April in Paris

Natch, that'd be a good reason for falling off the grid if I was on holiday the entire month but nope. I was merely overcome by life.

So let's just have a dress-up salute to one of our very favorite cities.

And I just realized it was about 4 years ago when I first met

dear Dani when she was off to Paris. :)



The sweatshirt is the color of sweet butter. It was in Paris where I fell in love with the stuff. Now I have bread as an excuse to eat butter.

 This is the French print popover. I had sworn off popovers ...

unless it's an irresistible print. Oh well.

The ballet flats are to keep the theme but I am definitely swearing off these J.Crew ballet flats, the horrible hurtful things

are all wrong for my feet. Never again.

If I said the color of these trousers was Paris pink would you believe me? It's really iced quartz but in keeping with the theme ...

The girls' tee (size 14) is too young for me but I had to have it.

Fun with these brogue shoes from yoox.

More love for Paris via a linen T-shirt and trying to be

oh so cool with the jacket. Ha.

Tomorrow is May Day and I will be asking an SOS to survive it.

Not only will it be HOT but the low humidity and strong winds make for unfortunate wildfire conditions.

 

Did you know the Mayday distress signal may be derived from the French expression "m'aidez" meaning "help me?"

 

As my friend Wendy (who also loves Paris) says: stay safe out there!





Shoe Shew

It’s not my intent to enable. But if any of you are in *need* of a pair of ankle boots, ballet flats, espadrilles, flip flops, high tops, low tops, moccasins or mules, pumps, sandals or slippers, may I recommend where I’ll likely buy all my shoes for the rest of my life: yoox.com. It’s an Italian online shopping site with offices and operations in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and Hong Kong. yoox.com ships to 100+ countries and offers free shipping on orders of $150+.  


DODO' LE PARISIENNE

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

In addition to fashion, yoox offers home furnishings/accessories, gifts and art but I’m stuck on the shoes. It’s a little sad to expose my shallow soul as almost every pair of shoes I’ve received from the splendid source has made me deliriously happy (such as the purple brogues above or the four pairs below).  

INK
now sold out, sorry!

HUNTER
now sold out, sorry!

GIORGIO ARMANI
now sold out, sorry!

DANIELE ANCARANI
now sold out, sorry!

Most are Italian of delicious leather and lovely workmanship. I haven’t returned much and from a couple experiences, I’d vouch that “returns are fast and easy and customer care is best-in-class.” Though you only have 20 days to make your returns so you can't dither for too long.

PRETTY NANÃ
these are fun



MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA 22
these are weird



JOHN BAKERY

DUCCIO VENTURI BOTTIER



PATRIZIA PEPE
now in size 8 only but only $69 before the discount!

From now until March 31, you get another 10% off on fashion (and that means shoes too!) by using WINTERSPRING10 in the yooxcode box when checking out. Plus, ebates is offering 9% right now for yoox.com!  

MARC JACOBS

I think I can understand how Imelda ended up with all her shoes.

Hangdog

Though I have a dozen brilliant posts written by that
prolific writer who lives only in my head, IRL I am lazy.
Thus, I am resorting to pics from months ago,
when this adorable sad faced puppy won me over.

The baby bulldog sweater was my first and only
ModCloth venture and I don't regret it one little bit.

It was inexpensive, it's 100% cotton and

has a cute critter that makes one smile.

Could use one, working like a dog and a zillion hours last week.

OK not a zillion, but more than 60, including one night morning

when I didn't leave the office until 1 a.m.

Feeling as sick as a dog by then.

Tomorrow, I'll have to be in the office by 6 a.m.

It will be brutal.

I won't be a cheerful early bird.

I will be a grump dog.



For Your Eyes Only

No way would I be seen out in public in this getup. I'm only putting myself out there for you, my bloggy buddies, as another public service.


The ponte peplum top is OK but I'm talking about the girls' everyday leggings in big dipper. IMHO, wearing leggings as pants can be nearly obscene and here I am wearing them as crazy pants. Please know I'm only doing it to work in as many items from the Instant Gratification Sale as possible. Wearing girls' size 14; I'm XXS in women's leggings. They are plenty in the rise, the waistband is just a tad below my natural waist, and they're more than long enough as the hem is rolled three times here. I'm thinking you may see them with a red-and-white striped tunic come next July 4. Just warning ya.


Anyway, I got the leggings mostly to wear for doing housework with a work shirt. IRL, I'd have the sleeves of the selvedge chambray shirt rolled up. Again, the PSA is to show how long the unbuttoned sleeves are on somebody 5'2". For less dorky looks and more details on the shirt, see this post.

Back to the peplum top, think I remember quite a bit of blog love for it. Agree I like the substantial material, I like the fit. I like how the peplum is probably just right. But I don't like how I'll probably never wear it without something over it. Would the peeping peplum be a problem? What would you pair with it instead? While the arm hole is not too low, see how it lifts at the shoulder? With no bra strap holders that would've been a nice touch, I'd constantly fuss with it and drive myself crazy. BTW, the top has a heavy-duty full zip covered by a placket held down with a small hook in the back. It will take some blind luck to hook up or you'll need the help of someone with nimble fingers.

Nope you're not going to see me wearing the silk cami or the stretch suiting tee by themselves in pics or IRL. My favorite thing about the cami is the adjustable straps. The cami is great under sheer tops and as sleepwear for hot nights. As for the suiting tee ... anyone wearing it to work as a standalone top should be sent home, at least if wearing the white or mineral pink. Holy smokes it's extremely close fitting and the knit is sheer. It's fine and silky and feels like lingerie. I'm thinking it's a good layering piece for itchy sweaters or wearing under bare tops like this and this.

OK, I've got to get a move on if I'm ever going to finish ... a review/discussion/IRL of the keeper chambray shirt and faded chambray popover is at this post. More talk about the keeper is here. Next up is the oxford boy shirt in polka dot. It's a white shirt with subtle polka dots. I'll confess I have two of them. I wear it a lot.



Another classic is the merino tippi sweater, it's the sweater version of a basic T-shirt. I like it best with a basic T-shirt. See here.

 

 

It's late and I'm running out of steam, does anyone else do this ... hurry up and finish with a weak ending?

Girls' sequin-pineapple stripe tee and Nolita jacket in white pictured above. The 1035 trouser in superfine cotton chatted and pictured here.

 

I'll come back tomorrow to fill in some details. And show you the 1035 jacket in superfine cotton, classic ballet flats and western denim shirt.

I know, I'm such a tease. :)

--------------------------------

 

I'm back ... and if you didn't notice yesterday, they snuck in a few more items into the Instant Gratification Sale. One was the western denim shirt. I had planned to cover that in my never-ending chambray/denim shirt sMaCkDoWn, but I'll make a few comments now if it helps you one way or another while it's on sale. I know, some don't care for the western details and some worry about the snaps unsnapping too easily for a wardrobe malfunction. Personally, I love them and found the snaps to hold tight. Recall a western denim shirt a couple years ago getting complaints about it being shrunken and too short, that's not the case now. See SU 11 on left and the current one on the right:

Though not quite to the same scale, you can see it's now a darker wash and cut longer and roomier.

Speaking of shirts, here's the stretch perfect shirt. Especially for folks needing special sizing such as petite or tall, this is a great time to get it in basic colors that rarely go to sale. If you're wondering, the boy shirts are cut straighter (as the name implies) and the perfect shirts curve in at the waist along the side seams with vertical darts in the back to further trim the shirt.

I'd not likely have chosen my navy blue 1035 jacket in superfine cotton to wear with the crazy jeans and white shirt but for you, I had to today. It does wrinkle but I love the superfine cotton. The fabric is 100% cotton and woven in such a way you'd swear it contained elastane or spandex. I also love the heavier weight and drape of the material. One thing, because my mother taught me well, I rejected the white jacket since the lapel notches were not symmetrical.

It's now the classic leather ballet flats in a foot race to the finish line, ha! I'd ordered two pairs of the same size and while the admiral blue *seemed* to be the correct fit, the dazzling sun were definitely too big as I stepped out of them with every step. I say the blue seemed to be the right fit but I worry. Here's a tell-tale pic, see how shallow they are? Not much to wrap around your feet.

They do remind me of what I can remember of real ballet slippers from when I took lessons as a little girl. The real ballet slippers fit tightly so they mold to your feet as you dance, the better to point toes or feel the floor. As the leather stretches, the string that ends in the bow can tighten the shoe so it becomes like second skin. Well, the bows on the ballet flats are decorative and thus I worry I'll eventually end up stepping out of the blue ones as well. I'll try some a size down ... we'll see how that goes.

 

P.S. I wiped out at least an hour's stuff, either Blogger crashed or I clicked the wrong button. Think this is the last time I'll try a long and complicated post. Do these zillions of pics take forever to load too?