A romp through Anthropologie with the Bellas

 

As some of you know, the Bellas is a small group that meets once a month. In case you don’t know who they are, let me introduce you. There’s Bella Marj who lives in Contra Costa County and has red hair. There’s Bella Lynn who’s grown her hair out to its natural silver gray color (Marj and I LOVE it!) and she lives in Marin County. And then there’s me and I live in Sonoma County. We’re all image consultants and fashion lovers.

We had such a great time together this month; I just wanted to share highlights with you. I’ll bring you some of the beautiful things we saw, the fashion item that got our closer look (and the one we all went home with!) and some store decorations that might inspire you at home.

Ladies who lunch and talk about fashion

We met on Sunday at Marj’s house, exchanged gifts and then went to Il Fornio for a leisurely lunch. During our lunch we talked about all things fashion and then some. I was interested in their fashion hits and misses for the year. Ankle boots came up as hits. Marj and Lynn feel they’ve become so versatile and add style while still being comfortable. The lower cut booties don’t visually cut the leg. They hug the ankle more and don’t gape like earlier versions did.

Misses included expensive handbags that don’t have design elements that will give the bag longevity like feet at the bottom of the bag so you can set it down and it won’t touch the ground directly.

I brought up a pet peeve of mine which is when you go into a store and experience no hospitality. It even happened two months ago when the Bellas were shoe shopping at Neiman Marcus. Sales people stood around on their iPhones, or you’d see a cluster of sales people talking to one another having what looked like a private, juicy conversation. It’s not a great feeling to get no attention when you walk into a store!

Lynn added perspective. She said, “There used to be people who really knew the merchandise and had product knowledge that they shared freely. Now in most places people working in stores are just cashiers and dressing room cleaners.”

 

I miss the old days but it made it clear how important professional image consultants are. We’re studying and keeping up with things all the time! We have brand and knowledge and know how to help our clients find the right thing in a sea of possibilities; things that will last. And with that, we went shopping!

Marj introduces us to the new Walnut Creek Anthropologie store

Since we were in Marj’s county, it was up to her to plan the day. She’d told us about the new Anthropologie store and wanted to show it to us. Lynn and I expected we’d be there an hour but it ended up that we spent nearly three leisurely hours there!

I was on the look out for people wearing jeans as I’m working on the jean guide you guys asked for. I spotted Hannah above. She’s wearing skinny jeans tucked into ankle boots.

As image consultants we swooned over the colors she was wearing and how great they repeated her natural coloring. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Handbags at Anthro

I went a little coo coo over these wonderful clutch handbags with grosgrain ribbon and bows. I checked the price: $275. We decided it was best to see if they go on sale.

 

 

Paper goods galore

Anthropologie has great paper goods like calendars, cards, stationary, and art prints. I love fashion the most but next to that it’s all about paper goods. I asked for help ordering a calendar that was out of stock. The sales associate, Lynn and I were sharing our love of paper products.

I asked her if she followed Rifle Paper Co. on Instagram. She said, “Yes. Do you follow Anna Bond?” Turns out Anna Rifle Bond is a founder and owner of Rifle Paper Co. I pulled out my phone and started following her. In the pic below, you see her Instagram feed (@annariflebond) on the left. On the right are pics from @riflepaperco.

 

 

Decorating ideas at Anthro

Anthropologie has amazing displays. My eye went right to these green glass vases. What a collection!

 

Here’s one of their table displays. I loved how the vase of wild organic plant life was placed on a small sheepskin rug. It’s all so organic and sensual!

 

 

Researching the frayed jean

Because I’m researching jeans for the jean guide I’ve promised you, I couldn’t help but notice tables full of frayed jeans. Now they’ve been around, of course, but until Sunday I hadn’t been interested in them. We were talking to Wendy, a sales associate on the first floor about jeans. She’s around “our age” and she said, “You have to go upstairs and talk to Roz. She knows everything about these jeans.” She insisted “women our age” could wear them so we headed in search of Roz, the expert.

A note: Remember that conversation the Bellas had over lunch about a hospitality drought in stores? It was not in effect at Anthropologie! We were having lively conversations with interested and interesting people who just happened to work there. We were collecting new best friends along with great ideas.

 

 

I tracked Roz down. She’s a personal stylist at Anthropologie. She heard my questions about frayed jeans and took us directly to her secret dressing rooms. She brought us all kinds of frayed jeans to try on. It was a jean jam. By the time we left we had all three purchased the same frayed culotte jean by Pilcro. We decided we’d wear our culotte jeans at our next Bella meeting. I can’t wait to see how everyone styles them!

An opportunity to come and play with us next year at Anthropologie

We’d had such a good time with Roz, it was hard to say goodbye! She planted something in our ear. She offered to do a fashion event for the Bellas and anyone who’d like to join us sometime in the New Year. How much fun would that be? Do you want to be on the guest list? We promise to provide the Prosecco and Roz promises to bring the latest fashion ideas. No sales pressure, just fun! I’ll keep you posted!