Try-On Reviews Pt. 1: Think Fast + Fluffed Up Vest + Pranayama Scarf + More

In this try-on review:
– Think fast long sleeve (boom juice)
– Think fast pullover (black herringbone)
– Fluffed up vest (boom juice)
– Open your heart long sleeve ii (deep zinfandel/winter orchid)
– Wrap it up sweater (black grape)
– Seize the day jacket (fuel green)
– Pranayama scarf (deep coal/deepest cranberry plaid)

For my bottoms try-ons, see part 2.

As I mentioned yesterday, I drove down to the city and of course made the obligatory lulu trip.  Frankly, that was the entire purpose of me coming at all–I tagged along with my honey, who had to go for work. (Side note: gold star for him being thoughtful enough to ask me if I would want to come so I could go to lulu. He even mentioned he picked the day because he thought it would work well with upload.  That’s love.)

Typically, we end up making the day trip to the city on weekends, which is awful for lulu purposes because the stores are an absolute ZOO.  On a Tuesday morning shortly after opening, though, I had almost the entire place to myself and could take my time, which was super-nice.

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Item: think fast long sleeve
Color: heathered boom juice
Sizing: wearing a 2, fit TTS for me

This rulu top has a lot of oddities about it.  First and perhaps most obviously, there’s the seaming at the front and back of the shoulder, which unfortunately is kind of a dealbreaker for me.  The back of the neck also sat a little oddly: it’s hard to see from the pics, but the back of the neck comes up slightly higher than most LS’s–I was pretty lukewarm about that, and you’ll notice in the back pic that it kind of slouches down on me anyway.  I DO like that the pocket is at the waist instead of at the hem–the hem pockets on my other long sleeves can add a bit of bulk there.  In practice, I don’t really use these pockets, though, so I’m not sure if it would be more comfortable one place or the other.

Also, note that the sleeve has a little key slit at the wrist that might be confused for cuffins (I did at first).  DO NOT try to invert it into a cuffin or you might rip it.

Lastly: the heathered color makes boom juice appear more pink than it does in other items–this isn’t just the store lighting.

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Item: think fast 1/2 zip pullover
Color: heathered black herringbone
Sizing: wearing a 2, TTS for me

I liked the think fast pullover much more overall versus the long sleeve.  It doesn’t have any of the wonky styling that I didn’t like on the LS.  You can wear the collar high or folded down (1st and 2nd pics), which would be really nice for cold weather.  This 1/2 zip is, in my opinion, definitely an improvement from last year’s base runner PO–that one fit me very oddly in the bust/decolletage area.  I would actually like to get one of these for my winter hikes and lifting sessions, but I wasn’t willing to part with $98 for it just yet.  I’m hoping I can be patient and find a good deal on markdown or eBay.  Plus, I want to wait and see if another color comes out that I like better.

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Item: wrap it up sweater
Color: black grape
Sizing: wearing a 2, TTS for me

Online, the wrap it up sweater was only uploaded in sizes 4-10, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a 2 in my store.  It’s really confusing that the store size runs are different from online–what’s up with that?

Positives about this sweater include that, obviously, it’s pretty.  The drape looks nice and the color is gorgeous.  It’s thick and on the warm side for a wrap.  I was glad that, even as a shorty, the elbow patches (3rd pic) still fell on my actual elbows.

Weirdnesses about this sweater include the fact that the elbow patches definitely look green in real life, even though when you look closely they’re clearly black.  Also, I did not like how it looked snapped (2nd pic), and I kept feeling like I needed to wrap it closed/tight somehow, but there’s no way to do this except with a belt.

The other weird thing is the drop shoulders.  In this pic you can see that when I raise my arm, it pulls the body of the sweater out from me by a good 6 inches.  This made me constantly feel  like I needed to pull the sleeves up toward my shoulder, but you can’t actually do that, because this is just how it’s sewn.  That would bug me to no end.

Ultimately, this wrap was not tempting for me because of the drop shoulder and because I am too sensitive to wool, so this would be itchy.

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Item: fluffed up vest
Color: boom juice
Sizing: wearing a 4, presumably this is TTS, because my size up (4) was too big

I was not impressed with the fluffed up vest.  The color is obviously fun (and it looks cute with the new menthol swiftly, which is what I have layered underneath), but the fit was not flattering at all, and it wasn’t very thick either.  Unfortunately, lulu only makes their winter puffy items in sizes 4-12, so I had to size up.  You can see in the front pic that it didn’t flatter me much, and it’s especially obvious here:

I could pinch several inches of fabric away from my body, way more than I would need for layering purposes.

Last year’s fluff off vest worked just fine on me in a size 4 (although I didn’t buy it), and overall I felt it was a much better vest.  Not impressed with this year’s version.

My store did not have the jacket or pullover, but hey, it’s the desert, what do you expect?

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Item: seize the day jacket
Color: fuel green
Sizing: wearing a 2, probably should size down 1-2x

This jacket.  What in the hell is this jacket?  I tried this on because I hadn’t seen it before, and because I occasionally enjoy mocking lulu’s travesties.

The length on this jacket was super-awkward.  It’s neither cropped nor full-length.  I am 5’3″ and evenly proportioned.  It’s made of commuter fabric, which isn’t really anything special and doesn’t provide warmth, just stretch.  There are no features on this jacket that are special–just your ordinary zipper pockets and zippers on the sleeves for…I dunno, styling I guess.

I used some of the snaps to halfway close the jacket to give it a motorcycle-meets-varsity jacket sort of look, which is the most wearable way you can style this.  Didn’t really salvage it overall.

I had a TONNNNN of extra room in my TTS size 2, as demonstrated here.  If you size down 1-2x, it might look better.  Either way, you couldn’t pay me to wear this jacket.  Well, actually, I’m pretty poor, so you probably could, but I really don’t like it, kay?  At $148, the price just adds insult to injury.

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Item: open your heart long sleeve ii
Color: deep zinfandel/winter orchid
Sizing: wearing a 2, probably should size down

Blegh.

So, last year’s open your heart LS wasn’t very flattering on me (I probably would’ve needed a size down), but this one was even worse.  It has none of the good design elements from last year: no scoop neck, contoured hem, or thumbholes.  The cuff has a slit in it (last pic), which makes it fall low on the hands for people like me with short arms, which I found horribly annoying.  The body fit loose and looked like a pajama top.  Granted, it would be a very comfy addition to your pajama stash, but I for one am not paying $68 to sleep in lulu.  Last year’s version sold pretty well, but I foresee markdown in this top’s future.

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Item: pranayama scarf
Color: deep coal/ambient grey/nimbus and deepest cranberry plaid

Oh LAWD this scarf.

Everyone was freaking out about it when pics first surfaced, but I wasn’t buying into the hype because it’s merino, and as we’ve established, any kind of wool makes me want to claw my own skin off.

Not so with this scarf.  The knit is tight, not loose-knit like most of lulu’s merino, and it is INSANELY soft.  It feels more like cashmere than wool, frankly.  I don’t think it would bother my skin.

The scarf is half one large panel, and then the other half is split in half into two “arms”.  This is nice because it means there are many ways to wear it.

With the “arms” in the back, you can wear it kind of like a poncho for all-over blanket-ish warmth.

Or this way, I wrapped the arms around to the other side of my neck so everything fell in front–I LOVE it like this.  I just tried it these two ways, but the stock pics show some other variations.

Overall, this scarf was the big winner–I absolutely love it.  Even for $98, I think it’s worth it.  I’m planning another trip in January and I think this might be even better than a vinyasa scarf on the frigid plane ride.

That said, I didn’t actually buy it yet, because I’m waiting for the presumed release of the chevron shuffle version, which better suits my style and color palette.