Shopping Season

While I've been good recently, the sales have tempted me a little more of late, especially in terms of stocking up on shampoo/conditioner/shower gel/moisturiser and domestic items. While I am primarily interested in saving, a couple of investment buys had me loosening the purse strings for a few items of clothing. Yesterday I noticed that J. Crew's purple Hutton pants had gone on sale (surprising me as these were a collection item that just came in). I had tried them on and surprisingly the 6 fit best but at $249, there was no way I could get them. Reduced to $159 with 30% off they came in at around $120 with NYC sales tax but, of course, they were out in my size. The incredibly nice J. Crew sales associate at the Flatiron store called around for me and found none left in NYC, then put me on the red phone to search for a pair. I received an email today stating that the pants were found and on their way to me. Some of you may remember them from my post coveting them from the J. Crew 2011 fall preview--funnily then I liked them but not as much as the Teddy dress which I found very underwhelming. I also forgot how much I need pants in the winter, more on this point below.

I'd not normally splurge but I feel the cold badly which means I live in pants Jan-early March. I also own about two pairs of wide leg pants and two or three narrow leg pairs, which are usually less warm. These are slimming (I'm hoping it wasn't just the mirror) and warm and make a bit of a change from my black and dark tweed winter stalwarts that I've owned for several years now: the black are Stella McCartney for H&M and they are amazing and the tweed are Kulson, a short lived label that went out of business around 2005-6--so you can see that these are needed (says the girl who is trying to justify her expenditure). Both are in good shape but hopefully these will keep them in decent knick for a little longer. With the right blouse, they have a 40s feel. Without it, they'll keep me warm. I just hope the 6 wasn't mismarked and that they do fit as well as I remember!