A few weeks ago I made a foray into a department store, something I do about once a year. What I found was appalling. Who decided that every woman in America needed to dress in baby doll tops? That is definitely not my style, so I left the baby dolls in the store, found some pants that fit, purchased same, and left.
On my flying trip into Minneapolis last Thursday I had a couple hours to spare between my real estate tax errand and meeting Younger Son and GF for dinner, so I cruised through the sale racks at Macy's in Southdale. And discovered that when that baby doll thing is done in black linen by a master -- in this case, Ralph Lauren -- it works better.
This is what I got:
and that is what I wore, with black pants and the gray alpaca shawl, on Friday night. (I buttoned my blouse all the way up. Boring, I know.)
I would never, ever pay full price for a designer label, but this was 40% off, plus another 25% off when I got to the register. Score!
The other thing I got -- with those same discounts, yay! -- is a white shawl-collared blouse, cotton so finely woven it feels like satin, with long, French-cuffed sleeves and pearl cuff links. The blouse fit except that the sleeves were much too long, so today I removed the cuffs, cut 2-5/8" off the sleeves, and sewed the cuffs back on. Perfect!
Sometimes it is really, really handy to be able to sew.
