August 2020 Shopping Reflections

I can never quite figure out whether it makes more sense to report made-to-order purchases in the month where I place the order, or in the month where I receive it. For the most part this year, I've been doing the former. I suppose this is partially because I've made a personal commitment to avoid troubling people with return shipments as much as possible while the COVID situation remains serious. If I make an order these days, I'm pretty certain about keeping the item, or at least, about finding a new home for it on the secondary market if I've made an error in judgment about whether something will suit me.

This month's purchase has, in a way, been on my radar for a long time. I've had a photo of this dress pinned to my spring and summer personal style inspiration board on Pinterest since quite a while ago, but I didn't know the designer at the time. I never really looked up whether the dress would be within reach for me price-wise, and I never knew whether the item was from a long-ago season or whether it was currently available. 

Separately, I noticed that a few people I follow, namely Erica and Elaine, had purchased Heinui dresses in the past few months. And even then, after I started following the designer on Instagram, I didn't initially realize this was the designer and brand that made the exuberant blue and white printed dress I'd seen on Pinterest. It took a while for me to put two and two together, as the designer's website wasn't selling any dresses in this specific print when I first started following her. 

Fast forward to a few days ago, and the designer posted on Instagram stories that she had just enough fabric left to make a handful more of these "Cora" dresses in this exact print. But because she lives in a different time zone, those dresses were all sold out by the time I saw the posts. I was disappointed, but hopeful that maybe she'd re-release the dress again sometime. Then later that day, she decided to take more pre-orders for the dress in this print, and so I jumped right on it. In other words, this kind of does count as an impulsive purchase, as it really only took less than an hour for me to make a decision after the designer opened up new pre-orders for this dress. She's hoping to make and ship the dresses by the end of September, so it'll be a while before I receive this order. 

Fashion - (TOTAL: $327.11) 

Heinui Cora Dress, blue girls and koi print - $327.11 - So this dress design is definitely one of those that probably billows down and out from the widest point of the bust, something I used to be really nervous about when it comes to selecting clothes for myself. (It's a bit crude, but I feel like the best way to describe how this general silhouette can look is by saying that it could cause a "boob tent" effect.) I'm a fairly busty hourglass, measuring approximately 37''-28''-38'' on my 5'3'' frame before we embarked on the current staying-at-home-to-avoid-COVID lifestyle, and I generally prefer to deemphasize my chest measurement a bit with how I dress. But over the years, I've bought enough of these potential "boob tent" dresses that it seems clear I've shaken off my apprehension about wearing such silhouettes. I probably don't need to fuss so much about such designs anymore, as I clearly seem to be comfortable wearing them in most instances! Though I think this Heinui dress is a more intentionally oversized look and a lighter, floatier material than any of my other dresses that flow down and out from the widest point of the bust, so it might still take some getting used to. I really love the print and how exuberant it is.

And that's it for this month's shopping! Now that I have quite a few more fountain pens and inks than I did this time last month - enough that I'm not too far from owning so many pens that I can't really actively use my entire collection at once - my brain seems to be slightly more inclined to thinking about shopping for my closet again. I do remain focused on trying not to shop too much, though, so I'll try to keep those shopping impulses to reasonable limits.