Guest post: Reviews by Betsy

The guest posts keep on rolling. This morning Betsy chimes in with reviews of products I’ll admit I hadn’t really thought much about, but now have wishlisted. Post’s all yours, Betsy! And thanks.

Hi everyone! The wonderful Roxy is allowing me to do a few guest reviews, and I’m so excited! With a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, I took a trip down to my local Pearl District Anthro this afternoon and had a blast trying things on.

First up was the Glinting Hollyhock Tee ($58) by C. Keer. My store had both purple and grey, though it looks like only the grey is available online. I tried this on in my true size medium, and it fit well, with a little bit of room to move. It seemed like the type of shirt that’s not supposed to be skintight. I loved this top! The purple is beautiful, and the flower appliqués are a nice touch around the open neckline, sewn on with gold thread. It’s the perfect length, hitting right at my hips. One of my favorite parts was the back. This shirt has a pretty chiffon ribbon sewn onto each side, which ties in a bow at the nape. I thought that feature was elegant and unique – I’d want to wear my hair up just to show it off! For $58, it’s not a bad deal, as Anthro goes. To the wishlist!

Next I tried on the Jana Herringbone Trousers ($128) by Cartonnier. I haven’t worn pants to work at all lately – it’s been all about the pencil skirts. Partly, it’s because I can usually wear a size 6 or 8 in the waist, but when it comes to my badonk, all bets are off. Indeed, I had to size up to a 10 in order to get my junkular trunk to fit properly into these pants. Once they were on, though, I loved them. I tried the grey, though my store had brown, as well. The leg was the perfect width, and the fabric was very nice and had a beautiful drape. Another plus – the cuffs are sewn all the way around, not just attached at the sides. I have a coworker who has faceplanted at work at least twice when the heel of her shoe got caught in an underattached pant cuff. You can probably see in the photos that these trousers are long – I’m 5’7” and there’s no way I could pull them off with flats. With heels, they’re great. All in all a really, really nice pair of pants, though $128 is a bit steep. I’ll probably wait for these to go on sale.

While we’re on the topic of trousers, I checked out Elevenses’ Widest Leg Pants ($88). I tried these brown pants on, once again, in a size 10. And… oh, dear. These were 38 flavors of wrong on me. They were too tight through in the thighs and booticular region, and the pleats in the front gaped wide open instead of draping gracefully. I doubt that these pleats will hold up after a washing, and since they’re linen, the pants are going to need hours of ironing. I was enchanted by the buttons but they did nothing but attract attention to my hips. Ultimately, these pants looked like… well, do you remember those huge raver pants from the 90s? The ones raver kids would wear with chain wallets? Yep, that. That’s exactly what these looked like. Sigh. These would probably look great on someone tall and very slender. Somebody who could simultaneously rock a very large sun hat.

Next on my list was the Sewing Club Hoodie ($88) by Saturday/Sunday. The website says that its colors are either “Ivory” and “Med Pink.” However, I’d describe them more as “Oatmeal” and “Coral.” The pink is very orange, and the ivory has a bit of subtle tan in the weave. I tried the Ivory/Oatmeal, in my normal medium. This is sweatshirt material, fuzzy on the inside and nice and warm. It has a hood, cross stitch detailing, and a sash to tie it shut. I found the medium to be a bit big, with a lot of extra material bunching around and making me look lumpy. I ended up scrunching a lot of it to the back in order to take the photos. I think this could be a nice alternative to a traditional zippered sweatshirt, but I’d size down to a small. Ultimately I found the cross stitching to be a bit grandma-ish, and the style wasn’t right for me. Back to the rack!

Finally, I tried on C. Keer’s Petal Shower Top. My store was out of mediums so I tried a small. This is not a top that would have caught my eye on the website, but in person, it’s really beautiful. The material is soft cotton, and the little ruffles down the front aren’t overdone. I heart the ribbon trim, which is a lovely petal pink. And the sleeves are perfect on me – long enough to cover my kinda-big upper arms, but still short. The length of this top is perfect, as is the scoop neck. The small actually fit pretty well, so at $58, this top became my only clothing purchase of the day. I think I’ll be able to dress this top down with jeans, or up with a skirt and heels for the office.