I’ve been meaning to write this review for ages since I’ve had these Harlow wide-leg pants from Madewell for well over a year now. In fact I liked them so much in black that I got another pair in khaki (even though I rarely purchase items new these days). And the fact that they’re still a best seller over a year from when I purchased them must mean they’re must be a good pair of pants.

Growing up in Honolulu, about a 10-15 minute drive from Ala Moana, I never realized how blessed I was when it came to luxury stores. Some luxury brands offer a “Hawaii price” that’s cheaper than the Mainland (that’s the continental US) price. Not all brands do this and the following list (in alphabetical order) details which of them do (or don’t) and what percentage is offered.

Here I am with another bra review because honestly I only buy two a year and wear them out by the end of they year. And instead of re-purchasing the same thing I like to see what else is out there in the market. I first heard of Neiwai amongst friends two years ago when one friend got it as a White Elephant gift and all my friends kept stealing it from each other. Huh, is it that good?

I’m on a roll with The Row here with a review of a Row item every month so far. This month I’m going to talk about The Row Kitan coat I got from the Neiman Marcus sale at the end of 2023.

As long time readers know, I’m a pretty big fan of Quince (see all my Quince reviews here). But I hadn’t thought to try out their shoes until just recently. But when I saw their machine washable shoes (much like Rothy’s which I like—see my Rothy’s review here), at a very reasonable price, I knew I wanted to give them a try. Here are all the shoes I’ve tried from Quince thus far and what I think about them:

Continuing with 2023 recaps here on the blog, I wanted to take a moment to look at all my most worn items over the year.

If you’re a long time reader, you know this blog was built on Everlane reviews (see the extensive but not updated list here). So I was surprised to see that I had yet to do an Everlane review for 2023, but then again I hadn’t purchased anything from them until just recently. In the last couple of months I got the Wide Leg Dream Pants (on eBay), the Organic Cotton Striped Tee Dress (from Crossroads—a thrift shop), and the Felted Merino Wool Half-zip (on the Everlane website during their F&F sale).

After going down a Diane Keaton scarf inspo Google wormhole I got a couple of scarves from Madewell and the RealReal. And in June I decided to go for a scarf ring from Hermes after watching a couple YouTube videos on tying scarves. And since it’s getting to be scarf season, I thought I’d take the time to review both the Hermes scarves and Hermes Regate ring today.

It’s been awhile since I purchased t-shirts, thanks to buying so many Everlane shirts 5 years ago. However, many of those shirts have worn out or have become too small. So I had been on the hunt for a good classic tee when I found Yes Friends on a list of ethical brands.

Back in January, after the first couple of atmospheric rivers in California, I decided to finally look for some rain boots. About ten years ago I had the Hunter rain boots when they were all the rage, but I never wore them much because they were quite heavy and clunky to wear. I eventually sold them and have never looked at rain boots again thanks to years of drought in California. But this year, I got fed up with wet shoes and purchased a pair of Merry People Bobbi Rain Boots. And I’m so glad I did because I was able to use them for the ten other atmospheric rivers that came after.

One of my very first reviews was of Quince’s $50 cashmere sweater , and three years ago I thought that cashmere sweater was decent. I admittedly didn’t wear it a ton though because it was a tad sheer and the following year (2020) I went up a size and it didn’t fit anymore. Since then I have only dabbled in Quince’s sweaters, preferring to wear out my Everlane sweaters instead. But since I had sized out of those too, I got a handful of Quince sweaters this past year and here’s a roundup review of them all (organized by fiber type).

I purchased this babaa no25 merino wool sweater this past summer because I saw it for a fairly good price on the RealReal (like this one) and I had some credit there as well. I’ve only tried the thick chunky babaa cotton cardigan in the past (my babaa review here), which I loved for its quality, but in the end I never really wore it because I’m not super into chunky sweaters (I feel like it adds too much bulk). However since I was so impressed with their quality, I was willing to try them again and I have to say it does not disappoint.

I wrote a similar top ten post for 2021 and it was quite popular (in fact it fell in the top 15 posts of 2022 lol) so I thought I’d do it again for 2022. I also like to see how the list changes year over year because it makes me see what people are interested in reading on the blog. So thank you to all of you guys who take the time to read the blog and without further ado, here are my top ten posts as of 2022:

I had been reflecting on my expensive purchases of last year and I thought I would do a brief recap of what I thought were the best and worst purchases. The last time I did this was about one and a half years ago (My Best and Worst Luxury Purchases of 2021—and I still stand behind those choices except maybe for the Apple Watch which I don’t use as much anymore 🤦🏻‍♀️). Anyway without further ado, here are my best and worst luxury purchases as of 2022.

I already did my best Quince purchases of 2022, so here are my top ten non-Quince, most used items that I purchased this past year (in no particular order).

After purchasing The Curated’s Classic coat, which I loved (and reviewed here), I decided to try out another one of their coats, this time the Tailored coat (currently no longer sold). I got this one on sale at the end of the season and thus was only able to wear it a couple times before it got too warm. Now that it’s Autumn and the temps are cooling down am I reaching for this coat? Frankly, not so much.

I don’t know if you can tell by now, but Quince is now my go-to brand for pretty much everything. I love their quality clothing (both womens and mens), jewelry, bags, and even home goods. And I’m very lucky that many of you guys have supported these reviews by purchasing through my referral link (thank you guys! ). But after doing so many Quince reviews, which items were my most used? My favorites? Well here they are (in no particular order):

I originally purchased a pair of Birkenstock Boston Mules sometime last year from eBay. And one reader asked for a review…so here it is over a year later lol, I apologize for the delay 😂. But I had made a mistake in my sizing of those mules because I thought I would wear socks with them so I went one size up. Nope, those shoes ended up being way too big and didn’t stay on my feet. So back to whence they came. And finally this year, to prepare for some camping (which is where I had envisioned using these Birks the most), I ordered a pair in my current Birks size from the RealReal (for a great deal I might add). So here is the review of the Boston mules now that I’ve worn them a bit.

Thanks to everyone who purchased through my Quince referral link (where you get $20 off your first order and I get $20 of credit as well), I’ve been able to try quite a few things on credit. I wrote a comprehensive Quince review of all the things I tried during the last half of last year and I also wrote a Quince jewelry review and a Quince Linen review. Well here are all the other things I’ve tried since the beginning of this year:

I first reviewed Kowtow three years ago and I was impressed with the quality of this fairtrade brand out of New Zealand that produced most of their clothes with organic cotton. And since then I’ve picked up a couple more items from Kowtow via The RealReal that I really like so I thought I’d do a quick review of them here.

One of the first things I tried from Quince was their linen bedding and I was (and still am) a huge fan. Since then I’ve tried a multitude of their linen items because I love linen and Quince linen is quite good. How good you ask? Well, as a lightweight linen (at 160gsm) it ranks just below the slow fashion linen brands from Lithuania (NotPerfectLinen and LinenFox) but better than many other conventional brands that price their linen products higher (Ilana Kohn, Tradlands, etc.). You can peek my Ethical Linen Guide here. So without further ado, here’s what I think of the linen things I’ve tried from Quince:

At the end of last year, after trying the Ganni loafers from the RealReal that were too small, I pre-ordered these chunky loafers from Alohas. I’ve seen them around on Instagram and I have to say their ads got me. Also NGL, their name Alohas got my attention since I’m from Hawaii (sadly it has nothing to do with Hawaii and this is a Spanish brand that makes all their items ethically in Spain).

After trying out the Mesh All You, the Classic All You, and the Limitless Wirefree bras from Pepper (my first Pepper bra review here), I decided to try out their Lift Up bra, ie their version of the push-up bra. As I mentioned in my first Pepper review, I had been wearing mostly push-up bras before this because I’ve always been self-conscious of my bust size. But I have to admit that after wearing the All You bras (my favorite being the Classic for the comfort though it’s not as supportive) I’ve gotten used to my chest size and don’t feel the need to give it a boost. But for the sake of experimentation and for those days that I feel like being boosted, I decided to go for the Lift Up.

I tried to go to the Rudy Jude store twice, on the two separate occasions I was in LA, and sadly the store was closed both times. I think fate was telling me not to be tempted with their high-priced (but ethically made) clothing. Well lucky for me, I happened to be on Insta when Helen decided to sell her white day blouse (just the item I had been wanting). So what did I think of the insta-famous Rudy Jude Day Blouse?

One of my goals this year as part of #LessNewin2022 is to write more posts about items I already own and less reviews of new stuff. So today I’ll be doing a little roundup of my current shirt collection and how they’ve worn over the years. The following are my five most worn shirt brands:

I’ve always thought of the brand The Row by the Olsen twins as a line of ridiculously priced basics. And even though I like basics (and even the Olsen twins’ fashion sense) I never thought about buying anything from them until I read this article by The Cut (which I found thanks to Cathy from Feather Factor). When I read the part about an ultra wealthy women buying 30 cashmere crewnecks (spending about $30k on them) and the author calling their sweaters “perfect,” I had to find out what all the hype was about. And well, now that I’ve tried this one I have to say I get it.

So I actually ordered both the Classic Shoulder Bag and Classic Teddy Jacket from The Curated in 2020 when I was still in Hawaii. Both were sent to Hawaii while we were there, but I obviously couldn’t wear the Teddy Jacket. And tbh I wasn’t a fan of the Classic Shoulder Bag (more on this below), so I left them in Hawaii when I couldn’t fit them into our already seam-busting suitcases. Well I finally had my mom ship both to me in California, and now I remember why I left them in Hawaii (and forgot about them 🙈) lol.

As I mentioned in my What I Bought in December post, these Birdies shoes were my last purchase of the year. We were in LA and browsing Abbot Kinney (a street with a bunch of DTC brands like Everlane, Cuyana, All Birds, nadaam, etc.) when I popped into the Birdies store just to try it on. Were these shoes really as comfortable as all those Instagram ads promised they would be?

Since my last Quince round-up was pretty popular, I thought I’d continue the series with my next “batch” of Quince items. Thank you again for all those who shopped through my referral link (for $20 off your first purchase—they upped it from $10 this year)! It’s because of you guys that I’m able to try all these things from Quince on credit.