I’m in a total wardrobe rut. One would think that right about now I would be shopping with abandon. I finally have a “real” job, and after a pregnancy and a move my closet* is as empty as it has ever been. I used to pore over the anthropologie catalogs and could list all of my favorite coveted dresses by their twee nicknames. And yet — right now, I find myself unable to get inspired to buy much of anything. I think this is mostly because I still feel a bit awkward and not back into ‘perfect’ shape, whatever what means. It’s also because I don’t feel like I have time to focus on shopping. Also, sometimes the options out there seem too infinite, and I just get decision fatigue. Do I try for an awesome deal on one of those designer bargain sites, try out a StitchFix, or just shop my usual (online) favorites?
After years of not really being excited about their offerings, I decided to place an order with Boden today. I looooove their baby clothes (seriously, ALL of my favorite Annabel outfits are Mini Boden!) but the women’s clothes always seemed a little . . . old and boring to me. Maybe now I’m getting old and boring, because I found a few things in their current lineup that looked nice. So I went for it.
BONUS: one order and I picked up some essentials for A, too 🙂 We’ll see how things fit, because their sizing seems a little different from my usual staples (J. Crew, Gap, etc).
* well, if we had a closet. But that’s a post for another day.
Where do you like to buy work clothes? I still love anthropologie, but I feel like I need more practical staple pieces right now.
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Thanks for the heads up re Boden,
SSG xxx
Ann Taylor Loft is my fav!! When I was working full time in an office that is where I got the majority of my clothes. Practical enough to re-wear certain pieces on weekends, yet professional enough for the office during the week. If you hit their sales you can score some awesome deals.
I actually buy a good amount of my work things from madewell of all places. It’s definitely the place I get the most excited about. These https://www.madewell.com/madewell_category/PANTSS… are seriously the best summery black pants ever. So light, so comfy, so flattering. I actually wore them on a 24h journey back from Istanbul.
Also Zara has free shipping and returns, although I don’t utilize them as much as madewell.
It’s not cheap but to me it’s very worth it to feel good about what I wear. I also have more chronic body-esteem (& not in perfect shape) issues and wearing cute stuff definitely takes the edge off of feeling crappy in your skin. And my size changes some (10lbs on a 5’2" frame) throughout random times but really, a lot of clothes seem to be flexible enough.
What I saw from stitchfix on other blogs is really not my style and I don’t find clothes/prices to be that interesting, it’s like bad and cheap Gap… J. Crew, Madewell are better choices overall I think 🙂
I’ve been considering Stitch Fix too because I really don’t have time to ONLINE shop even! But I’m also afraid I’d end up with TOO many clothes when I’m trying to be minimalist in that respect. I have had some luck with ordering clothes from Zappos lately (needed some stuff for an upcoming beach trip) thanks to their awesome and easy return policy.
I have also been curious about Boden’s adult offerings, you’ll have to report back on the fit! I’m curious though, how are you going to wear that adorable dress and pump? Even though our doors lock at my office I still feel weird about taking my entire dress off to pump, am I being silly?
I’ve posted a few times on Stitch Fix. I’ve had reasonable luck — I don’t wear everything but I do wear some things. I’ve hired a personal shopper/stylist a few times and also had good experiences with that. I know that if I pick my clothes I will pick the same boring stuff, though I am getting better. I watched many episodes of What Not to Wear years ago and picked up some tips from that which have helped tremendously with choosing outfits for speeches/TV interviews/etc. (I don’t care what I wear in about 95% of my life, but there is that). If you go to a small, curated boutique you might get good advice too.
I’d say my style tends toward "classic" so I like Boden a lot. I’ve gotten some beautiful dresses and sweaters from them, but I’ve never had much luck with their pants. I find their clothes to run a bit small. An Ann Taylor Loft size 4 = a Boden size 8 or 10 (US) in my experience. I alternate between loving and not loving Loft just depending on what they have that season. Once my body decides what it’s going to do after this pregnancy, I really want to focus on finding a few really nice, high quality pieces that I love rather than buying a bunch of random 50% off sale stuff at ATL. We’ll see what actually happens…
Oh man. I love shopping. Love searching out the best deal. This month I have scaled back. I need to finish updating my closet before I add more and figure out my sell, donate and give to friends piles. I think as we mature, our styles change. I used to be more cutesy in my clothes and now I only really love bohemian. So, my wardrobe closet is fighting with itself.
I think that dress will be great on you. I cannot wait to see what you got and most importantly if you like the pieces!
I love the clothes for Anabel. That romper?! Oh my gosh. Girl clothes are so fun!
Jenni
I love Boden, but I tend towards the jersey fabric / a-line look since it tends to fit me better around the hips. I got a dress like that above, which was cute, but it really really needs a slit in the back so that I can walk with my normal stride length and I just never got around to doing it. Some of their work tops for the summer were really cute, but I avoided buying since I am going to be wearing scrubs most of the time. Their cotton tops are cute too and reasonably heavy weight material.
Thanks for this post. After reading this post, i couldn’t understand, what is called abandon. Anybody can help me out to know this?