My 20 Cents: The Chic Boutique tour

A few weekends ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go for a spin on the Chic Boutique Tour. After coaxing BG down from the 'burbs with the promise of free food, drinks and a chauffeured ride around town to some of Atlanta's best boutiques, I was ready for girls day out. We started our day at Redefined Home Boutique on the Westside with mimosas, yogurt parfaits and a Pink Carpet Social. Once BG and I were done posing for the cameras, meeting the other ladies, partaking in the food and drink and planning the decor for my future home, we boarded the Chic Boutique Tour bus and were ready to start spending. On the bus we were treated to our first course prepared by Chef Jamil Pearson and a Veev Lupuschini to get the blood flowing for a day of trying on and trying out new styles.

The first stop of the day was Buckhead's newest gem, Raw Denim where the jeans and accessories were the stars of the show. Although Raw Denim wasn't my style, I did spy a pair of black jeggings that would fit my wardrobe perfectly if only they had my size. After our group dropped their cash at Raw, we moved to another Buckhead location, 5Continents. This co-op style shop specializes in gear from all five continents- I have been told that only in America do we recognize 7 continents everyone else counts North and South America as one continent go figure. Although it's name is still a bit of a mystery to me, 5Continents wowed everyone with their abundance of handmade, fair trade wares that you would usually only find on vacation. With 5Continents down and three boutiques to go, we piled back on the bus for another round of food and drink, this time we noshed pasta salad and sipped a Veev Lupuschini remix this time featuring pomegranate juice. With our bellies full we made our way to our next stop, NV-U Boutique's Midtown location on Peachtree. NV-U's mix of local designers and spring perfect styles was right up my alley-including the printed cardboard earring made by an Atlanta area designer. After NV-U, where BG grabbed a sick maxi dress for herself and a super cute stripped one for me, we headed over to East Atlanta Village to check in with the ladies at Demure Boutique. While Demure was full of gorgeous goods, my caffeine meter was running on E so I Around Me-ed the nearest coffee shop to get my fix-as did a slew of the other ladies. Soy latte in hand, I boarded the bus and was treated to a much needed pick me up in the form of a cake ball from Cake Balls by Nikki-which I had the opportunity to try a few weeks before at the Sweet Auburn Market's Urban Picnic with the BF. These heavenly, sweet, moist, chocolately dessert bites were literally the frosting on the cake of a perfect day. As we battled Atlanta traffic to our planned final boutique, Anne Taylor Loft in Atlantic Station, it was evident that traffic was winning so the decision was made to catch Anne Taylor on the next go round and headed back to Redefined Home to pick up our swag bags. Speaking of which, these bags-technically baskets-were jammed packed with more goodies than a little bit. From beauty tools like a moisturizing cuticle pen, that I use every day , and an eye lash curler which is right on time since I can't find refills for my Shu Uemura curler stateside to a gift certificate for Exhale, love their Core Fusion Yoga class, and Easter candies, this basket was bursting at the seams! Even better than all of the goodies was the hand written Thank You card from the Chic Boutique Tour organizer Rosalynn Wilson-first rule of being BAP is sending out gorge Thank You cards fyi.

All in all the Chic Boutique Tour was the perfect antidote to me missing my ladies back home. BG is already telling her friends and gathering a group for the next tour on June 18. Hint, hint-follow the ladies on twitter and like them on facebook to stay up to date and find out the when, where and how you can get tickets for June's tour on the low low.

The funny thing about branding...

Does anyone know why a Louis Vuitton monogram speedy 30 costs $730? Most people would say its because of the quality of the leather or the level of craftmanship that goes into making each bag. Wrong, while Louis Vuitton bags are very well made, those LV emblazoned bags you see girls proudly carrying around your local mall are not made from leather, nor do they pretend to be. If you go to the Louis Vuitton site you can see in bold letters that you monogram/damier ebene/damier azur speedy is made from canvas, just like that Kate Spade bag you had in middle school. Actually only the piping and handle are leather and my sources tell me they aren't made from the highest quality leather. So if your bag is not leather, although you thought it was, why did you just drop your paycheck on that easily copied bag? One word, status.

Since before I can remember Louis Vuitton, like most high end labels, has been associated with having a certain socio-economic standing. Much like the car you drive, what part of town you live in and how many languages you speak, carrying a Louis Vuitton speaks volumes about your tax bracket, or it used to. Brands like Louis Vuitton work tirelessly to ensure that they maintain their top tier status, from pricing and positioning to deciding which celebs they want to align with their brand. Why do you think you've never seen Louis Vuitton bags on sale? Markdowns and promotions every other season are fine for bridge brands or department stores trying to clear their seasonal inventory, however they can cheapen a brand in the eye of their target customers. What about sample sales, you ask. Well sample sales are usually exclusive events that fly under the general public's radar-you have to know about them or be invited to attend-so they have an air of exclusivity which is key to maintaining the prestige of a luxury brand.

In the end kiddies, I'm not telling you to stop buying Louis Vuitton, unless you are going broke and hungry which is so NAGL, all I'm saying is know what you're buying. Never for a moment believe that a designer item is priced at an arm and a leg simply because its of better quality. While they probably do use better fabrics and legit production facilities, the only reason they are priced that way is to make you think they are better. After a certain price everything is of comparable quality,take this from girl who spent 4 years learning how to evaluate the quality of the garments you buy, actually I have it on good authority that a large portion of luxury brands are made in the same factories as their bridge and better counterparts. How else do you think some knock-offs, I mean inspired by, pieces look almost like the originals and fly off the sewing machines at the same time?

Sucking the Jingle from My Bells

This one comes to us from Skirt!....follow the link, view it in its original form and comment.

While the rest of you spent Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning in line for whatever deals you think the big box stores were serving up on Black Friday, I was in bed dreading having to get and go in to work. Thankfully I did not have to greet the sun to ensure that you bargain shoppers would be able to satisfy your consumer lust, however I did have to leave my house an hour before my shift to fight for a parking spot, which I found after having a mini panic attack. Not that I’m anti-sale or shopping for that matter, I just despise working retail during the holidays.


Every year perfectly normal people go bananas at the thought of little Jenny not opening the perfect number of presents on Christmas day, so much so that they turn into nasty, materialistic, hoarders during the holidays. It never fails; I always have to hold my tongue as a customer belittles me and reminds me that they are so much better than I am because I am nothing more than a lowly peon here to serve them. When then truth of the matter is that I graduated with a pretty solid GPA from a pretty solid university at a time when the economy wasn’t so solid and I happened to major in something that was not education, business, or engineering. I also do some pretty baller stuff on the reg, however none of that matters to the customer who is giving me their 50 cents because they were unhappy with the level of customer service they received. It also doesn’t matter how intelligent or over qualified I am to the people who keep cutting me off as I try to park and get to work on time. All that matters to these people is that they get whatever thing they came to buy, regardless of the fact that they are totally missing the point of the Holidays-fyi it’s not about gifts or condescending attitudes.

So despite the fact that sipping hot cocoa while watching The Year Without a Santa Claus happens to be my favorite Holiday activity, after the Nutcracker, I must say that I despise the season. I hate how nasty we get the second things get real when it comes to picking presents and getting stuff on sales. I hate the way most of us treat a group of people they know nothing about because in the back of their minds these people are here to serve them-you can tell a great deal about a person by the way that they treat servers, spa folk, and sales associates. I’ve also decided that this Holiday season will be the last one I EVER work in retail because dealing with the general public during this time of year truly sucks the jingle from my bells and the merry from my Christmas. And for the last time you cannot receive a refund with a gift receipt or exchange your sale items.

To Catch a Thief

She didn't look like a thief.

Now that the holidays in full swing and retailers are preoccupied with profits, shoplifters are taking full advantage of poorly trained seasonal workers and a sales team that is spread too thin. While managers and sales associates are busy following shoppers based on cultural biases, money is walking right under their noses and out the door.


With most stores barely turning a profit these days, it is no wonder that they are training their sales teams to profile shopper based on their behavior. Any sales person worth their salt is taught to be on the look-out for people carrying bags from stores not in their mall, people who continue to send you on wild goose chases all over the store, and people wearing large coats that seem to gain weight as they walk through the store, amongst other things. In sales meetings you are told that shoplifters can be anyone from stroller moms to teenage girls and that crime knows no color, however time in and time out you are told to watch the young African American and Hispanic shoppers who are less than well dressed, suggesting a certain socio-economic status, while other shoppers are allowed to move freely through the store.

Most lost prevention specialists will tell you that there are two kinds of shoplifters, non-professionals who steal simply because the opportunity presented itself and professionals who steal for a living. They will also tell you that despite what anyone believes, there is no certain look that shoplifters adhere to. Most shoplifters are adults who can pay for the items that they are stealing, often buy and steal merchandise in the same visit, and are very rarely caught. Armed with this information, one can only assume that the current policy embraced by store managers is allowing these experienced shoplifters to fall through the cracks, mainly because they are too busy turning their backs to follow the wrong shoppers. They also often react improperly to store alarms that are usually tripped by paying customers due to human error- experienced shoplifters hardly ever make a sound when exiting a store because they remove sensors from garments long before making their exit.

This Holiday season as you pick up your last minute gifts, take five minutes to notice who is watching whom and why. Very rarely will you see a sales associate monitor a stroller mom, a group of Starbucks carrying young women, or the well dressed gentleman who you just saw slip something into his bag because they are too busy watching the people who look like shoplifters. Much like a child will never get kidnapped by someone who looks like a bad guy, stores will never catch a thief who doesn’t look like one.

You can lead a horse to water but I still can't afford your clothes



Patrice hamming it up at Saks for FNO...we still haven't gotten our offical pics from that.

 Last month the fashion industry rubbed elbows with the unwashed masses in a desperate attempt to turn party goers into shoppers at the second annual Fashion’s Night Out. Although revelers from Brooklyn to Bombay crowded shops to get a glimpse of their favorite celebrities, designers, and fashion folks, by and large they kept their cash to themselves. (Now that I think about it, I’ve been to a ton of in store events in the past year and have never seen people doing anything but talking smack, eating, and getting a buzz off of the free drinks.) This shouldn’t come as a shock to retailers who have been suffering from the very recession that brought into existence the need for a worldwide event like Fashion’s Night Out. They know that no matter how much champagne they pour and how many celebs are in store to pass it out, Louboutin’s are still out of most shoppers’ budgets right now. However, this does not stop retailers form bringing the dog and pony show to town every so often in an attempt to raise spirits and profits.


There are several reasons why luring potential shoppers into your store with the promise of free stuff and a good time doesn’t always translate into increased sales, increased traffic sure but traffic does not always mean money. The first issue is while it is true everyone loves free stuff, using the word free to gather a crowd almost always ensures the majority of the crowd is looking for FREE stuff not stuff they have to pay for. (Also people aren’t so dumb as to fall for "spend xyz dollars and get this free", especially if they don’t have xyz dollars and the free thing is worth less than the amount they have to pay. Also if I have to buy something to get something free, is it really free?) While I do understand that by drawing a crowd into your less than crowded store you are not only attempting to increase sales that night but to also generate future sales, which may or may not happen because in the freebie/sale seeking crowd you just lured in may or may not be interested in or able to afford your full priced merchandise, bringing me to point deux.

No matter what dog and pony show you put on for customers, at the end of the day they just don’t have the same disposable incomes that they once did, especially when dealing with Middle America. The end. Shoppers aren’t in search of a place to drink wine dangerously close to clothes they can’t afford, they are looking for more value for money, whether that means being able to buy more for less or spending the bulk of their money on investment pieces instead of wasting cash on trendy items.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think in store events are total wastes of time for retailers, I just think throwing a “customer appreciation” party once a month is not the best use of time and money for already struggling stores. Also its is super cheesy to go into a store and hear a DJ playing the same muzak that the stores usually play while a clumsy associate passes you J. Roget or Andre.

Are you Size-ist?

This piece was written for and posted on MissOmniMedia.com, all images and copy are proprty of that publication. To the post in its original format (leave comments), go to Are You Size-ist?

This past weekend the Internet was all a buzz over “plus-sized” model Crystal Renn’s latest photographs. The pictures, taken for non-profit Fashion for Passion by photographer Nicholas Routzen, depict a decidedly less curvy Renn wearing a black Fashion for Passion t-shirt. Everyone from fashion bloggers to the Huffington Post have been whispering that the outspoken anti-size 0 model has dropped weight and caved to industry pressure. From careful observation of the photograph one can say that maybe she did lose a few lbs but she still is far from industry standard. The real issue at hand has more to do with our society’s growing obsession with size, than it has to do with whether or not an already average sized girl got a little closer to average.

To see the effects of an overly size conscious society on young women all you have to do is sit in any fitting room, at any mall, on any given day to hear women in denial of their size. The ugly battle plays out between the size-ist stores bent on making everyone a size 10 and below and the size conscious women who were a size 4 three years ago but now fight to squeeze their size bodies into that old size 4. As a sales associate at stores that very rarely carry anything over a size 10, if they carry a 10, I have been given the side eye, talked about, and told off just for suggesting that the obliviously size 6 client may not be able to fit into a size 0. On the other side of that same coin, I have been asked some of the most personal questions by customers regarding my size as a means to determine whether or not plus sized shoppers where in the right store. At the heart of this issue is both fashion and retail’s blatant disregard for curvier bodies, and the fact that the general public has no idea what sizes actually mean.

As far as fashion and retail goes, they will never care about plus-sized shoppers and curvier standard sized girls unless you hit them where it hurts, right in their profit margins. Stop supporting retailers that do not support you that means stop trying to cram your Beyonce booty into Kate Moss’s jeans. Moving on …As a consumer you need to realize that sizes literally do not mean anything. Really, they don’t. Marilyn Monroe was a size 10, which in 2010 is probably closer to a size 6 due to vanity sizing (vanity sizing is where retailers increase the actual measurements of clothes without increasing the nominal size ie a size 4 now may have been a 6 ten years ago) and we all know Marilyn was and still is a fox. Also in addition to retailers trying to make you feel better by changing their measurements but not their sizes, clothing sizes in the US are far from standardized. Personally, I wear everything from a size 2-6 depending on the store and that is unacceptable.

The lesson here, ladies and gents, is that not only is it unacceptable to measure yourself worth or the self worth of others by a silly little number in a garment but watching to see if a model eats or not is a waste of time. At the end of the day whether Crystal Renn is a size 10 or a size 8, she still is far from plus-sized and the fact that she is an anomaly in the modeling world speaks more about fashion and society’s obsession with size than anything else. You don’t see more Crystal Renn types opening shows, landing huge campaigns, and on the cover of Vogue these days do you?