Banana Republic Jewelry Review: Poor Quality – Do NOT Buy

No where to vent but here.

I’m not trying to buy investment jewelry but I wanted something that was nicer than Forever21, so I turned to Banana Republic. A stone on my bracelet fell off about a week after I purchased it! I could have glued it back into place but why do I need to fix something so new? I tried to return it and while I was at the store, I saw that the same bracelet on display was missing stones similarly. It wasn’t one but two that had that defect on display. RETURNED.

Another bracelet, leather ripped apart. WOW, even my fake leather from Target lasted longer. Mind you I wore this less than ten times.

Bottom line, don’t purchase jewelry from Banana Republic. Whoever their manufacturer is, does a piss poor job.

On that side note, I still have many of my Forever21 pieces and they’re still holding up! Plus, if they broke, what, they’re less than $10 or sometimes less than $5 a piece!

Prabal Gurung for Target Review and My Haul

I loved all the looks featured in the Prabal Gurung for Target promos, so obviously I had to trek out to Target to get me some of that! I figured, they learned their lesson from the whole Missoni debacle so I wouldn’t bother to wake up early or anything, though I did try to log onto the site at around midnight eastern time but nada.  The crazy Polish couple next door started screaming at 4AM, so what else was there to do than to shop online?!

I ordered the short sleeved black dress with the first date print running down the center and the black lace up sandals. Sweet!

Next morning, woke up at around 10AM and walked over to Target – yes, I live that close and yes, it’s HORRIBLE for my wallet! Everyone was generally laid back, looking at all the items and taking their sweet time. I picked up the dress I ordered online, a sleeveless first date print blouse, a red dress with the black panels, and the first date print sweatshirt.

The quality of the items were only OK. The black/first date print dress fit nicely and accentuated my waist. However, there was some puckering where the sleeves met the shoulder.  So I hoped the dress I ordered online would be sewn a little bit better (it wasn’t). The color on this was definitely not as vivid as my other items. The red dress looked pretty good but they didn’t have my size. The black panels on the back and the waist gave a nice illusion of a smaller waist.

I hadn’t realized everything I purchased was the same print until I got home. Time to ebay some of it off and hopefully make a little extra cash (probably only enough to buy myself a caramel macchiato, sigh). I LOVE the sweatshirt and I think my new fashion goal is to purchase as many ‘designer’ sweatshirts I can possibly buy. Hey, they are TOTALLY work-appropriate if they’re not some schelp-y sweats, right?

Now onto the shoes. I loved everything except of course, really they’re just glorified payless shoes. The ‘sulfur’ colored shoes are pretty decent except the clasp closure worries me a little. The finer details of the lace-up shoe were a little iffy, like the zipper. That’s how you can tell cheap shoes apart from nicer ones, take a look at how the zipper’s sewn. It’s pretty crude. BUT! They’re pretty comfy and for $40, they’re a keeper! I can walk more easily in these than the strappy sandal. I also purchased the flat sandals. The mirrored plates were really flimsy reflective plastic but they looked decent enough. Now comes the hard part – which shoes do I keep?!  WHICH ONEEEESSS?