Oh, CRAP, It's a BR FINAL SALE >.<

(image from bananarepublic.com)

Oh Nos! It's a crappy final sale, only this time it isn't J.Crew, it's freaking Banana Republic. No exchanges online, in stores, at all. Booo! This is a sad foreshadowing of things to come. :(

AE Crochet Front Dress

I am super excited today because this came in the mail:

AE Crochet Dress, $14.95 on clearance at www.ae.com

(photos from ae.com)

I ended up getting this dress for free because I earned a $25 gift certificate from e-rewards. Since AE had a July 4th free shipping promo for any order with 3+ items, the dress plus some 100% cotton undies came to just under $5.

The AE Crochet Front Dress [0393-9117] is down to $14.95 clearance from $39.99 retail. According to the site, it's 60% cotton and 40% modal jersey (and 100% comfort IRL). It has a built-in shelf bra, and comes in black, white, teaberry (red), or harbor blue (navy). I had been debating between the black and the white since black could pass for a casual evening dress, but since the style was very "day" stuck with white. It turns out to be the only white dress in my closet, so I'm glad I went with it. It has a detachable nautical rope belt (which hits at the natural waist) and light fabric, which are perfect for summer. The hem hits me right at the knee; I'm petite at under 5', so this probably would mean above the knee or mid-thigh to normal sized people. The back has a darling keyhole detail:

It's light and cool, and -seriously - it feels like I'm wearing a nightgown. YET it's adorable and perfect for today's weather of 92°F. I feel like a cool summer beauty in this thing. It's the perfect weight cotton - not too light, not too heavy - for a hot weather dress.

Typically I steer clear of the younger-geared labels like AE, Abercrombie, or Hollister simply because their cuts tend to be smaller and either juvenile or bordering on the smutty, but sometimes they do loose, breathable cotton things well, like this dress here. So, it pays to visit the site once in a blue moon. For sizing, at J.Crew & Banana I usually take a Small; in AE I must size up to Medium (and am sure glad I did, otherwise this thing would be cleaning my kitchen counter). I try to get cleanly cut or classically cut items when shopping there, so I don't end up looking 14. So far, so good.
In addition to the dress I got a handful of undies to brighten up my underwear drawer (in goofy fun prints OMG! I'm showing you my underwear!):

Aloha floral boybrief Style: 6441-6693 93% cotton, 7% spandex

Ruffleback Tie Dye Lowkini Style: 3444-6830 90% cotton, 10% spandex

yes, those are ruffles on the back!

Beach Flowers Boybrief Style: 6441-6748 93% cotton, 7% spandex

1st Color scheme

http://colorschemedesigner.com/#3B31TmuoTvySy

My first test post.

Hi blogger world. This is my first post on this new endeavor of a blog. I find myself spending too much time on the internet, so thought it would be fruitful to add something to it rather than just absorb the muck off the top of it. Since I love fashion and surfing the 'net (aside from other things), their marriage in this blog seemed destined in th'stars. I'm pretty terrible at the confession-style writing of blogs, and very rusty at writing in general, but gosh darn it, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. ;)