In a battle of will, I nearly resisted early holiday sales this week.
I purchased a rowing blazer from Brooks Brothers. After my size went in and out of stock, I realized how much I wanted the blazer. It went on sale for 40 percent off, so I bit.
I ordered a pair of black bootcut denim from Banana Republic Factory. I was pleasantly surprised when the outlet version of Banana Republic started offering tall online. I had initially been looking at purchasing the black demi boot cut crop denim from J.Crew to wear on the stateside-bound planes along with the Toteme sweater I bought last week. At less than half of the J.Crew sale price, with a full length leg, and in a 36 inch inseam, the Banana Republic Factory option was an easy choice. I also ordered my husband two pairs of pants: a carpenter option and a moleskin option. Both are very “him” but in a way that is ever-so-slightly pushing him out of his sartorial comfort zone; he would probably not pick these out for himself. Rather than putting these under the tree, I will do what I did with his (and the Pamper Pirate’s) fair isle sweaters a few weeks back and just let him try them on and return anything he might not like.
On a separate note: I imagine whoever is designing for the Banana Republic retail counterpart, is also designing for Factory. Save for more poly blend with retail also tends to favor (and you know how I feel about synthetic fabric when not in an activewear application) in the selection, most of the items in the most recent rollout are killer.
I am returning the yellow cashmere sweater from J.Crew; I might return the yellow lace pencil skirt that I purchased to go along with it. They do not match with each other the way I wished. I really need both in a tall size, rather than standard. The latter feels flimsy and it leaves more leg exposed that what I think I am comfortable with.
I received both the cream and the yellow tweed blazers and all but one of the skirts. Again, I ordered the two styles in two colorways in two sizes each. I am not nearly as taken with them as I thought I would be. I wish this suit would have been offered in tall, or at least the skirt because the skirt is indeed mini. Undecided whether I am going to return all of them, or just the sizes that do not fit.
The (reversible) Marysia suit that I ordered on sale arrived and it is fantastic. A final sale gamble that paid off, indeed!
