to shop / {sale} virginia johnson shawls

Virginia Johnson is a Canadian textile designer who completed her studies in NYC. She has beautiful, lightweight merino wool shawls with pretty prints that she hand paints with watercolors. If I’m ever in Toronto, her flagship shop is on my must-visit list. Anthropologie carries her shawls, but VJ’s own site has the best collection. Typically at the end of each season, they are marked down to 50%! I have one that I purchased a few years back that I still love. When it comes to scarves and shawls, I am a bit of a purist — I like lightweight 100% wool, 100% silk, or a combination of wool and silk if I have to stretch it. No polyester, acrylic, viscose, or modal! I also like simple color schemes so this is the first VJ season in a while that I see any designs that pique my interest.

My favorites are the black tiles and the orange elephants (a classic VJ print!). How cute are the elephants!

to shop / anthropologie tag sale (clare vivier, virginia johnson, j.w. hulme, charles phillip)

My tastes tends to gravitate towards the more expensive items, so even when there is a sale, my orders get pricey. 75% off to $9.95, $19.95, and $39.95 markdowns add up. There are a ton of great items on sale, even without the tag sale (read: super clearance sale), but since I’m Anthro-ed out, I didn’t have to try too hard to exert self-control. I only got this chemise for $13ish, including shipping. It’s been marked down for a while so I was surprised to see it pop back. The original price was overpriced at $148. It surprisingly shipped already so it’s not getting cancelled!

to shop / favorite things, pt. 1

I’ve lost beloved accessories over the years. There was a 24k gold cross necklace that my mother gave me when I was 12. It had been a gift from her father when she was in college. I think it was stolen by the movers – I didn’t know they were coming. Then, there was a pretty cheap white gold ring in HS that I lost in the soccer field… and countless lost earrings.

2009/2010 has been a rough year. Two gloves from different Longchamp leather glove sets. A black Gucci silk/cashmere shawl that I acquired at the Florence Gucci outlet left on a Metro North train. My Blackberry slipped out of my clutch while we were in a Berlin club. I was getting ready in a cab one morning and forgot I’d put my Antonio Ben Chimol nude leather wrap bracelet from Copenhagen on my lap until 6 hours later. Luckily, I was eventually able to figure out the brand of the bracelet (thanks, Google cache) and have located a replacement.

So after some painful losses, I’ve decided to attempt to document some of my favorite things. Just in case.

• Limited edition Clare Vivier clutch in a gorgeous embossed leather. This never made it to her website. I was clued in by her blog…
• Virginia Johnson red peacock merino gauze shawl from the Summer 2010 collection. Because you can never have too many shawls and I was finally able to snag one at 50% off from a Twitter friend tip.
  
• Minimalistic Casio watch from Asia (gift from P).