My adventures in cool COS and descent into Top Shop hell

I was in London for a few days and had lunch with a friend near Oxford Street. Lunch was wonderful, it was great to catch up, the sun was shining.. so, feeling happy and with a couple hours to wander around before meeting my next group of wonderful friends, I wandered around the neighborhood and into one of my favorite London stores, Liberty.

Sadly I missed the sale, but I found a shiny purple Stella McCartney shoulder bag that was a whole lot lighter than the leather bag that was currently wearing a groove into my shoulder. It wasn't my bag's fault, really, I had a desert trek ration of water, 8 lipsticks, a kindle, 2 phones (work & play), not to mention the 20 pounds in my wallet (and by that, I mean the physical weight of those coins, not their value!!), plus the random stuff that just sits in the bottom of bags. Unfortunately, however, this bag was GBP 430 or so, which translates to ca US$10,000 (roughly) and that just seemed a bit too expensive for a vinyl bag that was essentially a more '80s chic version of a le Sports Sac. (Stella doesn't do leather, as I'm sure you all know, so neither do her bags).

That didn't mean I didn't want it, though. I picked it up a few times, did the math again, and decided to run out of the store (I left it there! - no Winona Ryder, me!).

After I stopped running, I found myself right at a store called COS. They don't have this brand in NY, but I'd just read H&M's annual report (yes, I really did.. ) and was curious to see what H&M's more upscale sister was about. I also thought there might be a cheaper vinyl bag there for a fraction of the Stella bag's cost.

No such luck, but there were plenty of other things that caught my eye...I couldn't handle the structured wool dresses (too scratchy - I was a bit sunburned from the extended sunny pub afternoon the day before).. But there were some very chic basic pieces that looked much more expensive than the price tag would suggest. I was pleased - especially as there is no COS in New York, so I won't see many other people wearing the same stuff. I picked up a couple things for myself (see photo) and for others, too... (btw, the shirt is pretty simple, but not quite as plain as it looks in this terrible photo.) The skirt looks good with my boots, too..


Inspired by my success at a moderately priced fashion store, I decided I'd brave Top Shop. Now, I have been a Top Shop skeptic. I don't believe the hype - and it escalated to pretty high craziness levels when they opened a branch in New York.

Sure, it's fine if you're in high school and want to spend the change you made waiting tables on a new shirt, but magazines, blogs, etc, are trying to make this out as real fashion. To my eye, the clothes look cheap, the racks are a disaster, and, if you survive the endless lines to the fitting room and then again at the cash register, and actually make it out of the store with you and your purchase intact, then congratulations!! you now look like every other tragic fashion victim in London (and now NY). No thanks!!

But, as I said, I was willing to concede I'd been wrong - especially if they had a cool bag along the lines of that Stella one or some good cheap t-shirts with a bit of an edge.

Uh.. no... What I did find, however, was great photographic documentation of why I was right about Top Shop in the first place. Which I present to you now...

Exhibit 1: (main photo above)

Exhibit 2: fitting room line


Exhibit 3: for clothes like this


Exhibit 4: And this


Now, in my view, this jacket looked like one of those cheap tops made originally to be sold for $30 in some street market stall and that you can now pick up at Goodwill for $5. Why pay $250 for that?? In my eyes, it was proof of the "Top Shop is fashion" hoax..

And yet.. 2 days after my Top Shop visit, a daily fashion blog (Refinery 29) featured it as one of their "Top 5 trends to take home".


Are they kidding?? or are they part of the hoax? Did they not see it in person? Do you have to promote Top Shop to get any advertiser who uses Kate Moss? Am I just missing something really big here? I don't get it, i just really don't get it...

If one of you is a Top Shop expert and wants to show me how it works, I'll give it a try. But I'm not going back on my own...

Next one will be about the fairy tale shopping in wonderful Copenhagen.

Packin' Heat

I bet that if you were to ask most people to list things they disliked to do, right up there with public speaking and cleaning, would be packing.

I have seen friends absolutely dread packing and put it off as late as they can and others who take 10 minutes to throw stuff in a bag for a 2 week trip (grrrr), but I start to plan at least a week ahead, analyzing the potential weather at my destination, possible activities and the clothes they would require; what will wrinkle, what will travel well, and what I'll simply feel like wearing.

On Thursday, (tonight, in fact, I wrote this earlier this week), I'm leaving for London, then Copenhagen for about 10 days and, aside from the boots I just bought and wrote about, haven't yet worked out what I'll bring. You'd think it would be easy. After all, I live in New York, couldn't I just wear the same thing I wear here?? And the answer is "yes", but since my choices will be limited to what I can carry, I want to think it through and wear the RIGHT same thing I wear here.

So, I decided to come up with a system for the perfect packing wardrobe - in this case, for stylish cities in Northern Europe in late summer. Breaking down a wardrobe to basic elements should be useful for me for this trip and hopefully for future packing as well. (As an FYI, I plan to check in my bag. When I flew to Germany a month ago, I was told that the weight limit for carry on is 7kg. Translated into packing terms, that's a suitcase, a pair of shoes, and toothpaste. So I'm not even going to pretend!)

So, the elements of my wardrobe...

4 daytime tops: something cool, stylish, comfortable and versatile, so not basic t-shirts, but nothing overdone, either... white's a little risky for travel, but I like them and it is summer after all... Actually, it IS summer, so make that 5 or 6 tops - to be fresher..

2 layers (jacket & sweater)

1 belt to make the tops more interesting and give more wardrobe options.

2 scarves (1 pashmina, which is nicer than an airplane blanket for the flight, 1 lighter scarf)

4 bottoms: 2 pairs of skinny pants (one black, one probably jeans), mini skirt, dressy shorts, plus a pair of leggings to fly in (since they allow me to do contortions in the seat so I can sleep comfortably..ish).

1 day dress (or two)

2 dressier night time options: a top that will go with the pants/skirt/shorts I've packed and a dress, or maybe a jumpsuit, or both.

4 pairs of shoes: my boots, high heels, flat sandals I can walk around in, and another pair of flats, probably my sneaker/ballerinas. Also a blister stick - they are amazing!!

Bathing suit? Well, it doesn't take up much room and I just read you can swim in Copenhagen. Will I? don't know, doubt it, but definitely sunscreen and sunglasses, in any case..

Pyjamas, underwear, toiletries (I have a pre-packed bag of mini sizes of pretty much everything), a hairdryer, adaptor cords, chargers (for iphone/ipod, work phone, kindle, camera.. when are they going to do universal adaptors again???), noise reduction earphones, spare toothbrush/paste, lip balm and moisturizer to carry on as it's an overnight flight there, passport and left over foreign currency from my last trip, and I'm good to go! Whew!! If I were staying in a hotel, I'd also bring my portable ipod speakers and a couple decks of cards, but no need if I'm staying at a friend's place.

So, here are my dressed-up and dressed-down combinations of these pieces. (And yes, a lot of what's different is shoes.. but shoes are important!!)

Dressed up:

and yes.. I realize I am looking tired and my hair is a mess! At some point, I may learn Photoshop and then not a hair will be out of place! hah - right!!)

Dressed down (some are a little dressy):

























PS: Update.. As I mentioned above, I wrote this a few days ago and I'm about to leave for the airport in a few minutes. So, did this systematic planning work? Well, mostly. Packing was really easy because I already knew what I wanted to bring. But I did leave a couple key things at home (the new boots and iPod - rats! system derailed because I didn't have a carry-on plan!!) so I dashed back during lunch to get them. Everything fits nicely into my bags - but they weigh a darn ton!!!)

Obsessed Until Possessed

Rapid onset obsession:

I don't know how it happened, exactly. I was at work, reading research and earnings reports, chatting to clients and colleagues, but my mind kept going back to those boots. And as I kept trying to focus my mind back on work, each time this little feeling built: "I HAVE to have those boots!". Everything about them was so right and all the other boots just weren't. Nothing else was going to equal them.

Hours later, I'm emailing photos to a friend, then taking a detour on the way home through Saks "just to look", and finally changing course and walking to 8th Ave for the subway down to Iris, the shop that emailed me about those boots in the first place.

How did I end up from being (relatively) good about saving money to spending a chunk on one pair of boots on the hottest day of the summer? What happened in my head, my chemistry that changed me from being completely satisfied with what I have at home (even thinking it's too much) to being distracted, really almost obsessed, and giving in to that little tantrum-throwing 3 year old in my head until I walked out the store with them, tried them on at home and thought: "yup, these are AWESOME!!"..?

I wish I knew. I could make a fortune bottling it...

The boots, by the way, are biker boots. And I think the biker-ness of them has something to do with the timing of this fixation (if not the fixation itself) since motorcycles have come up in a number of conversations recently. I don't have a motorcycle, but have always kind of wanted one (in the same way I have always kind of wanted to sky dive). I think Freud called that "Death Wish". But I'm also a little bit accident prone and am not ready to call it a day yet, so this is my compromise that keeps me alive.

In any case, I think my tantrum throwing 3 year old has great taste. These boots are totally my style and, as another indication of mid '90s retro fashion, remind me of the biker boots I used to clomp around in when I first moved to New York (though a lot nicer). If I see you on a day when the temperature is under 70 degrees, you will see me wear them. And this is probably how...