Dans Mon Jardin

I have to attend a top secret event this Tuesday and I need to be dressed up in my best JCrew attire (it doesn't need to be an "occasion" outfit, only it must be something special). I will post about the event after attending, as the organizers have requested the information not to be posted on any blog. Don't worry, I am not going to a dinner hosted by the Obamas or something like that!

Anyway I plan to wear my Jardin jacket, as it is quite special. I know, I never told you that I am one of the happy owners of this jacket but I actually purchased it months ago.
I was one of those who admired it when we first saw it in magazines and previews but as you probably remember it soldout as soon as it (virtually) hit the website. It is something that is typically out of my price range and it looked too hard to get anyway so I wasn't really thinking about buying it.

But one day I was strolling on Madison Avenue when I caught a glimpse of the jacket on a mannequin inside the Collection store. It turned out that they had two in my size and I ended up bringing it home. I must admit, it was quite an impulsive purchase but what decided me to take the plunge was that not only it is an absolute exquisite item that fits me very well but also it is something that I can see myself wearing 30 years from now. Also my birthday was only a month away and I used some money that my parents gave me to "reimburse" our family account. So let's say that it was a birthday present.

I took pics for a post as soon as I got it but it seemed a little bit silly to write a review about a jacket that nobody could buy anyway, so I decided to wait until I would wear it, which didn't happen until now (I bought it in May and the summer has been hot here).
I remember that when I was looking at the jacket online I had a hard time to figure out the collar from the website pics, that as always didn't seem to be there with the purpose of helping the customers. It is actually a shawl collar and the sequins are sewn on the inside of the collar, so that when you flip it, they will be visible on the outside:





As I said the sequined floral motive is absolutely stunning IRL:



As someone said all those sequined flowers are heavy and sewn on a chiffon base so they tend to pull on the fabric a little bit but in my opinion this is not a case of bad execution. The only problem with the jacket in my opinion is the tie closure, which in reality is a drawstring. There is no way that you can wear it open like the model, unless you use some trick to attach the ties on the inside of the jacket. Look what happens when you untie the ties:



I think that a simple push button or an eye and hook closure would have been better than the drawstring, also because you can't really pull on the ties as to really close the jacket, there will always be a gap in the middle. At some point I think I will have a button added so that it stays like that:



Initially I had planned to wear it with the contrast-stitches perfect shirt for a look similar to the one shown on the model:



But then I thought that a bright pink top would actually bring out the pink tones of the jacket and I started to look for one. A neon pink like the neon flamingo color that JCrew offered this summer would actually be the best pairing but besides my vintage cotton v-neck tee (which is too casual to wear with the jacket) I don't have anything else in that color and I didn't find anything to buy in the FS section of the website during the past week.
I finally bought a tee at the Loft that is actually quite nice and silky, even if in a darker shade of hot pink. I apologize for the quality of the pictures but I had to use the flash as it was very dark already when I tried it with the jacket and I wanted to post this tonight:





I still have a few details to figure out, like the belt and shoes, so this is not the final version of the outfit. Please let me know which pairing you prefer, if the pink tee or the blue shirt as I am undecided.

By the way, I don't want to enable as this is an expensive item but if you were lusting over this jacket, it is back in stock in all the sizes on the website (crazy JCrew inventory). Maybe it will even go on sale soon!
Have you seen the Jardin jacket IRL? Would you buy something like this? If you own it, do you have any suggestion as how to wear it?

I will probably be back posting Wednesday as I have guests arriving tomorrow and the event on Tuesday.

Have a nice week!

My Weekends with Max and Molly

I recently bought the Max and Molly tee, the one with the bicycle and the doggies. The funny thing about this tee is that I almost ordered it when it was FP during one of the % off tees promotion but at the last minute I "noticed" the doggies in the basket. I really liked the bicycle graphism but I was turned off by the doggies. I don't have anything against dogs but I find that wearing cute, little doggies on your tee is little bit age-inappropriate if you are around or over 40.

Actually I should say doggy (singular) because I didn't notice that there were not one but TWO doggies in the basket until a few days ago, when I had already bought it and worn it a couples of times and I was wondering why on earth they had called this tee "Max and Molly" (because that's the kind of philosophical question that occupies my mind more often than not these days.) Who the heck were Max and Molly? Only then I noticed Max. OR Molly. I mean BOTH.
The reason why I ultimately bought the tee, in spite of the doggies, is that I wear my Imperial tee from last year so much that I needed a backup tee (why, oh why, the cutest tees have to be hand-wash only?) This tee is in the same lightweight cotton than the Imperial one (that I find very pleasant to wear in the summer) and has the same flattering fit, so it fitted the bill.
Plus, I can get away with sporting a pair of doggies on my boobs because I have a three-year-old and people find that cute (that's the reward for all that poop-wiping: you get to wear age-inappropriate clothes and people smile at you).

I find this tee to be quite versatile after all. I worn it twice during the 4th of July weekend in two very different situations. The first time I wore it with cocktail chinos to go to the movies (you can call this the "dress-up" version):



On the 4th we didn't do anything extraordinary, we just hung out in the park all day. I loved the atmosphere of an almost deserted NYC (I don't remember the city to be THAT empty last year: maybe due to the economic crisis more people were vacationing at home than this year). I wore the Max and Molly tee again and left without taking a picture of my outfit (which involved Birkenstones, yikes!) but I want to share a couple of pics that we took in the park (I really like the ability of this camera to capture the moment). If I were a famous photograph I would call this picture "Lazy afternoon in Central Park":



And the light on this one reminds me of Monet's "Dejeuner sur l'herbe":



I wore the tee again yesterday (and yes, I have hand-washed in-between, in case you were wondering). We had brunch and later I went for a "gelato" with my daughter, while my husband took my MIL at the airport (bye-bye free babysitting). This outfit leverages on the "South of France" vibe that this tee gives me (I can see myself wandering in the streets of a tiny French village with a baguette in one hand and a straw bag full of fresh fruits and vegetables in the other one):




Do you have this tee? If not, is it because of the age-inappropriateness of the doggies? Do you feel a South of France vibe coming off it? Please share!

A Lady Who Launches (but also Goes Out for Dinner)

Thank you for all the birthday wishes that you have left in your comments to my last post. They surely had some effect because my birthday was a perfect day from start to end. First, I had free unlimited babysitting (thanks to my mother in law who is still here) and that's really a luxury for me as we normally don't have our families around here to help. Second, I got to launch with my girlfriends in a nice restaurant in the neighborhood and to dress for the occasion. Third, one of my girlfriends had a gift for me, which I didn't expect, and it was a JCrew jewelry box (after years of spreading the word and hoping that someone would give me JCrew as a present, someone finally did)! Fourth, I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping with the same girlfriend (while I generally shop alone or worst. And you know what worst is.) and it was a lot of fun, even if I didn't buy anything myself (just exchanged something). And last but not least I went out for dinner with my husband and our friends whom I hadn't the chance to see in a very long time and it was just the perfect ending to a beautiful day.

Planning my outfit was part of the fun. When I was organizing the lunch with my girlfriends I had just bought the Embroided Ikat Pencil Skirt. To me, pencil skirts are for the "ladies who launch" and I don't wear them enough to justify a FP purchase but when this one went down to $69 plus 20% off in stores I couldn't resist. It's one wonderfully made pencil skirt, the fabric is just amazing and I love the color and the embroidery, it's very summery (actually more than it shows on the website)without being gaudy. Because I was going to be a lady who launches for one day, I thought that it would be the perfect occasion to wear it.

Someone on the JCA asked me how I was going to style this skirt so I am going to share some ideas here. I must say that the picture on the website isn't very inspirational (just how many times have we seen the "a pencil skirt and a plain tee look" this season? It looks like someone is out of styling ideas at JCrew so I had to go through a styling session myself and see what would work with it. Please note that it was 100 degrees here yesterday so my choices were partially dictated by my personal comfort (I didn't even attempt to put a cardigan on)!

Besides the two colors that are already in it (orange and natural/ivory), this skirt looks very nice with a dark color on top, like shadow, navy or faded black. I get the idea of a wearing a tee with a pencil skirt, but just not a plain one, this skirt deserves better. I tried two combinations, with the sequin necklace tank and the sunray tee (I believe that this was the name and it's now very cheap). I apologize for the messy background in the pics: my daughter had decided to play with her doll just behind me and she wouldn't move.





With another tee, in the same tones:



I really wanted to try it with last year contrast-stitches perfect shirt, so I braced myself and wore a long-sleeved shirt for a few minutes, just to take the pics (and trust me, I was already sweating). I would totally wear it like this when the temperature cools off (I would wear this with pumps instead of my espadrilles):




It looks nice with a fitted jacket in a natural color for work (even if I probably wouldn't wear it like this myself). Hey, it's a pencil skirt after all:



And the last outfit is the one that I wore yesterday. To create this outfit I followed the "JCrew styling rule number one" (now don't look for it everywhere, I am making it up): take two pieces that normally don't go together, say a pencil skirt and a peasant blouse, put them together and belt everything. And if you are supposed to wear heels, wear flats (and viceversa):



The top is the Fiesta embroided tunic which is still FP on the website, but on sale in stores:



I got a compliment from pretty much everyone when I walked in the Collection store like that. The lady at the door, who is usually very nice with my daughter and speaks French, even told me that I was "toute belle", which made smile because it is usually a compliment that I only hear from my husband.

Anyway I told you that after lunch I went shopping with my girlfriend. Actually we checked out the new JCrew wedding store where I hadn't been yet. Because I knew a couple of SAs from the Collection store who now work there, we had a special treatment and we could go downstairs where they keep the wedding gowns and it's normally by appointment only. The store is beautiful and they have special items that you can't find anywhere else (especially very expensive jewelry but also party clutches, stoles and even belts. Oh and I saw the famous sequins pants that Jenna Lyons was sporting in one of the videos). My girlfriend tried an occasion dress and ended up buying it and because she was with me she had free overnight shipping (you can't buy any dress in the store, they only have a sample in each color for try-ons and they have to order everything for you). There was a "Breakfast at Tiffany" or "Women" feeling to the whole experience because it's a wedding store and now I regret not trying on something, just for the sake of it.

For my birthday dinner with hubby and friends I had booked a table at a Greek restaurant because two of the guests were Greek and I know that they love to eat Greek food (and so do I). The restaurant is known for the food, but is kind of low-key so I didn't go over the top. I was actually dying to wear this top from last year that I found at the last sample sale. I had bought it as soon as it came out (in fact I have even a post on it), then returned it to buy something else because I thought that I would find it on sale, then missed it when it went on sale (it never popped back). It was one of my biggest regrets and I have looked for it everywhere ever since (ebay, weekly exchange). When I saw it at the sample sale I almost fainted! The skirt and necklace are also from last year (the clutch is a neighborhood find):





My birthday present has shipped and it will be here tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what I got!

Birthday Wishlist

Hello everybody, I hope that you all had a great 4th of July! I am sorry for the lack of posts this past week, I have been busy with family celebrations and outings.
I have some outfits and final sale scores to post but first I wanted to share my birthday wishlist with you. My birthday is tomorrow and I have to pick my present. How nice from JCrew to offer 20% off jewelry just in time for my birthday ;-). When I woke up to the promo last Friday I asked my husband if he had bought me a birthday present (I knew the answer already), so he agreed that we should take advantage of the promo as he had no idea what to offer me. Now I just have to choose and I am running out of time as the promo expires tonight.

My first choice would be a long pearl necklace, because those never go on sale and I don't have any. But both the lady double-strand and the long pearl necklace have a ribbon-tie closure, that my husband dislikes (and I agree that if I could choose I would prefer to have a classic spring closure).
The opera-lenght pearl necklace it's a little bit too expensive and excluded from the promo, so not an option I think.
So in the freshwater pearls category the only candidate left is the Lady four-strand pearl necklace, which I saw IRL at the collection store and is very pretty (if not exactly long). With the 20% off is a good deal and a timeless piece, so the right occasion to buy it.

In the other categories (not freshwater pearls) I have a few picks, but not one that I am immensely in love with.
First comes the Crystal steps necklace. I must say that this one is MUCH more stunning IRL than on the website and I would have never considered it hadn't I seen it in store (on the website it looks like a re-edition of another necklace but IRL it really stands out):



My next choice is a bracelet from the Fenton/Fallon collaboration. Unfortunately it's excluded from the promo but it's maybe the piece that I'm currently loving the most on the website. It's the Fringe cuff:



However, the problem with this one is that I don't wear bracelets as much as I wear necklaces (especially one that is for the evening only), so I hesitate.

My last pick is a necklace from the sale section. Again, hadn't I seen it IRL on a girl in the street and then in store I probably wouldn't have noticed it but it's very sparkling and edgy, perfect to wear with a tee. It's the Crystal patch necklace, currently on sale for $69.99:



And finally, as a substitute for real pearls, the Twisted hammock necklace in the classic pearl color (I bought the pink frost one on sale but I didn't like the color, which is more yellowish than pink IMO, and returned it. However I like the pearl itself).
I will let you know tomorrow what I end up choosing but in the meanwhile I would like to hear what's your favorite pick among these and the website offerings in general. Plese share!
I have three birthday celebrations coming up (this evening with family, tomorrow at lunch with girlfriends and tomorrow night with hubby and friends) so you can expect a post with my birthday outfits for Wednesday. Stay tuned!

End of the Week OOTDs (Wearing Color Against the Heat)

If you find yourself in a desert and you ask a bedouin (if you have the chance to meet any), he will tell you to wear black to protect your body against the heat (and even if this seems a counter-intuitive advice, because black absorbs light, just trust the bedouin in the desert because he knows better).
But when it's really hot outside I am suddenly in the mood for colors (sorry bedouin, I live in NYC and we have AC: no need to create an AC system with my loose-fitting black clothes and my perspiration). So I have been wearing lots of colors this week and I am going to share my OOTDs. Enjoy!

Wednesday, wearing an old Jcrew chino skirt (circa 2007), Gap tank and Jcrew necklace:



Yesterday night, date night with hubby (we went to a very nice reastaurant in the neighborhood with an even nicer terrace). Wearing the Jcrew Piazza dress in aqua, ATL necklace, Stubbs and Wooton espadrilles:




I had a melon Jackie in my bag but it didn't come out during the evening. It was so hot, even at 11 pm. I took a pic anyway:



Today. Wearing last year's JCrew pavillon pique dress with a Theory tubular cami:



And in all these pictures, wearing my OPI pedicure (as you see I like color on my toes too):



Have a nice weekend and stay cool!

Crazy for Cashmere

During the last year I have developed a weakness for JCrew cashmere and each time that a cashmere sweater goes on sale and the price drops below $100 (my personal threshold) I can't resist and I jump on it. I know that Jcrew cashmere is often criticized and I don't want to lunch myself in a pro-JCrew-cashmere harangue here but in my opinion their colors and styles can't be beat and if one is willing to wait, even their prices.

This summer I have been eyeing the Cashmere zip pocket cardigan. I immediately fell in love with this sweater when I saw it in store, especially in the now sold-out blush stone color. As I said before I never pay full price for cashmere but because my birthday is coming up soon and there is nothing else around that I wanted more than this sweater I was ready to make an exception and make it my birthday present to myself, sale price or not.

When two colors (the lavender and sepia) went on sale last week and I saw that the blush stone was sold-out both online and at the Collection store, I emailed my PS and asked her if she had one in my size to put on hold for me.
This sweater was still full price in store in all the colors but because this particular color was sold-out online she gave me the online sale price (even if I am not sure if it ever went on sale before selling out on the website).

I think it's one of the chicest sweaters EVER. I love the gold zippers on the pockets and placket and even if it's 100 degrees outside I can't wait to wear it (it's a substantial 12-gauge knit and I would be sweating in it even in the evening). At least I got to wear it this morning for the blog and I took my pearls out for the occasion:





My long-time followers will remember that in the fall a SA at the Rockefeller Center store had (very proudly) told me that Tory Burch had visited the store the day before and that she had bought "lots of cashmere". Well, I can totally see Tory Burch buying (and wearing) this cardigan.

In case you want to take advantage of the current 30% off promo and order one of the two colors that are currently on sale on the website, the fit is TTS to small. If you plan on wearing it with something more than a cami or a tank underneath I would size up. Although, the deep V-neck and the three quarter sleeves make it a summer sweater and I don't know if this style can really be worn when it gets cold.
Now, if only the lagoon green and the black could go on sale, I would definitively buy another one.

Do you own this cardigan? How do you wear it? Would you consider it for the current price?

Flower Power (The Rose Vine Blazer Styled in Real Life)

I am sorry, this is not the post with the party pictures yet. I have been busy this last two days (OK, busy shopping, but still busy) and I need a little bit of concentration to write up that post. Plus I made a purchase this past weekend that I feel I need to share with you NOW so if the online price drops tomorrow (do you feel the "Wednesday mornings excitement" like I do, these days?) you can make a more reasoned choice.

So the item I am talking about is the rose vine blazer, which is still $99 online but only $59.99 in stores. I had a coupon that I have found in the last catalog and that I had saved until the very last day, which was last Saturday, so I used it on the blazer (and a few "ride-alongs", or should I say "walk-alongs", to reach the $125 minimum amount for the coupon to be applied) and in the end it coasted me $48. Which I think is a great price for this jacket.

I liked this jacket immediately the first time that tried it on but $168 was too much for something that I was afraid I wouldn't get much wear out of due to the color: a whit-ish blazer (because even with a little bit of grey and a pop of orange it remains a white jacket) is really for the summer and summer equals sweat, that equals that you don't want to sweat more wearing a blazer (plus, sweating ladies beware, if the body is lined in cotton, the sleeves are lined in Acetate which isn't the most breathable fabric around).
But $59.99 or $48 is a much better price and in fact it was the only one in the store. I grabbed it even if it was a size 2 and surprisingly I liked the fit even better than the 0, which was more high-waisted on me and a little bit tight on the shoulders, as almost all the Jcrew blazers (I came to realize that I have probably a long torso and I should probably buy Tall in jackets and tops and petite in pants, which doesn't make for a great advertisement of my body, I must say, because long legs are generally much more appreciated than long torsoes. And what can be said about short legs anyway).
But I digress. What I really want to say is that this jacket will make a great addition to your wardrobe IF you have a lot of whites and light blues or light greys (and oranges, but that can be a tough color to wear especially in bottoms) in your closet. It doesn't look good with dark colors like navy, dark grey and black, so if you are planning to pair it with those colors you will be better not buying it. Also, I wouldn't steer much from the grey/blue/orange palette: it really works better with the colors that are already in it (light blue being the exception).

Now, even if I have a lot of whites and light greys and blues for the summer, I still found it difficult to come up with outfits with this jacket. It looks like an easy, thrown-on everything, jacket but in my opinion it's not. And as much as I liked the picture on the cover of the April Catalog that featured this jacket, I am not sure that I want to walk around with three layers of flowery prints.

So, here are a few outfits I came up with. If you like them and you can somehow recreate them, buy it. If not, don't buy it as it will probably hang in your closet unworn. I know that this sounds a little bit too affirmative like I have the skinny on this jacket but I really think that there are not many other ways to wear it. If any of you have worn it in a different way and you think it looked great, please share your knowledge!

So I will start with the "how not to wear it". I said no dark colors. Demonstration with the denim pencil skirt and a navy perfect tee:



See? Too much contrast. Even if you lighten up the top, there is still too much contrast at the bottom:



I did give the catalog "flower power" look a chance. The only other liberty print that I own is my Gap blouse from a few years ago (one of my favorite blouses ever BTW). This one has a mandarin collar though, which is not ideal under a jacket:



Not sure that I like it. It looks much better with a light blue solid shirt, like the slub cotton one (not sure why I left the shirt untucked here):



As I said orange on the bottom can be a tough color to wear, but if you can pull it off it should work. Here with a pair of Tory Burch linen bermudas (that aren't too flattering on my figure, but I just wanted to show you the color combination):



A pair of light denim, short or long, work too:





But total white is probably the best look with this jacket, especially if you can add a pop of color in form of a neon belt:





And a variation of the last one, with the jacket closed and belted:



I really like this look. However, it isn't something that I would wear everyday. It's just too white: with a toddler around I would probably get all frumpy and dirty even before getting out the door.
I thought that I needed an orange top to be able to wear this jacket more often but for the life of me I couldn't find anything in my closet and I thought about ordering one of the neon orange tees that are offered this year. But then, while I was cleaning my closet and sort my old or unworn clothes in piles (Maybe Next Year I will Like It Again, Salvation Army, JCA Weekly Exchange, Storage - which is like a Limbo - for Death Clothes etc.), I found an almost forgotten Gap top that happened to be right what I needed. And that's when I came up with my outfit of the day, that I think it's the best of all the outfits that I have shown you. It pulls out the best of this jacket and it is extremely wearable.
At the beginning I wore it with an old woven belt:



But then I found that my coral beads necklace really made this outfit shine and I also changed the belt, so here it is my OOTD featuring the rose vine blazer:




It was perfect this early morning. Then, it started to get hot and the sleeve lining of the blazer made me sweat, as I said before, but I liked the outfit so much that I put up with the sweat (I was almost home and I like to dress up "for the ladies in the elevator". Hehehe).

Do you own or have considered ordering this jacket? Do you like any of the outfits that I have shown you? Do you know any other way to wear it? Please share!

OOTD (Playing Matchy Matchy)

Good morning! A quick outtif of the day before I take my daughter to ballet class (they get to wear a real toutou today, so I will have my camera ready).

I have been wearing a lot of stripes recently. Not only I am wearing my JCrew pink and camel vintage boatneck tees quite frequently, but I also bought a striped knit cotton sweater from the Gap two weeks ago that I wore quite a lot already as it is the perfect weight for the season (very thin). This was my yesterday OOTD:



As the comments on the website say, it goes really well with khaki pants:



It is a little bit pricey in my opinion but I bought it with one of 40% off in-store coupons that are only valid on Wednesdays (by the way, take 20% off adults styles online with code GAPSPRING now through Thursday). I must admit that the real reason why I bought it was to play matchy-matchy with my daughter, who has a similar top from Petit Bateau (from last year), that you have already seen in my Easter weekend post:



Petit Bateau is extremely expensive in the US compared to Europe, so I mostly buy when they have their big sale twice a year (or I "order" stuff for my daughter through my parents in Italy). However, I went into the store two weeks ago to buy a birth present for a girlfriend who just had a girl and they were running a promo where you got 20% off one out of three items bought (and you could choose the item). So along with the present I couldn't resist buying this top for me:



It has the weight of a sweatshirt and golden nautical buttons on one shoulder:



Petit Bateau is available in the US through their website (you get 25% off full price items in your first order if you subscribe) and Zappos (for kids only). Buying Petit Bateau through Zappos could be more expensive (as their sales are not great) but worth it to check out their styles and fit thanks to their awesome one-year return policy (and free shipping/free returns policy as well).

To go back to my outfit of the day, it was was windy yesterday, so I topped my sweater with this coat from 2007 (I remember that it was 2007 because I bought it for very cheap just after my daughter was born):



It is the one with the pretty striped colored lining:



Do you buy Petit Bateau? Are you wearing stripes?

Have a great start of the week!