Going Out in Head-to-Toe H&M (plus, take 30% off your entire order today!)

I am having a lot of fun shopping at H&M this fall. They make it SO easy to shop there (well, except for the long lines at the fitting rooms and registers). I know that many of you simply refuse to shop "fast fashion" and I understand that; however, if you are looking for novelty at affordable prices you can't beat H&M. As you know I am a long-time fan of Zara and Zara clothes are generally better made than H&M clothes; however, they are also more expensive in the US and sometimes don't have the same "edge". In my case they also don't fit me as well, especially pants and dresses.
Anyway, I think this Fall collection in particular is very distinctive. While I generally buy casual clothes and the occasional evening top that mix well with other things that are in my closet, I usually don't buy "outfits" at H&M, especially not "going out outfits". But during one of my recent trips I saw a few dressy items that could really compete with JCrew offerings and more expensive brands and I couldn't resist buying the whole thing.
The first item is an embellished pencil skirt with amazing colors. This is not your "wear-to-the-office" pencil skirt, it is a fancy one with jewels on the front. At $59.50 it was expensive for H&M but I used my "welcome" 20% off coupon again so it came down to a more reasonable $47 and it is totally worth the price. I went with a size 6 because I didn't want to look too squeezed in it (it is made in poly and elastane and is a bit clingy):




There are three items in the same print. One is the skirt, the other one is a tee-shirt with the same embellishments on the front and the third one is a sweater with a silk-like panel in the front but no embellishments. The skirt and the sweater look absolutely smashing together (very Dolce and Gabbana) and the sweater is actually the first thing that I bought. It is in a wool blend and feels like merino on. It is also cheaper ($49) than the tee, which in my opinion is the one that isn't worth it. I don't have a pic of the skirt and sweater together but here is the sweater (sorry, there isn't much light here today):



Sometimes it happens with brands like H&M that once at home clothes that seemed special in the store lose their appeal and don't stand the test of actually wearing them out. But yesterday night I did go to a school reception in H&M head-to-toe (well, head to ankle, I don't have H&M shoes. Yet). After all Hellen Hunt famously wore H&M to the Oscars, even if in my opinion that dress wasn't the best choice (you shouldn't do "classic" at H&M IMO, especially if you are a movie star).
I didn't wear the skirt and sweater together because I just LOVE being able to wear a shirt out without freezing and I have time to wear the sweater this winter. The shirt, also by H&M, is 100% poly but I happened to try it with the skirt in store and the whole outfit just blew me away. It is very "dramatic" with slight "balloon sleeves" and a little ruffled trim going around (like a western-style shirt). Normally I wouldn't have bought a 100% poly shirt (especially at $39, which is a bit expensive for poly) but as I said the outfit made me feel like a million bucks and as they say that's priceless. It is a very blousy shirt that looks best tucked in a high-waisted skirt or pair of pants and I got a size 4 (I could have done a 2, probably):




So, as I walked out like this (actually I had to wear tights so I had to swap my Balenciagas for regular black heels) I was absolutely confident that my outfit didn't read "cheap" (which is always the risk with cheap clothes). In fact while I was walking to school I heard a voice (that I vaguely recognized) saying "Oh, that's swanky!" (the voice belonged to a SA of a toy store in the neighborhood who always sees me in my "mom uniform"). And at school all the moms with no exception commented on the skirt. I told one of them that it was H&M and she said "Oh, you have an eye!" In case you are wondering, I didn't lose any rhinestone and none of them is about to fall off, they are all solidly attached (but I have to say that I bought it right away as soon as it came out and things with embellishments tend to get shopworn from tries-on at H&M).

The best thing is H&M.com is having a huge two-day sale and you can take 30% off your entire order until tonight with code 0835 (free shipping is automatically applied to orders over $50). I looked for these pieces yesterday as I was planning this post but I was unable to find them on the website. However, they have new arrivals today and I found the skirt here and the top in the same print here (but as I said the tee is my less favorite for the price). I haven't found the sweater but please post if you do. If you have kids, they also just launched an ADORABLE Halloween collection (almost sold-out already) that supports UNICEF (25% of the SALE PRICE of each cloth is donated to Unicef, which is AMAZING). I might run to the store and check it out.

Would you go out in H&M head to toe? Did you like Hellen Hunt dress at the Oscars? Please share!

A Few JCrew New Arrivals (Sweaters)

Good morning! I went to the Zara flagship store on Fifth Avenue yesterday afternoon and stopped quickly at JCrew to checkout the new arrivals in the store and the sale section. This rollout consists mainly of things that were already available on the website since the last rollout and finally made it to the stores, or viceversa. There wasn't anything calling my name but I tried a few things for the blog. I didn't do it on purpose but it looks like I only tried sweaters (I was a bit in a hurry and I might go back to try other things).

The first thing that caught my eye is camel sweater that I actually have in my "wishlist". I think it is really cute (it reminds me of my trip to Morocco where I actually got to ride a camel for one day) but it is made of their blend of nylon/merino cashmere and I found it quite scratchy (it is exactly the same weight and color of last year's "La parisienne" sweater). It was fitted in my regular XS but that's the style. I mean that I wouldn't size up). It is overpriced for what it is but I would consider it on sale:




The next one is the handknit tile sweater in mist grey. This one looked really cozy and it is heavenly soft even if it is the same merino/cashmere/nylon blend (but in a 3 gauge knit) and not 100% wool. It was a bit bulky on and not the most flattering sweater on me, also because of the color (not sure why it is called "mist grey", as the main color is an apricot beige). This is the XS, fits TTS:




The pants are the Café capri in diamond foulard and they are the only thing in the sale section I have my eyes on. I almost pulled the trigger when the 0 was still available on the website but I had never tried them on and they were still expensive even with the discount to be stuck with them in case they didn't fit properly. This is the size 2 and while they look fine in these pics, they are a bit big in the leg towards the bottom. I was in a hurry so I put them on hold but I might go back and try them with heels. I think they are great "holiday" pants and a bit more sophisticated than plaid. Thoughts?

Last, the only real new arrival (I mean in the stores and the website), the merino knotted scarf sweater that some JCAs pre-ordered after seeing it on the stock pic of the postage stamp mini in chevron stripe. First of all I didn't expect it to be green, I thought it would be navy or black or grey but it is sort of a faded pine green (called "paisley"). Second, the colors of the intarsia are a bit loud, I am not a fan personally (but it will look good paired with a red bottom). It fits exactly like the "other" scarf sweater, aka kind of lean and long. This is the XS:



What do you think of these three? Anything that you are wishlisting in today's new arrivals?

First Week of October Outfits

Last week was the hottest first week of October that I can remember. It has been in the mid 80s almost every day and people around here were actually buying summer clothes! The only sight of merino in a store made me sweat. I tell you, if the temperatures stay like this we have big sales of Fall merchandise ahead of us!
Anyway, I tried to make the best of it and wear clothes that didn't get too much wear in the summer. I hope you enjoy the outfit roundup!

Monday. I really liked this outfit, I think it is one of my best. I am wearing the JCrew striped flower tee from the spring (I bought this one on a whim when it got super marked down in store and it turned out to be one of my favorite tees ever), my J Brand Houlihan skinny cargos in sahara, my Theory double-breasted blazer and my red Kikis (the red in the tee perfectly matches the Kikis):





Of course it got too hot during the day to wear the blazer and I had to take if off:




Tuesday. Another hot day. I wanted to wear a dress but at this point I am tired of my summer ones, so I took out a Calypso suede dress that doesn't get much wear because there isn't a season for it (too hot in the summer to wear a suede dress and the style doesn't lend itself to be layered). Well, I should wear it more often apparently because three people stopped me in the street to ask me who made it. It is true that the suede looks luxurious and it was a very expensive dress but I got it for a song at the outlet (like $70). The problem with suede is that you don't want to sweat in it because it is expensive to dry-clean. I also broke my rule of no open-toe shoes after Labor day and wore Calypso snakeskin sandals so it was a 100% Calypso outfit:




Thursday. I am blanking on what I did or wore on Wednesday, probably nothing to talk about. BUT I remember what I did and wore on Thursday because I had lunch with a girlfriend at Café Boulud, which is a very upscale restaurant on the Upper East Side with one of the nicest terraces in town. Thursday was the breeziest day of the week, so I took advantage of the not too sticky weather to break out my H&M leather pants. If you haven't read my post about these pants the bottom line is that they are the best leather pants around but I don't recommend them to tall girls as they are VERY cropped (I ended up exchanging the size 6 for a size 4 and they fit much better, the 6 was definitely too loose on me). I dressed them up a bit with the JCrew short-sleeve silk tee from last year but I wore sneakers (black leather Converse). I felt very cool in this outfit:




Everything we ate was delicious but the mini-madeleines served warm out of the oven with coffee were out of this world (and I am not even much of a dessert person). I was so impressed that I went out of my way and found the recipe here (what did we do before the Internet?) and baked them on Sunday since my daughter was starting French afternoon class yesterday and she was supposed to bring a French "gouter" for the entire class. They were quite delicious!

Friday. My plans for Friday (ironing and cleaning the house) got shook up by an email sent by Tory Burch that announced the start of their Family and Friends sale. I wasn't expecting the sale to start this early (usually it's over Columbus Day weekend) but I had one thing on my wishlist that I was planning to try during the sale so I went to the store to see if they had it. Unfortunately it didn't work (as in I didn't like it on me and I crossed it from my wishlist) but the Revas were included in the promo so I got a pair of classic black. I practically live in my Revas and as you know I have quite a few but I hadn't bought a pair of black since my first one bit the dust a year and a half ago and I really missed them so I know it's money well spent. I went with the black/silver because I think that they will pair better with this year biker trend and also because my navy suede and camo ones have a gold medallion.
Since I was going to the Tory store I wanted to wear something Tory so I paired my Alexa cropped twill pants with an old JCrew silk shirt that is a bit Tory Burch-esque with its little golden buttons. In reality I like this shirt better in theory than IRL, it drives me crazy because it does not want to stay tucked in AND it gets underarm sweat marks very easily (now I remember why I don't wear it that often).
Anyway, it is a good match for these pants and it looks cute for the five minutes it stays tucked in:





Most of the times it looks more like this:


We did something a bit special on Saturday, I will come back with a dedicated post.

How do you cope with the "Fall heat wave" (if you live around here)? Which one of my outfits do you like the best?

Friday Shopping: Sweatshirts Edition

Embellished sweatshirts are a big thing this Fall, but I prefer the simplicity of a "message" one. Of course you have to be careful with the message, especially if you have kids. Retailers are also banking on the bewitchment for everything French so there are more and more tee shirts and sweatshirts out there with a message in French, from the neutral "Bonjour" and "Bon voyage" (you can't go wrong with that), to the more compromising "Amour, Amoureuse etc." to the profane (but oh! so chicer than its English equivalent) "Merde!" (I didn't make it up, it's by Wildfox. See for yourself here).

My absolute favorite is the Zoe Karssen "Crème de la crème" sweatshirt that some of you have probably seen on the Atlantic-Pacific blog. I love everything in that sweatshirt: the color (heather grey), the font used for the graphic and also the message, because while a bit snobbish it is a very old French expression that you don't hear that often even in France. For the longest time I tried to get my hands on it but it never popped back anywhere (it is available in black at Shopbop.com but I wanted it in grey).
So I recently ordered the Madewell "Bien Fait" sweatshirt just because it reminded me a bit of it and because I could use that $25 no minimum coupon that was around a few weeks ago. Granted, it is black and not grey but I decided to give it a try. It was backordered in my size so I had to wait a bit but it shipped at the beginning of this week.
Last week I had a quick errand to run in Soho where I saw on a billboard an ad that advertised the Old Navy sweatshirts and there was one in particular that reminded me of the Zoe Karssen one even more than the Madewell. I will go as far as to say that it's a knock-off because the font is exactly the same, even if the sweatshirt says "Heart and Soul" in plain English ;-). You can see it here (it is even less expensive now). When I got home I received a coupon for 25% so I took it as a sign and I ordered the sweatshirt in a few colors/sizes (to get to the free shipping minimum). They were priced at $10 and with the coupon they came down to $7.50 each so I had to order many!

I just received them today. I don't order at ON very often so I have to trust the reviews, which in this case said that the sweatshirt was short and that ordering a Tall size would take care of the problem. So I ordered my regular XS and a XS Tall in two colors, the "Heart and Soul" (which is a graphite grey) and the "Marshmallow white" (because I liked the friendly "Hello there").

I must have a short torso because I didn't find it short/boxy at all in the regular XS. This is the grey and I really like it:




The white one fits a bit looser in the same size and it is whiter than I though. However for $7.50 I think I am going to keep it as I see many styling possibilities:




I also ordered the "silver lurex" one and again listened to the reviewers who said to size up. I only ordered a S in this one as it wasn't my first choice but I was curious.
This one is the best of the bunch in terms of fabric content (it is almost 100% cotton, while the other colors have a high poly content that some of you may not like, even if they feel like cotton) and it is as soft as my most beloved JCrew ones. However, it is definitely too big in a S and I don't know where I would wear a sweatshirt with lurex, even if very subtle:



On the other side the Madewell one was a bit disappointing, for $75. I find it very plain. It is the same weight than the ON ones even if it is 100% cotton. I was expecting a different weight but it is a "summer" sweatshirt. The fit is spot-on and is cut slimmer than the ON:







I don't think I am going to keep it, especially after seeing what you can get for $7 at ON.

Did you try the Madewell or ON sweatshirts? In other news, the Zoe Karssen one has been re-issued and it is available at Bloomingdales with 20% off to boot. I am going to wait and see if a XS becomes available in the next few days just to get it out of my system.

Phillip Lim 3.1 for Target: My Picks, Styled

If a policeman rang my doorbell and asked me what I was doing on the night between September 14th and September 15th, I wouldn't have to think more than five seconds to answer. I was on my computer, waiting for the Phillip Lim 3.1 for Target collection to be released on the Target website. See, Phillip Lim is probably my favorite designer and I have a skirt from the summer collection that I paid a small fortune for but is one of the favorite things in my closet. So, even if I have been disappointed by the designer collaborations at Target in the past (especially by the Calypso one) I could NOT not partake in the Phillip Lim craziness. I was up until 2 am ET and the Collection was released only a few hours later which means that when I woke up on Sunday all the bags were gone. Luckily for me I was one of the few not interested in the bags but in the clothes. I had previewed the collection online and made my choice already and I was actually surprised that none of my picks had sold out. I ordered all the "animal" print items, ie the skirt, the dress and the sweater. I also "almost" ordered the "Boom" dress but only a size S was still available and it sold-out during checkout. I learned after that the dress fit pretty big/long so I saved myself a return on this one probably. A few days after my order I received an email from Target that my shipment had been delayed (usually bad news), only to receive shipping confirmation a few hours later. Go figure!

Anyway, of the three items I ordered the skirt was the one I was the most excited about. I don't shop at Target enough to know for sure which size I should order but I went with the smallest available, a size 2. It just fits but I think going up a size would have added too much volume as it is pretty full already. It is a mini but of a decent length and would be called a "skirt" at JCrew. I had a precise outfit in mind when I ordered it, with my Milly leather collar top from last year (the pumps are from Zara, I got them in Italy for 22 EU). This top is very fitted so it can be easily tucked in without creating bulk but it also looks good left out covering the skirt waistband which is blue:








I think that for the price it looks quite fetching. However, you should know that it has a horrible exposed industrial zipper in the back (that I forgot to take a picture of). I guess you can't have everything.
I also tried it with the matching sweater, which is the way it was styled on the website. I love the sweater but it can look very pajam-y and needs to be dressed up a little bit (also, this runs a bit small IMO, especially at the neckline). I think the sweater with the skirt it is too much IRL, what do you think?





I have already worn it several times, mostly like this:



The dress was a bit of a (positive) surprise. In my opinion out of the three pieces (if not of the entire collection) it is the most Phillip Lim-esque. I mean that I wouldn't be surprised to see this dress sold on net-a-porter or Shopbop for a much higher price (in another fabric). The print is on a smaller scale, which makes it a bit more sophisticated that its blown-up version. The fabric is a very thin jersey though and because of the body-con cut most will feel very exposed in this one or like they need to wear Spandex. Basically it doesn't hold anything in. On the other side the subtle shirring can help camouflaging some extra pounds in the belly area (but just a little bit).

So this is very simply styled:



Even if I can pull it off I know myself and I know I would never wear it like this in real life, it is simply not a match for my lifestyle. So I tried other ways to style it and bring it down to momland.
I switched my pumps to booties first and then added a belt but it didn't really work:




Then I tried to add a layer for more "coverage". My Rebecca Taylor tweed vest looks good on pretty much everything and also on this dress. However, I have a shoes problem in this case since you MUST wear some kind of heels with the dress and I have no heeled shoes that go with this outfit (ideally, I would need a pair of cream-ish or blue pumps):



I liked it with my military jacket and a neutral belt (I was lazy and didn't change my shoes but this would look much better with a pair of booties in the same color than the belt, that I have somewhere):





I liked it even more with a black open cardigan, belted:





In fact I felt so comfortable in this that I kept this outfit on all the morning around the house.

I hope those of you who have ordered one of these enjoyed the styling session.

What do you think of these items and what's your favorite outfit? I am debating if to keep the three of them or return one. What do you think? Should I return the skirt or the dress?
Please let me know in the comments!