Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

A couple of weeks ago, Philip and I celebrated a project milestone of mine at Blue Mesa, and yes, I do mean some celebrating-with-blue-margaritas.  After, we wandered over to Barnes and Noble, which is customary on any post-meal trip to University Park Village and I audibly gasped (shrieked is more like it) when I saw this:

We’re getting a J.Crew!  Not exciting news for everybody, but for me who’s been a devoted J.Crew prep for years, it was one of the things I still missed from living in Dallas.  Last November, we were graced with an Anthropologie in the same shopping center and it just keeps getting better!  (Now I just need a Crate & Barrel, maybe West Elm…)

A few years back, there was a large development on the east side of University coming called “West Bend.”  The retail anchors promised in the promotions were Anthropolgie and J.Crew.  Exciting!

It was a very large parking garage with retail at street level.  In my opinion it was not a great approach–further back from the street behind some restaurants, not pedestrian friendly (I know University Park Villiage isn’t ideal, but it nice place to walk around once you’re parked), and the structure itself was disproportionate to the surroundings.  Well, unfortunately, the funding for this project fell through and now we have a huge unfinished steel structure with no apparent plans.  University Park Village is going strong and staying fairly full.  I know it will probably be just like every other J.Crew in the country, but they’re not the madras plaid, lobster-embroidered pant place they once were.

Yesterday, I read the ENTIRE J.Crew blog: JCrew | 770 Behind The Line.  There’s great styling tips from their employees, behind the scenes info, and beautiful photography.  I ended up wearing as many J.Crew favorites of mine as I could find today!