LOFT Weekend Review

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I’ve been avoiding the stores lately since I had decided that I needed to halt my shopping a little bit. But, after meeting up with one of my friends for lunch, she wanted to go to LOFT to shop for a few new items and asked me to go with her. Besides, I love LOFT and thought why not try a few items while my friend was looking for a few things (of which she found some beautiful items — not available in petite, to my envy)! Here are a few of the items I tried on.

Petite Marisa Cropped Cargos, 0P $49.50

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Liked, will wait for a sale. I actually really liked these pants. I have a few wedges that I think would work with this and it’s pretty casual. My friend thought it worked with pumps as well. What do you think? yay or nay? How else do you think I could dress them? With runners? sandals? Or are the cargos too casual for it?

Luxe Jersey Crossover Dress, XS $69.50
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Skip. As I saw my friend look through some gorgeous dresses, I came across this interesting crossover jersey dress that unfortunately only came in regular. The color really caught my eye, and jersey dresses with interesting twists or “drapery” or folds for some reason always make me want to try it. However, as you can see, this just draped me all wrong. For one thing, despite the dress having a tie, I still remained extremely shapeless. Plus, I was wearing a bad bra (where the cups don’t lie flat) so the dress just made it much worse, due to its crossover.

Island Flower Peplum Top, XSP $49.50
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Like. Wait for a sale. I really liked this top, despite the strange way the the front part of the top was like one large pleat (hard to describe). It was cute, but the price deterred me. Surprisingly, the top has already sold out. The fit was good, but because of the slight strange look of the top on the side (with the front curving outward), this was definitely a buy that I could wait for when it was much cheaper.

Twist Pleat Shell, XS $49.50 in Warm Iron
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LOVE. Wait for a sale and/or find it similar in petite and on sale. My friend tried this top on and I loved it so much, I decided to try it on in regular, since there were no petites available for this beautiful top. It looks really huge here, but I thought it would look really nice if I added a belt. At the price point of $49.50 though, too expensive for me. The color is also a beautiful purple, not the putrid brownish colour thanks to my phone. Ignore the touch of pink in the background from another item I tried on. It looks kind of funny 😉

Petite Sequin Front Tee, XSP $59.50
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Bought. It was on sale for $39.99 with an additional 30%. I’m wondering if an XXSP would fit me better, but I actually like how the shirt isn’t something I normally would wear, plus I liked the longer looser length so it would look better with skinny jeans or jeggings. I’m a bit hesitant with the purchase though, despite my liking how unique it is. I’m just thinking how else I would dress it and I’m not sure I can come up with enough ways to justify it. What do you think? Keep or return?

Going through the regular section, I’m always jealous by the beautiful pieces I’ve seen but most likely won’t fit because it’s too long. For example, this Distressed Dot Shell is so pretty and me wants to try it, but … only in regular, alas. I wish they would create more petites from their regular items. Are there any items that you wish came in petite?

My friend then asked me if I wanted to go check out NY&C, and I was sorely disappointed because they have some absolutely gorgeous tops with the most beautiful colors, but all their XS tops were huge, not even worthy of reviewing. But the colors were so pleasing I wanted to purchase a couple. I was good though, because the lack of fit is probably not even worth $1. I despise all the clipping they do on their mannequins!

Will the Real Steve Madden Intcye Boots Please Stand Up? ………Oh Wait.

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Some of you know that I bought Steve Madden Intyce Boots, thanks to seeing these deliciously cute boots on Aubrey when we met up for sushi a while ago. They’re pretty expensive, but I figured for real leather, Steve Madden and the gorgeous colour cognac, they’d be worth it, armed with a small coupon.

I purchased first the 6s from shoes.com, then got worried after reading numerous reviews about how narrow they were and went ahead and bought the 6.5s. Sadly, this was after their 20%off coupon had expired which worked with Mr. Rebates, so I got the 6s first with the 20%off coupon + Mr.Rebates 12% off cashback, and the 6.5s with only a 20%off coupon using VISA. I was getting ready to return just the 6s when I came across the boots on endless.com for 20%off+10%off, at a starting price lower than shoes.com, which prompted me to decide to return both shoes.com orders.

Well, here comes the comical part. I received the endless.com boots yesterday, opened them up, and to my dismay, they looked awfully different to the ones I received from shoes.com:

Can you tell the difference?

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Steve Madden Intyce Boots in Cognac
Made In
brazil_intyce_tag mexico_intyce_tag
Color
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Lining
brazil_intyce_lining2 mexico_intyce_lining
Fit
endless_intyce2 shoes-com_intyce_both
Heel
brazil_intyce_heel mexico_intyce_heel

I typically love boots made in Brazil, and I can tell by the workmanship of the stitches that it is better than the boots made in Mexico. But the fit and the color leaves something to be desired. Due to how supple and soft the leather and the lining were (almost suede like), it caused the ankle area to bunch a whole lot more, and my calves to look a lot more funny with the boots on (they look like they just flare out, and I have fairly normal calves).

Makes me wonder about all these reviews now over the web. I see some complaints about the boots being an avocado peel, not enough of the rich cognac color, or it being too slouchy, and it starts to make me wonder about “which” boot they received! I will say one thing though – had I received the boots first from Endless.com, not seeing them on Aubrey D, I wouldn’t even have thought about sizing them up to 6.5 because they weren’t really all that attractive! The 6.5s that were made in Brazil fit more snugly, like a size 6, but not as bad as the 6s that I ordered from shoes.com that were made in Mexico (where the toes hit the top of my boot). The 6.5s made in Mexico are definitely more roomy, but the perfect fit were the 6.5 pair made in Brazil. (Are you following along? I’m starting to get confused myself!)

The sole of these boots seem slightly thin, which makes me wonder if there might be enough padding on the sole. I think I might add a foot petal to the bottom to add some cushion to help the ball of my foot. Long story short, I’m going with the pair made in Mexico because the cognac color is what I expected them to be and they seem to hold their structure. They’re a bit more roomy than I’d like, but I much prefer them to the pair made in Brazil. So, while I like the softness of the suede lining, and I also prefer items made in Brazil, I will stick with the boots made in Mexco, despite the price and the fact that endless.com packaged the shoe box much better than shoes.com did. I keep my boots in their shoe boxes, so I prefer to store them in a box that’s not beat up.

All in all what do I take away from this funny situation? Unfortunately, some reviews online (without accompanying photos) may not always be reliable because items could be made in two different factories, producing what seems like two different products that are under the same name and model. This contributed to the somewhat disparaging reviews between shoes.com and endless.com.

What do you think of the boots? Has anything funny like this happened to you before?

Read Aubrey’s recent review of the boots here.

Sorry for my blabbing. I’m constantly trying to improve my writing and grammar 🙂 Back to the work grind tomorrow!

~Grace

Fitting Room Adventures: Ann Taylor Factory and Banana Republic Outlet

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I’m in awe of all you bloggers that post such quality posts day after day, especially since I’m just now getting to my tries in the fitting room from three weekends ago!

I dodged into the Ann Taylor Factory and Banana Republic Outlet stores in hopes I could find the navy chiffon ruffle (of which I did!), malady and I decided to try a few other items on while I was at the store to see if anything would fit.

Ann Taylor Factory

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Ann Taylor chiffon patterned top, in XXSP (on left) and XSP (on right)

These shirts (I’m not sure what I would call these) somewhat caught my eye on the mannequin busts in the store. However, being set next to the chiffon ruffle shells, they seemed somewhat plain and less pretty. But I liked how it looked on the mannequin and how it was somewhat more casual with the interesting pattern in the front. I grabbed the blue in XXSP and the purple in XSP to try out the colors and the fit.

As you can tell, the XXSP was too form fitting, and the XSP fit so much better. I thought it looked much better on than just folded there in the store, so I ended up getting this in three colors as well (the purple, dark blue and off-white).

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Ann Taylor Factory Navy Chiffon Ruffle Shell in XSP & 1/4 length sleeve long cardigan in XXSP (teal and coral)

I’ve often found Ann Taylor and LOFT sizing to be strange (especially when it comes to dresses), and I found this to be the case with these long 1/4 arm length long cardigans. The XSP was just huge, as though I was swimming in them, and the XXSP fit much much better. They’re perfect for the upcoming spring and summer weather here in San Diego and in nice bright colours too. I’m not sure about the quality though, given they’re so thin. I’ve worn them a couple of times already, so I hope it can keep its shape and size once I’ve thrown them into the washer.

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Ann Taylor Factory, Twisted Blouse in Teal XSP
This twist teal blouse shirt, though gorgeous on the hanger, was just a FAIL on me. The sleeves were too long, and the length was too shirt. I did not like where the twist hit me either. I don’t really need such a gorgeous top either since it would be out of place at my office. I do like sheeny shiny things though.

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Ann Taylor Factory Petal Chiffon, XS
And just for grins, I decided to try on the petal chiffon top in XS. It was the smallest size available in the store, and there weren’t any petite sizes left. Needless to say, it fit as I expected – very loose. It looked horrible over my bootcut jeans, because every bump on my jeans showed.

Banana Republic Outlet

Also, after the flurry of purchases of the famed Banana Republic Outlet tweed dress I first saw on Jean, I knew I was late to the game, but I thought I’d browse through the racks to see if I could find it. I found the sizing tags to be strange. Do Banana Republic petite size tags always include the “p” on the end? I didn’t look too carefully, but I did grab the 00p for Aubrey (which fits her wonderfully, might I add – in which my response is a “YAY!”), and noticed as I was trying these dresses on that they were all “0”, without a p. So why were they in the petite section? Hence, my confusion.

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Banana Republic Outlet Black Sheath Dress 0, $29.99
The black sheath dress seen on Jean (for some reason I can’t find the link!) and the one I grabbed for Aubrey was much too small for me in 00p, which I had predicted, and so I tried on the 0, both in the black and a pretty fuschia color. Unfortunately, it is too long on me, even though I loved the fuschia color. Considering I don’t need to really dress up for work, and the fit wasn’t the greatest, I decided to leave these behind as they weren’t worth it to me to have it hemmed.

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Banana Republic Outlet Navy Gold Button Shoulder Dress, 0
I also tried this other dress that really isn’t my style, but I thought I’d give it a go to see what it would look on me. This was a quick “no way” before I threw it off of me. I’m not sure what possessed me to try it on the first place. I think the dress makes me look about five years old.

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Banana Republic Outlet, Grey Sheen Sheath Dress 0, $29
Because I was disappointed that no tweed sheath dress was to be found, I decided to try on the similar dress that ReallyPetite blogged about last month. The fit was really quite nice, except for the length, but because the material was more shiny and the dress slightly more formal, I don’t think I would get much use out of it, and not worth it at $99 since I would still need to get it hemmed.

I did grab a Banana Republic casual khaki type skirt that was on sale for $24.99, deciding to give skirts a go this year, thanks to Jean and her array of cute skirts she has modeled for us on her blog. Oddly, I didn’t take a picture of me in it, maybe next time ! I’m really not a skirt or a dress person, but I’m forcing myself to branch out this year, and I think I’m going to need a little help from the rest of you on how to put a skirt together, because I truly am clueless most of the time when it comes to more girly items. I’m still more of a jeans and a t-shirt gal (of which I’m wearing today! :))

And a side note, I’m not sure why a bird is chirping ever so loudly outside my home at 11:45pm!