(Mostly Non-Sale) Shopping Lately

Self Portrait "Prairie" Midi Dress (affiliate link) - Definitely not on sale, even though the design has been around a long time.

Before we get started, one quick note: work is going to be extremely busy for me later in January - I'll be taking my first ever deposition! - so my posting here may become more sporadic next week and the week after.  

Please note that this post contains affiliate links that could result in my earning a small commission - at no extra cost to you - if you click and make a purchase. Thank you for your support!

Today's post is about some of my shopping ideas recently, mostly not from the post-Christmas and post-New Years' sales. Have you been shopping any of the winter sales? I've browsed some - including the Tibi sale, where many sale items are 50% off - but I haven't really seen anything I was interested in that was also on sale. 

In terms of cool Tibi items currently on sale at various retailers: that plaid wool skirt I bought at full price in October is now discounted at both Tibi's website and Net-a-Porter, though only in extremely limited sizes. Both Shopbop and Net-a-Porter also have a good number of Tibi items on sale, though often only in one or two lucky sizes. This cutout cashmere turtleneck in sky blue is kind of cool, as is the plaid top that matches the skirt I bought (the plaid top is a bit more deeply discounted at Tibi's website). 

As for the non-sale items I've had on my mind, I've been thinking recently about whether it's time to shop for another "wedding guest dress", since I've felt a bit dowdy when wearing my existing ones to the most recent weddings K and I attended. With all my fussy and nitpicky criteria for party dresses - particularly if other people's weddings are the main type of occasion I'm shopping for; which means white, cream, and many white or cream background prints are off limits, as is red for weddings that might have a Chinese or Indian cultural component - searching for a new dress is likely to take a significant amount of time. It's rare to see many options in stores that meet all my nonnegotiable criteria for this type of dress and might, therefore, even be worth ordering to try on. 

One specific design I think could work - maybe - is the Self Portrait Prairie midi dress pictured above. (On my 5'3'' height it'd probably look like a maxi dress.) It's even a bit similar in spirit - distantly - to the Ann Taylor dress in blue lace that's one of my current "wedding guest dresses." This particular design is not very new, it's been around since at least 2016. I do wonder if the light-colored - close enough to "nude" for my skintone - lining would be a bit too much look for me, though in various photos of other women wearing it, including celebrities, it ultimately comes across looking fairly covered-up and even on the conservative-ish side for a party dress. 

In actual practice, I'm not sure now is the right time for me to be in the market for this type of closely-fitted, tailored dress. K and I hope to start a family in the very near term, hopefully within a year or two. I wouldn't really count on something cut like the top half of the Self Portrait Prairie dress that fit my body shape "before" also still fitting me well "after."  

I'm also still searching in vain for the right white crew-neck tee shirt. Most recently, I ordered two from Banana Republic that just didn't work for me, the supima cotton tee (fits true to size) and the "luxe touch" tee (runs small enough to size up). The fit and look were okay on both, but I didn't like the feel of the cotton jersey material. In saying that, I feel like the biggest weirdo, since cotton jersey is obviously a very classic and standard material, and I also have trouble articulating exactly what I mean. With the Banana Republic tees, the material felt too... smooth? Like it had an odd sheen? I'm actually starting to think maybe slub cotton is the way to go because I prefer that texture by far - as with the ATM Anthony Thomas Melillo tee I got in black - even if I also worry a white slub cotton could be too sheer.

Something else I recently bought - that wasn't for my closet - was a refill of my trusty Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in the dark brown "Espresso" shade (also here and here). I'd been wanting to replace this for a few months, since my old pot of it had dried out a bit after I'd owned it a very long time (let's not talk about exactly how long it's been, since I probably don't replace my eyeliner often enough). For a few months, this Bobbi Brown eyeliners was almost impossible to find, and I was getting worried it'd been discontinued since I'd been using it for years and couldn't imagine switching.