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!

oh for a rowboat by the sea

what is it about breton tops that has everyone (including me) so fixated? Whatever it is, I have to say, it's been surprisingly difficult for me to find one I really like, especially seeing as every shop I can think of is doing them!

So what, you ask, could possibly be the problem? Just waltz into Zara/Topshop/Mango/etc. and grab one. But ah... there's the rub - a lot of these tops are either too thick for the climate here (more like thermal weight tees) or too thin and cheap looking. I did manage to pick up two lovely striped tees from the Stella McCartney collection for Gap kids, but cos it was a kids collection the colours are really bright so aren't quite perfect (really lovely texture though!). Oh and then I found a lovely couple of tops from A.P.C, but they were about US$120 each... for a t-shirt!

So I took my search online... now as usual, J.Crew and Madewell have come to my rescue.... they have such a lovely collection of breton tops, it's actually hard to choose only one! My favourite so far are the ones from their collab with saint james, which has been making breton tops for French sailors since 1889! Doesn't get much more authentic than that. Now if only I could figure out how thick these are going to be.....

The pic at the top of this post is one of the saint james ones... the saint james miniquiers 10 tee. It's slightly cheaper than the other saint james piece they have on offer, but I can't quite figure out why. Maybe it's the material? Also it only comes in red and white which is a bit of a pain... I quite like it, but feel like navy or black and white is more classic?

saint james meridien ii tee

Now this one could just be the perfect piece. Right colour, right degree of slouchy-ness, really cute styling.... :)

madewell breton top

Now the trouble with this top, is that once you've seen the other two, you look at this and are kinda "meh" about it. Could also be the grumpy looking model.... it's a whole lot cheaper though! maybe that's why she's grumpy....

Arrgh... I'd completely forgotten how J.Crew's pics are all in bitmap.... and I haven't figured out yet how to post those here, so I guess I'm going to have to just talk about them. Fortunately, there's only really one that isn't similiarly represented at Madewell - their vintage banteau striped top... this has been out a while and I considered it some time back when I first started looking for the perfect breton top, but in the end had to discard it cos it seems to have been made of a heavier knit (can't take any credit for sleuthing here - they actually said so). The thing I'm really trying to figure out though, is whether their st james tee is exactly the same as the Madewell one or not. Cos theirs is meant to be a unisex one, and there's no model pic, but the price and description is exactly the same as the one at Madewell. Now that could take a bit of sleuthing...

Final gripe: if their shipping wasn't so cursedly expensive, I'd probably have bought a few by now to try! Why can't retailers understand that online shopping should have as few barriers to entry as possible? I guess the fact that they're a big bricks and mortar chain has a lot to do with this... ugh.

Wow.... between the launch yesterday of the new Alexa Chung collection and today, a bunch of pieces have already sold out! (so if you were planning to get those striped jeans, sorry but you've missed your chance unless Madewell is planning to restock).

Fortunately most of my favourites are still around, but who knows for how long?

madewell for alexa chung iris blouse

case in point - the only piece I seriously considered getting was this nude silk shirt. the fit looks great, I love the covered placket and the colour is lovely. And evidently everyone else thinks so too! I should have been tipped off by how hard it was to find any of the Equipment silk shirts in nude... oh well. Seeing as I'd just managed to snag 2 Equipment shirts in the same colourway, I thought it best to give it a miss.... now slightly regretting it, but only slightly. If anyone's still interested though, they still have this blouse in brown and a red (which is really quite nice, albeit a tad loud).

madewell for alexa chung tennessee velvet dress

I think of this as her Little Lord Flautleroy dress. Really cute but not really me.... E. if you're reading, I could totally see you wearing this :)

alexa chung for madewell betty tea dress

Another typical Alexa dress.... they did really well with the styling here (the clogs with tights are so her). I love the whole slightly subversive ladies who lunch vibe here, but not sure I would pull it off with... might end up looking a bit washed out on me I fear.

alexa chung for madewell aimee fisherman-knit sweater

and finally an Asian model... and wearing the type of sweater I've been thinking of getting for ages... but then I remind myself I'd wear it once a year at the most. sigh. Maybe we really should move to England...

currently obsessing about: Madewell

I've always been a fan of nice basics (at least in theory, if not always so much in practice), and this season has brought that back full tilt. One of my current favourite places to browse online is Madewell (which I believe is meant to be j.crew's younger line or something). Lots of lovely separates and things you can tell yourself you'll be able to wear for the next ten years.... as long as you don't put on weight. Tho actually come to think of it, I just wore a skirt yesterday that I'd bought more than ten years ago and I've definintely put on weight since then so I guess you never know. Or maybe the moral of the story is to always buy stretchy items... hmm....

oh and of course, a post about Madewell wouldn't be complete without mentioning the collaboration they've just launched recently with Alexa Chung. I wasn't planning on liking it, but actually it's a really nice collection. One piece in particular really caught my eye... but really that deserves it's own post, so more about that later. In the meantime, here are a few of my favourites from their main collection.

Heathered maxi dress in charcoal grey

Now this is seriously tempting. I LOVE maxi dresses and this strikes the perfect balance between casual and dressed up. My main gripe about most maxi dresses is that somehow on me, your average black one looks a bit like an evening dress for some reason. Could just be that the locals here just dress very casually all the time so anything more than that looks dressed up, but it could just be me. Anyway, on top of all that, it's on sale! And in all sizes....

wanderlust sumatra shirtdress

Now this I suspect has more to do with my being obsessed with shirtdresses at the moment than anything else. Even so, there's always something appealing about a permanently crumpled shirt/shirtdress. makes you stop worrying about it so much. And I also love that the placket only goes halfway... somehow these always look better on me that the traditional ones that button all the way down. Just need to make sure it'll fit over my hips tho! oh and last but not least, this is part of a collab with Wanderlust which makes all these dresses in Siem Reap so buying it will directly benefit the artisans there. That should assuage any residual guilt you have about spending the money on this :)

seamed silk slip dress

Can you tell I'm totally obsessed with nude tones? I'm trying to figure out thought if I like this dress purely because of the model/styling. I just love this look so much... the boots with the flippy little dress, plus the cardigan and the glasses! I think the glasses make the look. Not that I would ever wear them though.... so the real question for me is if I took that all away, would I still want it? difficult one....

LOVE!

image via nymag

this is such a great outfit. Pity the torrential downpours here would never allow such a cute outfit to go unscathed.

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!

oh this old thing? it's by Jane Birkin....

Hot on the heels of the sad news that knitwear company Lutz & Patmos will be shuttering soon, is the more welcome news of their final designer collaborations which includes celebs like Liv Tyler, Christy Turlington and Carine Roitfield. In many cases, part of the proceeds of the sales go towards that celeb's chosen charity.

As with their own work, the pieces from their collaborations are all simple luxurious pieces that you could see yourself wearing til they fall off you in rags. Well that is unless you live in the tropics. Boo!

Count yourself lucky that it isn't always summer.... eternal summer isn't all it's cracked up to be.

cashmere sweater dress by Sofia Coppola

cashmere shrug by L'Wren Scott

Omi and Opi Sweater by Kristen Dunst