I had to go to the Newbury St area in Boston anyway today, so I decided to see if I could do an anti-NAS: refresh my wardrobe by buying last year's stuff at Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx, especially since the NAS threads have been giving me a sense of which shoe brands, etc. are quite good. For shoes this was an outright bust--the designer section in Nordstrom Rack mostly had summer shoes and was overall fairly uninteresting.

I used the opportunity to look at the Furla handbags that I had asked about earlier. Unfortunately, I didn't like the look of them very much--much boxier and too big for me in the medium satchel size. But I did come home with a wardrobe pet--the Kate Spade Cedar Street Maise satchel, which was 50% off at the store (though I wonder if these colors were made just for the Rack). It's in a colorblock, but a colorblock of two dark neutrals (ink and black) so I expect it to coordinate well with my wardrobe and not show stains, etc. It's one of the best reviewed Kate Spade bags--I originally walked out of the store thinking I'd consider other things but once I read the online reviews I came back and bought it.

Nordstrom Rack is also a great place for me to buy bras--I bought two Natori bras and one Simone Perele bra for less than $20 each (the Simone Perele was $13). I've also bought my workhorse Chantelle bras from there. Since being "in fashion" matters a lot less for bras, this is one case where the Rack beats out NAS for a refresher, at least if they have your size.

I also came home with another summer dress--but this one will be perfect for my 10th college reunion this year (people wear a lot of orange), by Joie.

Based on (I think) Chris987's recommendation, I decided to check out the new TJ Maxx on Newbury Street. I'm usually not a fan of these stores because everything is jumbled...but this one (at least for now) is very well organized/curated--in fact, it's much neater than Nordstrom Rack. They have a "Runway" section consisting of designer items--they did have a gorgeous Ferragamo lavender satchel but even on sale it was $999 so that was not going to come home with me. Lots of Vince, Theory, Rag&Bone, Tory Burch, and some more even higher end stuff, for great prices and very well organized (unlike the Rack, though the Rack has more stuff).

I tried on several Theory items (in finds below) but the sizing was slightly off--the peplum shirt in a P was too short in the arms and a little tight in the bust, the S seemed to be too big overall. The pull-on wool pants looked *gorgeous*--I only tried the P, which fit, though there was some slight bunching in the pockets. I still might have bought them had they been lined, but unlined dry-clean only pants...meh.

Even though I didn't come home with anything, I recommend the new TJ Maxx as well!

Bonus shot of the outfit I was wearing--finally wore the accordion pleat skirt and lace top out of the house. It was perfect today because I had to wear something long but breezy in the heat.