Animal Monday

Hello everybody! I hope that you had a great weekend and that you have transitionned seamlessly to DST (as for me, with a toddler around there is no risk to wake up too late).

I don't have any pic of the outfits that I wore over the weekend (it was a low-key weekend and basically I wore jeans and a casual top non stop). However, tonight is going to be an exciting night, for a Monday. We have a parents meeting at school (where we will be introduced to the painful process of applying to kindergarten in NYC) and because we had to call a babysitter anyway we decided that we would "maximize" the night and go out for dinner after the meeting. We booked a very upscale restaurant in the neighborhood and I am very excited (the last time that we had a romantic dinner was during the holidays. Sigh!)

The challange is to come up with an outfit that is appropriate both for the school meeting and the restaurant. I wanted to break out my moonbeam sequined jacket to the restaurant but it is definitively too blingy for a school meeting.
As you know I am not much of a dress person. Not that I don't like dresses but they are a little bit impractical for my lifestyle, so I don't have many, especially fall/winter dresses. But I have one dress that I truly adore and I never have the occasion to wear (in fact I think that you have never seen it). It's a Tory Burch leopard-print silk dress that I had bought a few weeks post-partum at a sample sale. Strangely this dress fitted perfectly my new "mom" body and made me feel like no baby had ever grown in my belly (not that that I wanted to forget, you know what I mean).
Because my body has changed in the last few years and I haven't worn this dress in a long time, when I took it out this morning I feared that it wouldn't fit any more (there is nothing worst than finding out that a piece that you love and had planned to wear doesn't fit any longer, especially if you haven't worn it as much as it deserved).
But it still fits perfectly, yay! It has a little vintag-y feeling:

I love the Tory signature faux buttons under the seam at the empire waist:

Because it is a little bit over the top, I am going to wear it with a Theory blazer at school to break the total animal-print look and then alone at the restaurant:

It is easy to accessorize with gold and bold jewelry. The chain necklace is actually a very cheap one that I had bought from a street vendor (it had a cheap-looking leather string interwined with the links but I managed to get rid of it). The result is not bad for a $5 necklace:

The shoes are made for this dress. They are Prada (iconic Prada, actually, I remember the buzz when these came out and the plethora of knockoffs that they generated. I always wanted to own a pair and I just love that you can find stuff like that on Ebay).
Well, apparently I managed to create a "zero Jcrew" outfit, which is very rare for me these days. As much as I love the Crew sometimes I feel like I am the living incarnation of a page in the catalog and it makes me feel good to see that I have other stuff that I can wear in my closet.
I hope that my husband likes it and won't want me to change. My daughter who was watching me during my "try-on session said "Mom, you can't wear THAT". But it wasn't a fashion statement because she added "It's too cold outside". So cute.

Do you have an animal print dress? Would you wear it as school?

Have a nice start of the week!

The Talbot's Leopard-Print Velvet Coat and Other Animal Prints

I received my Talbot's leopard-print velvet coat last Tuesday (very fast shipping BTW) and I didn't fall in love with it. I expected to feel special in this coat but the magic didn't happen. It takes a little bit of daring to wear a statement piece (especially in an animal print), so it is even more important than usual to feel the love. Plus it's a $279 coat that has a very limited season here being cotton velvet, another reason to really love it or return it.
The print is striking and the style has a vintage feeling to it (it's double-breasted with it's slight A-line and big buttons):




But the fit is off. I understand that this is not meant to be slim but it is way too wide in the chest area and arms. As a reminder, I bought it in a 2P that is the smallest size available for coats at Talbots. In particular I didn't like the look of the collar on me. It felt old-ladysih but it could be that I am too petite to pull off such a print (I think it overwhelms me):



Sorry for the cargo pants in the previous pic. I too did think that it deserved better, so I put on my best "lady outfit" and gave it another try (but it didn't change my feelings):





I was really hoping that it would work but sadly I am going to return it and this pretty much ends my brief affair with Talbots. I will go back to JCrew like a unfaithful and repentant lover and I hope that he will take me back. JCrew fits me SO. MUCH. BETTER.

However this order wasn't a complete waste of money as I received a free lipstick in the exclusive "Charmed" Talbot's shade, that pretty much made up for the shipping charge that I am not going to get back. It's a beautiful red with brown undertones and even if I wasn't looking for a red lipstick I am pretty pleased with it (I find it flattering, unlike most of the red lipsticks that I have tried on):



I took about a million pics to show you the shade on me and this is all I can show you (who knew that it's such a difficult task to take a picture of one's lips):



I think that I will stick to animal-print accessories this season. While I was in Italy I shopped my mom's closet and brought back a scarf in real fur that I remembered she used to wear when I was a little girl:



And I bought a little cross-body at Zara with a leopard-print calf hair patch on the front (a Lanvin knockoff), that goes very well with my leopard-print bucket hat from last year (bought also in Italy for $20):





Ready to go:



And for the evening, a little tiger-print feathered headband by the Loft (after wearing all summer long my sunglasses over my head as a headband, even in the evening, I decided that it was time to buy a few ones):



What do you think of the coat? Are you into animal prints this season?

OOTD: Leopard, Cheeta and Toothpick

This is a mix of pics of my real OOTD and an outfit that I had tried on last week when it was warmer and I could have got away with a short-sleeve tissue turtleneck and a jacket (but I wore my Halloween outfit for three days in a row instead and now it's too cold).
The first item that I bought in this outfit are the shoes. Back in the summer I had a brief love affair with the leopard print Tory Burch Revas in calf-hair and I bidded a couple of times on them on Ebay but for some reasons it didn't work out. Then I saw these Target pointy-toe flats that aren't a cheap print but real calf-hair (another of Gigi's finds, I never go to Target as the closest is in Brooklyn, no less, and I'm like Miranda of SATC, pre-baby) selling for almost a tenth of the price of the Revas and I was sold (plus I love pointy-toe shoes, I think that we don't see them around enough). Then I bought the toothpick (not "to wear with the leopard flats", but it can't be denied that this style goes greatly with pointy flats) and then the Jcrew Cheeta calf-hair belt. I'm sure that this one will go on sale because it's a quite expensive belt but I LOOOOOVED it and took advantage of a $25 off $125 card to buy it (actually I bought it along with the jeans).
So the bottom part of my outfit was easy because I bought these pieces with the intention of wearing them together.
But strangely enough I had a hard time finding a top to wear with the black jeans and the animal print accessories. Initially, I didn't want to go "total black with animal print accents" and I tried different sweaters in the beige color palette but in the end I think that a black top works better than a lighter top.
Anyway, this is the version that I wore today, minus the hat (I was just taking my daughter to a playdate):


And the final touch is this Plexiglas leopard bracelet that I bought for $5 on the street, the same day that I bought the Deco pashmina (can you tell that I'm momentarily tired of expensive jewelry)?



Have a great week (DH is coming home tomorrow so you know where I am if I don't reply. Oh no, this came across like a bad sex joke, did it?)

PS
Not that I want to sell you anything on this blog, but if you like the shoes (and I can vouch on their cuteness and quality), I have a second pair in a size 6H (my size was sold-out and I ordered one size up and one size down and I'm keeping the 7H) that I can still return to Target but can offer you for $25 shipped (the price was $29.99 and they are completely sold-out). Please don't make me go to Brooklyn to return these (just kidding).
If interested, please email me at crazyaboutjcrew@gmail.com.