happy customer

i've been working on a switzerland-based account since march or so, and we recently picked up business with the uk market, which means i have regular face-to-face client meetings (yay!). while i enjoy this interaction, the client is very corporate and i don't have much dress up stuff here in london. i just haven't needed it! hence, i've had to do bits of shopping to save my co-workers and clients from having to see the same black and white dress from target appear in EVERY meeting.

shopping here is a nightmare since most clothes are targeted toward either pencil thin girls or the under 25 variety. however, there is always one safehouse i can find...anthropologie. i love anthropologie. i do think a lot of their stuff is overpriced but it is classic and fits well. i couldn't be bothered with the bus trip to regent street last weekend, so i rolled the dice and tried online shopping. online shopping never, ever works out in my favour but i carefully selected my (sale) items and then spent an hour (or three) reading online reviews from other american customers to see if things ran big or small, if they were good for people with large hips, etc. :-) after much deliberation, i decided on two purchases (not necessarily to be worn together although they could be, if were ever warm enough here)





i ordered everything on saturday and it was being shipped through the royal mail, so you can imagine my delight when the package arrived on wednesday! i was even more delighted to open the box and find this:



normally when you order online, it comes in a crap box and everything is in plastic bags and looks like it came from a nasty warehouse somewhere and not an actual retail store. but this came with my packing slip in a reusable sachet and my two items lovingly wrapped in tissue paper. awesome!

granted, there were still plastic bags once i dug a little deeper but the clothes had actual tags on them so i didn't care. it was the best experience i could have hoped for AND everything fit! hurrah! i would definitely do this again.

as a side note, i did do a little shopping in person in angel last weekend and stumbled upon what looked like the cutest boutique but is actually a giant global chain - all saints. (adam and my hairdresser had a good laugh over this story) well, whatever, we don't have that store in cincinnati and since when have i been on the cutting edge of fashion anyway??? :-) i bought a dress that looks like a combination between this:



and this:



it's black and really light jersey material, no eyelets but it does have the buttons and the sash. and it was a good bargain, too. :-)