Guest post: Reviews by Lola

Please join me in welcoming Lola back for guest posting duties this afternoon! I see her rocking the Pessinus Garden Necklace and I heartily approve! If you’re interested in writing a guest post please email me or click the “contact” link near the top of the blog. On to the guest post…

I live 2 hours from the nearest Anthropologie store, so I do about 90% of my shopping online. I hate to pay the exorbitant shipping fees when I don’t know whether an item will fit, so I try to make my way down to the Boylston Street store in Boston once or twice each season to try on everything that I’m thinking about purchasing over the next few months (yes, my fitting room sessions can last for several hours…). When I heard about the free shipping offer for the month of March, I decided to break with tradition and order some items that I haven’t tried on yet. Although it won’t be summer in New Hampshire for quite a while, I couldn’t resist the urge to order some sunny golden garments.

The Sungrown Tank ($58) has been at the top of my wishlist for at least a month. I’m a sucker for fabric rosettes, even though they’ve been done so many times over the past year. I also have an inexplicable fascination with items that feel “unfinished.” Needless to say, the Sun Grown Tank, with its nylon frayed edges and perfect golden blossoms, was irresistible to me. The tank was almost perfect. My one complaint is that it’s slightly see-through. Not the inappropriate-for-work kind of see-through, but you do have to be careful about what you wear underneath. I tried it on with the beige Banana Republic skirt that I wore to work today and I could see exactly where the skirt started under the shirt. When I wear this tank, I’ll pair it with a light summer skirt so that it doesn’t leave a shadowy ring around my waist. I tried on my usual small and found it to be true to size. I have a short torso, so this shirt did a nice job of elongating it. The metallic fabric is slightly rough but not to a point where I was bothered by it.

I fell in love with the Wind Catcher Dress ($168) the minute that I laid my eyes on the March catalog. I normally avoid white dresses because they tend to make me look like a ghost (I have an extremely pale complexion). I also normally avoid buying strapless dresses because they never stay up as well as I want them to. Unfortunately, love tends to make all rational thought disappear. My boyfriend had to tell me at least six times that the dress was just too big on me. Looking at the photos, I see that he was right. While I’m most often a size 6 in Anthropologie dresses, I think I’m going to have to go with a 4 (or possibly a 2) in this one. I’m hoping that the egregious fit will be fixed merely by sizing down, because I’m still hopelessly in love with this dress. The linen fabric is so airy that it makes me want to prance around. Oh, and did I mention that it has pockets?

The last item in my order is the gold Shined Up Headband ($32). Since starting grad school, Anthropologie headbands have become a wardrobe staple. On the mornings when I’m too sleep-deprived and stressed-out to think about styling my hair, I just throw it in a ponytail, add a headband… and voila! I look like someone who didn’t stay up until 4 AM the previous night working on my thesis. Although Anthropologie headbands are expensive at $32, I think that they’re worth the price. I’ve worn some of mine hundreds of times and they’ve held up well over the years. I’ve only ever had one (out of seven) stretch to a point where I couldn’t wear it anymore. Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have any questions about quality/sizing/fit.