This is my traditional "NAS extravaganza" post I am doing for the 4th time. However This NAS was very special for me because I had the best shopping mate YLFer can dream of - Suz ( after Angie of course! )
It was a very busy day from the morning. The border crossing was very busy and took longer than we anticipated. I also had a couple of packages to pick up on the border, then we dropped into TJ Maxx so I can try the shoes from Zappos on and send them back while still in US. Alas both pairs of Angie's Wow pumps did not work for me I so we also had to stop by the UPS store to ship them back right away.
Because of all these logistics it was past noon when we got to the Nordstrom. We decided to have lunch BEFORE we hit the Customer Service and we were so right: it was a whirlwind after that!
So here we are at the CS. Suz and I said our last names ad SA said with a feeling: " Oh yes, we are waiting for you" Pic 1 is what was waiting for us in the back room: my pile is smaller - just the stack on the left, the rest is Suz's OK, I have to add that all my shoes went to shoe department for some reason so they would make another pile like this as well
As my shoes were not in CS we started with Suz's footwear. You already know about her tall boot woes and yea, I was responsible that she did not get SW Panache dress boots which could have been altered to the height she needed: I was a somber voice of reason ....but I have to add that she did end up with some beauties there (I would leave it to her to disclose those, this is just to build up the suspense!)
After we were done with Suz's shoes and returned the pile she did not keep we were transferred to a stylist dressing room. It was quite a parade with 2 SAs and us carrying all our stuff in multiple bags downstairs! We decided to share a fitting room for an instant feedback - and pic 2 is how it looked in the process!
Long story short the whole process took us over 5 hours of trying on and making up our mind. We were totally exhausted by the end and lost the count of number of SAs we worked with: it seems they changed 3 shifts while we were in that room! Honestly I was surprised the sun was still up when we were done...:-)
So the next pictures are some of my misses.
pic 3/4: Elie Tahari Minka jacket. I have ordered size 12 and then warned by Angie that the sleeves are very slim I also ordered size 14. Well 14 was huge and 12 was on the bigger side as well and sleeves were not tight at all. This is size 12 in the pictures. I wanted to try size 10 but they did not have this jacket in the store in any size! It is a beautiful jacket and a very good quality but I decided to pass; I felt it was a bit too short on the back for me and this is pretty noticeable when a jacket has such a defined waist. For such an expensive piece (for me anyway) it should have been perfect - and it was not.

pic 5/6: Halogen seamed sheath in purple. The color was great, the fit was good and it had about 1" to let out for the length which would bring it to the knee for me. However I passed as well because of the lack of sleeves and because I decided to stick to my budget and wardrobe size rule this time.

pic 7 Mural bomber I wanted to love it very much but I coud not get past the feeling of this faux-leather on my skin which I did not like at all. In addition it was really hot for me: I was sweating after having it on for 5 min so it was a no go. However I really like the style so I will be looking for another cool bomber in a different fabrication.

pic 8 Another Mural piece - faux leather vest, not a part of NAS but on sale. Loved the style and the length was good but again could not stand the faux-leather feel. It was sad because this vest would be a workhorse for me so again I am on the lookout of a similar piece with a better quality.

pic 9 SW heeled oxfords (cannot find them online but I think they made Angie's pick list). They were so comfortable and such a great quality but I had to pass because of the color: I just have a hard time to make black footwear to work with my style even though my hair is dark. If they were 2-toned black and white or cream and tan I would snatch them in a heartbeat!
I don't have pictures of other things which did not work for me like Olivia Moon striped knit blazer (somehow I did not feel it for my style), Trouve purple blazer (felt too cheap), Trouve leggings ( I felt like a cat-woman in them), NYDJ mixed media "Megan" jeans (the rear fit was very weird on me)...

We did not leave the store until after 8PM. I managed to lose and then find again my Nordstrom card and that was the sign that we need to go home! Border crossing was pretty smooth and fast on the way back(even though we had to pay the sale tax) and we got home around 11PM so it was a VERY long day.
I will leave to Suz to write about her experience as a first timer
I will do a separate post on the stuff I kept (or maybe 2 posts...) so stay tuned!

Thank you for reading my novel!