Shop Out Stains

A tweet from my office-mate a few weeks ago: "Just saw a VERY pregnant woman with a stain on her belly in Gap. Thought of you :)" Awww. I had just been complaining to her about stains on my clothing. Lately, few apparel items have emerged unscathed after a day with me, three meals, several snacks, and lots of beverages. At first I was clueless and naively asked my husband "What is wrong with me?" His answer: "Um, your huge belly is in the way." Duh.

But stains happen to the best of us, with or without the belly catcher. NYC girls acquire stains easily, considering we sometimes forget to check out the dirt factor of cab, bus, and subway seats before gratefully falling into them. This happened to Lindsey's yellow dress just the other morning (it's always early in the day and you're always wearing light colors). But Lindsey had a good solution:




















Don't stress the stain, go shopping! She ran down to Zara and picked up this dress on sale for $20. Even better, it gave her jacket a totally new and fun look (the yellow is classic and pretty, but the strapless prairie dress is younger and trendier). This is also a good opportunity to remind you to check out the Zara sale, still up to 50% off. Just spill a little something on your clothes and beg out of work for some "emergency stain shopping."

Zara, 39 W. 34th Street near 6th Avenue

Caftan Girl, Meet Zara

Zara blouses are almost always too big for my body. I rarely have this problem as I've got a nice set of shoulders and a wide back. So nice & wide that I was the go-to caftan girl for every Oscar de la Renta show that came to DC (old runway stomping grounds). At fittings the stylist would hold up a caftan and yell "where's my big back?" I would dutifully step forward as waifs giggled. But when I walked that runway for those DC matrons wearing an embellished Oscar caftan, they'd go nuts. Ladies who lunch in towns other than NYC are crazy for $5,000 caftans.

So how can it be, Zara, that the big-back caftan girl can't fit your blouses?
If you think this looks cute, this picture is misleading; I really wanted to buy this sheer plaid but it was too much top.













I have a problem with some of Zara's dresses, too:
Thanks for the shirt, Dad. No really, I've been looking for a cute shirt dress all summer. I've eyed some very sexy versions on the streets, so I was excited to see this one at Zara. But it wasn't sexy, just big.













This is much better:
I love the keyhole, how it buttons at the front of the neck, and the color and fit. Well, almost. What you can barely see is the major gap where I guess my breasts are supposed to be, right at my armpit. Do you guys have breasts like this?

I love Zara's jackets (usually have to go up a little in size b/c of abnormally long arms), I love their jeans (usually have to go up a little in size b/c of long legs and big ass) but what is going on with their shirts? What kind of freak body does their fit model have? Although it could just be my freak body that's the problem.

For those of you who don't have my Zara shirt problems, the plaid blouse is $79, the shirt dress is $89, and the sexy, off-white sleeveless blouse is $39.

Zara, 39 W. 34th between 5th & 6th