Holidays are always a fretful time for me – or for others buying for me since they never know what to buy or what I already have in my closet.
My significant other had been given plenty of hints but sometimes he just doesn’t get the “HINT”. A friend of mine decided to be a darlng and Santa’s little helper by making a few suggestions which surprisingly enough he followed.
SHOCK!! Shock SHOCK when I find that I have a gift card of serious $$$ wattage to get me into the shoe salon. Not only did I get the card, but I got the encouragement and the company to get up EARLY on Friday and head to South Coast Plaza, shopping mecca for all those serious fashionistas (and I saw enough LA peeps and celebs down there too) to make it worth the trip.
Dressed to try on great shoes, one fashionista/shoe junkie friend told me I could easily buy at least 2 Jimmy Choo pairs at Saks. Got to the store about 8:30 AM and the pickings were slim– for the shoes– but a LOT of what was on display was on sale too so it wasn’t just the “racked” shoes.
I got some serious bargains at markdowns upon markdowns upon markdowns– totaling about 75% off ( or more)!! I actually bought $1000 worth of shoes for just over $300.00! Some shoes were marked down to $70.00 (seventy) (no kidding!!). I was in “la-la” land and just immersed in the shopping frenzy of designer shoes.
Here’s pair number one:
a gorgeous pair of mock croc leather pumps in a deep plummy burgundy.
Then I spotted these babies and I had to try them on. They came in the two-tone of burgundy/red with black heels or all black. I picked out the two-tone.
I wound up wearing these the rest of the day. I think I was in shoe heaven.
The last pair was a design I had been lusting over (the fendi’s, givenchy’s and chanel’s and choo’s were no longer in my size. sigh)..
These are entirely black and look amazing on– but I decided not to wear them the rest of the day. The heel was the highest of them all.
I also managed to snag two more things with some help from the gift card:
a Theory brushed velveteen jacket/blazer in a tanzanite/bright cobalt color that was just fabulous. It was 60% off and wound up being under $100 (retail was over $300)
Theory Blazer in Tanzanite
The last jacket I bought was to work out some more polished options with pants, skirts and jeans with a black jacket that is longer than most and more fitted. Think a nipped in tuxedo jacket in wool with satin lapels. The price tag was over $425,00 and over 40% off cost me less than $250.00 with the balance of the gift card.
.
I found a great leather Vince jacket that was killer but not so great because it wasn’t marked down at all. It was still almost $1k. So not worth it. Found another deep forest green leather moto-cross jacket and it was going to be about $100.00 (yes one hundred), but it wasn’t as great a deal as the tuxedo jacket which I really need for some upcoming meetings and can be dressed up — or down– with jeans and other color pants and maybe even leggings. (depends on how gutsy I get. Turns out the new workout Pure Barre makes a huge difference in the “rear view” so I am pleased.) So off we head over to Bloomingdales (never make it upstairs, because suddenly hunger strikes).
As we cruise past Banana Republic, we are side-tracked by pants for the signifcant other and a really cool cashmere sweater dress for moi.
Picture is not accurate: it’s magenta, shorter and belt free but more fitted.
Total cost for the originally $175.00, sweater dress– $68.00
Add in the 2 pairs of dress pants for him, a coupon I have for BR credit card and things looked pretty good. However the wait in line to check out was MURDER– over 30 minutes.
Brooks Brothers was mobbed and there was a line outside the door.
Barneys Coop advertised up to 75% off and I don’t know what was 75% off but nothing was really under $100.00!! Most things were well over the $250.00 range — though I did spot a gorgeous Mike & Chris leather jacket with zip-off hood and sleeves but that was priced at a bone (and budget ) crushing $1k. (*really, one thousand dollars in this economy? What are they thinking?)
JCrew was crazy busy too. I found “one thing” .. to buy – they don’t have pants small enough to fit me now (despite the chocolate infusions) and I could not wait another 30 minutes. The men’s section was wiped out except for loungewear, shorts and tees. So nothing was available for men. The women’s stuff was pretty much horrific.
Then on to Nordstroms (after a run-through Macys with zip to buy) and then found that nothing was the right size for him. I was entirely shopped out and the wait just to get into a dressing room in the men’s section was 30 minutes. (tired, hungry, tired, want to take off shoes now).
We did stop for lunch at Z’Tejas and had a fab lunch. I would have had a bit of alcohol but I was driving!!
So after lunch, we packed up and headed back to the car, with bags and bags and MORE bags of goodies.
Wow…. I have such a rush on this shopping spree. This was serious bargain hunting. I dislike paying full-price– and rarely do. I scour ebay, online sales (shopittome.com anyone?), loehmans, marshalls, and other outlet malls for the best deals. I shop online, I do the Target, high-low, thrift and every other means possible to cut the clothing budget down. I have been known to take belts in for a redo- (making them more waist rather than hip friendly) as well as stretching shoe longevity with lots of clean-ups and polishing.
Ok.. so now you got *my scope* on what went on in my life. for about 5 hours. I talked to a good friend (a guy) and he was laughing at me at why I was buying 2 and 3 of everything. Because they are different styles, different colors, serve different purposes. I am a girl who loves to dress up. He told me today that this is going to be a making the rounds of several dinner conversations. One thing I can say is that 99% of them, I won’t be there to hear this.
FYI– if you are in LA and around on Sunday night head to Hermosa Beach to the Saint Rocke on PCH & First St. Keaton Simons is playing and I will be there wearing something out of this fashion frenzy!!
Stevie Wilson
Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner
LA-Story Recessionista, Celebrity Style Slam Trademark/Copyright: KBP Inc. 2007-08
