It's here! At last! No, not the month of August--though that suddenly is upon us as well. I'm talking about the newest Anthropologie catalog, and as usual it's bee-yoo-tiful! Whenever mine arrives in the mail, I drop whatever I'm doing and dive into a deep warm pool of Outfit to Room goodness.
Don't you love how Anthropologie makes you want to shop and travel at the same time? They have a magical ability to capture the essence of a place and make you feel like you are RIGHT. THERE. This time we're carried away to a quaint English village--and I can almost smell the Earl Grey brewing.
All the requisite fashion statements are here: long granny cardigans, ladylike floral day dresses, lace-up oxford shoes and casually upswept hair. Brush up on vocabulary words like 'natty', 'tweedy', and 'jolly'. Order chips instead of fries, crisps instead of chips--or don't, seeing as how you'll probably want to slip into these hip-hugging wool skirts.
This is a kind of cozy, humble Anglophilia, one that I especially ascribe to. It stores sewing pins in dented biscuit tins; it loves Nestle Quality Street chocolates at Christmas; it collects books in dusty stacks around the room and presses flowers between their pages. It's England's answer to the American ideal of 'the girl next door'.
Of course even the girl next door has secret weapons in her arsenal. A pair of sensible heels that nonetheless make her legs look kilometres long. A jumper--aka a sweater--with a plunging neckline and a slightly ratty fur collar. A worn leather chair that has seen more than its fair share of fireside snog sessions! (That means kissing for all us Yanks!)
P.S. The Huz has been writing a series of articles for GOOD Magazine. Sometimes I'm in complete awe of his brain. Well done him!