My Spring Shopping List: Fashion

Something I do every season is make a list of the fashion things that I want to buy. It is not an exhaustive list, and I purchase more things that what I end up putting down. However, it helps me stay on track and keep from, say, purchasing yet another scoopneck black t-shirt when I already have four (and, I guess I should admit, none of those are perfect, so if you know, what the perfect scoopneck black t-shirt is, I invite you to tell me in the comments. Or, you know, purchase it and send it to me. Good karma, ya'll. Get some.)

Anyway, this time around, for good ole Spring 2011, I combined the beauty and fashion items onto one list, but today, I will post on the fashion items. So, my lovely lumpkins, you get to wait with bated breath on the next post, which will be creatively titled "My Spring Shopping List: Beauty." See what I did there? Calm down! I'll do it soon! Foaming at the mouth like that is not attractive. Maybe you should get that checked out.

1. Nude peep toes. This was at the tip-top of my list because this is the thing I wanted the most. It is also the thing I have looked for the most exhaustedly. I have searched malls and Targets and several online boutiques. To be honest, though, I was wary of ordering online because of the issue of color. The thing about nude shoes of any kind, I think, is that they must be the right color, and a little mussing of the gradiant can really eff things up and turn a cute shoe into something that is not flattering. Therefore, online shopping is not the most convenient, especially when it takes FOREVER to get stuff shipped here and returned correctly (and I'll admit that a lot of that has to do with my own laziness in returning). Since my skin is roughly one half shade darker than a piece of white paper, I can't do a dark nude color. I was also afraid to do a suede--I tried a suede at Belk's one day, and for some reason, it wasn't flattering. Something about the texture of my skin. Maybe I need to moisturize more? I don't know. Suede is what I originally wanted, but I found myself having to walk away. Thankfully, I ended up finding a pair in TJ Maxx on Friday. I know! TJ Maxx! They are these shoes, however, not in a slingback. Everything else is exactly the same--color and all. These were the ones that flattered my skin the best, and I felt could do the most justice to all of my skirts and dresses. The one negative with these shoes is the fact that the heel is damn high. The platform on the front mitigates that and makes them pretty damn comfy, BUT I don't foresee me wearing these with trousers, which makes them a bit less versatile than what I at first desired. However, during spring and summer I wear mostly skirts and dresses, so this is not as big a deal as it could be. And for $40 (which is about half of what my original budget for this item was), I can definitely deal. I wore them yesterday with a denim pencil skirt and an army green button up with gold jewelry, and I liked the look a lot. Even though I ate a lot of salt over the weekend and I was crazy bloated. You didn't need that image did you? Sorry.


2. Perfect Khaki Pants. I have never liked the khaki look to be honest. When I was in high school, khaki is what you wore when you were "dressed up" (because NO ONE wore dresses unless someone was dead or your mom made you and you were therefore a huge, huge laughing stock). Plus, I'm kinda messy, and having light colored bottoms on me just begs for me to spill barbecue sauce on myself and for a lot of cursing to ensue. But then, I saw this picture. And I thought, holy effing crap, I MUST HAVE A PAIR OF KHAKIS. POST HASTE. Because that's how my mind works. I have also hated beets my entire life, but if someone dressed them up and made them look preppily, fashionably relaxed and then piped some sunshine in on top of that, I would eat borscht for every meal. I iz dumb. ANYWAY, I must have a pair of khakis, and the only reason I don't have them right this very second is because I haven't found the world's greatest pair. Oh, and because I have one kid who needed all new baseball equipment this year and another who is going to a dance competition in a couple of weekends and I had to make hotel reservations and such. DAMN KIDS TAKING ALL MY MONEY. So, at some point, when the fashion and financial gods decide to jointly smile on me, I am going to trek to my local Gap and find my size in these (because their name says "Perfect". Would the Gap lie to me? NEVER.) I haven't ordered them because I'm unsure of the sizing and much too lazy to order three sizes. Were it two? Maybe. But three, possibly four? Yeah. And Gap's sizing is just fucked up enough that I would have to do that. Plus, I am a friend of my local Gap store on Facebook and they send me coupons everyday, so I can cash one in. If I ever decide to travel and hour and a half to do that.


3. Perfect white shirt. I have never looked good in button downs, and actually, just ignored their existence for about 5 years or so. Also, I think I overdosed on them with all the flannel in the mid nineties. You can only take so many unbuttoned shirt over Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt in ones life, eh? But now that I've lost some weight and my boobs do not have their own orbital pull, I can pull one off. Hell, my favorite shirt right now is a button up. So I want a white one. I bought this one, and I like it a lot, but I'm wanting to expand with something a bit more casual, something that I can use to dress down a pencil but also add an air of pulled-togetherness to a weekend ensemble. I'm thinking this. My favorite button down is a chambray from Lands End Canvas, so I think it could work, and the price is really awesome. In fact, I don't know why this isn't hanging in my closet right now. I will once again direct blame on to my kids and Alice's burgeoning addiction to fruit leather.


4. Gold hoop earrings. I have worn exclusively silver/white gold/platinum jewelry for years now, but I have found myself wanting more gold. Strange, I know. I don't know where this came from--I haven't seen any pretty pictures of gold jewelry that distracted me from my long held fashion beliefs. It started, I guess, when I got these earrings, which were sort of a gateway drug for me. That, and a silver necklace with a gold "M" on it that Sam got me for Christmas. Whatever the reason though, I now dream in gold. To ease my desires, I bought a cheap pair at Target so that I could decide if I really want like them or not. So far so good. I especially like the look with the white Gap button down.


5. White dress. Deep down, I think, all women want to be Marianne Faithfull. We would all want to be shacked up in an English estate with a few members of the Rolling Stones (what is my obsession with the Rolling Stones, one wonders?), left to make legends of ourselves and eat a bunch of candy bars. But moreover, Marianne is obviously one of the more fashionable, gorgeous ladies who has ever walked the planet, and when I think of her, I think of her with blunt cut bangs, flipped out hair, and a white dress. I dream of rocking this look all day. Like I imagine myself eating breakfast (note: I eat a really boring breakfast) in a lovely white dress, my hair effortless, all rock and attitude and swagger. This can be the only reason why I ponied up $130 big ones and bought this dress. Having read the comments, I sized down, and yes, this is a lovely item. I adore it. I wore it last Friday to the Garden Faire, Memorial Day be damned (although I did wear it with black leggings and my Frye's to make it a bit more appropriate). I have come up with at least half a dozen more ideas for it since I bought it, which will be another post for another time.


6. Fedora. And yes, some of them involve a straw fedora. Haven't found one yet, but haven't really looked that much. Will update with progress as it happens! Definitely hold your breath!


7. Nude cork wedges. Another thing I haven't looked for that much, mostly because most of my shoe energy has been used on finding the nude peep toes. I foresee me getting some that can roll with the self-tanner I will be applying in mass quantities once hardcore spring finally decides to hit. These are an inspiration, but would like to find something in a lower pricepoint, and maybe with more strapping. For some reason, I see an ankle strap here. Why an ankle strap? I have no fucking clue.


8. White jeans. White jeans are a staple for me--I love the look. I have worn them when I was a 14/16, I have worn them in a 4, and I have always found the look flattering, fresh, and cool. The problem is, I am messy, so I get one season of wear out of a pair, tops. I have purchased a pair of cropped ones with a nice cuff from Target (their Merona line, believe it or not, is a good place to look for unfussy jeans--the rise is not too low, and they have a selection of fits that is pretty nice. You should definitely size down though. I do a 4, and I would love to live on the planet where I am a true size 4). I need a full length pair though. I did Gap Long and Leans last year, which is probably what I will return to this year. However, Gap did eff with the Long and Lean fit a little last Fall, so I'm hopeful that it isn't too screwed up now. Why you gotta do that to me, Gap?


9. Colorful, lightly embellished tees. What I'm looking for here, is basically a t-shirt in a more refined fabric that I can wear with a skirt to work or with jeans on the weekend. So far, I have two--a lively coral one with a pintucked top from Old Navy (not online) that I am wearing right now, and a navy scoopneck with ruched sleeves from TJ Maxx. See, I'm not looking for anything expensive. Here is probably the only place where quantity approaches quality because I foresee me wearing a lot of these shirts, especially on days where I have to go straight from work to the baseball field. However, I still want the fit to be nice and the embellishment to be enough to create interest without being "OMG, BECKY. LOOK AT HER SHIRT. SHE MUST BE ONE OF THOSE RAP GUY'S GIRLFRIENDS." So basically, I want it all, and I don't want to pay much at all to own it. Kay? Simple enough? Good.

So there you have it. What is on your spring list, and how successful have you been in finding these things thus far?