Sunday, February 10, 2013

Prabal Gurung for Target Collection: the DQ Perspective

I was very excited about this collection.  I look forward to these Target collaborations, but the last 2 were a bit of a disappointment.  So when the lookbook became available online, I went to the Target stores near my home and work to inquire about them.  The responses were a lot of blank stares and, "Hold on.  Let me ask someone".  I had heard that the sale starts online in the wee hours of the morning, so at 11 pm last night, I was actually online.  I rarely ever stay up past 10:30 pm these days, so I was about ready to give up, but I lucked out with a few clicks.  I ordered a few of my desired items, plus another one that I dismissed earlier, but changed my mind at the last second and added it to my cart.  The shipment will be here any day now!

Even though I got most of what I wanted online, I just had to join in on the frenzy.  After all, I'm an early riser, so it wasn't a big deal for me to get up early, even on a Sunday.  I had to strategize.  There are about 8 Target stores within a 10-mile radius from my home.  After much thought, I decided to go with the one with the most traffic.  Risky, but I knew this store would have plenty of stock.  I left my house at 7:15 am, thinking I'd get my fave Starbucks drink and sit in my car for a few minutes before leisurely strolling into the store.  Wrong.  I got to the Starbucks drive-thru (I was NOT getting out of the car in 39-degree weather...yeah, yeah, normal for this time of year in most other parts of the country...but I'm a true sunny Cali girl), and there was actually 3 cars in line-at 7:35 am on a Sunday morning!  I decided to ditch the Starbucks idea and headed straight to Target.  There were about 12 girls in front of the store entrance already-so scratch the reading-in-the-car idea, too.  I parked my car and joined them.  By 7:57 am, the crowd swelled to about 40 people, including a couple of elderly folks and 2 couples.  There was a group of 4 girls, each with papers in their hands and discussing strategy.  One would head straight to shoes, another 2 to clothing, and don't forget to get these specific sizes.  It was sort of funny, until one elbowed me to get a little further ahead in the crowd.  I was a little peeved, but I didn't think it was worth it to get upset, so I moved a little out of the way for her.  It ended up not making a difference for her cuz I ended up getting ahead of her in the crowd anyway (being little and quick really helps sometimes!).  I ran straight for the dresses and grabbed the floral crush and red/black shift dresses in sizes 2 and 4.  As I grabbed the last size 2 floral crush dress, I heard a few, "Awwws".  I did feel bad, but these things are "first-come, first-serve", right?

So the floral crush dress is the quintessential piece of this collection, in my opinion.  I'm definitely keeping that, but the red/black dress is...well, not.  I must've been expecting different material, but later on, I figured out that it's just that it's too similar to the Jason Wu for Target black shift dress I got last year.  Why get 2 of the same dress?  I took the red/black Prabal dress home, but will likely bring it back.  I wonder if other people felt the same way cuz I found so many of them left when I checked out.  I traveled to 2 other Targets, and I found so many of that dress on the racks at them, too. 

I also found the floral sweatshirt and a couple of pairs of shoes.  The black shoes are very similar to the Christian Louboutin Balota that came out a couple of seasons ago.  I wanted them, but couldn't fork over $1300 at the time.  I'm debating keeping them, but I'm leaning toward no, since I currently own a few pairs of Louboutins I have yet to wear or have worn just once or twice.  The sweatshirt, well...it's not really worth $29.99, in my opinion, but it's a great casual piece.  But $29.99 (plus tax) is still money, and I don't have any to waste. 

floral crush dress

red shift dress with black trim (sorry, I don't know how to rotate it and save it on this blog)

black lace-up sandals
There's still one item to comment on, but my dear readers will have to wait for its arrival to hear my take on it.  Until then... =)