There were shift dresses, and bad selfies (Nordstrom Trunk write-up)

If you read I Know How She Does It, you may recall the tale of Vanessa Chan in Chapter 1. She kept her time log while she was a partner in a major consulting firm, and despite working about 60 hours that week (and visiting 3 different cities) she also managed to read A LOT of Little House on the Prairie to her two girls, do a family game night, go to the Lego movie, take her kids skiing, have a date with her husband, etc.

Anyway, I’d been thinking of trying Nordstrom Trunk after The SHU Box mentioned it, and then I got an email from Vanessa mentioning that a friend of hers had become a stylist with Nordstrom Trunk, so I figured this was my nudge to give it a try. My first trunk arrived last night, and I spent some time trying on the clothes.

As I did, I realized that part of growing up and knowing yourself is realizing that you really do have a type. I’m not much into astrology, but most of the guys I dated for any length of time (including my husband) had birthdays in early June. Apparently I’m into Geminis. Who are 6’2″ to 6’3″. When it comes to clothes, I’m into slim boot cut jeans and dark pants, and fitted cashmere sweaters, and solid color shift dresses. Preferably blue. I have tried to branch out, and part of trying out Stitch Fix over the past 2.5 years has been nudging myself to expand my horizons. I’ve gotten some great new stuff that way, but I remain not that into skinny pants.

Anyway, my trunk had not one, not two, but three shift dresses. Two of which were blue! Nordstrom appears to be enabling my addiction. I liked the sweaters too — I will likely keep two of them, and a pair of Theory black pants in (wait for it) a slimmish boot cut. A few other pairs of pants and shirts didn’t quite make the cut, and I’m not sure on ballet slipper shoes, but I was surprisingly into a pair of black heels (shown with the gray shift dress) which are a bit edgy for me, but could be an alternative for speeches when I don’t want to wear my usual bone-colored stilettos.

In other news: In Chapter 1, I mentioned that Vanessa was starting a consumer products company. Her first product, called “loopit,” is launching in January. It’s a set of headphones that you can wear as a necklace, and they’re magnetized in a way that they will never get tangled. Here’s the website to keep updated on the launch. The target market is professional women who spend a lot of time on the phone, on the go, and would like to look chic while doing it.

In other, other news: I attended the Pennsylvania Conference for Women yesterday, and interviewed John Jacobs of Life Is Good (the T-shirt company). Apparently he stopped using email 8 years ago. I am still pondering this, and how it might work.