OOTDs: Sarah and Westminster. Reviewed and Worn.

Good Thursday evening, all.

I almost just wrote "good Wednesday evening, all."  Umm.  No.  It is Thursday.  I bowled today.  Seriously suffering from major Mommy brain today.  Redonk. 

I am continuing my quest to wear as much of my lovely fall/winter 2012 Boden items before the clearance sale starts (Monday, maybe???).  I would have loved to have worn many of these earlier, but unless we have an exceptionally cool fall, a good majority of what Boden offers for sale in their fall and winter collections are much too heavy to wear around these parts until late November/early December.  If I could wait to buy them until they went to clearance, I happily would, however, a lot of their items sell out nice and early in the season (see the Westminster Scoop Tunic below for proof of that) which leads to purchasing items that I won't wear in real life for a good three months or so.  In fact, the Alexa dress (which I did at least review early on) is too warm to wear even now.  That may have to wait until January with the way our weather has been lately (mid 50s/low 60s everyday). 

Okay.  Blah, blah, blah.  Here are the outfits I wore the last couple of days.  

Scoop Tunic Dress. I wasn't sure how I was going to style this tunic, but I definitely knew it wouldn't actually ever be worn as a tunic, since this clearly looks more like a dress on me.

I ordered the size 6 long after seeing the measurements (very forgiving hip numbers, which is always my problem area).  I am glad I did since the 6 works very well for my frame.  If you are a bit bustier up top, you *may* have to size up since the top is a bit more fitted and there is only a side zip (BACK ZIPS, Johnnie, repeat after me, BACK ZIPS!) for ease of access.

In the end, I paired the tunic with a pair of leggings from Spanx (love you, Spanx for making such lovely leggings), the Britten tall boots in brown from J. Crew (this time not worn to be "horsey"), and extra "unique" accessories.  I wasn't sure about the newsboy cap from J. Crew (seen in this very famous J. Crew Paris catalog shot), but the red of the cap was the exact shade of red from the *tunic*, so I gave it a go.  It may be a bit too much, but honestly, I felt great with it all together.  And since feeling good is about half the battle in fashion, at this point, if others dislike the look, I just don't care.  ;)

Even with my hand on my hip, the Westminster scoop tunic dress stays at a nice, modest length. (I was a chaperone on a preschool trip to a concert starring the Disney cartoon characters--not exactly a place for thigh high minis.)

The fabric is viscose, which I am not necessarily a fan of, but whatever Boden did to this fabric made it wear much better than I expected it to.  I thought that the dress would be so wrinkled and messy by the end of the day, I would have to take it off upon my return to home (well, I did take it off, but only so I could nurse Angus--not nursing friendly, breastfeeding moms).  In reality, the dress wrinkled far less than most of my linen items.

I have another viscose top (the Lavish T-shirt) that I wore bowling today and it also wore much better than I anticipated.  Still wrinkled a bit, but definitely not horribly.

No hat here, just in case you are so distracted by the tomato monstrosity that you can't focus on anything else.  ;)

The tunic/dress is nearly sold out in this colorway.  There are many more available in the other shades, but I don't care for any of them, in fact, I think the floral versions are kind of ugly (I know, I said it, I don't like a floral).

Here is a close-up of makeup, hair, and hat.

Detail of the jewelry and the print of the dress.  You can actually sort of feel the print under your fingers, which means that you should definitely wash this one on delicate in cold water and inside out.

Sarah Dress.  The night before we went to dinner, and because it has been so lovely here, I decided to wear this dress without tights or a coat.  I had hoped to accessorize this gorgeous dress with scarves, tights, and the like, but only time will tell if that actually becomes a need here.  (Not even holding my breath.  I am beginning to wonder if 50% of my coats are useless--and no, not just because I have too many coats--lol.)

Anyhow, this one was near to selling out in my size and in the color I wanted (the other color of this print is lovely, but I have a lot of dresses in that coal/red/yellow shade).  The other colors are in this kind of odd print (I said, I know, I don't like a print, c'est shock!).  So instead of taking a chance, I bought this when there was a fairly good discount going (may have been 25% off--which, btw, if you use Q753 will get you that % off, too).

The dress is a jersey fabric and of a nice weight.  This could be worn year round, which is fab if you work in an office where you can wear business casual and need something great for all seasons.

I decided to wear a pair of Madewell boots with them, they looked cute together, but this shot doesn't really show how lovely the boots look in real life.  (The first photo of this outfit does, though.)

I should have worn a regular belt with this dress the way the model in the catalog does.  It would have given the dress more definition from the back.  It doesn't look so bad from the front, but from the back, that is a whole lot of in your face print, huh?

I am glad I bought the 6 long, but if I reordered, I would possibly buy the 8 regular since that would be a bit shorter and a touch looser.  The jersey accommodated my hips fine, but if I even glance at something salty the day before, I will absolutely have to bring out the spanx hosiery.

Close up of the print and the necklace.



Westminster Scoop Tunic and Sarah Dress.  You should not wait on the Westminster print in this tunic if your size is available...it won't be come clearance time.  You can wait for this print in the Sarah dress until clearance (unless you wear a smaller size), but be aware that this shade will sell first, before all the others. 

Okay, that's all for tonight.  Do any of you all own either of these?  What was your experience with them?

Also, don't forget, the code Q753 gets you 25% off with free ship on these two items (and more!).  ;)