shop until you drop

so, as lisa mentioned, i drove her up to DC this weekend. she decided to drive back home that same day, while i opted instead to spend the rest of the weekend shopping at potomac mills mall.

since i've passed through so many clothes sizes over the course of the last 6 or 7 months, my wardrobe is woefully unprepared for spring. before this trip i owned exactly 2 short-sleeved shirts that fit, one pair of capris and no skirts. so when this opportunity presented itself i figured spending a day at the outlet mall would be a great way to boost the contents of my closet in a relatively budget-friendly way.

plus, what fun!

lisa and i blitzed IKEA together, then she left for home and i got in a couple of hours of clothes shopping on my own before the mall closed at 9:30. the old navy outlet and the gap outlet were fruitful, but --having planned ahead-- i knew to stay out of the nine west outlet and shoe stores in general. i was going to have a hard enough time getting to all the clothing stores without being distracted by shoes. (the clarks outlet proved too strong a temptation, though. i wasted at least a half-hour in there trying on shoes that were consistently too narrow. argh.)

my hotel was one mile from the mall and after the stores closed i relaxed there with some boston market takeout, watching the first episode of the first season of "the amazing race" on the game show network. i was asleep by 11:30.

there was a heated indoor pool at the hotel and i went for a swim first thing in the morning (and discovered that i'd need to add 'new bathing suit' to my shopping list, too). the mall didn't open until 11am, which meant i could take my time lingering over the continental breakfast. (they had very strange yogurt.)

i got to the mall a little before it opened to scope out the lay of the land. the night before i had only gotten to see perhaps 1/5 of the real estate. i walked the route i wanted to conquer and figured i could accomplish all i wanted if i were strategic about it.

i started at the dockers outlet (and scored a nice pair of dress pants for $5), then hit H&M. oh my god. H&M, where have you been all my life? i spent over an hour in that store, which threw me off schedule, but i emerged with 3 skirts and 3 tops for $100. the rest of the shopping expedition was fruitful, too -- i scored good stuff at the eddie bauer outlet, a swimsuit outlet (!) and the maidenform outlet. (having watched a "what not to wear" special on underwear last week i was feeling inspired.)

i had a bit of a crisis in the ann taylor factory store, though. everything i bought earlier in the day had been cheap, so when i found a couple of skirts at ann taylor that i liked a lot i freaked out when they were $35. i actually called mary, knowing she's an ann taylor expert, for advice as to whether i'd find these skirts at our local ann taylor if i were to wait until i had a coupon. she urged me to go ahead and buy them because things appear at those factory stores that you can't get at the regular stores. so i did.

there were two stores that pissed me off. one was nordstrom rack, which was a disaster from top to bottom. that place is insane. totally and utterly disorganized and a wreck, like a hellish tj maxx with ADD and bad lighting. i walked in and pretty much walked right out again. i got to that store towards the end of my shopping day and my patience was shot. i could not deal with that place.

the other store that irritated me was the liz claiborne outlet. the store itself was in better shape than nordstrom rack, but the lady who was running the dressing room pissed me off. i found a lot in that store that i wanted to try on, but you never know if there's a limit to the number of garments you can bring into the dressing room until you're one your way in with an armload of clothes. i took in, like, 15 things and she said "you can only bring 6". that always irritates me, when i spend so long picking things out and then can't try them all on at once.

anyway, i asked if she'd hold the other 9 things while i tried on my 6 and she said yes. when i came out to get them, though, she'd returned them to the sales floor. i was furious. that was my last store of the day and i was exhausted, so i shouldn't have been surprised that i felt close to tears with anger. i could barely hold my contempt for that dressing room attendant. i had spent 30 minutes picking those things out and she'd returned them to the floor before i could try them on.

she did apologize (half-heartedly) and --with much prodding-- lead me to a single rack where she seemed to have dumped most of the tops, but i don't think i ever found the other things i'd picked. i almost just threw the clothes on the ground and left in a huff, but in restrospect i'm glad i stopped myself... i would have hated to start my 3.5-hour drive back home in a foul mood. plus, i got some good stuff there.

so, here's the overall haul:

3 bras
11 panties
1 swimsuit
6 skirts
2 pants
1 capris
2 3/4-sleeve t-shirts
8 short-sleeve t-shirts

total: $374

i was trying to figure out if i saved enough to warrant the hotel bill (which was $100), and i think i did.

i mean, the 10 tops, 3 pants and 6 skirts alone... damn. just that stuff, full-price, could easily have been over $500. well over, if you think about it. plus all of that underwear. and a bathing suit.

so yeah, i think i did good.

plus? one of those skirts? size 10. woot!!

Posted by xta at March 20, 2006 01:04 PM | TrackBack