pixiemarket blush silk ruffle top

Why is nude so big for fall?? not that I'm complaining... I'm one of the screaming hordes too unfortunately. Notwithstanding the huge range of pieces out there, it's been hellishly difficult to find a silk shirt in a nude hue.

I'd posted previously about my search for an Equipment shirt, and had finally decided to pass on the discounted one from Nordstrom on the basis that what I really wanted was the nude colour so that's what I should get. Of course there were none to be found. A strangely small number of online stores even stocked the colour and Every. Single. One. Of. Them. was out of stock. So you can imagine my joy when I discovered on a random check of shopbop a couple of days ago that they had actually brought them in! And since I'd been so miraculously quick to discover them, they still had all the sizes. I had a dilemma about which style to get (hard to tell from the pics or description what difference in fit really is - Note to shopbop: your item descriptions need work. Also more measurements would be good) so solved that by just ordering both :) While they don't offer free international returns, I can't really complain seeing as shipping out is free and I'll only return one of the shirts (I hope).

So here are the two I ordered... guess we'll have to wait til they arrive to decide which is better... any preliminary thoughts are welcome though.

Equipment Classic CDC Washed Silk Shirt

As far as I can tell, the Classic is cut slightly slimmer then the Signature. But I'm drawing those conclusions purely from the pictures and the fact that the Signature has a box pleat at the back. No way to tell for sure til they turn up. Also from the pics, the shirs look like they're different colours, but both entries say the colour is "nude" and it could just be the lighting, so who's to say? Really hope at least one of them works out well.

Equipment Signature Shirt

Oh and after much pondering, I decided to see if I could track down the Alexa Madewell shirt after all. It seems it's only out of stock in small online, so I called and asked them to see if they could find me one in stores. Hopefully seeing as it's still reasonably early in the launch, they might actually be able to find a piece for me somewhere. Apparently it'll take them 24-48 hours to complete the search though which seems kinda nuts to me... don't they have an inventory system that updates regularly? weird.... still... fingers crossed!

Shirt tales

Much as I'd love to deny it, I'm a marketeer's dream. I can see an item and be ho-hum about it and then a blogger I admire or a friend gets excited about the same item and suddenly I can't think how I lived without it.

Case in point (actually two cases): denim and silk shirts (no, not together silly!)


I'm not a big fan of the whole denim on denim trend, but I have to admit it's still got to me a bit. So much so that I'm seriously considering getting this tunic from Gap (yes, them again... what can I say, I'm going through a phase and they're cheapish). Thoughts? Too many details? Anyway, I might wait til this hits the stores here to try it before I commit.

This was another potential option but the styling is leaving me completely underwhelmed. It's a sad day when the NAP styling looks less appealling than Gap.

Going higher end, I've been reading about silk shirts at The Row more or less since the label launched, but there's no way I could afford something from that line unless I suddenly became seriously minted overnight. Then today I read this post from garance which totally sold me on the idea of a blush silk shirt from Equipment. Funnily enough it's one of those brands that I've hear of but never really paid particular attention to. Who knew that they had the (potentially) perfect shirt all along? So the question now is, do I buy now and get the colour I want or wait for the sale and risk not being able to get my size? In fact, my favourite in Nude is already down to only medium sizes which is a real pain. Trying to figure out if I might be able to get away with that or if it'll just look way too big?

Equipment Signature washed silk shirt in Taupe

Equipment Signature Washed Silk Shirt in Rock

Equipment Signature Washed Silk Shirt in Nude

Equipment Classic Washed Silk Shirt in Blue

On a side note, I'm constantly amazed at shopbop's product turnaround. Even at 30% off, people are snapping up things that at other stores end up going up to 50 or even 70% off! The free shipping (even international) does help a lot though. All things being equal, I'd get something from them rather than somewhere else to get the free shipping!