This Merona Boucle Suit has shot up to claim the spot as one of my top 3 favorite suits in my collection. It is easy to see why. The suit is very Chanel-esque in material, design and form. The pieces (jacket, pencil skirt and sheath dress) are versatile; they easily mix and match with each other, and can be worn with other things in my closet. Also, I managed to snag all three pieces at 70% off, showing that a great suit doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg if you know where to shop.
The thick and warm material indicated that these pieces were meant to be worn in chilly weather. Not snowstorm in the Northeast kind of weather, though. More like Northern California winter kind of weather, where we can get away with a knee length skirt if we wore leggings underneath.
The prices below are reflect the clearance price after the 70% off discount, as well as the additional 5% discount from my Target card.
Date: December 2012
Item: Skirt
From: Target
Price: $7.69 plus tax (originally $26.99)
I'm calling these pieces a suit because I am wearing them together as a suit, but in fact these were three separate pieces of a collection that first arrived in the Target stores in late fall. They were all then displayed on the same rack together, so obviously Target was sending the message they were meant to be purchased together. However, when it was time for them to go on sale, they all got discounted at different times. Go figure.
This pencil skirt was the first to get marked down right after the Thanksgiving holidays. It very quickly went to 70% off in no time. Even though I tried keeping an eye on this suit collection every weekend, there were times where I just couldn't get to the store. Therefore, by the time I realized it was 70% off, there was only one skirt left on the rack at the Target near my home. Luckily, the last remaining one was my size, so I didn't have to drive around to other Targets looking for it.
One thing I like about this pencil skirt is that the material is thick enough to hide my curves. Some times, I find pencil skirts made of such thin or clingly material that every bump and lump becomes glaringly noticeable (and, no, in case you're wondering, it's not because I'm trying to fit into a size too small). However, with this skirt, I had no problems. The skirt was boxy and stiff enough that the material skimmed over all curves, and the busy pattern helped hide any other remaining problem areas.
Date: December 2012
Item: Dress
From: Target
Price: $9.97 plus tax (originally $34.99)
The same time the skirt got marked down to 70% off, the sheath dress was marked to 50% off. Since I almost lost the skirt, I decided I might as well pick up the sheath dress too.Well, what do you know, within a matter of days after I picked up the sheath dress, it went to 70% off too! I tried getting a price adjustment with Target, but they don't do it for clearance items. So here was my conundrum. Do I return the dress at 50%, go back the next day and hope that no other customers or store employees buys my dress at 70% off before I get to it? Or should I just keep the dress at my original 50% off, since it wasn't like I couldn't afford the $8.00 dollars difference between the two discounts?
I struggled internally (yes, yes, I know, first world problem). Finally, my resolution came when I realized I liked the dress, but as long as I got the skirt and the jacket (which still hadn't gone on sale, by the way), then the dress was the least important piece of the suit collection. I really liked it, of course, but I still had a complete suit on my hands if I missed out on the sheath.
So I returned the sheath, crossed my fingers, and hoped that it would be back on the rack the next day. To bring odds a bit in my favor, I returned the dress late Friday night and went back to the store early Saturday morning. I didn't do the return late Saturday night and go in the store on Sunday, because Sundays are when coupon inserts come in the newspaper and every coupon-maniac is out there shopping. Also, I sought out a guy at the return line, since I figured a male employee was less likely to hijack my dress after completing my return.
It was a long night as I waited on pins and needles, worrying that I made the wrong decision with the return. But, in the end, I was lucky this time. The dress was hanging on the rack when I returned with the 70% off tag.
For the dress, I decided to size up. This is because the dress is a bit short for my comfort, and I worried about it riding up to dangerously when I sit. Also, it is not cut very generously in the chest area, so sizing up helped with the pancake-chest issue I was having when I tried it on in my regular size. Therefore, I ended up buying the dress two sizes larger than the skirt.
Here is more information about the sheath dress from the Target website.
Date: February 4 2012
Item: Jacket/Coat
From: Target
Price: $9.97 plus tax (originally $34.99)
After seeing the skirt and sheath dress go to 70% off so quickly, I had high hopes I would see the jacket quickly marked down soon too. But the jacket stayed at 50% off for weeks and weeks. Unlike the dress or the skirt, which were sized numerically, the jacket was sized from S to XXL. There were quite a few left on the rack in each size, so I was able to bid my time and wait for them to get further discounted.
Finally, after two months of haunting and stalking the sales rack, the jacket moved from the 50% off section and into the 70% off area. Because the price was so low, I picked up two jackets - a smaller sized one for the pencil skirt and a larget sized one for the sheath dress (as the sheath was made in the same thick in material and therefore needed a larger jacket). If I really a budget to stick to (I can imagine my husband's snort at this point), I would have just gotten the larger jacket. But since the final price came out to less than $10.00 per jacket, I decided there was no harm getting two jackets. Besides, it would be nice to have a backup.
The jacket is my favorite piece of this collection. It looks great with both the matching skirt and the sheath dress in the collection, but also fantastic with pretty much all basic black dresses or skirts (as shown below).
My only gripe with the jacket is the hooks. The first time I hung the jacket over the sheath dress, the hooks on the jacket caught on the woven material of the sheath dress and almost pulled the boucle wool out of place. After that, I've started using tissue paper to separate the jacket from the dress (or skirt) when I put them together on a hanger.
Here is more information about the jacket from the Target website.
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