Matthew Williamson for H&M hits the stores today

A little reminder that the First Part of the Matthew Williamson collection for H&M hits the stores today, for a change from JCrew.
I always liked Matthew Williamson prints and boho style and I was thrilled to learn about his collaboration with H&M. However, I hadn't really marked this date on my calendar as I feel too old for standing for hours in line waiting for a store opening with teens and fashionistas alike, but I happened to walk by the Fifth Avenue (Uptwon) store yesterday and the main pieces of the new collection were already up in the windows. Looking doesn't hurt, right?

My favorite piece from this collection is the yellow and blue sequined dress that is on sale for $249 (sorry, I couldn't grab the pic but it's viewable on the H&M website, and it's the eight item from the left in the collection). The execution looks beautiful, but I think it's a little bit pricey for H&M. Anyway, I would never buy it because I wouldn't know where to go dressed like that. Pool party, anyone? It looks like this first part is an even more limited edition made of few outstanding pieces for party-goers, while the "summer collection" (in all the stores on My 14th) will be more affordable and maybe more wearable.

Do you plan to check this collection out? Do you own an H&M item from a "designer collection"?

Dear Havona (Part 2)

I bought the Havona top some weeks ago after my husband announced that he would finally take me (us) to Bermuda on his next business trip the first week of May. He goes at least twice a year and he NEVER asked me to go with him (not that I haven't begged him), but this time I didn't even have to insist, he just offered. I wasn't going to say no, right?
I thought that the Havona would be perfect for Bermuda. We are staying only five days, and it's not like I would have gone naked hadn't I bought it, but I needed an excuse to buy it because it looks like something that I wouldn't typically wear in my ordinary life. I don't know you, but I LOVE to buy something new for a vacation, it makes the wait and the packing all more exciting.

Anyway, I got it (how I got it will make the topic of another post) and even if I had read reviews about it, I wasn't prepared for its sheerness and lightness. It's just unlined organdy and it's so ethereal that I was taken aback.
My biggest worry was that besides the vacation, I wouldn't have any occasion to wear it, it looks way too elegant for me; but once "demistified" it is very nice worn with jeans. I would totally go out to dinner with friends dressed like this:



Or like this:



but with a bra (that I have to buy, NO WORRIES, I'm not going around like this. When I saw the pictures I thought that I wasn't going to post them, but I don't have the energy to do this again and anyway I haven't bought the bra yet, so please don't comment on my nipples, I KNOW that they are showing) or the same waterfall cardi as above:



Once the issue of the money-per-wear resolved, I set my vacation fantasy free. Here I'm on the deck of a luxury cruise ship, taking the breeze in while I wave "Hellooo, captain":



Because of the sheerness of the top, I like it more tucked in the pants than not:



But maybe it's just the contrast with the white, because I liked it much better worn untucked with these $10 beach pants. They are a little bit lighter IRL than on the pics, but still go wonderfully with it:



Here I was obviously having a cocktail on the beach...

Back to reality, here is how it look with a pencil skirt:



And this is maybe my favorite outfit. It's elegant but discreet at the same time and I love the contrast between the colors of the Havona and the navy of the capri pants:





And a variation on the same (note the change of bracelet):



In the end, I think it's more versatile that it looked at first. I'm not sure how the flower will hold up after a few ... minutes of wear, but it's possible to unsew it and as FFM suggested.

What do you think? Do you own this top? Have you been tempted to buy it? Do you like the more casual ways to wear it? Do you have any suggestion that you would like to share?

The Grey Surplus Matchstick Jeans (now on sale for $69.99)

Ladies, I'm so overjoyed by the fact that I have been able to snap up a pair of the grey surplus matchstick jeans (item 13359) for $52 (sale + additional 25% off with the red card) that I have decided to write a short post with IRL pics, in case my joy is contagious and I can convince someone else out there. I want you to buy these jeans!

I'm sorry if I bother you again with the zebra tee, but these jeans are the perfect match for it: they are not black, not white, not dark charcoal but a very light gray perfect for spring. In fact now that I think about it, I've tried them for the first time the day that I bought the zebra, so I can now recreate the dressing room look. In fact, I wonder if my zebra tee wasn't a consolation prize for not being able to buy the jeans (at $135 they were efinitively too expensive. I never splurge on Jcrew jeans as I already splurge on premium brand jeans at least once a year).

So here they are with the zebra (and the matching wide patent belt that was also on sale):



Detail of the pockets and waistline:



I sized up in these. I normally wear a 26 but I bought a 27 because they are not stretch and I was afraid that they would be too tight in the tights and it's a color that doesn't forgive (you know the effect). That's why they are a little bit loose around the waist, but nothing serious.
You can roll them up and wear them barefeet to ...run the dog on the beach? Sorry, I've just watched Marley and Me:



And they look great with heels. Here are with the Cate slingbacks (that I also bought) one leg rolled up and one leg down for demonstration purposes. I apologize for the quality of the pic but the lighting in the fitting room was really bad:



I bet that they will go fast at this price. So if I have convinced you "hurry, they might not last long".

How my daughter managed to poop at the JCrew sample sale and then again at ON (for mothers only)

I had planned to write a post about the JCrew sample sale that is going on this week in NYC if I ever decided to go (which I finally did today), but the sale turned out to be so boring and uninteresting that I wasn't even motivated enough to take pictures to post (plus the only time that I took the camera out I was immediately gunned down by not one but two guys of the staff as if it were a nuclear plant and I a potential terrorist).
My husband is on a business trip and each time that he goes away I do things that I would never do when he's around just because he's not watching. Like taking my daughter on a afternoon-long shopping trip to one of Manhattan most unpleasant neighborhoods (Penn Station - I used to work there and I hated every minute of my lunch break). At this point you must have a very bad opinion of my husband, but besides the fact that we don't share the same passion for shopping in general (I would say that we are at the opposite on this matter) and Jcrew in particular, he is a very good husband. And he's handsome!

The weather was bad today and my daughter was about to nap so I didn't feel too guilty to plot my little escapade while she was dreaming of going to the playground, because I couldn't have taken her to the park anyway.
You have to know that my daughter has always been on the constipated side, with a peak last summer where for at least three months she was only able to pass a stool with the help of a suppositoire (it was horrible to watch, she really suffered a lot). Now it's better but I have to say that normally poop is not something that I have to worry about when we are around. But ten minutes after we arrived at the sample sale (she was in a very good mood by the way, she made me laugh several times and entertained the staff as well) she, well, pooped. And you could see on the faces of the ladies who were inspecting the racks of $60 sweaters with big holes in them that they could smell it and they knew where the smell was coming from as she was the only kid at the sale (that is as to say that I was the only mother to think that a JCrew sample sale was a place to take your kid to). At Clothingline (the company that hosts the sale) they don't even have fitting rooms, let alone kid-friendly restrooms with changing tables ,so I decided to do nothing about it until we left (she didn't seem to be too bothered).

The next stop was Old Navy where I checked out the graphic tee that Slastena is wearing here. When we entered the big fitting room she reminded me, in case I had forgotten, (which I did, but you have to understand, I had just found the only XS left under a pile of other tees) that she had pooped and needed to be changed (she said "Cacca", Italian for poop, and "Diaper", in English this time). At that point my maternal instinct came back and I underwent the not-so-pleasant operation of changing her in the fitting room, which turned out to be one of the most embarassing moment of my short career in motherhood, because for the life of me I can't remember a poop that smalled so bad and to make things worst I DIDN'T HAVE a plastic bag with me to dispose it (in the end I simply closed the diaper with the thing in it as firmly as I could and put it the stroller basket). So, if by any chance you were at Old Navy on 34th Street today around 4.30 and you happened to smell something weird in your fitting room, that was certainly us. Another embarassing moment was when she run out of the fitting room and I had to run after her in my panties and catch her before she got into trouble.

But all in all it was a lot of fun. And I was happy that I didn't find anything to buy at the sample sale because on our way back we made a last stop at a JCrew store and I found some unbelievable deals on items that I've been coveting for a very long time (I got the patent Cate slingbacks for $52 and the matchstick surplus gray jeans for another $50, thanks to the red card that one follower was so nice to send me. Debra thank you again!)
So, if there is a lesson about sample sales that I have learned today is that it feels so good to be able to buy for a very good price something that has been longtime on my wishlist, as opposed to spend on something that I haven't DESIRED, just because it seems such a good deal. When I'm tempted to buy something on an impulse just because it's a deal that I can't miss, I should always tell myself that if I hadn't happened to see it, I wouldn't want it (this could be true for most of the clothes that we buy, but is especially true for clothes that we buy at a sample sale).

The other lesson would be never leave the house without plastic bags.

There is another zebra in town

Last Thursday (when I visited the Soho store and tried the cargo pants) was the first real day of spring in NYC, a warm and sunny day, so I decided to took my zebra (tee) out for a tour and a little social experiment.
I have to say that I had enough time to think about how I was going to wear it and there aren't tons of options (colors are limited to black, gray and white and it has a rock&roll look that makes jeans almost mandatory).
It was warm compared to the days before but still in the low 60s, so I couldn't wear it alone. Here is how I've layered it, step-by-step (the jeans are from the Gap and it was the first time that I wore them as well. They are very soft and I love them):


Then I threw on my Michelle cardi in dark charcoal:



And I finished adding my Zara windbreaker (the color is between a military green and gray):



By the way, I love the Zara windbreaker. It's from the current collection and I have it in navy too, which is a little bit more elegant (it retails for $99). I really couldn't decide between the two colors so after buying the navy one I called my mother in Italy (where Zara is usually cheaper) to buy me the green (she loves to go shopping for me).

Then I wore my aviator Chanel sunglasses as a final touch, put the baby in the stroller and got out of the apartment. I was half expecting people to nod in sign of recognition but apparently not everyone in the street is a JCA (how suprising).
I knew that in fancy Soho people would fake indifference anyway. However, I was a little bit disappointed that it didn't create curiosity or any reaction when I wore it to the playgroung in the afternoon (my playground friends didn't make any comment and the other people didn't even smile, which is the effect that I was hoping for). I think that the whole point of having this tee is to have fun with it, which includes people somehow reacting to the fact that I'm wearing a zebra. I guess that if I had walked in the JCrew store (the one where they know me, because in the Soho store no reaction as well), they would have probably greeted me with some "How cool your zebra tee", but it's like writing a book and having only your friend and family to read it.

I'm going to give it another try, but I start to wonder if it was money well spent. Maybe I should have gotten the rosette tee instead of this one. Well, at least my daughter loves it and says "Mama zebra" every five minutes.

Have you the zebra tee? What is the people reaction when you wear it?

The Ripstop Utility (Cargo) Pants

A quick post on the ripstop utility pants that I could try on yesterday.
Yes, I lied. I said that I wouldn't visit a JCrew store for a while and I didn't last a week. But it wasn't planned, I swear. Yesterday I happened to be in Soho (husband invited us to have lunch downtown with him and let me pick the restaurant) and I couldn't resist the urge of enter the Soho store, also because it's the only store in NYC that carries the Crewcuts line (and my daughter is almost 2, ie old enough to wear Jcrew, yeah!)

The ripstop utility pants (item 14784) caught my eye in the last website roll-out (they look gorgeous on the model) and so far I hadn't seen them in store. But they have finally arrived, as Jcrew let us know yesterday in an email sent to the happy few (I saw it on JCA blog but I haven't received it).

I'm between a size 0 and a size 2 in Jcrew pants. I've tried a 0 first in the only color available (golden hickory, that I don't like). Pardon my appearance but I just had a sumptous lunch and it shows around my belly (Gigi, if you're reading this, not sure that it's a good idea to try clothes just after lunch, especially if you plan to post pics!)



Pretty bad uh? I always have a problem with drawstring waist pants, I find that generally they are not very flattering and these are no exception.
I agree that it's not the best style to wear with flats, but I forgot to take them off! I hope that you get the idea anyway.
The size 2 wasn't better, even worst because they get baggy in the leg as someone pointed out on the JCA blog. Here is the light pewter:



And here is the white with the perfect-fit corsage tee in lavander:



I'm happy that I could try them on in both sizes, so I won't be tempted if I see them on sale on the website. I already have two pairs of cargo pants that I don't wear much, I must not be the cargo type!

Have you been coveting these pants? Do you own them?

Dear Havona (Part 1)

Dear Havona,

I have to tell you something: my love for you was a little bit biaised. It wasn't love at first sight. I didn't like you the first time that you made your appearance in the spring lookbook. I didn't even NOTICE you, and then when others made me look at you, I thought that we weren't made for each other. You looked too sophisticated, whereas I like simplicity.

But then something happened. Maybe it was seeing you on Fabulous Florida Mommy; maybe it was the fact that we decided to go to Bermuda for Mother's Day weekend and all of a sudden I could picture myself, my neck adorned with your beatiful flower, while sipping a cocktail and looking at the sunset from the balcony of our hotel's room; maybe it was just the fact that my size sold out and all of a sudden you became more attractive because I couldn't have you. Whatever the reason, I became obsessed with you. I looked for you everywhere but you were elusive. And then one day you were there, waiting for me. Oh! The pleasure of the conquest. You were mine.

I promise you, my dear Havona, that I will not leave you in my closet. Our love will be consumed and I will wear you, and more than once.
And if it turns out that it wasn't real love but just a flirt, I will set you free and return you where you come from, before the date on the ticket is past. Because you are exquisite and deserve real love.

TO BE CONTINUED ...