Hell No, You Won't Go

My 'Hanging On To Summer' campaign, also known as the 'Summer 2009, You Owe Us Big and You're Not Going Anywhere' campaign, is in full swing. This $12 shirt is the logical next step. You can just feel the warm sun on your back, can't you?

Comes in other colors, for the non-colorphobic.

Lofty Goals

I used to work across the street from an Ann Taylor Loft. Maybe I should rephrase that as "I used to live in an Ann Taylor Loft and had a short commute to my office across the street." I mean, they asked after me if I hadn't been in recently. Recently that week. Ironically, I don't especially love their stuff, on the whole. It has a bit of a matronly feel to it, a little stodgy, a bit Simsbury. But I worked as part of a virtual team and saw no one all day and had nothing else to do for lunch, and the prices were good, and ...


And so I like to think I refined my shopping skills. Finding a funky piece at a good price in a store like that is a real challenge. And the luckier chicks are all about challenges. And yummy snacks. I have a great corduroy East Parking Lot coat from there - and you'd never know it. So they have a sale on now and there are all kinds of cute bargains to find:

Check out this halter. While there is a pattern to it, it is conspicuously lacking in color (ok, you could get it in green). $15 bucks!

And these shoes - especially in the black with the contrasting cork sole, for $20 (buy another, get it half off). Add another pair in gold or silver and you've got a shirt, and two pair of shoes for $45! Round it up to an even $50 by buying some yummy snacks.

Why So Sad?

Oh, young model with the hair color that I plan to adopt this fall because the bright red was just too unstable, why do you look so glum? You are wearing a lovely tank that's only 20 bucks. Perhaps you mistook the color 'wine' for 'whine'. Perhaps you noticed that the pictures of this tank in other colors were much more flattering. Regardless, you could really use a cupcake.

Shopping is next to Godliness

I've noticed that we never really blog about H&M here, which is odd, because it's pretty much a mecca in our world. Seriously, I face the one on 5th Ave when I pray. I think it's because their site isn't so conducive to online shopping, requiring us to actually go to the store and do primary research as opposed to the passive, secondary, internet-surfing kind we prefer.

But please, don't underestimate my undying love for H&M. (If you're still skeptical, I can send you my 50-page thesis on the company. No, seriously.) Their web site does have this cute little "Dressing Room" function that lets you "try on" their clothes with a virtual model. (You can upload a picture and enter your measurements and they will adjust your virtual model to look more like you, but I am fearful of what the result would look like and will instead stick with the generic chick.)

Anyway, my virtual model has excellent taste and picked this very cute tube dress, which hm.com tells me is $5.90! So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my house of worship. I have some shopping to do.

Made it work

I just got this fab Kara Janx (Project Runway, Season II) halter kimono dress for $30! It all happened this weekend, when I was at a super-exclusive sample sale in Ms. Janx's apartment, as that is how I roll. I will admit that $30 is the deal of a century, even at a sample sale, so some divine intervention must have been involved in addition to my usual shopping savvy. And it took a lot of willpower to pass up all of her other adorable dresses and tops, which were marked down but still might have resulted in my inability to purchase food for the week. Truly, she did not get a chance to shine on PR, because all of her stuff is just amazing. And she is so, so nice. And my life would be complete if the temperature would stop hovering around 60 so that I could actually wear it.