review: boden relaxed stitch coatigan + more

My mailman is slowly becoming a huge fan of my house ;) Free shipping is my love language, so here we are, another review of items ordered!

First up is this coatigan from Boden, which I posted about last week. Armed with a 20% off code + a $15 off code from Kimberly, I took the plunge and ordered it. From the pictures above, I LOVE it. Seriously, how comfy does it look? It has a really great weight to it, and fit really well (I'm wearing a size 10). Here's my dilemma: it's quite itchy. The fabric is a wool/nylon/alpaca mix. This adds to the quality of the garment, but it also adds to the itchiness. I couldn't wear this without wearing a long sleeved shirt underneath it. This is a pretty heavy sweater/light coat, so chances are, it'll be cold when I wear it anyway. I'm torn, because like I said, I really really love how it looks. I think I'm going to wear it around the house a bit on a cooler day with a long sleeved shirt - if that doesn't cause any itchiness, it's staying! And if it's still itchy, it's going back, because no matter how cute something is on, if it's not comfortable, I'll never wear it. 

Along with the coatigan, I ordered this classic Breton shirt. I'm actually reviewing (and spoiler: keeping) two striped shirts in this post. In the past 6 months, I have donated/sold two of my favorite striped shirts because they were worn out/ruined. This left a pretty big gap in my closet since I live in striped shirts. So I ordered the long-sleeved Breton top because I love my short sleeve version, which has held up well over the past 1.5 years. Above I'm wearing the ivory/black version in a size 10. I would say this is more white than ivory, but the stripes are definitely black. If you're looking for a the classic striped top, you really can't go wrong with this one. 

Steph posted about her J.Crew military shirt dress a few weeks ago, and posted to a very similar option that is currently available at J.Crew Factory. I love when the J.Crew style makes it to the Factory, since you really get the same look for less, especially when it's an item I originally missed out on.

I ordered the dress in both a 10 (top left) and a 12 (top right). While the 10 fit me fine in the shoulders and waist, I found that it was a bit too tight and short across my thighs. The 12 fit me better overall, although if you look above, you can see that it has quite a bit of extra fabric around the waist and back. I really like this dress, especially since it seems to be a bit harder to find short sleeved casual dresses, so I'm going to have my tailor take it in on the sides. I got the dress for $50 during a 40% off sale, so while it's a bit pricey to alter it, I know that it will get a lot of mileage the rest of this year, and hopefully many summers to come!

Like I said above, I actually recently ordered two striped shirts. I used to wear my bateau striped shirt at least once a week, but I recently ruined it with some lipstick that just won't come out. I really love this style of shirt because I think it looks just a little bit dressier than a plain t-shirt...but it's really just a t-shirt. When I saw that Loft had a very similar option, plus one of their infamous great sales going on, I ordered both a medium (left) and large (right).

While the medium is fine, I felt it is just a bit too tight across the bust. I much prefer the large, and since it's 100% cotton, it may shrink just a tiny bit during the laundry. As you can see on the picture above of the large, it has a classic boat neckline, a cute slit detail on the sides, and a 3/4 sleeve. I got this shirt for $18, which I think is a great price for a style of shirt I know will get a ton of wear.

Last is this white softened shirt from Loft.  I was drawn to it because it 1. looked great on the model and 2. I don't have a white cotton button up. Unfortunately, it just fits strange. I'm wearing a medium here. It really doesn't look that bad in the pictures, but I was pulling on it the whole time to try to get it to sit right. I found it too loose in the torso, and too short. It is also quite see-through, which the online picture didn't show at all.

I'm up in upstate New York this weekend for a wedding, so I'm going to sneak away Saturday morning to the local mall for a little bit of shopping (and returning). I'm hoping to try on these dress pants from J.Crew, as I've decided to return the grey BR pants I tried on in my last review post. I'd also like to try these d'orsay shoes from Madewell - my black revas have been getting a ton of wear, and I'd really like to mix it up a bit. Any other suggestions of things to try out?