OOTD (Spring Is In The Air)

Good morning everybody, I hope that you had a great President's Day weekend. I came back from Miami last night very late and I am still under the effect of a very enjoyable if not exactly relaxing vacation. We had gorgeous weather the whole time, definitively too hot for merino (Dominique, you were right!) or even anything with sleeves during the day (at least until Monday, then it got a little bit more windy thus chillier in the shadow but we are still talking high 70s).
I was impressed by the service and overall beauty of the hotel but the downside was that we were very far from South Beach (like 35-45 minutes by car) so we got a little bit lazy and we didn't se as much as I would have liked to (the taxi ride was very expensive, even if the hotel had a free shuttle) and we only went one night for dinner (quite a disaster because my friend's kids were jet-lagged and sleepy and we ended up in a very touristy place where they charged us $150 for three heated-up pizzas. In fact eating out with three kids turned out to be more challenging than I thought and the culinary highlight of the trip was when we had dinner at a local Cuban restaurant called Little Havana, that was good but in the middle of nowhere) and yesterday, when we spent the whole morning strolling up and down Lincoln Road (where my italian friend spent a euro-fortune but not at JCrew). On the other side the pool and the beach at the hotel were awesome, it wasn't like being in a city at all, and I would go back in a minute. This is one of the few pictures that we took at the hotel (you are going to recognize the fanfare swimsuit, which was perfect for the hotel and Miami. I wear a size 4 in JCrew swimsuits):

Luckily for me it isn't too cold in NY, in fact we expect temperatures as high as 58 degrees today and 60 tomorrow, so the transition isn't that bad and I can actually make the vacation mood last by wearing a spring-y outfit:

Isn't it a great spring shirt? I rarely buy this kind of shirt but the colors were too good to pass, they put me in a good mood. I also like the fit a lot, very long and tailored so that I can both tuck it in and untuck it (in fact I amabig tucker-in but in this case I prefer it untucked). The best of all is the price, only $29 at Joe Fresh and it is a very nice Oxford cotton (it should still be in the stores if you are in NYC). When it is warmer I plan to wear it alone or with a blazer, like the schoolboy summer stripe from last year:

Now, can you believe that this blazer popped back last week during the 30% off promo and I just received it, in perfect condition? I jumped on it since I tried to buy it on sale with no success last summer. It was only $48 so I decided that it was worth to pay the shipping instead of trying to figure out what else to add to the order and risk that it would fly off my cart. So never lose hope on something that is soldout because they always come back, that's how JCrew keep our interest alive! OK, gotta go now. I promise that the Luccas review is coming up next.

The Comeback of the Maritime Dress And Some Flowers

A while ago I read on some blog that the factory stores had a factory version of the Maritime dress in the sail blue color. Some of you will remember that I had ordered the Maritime as soon as it came out last year but I decided to return it for various reasons. Then I regretted not reordering it in a XXS but it sold-out quickly and never popped back.
So I patiently waited for the dress to show up on the factory website but it didn't and last week I decided to call around and have it sent from a factory store so that I could get it in time for my trip to Miami.
It arrived the day after I placed the order and I was pleasantly surprised. The main issue with the retail version was the weight: it was just too heavy for our summer. Because it's a dress to wear barelegs, I couldn't see myself wearing something long-sleeved and heavy when it's warm enough to go around without stockings.

The factory version is lighter and less sweatshirt-y, it is a very soft cotton compared to the retail one. Besides this, the dress is the exact replica of the Maritime, from the quite shapeless fit (this is the XS) down to the zippers on the side in a contrasting color:

The zippers are a little bit of an issue: because the material is less stiff it is also less suited to support heavy zippers, that stick out more than in the retail version. 

The price a week ago in stores was $52.50 (it retails for $74.50 but there was a promo) and it is probably less now. All in all I think that it is more comfy than the retail version and a little bit less stylish (or maybe it is just that something from a year ago lacks the wow factor or the freshness that it had when it first came out).

The right pair of shoes certainly help to make it more stylish. In the pictures above I was wearing it very casually with my boat shoes (to be honest I still feel a bit weird wearing these shoes. I feel like I went in a coma sometimes in the 80s and then I woke up 30 years later with the same shoes that I was wearing back then. Which reminds me of the book "Girlfriend in a coma" by Douglas Copeland that I read many years ago and left a long-lasting impression on me. Anybody read this?) but it certainly looks better with platforms, especially these in a similar shade of blue (they are a little bit lighter IRL):

Speaking of same shade of blue, I found this blue bag at Zara for $29. I was looking for a bag that could easily transform from carry on to pool bag and beyond. The fact that it's cheap and made of polyhuretan (aka plastic) instead of leather was a plus in this case because I don't want to worry about it getting scratched in the plane or at the pool (I vaguely contemplated ordering the Tillary in the sea blue but it is definitively too high maintenance for me, not to mention too heavy). This one is just perfect (althought I would have appreciated a zipper inside) and the color is TDF:

Now, with the excuse of Miami I also bought the Ashbury floral perfect shirt on sale. I didn't really like the print when it came out, it was a little bit too loud, especially in the dress, but all of a sudden it hit me that the shirt would look great with my green toothpicks. I am wearing a size 0 and I find it a smidge roomier than, say, the Casbah print from the summer. I am a big fan of the silk/cotton blend in the perfect shirts because they are more wearable in the warm months:

The darker green is the same green as the warm jade of the cafe capris and the N.2 pencil skirt but it has so many colors in it that you can wear it with just about anything. Look, it looks great even with the Lollis because there is a little bit of the same pink:

OK, time to go now. I still have a review of the Lucca sandals in heritage green to show you but I need to get a pedi first!

Do you have the factory Maritime dress or the Ashbury floral perfect shirt? Please share!

OOTD (Happy Valentine's Day!)

I am probably going to surprise you but I am NOT wearing my heart throb shirt today. Too easy. No, I am kidding, it's because it's cold, my throat is sore and I don't feel like wearing a silk shirt. This is my Valentine's OOTD:

I don't know if you can see in the picture above but the scarf has a heart print. It was a gift from a friend who used to live in NYC and lives now in London, she put it in my husband's suitcase the last time that he went to London for work and visited them. Anyway, you can see the print better below (it gets bigger towards the end of the scarf). It is super-cute and because it's gray it manages to be wearable beyond Valentine's Day but I have to admit that I had saved it for today.

I am going to take my daughter to a Valentine's Day dance party, so I am going to add a fun accessory:

UPDATE:
The Valentine's party had a dress code of dresses or skirts for women, so I changed and did wear my heart throb shirt after all, with my Gap pleated skirt and the bright papaya cashmere cardigan (plus cute orange bow flats, not pictured):

My husband is already in Miami so this is going to be it, as far as celebrations go. We wanted to have a pre-Valentine's dinner on Sunday (at home) but he was half sick and I wasn't feeling well either. I did bake my favorite chocolate cake though and we listened to our Valentine's Day playlist. Speaking of Valentine's songs, I want to share my favorite love songs:

1) "I will possess your heart" by Death Cab for Cuties
2) "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
3) "Playground love" by Air
4) "If you leave me now" by Chicago
5) "Your ex lover is dead" by Star

I give "I will possess your heart" the top position because it is a song where music and lyrics are incredibly cohesive. It is basically a guy whos says to his love interest if you give me some time you will fall in love with me at the end and that's exactly what the music does to the listener, if you listen long enough it is very rewarding (warning: it's not for everyone, the first 5 minutes are purely instrumental and you have to like rock music).

Are you wearing hearts today? What's your favorite love song? Please share in the comments and happy Valentine's day everyone!

Miami, Here I Come

Funny how things can change in few days. If you read this post, you will remember that I was having the winter blues and I was complaining that my next "warm weather" vacation was months away. Well, no more! My husband is going to Miami for work next week and we are going to join him for President's Day weekend. This is something that we had discussed months ago (since it is a business trip that was scheduled almost a year in advance) but had decided to hold off on for various reasons.  These reasons have become less impeding now and for one of those fortuitous coincidences that happen sometimes in life, my best friend from Italy is going to be in Miami that weekend with her husband and kids, so as soon as I learned this I decided that I had to go. Ater spending almost two days on the Internet I found two tickets on a direct flight for me and my daughter that won't break the bank account (you would think that there is a NYC-Miami flight every hour or less but they were all full or selling for an exorbitant price). The first day we are going to stay at the hotel where my husband is staying for work (a golf resort but not on the beach) and then we are going to move to the hotel where my friend and her family are, on the beach. My friend's daughter is six months younger than my daughter and they played together this summer when I was at my parents so it will be fun for her too (the thought that in the end my daughter is better home than anywhere else is always a reason that discourages me from embarking on this kind of trips). The best thing is that due to the mild winter this year, the temperature in Miami is around 80 degrees, which is a bit unseasonal I believe (I made a stopover at the Miami airport last year when we went to Bahamas and it was definitively in the 60s). I am very excited, not only because a vacation is always an exciting perspective but because (quite incredibly) I have never been to Miami, even if my husband goes there at least once every two months.
Now, I understand that Miami is a big US city where people work and have a normal life and don't necessarely go to the beach and sip cocktails all day long but for me is enough of an exotic destination (they have palm trees there, right?) to make me switch into tropical vacation mode. Not to mention that for us Italian people Miami will always be remembered as the city where Versace used to live in an over-the-top villa and was shot to death. Exotic enough, as I said. So, I am putting together a tropical vacation wardrobe for this trip, with the help of our friend JCrew but especially my friend Lilly Pulitzer, which has become my number one store to go when shopping for a warm weather vacation. I am assuming it will be warm enough to lounge around the pool during the day and maybe a bit chilly when the sun goes down in the evening (if you live in Miami, please let me know if I am wrong).

A few days ago I found the perfect dress for this vacation, a Lilly sweater dress (100% merino) in a beautiful print and gorgeous green color. It is on sale in stores and still full price online (if you are interested it's called "pipster dress"). It also comes in navy (the print is a bit different) and pink. Wearing a size S, as Lilly dresses tend to run small (and short):

I plan to wear it with flats or low-heels during the day if it's not too hot but I can easily dress it up for the evening with a pair of high heels and maybe a belt:

A quick note about the strappy sandals that I am wearing with the dress. They are Talbots from the past summer collection and they are currently $27 on the Outlet site, which is more or less the price that I paid (only a size 9 is available but they might popback, you can buy them here.) They seem very comfortable to wear for a stiletto-heel (they are a little bit padded) and they run TTS (unlike other Talbots shoes that run fairly big IMO). They look definitively much more expensive than $30 or even the price they originally retailed for.

Back to my vacation, I have a dress that simply has to come to Miami with me even if I am not sure that I am going to wear it with daughter-in-toe (after all it's a family trip and I am not going to party but it's an easy dress to throw in the suitcase in case and it screams "Miami" to me). Some of you will remember it as I had posted pictures when I bought it last spring (I then returned it and rebought it for cheaper at the end of the season). It's Lilly again and this style is called Whitaker, but it's the print that makes it so special (this is a XS):

For the day I am relying on some old and new JCrew. I am going to take my Trastevere shorts, a pair of white demin bermudas and a few tops that coordinate well together, like the pintuck V-neck tee in spermint that I picked up in store during the 40% off sale for around $8 (this one runs big, I am wearing a XXS):

I love them with the caprese tunic, that can double as cover-up (I really like this tunic, I am kicking myself for not getting the blue stone one too, as this one is too sheer for the city). Sorry for the wrinkles, clearly needs some ironing before I put it in the suitcase:

Also as cover-up, I also going to take one of the two Boden tunics that you have seen in this post (I ended up keeping both, for the price) and the H&M striped dress. As for long pants options I am going to take my green garment-dyed toothpick, to wear with a white shirt (that I can also wear with the shorts) or a printed tee as seen here:

They can also double as "going-out" pants with a sparkly top. For the chilly moments, I am going to take my cashmere zip-front hoodie, the Nolita jeans jacket and a half-zip fleece by Lilly. I have been looking for a decent fleece that desn't make me look like I am going to the gym forever and when this one showed up during the recent 2-day sale I jumped on it. The ruffle makes it a little less casual than your regular fleece (it is micro-fleece), the blue is to die for and the XS fits perfectly. It does even have a cute printed cotton trim around the zipper and at the cuffs and the best part is that I bought the same for my daughter, so we are going to play mommy and me (I am probably going to wear this on the flight):

I am not planning to take any jacket besides the Nolita (that I don't have yet but I plan to get sooner than later; it was on my wishlist anyway). What do you think? Should I take a jacket and if yes what kind of jacket? A windbreaker/raincoat?
If you think of something that I should absolutely think of taking, please let me know (especially if you live in Miami or Florida!) Of course I am taking my swimsuit collection and probably even add to it something in the fanfare print. I still have more than a week to get ready and I am going to place an order at Jcrew for the Nolita and the Lucca sandals in heritage green to try on and see IRL (they look exactly the same green than the first Lilly dress that I showed you, but you never know with JCrew) so I can throw something in if needed. The question that I have for you is: boat shoes or not? I am tempted to bring the pink Sperry that I bought on clearance but do people really wear boat shoes in real life? Have you seen someone wearing them?

Have a good end of your week!

OOTD: Superbowl Version

Those who didn't watch the Superbowl yesterday raise their hands. My husband's boss hosted a Superbowl party at his (multi-million dollar) penthouse in Tribeca and we went with our daughter since there were other kids. I was sure that everybody would be very casual but my husband insisted that I don't wear jeans. Of course everybody was wearing jeans except me but it was OK as it was still a pretty casual outfit. I wore a pair of navy Minnie-like pants by Theory and the Cashmere zip-front hoodie in heather dusk. I have worn this hoodie non-stop since buying it a few weeks ago. It is still full price, so quite the investment, but I decided that I didn't want to wait for it to go on sale and miss on it, especially since the heather dusk color is a store-only color and there aren't tons of them around (only few stores carry it). I didn't take a pic of my outfit before leaving yesterday and I could't take it a posteriori (you will understand why at the end of this post) but I have pics of another OOTD featuring this sweater and the toothpick cords in snow thistle that I didn't get around to post. I am wearing my usual XS in the sweater and a 27 in the cords (I am usually a 26 but my champagne ones from last year are also a 27, I prefer them to be not too tight in the lighter colors):

So we had a very good time until pretty much the very last minute of the game, after the Giants had already marked their winning touchdown. At that point my daughter, who was sort of sleeping against me on the couch in the family room where we were watching the game started to cough and choke and ended up throwing up FOUNTAIN-LIKE on the multi-million dollar couch (and on my Theory pants, incidentally). Embarassment can't even start to describe how I felt. Of course the hosts were very gracious about it but I still felt a bad mom for not seeing it coming and taking her quickly to the bathroom that was only steps away. Of course I didn't have a change with me even if before leaving it crossed my mind that I should take an extra bottom, just in case (I was thinking pee, not vomit). Luckily her tights, unlike the skirt, were somehow saved (they only got a little bit of uhm... solid stuff, that I could take out without soaking them in water), so she could put them back to go home (her puffer was long enough to partially cover her butt).
Now, it was cold, she was clearly sick and half naked so we started to look for a cab. We found out that Superbowl night, especially if the NYC team is one of the teams playing, is pretty much like New Year's Eve: impossible to find a cab. We were close to a subway station so instead of waiting in the cold we decided to get on a train headed Uptown (West Side) and take a cab from there to cross the park. That's how we run into Dr. Drew, who was also on the train with his daughter. Apparently he couldn't find a cab either. Because of the Giants victory there was a very festive athmosphere in the train and people started to ask him if he was Dr. Drew from the show. In New York you don't see very often people starstruck, we are kind of used to see celebrities and even if we are we feign indifference. But not yesterday night. He was a real good sport about it and started to talk to strangers and to be photographied with passengers. He is also quite the handsome man, very tall and young-looking for his age.
It was a fun ride and when we got off the train and had to take the bus instead of a cab I didn't even mind (the bus ride was also fun). However, I hope for the sake of my husband's career that the couch won't bear forever signs of the accident.

How was your Superbowl night?

OOTD: Yellow Against Winter Depression (The Lucinda in Spice Gold)

I am suffering a bit from winter depression, as every year in January, with the difference that usually around the end of the month or beginning of February we take a week of vacation and go to a warm place, while this year we had to postpone to spring break. So no warm sun and sand in view for me for a while, and end of March seems so far. To fight the January bleakness I like to wear yellow in all its variations and especially that mustard-y yellow that Jcrew does so well. I finally got my hands on the Lucinda blouse in spice gold, that was high on my wishlist when it came out but then slipped throught the cracks of final sale. It was one of those things that I regretted not buying full price: it got marked down when I wasn't paying attention and then I was never able to catch a popback in my size (a 0 or 00). I capitulated to final sale last week when a 0P became available. I usually don't order petite sizes, but I had read that this shirt (that I had never tried on) runs big so I figured that a 0P would be the equivalent of a 00 regular. It arrived on Monday and the color was exactly what I had hoped for. The 0P fits perfectly, which makes me think that a regular size in this one would have been too big. This blouse has very feminine shape and details and sizing down is better than sizing up IMO as it isn't meant to have a relaxed fit. For example, it is not the kind of blouse that you can wear with the sleeves rolled-up, like the Blythe. I was mostly afraid that it would be too short in a petite but it isn't (strangely) and it stays tucked in with no fussying around (I hate when my blouses don't want to stay tucked in). I tried it with my glen plaid pencil skirt yesterday but I didn't feel like wearing a skirt in the end and I decided to change into jeans. However, I took many picture with the skirt to show you the blouse:

This is to show you the length:

I loved it with my matchsticks and matching cashmere sweater from two years ago:

I have to say that by the end of the day it was a hot mess (and it wasn't a long day!), all wrinkled and even stained in several spots in the front but this morning I woke up and decided that I wanted to wear my Sunnie pencil skirt, which has the exact same color base, so even if I had put it in the dry-cleaning bin I took it out to see if I could do something about it and wear it again with the skirt. I also have the argyle bracelet in the same color that I bought to wear with the skirt:

Hey, I even have a pair of mustard-y stockings that I found at H&M at the beginning of the season. As my daughter eloquently said this morning this color is "yucky" and is more orange-y than I thought, but they were very cheap and don't look that weird with the skirt:

I had to find something to cover part of the shirt and I decided to go with the fisherman cable that didn't get a lot of wear this winter:

What's your formula to fight winter depression?

OK, It's Adorable But Is It for Grown-Ups (Styling the Hearthrob Shirt)?

Good morning, I hope you all had a relaxing and fun weekend. Mine was pretty busy: we invited friends over for dinner on Saturday night and yesterday we went to Chinatown for the New Year's Parade. I also got to watch a very good movie yesterday night, that I highly recommend if you haven't seen yet: 50/50 with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the always funny Seth Rogers (the movie manages to be very funny, thanks to Seth and a very good script, all while dealing with a heavy topic like cancer threatening to take a young life). I think that Joseph Gordon-Hewitt is the new Gregory Peck, don't you agree? Anyway, as you know I fell for the heart throb shirt and I got to wear it Saturday night. I wanted to post pics of my outfit and a few styling ideas for this shirt because, as many of you, when I saw it for the first time in the catalog I thought that being over 40 I would never wear a shirt with little hearts on it. It turns out that in real life the print is more sophisticated than cheesy, if a bit quirky, so my answer to the question "Is this shirt for grown-ups?" is "Yes, if you don't wear it on Valentine's Day". No, seriously, you can even wear it on Valentine's Day, I am just jalous because my husband will be travelling that week and I will get to spend Valentine's Day alone. I will live vicariously through my daughter and probably throw a party for her friends. By the way, my daughter told me recently that she is "falling in love" with a girl in her classroom and I thought it was very cute (she said it with a daydream expression). I remember "being in love" with a girlfriend at her age, so I am not worried ;-). To go back to the shirt, first I would like to point out that the background is black and not navy. I am 100% positive about it because I tried it with a lot of black items and it blended seamlessy. It could be a navy so dark that it reads black but in this case call it navy would be a sophism. Because of the black background, it is easier to style it for the evening than for daywear. The black and red combo can read a little bit custom-y, especially in the daylight, so I will start with a few evening outfits. The easiest way to style this shirt is, quite obviously, to pair it with a black bottom. You can give in its intrinsic romantism (please forgive me if I like to throw big philosophical words at you this morning. I know it's a Monday and you probably you needed a double dose of coffee to make it through your morning but I can't help myself) and pair it with a feminine skirt, like this pleated skirt with self-tie from the Gap (that I wish was 2 inches longer):

For a more sophisticated look, you can try it with a maxi-skirt. This is a cotton jersey one from Joe Fresh, it is inexpensive ($24) and will be a staple of my summer. The fabric is doubled (I mean that the skirt is made of two layers of jersey), so it isn't sheer (genious!) and it is substantial enough to be worn year-round:

The skirt itself is pretty casual, so I added an embellished elastic belt to make the ensemble more elegant:

Saturday night I wore it with my Curator pants, which are THE ultimate dressy pants IMO. I had my hair pulled in a side ponytail (by the way how gorgeous Diane Lane looked in her one-shoulder blue dress and a ponytail at the SAG awards? Am I the only addicted to awards?) and it added (in a positive way) to the quirky-ness of the shirt. I felt a bit Amelie Poulaine. I took a pic before my friends arrived buy it came out blurry. These were taken earlier in the afternoon and before the pony-tail:

By the way, the first thing that my friend (who is almost 50) did when I opened the door was telling me how much she liked the shirt. I wore my orang-y flats (that you can vaguely see in the pic above) more because of comfort issues than for styling but they turned out to be perfect with the outfit and that gave me some ideas. In fact a bright coral like the bright papaya is the perfect color to wear with this shirt instead of black. It doesn't work very well with a real red IMO, like the maraschino cherry (here with the cafe trousers), it is more of a washed-out red:

But my bright papaya cashmere cardigan from HO09 is perfection and it makes it more suitable for the day:

The other option for daywear is to pair it with a bottom in the tones of gold, olive or camel. Here are a few ideas (and the last two are office-appropriate, I think):

OK, so what do you think? Do you think it is for grown-ups or it is still not for you? Please share! By the way, I don't want to convince anybody to buy this shirt, after all I don't work for JCrew and you are free to think that it is childish and people who are not in their 20s and wear it are regressive. I just wanted to show you that it does work for me and I think I am going to wear it a lot beyond Valentine's day. On another note, have you seen 50/50?