Shopping in ATL

(photo via bebe)

Yesterday, my girlfriends and I drove down to Atlanta to do some shopping. It's only a 3.5 hour drive from Charlotte and we've been itching for a day trip for a while. The drive to and from was miserable, it rained the whole way, but the company in the car made it wonderful.

We did our best with a very aggressive plan and only 7 shopping hours. Our first stop was Zara at Perimeter Mall. When I visited the Zara store in NYC this past September I was not inspired, at all. This time around I wanted to buy half the store. We spent over two hours trying on arm fulls of clothing and ended up getting lots of staples and necessary classics. We continued to shop around the mall and stopped by Bebe. I do not shop at Bebe for multiple reasons, one of them being fit. Everything is too tight and too short for me so I usually pass the store without giving it a thought. My friend Liz loves the store so we spent over an hour looking around. Sash and I stood around waiting and she saw the coat pictured above hanging on display and tried it on. Next thing you know I'm asking for it in my size. It fit great, even the arms were long enough! The coat runs around $260, which is a lot more than I would pay for a coat at Bebe but surprisingly, I was in their loyal shopper database so I got $50 off of my purchase which made it that much more desirable. Now I'm just waiting for it to get really cold outside!

After the mall we made it over to the Container Store where I had to, well, contain myself from buying everything there as well. I behaved and walked away with a handful of Christmas gifts and half a dozen ideas for other people. With time running out, Sash refused to leave Atlanta without boots so we spent the last hour at DSW where she walked out with three pairs of boots.

Overall it was a successful trip. Next time we have to make it to Loehman's and H&M and some local boutiques as well.