I am simply in LOVE with the shimmer paisley lawn dress...it is now one of my top three ever items from J. Crew...along with the Sybil Coat in burnished yellow from Winter 2007 and the double-strand frog necklaces, also from 2007. This dress replaces the (still wonderful) coccodrillo pencil skirt, as seen in this post. I made up a top three list because the very delightful Suzy challenged us to think about our favorites, and this is now one of mine! (BTW, before all my time was eaten up by preschool follies and subbing, I actually made a polyvore of my favorite items. Yes, I did. :)
Here is my favorite items polyvore. These items will be with me as long as I can keep them, and then they will be my daughter's. I have even talked to my mother-in-law about recreating this dress in another fabric, and she says with some tweaks, it is actually possible! (Do I smell a liberty-print version of this dress in my future???)
This is the polyvore for the day's outfit. The shoes are different, but they look really similar to the ones in the polyvore.
This is the dress on me. I find the fit is FANTASTIC. I could have sized down to a six, but because I wanted to be very careful, I bought an eight. Now, here is my mantra, and some of you may want to use this, "I would rather take in than squeeze in..." So, while this may be a bit loose, I know that I have the option to tailor down...had I bought to small, then this lovely would have never been allowed out to play. The top is truly my favorite part...isn't the collar just beautiful? The fabric is also quite special, with the subtle play of fall colors of brown, gold, olive, cream, and purple. And the shimmer in the dress name? It comes from a very slight metallic thread woven through the fabric. And I should let you know, in all fairness, I love all things paisley...it is very preppy but also a bit boho...which suits my fashion-sense perfectly.
I almost didn't get this dress...by the time I figured I should get it, it was all SOLD-OUT. I nearly cried, but figured I could work something out...and then, my personal shopper (on-line) saved the day...she took the info, and within two days, had located my size in this dress out in one of their California stores. :) God bless you ladies in CA who overlooked this dress...I am a very happy Virginian, thanks to you all...
You have seen this dress on two other lovely ladies (anyone else out there own this dress?)...summerilla and ratsonparade. I knew summerilla wanted it and she was the only reason I knew that it might be sold out. So thank you, summerilla, for keeping me in the loop, and thank you, awesome, personal shopper, for taking such good care of me in locating this amazing dress. :)
So I wore this dress on the second day of Rex's preschool. Because his preschool also happens to be where I do my swimming, nature hiking, and chilling out, I decided I would spend that entire morning while he was at preschool there. It was a very foggy, drizzly kind of morning, and I swear the whole atmosphere was very Scottish Loch-ish (which I will have you know is my favorite atmosphere ever)...and so I wrapped the outfit up with the featherweight cashmere short-sleeved cardigan and took a walk out in nature, with all the trees and leaves and fog...I felt, and I am not even joking, like I was in an Anthropologie catalog. (And, yes, that felt very, very cool...)
(I may even make a polyvore of me walking in a foggy loch somewhere and add it to this post because I have always wanted to be in an Anthropologie catalog...) Oooh, I did it! (Added 10/12/09...I know, I am a bit of a nerd...)
Have a great Thursday. Much, much, much more to come (I have finally organized my pics and have figured out how to save and publish posts when I am not even necessarily there to publish it myself...I know some of you all are super-savvy, but alas, I am not)!
