bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

Oh, Goth

We, apparently, missed the boat on being a goth kid. We never really liked wearing black more than t-shirts or dresses or tights. We didn't really get into black nailpolish, save for one manicure last year. We have never sworn off our parents, or liked The Smiths or The Cure. Even in our angst-ridden days, we've always been pretty happy and cheerful.

We think this happy disposition is part of what's making our latest shopping ventures a little hard to digest. We've definitely cut back on our shopping, and rather than buy the same thing in multiple versions of the same colors, we've started to gravitate towards black. This weekend, we picked up black boots, a black dress, and black jeans. We're still kind of new to the whole wearing black thing; and given our normal appearance (we've been told that we look 'edgy' - and this was while wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and flip flops), we try to soften how we look with clothes. We debuted the black jeans today - and we were really happy with them, save for some minor numbness due to how snug they were. Sure, we could've splurged and got a pair with, oh, maybe STRETCH or something - but for $12.50, it was worth a shot. We're still figuring out what to wear this with - the tendency to look Joan Jett or sad sack is definitely there. But so far, so good.

Fabianna Skinny Jeans, $12.50

We picked this dress up at American Apparel (like you couldn't tell from the on model shot) during Fashion Night Out. We wanted a long-ish shirt/dress/tunic that we could comfortably wear with or without leggings/tights/pants without looking like we forgot how to dress ourselves. We're kind of in between sizes at AA - while we fit into one size, we do not want to look like we work on a corner, so we always size up. That makes this dress extremely loose throughout the top and midsections, but we're hoping we can pull it off. We'll wear this with black tights and yellow heels for fun, or dark jeans and boots for work. It may live in our closet forever, but we think we can make it work. Having read the review on AA, we'd suggest anyone who didn't want to highlight their "buh-donkey/j.lo" (seriously, we can't make this up) size up.

Pique Dolman Sleeve Dress, $36

Now, to be honest, these were not our first choice of boots. Our first choice arrived in the post today and promptly got packaged back up and sent out for return. We have a really hard time with black boots. We generally don't like them - they look too hard/Mad Max/heavy metal/biker - just too tough. Or, you run the opposite route and they look straight out of J.Crew (which isn't a bad thing, just not what we want for our footwear). We want the kind of black boots that will wear nicely, look a little worn/not so apple-kissing shiny, and fit well. We're in love with the Dolce Vita boots we already have; shame for us, our size is sold out in black. We've been incredibly happy with the quality, we love the fit, and they're wearing well. We're so hoping that these black boots from Dolce Vita live up to our expectations. We wish the sole was wood/wood colored - but for more than 50% off, we won't be picky.

Original price, $270; now $110 with discount

We'd love to hear suggestions on how to wear a lot of black without looking like you fell out of a goth kid rave! We won't wear all of these together - yet.

-LB

It's A Big Night

In some places more fabulous than where we live, tonight is a huge event called 'Fashion's Night Out'. It's the kickoff to New York Fashion Week, and across the globe (what can we say, we've always wanted to say that), there are major events happening to "raise consumer confidence and promote retail". So, basically, it's a huge night devoted to shopping - something we can get behind. Obviously we thoroughly enjoy shopping on several different levels, but we will breath a collective sigh of relief when our spendy cohorts start to buy again. It's like baby steps back to normalcy.

Sadly, we do not live in a Vogue-defined capital of fashion - so our town doesn't much garner any press on the official F.N.O site. We do work near one of the largest malls in the country, and the mall smarty pants people decided to participate in the big night. From what we can see, a ton of retailers are offering major discounts, exclusive looks at new collections, and random things like spa treatments and whatnot. We're most psyched about 25% off American Apparel and 20% off at Madewell (we're just weighing out whether we want to drive 3 hours for a discount). If you're not near one of the cities featuring this gala, we'd suggest checking out your local mall or shopping district - chances are, they're in on it.

If anyone does go to the events in any city, we'd love to hear what they're like! As corny as it sounds, we really are hoping to see steps towards shopping normalcy - and not only because our paychecks depend on it. A little boost in morale can go a long way.

-LB

American Apparel Deals Update

We mentioned the $5/10/15 section on American Apparel the other day, and we're happy to report that we finally got our order! With as cheap as things were (we bought 7 things and spent under $50), we were concerned that some things might be overstocks, seconds, somehow dirty (wonder why we associate AA with dirty...). Nope! Everything fits as we would expect (except for some underwear, but better too big than too small), and we're currently lounging around in one of our Terry Loop Lounge Pants (they're $5, and our favorite house pants. So much so that our last pair sprung holes). Sure, the colors are a bit odd; our lounge pants are baby pink and dirty water tan; our polo dress is flame orange, but we'll wear them and love them. And the prices can't be beat! The assortment seems to change once a week or so, and things sell out pretty quickly. Shipping took what seems like ages (about a week, coast to coast), but it's not insanely expensive.

It's definitely worth checking out.

Loop Terry Lounge Pants, was $32, Special Deals $5

-LB

Favorite Etsy Finds for Fall

We sometimes forget about Etsy. Then, we remember it, try to shop on it, and get really, really frustrated at wading through steampunk jewelry and weird clothes for weird dolls and give up. We are always rewarded when we're patient, and a handful of the things we've bought have become absolute staples in our closet. What better reason to poke around for new things than a new season? We sure can't find any.

First up on our must buy for fall list is the Collective Names of Animals raglan shirt from Xenotees. We have this shirt in shortsleeved, and we can attest to the seller being one of the nicest, most considerate seller's we've ever dealt with (not only did she apologize for shipping an item late, she proceeded to refund our shipping and drop it off, at our front door). This shirt magically combines some of our favorite things: words/nerd trivia, animals, and fashion. It's not super expensive, it's unique, and it will look awesome with our stock, dark, tight jeans or leggings and boots. We could even see this over a skirt for work. It's only available in Large right now, but we're going to stalk until our size is in stock.

Collective Names of Animals shirt from Xenotees, $30

We've recently started to evaluate our handbag collection. We have an entire closet full - literally, with cubbies behind the wall holding bags we forgot we even owned. We find that the one void we can't fill is the weekend bag. Our weekday bags are all leather and heavy hardware; we'd guess they're maybe 3-5lbs on their own. We didn't mind for a long time, but we've had this pain in the crook of our left arm for several days, and we're fairly sure it's attributable back to the new handbag we'd been carrying. On the weekends, we want something fun, big enough to hold our stuff, closed on top (since it's apparently monsoon season on the weekends), and LIGHT. We just came across this striped bag from Ika and we are in love. Sure, it's summery - it's reminiscient of a lighthouse or sail cloth or something. But we think that summery feeling will keep us feeling sunny inside when it starts to get darker out. They're handmade in Paris - how often can you claim that? And did we mention the decorative sailboats?

Bergen II, $39

We're a little perplexed by this shirt (the model is lovely, but not an awesome model), but we're willing to give it a shot. We love that it's handmade, we love modal (we know it's not natural, but it lays so nicely!), and we love that we can get this in a number of colors. Most of all, we love that we can wear this probably 3 out of 4 seasons, with pants or a skirt. Weekend, work, meeting, going out - we don't really know of a situation this shirt wouldn't work in. In fact, this might be the perfect shirt to wear our new black jeans with. We think we're on to something!

Yogui shirt, $40

-LB

Frye Update!

We hemmed and hawed (times approximately a million) on our new Frye Campus boots. They are the most expensive single item we have in our closet, and we had a hard time wrapping our head around that (especially since the color we got is 'destroyed') - as well as justifying a second pair of brown boots. We put out the call, and we were told by you that we would love them, post break in. We sent out pictures to family and friends, asking for reassurance. Only after did we receive an email from your regularly scheduled writer that said 'AWESOME. KEEP THEM' did we decide to actually keep them.

Today, we wore them for the first time, and they were not nearly as bad as we thought! We will say that the calves are EXTREMELY snug for over-jean wear; if you don't have skinny skinny legs, we would recommend trying these on (take a plastic bag with you - it can help). We wore our tightest, smoothest jeans with a pair of cycling socks (again, smooth) over them (it took us some extra time to get them on, we won't lie); and our boots didn't hurt throughout the day. We actually felt a little spring in our step, and we don't mean the season. We also got loads of compliments, including from our very quiet boss and fashion-concerned work friend.

If you're looking for a pair of weekend/casual boots, and you have the money, we'd highly recommend them. Can you find better for less? Definitely. Are they for everyone? Not at all. But there is something special about them, and we're officially converts.

Frye Campus Boots, $282

-LB

BS Tries: Cooking

So, one of our fall resolution's is to cook more. Well, cook period.  We watch Food TV all the time, we love reading cookbooks and menus and books about cooking and, really, anything about food. We just don't cook very much. We're not that good at it, we don't have the patience, and we never have ingredients. We live in what's best described as a foodcentric city, and there is absolutely no shortage of take out or delivery near us. We decided that, with the air getting cooler, our pursestrings (not to mention belt) getting tighter, there's no time like the present - so we are going to cook.

We have a ton of cookbooks that we enjoy reading, but we are not Julia Child. We are not even a close facsimile of Julie and Julia. We have one knife, one cutting board, and last night, we used a packing tape gun as a grater (we honestly did. We have the cuts to prove it). We need simple, we need normal ingredients, and we need everything to not be cheese/meat laden.

Enter the Veganomican. The title cracks us up, and when we breezed through the pages, we noticed it was unlike any other vegan (or even vegetarian) cookbook we've ever seen (Skinny Bitch, we're looking at you). There is no whining or hollering at readers to live a pure life, and the recipes for squash with squash with a side of mushrooms are thankfully minimal. We have reasonably simple recipes, simple notations (gluten free, lower fat, easy to find in a normal market ingredients, and fast cooking), and the best part? The food. Does. Not. Suck.

We've made two recipes so far, and while they're probably not for the steak-every-night folks, our meat eating other half was pleased with them. We're incredibly particular about food (same breakfast and lunch every day), we want to eat quality ingredients, and we want it to be healthy - and taste good! Veganomicon totally delivers. Pick it up from Amazon to save a fair bit of change.

Veganomicon, $18

-LB

It Can't Be Fall Fast Enough

In theory, we like summer. We love long days, we love swimming, we love not being freezing cold everywhere we go. The only thing we don't like is, well, being hot. We do not wear shorts, we don't love sandals, and we find it hard to find dressy-enough shirts for work that we actually like. Once late July/early August hits, we start to get fall fever. We don't necessarily want it to get cold, but we get really excited about breaking out boots, wearing jeans without sweating, and shirtsleeves.

This year, we're slowly, slowly getting ready. We're still on our saving-money kick, and after cleaning out our closet, we realized that 15 pairs of jeans could be considered excessive (we're donating about half of them). While we colossally failed at not spending money between two certain dates, we did cut back quite a bit. We haven't set foot in cheapie stores, like Forever 21. We're not saying we're 'all investment piece, all the time', but there is something to be said for quality.

Our first piece for this year are a new pair of Frye campus boots; we've always, always wanted them, and we finally broke down today (we did not feel pressured at all by the nice salesman who was probably lying when he said we were holding the last pair in our size in the entire company). We're going to keep them for a week, try them on with jeans, and make sure we love them - since they're not cheap. They're classic, good for all weather, and a nice break from our dressier pairs.

If you have these, we'd love to hear how you like them. Leave us a comment and let us know - we're very susceptible to suggestions.

Frye Campus 14L Boots, $282

As for pants, well. We're sticking with skinny jeans. We know there are a ton of styles that are hotter/better/newer; but we don't support them for us. We look weird in jeans that aren't dark, slim cut and slightly low (by weird we mean distinctly older than we would like). We tried a pair from the Gap, and the waist was so high we forgot what decade it was. Will we be buying insanely expensive, high-school dance scandalous low rise? No way. We'll keep getting ours from Delia's, but for those who want something a little more high end, we like this pair from J Brand. We love J Brand (so much stretch!), and this rise is definitely appropriate for someone over 13.

J Brand Mid-rise Skinny in Ink, $158

For shirts and whatnot, we're going to recycle our standard button downs (plaid, please), striped long sleeves, and simple cuts from American Apparel. We're going to update with this ring from Urban Outfitters; words cannot describe how much we love it. We don't care what anyone thinks.

Large Animal Ring, $34

-lb

American Apparel Special Deals!

It's been a little while since our last American Apparel post, but our sentiments are still largely the same. We love the clothes, we're skeeved out by the photography, we pretty much wear something from them every day. We noticed they have a fantastic little sale link at the bottom of the page, offering deals of $5, $10 and $15. The offerings change pretty frequently, the availability is random - but $10 for a loop terry jogging suit is pretty amazing, as is $12 for a polo dress that we wear ALL the time. We're a bit on the fence about that last one, as the only color available is orange. Can we wear it and not look like a pumpkin?

But we'll continue to check back!

Leisure dress, $12 (normally $34)

-LB

Tarte at Gilt!

We've liked Tarte cosmetics as long as we can remember (admittedly, that's not very long, but still). The packaging is simple, the products are solid quality, the colors are good - while we don't fall over ourselves when we see it, we genuinely like it. We even know a devotee or two, including one person who shall remain nameless who has the cheekstain in several different countries.

There's a Tarte sale at Gilt today, and for the first time in a while, we bought something! The only downside is that shipping will take 2-3 weeks (but hey, at least Gilt is nice enough to let us know).

We picked up the above travel set (in quite possibly the world's most hideous gift-with-purchase pouch) - lip sheer, 2 glosses, a small cheek stain (hey, Benetint doesn't travel well), and a random shimmer powder for $17. Not bad!

-LB

Sample Sales We're Excited For - End of the Week Edition

We know we've been extremely quiet; we've switched jobs (so much happier it honestly defies words - but so much busier!), and we're trying very hard to stick to our non-shopping pledge. That being said, we still like to provide a bit of a service, and save everyone else the trouble of checking all the sample sale sites to see who has what this week. If you need an invite, email us here. Just, please, don't email us thirty seconds before the sale starts. Preparation (and a properly functioning F5 key) are absolutely crucial when it comes to getting the best selection. Trust us. This is how we bought several Foley + Corinna bags, and lost several pairs of Ray Bans.

Here, in our humble opinion, are the best sales this week:

At Gilt:

-Women's Final Sale - Accessories. Just the list of designers is enough to make us drool - but we would need to book time in our calendar to catch this. These sales tend to sell out in a matter of minutes. We're excited for Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten, and Kooba (we know, we know). Friday, 7/10 at noon EST.

-Incase. We're a safety nerd who uses a Mac and owns an iPhone. We'll rearrange meetings to make sure we can check out the Incase sale on Thursday (noon, EST). We really love their products. And if we get bored? Women's Final Sale is the same day and time, as is the G-Shock Special Edition sale (not for us, necessarily - they make good gifts for clumsy fellows)

We'll check out the Halston sale tomorrow, but for us, it's like seeing Renaissance art. We can appreciate it - it's just not our taste.

At Hautelook:

Hautelook has been seriously disappointing - Gilt is quickly becoming our absolute favorite sale site. The most exciting Hautelook sale this week? Eh. We're hardpressed, but maybe Plenty Frock! by Tracey Reese (Friday at 11am EST) or Mario Badescu (Monday, July 13 11am EST. Honestly)

That's it. Yikes. Hautelook used to be so GOOD, too!

We'd love to tell you what's at Rue La La this week, but they've apparently closed the site for now. We do appreciate how receptive they are to site crashes, but we do wish they'd just commit and upgrade servers or bandwidth.

Beyond the Rack is like the cute cousin to all these big girl sites - they're getting there. Nothing to rave about - an upcoming Prada sale (blergh, as far as we're concerned) in a week - but they've got potential.

Our tips for successful sample saling: Log in early. Add to your cart early. Check out as quickly as possible. Store a credit card number if you're comfortable with that sort of thing. If it's truly THAT good of a deal - you'll be able to eBay whatever you don't want. We hate to suggest shopping now, thinking later - but don't dawdle unless you're comfortable missing out. And if you are, well. In our case? We wouldn't buy it

-LB