Woven Wanderlust

Harrods Department Store in London

30 for 30 Remix

Since I am cleaning out my closet as I type this, I’ve decided to attempt Kendi’s 30 for 30 remix challenge.

It comes at a perfect time because I’ve decided not to buy clothes for the month of June (ignore the fact that I already cheated— Anthropologie had a sale yesterday and I nabbed a freaking Tracy Reese jersey dress for $23). I’m adjusting my budget for July to compensate— but anyway, yes. I’m totally going to do it! I might wait to start until next week when Rob gets back from London so I have someone to photograph for me.

If anyone else wants to do the remix with me, reblog and let’s do this shit.

Sway 

So, I took myself shopping yesterday because I tend to use shopping as a coping mechanism for emotional turmoil. Anyway, I think I’ve found my new favorite clothing store in San Francisco. Sway embodies a more dainty Urban Outfitters aesthetic but sells everything at half the price of UO. I don’t think a single item in that store was over $40. I bought a whole bunch of sleeved blouses for work (most of my tops are either long-sleeve or tank tops) and for my upcoming weekend trip. Each top was around $25-30 and looks like it could be from Anthropologie. The ladies who work there were also super nice to boot, and I love an organized store. Urban Outfitters always looks like a stampede rushed through it. 

My final notes on Sway to more accurately describe the clothing style: if Tumblr had a store. A lot of the shirts and dresses I saw there looked like the things bony girls in Tumblr “fashion-y” photographs tend to wear. So there’s that…

Also just to plug, they just recently (like this weekend) launched their web-site and it currently has FREE SHIPPING. Sway Chic.

Matthew Williamson for Macy’s

Went to Union Square today with my mommy (she’s in town) and peeked at the Matthew Williamson for Macy’s collection. To be honest, I wasn’t really that impressed… some of the items were okay, but I wasn’t in love with anything. His collection for H&M a few years ago was 10x better. That said, I still loved this window display.

Potrero Hill Pretty!

Yay, the weather is FINALLY warming up again which means sundress season is back on! I decided to take advantage of my work-from-home day, get pretty (I have a hair appointment later at Oxenrose), and go cafe hopping around the city. This picture was taken in Potrero Hill, and I’m wearing a dress I got on sale for $7 at Forever21 plus a ruffled vest by Kensie.

Bikinis

They run the gamut of being $10-20 a piece OR over $100. Seriously, what the fuck? 

5 More Days

Until my shopping restriction is over and I will hit the Asos petite sale section with reckless abandon! 

Actually, I might not. Restricting myself from buying clothes for the past two months has allowed my shopping/style philosophy to evolve even further. Before, if I saw something on sale that looked like something I might wear once, I just went ahead and bought it because of the deal. Having not bought clothes for two months has allowed these fleeting trends/desires to pass by. There are some things I wanted in January which I still want today and those are the things I am going to invest in. 

Instead of buying a lot of cheap sale crap from Urban Outfitters all the time, I am going to save that money to buy a nicer ‘investment’ piece instead of a throw-away. I’m thinking the first matter of business will be a bright trench for spring, perhaps from Kate Spade? 

I had gone through my closet and only cleaned out less than 10 items to give away. I want to go back and be much more thorough. I want to give my closet a makeover, and infuse it with riskier, bold, high quality items. I wish I had documented my clothing collection over the years as I realized when I was 18 I mostly only wore t-shirts and now the only t-shirts in my closet are the ones I wear to sleep or work-out in. 

Also, since losing weight some of my clothes are starting to fit looser. This actually makes me sad because back in January I bought the PERFECT fitting pair of Madewell jeans in a size 2. They were perfection, I tell you! Hugging every curve without squeezing, and oh so flattering… I wish my hips could stay the same width just so those jeans would stay with me snugly. I also bought a pair UK size 4 high-waisted paper-bag pants from Asos in January which were already a bit loose and now are… even looser. I haven’t even gotten a chance to wear them because of the weather, le sigh! Definitely not buying any more pants until I hit my goal weight— just in case. 

A Colorful Closet

This is a picture of my very full and bursting closet. I definitely wear a lot of bright colors and it shows! Sadly, this is only about 1/2 of my clothes— I also own a clothing rack for dresses, jackets, and pants. Then there’s all the stuff back in Texas… I definitely have a problem.

I told myself that before I buy new clothes (and I haven’t since January 14th, whoo!) I will give away or sell some of my old stuff I don’t really wear. After going through everything all I ended up with to get rid of is the tiny pile on the yellow table. Sadly, this includes an awesome pair of high-waisted army trousers from Zara which are now too big for me. They’re a size 2, so if anyone’s interested… 

JewelMint: A Review

If you follow celebrity style, you’re probably well aware that actress Kate Bosworth recently launched her own jewelry line with friend and stylist Cher Coulter. I recently got a coupon to spend $25 on $60 worth of jewelry from their collection, JewelMint. I think Kate is the queen of casual, accessible style and it was a pretty good deal so I decided to check it out.

The Website is visually pleasing, well designed for the most part. Sleek, modern, very web 2.0. They use a lot of black and dark backgrounds, probably to give the products a more jewel/gem-like appearance (I learned this last year when I designed a website for my fictional cosmetics company). You take a style quiz, highlighting preferences on outfits, accessories, and inspirations and JewelMint categorizes you into a style type and suggests pieces to you based on that (stereo)type.

Here’s where the process starts to fall apart. If I’m buying jewelry, or buying anything, I want to see all my options. The website makes it incredibly difficult to do this. I like the idea of categorization based on style but if I’m deemed ‘sophisticated’, is that all I’m allowed to purchase? You have to do some extra digging to view all the other options. At their price point, shoppers should feel comfortable experimenting and jump out of their comfort zone. Kate and Cher should see this is a business opportunity.

For me, the #1 jewelry piece they recommended I did not like. The style was okay, but it was a short necklace and I only like long necklaces. I ended up purchasing a bracelet which was recommended to me, and then a necklace which wasn’t and is probably the opposite of my usual style. At $25 for two pieces, I mean, why not?

Pricing on my deal was pretty phenomenal, but even without the coupon the prices are good. In Lucky Magazine, Kate said that they started JewelMint because they felt that jewelry was either really cheap or really high-end and there was nothing in between. Something nice enough to wear to work but not too nice for everyday, etc… I think they were successful in that regard and you can kind of consider JewelMint to be like the H&M of jewelry. You can find some stuff that looks way more expensive than it actually is, but you can also find stuff that looks obviously cheap. The way the site normally works is you pay a monthly membership fee of $30 (this goes towards your purchases), and all items are priced at $30. If you are not a member and do a guest check-out you would have to pay the full retail price which varies from $60-100.

Quality and presentation  are a mixed bag. JewelMint appears to have put a lot of effort into the packaging, probably because they are a new company and first appearances are important. My jewelry came in cute branded boxes and velvet bags. It included a little card from Kate & Cher, which reminded me of the little cards that Gilt Groupe sends with your purchases but the paper and printing was of a much lower quality. Still, the effort was there. However, I would rather save money on packaging and receive the jewelry in plastic bags and put that money towards better materials. 

My H&M analogy fits perfectly for the two pieces I got. The metal bracelet looks stunning and high quality, and was originally retailed on their price at $100. I got it for $12.50. I consider this a win. My only complaint with this piece is that it is a little noisy so I wouldn’t really wear it to work but it could be cute for a shopping/lunch date with girl friends. The necklace falls on the other end of the analogy. I ordered the ‘bullet’ necklace because in the picture it looked like alternating opaque gold/black bullet things. It seemed edgy and cool. I was kind of disappointed to see gold opaque bullets alternating with cheap, transparent plastic ones. There is no way this piece could retail for $100, which it was listed as. However, there was some weight to the piece which made it feel a little less cheap and strangely enough when I put it on over clothes it actually did look good. I think the trick with this piece is that it only looks good with clothes of equal value. It’s not gonna look good with high end pieces because it looks out of place and cheap, and it’s a little too out there to wear with jeans and a t-shirt. However, an H&M drapey top you bought for $25 and plan to wear out to bars/clubs plus black skinny jeans? Just about right. 

To sum it all up, with JewelMint you get what you paid for and that can either be bad or good. Life is about surprises, right? This is not too expensive of an investment to try out and the pieces, from what I saw on the website, are all pretty unique and statement pieces rather than generic staples. 

Jewelmint.com

Fish Mug

I bought this mug off of Amazon last week because the company coffee mugs just keep disappearing and dwindling in number. Now I have my own and it has the most random ass fish bone pattern all over it and came with a little bear (the main reason I bought it, to be honest). That little guy now sits with my little robot family at the base of my monitor.