The Cecilia is Back and Goes Out for Drinks

OK, so you were right, the weekend is not as bad as I thought, so far. It had a very good start yesterday when my husband was still here and we really took advantage of the beautiful summer day. First we had a picnic in the park, the first of the season, then we met friends at the boathouse for drinks before heading all together to one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood, where they serve delicious French food and have one of the best terraces for the warm months. My daughter and their son were with us and they had a blast running on the sidewalk, they were really a joy to watch. I almost felt like we were in Italy and not in NYC!

I don't know if there is anyone out there who keeps track of my purchases and returns but if you remember I had returned the Cecilia dress to finance the Rebecca Taylor nouveau ballet dress. I thought that I would try to re-buy the Cecilia on sale but the last time that I checked my size was sold-out in the NYC stores. Well, for one of those serendipitous shopping moments, the other day I saw it in my size in a store. AND it was on sale. AND there was a 30% off, so it is now back in my closet for a third of its original price.

Yesterday was an ideal day to wear this dress. Not only we had an occasion (yes, drinks with friends IS an occasion good enough to dress up) but the boathouse setting and the weather, sunny but breezy, conjured up to be the perfect backdrop for the dress. At some point it was really windy and the dress "took the wind" like a sailboat. It was a nice sensation to feel it blowing around but not to have to worry about people seeing my panties thanks to the incorporated slip.
The boathouse at 6 in the evening on a sunny summer day is just drop-dead gorgeous and I regret not taking pictures, the light was almost unreal like in an ipmressionist painting (not to mention that the subject, a group of people by a pond with rowboats and weeping trees is the most impressionist subject by itself). Well, I did take a picture but we were already leaving and this is all what I could catch:

I also took plenty of pictures of my daughter, that cutie pie, but I don't have a picture of me in the Cecilia, so you will have to do with the pics in the mirror:

This is a size 0 (like the first one that I had bought). I have to say that at the end of the evening the fabric of the bodice had stretched out a little bit so that it was a little bit looser around my cheast, but I think that that can be solved by taking the straps a little bit. I didn't remember that it had pockets and I found them very handy yesterday night as I wasn't carrying a bag!

My perfectly matching but imperfectly applied nail polish (I gave myself a quick pedicure just before leaving) is Nars Huster, that was very popular when it came out a few years ago (I remember that when I found one bottle at Barney I felt like I had found the Graal). This is from that same old bottle and I remembered it to be a little bit more orange-y; maybe with time the orange component evaporated, I don't know enough about polishes to say. In any case it is almost the same orange-red than the retro orange of the Cecilia:

And here is my cutie pie (wearing Gymboree):

This morning we went early to the playground and my daughter had fun splashing in the water and this afternoon I have a babysitter coming and I am going to chop off my hair and have a long overdue color, so I can say that I am surviving.

How is your Memorial Day weekend going so far?

OOTD With Mini-Me and a Few Try-Ons

Good morning! As you know I rarely post pics of my daughter but yesterday we ended up wearing almost the same outfit (it wasn't planned, it just happened) and we both found it very funny (she noticed herself that we were wearing the "same pants" and we were both wearing a similar striped top), so I took pics to post.

First, my outfit. You have probably already seen it (it features two of my favorite items, that are in constant rotation in my closet) even if I was breaking out my new pair of toothpick cords in champagne (I wore my matchstick in sea salt to death and I thought it was about time to get a fresh pair since the price is now more than a good deal). This is my only pair in this year version, with the zippers at the ankle, and I sized one up from the other three pairs that I have from last year (I figured that because they were fs and whit-ish, I'd better size up and have them gaping a little bit at the waist than look like a sausage, and I was right):

And this is with my mini-me, who is wearing Gap skinny cords (with ankle zipper!), Petit Bateau top and handmade cardigan (I took the pics with her before and I still had to wear my belt here):

In the afternoon after drop-off I stopped by the Collection store to checkout the new arrivals. The store was packed and I didn't feel like trying everything on, so I picked only a few things that really caught my interest. This year I am drawn to dresses more than usual, probably because my daughter is getting older and I have more freedom in my movements as I rarely have to carry her or even take the stroller.
So I picked up three dresses. I apologize for the rolled pants in these pics but I was lazy.

The first one is the beautiful Silk serenade dress in the lagoon blue color. Some of you have probably ordered the colorblock version that was very cheap during the last 30% off promo, but I didn't dare to order a fs dress that I had never tried on before (especially a colorblock one). In any case this is the 0. Needs steaming but fits TTS and beautifully:

The only thing that I find a little bit strange is the seam below the elastic waist (it looks like a crease in my pic but it's a seam and if you zoom on the website pic you can see what I am talking about). Besides the fact that I found myself trying to pleat it down like it was a crease, I don't have other complaints. It is low-cut so probably not appropriate for the office.

The second one I had I hopes for but it was a disaster on. It is a new short-sleeves cotton dress in a creamy colorway with red swiss-dots. It looked very cute on the hanger but as I said the fit was totally off on me. This is the XS and I would clearly need a XXS, but the XS was already too high-wasted on me so I didn't even ask for the size down. It is priced at $98:

You can see this dress also on dinster who agrees with me on the high-waist business.

The third and last one is the Cecilia dress, even if when I tried it I didn't know that it was on the website. This one deserved that I try it on properly and take my pants off ;-).
I thought it would overwhelm me with the full skirt doubled in the same cotton (a LOT of fabric here) but I fell in love, the 0 fit me perfectly even if it is much longer on me than on the model (I kind of like it better this way actually):

You can tie the sash in the front (it looks more like a party dress this way) and it has pockets:

What can I say about the color, orange it is just one of my favorite colors as you know (quite interesting, "retro orange" is more orange in this dress than in other offerings), but it also comes in white and black.
I put it on hold at the store but because we have a JCA event this Saturday I will probably order it with a % off.
You can also see this dress on AppGal (who liked it) and shopwithm (who disliked it. But look how cute the red dots dress looks on her!)

The last item that I tried on is a new schoolboy blazer in a madras fabric. I wasn't interesyed in this one but it was selling out and I figured that many of you might be interested so I grabbed the only one on the floor (which happened to me my blazer size, a 2). The fit is the same as the other schoolboy blazers, I just don't like this madras, personally (if I had to buy a summer schoolboy it would be the one with the scratchy sleeves)). Anyway, here it is (it retails for $168 if I am not wrong):

That's it for today. I will probably try more on Saturday. Any question let me know.