Reinvention Mention - Taking a Second Look at Talbots

I am a woman of a certain build. On a good day, I look like a younger version of the Queen Mother (the real one, not Helena Bonham Carter) or maybe even Princess Margaret (if I'm lucky). On a bad day, I can look like a fire hydrant. My clothes need structure, support... dare I say engineering? I go for classic and tailored pieces. I look younger and better in a good wool skirt than baggy low rise jeans. What can I say? I'm a womanly woman.

Unforunately, I have been having a hard time sourcing good pieces in my local shops. Everything is so shapeless and deconstructed. So clothes hangar blah. So dishcloth drab. And the current selections have about as much coverage as said dishcloth!

Then one day I walked into Talbots. You remember Talbot's, right? The purveyor of choice for Army officer wives, Mormons and Congressional aides. They were always conservative and had started to vear towards dowdy when I stopped popping in about 10 years ago.

Well, the Baby Boomers they catered to have now moved on to the land of the discrete elastic waistband at Coldwater Creek and Chicos. And now Talbots must woo the generation who grew up with The Editor Pant at Express, JCrew when it was cool, Banana Republic when it wasn't just a  '90s Jill Sander redux, etc.

And Talbots has really stepped up to the plate. Seriously. They deserve a second look. They deserve your entire clothing budget. I covet their catalog the way I covet a good spread in Vogue. (And O isn't doing so bad in that department either.)

Their hemlines are just so. Their cuts and draping are classic with a just-right-now edge to them. These are clothes I can wear on a date, out to the movies with my girlies and on a day when I need to impress my boss.

Go Talbots, Go. You've really stepped up your game.

Images by Talbot's of course.