Two Dinners, One Dress

This weekend was a lazy one for me clothing wise in that I wore the same dress to two different dinners on the weekend. Sydney is cold, bitterly cold, so I needed to be warm. My tummy is sore, awfully sore, so I needed to be comfortable. Whilst this would ordinarily mean baggy trackie daks and a hot water bottle, I suspected that neither dinner venue would be likely to work with me on this. Therefore, my Fleur Wood woollen dress that I first blogged about here was voted as "Outfit Most Likely" for each dinner as it is warm, comfy around the tummy area and a tad more glam then my afore-mentioned outfit preference!

For Friday night, I paired my dress with a braided chocolate belt I bought on a trip to Melbourne a few years ago and my chocolate knee-high boots from Giallo.

For Saturday night, I teamed my dress with a shearling collar from County Road following some style inspiration from KittyCate's blog here, a black Mogil leather tie belt that I have owned for years and black riding boots from Duo in the UK.

On this note,  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Duo boots as they have so many different widths available that even I can find boots that perfectly fit my calves. Considering that I have reverse cankles (where my calves are so skinny they are practically the same width as my ankles and most boots make me look like I am wearing gumboots), this brand has been a blessing. Especially now that the Aussie dollar is so strong. Bingo.

Shopping in shops? You can't be serious!

Sometimes I just need a good old-fashioned shopping trip. Like in actual shops, where instant gratification means a shopping bag by my side and not shopping cart on a website, where I am wondering around on my own two feet and not planted in front of an electrical appliance with a wifi connection letting my fingers do the walking. Today was one of those days and luckily for me, I had a day off from The Office in which to indulge this old past-time. I decided that I wanted a boutique experience rather then a big-supa-mega-mall experience so headed for the Mosman shopping strip on the Lower North Shore in Sydney. It is a nice walk from home, far enough away to justify an iced chocolate to replenish my strength when I get there, short enough that I don't need to get decked out in my power walking ensemble and flat enough that I don't work up a big sweat climbing any hills. It was ticking a lot of boxes even before I left home.

Once there I went straight into one of my favourite shops, Pink Zebra. It has a fantastic range clothing from lots of my favourite American brands plus a great selection of accessories to peruse too, from scarves to  Kate Spade wallets to books. On my walk I decided that I really needed something in an animal print for my winter wardrobe and low-and-behold, I found it at Pink Zebra within a matter of moments.

A Daisy silk shirt with a double, ruffled collar and long sleeves. It is drawn in at the waist with elastic and is worn billowed out over the top of the elastic whilst the material under creates a ruffle from the waist to my hip. Normally I really struggle with tops in this design, my long torso means the elastic usually ends up being just under my boosies and not lower down on my waist. However, it wasn't a problem with this shirt which fit so well, woo hoo! It is the sort of item I can dress-up with my See by Chloe tuxedo pants and Jimmy Choos to impress at The Office or dress down with any number of pairs of jeans and ballet flats for weekend play. Being silk it will take me through humid summers and just by layering my Metalicus woollen scoop neck top under it, it will take me through winter just as easily. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pink Zebra and my lovely new shirt too.

After my first success, I popped into Country Road to see what was offer in the woollen cardigan department. These cardigans are a staple item in my wardrobe for most of the year, they wear so well and are just so easy to pair with everything else I own. I love the range of colours that they come in each season but decided that due to the amount of wear my black and grey ones have had, it was time to replace tatty with new. Well not only did they have my size in the two colours I wanted, they were also reduced to $59.95 too. Bingo.

After my highly successful day, it is pretty safe to say that right now I am feeling the LOVE, LOVE, LOVE again for the high street retail experience!

My new Jarbo cardigan

Fridays are always great, no matter which way you look at it. They are extra-specially great though when a Shopbop delivery arrives, woo hoo! My latest purchase was a draped Jarbo cardigan in heather grey made with 50% alpaca and 50% acrylic yarn. It was heavily reduced and along with the Aussie dollar doing a fantastically spectacular trade right now, I thought it was just too good a bargain to pass up. When I saw it online, I hoped it would serve as as extra layer to wear over some of my wool Country Road cardigans that are just a little too flimsy to keep out the winter chill on their own or even where I just don't feel like I need or want a woollen jacket or cashmere coat as my top layer. My first impressions were good, I loved the colour and the texture, just like a chunky handknit. I also like the way the cardigan can be worn two ways depending on whether I want a long cardigan or a cropped cardigan. What I am not sure about are the shoulders. The cardigan has been designed to have drop shoulders with a bit of  semi-bat wing action going on but I am not quite sure that it works. I thought about altering it to make the shoulders more narrow and have a more traditional fit but then the sleeves would be far too short to cover these long gangly, Grover-like arms of mine. Instead, I think I will play around with styling it and see what I end up with!

Zara hits Sydney

I must seriously be the only female in Sydney who is not hyperventilating with excitement over the Zara store opening in Pitt Street Mall today. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it as a store, but it is not the sort of brand that gets me all hot and bothered. I feel about Zara the same way I do about Country Road, that it is good for basics and the odd piece every now and again but probably not the first store I would rush into on a big day out of shopping. Perhaps this is because online purchasing has stolen my heart over the last few months, perhaps a holiday in Hawaii last year opened up my eyes to shopping the American way or maybe I just don’t get the whole Zara phenomenon. Even when we lived in the UK with a Zara store down the road, I wasn’t a convert. Other Spanish brands I could get excited about, Mango, Massimo Dutti and Custo, but never Zara. Still, the curious part of me is suggesting a visit may be on the cards once the hype dies down a little, just to see what all of the local fuss is about.

Seems though, that my non-excitment might be shared by a small minority. General Pants in conjunction with everyone’s favourite bad boys of denim Ksubi, launched their new collaboration today called “Sex & Fashion”. A rather risqué front window in Pitt Street mall featuring barely clad models seen through a giant key hole is sure to grab some of the attention away from Zara. Although I might be slightly older then the target demographic of this range (yet the perfect target for Zara just by being a living, breathing female with a penchant for shopping), I did have a good chuckle over the tongue-in-cheek badges General Pants produced especially for this day of big lanuches: “My Mum loves Zara”. Ah, you just gotta love a cheeky slogan