).

A Fabulous H&M Find (and a pair of Minnies look-alike)

In my previous post I was saying that I try to stay away from H&M because I find that in general what looks great for the price in the store, doesn't look so good once I arrive home and I end up regretting most of my purchases there (which leads to shopping exhaution). But there are (rare) exceptions.

While I was there to checkout the Sonia Rykiel collection last Saturday, I couldn't help browsing the other racks (even if it was 4 pm on a Saturday afternoon and the music was pumping like crazy). And I found something that I think is REALLY fabulous, for only $24.50.

It's a blouse of nautical inspiration, with an elastic at the waist, covered by a tissue belt. The color combination is just about perfect:



It has adorable golden button at the shoulder (they are not "fake" buttons, but I could pull it over without openining them, which seems a little bit of a hassle):



This blouse is 100% polyesther but it doesn't look cheap at all (I was surprised that the fabric wasn't silk or at least a blend). Had I seen someone wearing this in the street I would have thought that it was something by Chloe and I would have been very jalous because I can't afford wearing Chloe.
To be honest, of all the new spring clothes that I bought or seen around, this is the one that I'm the more excited about. I simply can't wait to wear it. I can picture it with a denim pencil skirt, white trousers or with skinny jeans.

Speaking of skinny jeans, the last thing that I bought is a pair of denim leggings that look like the Minnies, at least once on. I liked the denim Minnies when I tried them but I'm bothered by the ankle zipper because I think that they will look dated next year and I'm not sure that I want to pay $98 for something that I will wear only one season (especially jeans).
These H&M look-alike are only $19.50 and if the details are kind of cheap (faux-pockets, elastic bandwaist), the wash and overall effect is the same as the Minnies. I was wearing them in the pics above but you can better see them in this pic (they need to be hemmed, I just rolled them on the inside to take the pic):



I think that I can live with the cheap details and save $70, what do you think?

We'll see if JCrew is going to do better than H&M in the March rollout. I could convert myself to disposable fashion!

It's My Sweater (Sonia Rykiel for H&M)

If you have been following the news of the fashion world, you probably know that H&M has produced a collection in collaboration with Sonia Rykiel, the French "Queen of Knitwear", that debuted in stores this past Saturday.
Even if I have never lined up to get a H&M high-fashion designer piece before (they generally sell out the same day that are put on the shelves), I decided that I wanted something from this collection just because it reminded me of Paris.

I have a H&M really close to my place but I rarely go there. Actually I try to stay away because I generally like their prices more than the clothes themselves and if I walk in I rarely walk out without buying anything (I get caught in the "irrestistible deal" game), only to regret the purchase when I arrive at home. What helps is that they keep the music's volume so high that even if sometimes I'm tempted, I don't make it past the front door, especially if I'm with my daughter (maybe they don't know that but that's better than a bouncer for us moms).

But this time around I was going especially to checkout two pieces of the Sonia Rykiel Collecion, that I had previewed on the website here. By the way, even if you're not interested in the clothes themselves, I reccomend to checkout the Flash animation with different corners of Paris that come to life and provide a background for the model wearing the pieces of the collection (darling if you love Paris!)
I didn't know what to expect because knitwear is not what H&M does the best. They tend to use cheap fabrics and it clearly shows on their knits. In fact I didn't like most of the offerings, including the sweaters and scarves in the iconic colored multi-stripes (that looked a little bit cheap to me).
Anyway, one of my two choices (a black and white striped sweater with a bow around the neckline) was already sold-out by the time I got there in the afternoon. The other one was a black scoopneck with the words "My pull" (My sweater) and the Rykiel "signature" in white with rhinestones (it also comes in bright pick with black inscription) and it's very Parisian in an Agnes B way.
They had it both in XS and S and I had a hard time in chosing between the two sizes, but I finally went with the S in case it shrinks in the washing machine:



It's kind of challanging to wear a black and white sweater in non obvious ways (like, with black pants) and even more challanging to avoid the the Pierrotization of an outfit around this sweater. I have tried it under my Zara jackt and Martini pants and I liked because it gives the outfit a playful touch:



What do you think? Is it possible to wear this sweater and not look like a mime?

Even with my best intentions I couldn't help buying something else while I was there, but that's for another post.

Have a great week!