Gahhhh!

I love getting emails from Refinery 29 - they always put together fun stuff, even if some of it I would never buy, and I've especially looked forward to their condensed breakdown of seasonal trends (typically at a mid and high price point).  Today's email purported to bring the '16 fall shoe-styles to look out for'.

Well, I'll be looking out for these.  And running the other way.

  Numbers 5 & 6 -  the 'High-Fashion High Top'

I already lived through the 90s.  Count me out.  Blugh.

However, as a palate cleanser, here's their #9 choice:

Fendi Laser Python Printed Pumps

Ahhhh.  So much better.  

Why I Don't Understand Topshop

Well, there are many reasons, of course.  But here's an illustration:

I've eyed this dress at Target for a while, but was put off by the exposed zipper - which just looks like a great big black scar up the back of the dress.  Boo.  

Mossimo Pleated Zip-Back Dress

It's knit and costs only $25.  Definitely the verstile, colorful piece that's such a great find from Target.  

Just yesterday, while I was in Topshop on Oxford street (don't even get me started on that particular shop), looking for something specific and ultimately being disappointed, I saw the exact same dress. 

And, lo and behold, it showed up again on Shopstyle's main page today:

Topshop Tuck Shift Dress

It's 100% polyester.  And costs $95.  Seriously.

And I'm not kidding about it being exactly the same (well, except in fabric).  It's even got the black exposed zipper up the back.  

At those sorts of prices, I expect a bit more.  I don't even pay those prices for items from Anthropologie (sales, baby!), which are much, much better quality and made from better materials.

When I was perusing the racks and trying things on in store, I found one pair of trousers that had the pocket on one side accidently sewn into the front pleats, entirely ruining the line of the leg.  I nearly tried on a chiffon dress (polyester chiffon, mind you) that had had the lining entirely ripped out of at least two dresses on the rack.  And the linings were just hanging there, alongside the dresses, as though you were supposed to purchase it in that condition.  Who has such little respect for themselves as a customer to do that?  

Look - I understand that Topshop is the store for one kind of fashion aesthetic, which is largely not one that I share.  But in describing it to Jas, all I could come up with was 'it's like Forever21, but at the prices of Banana Republic.' 

So...I'm just wondering.  Does that strike anyone as unfair?  

Chanel Resort 2012

....or, why I often don't get fashion.  

So, the Chanel Resort show took place in Antibes on the French Riviera on May 9.  

There were some lovely looks:

Although, what the eff are on their feet?

There were, of course, plenty of suits in spring-y yellow and lavendar and white, and I quite liked the black one-piece swimsuits with the Chanel tweed jacket as an over-layer (not that I'd ever wear such a thing, but I can see it as a look).

But then you get things like this:

seriously, that's a jeans waistband

and this:

which combined with this:

Judged as a series of stand-alone items, it was easy to extract some immediate winners: the full trousers slashed up the calf, the floaty three-quarter-length dresses with the shirred midriffs, Natasha Poly's white beaded sheath. 

(from Style.com's review of the collection)

just makes me shake my head in disgust. 

But, of course, we're also taking it as given that a man who dresses like this:

is our arbiter of taste.  

check out the whole Chanel Resort 2012 collection at style.com