Cheryl Shops

Cheryl (bargain) shops
On Thursday I had a little time to kill before meeting a friend for a drink (actually many drinks), so I headed over to Bloomingdale's in Soho, where, it turns out, it was Girls Night, which is just like any other night, except they pump up the music, serve sugary cocktails, and put certain things on sale. I could care less about the first two things, but yay for sales! In the Aqua department (Bloomie's contemporary private label, which happens to be designed by Necessary Objects, another one of my bargain faves) I bought two trendy items that I never thought I'd own: "formal" shorts and a bubble skirt. The shorts are just above my knee, in a stretch wool fabric, with pleats in the front. They are quite flattering considering the only shorts I normally wear are when I'm working out, and I think I can get away with wearing them to work. As for the bubble skirt, I tried on several styles just for fun (I had a dress back in the '80s that was a black velvet bodice with a polka-dot bubble skirt, and I loved it to death); while most of them made me look like an elephant, I found one that is slimming and extremely comfortable--the key is to get one in a lightweight jersey that's not too poofy. I'll wear mine with a fitted top so I don't look like a fashion victim (or like a coworker of mine, who wears hers with leggings and off-the-shoulder tops). Speaking of tops, I hit H&M and Forever 21 on Friday (again, killing time before meeting a friend) for some fun summer tops. At H&M I was in search of stripes, and that's what I ended up with: a cute blue-and-white drawstring top. H&M also had some great, really thin tanks that reminded me of La Cosa (at a much more wallet-friendly $7 each). At Forever 21, I stocked up on white tanks and tees. I love getting basics at F21, because everything is like $8, and I love how thin they are--perfect for layering. Plus, while I also love upscale T-shirt lines like C&C California, I never buy anything white from them--whites get too dingy too quickly. The best part of my little spree is that I got 8 tops for $60, which is pretty much the cost of one C&C tee. While I didn't get around to changing my closet this weekend, at least I have some new stuff to wear. That is, if the weather starts cooperating...