The Shopping Trip

Last Sunday my fabulous friend took me to a couple of shops to try on (literally) piles of clothing. I took sneaky dressing room photos and we irritated the dressing room staff significantly. It was so much fun!

We focused mainly on shapes and styles rather than colors. When I made my fashion collages, I was very focused on a lot of volume on the lower half and a trim, maybe a little edgy upper half. My idea being that this is both dramatic and gives the illusion of having a waist. I am also open to tunic/short knit dresses with leggings underneath, as they seem comfortable, but I didn't find any images of these that I liked.

After trying a few things on, my friend's recommendation was to go for slimmer pants and more flowy, feminine tops. Our first stop was Zara (watch out! it's flash-heavy). We were both drawn to the floaty airy tops, but most of them do not define the bust at all. But they were interesting and a little dramatic and quite possibly "toddlerable", though they are not anything that I would wear in a professional setting. It's possible that something like the last one would work with a jacket.

Zara, by the way, has harsh overhead dressingroom light and very stringent dressing room policies.

Then we went down the block to Banana Republic. Here there were more grown-up looks without being too boring. The coral print top below looked better in real life than in that photo. And I have a pattern for a similar top (which I could make to fit me better - I hope) in a recent BWOF. (Although it is such a seventies comback - I don't know if I can handle it.) The two sweaters I loved dearly.

Banana Republic has a far more pleasant fitting room policy and better lighting, but they did get a tad annoyed with me for not finding anything that worked.

I also tried on a couple of blouses at both Zara and Banana Republic. One wasn't photographed and the other two photos didn't turn out well. These tops were also too small, but you can get the idea that if they only had my correct size that these would be flattering.

The last several items are fairly toddlerable and spinnable as professional attire with an added jacket and/or fabulous accessories. I have already downloaded the JJ blouse from Burdastyle, which could be a good start toward a fitted blouse.

I need to think more about how I really want to look. It's hard for me to think about swapping very wide legged trousers for narrow ones. Maybe this indicates the difference between warmer weather clothing and cooler weather clothing.