For some of us, Boxing Day is a secular holiday that falls on the day after Christmas. It may (depending on your employer) buy you an extra day off at work to spend more time with family and friends. Or in my case, with strangers, all of whom afflicted with the same shopping addiction in varying degrees of seriousness. And so this begins the diary of a mad “boxer.”
5:56am: I beat my alarm by 4 minutes but wait in bed to listen to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy as the alarm goes off on my phone. Usually the music puts me in the holiday spirit, but this early on a Sunday morning? Bah humbug!
7:35am: I turn left on Bedford from Wilshire Boulevard to enter the parking structure at Saks Fifth Avenue. Twenty-five minutes till the doors actually open and already there are lines in front of every entrance. I clutch my steering wheel.
7:50am: It’s freezing out here as I queue up at the shortest line I could find. I should have worn those ugly but comfy shoes I wrote about earlier and jeans and a hoodie, but this morning I got into this get up instead because I have an appointment later that requires me to look, well, put together. So I’m in some theory black jeans, black longsleeved tshirt, and Chanel chain link cardigan and captoe mules.
I know, totally inappropriate for power shopping, but heck, I am standing in the middle of Beverly Hills and I even spot a few furs. It’s in the 50s right about now, and that’s basically freezing point for us Angelenos.
Did I say there is a line everywhere I look?
Let’s see what the other gals are wearing, shall we…
8:00am You know all the polite chitchat that was happening in line while we were waiting? All of it goes out the window as soon as the doors fly open, when the women rush in like ants to a piece of candy on the floor. They run, push, pull, shove, shout until they get to whatever item it is that they think they must have to avoid certain death. We are all mad, I tell myself, and some of those women can swing their elbows as effectively as any professional boxer!
I want to run in the opposite direction, but too late; I’m dragged in by the crowd’s momentum, just like on a subway train during rush hour in Tokyo.
9:05am: I’m already done scouring the 3 main floors. Pretty much everything on sale gets another 50% off (except for shoes/accessories), hence, the madness. Gucci and Chanel are excluded from the extra discount, which makes my shopping a lot shorter. I’ve already tried on about 15 items and end up with only the Marni tanks and an Alexander McQueen dress:
I think I’ll get a lot of use out of those fun Marni tanks for layering under cardigans. Here’s how it looks when I try it on later this evening:
9:30am: The shoe department at Saks looks like a disaster area and everything I pick up is not on sale. And I’m not about to stand in line for 3 hours just to pay full price, so these shoes will just go on my wish list for the Spring buys:
9:55am: I hear Banana Republic is also doing a 50% off all sales so I use my Yelp app on my phone to find it in Bev Hills. Turns out it’s just one street over from my favorite corner in this place…hmmm, wonder why 
:
Anyway, I find a gorgeous, long, black hand-knitted cardigan at Banana for $45. I sortof want to wear it out of the store because it’s still so cold outside!
10:30am: I’ve made it to Century City Shopping Mall to exchange a gift I got from JCrew. Surprisingly I have no trouble finding parking and I’m in and out in under 30 minutes. I pick up a taupe silk shantung embellished top ($21, I kid you not!)…
and a sherpa lined dark green jacket (not $21!) in exchange for the cardigan that was too big:
I kinda want to wear this jacket out of the store as well. It’s much too cold to enjoy this outdoors mall.
Noon: Sheer madness, I tell you, but I’ve just made it to the third mall! Luck must be on my side today because someone gives me her parking space as soon as I pull into the parking garage. I’m here to return a Chanel jacket that was sent to me in two sizes too big. Experience alone tells me that I need to stick to my true size, no matter how great of a magician my alterations lady is. But am I really only here to do a return? Mouhahahahaha.
Let the madness continue in the next entry …
Tags: Alexander McQueen, Banana Republic, Boxing Day, Chanel, Gucci, JCrew, Marni, Saks Fifth Avenue
When it rains here, we Angelenos (1) call in sick (cough, cough), (2) videotape it for posterity, and/or (3) whine that it’s raining even though the meteorologist tells us we need the rain. I was born in the tropics and grew up in Texas so I’m no stranger to rain, but all these years of dry LA living has brainwashed me and I always find myself unprepared for anything but sunny skies these days. So when a reader suggested a challenge for a rain wear, specifically to run errands in, I was wondering how to even FIMTSO such looks without a single umbrella in any of the pics…I think all of my umbrellas are either somewhere in the car collecting dust or in my carry-on waiting for a trip to a wet destination!
For today’s episode, I’m going to do something a little different. Instead of featuring one key item in all the looks, I’m going to make the rain be the common denominator for the various looks.
Test Item: Rainwear
Look 1: Rain usually happens during the “winter” months here in LA, and that’s when I can break out one of my favorite Chanel pieces: it’s my navy tweed trench from the 08C season worn over the 08A navy/gray striped turtleneck. Skinny jeans and navy leather converse complete my outfit. I know I’m in LA and we love to show off our pedicures here, but if it’s raining, you’ve gotta cover your toes!
Look 2: The weird thing about winter here is that it actually makes sense to wear puffer vests. It’s not quite cold enough to wear a puffer jacket, so if you remove the sleeves it’s just the right amount of coverage–ha! I love this hooded black vest from the GAP over white long-sleeved ts and cropped corduroys to show off my rain boots. Chanel always gets black/white right!
But if for some reason the vest is too thick or I’m not in the mood to look like a Michelin gal, I would wear a black leather jacket over a long-sleeved hoodie tshirt with the above outfit instead:
Look 3: The truth of the matter is that when it rains and you are schlepping around running errands, you just want to be comfortable. No fuss, no muss. So if it’s Sunday and raining, you will find me in jeans, lace-free sneakers, and a fun t-shirt (I love Harajuku Lovers tees). Then I throw on the lightweight Prada hooded windbreaker/quasi-rain jacket just to keep the rain from hitting my arms and torso. I find a bold print in the jacket makes everything more fun to wear!
Look 4: If it’s raining and not super cold, I might venture into girly-girl territory and wear this dark rinse short denim sundress with navy sneakers. The Marni rain jacket keeps me from the rain and baring my shoulders too much in this strapless number. I know what you’re thinking…who in their right mind would wear a light colored rain jacket? Well…this is la-la land after all.
But look closer, at least the jacket is utilitarian. Do you see how the hoodie has a bill, like with a baseball cap?! And the Mossimo dress has tuxedo ruffles in the front!
So this FIMTSO begs the question: just what is the right bag for rainy weather? I’ve yet to solve that dilemma…
Tags: Chanel, Converse, FIMTSO, Gap, Harajuku Lovers, Marni, Mossimo, Prada
Thanks everyone for your concerned emails about my health. This week I am running at 98%, and in a few days I expect to be back in overdrive mode…just in time for sale season. The days of pre-sell leading up to the actual public sales have already kicked in, so this past weekend was a whir of viewing and trying things reserved for me…grrr, so many shoes and only two feet!
The shoe departments are full of floor-to-ceiling mirrors and soft lighting to goad you into a shoe frenzy, and if you didn’t have a shoe fetish before, you usually do by the time they finish bringing out the tenth pair. And if you were wired for shoes the day you were born, like yours truly, then…well, it’s hopeless. But I behaved. Designer shoes have gotten so expensive virtually overnight that I think these are the only two pairs I want for now–the Marni peep-toe bootie…
and the gray Louboutin wedges that will match a gray bag I’m considering (it’s always like this, isn’t it…do we buy shoes to match bags or bags to match shoes?)…
OK. I lied. I’ve not behaved all that much. Because these just followed me home from the Prada and Converse outlets. Umm, do I get a pass for outlet shopping?
PS: the first pic is of two Chanel buttons (they are lipsticks positioned to spell out COCO if you have 4 of them) my buddy sent me from KL. You see? The Chanel addiction is not entirely my fault. I have enablers from around the world!
So Halloween this year fell on a Saturday under a very full moon. No costume party for me this time, which turned out to be a good thing because I’d been feeling sick all week, and by the time the weekend rolled around I was pooped…though I suppose I could have gone to a party dressed as a swine flu victim.
When I don’t feel well I try to do busy work to distract myself from my misery. I’m here to tell you that plan never works. What I did was reorganize my closet which was once a spare bedroom. Even bought new furniture to create more storage, but before the furniture could go in, I had to take everything out of there and cram them into my home office. So now while the furniture looks great in my closet, I am sitting here at my desk almost in a fetal position, typing this, buried under the mounds of clothes and what not. I don’t know what possessed me to think this was a good idea. It may take a whole week of uninterrupted concentration to clean up this mess.
Anyway, Halloween Saturday started early at geek central, aka Fry’s Electronics, since I’m in the market for a netbook. Beetlejuice didn’t help me…
but I was just comparison shopping anyway. And my next stop was at Best Buy. No costumed employees there but I think I know which netbook I want now. A few more pit stops and it was time to refuel at a Vietnamese restaurant that specialized in dishes from Central VN (Huế). The best part was that I got to find a vegetarian bún bò Huế:
and a non-vegetarian bánh bèo (one of my all time fav snacks):
Vietnamese food tends to be quite salty, so I had to wash it down with a strawberry limeade from Sonic:
I know, you can take a girl out of Texas but you can’t really take Texas out of her. There’s a Sonic practically on every block in Dallas but here, I had to go all the way to Anaheim to find one! Anyhow, by 6pm I was back home and an hour later I was off to see the LA Clippers play the Dallas Mavs.
LA Live is a sports-entertainment complex playing a key role in reviving downtown LA. The Lakers, Clippers, and Kings play at the STAPLES Center,
and within this campus there are venues like the Nokia Theater/Plaza,
ESPN zone, Grammy Museum, and a bunch of restaurants:
Given that it was a Halloween Saturday and the Clippers playing (sorry guys), the arena was only about 40% full. But it was a pretty good game and at least during half time, the entertainment was an enjoyable group performance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller…
While I was enjoying my typical junk food fare,
I got to see Dracula,
and a bunch of people dressed as pimps and wenches. Oh wait, they weren’t in costume.
The Clippers tried hard but they also went down like the Lakers the night before. And by the time we all went outside, there were quite a few people, definitely in costume, at the Nokia Plaza:
But c’mon, this is LA. We don’t need Halloween to see all the freaks. And maybe next Halloween I can dress up in a Clipper uniform and they’ll let me play.
PS: this is a new feature I’ll try to incorporate into my entries because some of you have asked me to talk more about fashion, particularly working the ODJs (outfit du jour) into the story. So what was I wearing today on my day off? JCrew sherpa hoodie, Marni tank, Mossimo green khakis, Balenciaga leather bracelet, navy leather Converse sneakers, and Chanel grey camera bag:
Tags: Balenciaga, Chanel, Clippers, Converse, Halloween, JCrew, Marni, Nokia Plaza, Staple Center, Thriller
Before I got to the Dancing House in yesterday’s entry,
I had actually zipped back to my hotel to freshen up. The day had warmed up big time by mid-afternoon so I changed into a sleeveless Marni top and a pair of flip flops.
I get my second wind and walk along the main streets that border the Vltava River:
There are so many grand buildings all over Prague,
and once in a while I’d see the antique cars that you can rent to tour the city in–they come with a chauffeur:
Everywhere I look there are dramatic, ornate statues…
This sprawling one is my favorite:
I’m amused to find a painting of it hanging on the wall of a restaurant I pop inside to consider for dinner (but I ultimately choose not to eat here):
I finally cross over to the boardwalk to preview tomorrow’s tour of Charles Bridge:
It’s at this point that my camera’s battery starts flashing, telling me I’m almost out of juice.Which is just as well; I’m heading back to the city center…
for dinner with one of these…
followed by some of this:
It’s a short walk back to the hotel from dinner, which is a good thing because I’m pooped; it’s been a heady full day in Prague. One last picture at the hotel before my camera completely dies:
Tags: Charles Bridge, Dancing House, Marni, Prague, Vltava River
