Oooooh....Shiiiinnnny

One thing about metallic colors is that they are great for dressing up or perking up an outfit when you're dressing down. They look especially great when they're peeping out from the under hems of dark jeans. Metallics happen to be "in" right now. Even when they're not super-popular, they're never truly "out." Every time I wear my $9 pair of silver Penny Loves Kenny pointy-toed mules, someone always compliments it and asked where I got them from.

While my pair of shiny beauties are no longer on the shelves, I found these from the sales section of Blush. Aren't these the cutest things? Instead of being a painful $125, they are now available for $25 (plus $12 if you're in CA). At that retail price, I'm assuming they're made of leather, which means they'll last longer than my synthetic pair. There are other cute metallic moccasins that are probably more comfortable for long trips on foot, but I just thought these are more adorable.

Sadly, I blew a lot of money on Sample Sale Friday in Towntown LA yesterday. I spent a LOT of money at a charity sale in the Cooper Building, but they are things I can wear for ages. Come on, where else can you get a beautiful, soft, 100% cashmere sweater, a Trina Turk one no less, for 30 bucks? An American Apparel tee at $5 was money well spent. A Development blazer at $60 was a real drain on my wallet, but it's really something that's toned down enough to be work-appropriate and have details that are unique enough for playtime; it's beautiful fabric and construction will last through years. There were tons of Ruth tops that went for $10, but since I already spent another $35 for a vintage-looking dress, I decided that it would be $10 too many. Besides, most of the money I spent went toward charity, since the sale that really depleted my savings donated all proceeds to Katrina victims.

There was just a lot of good sales in the New Mart yesterday. It took a lot of self-restraint to make sure I didn't go way overboard. Lots of Sweetees things for $5 or $10 (I picked up one item); some of the stuff I saw are still on clearances at various websites for 2 or 3 times more. The Juicy showroom was also open...once I heard people buzzing about it, I headed straight there to find a rather long line. Fortunately, I knew there was only 1 size of jeans available on the rack (mine), so I grabbed all the jeans I could find (only 2) and tried them on. One was lowrise and a little snug, while the other was the perfect dark wash and easy to get into, but it was a little loose as a regular rise. I took them anyway, since even $10 Target jeans or $15 Express jeans at Ross wouldn't have done much better for a fit. At $10 each, as opposed to the insane $150-200 retail, that was really a steal.

The "luxury denim" market is just insane--I don't have time to get started now, but you're now on notice that my manifesto against "name brands" and "human billboards" will come very soon. Juicy Jeans are well-made, look good, and are very comfy--plenty of good reasons why they're worth more than the discount store price, but they shouldn't be *that* expensive. I'm sure there's a way to get comfy, well-fitting jeans without paying the 3-digit figure.