Hello!
My name is Susan Wagner; I am BlogHer.com's Contributing Editor for Fashion and Shopping, and the managing editor of BlogHer's BeautyHacks project. We have a special opportunity available to Oklahoma City area bloggers, and we would like to invite you to participate. We've partnered with JC Penney to offer eight bloggers the chance to go shopping -- with me!
It's the next best thing to having Clinton and Stacy come to your house. I promise.
BlogHer will provide you with a $300 JC Penney gift card to shop for clothing… [and] I am going to ask that you spend one day (approximately three hours) shopping with me, not on your own. And by "shopping with me" I mean letting me help you pick out clothes, for work or play or whatever you need right now.
So let me get this straight. JC Penney would give me $300 to go shopping? With Susan, fashion guru of the blog-o-sphere? And all I'd have to do was write about it afterwards? Gee, let me think about it… twist my arm… uh, YEAH I'll go shopping on someone else's dime. I hit the mother load! It would be like a paid writing job, but better. Instead of responsibly saving my paycheck, I would be forced to spend it on NEW CLOTHES. "Sorry, honey,” I told Chris. “I'd love to contribute the money to our 401K, but that's the gig."
So that we wouldn’t be walking into this shopping trip cold, Susan had me answer a few questions about myself and my normal style. The questions were as follows:
1. What's your normal everyday uniform?
2. Is there anything specific that you want or need to shop for?
3. Is there anything else you want me to know about you -- about your size or shape or lifestyle?
My answers included the following dirty details:
"Weekday uniform: solid color, fitted tshirts, worn with jeans or khakis. In colder weather, I'll layer on a hoodie or a fleece pullover. For shoes, I always wear socks when the weather's cool, and tragically they are often white cotton athletic socks. I live in Dansko clogs. Basically, I dress like I did in college because it was comfortable and functional and I'm Peter Pan and don't want to grow up. Luckily I have a job where this is acceptable. Occasionally I do like to or need to look nice. The sad truth is that I am lazy and would rather not put that kind of effort into my daily wardrobe. "
"The one thing I am dying for is a new winter coat. The old one I have is a navy blue nylon parka with the name of my father-in-law's plumbing company embroidered on the back. Klassy. And I have actually worn this to formal occasions. "
"I share my home with my husband (who is an artist and often ends up wearing his work), a three year old son who is a MESS, two (large, muddy) dogs and two (hairy) cats, all of whom contribute to my wardrobe. I have tried wearing cuter, more fashionable things in their presence, but the clothes are destroyed in such record time that I feel as if my money would have been better spent on those fruitless scratch & win lotto tickets."
I was asked to include a few pictures of myself, which I will also do here for the dramatic before/after effect.
You get the idea. I may not have been a fashion disaster, but I was comfortably on my way. And to answer your question, no I was not stoned when those pictures were taken, my eyes just happened to be closed in almost every one of them. Perhaps I was asleep standing up. That happens a lot these days.
Susan and I put our heads together and decided that priority number one was the coat, even though winter coats weren't part of JC Penney's trend line that we were asked to promote. My apologies to the good folks at JC Penney, but this was a fashion emergency. Trendy clothes are well and good, but if you cover them with a plumbing parka, you're not doing anyone any favors.
We hit the coats and found (to Susan’s shock and my horror) that faux fur seemed to be the 'thing' this year in winter coats. Susan tried to convince me that I could totally get away with fur if I wanted to, but I died a little on the inside when I tried one on. Apparently my face gave me away, so we moved quickly to the wool coats. After a few awkward fits (waistline too low or silhouette too bulky), we found an adorable cashmere blend pea coat in "Posh Red", a color that would go smashingly with blacks or browns and could be dressed up or down. We will see about warmth when the weather gets colder, but I was sweating inside the store which I took as a good sign. Mission accomplished! And to add to my newfound streak of luck, all coats were half off so instead of paying the sticker price of $200, I practically STOLE that thing for $100. Go me!
Priority number two was looking like a grown up person, not a college kid living on minimum wage. To that end, we hunted for a dress I could wear to semi-formal occasions, as well as some nicer clothes I could wear to work on those days I needed to look my age.
We tried on several dresses that, when combined with my unnaturally short torso, were hilarious. I am only sorry that we didn’t get some good photos of them. Seriously, they made me look like a linebacker – the necklines were hitting my ears. In the end, we found a brown, high waisted flutter sleeved dress (by Breakin' Loose) that hit above the knee – a sort of earth toned variation on the little black dress (which was also nearly half priced… maybe I should start playing the lottery!).
The fabric is a poly/spandex blend that drapes nicely and is WASHABLE, which is important because at some point it will inevitably be smeared with Go-Gurt or muddy dog prints. Since I am waaaaay too lazy to dry clean anything ever, it’s important that I be able to throw it in the washing machine. This dress was my husband’s favorite, and had him asking me on a date moments after I’d slipped it on. I told him yes as long as he promised to wear something with no paint on it. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this has yet to happen.
The last task was to find some clothes that would help me look professional on those occasions when I actually need to. We hit JC Penney’s trendier sections with brands like Worthington, Bisou, and A.N.A.. Finding my size was often impossible and eliminated a lot of really cute possibilities. (Dear JCP buyers – apparently lots of women in Oklahoma City are a size 6. Please stock more of these!) Although I almost never wear them, Susan had me try on some skirts, and they admittedly make sense for dressing up.
Despite my initial misgivings, I eventually fell in love with this glen plaid one by Worthington that Susan convinced me to try on. We loved it for its flattering line and its tulip shape – just a little funkier than your average pencil skirt. It could easily be paired with tights and/or boots in colder weather, making it versatile.The next challenge was to find a top to go with it. I tried on this sweater, thinking that it looked really fun on the mannequin (and even on the website), but when put on my body turned out all kinds of wrong. We also hit the ruffled shirts as those are very big this year, but ended up deciding on one of the gazillion tops in this color (see above picture), which is my new favorite this season. I’m usually a neutral colors kinda gal, but this delicious plummy color adds just the right splash for fall. Together with the skirt, I had an outfit worthy of my 31 years!
Just for fun, Susan had me try on a sweater in a soft jewel toned purple.
It had the most flattering neckline, and I loved how it dressed up a simple pair of jeans. Both it and the plum sweater were ON SALE and MACHINE WASHABLE – my two favorite things.
So a coat, a dress, a skirt, and some shirts later, we were all set to check out, right? NO WAY, JOSE! What good would a free shopping trip be without a visit to the shoe department? We went in search of a pair of boots that could dress things up in the winter months, but were unable to find exactly what we wanted (although subsequent perusal of the JCP website brought these to my attention and I am currently trying to figure out when I can get back down there to make them mine forever and ever). The boots were a bust, but we found some great flats including a pair of shiny purple ones (that I'm wearing in all of the above pictures) with a buckling ankle strap. I love them so much that they will have to be pried off my cold dead feet.
The good news? They were only $21.99. The bad news? I got the last pair at the store. Apparently I am not the only one who fell in love. I never ever thought I’d be the kind of person to own purple shoes, but this was another comfort-zone stretching suggestion of Susan’s, who apparently knows me better than I know myself. They go smashingly with everything I bought and make me feel adorable, which is what fashion's all about, isn’t it? We also snagged a sweet, simple pair of brown flats with a mary jane strap (see jeans picture) that will look cute with at least half the things I own. They are lovely. (But they are no purple shiny shoes.)
I still had a few bucks left on the ol’ gift card, so Susan and I tried hunting down some tights to extend the wearing time of my clothes into the colder months. Normally I am strongly opposed to tights, as they (along with panty hose and Tyra Banks) fall into the category of “Things That Make Me Violent.” But again, this was a growing opportunity for me, and if I wasn’t going to try something new on someone else’s dime, when would I? Armed with my new attitude, Susan and I scoured JC Penney in search of tights, only to discover that they do not sell them. Panty hose were in abundance, but opaque tights did not exist in a size larger than 2T. This was probably the only big disappointment of the experience.
Time was running out for us both as Susan had to pick her kids up from school and I had to get back to work from my "dentist appointment", so we parted ways with a promise that I would, on my own, continue the hunt for tights (which I did quite successfully at another fine establishment. Sorry JCP).
Overall, I am amazed at what I was able to take home for $300. Sure, the sales helped tremendously, but I was impressed by the number of things at JC Penney that were a) adorable, b) affordable and c) maintainable. I feel like I may actually be able to look nice and feel confident every once in a while without worrying about the clothes getting dirty. I won’t be wearing grown-up clothes on a daily basis anytime soon, but it’s sure nice to know that I at least have the option.
I also can’t say enough nice things about Susan and how much fun she was to shop with. If you ever get the chance to hit the mall with her, I highly recommend it. She challenged me to move outside my comfort zone and try things that I never would have looked at twice which, funnily enough, is exactly what it takes to update your look. So, ladies, I encourage you to be bold and brave, to try something new and un-you, because you just might discover a side of yourself that you didn’t know existed. And JC Penney, with their combination of stylish and practical, of form and function, is a great place to start. But if you're a size six you may want to hurry.
Late breaking (awesome!) news: Hours before I posted this, I found out that BlogHer and JC Penney will be giving away yet anohter shopping trip to one lucky blogger. Enter this sweepstakes to win $300 and a virtual style consultation with The Amazing Susan. Do it now! All the cool kids will be doing it, too!
