HELLO ZARA!

Last night I was invited to attend the Zara VIP pre-opening event at Seattle's (and the Northwest's) first Zara in Westlake Center. I love Zara and visited their stores while I was in both San Francisco and Las Vegas recently. I have been looking forward to Zara's Seattle opening since I first heard the news about a year ago, so of course I was thrilled to be invited to shop and drink champagne with all of the most fashionable people in Seattle (I swear, ALL of them were there last night, I have not felt so frumpy in I don't know how long - note to self: next time you get invited to any sort of pre-opening VIP thing, don't come straight from work, wear something cute too) the night before it opened its doors to the public.

^^Natalie's tights were a casualty of a not-true-to-size dress^^

After waiting in line, Danielle, Brittan, Natalie and I got in, got sweet friendship bracelets tied on our wrists, grabbed a glass of champagne and started shopping. The store is HUGE (one of the biggest in America) and beautiful. They did such a nice job at the event too, there were people everywhere to help you with anything you needed and to give you a fresh glass of champagne as soon as yours ran out. At one point I looked at Natalie, asked her a question and a staff member, without skipping a beat, answered it for us. There was a downside though, because as we asked a random man to take a picture for us, someone stepped in and told us that there were no pictures allowed as there were professionals doing that job for us. Womp womp. So, consider all of these sneaky iPhone pictures contraband.

^^Natalie and Danielle^^

Along with endless champagne they also had people walking around serving the tiniest ever appetizers (they were almost funny they were so small), they had a DJ and a live musician, and of course there were a ton of really cute clothes (and shoes, and bags too). I wanted it all. Budgets are such a bummer, aren't they? And as a bonus, there was someone with a Shoshanna front bun! The only downside, and I'm sure this is true of Zara everywhere, was that all of the clothes seemed to run a size small so I was constantly having to try things on in a bigger size than I normally wear. That being said I left with a few really cute things.

^^SPY: the Shoshanna bun in this sneaky selfie^^

After the event we grabbed a bite to eat nearby at a restaurant where they print the calories on the menu and where nothing on the menu had less than about 1,000 calories. Why do that? #rude And then called it a night. I can't wait to go back soon. Welcome to Seattle, Zara!