Birthday Presents

This is a very quick post about the birthday presents I received from my mom and my sister, both from H&M's "Premium Quality" selection. I didn't previously know about this H&M line until I saw a post on Susie So So featuring the green version of the above scarf. In my family, by the way, we don't generally do gifts in the conventional way. Each recipient picks out what they want for themselves, and often even orders it on their own, and the giver reimburses them. It isn't traditional at all, but I find that it works better than trying to surprise the other person in many instances. There have been more than a few occasions where I picked out something that I thought was perfect, but the recipient never ended up using it. 

I only did a cursory amount of comparison shopping before picking out these gifts for myself. I had the vaguest thought that I might want a gray wool scarf as a Christmas present, and I might or might not have been looking at the Acne scarf as inspiration for that impulse. That notion somehow morphed into wanting both a gray wool scarf and a gray cashmere sweater. Both of those items from H&M were in the right price range, and my decision was made.

The scarf is nice and fairly soft. I don't have too much to comment on except that the wool seems to be good quality, and I have not had any issues with it or any reasons to doubt that. Based on the minimal comparison shopping I did, the $49.99 price seems excellent for a 100% wool scarf of fairly substantial width and length. 

The sweater is definitely one of those slouchy, slightly tent-like styles that are trendy now. It also has a pronounced shirttail hem and fairly high side slits. It isn't a classic style at all, and possibly not the most flattering style for my bustier build. However, I enjoy this shape in sweaters at the moment, and I feel like I'll continue wearing these styles in my casual outfits for the foreseeable future. This design, like many other H&M sweaters, runs fairly true to American mall brand sizing. I ordered a M based off H&M's size chart, which might have been a slight mistake, as the M is more than a little big. I decided to keep it though, because I do like that slouchy, casual look. At $79.99 for a 100% cashmere sweater, the price is exactly the same as for Uniqlo's cashmere sweaters at full price, and I find that the the cashmere is a bit softer and thicker than that of the Uniqlo sweaters.