Forever 21 opens in Olympia!

I am not a huge Forever 21 fan.  Not because I dislike them or hold any great antipathy to affordable fashion.  Forever 21 is just relatively new to my state.  I am also not their target audience - perhaps too old (ahem).  But that said, they remind me of the old Jay Jacobs and a frilly Fashion Direction (for which I spend a great five years working in the 80's).  Trendy and inexpensive, Forever 21 will provide some healthy competition for the other stores in our mall, including Charlotte Russe which is my daughter's favorite store.  Both my daughter and I had been driving past the spot in the mall where construction was happening and ogling the chandeliers as they went up.  Excitement was building along with the new store. 

So today, on opening day, we trekked over to the mall.  No we weren't first in line - perhaps this post should be on badfashionista.com (if there was such a thing!).  But there was plenty of eye candy and great deals.  Most of what I bought was for my daughter.  She found a great ruffle skirt and some leggings to go under them.  My daughter found aviator sunglasses for $1.50.  She recently lost her dollar pair that she'd found on clearance somewhere else so this was a major score.  I focused on the accessories areas because that's typically my forte.

However, I bought HUE corduroy leggings in forest green at Nordstrom's a few weeks ago during the anniversary sale and was also on the hunt for an over-sized shirt to go over them. 

Trends seemed to be on point with the pre-fall line up.  As you can see by the pic, lace sprinkled tops all around the store, providing cut outs, layering options, or frills.  Tons of pearls and rhinestones spilled over the baskets and display tables.  A Parisian theme peppered the store with chandeliers and fake moldings around inset accessory walls.  But also several of the jewelry pieces featured bicycles, the Eiffel tower, Victorian birds, and cat's eye glasses - also lining up with the trend point of the early fall - Glam Victoriana.

I desperately wanted a glittery silver thread shot scarf but both daughter and I agree that it might be a bit early for a cover up.  I am still searching for where I might have misplaced my favorite Eddie Bauer scarf that STILL has the tags attached so I was loathe to buy another.  This is definitely my favorite part of the store with gobs of handbags, scarves, and jewelry.  I had several necklaces in hand, having a hard time trying to pick just one.  I'll be back for more!  But I did buy bird with a gold finish (somehow I ended up with two pieces of bird jewelry) and his name is Roadie.  He looks like a roadrunner to me.  With his gold tone finish and brown wings, he will look great on nearly anything that I wear. 

The store was busy with a line up at the dressing rooms.  There were plenty of great sales consultants on the floor.  My daughter had a friend who was just hired by them and she told us that they stocked to store in four days.  We were asked if we needed help more times than we could count. 

Off to the right, you see my favorite score of the day!  Meet Percival (so named at the register).  He sits right on my hand as a ring.  That isn't a great picture of him but look at how BIG he is!  I will try to get another pic later.  He was one of the more expensive items that I purchased.  I did manage to find a shirt with a deep rose print on it.  The dark forest leaves will match nicely with my cord leggings.

 
    The end of the mall has been greatly improved by this store front!  It's clean and bright.  Just beautiful.  We had a hard time getting a picture where there wasn't someone standing or walking in front because it was that busy. 

Tommy at the register was a little taken aback when we told him that I was going to blog about it.  But here we are at the register.  Thanks, Tommy.  We thought you were adorable!  We'll see you later!