Smart Shopper

This dress was another purchase from when Sal and Mike were here, and it was also another item on my shopping list: basic sheath dress. It seems my tastes are shifting towards the simple and unfussy lately. This dress is utterly perfect: it has a good amount of stretch to it, the subtle darts at the waist give it shape while still being really flattering, and the asymmetrical pleated ruffle gives it some visual interest while still looking classic. I got this dress for a steal at Jeremy's, a local shop that sells discounted designer clothes. Many of their items are damaged, but this dress is perfect as far as I can tell.

When I got home from work I wore this dress, sans cardigan, to our neighbors' open house. This was no ordinary open house; it's a spectacular Victorian mansion, the gem of the entire neighborhood, and it's listed at $3.8 million. One dresses up for an open house of this caliber. Thankfully I was already dressed, so I waltzed on over and tried to look natural amongst people who actually have $3.8 million to spend on a house.

The next day our neighbor called to thank Mark and I for coming, and also to say how great I looked in my dress. Just as the open house was no ordinary open house, this was no ordinary compliment; when a sophisticated gay man with impeccable taste calls specifically to tell you how great you looked, that's a compliment to treasure up and enjoy for a lifetime. I'd gladly have paid full price for this dress to get a compliment like that, so you can bet I feel like a smart shopper now.

Dress: Escada Sport
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Tights: Wolford
Boots: All Black
Earrings: Wendy Mink
Bracelet: Betsey Johnson

8 Feet Tall

These shoes make me approximately 8 feet tall. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do tower over Mark while wearing them, and that makes me feel like I'm 8 feet tall. I sort of accidentally bought these shoes one day when I went running some errands and stopped into Nordstrom Rack. I say it was accidental because I went in there looking for a duvet cover, but I figured it couldn't hurt to take a look at the shoes, and the next thing you know I find these in my size and I'm trying them on and they look great and they're surprisingly comfortable and they're less than half the original price and... You know how it goes.

They're suede. They're green. They make me 8 feet tall and they feel pretty darn good doing it. There was really no way I was getting out of there without them.

Jacket: thrifted
Tunic: Asos
Pants: Club Monaco
Shoes: Sam Edelman

Restraint

This dress is the last of my Paris purchases, and it has a fun memory to go with it. I'd been out shopping all day and wound up over near the Centre Pompidou, where I stopped at a nearby creperie for a galette and a very large carafe of wine. Feeling warm and merry, I set out towards my hotel and along the way spotted a Promod store that was still open. Tipsy shopping ensued, and I ended up popping into a couple more stores and finding some great gifts in addition to this adorable dress for myself. Surprisingly, while at Promod I limited myself to just this dress and a few basic layering shirts including the one shown here. I tell you this showed remarkable restraint, given how fond I am of Promod and how many other cute, mod style dresses they had on the racks.

A few people commented on these boots when I posted them the other day. They're made by Brako, a Spanish company whose beautiful shoes are designed both for comfort and style. In fact I've made the 3-mile trek to work several times in these already and they're perfect for walking. I found them at a wonderful shoe store here in SF near Union Square, called Nobel Shoes. Brakos seem to be difficult to find this side of the Atlantic even online, so I'm happy to have stumbled upon them in a brick and mortar shop; a shop which incidentally I pass very often on my way to and from work. I expect there may be more Brako shoes in my future.

Dress, shirt: Promod
Boots: Brako
Bracelet, ring: Metal Pointu

Scenes from Strasbourg and Paris

Today I thought I'd share the highlights from my trip to France. I'll keep the text sparse and mostly let the photos speak for themselves.

Strasbourg calls itself the Capitol of Christmas, and boy do they mean it. 

These people take Christmas fucking seriously.

The awesome cathedral in Strasbourg.

This picture is a little blurry, but it gives you some idea to what extent the streets in Strasbourg are decorated for Christmas. 

If you think the exterior decorations are elaborate, try going inside some of these places.

One of the canals in Strasbourg.

Once I got to Paris, I spent my first evening and night just wandering around looking at the Christmas lights and window displays along the Rue Saint-Honoré and the Champs-Elysées.

My hotel was just one block from the Place Vendôme, which made a great starting point for my walk.

Each different area seemed to have its own unique Christmas decorations.

The window displays at John Galliano were absolutely magical.

Christmas lighting along the Champs-Elysées.

 I can't remember which store this was displayed in, but I thought that the shearling jacket, sequin dress 

and suede fedora was such a great combination. I can totally see myself wearing this outfit.

Clearly this was after my first shopping day, and as you can see I didn't waste any time wearing the new leather vest. This outfit was perfect for the cold weather but wasn't too bulky to go shopping in. I added a scarf and gloves when I was outdoors, and brought along a hat, which I put on after the sun went down. Rather than wearing tights I wore my thick ponte knit pants under the dress.

 I just had to take a look at all the beautiful designer clothes at Au Primtemps. 

Item that broke my heart by being out of my budget: a gorgeous little bag from Zadig et Voltaire.

 A beautiful day up at Monmartre. 

A guy was playing Pachelbel's Canon on the harp outside the Sacré Cœur. 

One of those magical Parisian moments.

 Sunset at the Place de la Concorde.

 A view from the Tuileries Gardens.

 The perfect end to my last evening: a nighttime stroll around Notre-Dame.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm back from my trip to Germany and France and have finally recovered fully from the jetlag. I spent a delightful weekend in Paris that w`s cold but mostly sunny, and filled with great food and even better shopping (photographic evidence to come!). Now that I have a little time off I'm hoping to get caught up with my blogging and post some photos from my trip.

In the meantime here's a recent outfit featuring this cute new dress that I found at a shop in on Fillmore Street; it turned out to be the second of two long-sleeved purple dresses I bought that day. Ordinarily I would've avoided buying similar items, but this one is a much lighter weight dress whereas the other is more of a winter weight, and this was so deeply discounted that I couldn't pass it up. You'll be seeing the other purple dress in an upcoming post.

Wishing you a happy holiday season!


Dress: Kew
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde
Boots: All Black

Happy Feet

Here's an outfit that I put together specifically for comfort while walking to work. For the walk I wore my Bastien short boots, and packed the ones you see here (which are comfortable, but not 3 miles' worth of comfortable) in my backpack for swapping once I got to work.

The Bastiens have been getting a lot of wear lately, so much so that I recently went scouring both the internets and the stores in search of some additional walking shoes, because even the best pair can't be worn every day for 3 (or more likely 6, because I often walk home too) miles of walking.

I ended up with a pair of Ecco boots, which have the bonus of being waterproof, and a pair of Romika short boots, which pretty much feel like slippers, only with really good arch support. Both meet my criteria of being cute enough to wear with most outfits during the walk, or even for the whole day if I don't feel like carrying extra shoes. My feet are happy.

Dress: Red Dress Shoppe
Cardigan: H&M
Tights: Sock Dreams
Boots: All Black

Uterqüe

It's time for you to officialy meet my new favourite bag, already seen here and here. Buttery soft cognac leather, big enough to hold both my laptop and DSLR, with the perfect shoulder strap length to carry it around all day.

Bought 50% off a couple of months ago at Uterqüe.

Changes

I really can't decide what's the weirdest in this post. The fact that H&M finally started stocking real leather accessories or that I bought nail polish?

Nevermind if I will actually use it, but still.

People and brands alike should try new things once in a while.

Accessorize for summer

Last year's. One of my now traditional lets-pop-into-the-airport-Accessorize-shop-and-try-not-to-miss-our-flight buys.



Let the holidays begin.

Saia, my Melissa dealer

I've told you about Saia before. It's where I go to get my Melissa shoes fix.

Remember those? Well, meet these:Melissa Patchuli in cream, from this season's collection.

Yes, they came home with me.

Proper shoe porn pics to follow, as usual.

H to the M

Bremen, summer of 1998.

Back when H&M was still Hennes & Mauritz.

I still remember everything I got in that first fast fashion shopping spree of mine. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Still wear several of them. I love my clothes. Who said fast fashion has to be disposable?

Oh and yes, I am that old.

IRO bargain

Talk about a bargain...


Yummy raspberry pleats and block colours by french label IRO, found in the Simple Caractere corner of Empoli Outlet a few months ago. Original price €323, crossed off in pen and above it €40 hand written. I turned the label around and the back said €30.

Sold. Feel free to hate me now.