Rachel Zoe

Holiday Series : Red Check!

This is yet another Holiday Series post simply because what reeks of holiday season better than a red checked flannel dress and a matching sweater? Not much… Therefore here is a Holiday Series fashion post, not to be mistaken for New Year’s Party outfit post as this is not and nor will we have such a post this year because we are 2 and a half weeks away from delivery and we will spend New Year’s Eve on our couch, binge watching a TV show. Next year will be an entirely different story, but this year we will skip the party and the party-related posts.

I am honestly amazed that we were able to take pics this far along in the pregnancy as my contingency plan included a one-month vacation before the baby arrived as I had this fixed idea that in the ninth month it will be impossible to move around and quite frankly I’d be too tired to get out anymore. That did not happen thankfully and thus far we have been able to go to the Christmas Family dinner, tomorrow we will attend a very important event and I have a (positive) feeling that everything will go smoothly until the baby comes. Yes, I did not forget about the name-revealing post, nor did I forget about all the promised baby stuff posts that we bought, but I have a feeling that those posts will work better once we will actually use the stuff we bought and will be more review-posts that presentation-posts thus making them actually useful for future moms-to-be.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Vest – H&M; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Bling – Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

Getting back to today’s business… I am feeling more festive than ever this year and besides the fully-decorated house, I actually made it my scope to get holiday clothes as well – see the Christmas sweaters and the plaid dress posts. For some reason all my past Grinch-y-ness did not emerge this year and I strongly suspect that hormones had a big influence on that. This post is yet another Christmas-infused mainly because of the colour theme and the fabrics (but you can’t actually feel the fabrics so you are going to have to take my word for it). I am wearing yet another ZARA XS dress that I paired with my Rachel Zoe over the knee boots – this winter’s uniform – and the thing that I loved about this dress from the first moment I saw it, was the fabric – both texture and print. This is the perfect plaid, flannel shirtdress! I am telling you, ZARA really outdid themselves this AW collection!

On D:

Sweater – ZARA; Jeans – ZARA; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Watch – Apple

Obviously being a black and red combo, my Atelier Lemnia red clutch worked perfectly with the entire outfit and I seem to be wearing it more and more these days, thus making it one of my best investments of 2016. Also, to keep me and my belly warm I’ve also worn a great investment that I made at the beginning of autumn, my black knitted H&M vest. This one really turned out to be a very versatile piece of clothing during my pregnancy and I have a feeling that it will get a lot of action after I give birth as well.

D also happily wore the black and red combo. His focus piece of the outfit is the red check sweater that he recently found at ZARA – yes, ZARA, again! Right after I saw his sweater I thought of my dress and thus I made it my goal to wear these exact outfits during the Holiday mini-vacation. He paired the sweater with his ZARA black jeans and decided on wearing the Converse x John Varvatos black sneaks. Accessory-wise we both kept things on the down-low, with D only opting for his Apple watch and I only choosing to wear my Crystaldust Swarovski bracelet and my Tous ring alongside my Apple watch.

All in all, I have no idea how long we will be able to post until the baby arrives but I hope to get two more weeks of normal, every-other-day posting until I will probably take a short vacation. I do hope to be able to show you what I will be wearing at a very special event tomorrow, but that really depends on the weather and on how tired I will be. Also, I would like to continue the Holiday Series a bit with another amazingly delicious recipe that we found and that we want to try out. All those post depend on how well I will be feeling and on how energetic the bundle of joy will be as I am telling you, she really is an active baby.

December 28, 2016

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Civic Duties: DONE!

Yesterday we voted! I do not want to spend more time on the subject as I think that politics is just like religion: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We did however, use that as an excuse to snap some more pics of the 34th week of pregnancy and fully took advantage of the 14 degrees C and the perfectly clear skies – yes, apparently the weather is a bit nuts these days in Bucharest. Since both of us have our ID dress at our parents’ this called for a full Bucharest tour to be able to vote. First it was D who voted and right after that it was my turn. When all our civic duties were done we decided to snap some pics near my parents house thus changing the usual scenery a bit.

As you can see, D is wearing a t-shirt and I am wearing a dress with no coat on as it was just that warm outside and needless to say lovely. The dress is yet another XS find from ZARA that currently fits nicely but I have a feeling that in about two-three weeks I will have to wear it as a tunic over jeans because my belly is growing at a very fast rate and this dress is on the short side. But I love it anyway because it has a very fun print, it needs no ironing and it works with a lot of things in my closet, plus the lovely black and yellow combo. I just can’t wait to try it on when I am back to my old shape again and see how it fits. To be honest I can’t wait to try all my newly bought dresses once I loose all the baby weight. Maybe I will do a series called ‘Double Take: during and after pregnancy dresses’. I strongly urge all future mothers to not give into the temptation of buying maternity clothes, just be careful with your diet and you’ll fit in most of your usual sized dresses – the cut is the only thing that really changes but at least you’ll be left wth clothes that you can actually wear post-pregnancy.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Christhelen B by Musette; Hat – ZARA; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Whenever I have a dress that is a bit on the short side of the spectrum I like to pair it with over the knee boots, as you might have noticed, especially since these boots are current obsessions of mine mainly because they tend to make legs seem longer and slimmer than they actually are – trust me on that one. Plus they are super-sexy and comfortable provided you do accept the fact that every once in a while (often!) you gave to re-position them on your thighs as they do tend to run down as you walk (some double tape might help with that). Aside from the mini-dress-over-the-knee boots combo, I must point out that I found another black bag! This is not new, I’ve actually had it for 3 years but only recently found it and therefore I decided to switch from my usual Chloe black bag. Plus I just love the golden details that go perfectly with my Rachel Zoe boots as well as my ZARA hat. You can find lots of similar options at Musette.

On D:

T-shirt – Replay; Jeans – Review; Vest – ZARA; Shoes – Replay; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Apple

D didn’t really feel like wearing black, so he opted for the softer version of grey and dark khaki. He proudly wore his newly acquired ZARA vest that he first spotted a few years ago (different colour, though) and I suspect he prayed a lot to the ZARA Gods to remake that model. He is the type of shopper that sees something that he likes but only wants desperately to have it at least a year later. Well, this is one of those few things that he actually found two years later in store and thus had to have it. He also wore his lovely Review jeans and a Replay t-shirt that he bought especially as he wanted something to match his Replay orange-soled sneaks. All in all, everything he wore matched wonderfully: the dark khaki of the vest with the khaki t-shirt, the orange sole of his sneaks with the orange print on his t-shirt that also sort of matched the orange-brown part of the vest. I just love it when everything goes well together and not necessarily matches perfectly!

Bling-wise, we did not really put too much thought into it as we were only going out to vote, but we did however manage to look decent. I wore my Swarovski bracelet and ring while D wore his usual Fossil bracelet alongside a Constantin Nautics bracelet. We both wore out Apple Watches, as usual and it turns out we are both fans of these smartwatches despite not really thinking that might happen. Since it was really sunny out, we both wore sunglasses, I, my Dior SoReal while D wore his Ray-Ban black sunnies.

December 12, 2016

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Dottie!!!

Recently I have started loving dresses, especially since they are a huge confidence boost for me right now as they all are non-maternity and my size (XS) and still fit me nicely. The only real issue is the fact that finding small sized maternity hosiery turns out to be harder and harder every day. Aside from the basic black – which I only found two pairs of – all the other nice autumnal colours are either size L or XL. That is the only frustrating part about shopping right now, but that too is a confidence booster as I feel that I’ve reached the eighth month of pregnancy without much damage to my figure despite the cravings and the fact that I wasn’t able to go to the gym.

Another great thing thus far about my pregnancy is the fact that I felt great throughout this period and hope this will stay the same for the remaining two (almost) months. It is rather true that recently I have been starting to really feel the fact that I am pregnant with all sorts of uncomfortable sensations mainly in my back but that is nothing like the actual pain I’ve been told/read about, more like an inconvenience so there is nothing to whine about. I have been loosing my breath more often than before and switching from one side to another during the night turns out to be more difficult than anticipated (just ask D who had the pleasure of meeting my pregnancy pillow face first one night – I swear it was not intentional), but aside from that everything has been going smoothly.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Vest – H&M; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Chloe; Hat – ZARA; Bling – Pandora, Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

So after a quick recap on how I am feeling thus far, it is time to talk a bit about the outfits we are wearing in these photos. Yes, again, I wore a pair of over the knee boots, but like I said a million times, I just love them! This time I chose my black Rachel Zoe boots because I like to keep a balanced rotation where my boots/shoes are concerned and realised that I haven’t worn them in quite a while. I paired them with a new dress from ZARA that D bought for me while I was having my hair done – yes, I did not try it on upon buying, but it is a size xs and fits me perfectly. As you know, I am trying as much as possible to buy as few maternity clothes as possible because I really want to make sure that I spend my money right and that I will be able to wear the stuff I buy for as long as possible. For example, there is absolutely no reason why I will not wear this dress over and over again after the little princess comes and I get back into my pre-pregnancy shape. Had I invested in a maternity dress I would’ve ended up with a loose, long and shapeless dress after springing back into my usual shape – so to all mamas-to-be out there, try to buy as few maternity clothes as possible.

On D:

T-shirt – G-Star Raw; Cardigan – ZARA; Jeans – ZARA; Shoes – Replay; Bling – Fossil and Tous; Watch – Longines

Since this was turning out to be yet another black and white outfit, I decided to finish it with my Chloe black bag – yes, I still haven’t bought another black bag so this will have to do for now. I also started really enjoying hats recently and therefore I just had to wear this black fluffy one from ZARA. In order to keep myself rather on the warm side (although it wasn’t a particularly cold day) I opted for my long black vest from H&M that I bought at the beginning of this autumn.

D really wanted to do more colour than me and opted for a light pink t-shirt form G-Star Raw that I can’t seem to find online despite him buying it a week ago (I’ve linked and alternative). He matched his t-shirt and my dots with his socks (Happy Socks I think) which made me very happy the moment I noticed – when I took the photos. He also wore his black ZARA jeans and a grey cardigan also from ZARA. I just love the big chunky cardigan look for men during autumn as I feel it looks infinitely better then a jacket. He finished the whole outfit with a pair of Replay sneaks that were actually a much-needed splash of colour in our photoshoot.

We both wore quite a lot of accessories… I went for my Pandora bracelet that was filled by my family and friends (I have one that was filled solely by D) and the Crystaldust bracelet from Swarovski. I also could not leave my Tous ring at home especially since I feel it works wonderfully with the Pandora bracelet. As per usual I wore my Apple watch while D wore his Longines watch. He also decided to wear both his Fossil bracelet as well as his new Tous bracelet and I have to say that I really love it when he puts this much effort into choosing his accessories.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly from now on and by this time next week I will be able to show you both the completed nursery as well as some pics from the upcoming Baby-Shower this weekend.

November 24, 2016

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Morning Sun…

I love early morning sunshine, but it can be a real bitch where photos are concerned. We managed to shoot on a perfect autumn day: clear skies, breezy temps and lots of wonderful colours in the trees. I just hope we’ll be able to have at least one day per week of this perfect weather so we can shoot the growing baby bump and keep track of my expanding body. By now the little princess seems to be very, very active and sometimes I just want to sit still and enjoy her little movements and that can sometime be a deferral from taking photos or any other activities.

What can I say about today’s fashion choices. Obviously I love the way I feel in my thigh high boots and I have to say, these are really comfortable and give me bit o height to counterbalance the extra kgs I’ve acquired during the last 6 months. It seems that I am more and more prone to wearing heeled shoes just so I can seem just a bit taller and leaner that I actually do. I am quite sure that by the end of this trimester I will care less and less about that and more and more about being comfortable and luckily for me, UGG season is approaching fast and there’s nothing more comfortable than a cozy pair of UGGs!

On me:

Skirt – Herve Leger; Blouse – Mango; Vest – H&M; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet 1, bracelet 2 and ring); Watch – Tissot

I know that we should dress in pink as often as possible, since we are having a girl, but as long as we did not buy anything pink for her or her nursery thus far I think we can safely say that we are not going to turn into pink bundles of joy all together. This time the combo of choice was black (for obvious reasons) and blue. I love wearing this combo and I though I’d take advantage of the fact that my Herve Leger mini is still fitting (I’ve had it for a few years now) – FYI this is an actual office appropriate knee length pencil skirt but taking into consideration the baby bump, it has turned into a mini and will probably become too indecent for public exposure in a few weeks. I paired the newly mini skirt with my Rachel Zoe boots and I have to say that I kinda felt a bit like Julia Robert in Pretty Woman, minus the latex.

On D:

T-shirt – Calvin Klein; Jeans – Review; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Tissot

In order for my outfit to not be too revealing, I topped everything with my H&M vest that you will see a lot of this autumn. It covers just the right places in order for me to feel confident! I opted for a calf hair mini box cloth from Michael Kors as this seems to be my go-to black clutch during autumn and winter months. Bling wise I went a bit overboard wearing two Swarovski bracelets plus a ginormous cocktail ring also by Swarovski.

D wore those amazing jeans from Review that I swore I was going to make him buy a few more pairs, just to be sure he has them in all the available colours and paired them with his lovely blue polo shirt from Calvin Klein. He did wear a grey and blue combo and our blues are not really matching but as long as both of us were happy, who really cares? As usual lately, he wore his Converse x John Varvatose sneaks simply because he seems to have a hard time transitioning from his summer shoes to his autumn ones. Bling wise he was a bit more reserved than me and wore his Constantin Nautics bracelet alongside his Fossil one. For some reason, our go-to watches lately are out Tissot T-Race ones and that might be because of the very comfortable strap and the fact that they are quite light in comparison to most of our other watches.

I just love it when we manage to get out of the house and actually have time for a fun photoshoot as we always seem to have a real bias doing them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for at least one nice day per week so we do not have to resort to taking photos in our garage as that will be a real shame.

October 17, 2016

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Blackout…

Black is not just for sad days, to be honest, the minute the sun stops shining I turn to my dark clothes so you will probably see lots of dark clothes during this winter. I admit, I love black nowadays because it is such a forgiving colour. I haven’t met anyone that doesn’t look good in black and for me, especially during this period, it just feels right. We will try and do some more colourful shoots but given the fact that my body is only going one way (bigger and bigger) black is officially my comfort colour. This does not mean that navies or burgundies are out of the question because those, to me, are autumn/winter neutrals, as I have already made my case in earlier posts. Trust me, come a sunny day and I will bring back brighter colours, but for now, dark is my go-to.

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On the day of the shoot I was in a great mood mainly because I worked out the courage that morning to actually try out most of my autumn clothes and I was surprised that everything that had a bit of elasticity to it still fit me. For now at least… Thank God for bandage dresses and skirts! I realised that I had a ton of options for exactly this period so as long as it doesn’t rain, I am going to take full advantage and shoot as many pieces as possible as I have no idea if my clothes will still fit me nicely in a week or two. Unfortunately, D is rather busy these days so we are going to have to take photos according to both his schedule and autumn’s showers. Keeping my fingers crossed for as many opportunities as possible!

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On me:

Dress – Concepto; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Chloe; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet1, bracelet2 and ring); Watch – Ingersoll

Moving along to today’s outfits… I really wanted to shoot this lovely dress from Concepto ever since I bought it at Untold Festival in August, but I just didn’t find the time and weather to take it for a stroll, plus the fact that ever since I bought it, I thought it worked wonderfully with a chunky pair of boots. Since the said boots are not yet in my closed, I decided to try it with my Rachel Zoe over-the-knee boots and surprise: it looks great and I really feel less elephant-y and more model-y than ever during this pregnancy. It’s actually a pity that my hair did not look like a Victoria’s Secret model, but hey, the side pony worked out well enough.

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On D:

Pants – Replay; T-shirt – Replay; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Aviator

I was also excited about wearing my Chloe black bag which I haven’t worn in a few months – again, because black is not really my summer colour. I realised that I love most of the cold season items I have and now I am quite excited to actually wear them. Since the chunkiness of the boots was missing I decided to compensate by wearing my chunky Ingersoll Limited Edition watch that D bought for me last winter. Yes, I am well aware that this is a men’s watch, but I always loved men’s watches more than those flimsy feminine watches. Naturally I needed some more feminine accents so I opted for two white Swarovski bracelets (simply put, I do not have a black one) and a black ring, also form Swarovski.

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Taking all that into consideration, D also opted for black and therefore ended up wearing those lovely Replay pants that you know I adore so much. To be honest, now that I am writing this, I realised that his entire outfit is from Replay : t-shirt as well. That doesn’t bother me at all as I think that Replay does some of the most amazing items when it comes to men’s casual wear. He wore his trusty and versatile Converse x John Varvatos shoes but he could’ve easily go for a pair of similar ones from Replay. He kept his accessorising light, only wearing his Fossil bracelet and his Aviator watch.

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Now that I think about it, this whole pregnancy thing is a really nice period to actually go through and my morale is at a max these days. Yes, clothes are that important and I really was hoping to skip the whole wardrobe change and save some money for the after-birth items that I will spoil myself with. I just hope that I will continue to feel great and will be able to take as many photos of this amazing period as possible.

October 7, 2016

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Last day of summer…

Yesterday was the last day of summer…yes, I know we are in mid September, but yesterday was the last day of 30 degrees C and we took advantage of it to snap a few photos of our current (pregnant) situation. Do not get me wrong, these past few weeks the heat has been killing me, but that, by no means gives autumn the right to strike full force as it did today (currently 18 degrees C and pouring rain since 9 o’clock)! I would’ve loved this season to come a bit slower but at least now I know I will be sleeping ok until January, at least when it comes to bedroom temperature.

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For some reason, we both chose to wear black and taupe yesterday and I am more than happy that I managed to squeeze in a few photos of these lovely Rachel Zoe Monica sandals that I think I got last year or two years ago (yes, this is another pair of long lost sandals that I just found in our dressing-room). Honestly, I’ve loved them ever since I saw them, but yesterday was the first time I actually wore them. Despite the 11 cm heel and my growing weight, they are very comfortable and, had autumn not come so early, I probably would’ve worn them some more this year. I just have to remember all about them next year, I suppose, as there is no way I am going back to sandals this year, stilettos, certainly, but not sandals!

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On me:

Dress – Bershka; Cardigan – Bershka; Sandals – Rachel Zoe; Bag – DKNY; Bling – Swarovski (pendant and ring); Sunglasses – Dior; Watch – Longines

Taupe is one of my favourite neutral colours for early autumn and early spring simply because if you mix it with black, brown,oxblood or navy you get a perfect outfit for autumn and if you decide to mix it with pastels you have the perfect transition-combo for spring. This time we both mixed it with black – maybe because we sensed the weather will turn – and I love the result. Ever since my belly rounded nicely, I can look at myself in a skintight dress again and feel great, so I wore this rib dress from Bershka. Make no mistake, most of my skintight outfits will have some sort of layer on top and this time I chose this cardigan that you can also find at Bershka, or at least you can find an alternative as you know me right now – not a lot of clothes shopping as long as my oldies still fit.

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On D:

Pants – Replay; T-shirt – H&M; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics (bracelet and pedant); Watch – Longines

I paired the lovely sandals with a perfectly matching quilted bucket bag from DKNY. I love bucket bags so much despite not having many in my closet, simply because you can fit everything in them – sometimes by using sheer force. To accessorise everything, I decided on two pieces form Swarovski, the Elvis pendant, that you can’t currently find anywhere (BOHOOOO Swarovski for discontinuing such a fun line!) and a lovely taupe cocktail ring that I ‘stole’ from my mother. I also wore my lovely Dior sunglasses for the last sunny day of the year!

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D wore his lovely black wool blend pants from Replay, that he got a few months ago in Milan – it seems like ages have passed since out Milan trip. I can’t wait to travel again and discover new cities! I hate the fact that we have no travel plans whatsoever! He also wore his H&M taupe t-shirt that feels so lovely to the touch and has this fun uneven edge. Luckily for us, D is the one that still shops for clothes and makes my job easier when it comes to linking similar items. He wore his Converse x John Varvatos shoes and at this point I am seriously asking myself if he wears them because I love them so much and he doesn’t want to annoy me, or he loves them just as much as I do… He accessorised his look with his Fossil bracelet alongside his Constantin Nautics pendant and bracelet, and we both wore our Longines watches.

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I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun with my belly right now, there also has been a lot of movement in there lately and I am so glad that I have been feeling great these past 22 weeks! We hope to have some news regarding gender as soon as possible, but until then, we have to focus on getting our home in tip-top condition!

September 19, 2016

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Daydreaming Rooftop Party…

The last couple of days have been hectic and filled with all sorts of activities that required our full attention… I really wanted to be able to post this yesterday as this is the first of many festival fashion posts to come this summer. Since the Daydreaming Rooftop Party is the intro to Untold festival, we just had to be there, especially since Satoshi Tomiie was mixing.

Luckily, the weather turned out to be ok in the evening, as opposed to Friday morning when the weather was horrible. Despite this being a party on the rooftop of a shopping centre, both D and I decided on a relaxed festival look. I chose a peasant dress and gladiator sandals while he chose chinos and a v-neck t-shirt. Unfortunately, you can’t find these Rachel Zoe beauties that I’m wearing online anymore, but there are literally hundreds of options as gladiator sandals are quite big this summer. The same goes for the Michael Kors bag, but I found a pretty close alternative online.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Shoes – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Tomorrowland, Pandora and Swarovski; Watch – Daniel Wellington; Shades – Woodfellas

We took these pictures right before the party, and D was very excited about them as he just loved the sunset light and said that this is the perfect light for creative photos. Once there, we both enjoyed the party so much that we really forgot to take any pics of the event, but hey, it really opened our appetite for this summer’s festivals.