Cheryl Shops

Thanksgiving is three weeks from today, and while my celebration will be more intimate than normal, it will still be a celebration. I'm thankful for all of the lessons I've learned this year, for my and my family's health and safety, and for many other things in my life. And in case you need to take your mind off of what's going on in our country right now, there's nothing wrong in starting to plan your meal—and what you're going to wear to it. So without further ado, here are 7 Thanksgiving outfit ideas, from dressy to more on the casual side. 

Here we are in November, the second to last month in a year that has seemingly dragged on forever and yet flew by at the same time. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much ready to skip straight to New Year's Eve and wrap this thing up. Of course, there's a certain matter to attend here in the United States today, November 3rd. I voted weeks ago by mail—we've been doing it for years here in California, so all of the controversy seemed a bit unnecessary to me—but will pretty much be glued to the TV tonight (and possibly for days afterward) until we have a president. I am a weeee bit anxious about all of this, not to mention Covid anxiety, job/financial anxiety, family-member's-upcoming-surgery anxiety, and anxiety about my anxiety. I am trying to hold it together the best that I can, so for me that means exercise and meditation every morning, eating as many vegetables as I can (easier said than done), CBD every night, and doing things that bring me joy. And right now, the thing that's bringing the most joy is wearing this pair of red suede Calla loafers with everything in my freaking closet. 

Mark your calendars, beauty-holics: Sephora's holiday sale is coming! Rouge members get 20% off staring 10/30, VIBs get 15% off starting 11/3, and Insiders get 10% off starting 11/5, all with code HOLIDAYFUN through 11/9. As I've noted before, I work at Sephora's corporate headquarters and am thus an expert on everything we sell. Kidding, I'm not an expert, but I do get the inside scoop, and I am constantly being plied with free stuff, and don't you hate me right now? That said, I do form strong opinions on this stuff, so here are 7 of my favorite products right now—take advantage of the sale and get them at a discount!

Trends come and go, but one of the benefits of being a woman of a certain age is that I now have the confidence and the wisdom to know which trends to try and which ones to skip. I featured chunky Chelsea boots in my fall trend report, and was super eager to try a pair; yes, I wore combat boots back when they were last popular in the '90s, and normally my rule is that if you wore a trend the first time around, you should pass on it the second (or third, or fourth...) time. I decided to give these Chelsea boots a go, because they're a bit more streamlined than lace-up combat boots, plus they seem very practical for the upcoming winter months, and I wanted to style them in a way that was true to my own sense of style—feminine and sophisticated (I hope) versus the more streetwear-influenced, casual way that Gen Z would wear them. To be totally honest, after seeing these photos, I'm not sure that the boots are "me." But they may be "you," so I thought this was a post worth writing anyway. Here's how I styled my chunky Chelsea boots. 

 It is finally looking like leather jacket season in San Francisco (not to be confused with the rest of the year except for September and October, which is also leather jacket season), so in honor of my favorite time of year, I thought I'd bring you another Cheryl's Greatest Hits featuring seven ways to wear one of my favorite wardrobe workhorses, the leather moto jacket. As longtime Cheryl Shops readers know, I bought this Banana Republic moto jacket several years ago when I worked at Gap headquarters, and while I can't always advocate for Banana's clothes, this jacket is one of the best items they make, which explains why they keep bringing it back season after season. They have miraculously not raised the price since I bought mine—it's still $499, although you can usually get it on sale (never pay full price for anything at Banana!)—the leather is buttery soft, and the thing fits like a glove. A good leather jacket is totally worth the investment and you'll have it for years, so without further ado, here are seven ways to wear it. 

Back in my late 20s and early 30s, when I had 7 or 8 weddings per year to attend, I used an Excel spreadsheet to track which dresses I wore to which events. This began in the days before social media, but I basically wanted to make sure I wasn't turning up in the same dress at every event with the each group of people. The alternative, of course, was to buy a new dress for each event, which is cost-prohibitive (and wasteful) and is what drove Jenn Hyman to found Rent the Runway. I thought RTR was an amazing idea and I know a lot of people who love it, but to this day, I've never actually used it, because the items I'd actually want to rent are way too expensive. In other words, I'd rent a designer dress for $50 or $60 (or maybe even a bit more), but not $200. There are other clothing rental companies out there (I reviewed one last year), but so far none that really piqued my interest—until now. Wardrobe is like Airbnb for clothes, shoes, and accessories: you rent items from a user's closet for 4, 10, or 20 days at a time; everything is dry-cleaned and stored in a central warehouse (and if you open a closet with Wardrobe, you can make a little extra money renting out your own clothes); and it all comes clearly labeled and nicely packaged. Most importantly, Wardrobe has everything from Alice and Olivia to Hermès, and the prices are incredibly reasonable. They were kind enough to offer me a credit to try the service for free; here's what I borrowed and my unbiased, honest review of the entire experience.

Whew, it's been a week! Mercury is in retrograde, temperatures here have been in the 80s, and I have work coming out of my ears (which I know I shouldn't complain about). Anyway, happy Friday! Let's ease into the weekend with this month's most-pinned look from my Outfit ideas for ageless style Pinterest board—it's casual, it's timeless, it's seasonless, it's perfect. You probably own all the pieces to re-create this look already, but if not, read on. 

At the end of last year and the beginning of this year—which feels more like 10 years ago at this point—I was working on a sustainability campaign for my day job. Throughout my research, I kept coming across similar statistics about how horrible fast fashion is for the environment; it was enough for me to make sustainability my main 2020 resolution. That resolution had several parts, one of which was "no new stuff." I was doing a pretty good job until COVID came along, and with it some promo codes and sales that I was too weak to resist. I'm not beating myself up about it; I do feel like I'm being much more conscious about what I'm buying—only things I love, of the best quality I can afford. That said, I have been doing quite a bit of secondhand shopping this year, and while 2020 is almost over (THANK GOD), it's a habit I'm going to stick with. Not only is buying secondhand better for the planet, it's way more affordable than buying something new, and it's not hard to find barely (if at all) used items. So while this post is long overdue, I wanted to celebrate my progress with a totally secondhand outfit. Here's how it all came together.

Amazon has finally announced that Prime Day is October 13–14 (technically two days) and while I know it's popular to boycott it, I think Prime Day is kind of fun. I love refreshing the page to see what the hourly deals are, and let's be real, the deals can be pretty amazing. I do realize that Amazon undercuts small businesses, has a rather large monopoly, and probably has more data on me that I care to think about—plus there are some tax implications that need to be addressed on a federal level—but we can also thank Amazon for making user reviews, personalization, and search capabilities so widespread. Online retail wouldn't be what it is today without Amazon. I do try to buy things locally from small businesses as much as possible, but that said, I have found some amazing things on Amazon over the years. So in honor of Prime Day, here are six things that I've bought on Amazon that I love, and that I'd highly recommend. 

A what? A coatigan is a cross between a coat and a cardigan; it's longer than a swacket, or sweater jacket, and has more of a ring to it than "sweater coat." As I noted in my fall trend report, a coatigan is a must-have for fall 2020, so I wanted to show you what I'm wearing with mine ASAP, seeing as how we're already in October. (Seriously, how is it October already?!) I know this won't be the last time you'll see this one, but it's definitely the first, so let's get to it. 

It feels a little weird writing about trends on several levels. For one, I didn't really do my annual spring trend report, because we were newly in lockdown and all anyone could think about was comfort clothing: sweatpants, sweatshirts, slippers, and so on. On a deeper level, I'm realizing there's something about fashion that almost requires you to be seen out in the world; to paraphrase that old philosophical question, if a person wears an outfit and no one sees it, is it still fashion? The good news is that things here in San Francisco are slooooowly starting to reopen: hair salons, gyms, restaurants, and even movie theaters. I'll still be working from home for the rest of the year, if not longer—and if I'm being honest, dressing for the office has a certain agenda—but I at least feel like I'm venturing out into the world again, and thus I can get out of my jeans-and-sweatshirt rut. I've been really inspired by the street-fashion photos from Copenhagen Fashion Week, and while there's definitely a hygge element to fall fashion, I'm really excited about the micro-trends I'm featuring here and to shopping again. Who knows, I might even be compelled to shop in an actual store! Here's what's on my shopping list for fall. 

So apparently I missed out on a big trend this summer: the shoulder-pad tee. It's more of a muscle tank with, yes, padded shoulders. It seemed like a ridiculous fashion-victim thing at first, but the more I saw them on my Instagram feed, the more I wanted a shoulder-pad top of my own. And while summer is winding down in the rest of the country, it's just getting started here in Northern California—it's 86 degrees as I write this—so I figured better late than never and placed an order. Here's how I styled my padded shoulder top. 

I am constantly in pursuit of what I like to call "rich-girl skin"—smooth, poreless, glowy—and I will obediently try any skincare product that promises any of those effects. Maelove had been on my radar for awhile, after I'd seen it mentioned countless times in message boards and beauty-blog comment threads; it has also popped up pretty frequently in my Instagram feed, so clearly their ad targeting is spot-on. Then, like a sign from the universe, Maelove reached out to me about trying a few of their products, so in the name of investigative journalism, I agreed. (Everything I do, I do it for you, dear readers!) I've been using the following Maelove products exclusively for the last two weeks; here's my honest and unfiltered review. 

We've been watching a lot of throwback movies lately on our weekend nights in, one of which was Pacific Heights, a 1990 thriller starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, and Michael Keaton. It's basically about the horrors of being a landlord in San Francisco, and in spite of being 30 years old, it strangely touches upon some very current issues, including systemic racial discrimination. What struck me the most, however, was Melanie Griffith's wardrobe, which felt very 2020 with its mix of straight-leg mom jeans, boyfriend blazers, and drawstring bags. In one pivotal scene, she wears a fabulous pair of high-waisted paperbag pants and while I know I was supposed to be focused on the plot, I immediately got on Shopstyle and started looking for a pair in black. I always say you can never have too many black pants, so here's the latest addition to my repertoire. 

The first day of fall is next week already, and I have a feeling it's on everyone's mind, because this month's most-pinned look from my Outfit ideas for ageless style Pinterest board is definitely an autumnal one. The palette is minimal and so is the outfit—at only three pieces, it's one of the simplest I've ever featured in this series. But it sounds like we're all looking for a little minimalism in our lives and in our wardrobes, so let's re-create the look. 

 This is the outfit I had intended to share last week, one that straddles summer and fall, which felt appropriate for just after Labor Day. Under normal circumstances, this would feel almost a bit too bundled up for San Francisco weather in September, which is typically the warmest time of year. But after a week of heavy smoke from wildfires and unseasonably thick fog, I’ve learned to roll with the punches. Which is a pretty apt way to describe how to handle seasonal transitions no matter where you live. Or the year 2020. So this look feels very fall from the waist up and very summer from the waist down; it’s a bit idiosyncratic, but so is life nowadays. Here’s how it all came together. 

In case you haven't been reading, listening to, or watching the news lately, pretty much the entire state of California is on fire at the moment. I am (thankfully) safe, but San Francisco is currently cloaked in unhealthy levels of smoke (the sky was literally orange on Wednesday) and unfortunately we can't go outside, which means we can't shoot a new post, and thus I don't have a new one for you this week. What I can offer, however, is a Cheryl's Greatest Hits featuring one of my favorite wardrobe items of all time, my Gap Icon denim jacket. The timing is actually quite good, because it's the perfect transitional piece—or, in my case, the perfect year-round layer. So without further ado, here are seven of my favorite ways to wear it. 

Have you ever taken a trip that was so good, you forgot to take photos? We just spent a long weekend in Mendocino County, and that's exactly the kind of getaway it was—so relaxing, we were able to be present and not glued to our phones. (The fact that I didn't have cell reception 95% of the time definitely helped.) I meant for this post to be a sort of travel diary about our trip, but then I realized that I already did that two years ago when we went to Mendocino. Last time, we stayed in town; this time we were a bit south, in Little River, and we only went into Mendocino to grab meals (most of which were takeout, due to Covid restrictions). We also brought Zuni with us on this trip, which gave it a slightly different vibe; it was a little less romance and more quality family time. But since the air in the city has been thick with smoke for weeks due to the wildfires, we were thrilled to get out of our apartment, into the fresh, clean, coastal air. The one day we did take photos was when we went a bit inland to the town of Philo, which is where many of the Anderson Valley wineries are located. Here's where we ate and drank. 

 Sometimes my posts are written days in advance; sometimes I'm working up until my deadline (and sometimes a little beyond that). This post is an example of the latter. I was intending to post a bunch of ridiculously marked-down sale items for your buying pleasure, but in researching this post, I realized that the most exciting deals were the ones on fall styles. They might not be 80% off, but I'd rather spend a little bit more on things for the upcoming season, rather than ones that I can wear a few more weeks, then stow away until next year. So here are my favorite buy now, wear soon pieces, plus more Labor Day sales for your bargain-shopping pleasure, because this is a safe place. 

I'm going to make a bold statement: 2020 the year of the housedress. True, 2020 is not yet over (although maybe it should be) but it is already September (September!!), and while it hasn't been a big year for fashion trends, the one I've most readily embraced is the housedress. Debuting during the postwar years when housewives needed something to wear whilst cooking and doing chores, housedresses evolved into a slightly more fabulous version in the '70s, when they were geared more toward entertaining at home. Then in the '80s, women went to work in offices, and they'v been pretty much dormant ever since. Now, however, two major factors have collided to create the perfect conditions for the return of the housedress. One is that big, floaty dresses are in fashion. The other is that, obviously, we're all staying home waaaaaaay more than we have in years. And while wearing sweatpants was fun for awhile, one doesn't always feel the most pulled-together in them. Hence, the housedress. It's comfy yet pretty, functional yet feminine. I've been living in them this summer, and last week I bought my best one yet.