Into the Sea

Every summer, I am once again reminded of how fortunate I am to live on the water. Taking walks along the docks at a nearby marina has been one of my favorite things to do as the nights get warmer. It is also a big moment when I can wear a sleeveless dress at night without feeling like I need to add another layer!

This dress is a J.Crew find from a few summers ago that I absolutely fell in love with. It was the only one left hanging on the clearance rack, and as luck would have it, it fit me perfectly. Finds like this one are truly what put the thrill in shopping for me. It is something I have been thinking about a lot more lately, as more and more retailers declare bankruptcy, and the future of brick and mortar retail begins to take on a new shape. While I typically shop online about half the time under normal circumstances, it is always the in-store shopping trips that I treasure most, and remind me just how much I love the actual experience of shopping.

After only shopping online for the past few months, I am confronted once more with a longing to be out shopping, the old fashioned way – no adding unnecessary pairs of shoes to my cart for free shipping, scouring reviews to obtain information about sizing, or scrutinizing indiscernible colors like “Stardust” only to side with black to avoid the confusion. While I know that it will take time for retail to recover and evolve, I hope that there are others who, like me, don’t want to envision a future of just online shopping, without the joys of a spontaneous shopping trip, and the many wonderful finds it can bring.

Do you miss shopping as much as I do, or are you content to shop mostly online?

Outfit Details: J.Crew Maxi, Thrifted Slides (similar here, and here), Banana Republic Satya Sunglasses (newest version here), Hoops (similar here, and here)

Shop the look below along with a few similar inspired pieces: