Stalking BR military style sweater

After a good five-plus years away, Banana Republic styles and sales are speaking to me again. Visited both Newbury Street and Copley stores maybe ten times last few weeks stalking the black Military cardigan, 100% wool, extra long sleeves, hits at hip, with polished military-inspired buttons and shoulder epaulets. A trend traced to Balanciaga, as far back as AW 05-06, and most commonly epitomized in Balmain's ubiquitous jacket (below) that’s been on all sorts of celebrities. Perfect for a boyish figure like mine. Bought it full price ($130), then returned and bought it at a reduced price ($89.99), but several more visits tell me it doesn’t look like it’s going down again. A sales clerk said that the number of reductions depends on sell through, and that it would move to the sale rack mid season, where I found it my last visit.
I’ve seen the Holiday season merchandise come in (unusually early, I might add). Like a game, I've read the fine print on the various sales incentives that I usually ignore. There was the $25 off coupon, good during the second week of November, which I used to buy a second sweater (hello, hidden pocket long cardigan, below). I’ve taken two customer surveys, and received respectively a 20% and 15% off discount. In my hot little hands, I have two “All Chic All Week” coupons, for 40% off full-priced merchandise on 3 successive Wednesdays. Dressing room chat leads me to believe there are many more discounts and deals to be had. Since their merchandise is regularly reduced, I suppose the advantage of a coupon is not having to wait until an item falls to a desirable price, or not having to risk sellout, and the satisfaction of knowing you've gotten a good enough bargain so that you don't have to keep checking back! So far, I’m happily drinking the Banana Republic Kool-Aid.

Browsing Pre-Christmas J. Crew

Call me suggestible. Although I was headed to Banana Republic Women & Home, J.Crew benefitted from their location at the top of the stairs of Copley Place’s second floor (the affordable shops). On a mid-November Wednesday night, I joined a good number of shoppers scoping out Christmas styles and sales. I’d seen the “Wool harbor peacoat” online in sumptuous “barely peach," $220 originally, $169.99 online, plus a 20% off INSIDER sale that ended at 11:59pm, and my goal was to try it on and decide if I should buy it.

The best thing about the coat was its long sleeves. The bright red, “dark poppy,” size 8, seemed too bright, even for me, especially since I seem to be craving lighter neutral colors, an antidote to my all-black closet. The neutral, “antique stone,” size 6, totally washed me out though. The “barely peach” would have been the perfect color. When a salesgirl named Hope (for real!) offered us shoppers bottled water, I realized the dressing room was sweltering, I was tired of the peacoat decision, and most importantly, I wasn't convinced that I needed to have this coat by 11:59pm.
Off the sale rack, I’d plucked something I wouldn’t usually wear, but that’s the fun of browsing, and you never know when you’ll be surprised. A navy (“wild blackberry”) “fan placket perfect shirt,” on sale for $49.99. The silk/cotton blend felt great and light, and I loved that it was washable, but I just don’t get that messy, wrinkled look. I’d want to steam that placket, which was all bunched up, and I’d probably ruin it.

In my search for soft shirts to wear under winter sweaters, I tried the “textured jersey streamers tee” for $36.50, with mini-layers around the scoopneck, in a warm light gray that turns out to be “lavender.” The sleeves were strangely short, longer than 3/4 but barely hitting my wrists. The cotton was not super-soft so it didn’t feel special enough to pay full price for, but I will stop back to see if it goes on sale, because it represents what I think J. Crew does best: awesome colors.

My last item was a long luscious ombre silk scarf, originally $58, reduced to $20. It was light gray in the middle, dark gray at the ends. (Ok, I realize here it looks navy, but in the store I swear it was gray!) Since neutral accent colors are new for me, I wasn’t sure whether it was too cool on the gray spectrum, and needed to revisit it. I did get great advice from Hope on how to wear the scarf: either the ubiquitous “loop” (or “noose”), or a bow (not for me, thanks!), or go ahead and Google “scarf tying.”

All in all, a productive browsing experience, before hitting Banana Republic!

my yelp review: Aveda

Aveda Environmental Lifestyle Store
Categories: Massage, Nail Salons
Neighborhood: Back Bay
100 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 236-1917
Aveda Environmental Lifestyle Store
3 star rating
11/2/2009

Every now and then, I try to step into the world of women who put goop on their faces in order to look more natural. This involves the grueling process of talking about my skin, which is like chalk scraping against a blackboard to my sense of identity. A year and a half had passed since I'd made the mistake of buying Aveda's tinted moisturizer ($28). Because of their incredibly generous return policy, you can return any product, even if opened, without any time restriction. I went back last week, thinking I was ready to try another skin product, something less like makeup, maybe one of their moisturizers.

Let me say I am a BIG fan of Aveda as a brand. All that pure essence of plant and flower shit makes me swoon, much less their focus on sustainable business practices, for which they deserve to be the market leader they are. My allegiance started with their shampoos, one whiff of Shampure to be exact: "a calming mix of 25 pure flower and plant essences," according to the bottle. AND DID I MENTION THAT IT SMELLS FANTASTIC?! Then those sweet little postcards luring me in with free samples or a small bottle of free scent on my birthday (one of which I dropped and found myself actually crying about, although the bedroom smelled wonderful to me for months and months afterwards!). At first I brought the postcards into the Copley store the next day. But every now and then, I'd realize I didn't need or want one of the freebies. In other words, the brand's glow had its off moments. And it is at those moments, when the brand's products aren't keeping their promise, that other aspects of the brand, like warm, welcoming service and fantastic return policies repair the void, ultimately redeeming the customer's brand experience.

This did not happen for me. Of the two employees I met, one was too new to know the welcome drill, withholding the signature licorice tea for a cruelly long period, and the other (the manager) seemed too weary. (You'd think Aveda would stock free energy-boosting treats for staff like the AcaiBlaster antioxidant soft chews I bought from GNC downtown.) Before giving me the spiel about what special ingredients were in this concoction or that concoction, which is what I go there for and what I enjoy, the manager quizzed me in an impatient manner, suggested a four-bottle Botanical Kinetics regime for $90, and then hurried off to the one new customer, leaving me with sticker shock and paranoid thoughts. Wasn't I dressed expensively enough? Do I really want to shop in a place that you feel you have to dress up for? I had come from work, so it wasn't like I was in sweats. I managed to leave with a (relatively) modest 1.7 fl oz bottle of what was labeled a massage oil ($21) (and which I thought my husband would, ahem, enjoy), the energizing composition, but I think it's the staff who needs a good dose of it.

my yelp review: Rinaldi's

Rinaldi's Park Square
Category: Shoe Repair
Neighborhood: Back Bay
31 Saint James Ave Ste 550
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 426-6480
4 star rating
11/1/2009

I wouldn't have ventured into the Park Square Building, past the manned security desk, if Camper hadn't sent me. The old Boston building had pretentious gilded scrollwork and friezes inside the double height lobby and along the first floor concourse that creeped me out. Or maybe the strange mix of shops reminded me slightly of Harry Potter's Diagon Alley for wizarding supplies, where you hoped you could remember how to get out before some mischievous young wizard tried out their new wand on you. The quarter-sized blister on my left heel had just healed from this fall's debut of my Camper Spirals 46098-002, and I wanted someone to stretch the culprit (the left boot) to prevent a long torturous wearing in period. I am a firm believer in not suffering for fashion.

With a name like Rinaldi's, you walk in to the teeny shop wanting to love the place, and I can safely say that I did, although my simple request might not have been much of a test. I presented the woman behind the counter with my plainly beautiful brown leather left boot. She held it respectfully, for which I was grateful, since that one boot cost me about $106, and that was only after I'd gone back to Camper's a week later to get the price reduction. I wanted to tell her the whole story behind buying them (because there's always a story, isn't there?): how I had plunked down my hard-earned cash after a long search for boots that fit my narrow calves, and my love of rubber soles, and that I had considered them perfect until my first blister last winter, which I'd completely forgotten about until putting them on last week. But luckily for her, I didn't.

A man whom I'll presume was Mr. Rinaldi came up some stairs from a lower level workshop, and made a few expert observations: that he would only stretch the heel leather a little bit since it would stretch eventually with normal wear; that it would fit better now if I just put in thinner insoles (which I didn't want to do); that he could do it for $10, which I gathered was $5 off the regular price. Maybe because it was only one boot?

I've worn the boots once since and am completely happy with Rinaldi's work. The left heel now fits perfectly. Unfortunately, this correction has highlighted the fact that the right toebox is a little narrow, even though it's rounded, leaving my poor fourth toe chafed and close to blistered. I will have to test the boots a few more times to decide if I need to have the right one stretched. If I do, I know where to go.

my yelp review: Jerry's

Jerry's Custom Tailoring and Alterations
Category: Sewing & Alterations
Neighborhood: Back Bay
729 Boylston St
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 266-5757
5 star rating
9/4/2009

A claim check for Jerry's Custom Tailors is in my wallet right now. I first heard about him over ten years ago when buying a couple of dresses (on sale) at Lord & Taylor's for my wedding rehearsal dinner. Either they didn't have a tailor, or the tailor couldn't do it on short notice, so they referred me to Jerry, just across the street! Uber-convenient, since I worked at 745 Boylston and lived in Bay Village. Several jobs and one move to JP later, I'm still a regular.

While I can do basic hemming and button replacement, I don't always have the time or want to risk messing it up. Jerry is very discrete and treats everything I bring in with respect, even if they are fresh from sale racks, or — gasp — thrift stores! Off the top of my head, some work he's done: hemmed my pants from J.Crew (pink seersucker on sale) and Boomerang's (brown wool plaid bought for $9); he's shortened the sleeves on my North Face softshell jacket (Freeport ME outlet); and at this moment, he's resizing a size 14 pink linen Banana Republic tulip skirt ($1 at Boomerangs outlet closing sale!), and raising an ankle-length hem on a bias-cut linen dress to just below the knee (vintage Boomerangs).

Go to Jerry — but don't hog him! He will turn your clothes into perfectly fitting favorites. And if you haven't noticed, I'm very cost-conscious, so you know Jerry must be reasonable. :)
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Update - 11/1/2009

I cannot believe how well the Banana Republic skirt turned out (see 9/4/09 review). Imagine resizing a skirt from size 14 to a size 4 or 6. The only way you can tell is that the side zipper is now a couple inches off-center and sits in back of my left hip, but that said, the seams line up on the outside and the inside lining. Perfect for my next warm-weather visit to Florida or the Caribbean?!!