So, Boden. Love their colors, love their prints and their embellishments, love their accessories and their photo shoot locations, but people, most of all, I love how they pair their items. When that small book of beauty (that some call a catalog) arrived in my mailbox, I smiled big. It’s January. I needed inspiration. So I opened it up and poured through the pages, paying no attention to price (Am I going to buy a simple A-line skirt for $100? I think not, plus as I look back at outfit pics of me, I’m thinking pencil skirts might be the way to go with these curves). First up, page one or two or whatever page they called it, but the first picture. Bingo.

So I didn’t have thin-stripe capris, nor do I exist in model make-believe land where you can wear capris during a Midwest January (oh, wait, you could have, like one week ago, but that’s another story),  but I did have a green and white print cardigan and a goldenrod bolero, so this was the result.

I do still like the shades they had better, but guess what, mine was free (well not originally, but you know what I mean). Someone had a similar idea to me (as I’m sure many others have as well). Check out the article she wrote here. And another article gave a rundown of items ordered and tried from the catalog by her whole family in a test to see how much of her loyalty Boden deserved. Though I thought her assessments of the individual items were pretty spot on, I had to wonder if the 40- something mother she claimed was the target buyer pertained more to the UK line than the US one. I am not above dressing ten years my senior, and I’ll admit it, but 15 or 20? And the models, are my age (late 20s) or early 30s. And the clothes look good on them, not silly. Thoughts?

Next up…