I realize I haven’t blogged about shopping in a while, but my dears, it has been shopping rampage here… ever since I outgrew my normal clothes, I have discovered the wonderful world of maternity clothes. And I love that I’m so trendy because with all the baby bumps right now, maternity clothes are the “cutest” they have ever been, and everyone wants to be “Angelina Jolie pregnant” according to the New York Times Style section.

Well, not so sure about THAT. I haven’t been able to find the Theory maternity line, which supposedly exists. And the Barneys in L.A. does NOT have a Procreation section, like the one in New York. SHAME, Barneys L.A.!

But I did find some nice things at babystyle, which is in Santa Monica. It was fun to be there with all the other pregnant ladies. We were all rubbing our bellies and cooing over the clothes–which were stylish and comfortable and not too expensive. I spent about $500 on an entire wardrobe-a pair of pants, a dressy dress, four t-shirts, shorts, dressy shirt. When you consider one Marni shirt is about $350, maternity clothes are a real bargain!

Then I hit the GAP and Old Navy, which my fashion editor friends advised me to do. (All the NY fashion chicks wear Old Navy maternity, how awesome is that? See, fashionistas are not snobby!) The GAP had some cute shorts, peasant tops, and sweaters. I bought a bunch for about $350. When nothing fits, you need to buy EVERYTHING! And at Old Navy I spent about $150 on some cute summery cotton tops and a maternity swimsuit which was actually really cute and only $25!

But I kind of felt like everything I owned that was maternity was way too casual and I needed a little bit of fabulosity, so I hit Cadeau, a really chic maternity line. They were having a sale! And I bought two really cute cotton shirts that look very Marc Jacobs for $75 each. I need to go back there and re-assess what else I need, Mike was with me that day and he was impatient to get going.

I had thought I would be able to ace my pregnancy by wearing a TON of Marni flowy shirts (which I stocked up on for this reason) but ALAS, it turns out that it is not to be. The Marni shirts, while roomy, are too short to cover the belly. You end up looking a bit weird, with the shirt not quite covering your belly band on the pants. The maternity tops are roomy and long, and go over the entire belly, which is nice.

To celebrate my new wardrobe, I also bought three pairs or shoes–fabulous Giussepe Zanotti cream and silver bejewelled sandals ($280 from $655), silver Marc Jacobs platform sandals ($93 from $250) and Miss Trish of Capri bejewelled thongs (Miss Trish of Capri was Jackie O’s flip-flop of choice) $255 from $555. And a delicious Mulberry bag, the one with the buckle in the front. ($1200) in creamy mocha brown. I have been angsting for this bag since last season, and I finally decided to get it.

For the first two weeks when I bought it, Mike didn’t notice at all. (He always tries to “control” the shopping–BWAHAHAHA.) Then finally the other day he was like, “HEY, I’ve never seen THAT bag before.” And I had to fess up. Our new rule is that I don’t lie to Mike about how much fashion costs anymore. I had passed off my Chloe bag as a mere “four hundred dollar expense” last season. (If he ONLY knew!!) but this time I gave it to him straight–twelve hundred dollars. Thirteen hundred with tax. He looked like he was going to faint, but then he nodded. “Well, at least you’re honest.” (Let’s just say that episode on Big Love where Chloe Sevigny hides $60,000 worth of shopping from her husband? Yeah, that happened in my house earlier this year. And that figure is not too far off from mine.) But like Chloe, I am now debt-free and on a budget.

So now I’ve been in a fashion-new-clothes-high which has made me excited to pamper and beautify again—for the first three months I just staggered around the apartment looking HIDEOUS in sweats, but now that I feel good and have all these fun new clothes, I am tripping out the door in my cute new outfits and making lunch plans with the girls and dinner plans with friends.

And that’s probably all the shopping I’ll do for the next five months (FAMOUS LAST WORDS). But seriously, when you factor in how much I spent, and how long I will use it, it’s like a Marni shirt every month! Which is nothing! When I was a teenager my measure of currency was a record album. “That’s only two record albums!” – which meant thirty dollars. Now the measure is a Marni shirt… as in, that car is only four Marni shirts a month!

The other day we also saw “An Inconvenient Truth” — I urge you all to go see it. And so now Mike and I have to figure out how we can help save the environment, a cause, I’d have to admit, I never really cared much for. I always thought it was just a bunch of hippie bullshit. But now I have seen the light. We are going to buy a hybrid car instead of a BMW X5 (which I had been planning to get, after deciding the Range Rover was too showy). But now it’s going to be Prius all the way. And Mike is doing a lot of solar and alternative energy designs in the houses he is building, which is very cool. And we’re going to recycle more and all that jazz. I like to think I help the recycling effort because when I am tired of my clothes I give them away to friends and my sister and they get so much use out of them…

I’m also looking forward to seeing The Devil Wears Prada, although I agree with the Times assessment that the fashion in the movie is OFF. If you ever get a chance to go inside Four Times Square, the Conde Nast building, you will see how gorgeous and absurdly fabulous everyone really is–one of the highlights of my day when I worked there was how fun it was to go to the cafeteria and see everyone’s outfits–it was total Girlworld.

You know, some people who are still there or used to work there are going to crinkle their nose at this, the proper pose is to COMPLAIN about how nasty all the up-and-down assesment is, but when I was there, I dressed to the NINES, my friends, and I ALWAYS found the atmosphere fun and hilarious instead of frighteningly cold. It was like a fantasy, and I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. I think that’s why I didn’t last too long at Conde. Although when I left, the managing editor sighed, “Your presentation was perfect. You totally look the part.” Which I still treasure as one of the nicest compliments ever given me. I was a total geeky financial aid scholarship student in high school, and to be told I had the looks of the glamorous Conde Nast girl–WELL. That’s enough redemption for me!

I’m in a REALLY good mood today because today is the day I am finally turning in my book. I think I rocked it, and I’m going to go over it one last time and then send it off to my editor as a July 4th present. Yay!

Have a Happy Independence Day Everyone!
xoxo
Mel