Sales for the Week (Furla, Tocca, Kotur and more)

Some sale highlights for the beginning of the week -

Monday - Kimberly Ovtiz, Kotur and Leila Jewelry at Billion Dollar Babes; Tocca and Tracy Reese at Gilt; Splendid at Haute Look;

Tuesday - Bellydance Maternity and Fairmont Sonoma Mission in at Gilt;

Wednesday - Furla at Gilt; Viv and Ingrid;

Packing for a weekend by the pool

Greg and I are heading down to San Diego for the weekend to visit a friend and meet her baby, and sit by the pool and relax. I'm so excited about this trip and I've been thinking about what I would pack all week.

Definitely a colorful summer dress like the ones I posted yesterday, but what would I wear by the pool? I love jersey dresses (not a new thought, I've definitely said it before) because I throw them on over my swim suit at the pool, and could also wear it out for dinner. I like the pattern on this Rachel Pally fabric -




This dress has a great color and a shape that would work for pretty much everyone -




I think 2 jersey dresses, a bikini, a pair of flip flops and 1 pr sandals are all I will need for this weekend. Maybe Greg and I can even share a suitcase!

Oui Oui to Le Dress!

I went to an adorable new boutique in Chicago last week in the search for a dress for my sister. This boutique began with a novel idea - they only sell dresses and the few things a woman needs to complete the outfit -shoes, bags, strands of beads and of course spanx!

The boutique, Le Dress, has a nice selection of styles in a range of sizes and prices, and they get new shipments every week. One of the two owners was more than happy to show me the styles coming in next week. They are building a house brand as well, looking forward to that!

click here for the store's website.

My LA trip

So I realized I never got around to posting about the shopping I did in LA. Wedding planning has really gotten the better of me the past month. We had our tasting today (fun!) and hopefully I will have my life back after I make all our major vendor decisions next week (band, florist, photographer)

So, back to our weekend in LA. I didn't have a ton of time to shop as we were there for a wedding, but I definitely got to check some things out.

First up, Beverly Drive. We checked out the stores that are always in the tabloids like Harmony Lane. They have adorable dresses, as long as you are a size 4, if you are any bigger don't even bother. No wonder Eva Longoria is always "spotted" in there.
I have to say that the Lisa Kline location ( 315 S. Beverly Drive, there are several stores around the city, a commenter didn't like that I wasn't more specific) was a really pleasant experience. The saleswoman was really nice and helpful as opposed to the other location I visited (on Robertson, more later)

The boutique I really liked on Beverly Dr. was Switch. I hadn't remembered reading about it, the people who work in the boutique were really nice. I only realized later the woman helping me was one of the owners. They had a jewelry designer and a clothing designer hanging out talking to people who came in. Their merchandise is different from all the other places on the street which was refreshing, much of it not really appropriate for life in Northern California, but on the sale rack I found a lovely Loeffler Randall dress I'd had my eye on earlier -

The color is gorgeous, and I like the ruffle. I thought it might not work with my broad shoulders, but it looked lovely. It's still listed at full price on the site ($260) but I paid half price in the store.


Sunday morning my friend took me to Robertson Blvd to check out the shops. I was really surprised with Kitson(115 S. Robertson), it was great. They had a fantastic selection of just about everything, especially dresses, bags, and scarves. And in a huge price range. I wouldn't say the people there were helpful or friendly, but the stuff makes it worth a trip. The rest of the stores on the street were nothing exciting or even worth writing about. The young women who work at Lisa Kline on Robertson were unbelievably rude, they pretended we weren't there, even leaning over us to hang something up. They don't even greet people who walk in. And none of the other shops have anything you can't buy elsewhere.

So that was pretty much the extent of my shopping, or the good experiences anyway. I love my dress from Switch, so as far as I'm concerned it was a successful trip!

The Customer is Always King? Not in France

I had some good giggles while reading this piece in the New York Times by the soon-to-be-former Paris correspondent. My favorite part, as evidenced by the post title, is #3 - the customer is always wrong. I have my own stories about this oh-so-charming part of French culture, so I can relate!

Conference Clothes

I went to a talk at an academic conference last week. Immediately after I sat down and looked around I had my usual thought, "why God, why?" First let me say, unless you are a personal trainer or something like that, there are to be NO running shoes at work. And let's get this straight, repeat after me: conferences are work events and I need to dress accordingly.

There. Phew. But I am not done. I have been to conferences in the humanities and social sciences and it never fails, some people dress really well but most look like they were never taught that appearance matters. In my extensive experience in academia I do think that some people think it's silly, frivolous or even makes them seem less intelligent to think about their appearance. I say that is one dumb idea.

We get one chance to make a first impression, and in any work environment, appearance matters. Of course the bar is set pretty low in the academic world, so much so that wearing clean pressed clothes that match more or less can make you the best dressed in the bunch, while in other fields that bar might be (a girl can hope) set much higher.

At the conference I attended briefly last week the major problem that was repeated by grad students, professors and some professionals over and over - is wearing running shoes and a backpack with nicer business-y clothes. I don't care how comfortable they are, come to grips with the fact that you are an adult and wear real shoes and buy a plain black computer bag, those will make ALL the difference.

For both men and women my simple conference advice is this:
bring a wheeled suitcase that can be carried on, pack one basic suit (that fits you well) and enough separates to mix and match with it and then all you need is 1 or 2 prs of shoes and that computer bag and you will always look great.

the separates should be:
for men - a clean and PRESSED button down shirt for each day of the meeting, a pair of chinos (for when you aren't giving a paper) plus a couple of ties and 2 sweaters or a sweater and a sweater vest. Does that sound hard? I didn't think so.

For women the separates can be more or less the same - just remember hotels are always cold so your suit jacket and sweater will come in handy! With your suit (for women 3 pieces, a jacket, pants AND a skirt) you can pack a sweater set, and wear it as a set one day, and wear the shell (the sleeveless bottom part) as a sweater vest over a button down shirt - I love this look. Then you can wear the cardigan over a different top another day - the permutations are endless. For your one casual bottom you can bring high (or mid-) waisted wide leg jeans, they look like dress pants if in dark denim. But again - NO SNEAKERS. Bring some comfortable flats, and 1 pair of heels if you are giving a paper, they will give you a confident swagger!

And voila, it is that easy to never look like a shlub again.

hear are some suggestions-
For men:
This Jcrew vest is adorable!

Also a good look is a button-down shirt, a tie and a v-neck sweater, like this Jcrew cashmere example:

And Don't forget your Kenneth Cole computer bag from eBags:



for women:


This Ann Taylor Loft shirt would look sharp under a suit (with a bold necklace) or under this cardigan:


or this adorable sweater from Target:

The colors are really pretty and if you get it a little loose, it looks fantastic over a white button down. Just make sure if you go this route you go easy on the accessories.

You can wear those combinations with any dark wide-legged jeans (check out my previous post on these) or with your suit pants or skirt.


Now do me a favor - go to your conferences and look so good that everyone else feels compelled to do the same.

Shopping in DC

I'm back in California and it's good to be home, but if any of you are planning a trip to DC I wanted to share some of the cute shops and restaurants I visited.

Circle Boutique, located at 1736 14th St NW (between R and S). They have interesting pieces, in both men and women's clothes. You can check out a limited selection of their merchandise on their website. They carry L.A.M.B and Mike and Chris, as well as some designers I haven't seen much of here in the Bay Area. At the moment everything is on sale. The owner was there and incredibly helpful and sweet.

The area is interesting, there are some great places to check out including the French restaurant and bar Cafe Saint-Ex, they make a mean burger with sweet potato fries! The service is infuriating (making it even more French) but the food is good. My friend that took me there said it has a basement that turns into a nightclub, it seems redundant to say, but at night. duh. Otherwise it would be a dayclub or something.

Over in Dupont Circle on Connecticut Ave there are a lot of shops including Proper Topper, which somehow manages to squeeze an incredibly large amount of things in a very small space. They have cute clothes and hats(hence the name proper topper), as well as great things for gifts - pretty notebooks and cards, baby clothes, the list could go on and on.

Georgetown though seems to have a higher concentration of cute shops. On Wisconsin Ave I went to Sugar(1633 Wisconsin Ave):
It's a cute boutique, with a nice selection of lines and styles. They have really gorgeous trendy jewelry that isn't all expensive (makes for good retail therapy), earrings by Viv and Ingrid among other lines. The woman who was working there when I went in wasn't exactly friendly, but the store smelled fantastic thanks to the yummy Grapefruit candle they were burning (they sell them too) and everything (except new resort pieces) was on sale here as well.

Just up the street are other cute shops Sassanova (shoes and other accessories) and Sherman Pickey (1647 Wisconsin Ave, NM) this shop is unbelievably preppy - think Tory Burch and the like, all of their winter clothes were half off, and then another 20% off I think. They had some beautiful coats and blazers on sale.

Across the street is Urban Chic, 1626 Wisconsin Ave:

Everything except resort is on sale at 50% off. Pretty amazing party dresses on sale, and incredibly cute baby clothes too (C+C and Splendid).

Happy shopping!