to shop / {marinière} saint james tees

*Updated on February 16*

Many bloggers are obsessed with the old French label, Saint James. They are famous for their Breton tee (as they are Normandy-based and all). Most styles are unisex. I think it’s better to leave the unisex style to the men, unless you’re going for Gwyneth’s look here. I am not in the rail thin camp to go baggy.

While you can order from their US website, Saint James is more accessible via J.Crew or Madewell, especially when either is running a promotion or having a sale.

• The plus about J.Crew is that they carry the kids’ version and even when their promotional codes state that third party brands are excluded, the codes work! That is, if J.Crew doesn’t hide the item, as they often do during % off discounts. I saw the kid tees in person at the lower Fifth Avenue store in NYC, but couldn’t find a 14 to try for sizing. They also special colors…
• The plus about Madewell is that they carry more styles and they tend to discount the classic styles. All styles are discounted on Madewell right now.

to read / marimekko, orla, and gwyneth

My dad surprised me this week and bought my mom a Kindle, so she didn’t have to weight lift massive hardcovered books. He surprised me more when he insisted that I needed one. I am more often than not behind on email and didn’t respond for days. In his impatience, he went ahead and bought me one anyways.

I rarely buy books. Partially, because I rarely read books. I blame lack of time (and I adore my RSS feeds). I bought a few fun books lately that I wanted to share: Orla Kiely’s Pattern and Gwyneth Paltrow’s new cookbook, My Father’s Daughter. I also recently purchased a Marimekko “mook” which is affectionately known as a Japanese magazine+book. I’ve been a huge fan of Orla Kiely, Gwyneth, and Marimekko for years. These books could never come across on the Kindle, or would be difficult to view on the iPad.

I saw the Orla book in a department store boutique in Taipei – which reminded me to purchase it once I got home. If you love Orla and want the book, don’t wait. The first time I ordered it from Amazon, my order got cancelled because they ran out of stock. I scoured other booksellers online and placed another order. That one got cancelled too. I re-checked Amazon and was ecstatic to see that they restocked. Orla and Gwyneth’s books arrived on my doorstep in 2 days. Thanks, Amazon Prime!

Pattern has six chapters on Orla’s life, inspiration, color, print, collections, and home. The book is filled with beautiful images. I like all the color interpretations of the stem print and especially the home products. I still regret returning most of my ceramic mug stash from the Target collab. It is one of the best home collabs to date and I reasoned that I didn’t have much kitchen cabinet storage. All of the ceramic products go for a lot on eBay these days. BIG regret. Like Marimekko, I don’t own many Orla products. I prefer to gawk at the prints instead and wait to invest on something I love.