Anthropologie review: A Thousand Tiers dress

Oct 30, 2009 By Shann in Anthropologie reviews, Reviews Tags: a thousand tiers dress, Anthropologie, grey, review, ruffles, sizing

I had walked by the A Thousand Tiers dress in Anthropologie a few times. I loved the ruffles and grey color but I figured all those layers would be a a complete disaster on my curvy figure. Last weekend just for kicks, I grabbed it off the rack and added it to my already substantial dressing room pile. Btw- I love when I spy another shopper in Anthro with a huge pile of clothes to try on. It’s even better if they have a larger stack than I do. I don’t know why but it makes me smile lol.

The thousand tiers dress is made with layer upon layer of soft, lightweight, and slightly stretchy jersey. Because the material is so thin and they only did a slight gather on the ruffles, this dress is actually quite flattering. I was surprised by how form fitting all those layers were. I tried on the XS and was happy with the fit.

Gathered chiffon drapes over each shoulder which gives a little more class to the casual jersey. I was not able to pull the straps down over the shoulders like the online image shows. I don’t know if they changed the design of the dress after photos or if I just needed to pull a little more on them.

The Thousand tiers dress is $188 which is a bit excessive for jersey in my opinion. However, if I was looking for a holiday party dress I would be really tempted by this. It has a relaxed extremely comfortable feel but can be easily dressed up with some fancy tights, heels and a long necklace.

One thing I about the dress I am not crazy about though, is that first ruffle.. I feel like it falls at an awkward place on my chest. Also, Anthro lists the dress as dry clean only. I rarely dry clean anything but I would not want to iron out all those ruffles.

What do you think of the A Thousand Tiers dress?

Moving to WordPress…at some point

Oct 29, 2009 By Shann in Misc chatter

I’ve grown a bit bored of the limitations here on Blogspot, so I am planning on moving the blog over to WordPress. I’ll be self hosting and designing the blog practically from scratch so I’ll have complete control over every single element (hello, type A!) I’m not exactly sure how complicated this will be for me lol. I bought WordPress for Dummies, shamefully I hate those dummy books. It doesn’t look too complicated but it still may be awhile until the new site is done.

I am really looking forward to designing all new graphics for the blog and making those more personal. I’ll also be updating the JCrew sizing guide and adding new guides for the various Anthro brands and other stores. On the new blog, the guides and favorite topics like ootds will be more organized and easier to reference.

The move should be fairly easy. The new blog will be simply: wardrobereview.com which I registered awhile ago. The domain is currently redirecting to this site but I will take that off once I start work on the WordPress site. I hope you won’t find it a pain to update you bookmark once I make the change.
I’m also hoping I can transfer my google followers directly over to the new blog without you all having to do anything but I’m not sure about that yet..

Anyway! I was wondering, are any of you ladies using WordPress for your blog? What do you think of it? Was it easy for you to figure out?

Also! Are there any features or changes you would like to see on the new site?

Cheap Thrills: Forever21

Oct 28, 2009 By Shann in Other brand reviews, Reviews Tags: cardigan, f21 skinny jeans, Forever 21, military jacket, review, Rosette trimmed sweater, ruffle front cardi, sizing, sweaters

It can be a real bummer not living near any good shopping. If I want to go to J.Crew, Anthro, or a decent department store, I have to drive an hour and a half to two hours into the city. Sometimes you just want a quick fix, so I headed to my lacking local mall yesterday.

I snapped a few pics in Forever21 for you. I was mainly looking for knits and little jackets. I didn’t find a jacket but I was surprised with how not cheap looking the sweaters were. Even though I feel positively ancient in there, I’ll have to make more of an effort to stop by F21.

I also hit up the Gap yesterday but it was nearly a complete disaster. They had a couple of cute jackets but they fit me awkwardly. All the sweaters were far too big and looked awful on me. It was so bad, I’m not sure if I want to share the pics lol. Let me know if you really have an interest in seeing them

Zipper sweater

This is a dark grey sweater with a zipper edged deep vneck. It was pretty cute and nicely fitted but the neckline was a bit low for me. If I see it again, I may pick it up for going out in the evening. I like to edginess of the zipper embellishment. This is the size small. Sorry, no link for this online.

Academy cardigan

I don’t see this sweater online either, so I will just call it the Academy cardigan. I have a thing for that little band around the arm. I don’t know why but I always love that on a cardigan. I tried this on in the small and although it fit, I really wanted to size down. I find that in these long cardis I have to have it as small and slim as possible otherwise I look short and dumpy. I was hoping to be able to order this online in the XS but no luck.

Rosette trimmed sweater

This sweater is the one thing I bought yesterday. Again with the cowl neck lol! I purchased this in the size small. It is nice and fitted but a bit short. I am wearing it today with a lace trimmed cami underneath to add length, M+O black skinny jeans, and my just arrived Anthro cuttle boots (yay!). I’ll try to get a pic of my ootd later. This sweater is just slightly itchy around the neck but it’s not really bothering me. The rosettes are knit into the sweater’s collar nice and secure.

Military jacket

I took this cute little jacket in a size small. I like the fit and style but it is a little too short for me. A bit pricey for f21 at $37.80 (80?) but the fabric was nice enough, not shiny or cheap looking.

Ruffle cardigan

I apologize for the not great pic here and I don’t know why I look like a linebacker camera angle I guess lol. The is a ruffle front cardigan that I cannot locate online. This is the size small. The ruffles are a bit too front and center and poofy for my taste. But if you are looking for an alternative to JC’s past ruffle front style, you may like this.

The $12.50 skinny jeans

Here we have the much talked about $12.50 skinny jeans. Even though peeps are singing their praises I thought, no way can I squeeze my ass into F21 skinny jeans. Surprisingly they fit pretty true to size! I took my usual size 26. There is a little bit of room in the waist band but that is more from the rise than them running big I think. These are very fitted in the calves but not unflattering in the thigh. The rise was just a bit too short for my liking though. If I didn’t already have my M+O skinnies in black, I probably would have brought these home.

What do you think of my Forever21 finds? Have you found anything there yourself lately?

What I wore (and didn’t wear) in Paris

Oct 26, 2009 By Shann in Shopping strategy, Travel Tags: Europe, Fall, France, Outfits, packing, Paris, Parisian style, Travel, vacation, weather, what I wore, What to pack for Paris in October

As I said in my Paris style post, Europe this Fall was all about black, grey, skinny jeans, and boots. I did my best to not stick out like a sore American thumb. Not because I was worried about being fashionable but just because there is enough stress from being in an unfamiliar country where you don’t speak the language.
The biggest thing that made me feel awkward and isolated, was not knowing the customs. The Paris cafe, bakery, and shops culture is so much more complicated than here in the US and it felt like we were continually doing the wrong thing lol. I think Carrie from SATC summed up being an American girl in Paris best for me when she said “It’s harder than I thought”. So, when it came to what I wore during our vacation, I was less adventurous than normal and just wanted to lay low this go round.

Here is what I wore and didn’t wear in Europe:

Bottoms:
1-M+O black skinny jeans- Indispensable!
2-M+O dark wash straight leg jeans
3-Paige dark wash boot cut jeans

The above 3 are all the bottoms I wore on the trip. Each pair of jeans is hemmed long for a heeled shoe. The skinny and straight leg jeans could be cuffed to wear with flats. Btw- I saw many, many Parisians and Germans converting straight or skinny jeans into capris with a large cuff.