As Lindsay and I gallivanted* around Marshalls last weekend, excited as hell about having gotten together an hour early (specifically to shop), I lamented my conundrum:

“I know I should be shopping for fall – it’s almost September, for Christ’s sake – but it’s just so fucking hot.“

It’s true: it really is just so fucking hot, and I don’t very much want to wear any clothes, let alone long sleeves and thick fabrics. Even as I kept reminding myself, sleeves! length! no more damned tank tops! I kept gravitating toward…tank tops.

Tank tops: Jennifer’s kryptonite.

Guess what I’m wearing in this outfit post?

Actually, the tank top (aka camisole) is the only thing I didn’t buy during that Marshalls trip. (Okay, the shoes too, but we’ll get to those in a minute.) Lindsay and I have both been maxi-obsessed all summer, and we were both lucky enough to find perfect ones during our trip, each for only $25.

I love the absolute straightness of this skirt: it skims my body without hugging it, and sits just below my navel, never riding up. It’s perfectly opaque and wearable in the heat, bare-legged, and over tights in autumn.

 

The jacket is transitional, too, of course. Does this mean I got past my “it’s just so fucking hot” conundrum?

 

I know, I know: we need to talk about these awesome shoes.

WELL LET ME TELL YOU. They are not so awesome.

It took a lot of effort for me to get these boots. I ordered them from Steve Madden, failed to receive them, was told they were sold out and would never be back, found them back on the website a week later, ordered them again, saw that they’d shipped on the same day that the price on them dropped another $20, received them, and wore them once.

The next morning I noticed that the seam at the heel of the shoe was coming apart.

I took them to my local cobbler, certain that these once-$275 boots must be coming apart because of something I’d done, some horrible mistake I’d made in putting them on, wearing them, taking them off…

Here’s what happened when I came to pick them up:

Cobbler’s Wife (because my shoe repair shop is owned by an old married couple, who are adorable and wonderful): “There’s no charge.”
Me: “…”
Cobbler’s Wife: “Hang on, let me show you…see the heel? It’s hollow. There’s nothing inside, and where the rest of the shoe meets the heel, there’s only [a couple centimeters] space to nail it back together.”
Me: “So, you’re telling me-”
Cobbler’s Wife: “-that these are going to come apart again.”
Me: “And there’s nothing you can do.”
Cobbler’s Wife: “There’s nothing we can do.”

…yeah. So there’s that.

I’m calling Steve Madden‘s customer service line today and asking them how they plan on fixing this little…problem I’m having. These boots were originally $275 (I paid $70, but that shouldn’t matter). For $275, these shoes should not be coming apart.

Wish me luck!

Jacket: Edge Basic Clothing via Marshalls, $19.99
Camisole: Gap, $19.95 (now $14.50)
Skirt: Max Studio via Marshalls, $24.99
Boots that make me cry: Steve Madden, $70 (now $50)
Necklace: c/o Madras 641

*“Gallivant: to go from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.” Why yes. I’m pretty sure that’s our standard mode of transport.

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