JCrew: A Few Try-Ons (And An OOTD)

I have been to two larger (larger than the Collection store, which is my "local" store) stores last week and took a few pics of the new arrivals. Nothing terribly exciting, also because most of this stuff has been around for a while. Anyway, I tried on as much as possible for future final sale purposes ;-).

First, the Gimlet skirt in coaster stripe. I tried this one twice already, the first time even before that it became available on the website. I really like it but in real life it flares out a lot more than on the model and I feel like I have nowhere to go in this skirt. I tried a size 2 and felt a bit like a ballerina of a music box. I will probably get it if I find it on super-sale becase of the limited wear (for my lifestyle it is an occasion skirt):

Next I grabbed the Drawstring dress in peeble dots. The pattern is the same as the Blythe blouse in peeble dots but the fabric is 100% cotton and the color reads darker. This is most definitively a cover-up because of the fabric and the cut. I am trying a XS (it was pulling it a bit on my chest):

Another item from the cover-up section that I felt like trying on is the Sundowner tunic in engineered stripe. I tried a XXS because it looked huge. I can't suffer collars when I am on the beach and I don't need it for the city, so this one has no place in my closet. But it felt nice on (not $88 nice but nice). I would probably get a XS because in the XXS the sleeves were tight at the cuffs and it just fit everywhere else (the collar was tight too when buttoned):

The following is the Painter zip tee in stripe in the vintage cobalt color. OK, I would say that this one fits small. I am wearing a XS and it was very fitted. The annoying thing is that I couldn't zip up the zipper in the back by myself (I didn't try it to pass it over my head with the zipper up though):

I have probably mentionned that a denim jacket is on my spring list this year, so while I was there I tried the two denim jackets that they were offering. The first one is this uber-expensive ($280) from their "denim shop" (can't find online). The fit was great but it was very stiff and too dark for spring for my taste. This is the XS:

The other one is the Nolita jacket in Great Lakes wash. This is their classic Nolita (that I got to try for the first time) in their newest wash. It was very soft and had the perfect weathered look. I might get this one as soon as a promo comes around. The only thing that may disappoint some is that it is kind of lightweight, it almost feels like a shirt. This is the XS:

That's the cavalry skirt, BTW (size 0). I found it in a store last week, incredibly (and it wasn't a return because they had three of them). I still loved it and the price with the 40% off was too good to pass so it came home with me. This is the outfit that I wore on my shopping trip (it was pouring, so I wore it with my rainboots):

The last item that I wanted to show you is the Double-breasted Ivy jacket. They didn't have a size 2 to try on on the floor, so I tried a 0 just to get a feeling. I really thought that I would fall in love with this but the double breasted style is not for me, I think:

That's if for now. Have you tried or ordered any of these? Anything that you like?

Best Of The Golden Globes

OK, that was probably one of the most boring Golden Globes ever. Now, can you imagine what the Oscars will be?
But it is always fun to play the best and worst of game so here are my picks.

Best dressed. Let's get this out of the way. I have to admit that Angelina Jolie looked impeccable in her Atelier Versace dress, she really didn't have a contender yesterday night. She could have told something to Brad though, like "Can you wash your hair before we go, darling?".

I also liked Jessica Alba and Nicole Kidman. Not so much Charlize Theron, I think she is a bit too old to wear a tiara.

Most good-looking lady. Diane Lane deserves a category of her own because not only she was one the best dressed, but she was the most beautiful woman in the theather. An example of how a women can look even better with age:

Best Lady In Black. There were quite a few ladies in black yesterday night and my favorite was Rooney Mara in her Nina Ricci dress:

I personally think that Mila Kunis didn't look that good in black, probably because of her carnation. Plus, the dress was too similar to the one that she wore last year. Special mention also to Debra Messing (can't wait to see her in the new show "Smash").

Worst dressed. Can somebody send Meryl Streep to Rachel Zoe, please? And Tina Fey is the only one who can look bad in Oscar de la Renta, but I am forgiving he because of her brain.

Best Presenter couple. How smashing did Rob Lowe and Julianne Moore look? I also liked their reaction to the teleprompter glitch. OK, if anybody knows what anti-wrinkle brand Rob is using let me know (I am not interested in the self-tanning lotion)!

Best Presenter couple 2. The real-life couple Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy's duet was probably the show's best moment.

Best Actor during the show. How is it that Robert Downy Jr. is invariably the only one who actually looks like he has memorized his speech and he is actually acting when he is presenting these awards? Please give him a best actor award, it is about time since Chaplin.

Best Joke. Seth Rogers stealed the show with his old-like-the-earth joke on his erection. Thanks to the amused reaction of Kate Beckinsale it worked, even if we heard it a thousand times.

Worst joke. The joke about how "Bridesmaids" has showed the world that even women can poop their pants off was lame to begin with. But it was repeated three times during the evening and it was poor Emily Blunt who delivered its worst variation.

Worst joke 2. George Clooney's joke about Michael Fassbinder nude scenes in the movie "Shame" was OK until he pushed it over the edge with the golf swing remark. I just thought that it didn't sound like Clooney. But now I am really curious about Shame. On a side note MF didn't look at his best yesterday night.

Most missed: Ryan Gosling. With Ryan out of the game, my best-looking guy award goes ex aequo to Ewan McGregor (I know, I am biased because I just watched him in Beginners but his attendance was a pleasant surprise after Ryan's forfeit). The "hottest guy alive", aka Bradley Cooper, just wasn't blond enough.

Most missed 2: OK, so I read that Corey Stoll, the actor who plays Ernst Hemingway in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" didn't get a seat at the Golden Globes (while in my opinion he deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination). I understand that they can't invite everybody and have to make decisions but why Kale Richards from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was invited (OK, she was there as a reporter apparently). Or Heidi Klum, for that matter?

What were your best and worst yesterday night? Please share!

Sunday Musings (On Stripes, A Corny Outfit, Ewan McGregor and The Golden Globes)

I feel wordy today, so I thought that I would just let myself talk about what occupied my mind the last days, free-wheel style, and see where it goes. Ready?

I had a round of returns to make yesterday and went into the Loft, Gap and H&M only to discover that retailers don't seem to be as striped out as their costumers. The Loft in particular was a stripeland where it was almost impossible to find a not-striped sweater or tee. OK, some of them were really cute but when the striped tops in your collection are approaching a triple digit number, "cute" is not a purchasing criteria anymore. "Sensational", "life-changing", "in desperate need of" are more valid criteria. "Incredibily cheap" is questionable.
I love myself some stripes, but while it has always been refreshing to see stripes appear in the stores in January, it feels really tired this year, probably because they have gone from a seasonal pattern to a all-year-round pattern without solution of continuity. However, what's the alternative? What does feel fresh for spring? It looks like this spring you have two options, if you want to avoid stripes: a bright button or head-to-toe pastel tones. Pastels are not flattering on my skin tone, they wash me out completely, so I am left with the brights. While I love brights, they suffer a little bit from the bright-mania that we have seen at JCrew this past season. Colors like neon azalea and bright flame were incorporated in their Fall and Winter collections, so while they are certainly easier to wear in the warmer months, they don't feel necessarly "new" for spring.
I have to say that I browsed through the January catalog wih a big yawn, but there, on the very last page, something woke up my interest. Something old-fashioned and yes, corny, all of a sudden felt refreshingly new. Wasn't what happened with stripes at the beginning?
I am talking about the Sperry topsiders in the Jcrew custom-made colors, especially the beautiful spearmint. I haven't worn (or bough, for that matter) a pair of boat shoes since 10th grade (in Italy, the equivalent of the Sperries were the Timberlands), but all of a sudden they look more appealing than a new pair of sandals.
Instead of going immediately for the JCrew ones, I looked around and found a pair in a beautiful strawberry pink at endless.com for a mere $38. Endless.com, in case you don't know, has free shipping/free returns and incredibly fast shipping. I ordered Thursday and they were at my door on Friday. Gotta love that. I had to size half down because they were sold-out in my regular size but I had read they they run large so I gave them a try.
The color is beautiful and summery, but at first I didn't look how my feet looked in them when I looked down:

However, I tried them again with a striped dress by H&M, and I really like the beachy vibe:

Do you think that they are cool or corny? If you are interested, you can buy them here (they also have a yellow that looks a lot like the lemon zest currently sold by JCrew).
The H&M dress is from the current collection. It is extremely comfortable and while it isn't very substantial, for the price ($12.95) it holds well its shape. It's an easy dress to throw on on vacation to have breakfast or as a cover-up. I have very few knit dresses and I don't have a striped one (I returned one that I had bought in the summer always at H&M because it wasn't very flattering), so this one is a welcome addition to my resortwear collection, even if not "life-changing". I am wearing a XS.

What was (almost) life-changing was watching Ewan McGregor play in "Beginners" yesterday night. While I moderately liked the movie and couldn't care less for the dying character of the award-nominee Christopher Plummer (I don't like old characters in general, they are just depressing no matter how good the actors) Ewan's performance was very heartfelt and the best part of the movie to me and it just reminded me what a good actor he can be. Okay, he could easily be my ideal man, but besides the looks I like his intensity when he is not playing the Jedi. To be fair, Melanie Laurent has the same intensity and there was real chemistry between the two of them. If you like love stories or to watch people falling in love, this is the movie for you.

Well, it is almost time for the Golden Globes. I am disappointed because I just learned that Ryan Gosling is not going to show up and he is dating Eva Mendez. Really??? Let's hope in bad boy Michael Fassbinder...
I have seen very few of the nominated movies this year (thank you Netflix for not delivering Moneyball) but I am looking forward to it, it is my favorite award show. In fact I am watching the red carpet arrivals while finishing up this post on my iPad and I am having a kick out of it. More tomorrow... Have a great night!

Boden Border Print Tunic Review

Last week I placed an order at Boden for two items from their newly released Spring Collection and I just received the first package (pardon me, parcel). This one arrived in fours days as it was sent from their US warehouse in Pennsylvania. The other package parcel was sent from England and it may take weeks to arrive, so instead of waiting and reviewing the two items together I thought that I would just go ahead and show you this one, since it seems to be popular.

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I am not the biggest Boden fan out there. I would say that I order one or two items per season maximum. Most of the prints are too bold for me and some styles on the other hand too classic. But every once in a while I find something to love, at least in the catalog pages, and I have learned that it is better to order early, especially with the incentive of a good promo, because sizes go fast and the waistlists are loooong.
So the first item that caught my eye and ordered as soon as it came out is the Border print tunic. I am usually a 2 in Boden but this one also comes in Petite sizes and I had an hesitation. However, since I was planning to wear this mostly as a dress and not over leggings or pants, I went ahead with a 2R. I ordered the same color that the model is wearing (I must admit that that pic really sold me on the tunic as I find it lovely) which is called "pewter passion flower".

So I am happy to report that the 2 fits as expected and the length is just perfect to wear it as a dress (it is a little bit longer on me than on me model, which is actually better). It is extremely flattering even if this kind of fabric tends to be clingy. I threw on some sandals just to see the effect (granted they are not the best style for this dress, but that's what I could find in my scavenger dressing search):

I am a little bit weary of this syle of dresses because they tend to give me (and I am sure not only me) the pregnant look. But not this one. This is a side view pic to show you that I don't have a bump in this dress ;-)

If I was immediately sold on the fit I was a bit disappointed in the color. I was expecting another color, more brownish/muted while the main color it really is grey and the flowers are very peachy. All in all the print is more contrasted than how it looks online or in the catalog. The picture above (with the side view) and the one below are more true to life in terms of the color than the first two (I adjusted the setting of my camera after the first pictures even if it couldn't capture the color exactly):

I don't know if it is just that I was expecting something else and I have to adjust to it but I was a little bit taken aback and I have to decide if I like it enough and I would wear it enough. It isn't a color that screams summer to me and I am tempted to order the olive colorway to compare (I know that olive doesn't scream summer either, but the other shade in the "olive passion flower" colorway seems to be a blue/turquoise and the global effect of the print could be more summery).
Besides the color it is a great dress (I say dress and not tunic because I think that anyone could wear this as a dress). It is the perfect thing to wear to go out for drinks and dinner with friends in the summer (the problem is, I don't do that that much anymore). I think a little jeans jacket would look terrific with this dress (I am on the search for the perfect little jeans jacket for the summer, since I don't have one, and it looks like I don't have to look too far because the JCrew Nolita might be the one, with its perfectly weathered look).

What do you think of the Boden Border print tunic? Is it tempting you? Please share!
I will be back soon with some JCrew fitting room pics. Have a nice weekend all!

Some Lilly Fun

As I mentionned in my previous post, one of the few post-holidays sales I partook in this year is the Lilly Pulitzer two-day sale last week. Sales at Lilly Pulitzer.com take place only twice a year (in January and late August) and last only two days, then everything that is not sold-out goes back to full price or is removed from the website. So if you are interested in something in particular this is your only shot at getting it for a reduced price, at least on the website (you can get pretty good deals in store year-round but that's another story). It is also one of the rare occasions where they offer free shipping no minimum, so it is worth it to throw in some non-sale items to try out.

The first day I had a good look at the sale but couldn't pull the trigger on anything because many of the items heavily reduced in price were marked final sale (it's a retailers pleague!) and I wasn't stalking anything in particular. I went quickly to the store the morning after to try something that was tempting me but I decided that I didn't need it after all. So in the end I pulled the trigger on one item that I had tried a long ago in store but decided that I would get only at a deep discount (I also ordered some of their fleeces and a dress for my daughter. Love when I can get some mini-Lillys for the price of a Gap on sale) and wasn't final sale.
It's a little funky jacket called "Sylvia" (as I said it has been removed from the Lilly website and it is back to FP at Splashes of Pink, which is a Lilly signature store):

First, let me tell you that they price that they asked for this ($228) is absolutely crazy IMO, being a knit. I got it for $59 and I wouldn't have paid much more (in fact when I tried it in store it was already on sale for $79 and it wasn't a price that I was willing to pay at that time). But for $59 I am happy to add something unusual to my closet.
I got it in this brown/ivory colorway, which is the color that I had tried in store. It also came in a navy/pink colorway (with a smaller-scaled print) but I have more than enough navy jackets. What really pushed me to get it is that I have now the perfect dress to wear with it, a recent acquisition that I got on sale at Joe Fresh (I have the same one in burgundy too, as some of you will remember):

This was already cheap at full price ($39) and was only $19 on sale (when it sold-out I really regretted not getting it at full price, but one day I found this one on sale, probably a return. I really had zero hopes to find it but it paid to go in often just to check because you never know). By the way, I don't know what's going on with the lining being longer than the dress itself but for $19 I thought I would find a solution (even if I have to have the lining hemmed).
The dress is a year-round dress (because of the lining and quite substantial weigth) but I was afraid that I wouldn't know what to wear with it in fall/winter time (thus, my not buying it when it was FP). I found that this jacket really complements it and all of a sudden I have a no-brainer outfit ready, which makes the dress much more weareable:

And yes, those are shoes on the jacket! Funky, as I said. Because of the print, the big ivory button and the collar shape, it has a vintage-y feeling, like something that you would find at a thrift store:

As I said, I wouldn't probably have bought it if I hadn't found the dress on sale. It does look good with pants and jeans but I don't need another pants jacket, as pretty much all my jackets are pants jackets. This is with my toothpick cords, for example:

I am really happy with this "find". At least it isn't another schoolboy blazer ;-). If it weren't for the problem with the lining of the dress, I would wear it tonight to a school event and then out to dinner with friends.
Instead I am going to wear a much more serious outfit (the dress is by the Loft, the jacket is an old Zara from the time when I worked in an office and the necklace is a Majorica pearls necklace that I won at the school benefit auction last year). Yes, I am pretending to be a layer or something (just kidding but you will agree that it doesn't look like something that I usually wear):

What do you think of my funky jacket? Would you wear a jacket with shoes on it? Did you partake in the Lilly sale last week? Please share!

Past Week Outfits

Wow, what a week! We "woke up" from the holiday sleep on Tuesday morning with our last school interview and then we had a-school-a-day event for the rest of the week that felt a little like the last burst at the end of a firework. We are now DONE and in exactly a month from today we will know if our daughter is going to be accepted in one of the schools that we toured (possibly our favorite). Fingers crossed!

The weather has been absolutely crazy here, we had a change of season at least three times. At the beginning of the week we have been hit by a cold front that made the temperatures drop into the low 20s, then it warmed up again until Saturday that felt almost like spring with temperatures in the 60s, and yesterday it was cold again. Now, not that I want the temperatures to stay in the 20s but could we have some sort of stability, please? It gets really complicated to get dressed in the morning.

Anyway, on the coldest day of the week (of the season, actually) I had to attend a panel at one of the schools and I needed to dress up a bit. I had a hard time not only because I was afraid that I would freeze on my way but also because the skirt that I had decided would be perfect for the event gave me some challanges.
The skirt is the No. 2 pencil skirt in glen plaid that is currently sold-out on the website but should popback. Even if I bought this skirt in store and I had tried it on, I am afraid I should have bought a 2 instead of a 0. It just fit with a silk skirt tucked in (the shirt is Madewell from last year):

but the problem is when you want to tuck in something heavier that a silk shirt, like that night. In case you haven't thought about it, the bow (which is the cute detail of this skirt) makes it almost impossible to wear anything untucked with this skirt (even a cardigan left open doesn't look good). Tuck in or die!
So when I tried to tuck in my cashmere turtleneck in caramel from a few season ago, it looked very bulky (or like I was about to explode). In the end I added my Ralph Lauren blazer (that is exactly the same shade of caramel than the sweater) that covered up a little bit what was going on in the middle area, so I felt comfortable neverthless but keep this in mind if you are interested in the skirt. This is without the jacket (about to explode, as I said):

On another day, I wore the outfit below to another school event. It was much warmer but I had a cardigan on that I didn't take pics of. In any case I love this part of the outfit and the silk polka-dots tee is probably one of my favorite purchases this year (I had missed on it but found it on the JCA weekly exchange for cheap). I am wearing a size 0 in the tee and a size 2 in the flair skirt:

By the way, I have the perfect necklace to wear with the tee, once come spring:

Let's move forward to spring! As I said Saturday was a very warm day and a lot of people were out and about without a jacket. I wore my Lolli pants from last year (I wore them a LOT this year) with the boardwalk-striped zipper tee. The colors go really well together and I received a lot of compliments both on the pants and the necklace, which is "vintage" JCrew, aka from 2008 (see second picture):

So as you can imagine I had very little time to shop last week, but I did take advantage of the Lilly Pulitzer two-day sale and ordered something for my daughter and one item for me (that should be here today). I also (quite surprisingly) caved on a couple of items from the Boden spring collection. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish all my readers a very happy 2012. I appreciate you taking the time of reading this blog and leaving comments. I don't know what I would do without you, really!

Because it is a time of both looking back and looking forward I am going to post a picture from the past summer that sums up both what I liked most last year (it was the year of the stripes, wasn't it?) and my wish that life could be like an endless summer on the beach:

Oh, and because everybody is making NY resolutions, this is mine for this year: to find out what I am really good at and work on it (this resolution replaces the one that I made yesterday under the influence of alchool my playlist, which was, for the records: learn how to play drums, form a band and win a Grammy)

Have a great start of the year!