Sunday, July 10, 2005

Between seasons - to buy or not to buy?

Ack! I am now facing a shopping crisis-what do you buy between seasons?

I have been out shopping over the weekend in Malibu, checking out the cool shops there like Planet Blue, Madison and Ron Herman. It's summer sales time and what could be better than scoring stylish finds at good prices?

When I was at Madison, beautiful pieces like swishy boho skirts were on sale, as well as beautiful caftans, beaded tops and all things feminine and bohemian. I even saw the same pair of Costume National wedges worn by Nicole Richie recently on sale, but in tan instead of cream:

Note the beautiful cream wedges from Costume National on Nicole! (Candid from http://www.isifa.com)

They were so gorgeous and I remembered how badly I wanted them when I first saw them. However, the more I looked through the racks of wonderful clothes and shoes at Madison, the less excited I felt. Amazingly, the rational part of me realised that I would have very little thing left to wear these summery pieces and I should be investing in good basics, pre-fall items or summer pieces which would translate nicely into the fall trends. Now, when was I ever so rational?

It was the same situation too in Planet Blue and even Ron Herman, which was really a pity because I really liked a lot of stuff there! The amazing thing was that I realised that I could pretty much purchase the same stuff at the shops online and it would be cheaper too with the relevant coupon codes.

So in the end, I pretty much ended my shopping "spree" with some basics from Rachel Pally as well as a Victorian blouse from Anthropologie.

I scored myself a long cami in sand and the shrug in 2 colours - white and persimmon in this picture. Picture from Rachel Pally.com


I also invested in the blouson top in this picture in white.

Victorian influences will be big this fall/winter season, and it may be good to invest in a few key pieces, like a lady-like blouse or lace-up knee boots right now.

3 comments:

Kiks said...

Hm, I don't think that the bohemian look will be out of fashion too soon... Just look out for stuff that is both NOW and NEXT YEAR... thing where you can see a future. Let's take full skirts as an example, they will rock on for the next 2-3 years. The same goes for vintage-looking stuff, flats and flowy skirts... just don't get stuff with patterns that are really popular this year...

Over the years I realized that patterns are the easiest thing to get out of fashion, while forms & shapes will stay popular for a long time.

So, happy "in-advance" shopping!

PrincessImp. said...

Hi kiks, thanks for the advice! :)
I think full skirts will come back into season one day, but that may be because fashion cycles now are getting shorter and shorter and it is really easy to wear back clothes from previous seasons.
For example, I think the military look will pick up steam this fall and wasn't it rather popular a while back? :)
Well, as always when it comes to shopping, I always hope I'll get stuff that are a good mix of basics plus quirky individualistic pieces!
Hope to see you back here again :)

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