Casual Friday

If you’ve seen any of my snapchats recently, you know I re-discovered Abercrombie (yes! Abercrombie!) several weeks ago, and have been on a rampage ever since.  Before you fall off your chair, lemme give you the low-down:  About two months ago, a friend of mine was wearing this gorgeous black maxi dress to drinks one evening, and I (naturally) demanded to know where she got it.  Much to my surprise, she said Abercrombie & Fitch (say whaaaaaaaat?)!  To be completely honest, I hadn’t checked out the brand since I was in middle school.  Sooooo, I thought that either I was time traveling or this was a cruel joke.  But then again, real friends don’t joke about where to find perfect black maxi dresses, so I knew it couldn’t be that.  Time traveling it is.  AMAZING.

But then I got home to my apartment that night to find that my dishwasher (which had inexplicably stopped working that morning) was still busted, at which point I realized, wrong again, Mary, you’re still very much living in the present.  Cool.

I was left with no other choice but to go online and sleuth for myself, at which point I pulled up Abercrombie‘s website.  To my devastation, the perfect black maxi dress was sold out in every size except a petite extra small—soooo that was a real slap in the face.  BUT, on the flip side, I started checking out some of their new stuff and before I knew it, I was rabidly filling my cart—an experience that both exhilarated and terrified me.  Abercrombie?!  What is happening?!  Is this a quarter-life crisis??

Turns out A&F has done a massive rebranding, complete with a new creative director and a new team of designers.  And let me tell you, they are kill. ing. IT.  The coral maxi dress that I wore in Portugal (you can see it in this post) was one of my scores from that late night Abercrombie binge, along with several other pieces that were amazing for our trip.  Needless to say, LFO’s 1999 hit Summer Girls has been on repeat ever since.  You know the song…  I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch, I’d take her if I had one wish…

Yep, that’s now going to be stuck in your head for the next four to seven days.  You’re welcome.  

(Between Abercrombie and LFO, this is turning into one heck of a #FlashbackFriday…)

Ok, so let’s just talk about these jeans for a hot sec.  Before I write a post about a specific brand, I often order a large amount of clothing from the brand to test out many items and make sure I can genuinely give the lot my stamp of approval.  I was really thrilled with the items from my first order (that gorge coral maxi dress, et al) but was dying to get my hands on some of their pre-fall goodness.  Last week, I ordered three pairs of jeans—these white straight legs, a pair of dark wash straight legs, and this amazing cropped pair and holy smokes, each one fits like a flipping DREAM.  I anticipated inspecting each of the three pairs to get a fulsome understanding of their denim before returning two of the three.  Wrong.  Definitely keeping all three.  I also have to give A & F major props because tons of their items are available in petite, regular, and tall (including today’s jeans), which is a major win for me.

In addition to the three pairs of denim, I ordered this sweater, this sweater, these sick track pants, this suede pencil skirt (perfect for work!) and of course the striped shirt and red parka you see today.  (Previous use of the term “binge” was not hyperbole.)  I loved every single item (though I found the track pants run about one size large).  This red parka in particular is basically what San Francisco dreams are made of—that perfect extra layer that’s not too light and not too heavy for our erratic summer weather.  It also has a hidden hood that you can whip out when necessary.

Ok, last thing before I leave you to your Friday: After waxing on about my re-discovery of Abercrombie on snapchat a few days ago, I got over a hundred snap messages back from you guys with similar stories.  Thank you all so much for sending them!!   Here are a few:

“Yes! Just re-discovered them and bought that coral maxi too!!”

“Their new stuff is incredible. You’re definitely not the only one that’s obsessed!”

“The fit of their jeans is the best.  I’ve never found jeans that fit me as well as theirs.”

 SHIRT: c/o Abercrombie & Fitch  |  JACKET: c/o Abercrombie & Fitch  |  JEANS: c/o Abercrombie & Fitch  |  SHOES: Dune London (similar HERE and HERE)  |  BAG: Dolce&Gabbana  |  GLASSES: Made Eyewear (similar HERE and HERE)

Thanks to Abercrombie & Fitch for partnering on this post!