▎❝ Finds under 40: Parisian style with these deals from Amazon. ❞

I know that prime day has passed but the last item I ordered just arrived a few days ago so I can finally make a post about everything together! For those of you who don’t know, prime day is the glorious sales and savings event that Amazon hosts for it’s shoppers. This year I was divinely favored because prime day took place Oct. 8th through the 9th which happens to be my birthday and what could any girl want for her birthday more than a good sale—a sitewide sale!? I had a tight budget and high standards this year but I managed to prevail and get some timelessly elegant pieces to spruce up my fall wardrobe one tweed sweater at a time!

I probably would’ve ordered these items one at a time or at least not all at once if I was getting them at their regular prices but it wasn’t just prime day, it was my birthday so I went crazy and committed to getting a whole outfit minus the pants because I just plan to wear jeans anyway and your girl’s between sizes right now thanks to all the birthday cake and frosting flowers.

Going into my shopping quest, I had a theme. My intention was to find Chanelesque or Karl Lagerfeld inspired pieces for under $35 each and make a casual outfit—this was the goal. For those of you who don’t know, Karl Lagerfeld was the creative director and designer for Chanel for over 40 years in addition to having his own brand so they’re kind of the same thing without being the same thing—we’ll talk about it some other time. Both brands are powerhouses in Parisian fashion and have kept France relevant in the design world. Outside of that, I also was looking for satin scarves, a new pair of boots, and clean makeup to try that wouldn’t break the bank in case I was either allergic to it or I simply hated it. I did achieve my mission and I’m elated with everything I got so I will share it all below. I made sure to look for things that were already lower priced regularly so the prime day would just be bonus savings.

Back to basics

For anyone who didn’t notice, I am a maximalist who tends to focus on bright colors, jewel tones, prints, and nothing that looks even remotely boring. I wear things that many people would only look at in a store window because I enjoy fashion, obviously, and I like to challenge myself to wear interesting things. My tastes and the items that I’m naturally drawn to often put me at a loss when it comes to the fashion basics; jeans, bodysuits, solid shirts, comfortable shoes, and just about anything that’s practical to wear.

I can’t help it, I am who I am however I decided to use the savings of prime day to get myself some of these much needed basics! I found a 5 pack of square neck long sleeve tops for a bargain and I went for it! The square neck is a fabulous touch because not only is it interesting enough to keep me from getting bored, but it ties in well to the baroque trend I’m known to wear. It’s very Tudor and I appreciate anything that reminds me of the renaissance! I sized up from my usual medium just because I have a longer waist and bigger bust so sometimes medium shirts are too cropped for my liking especially in the fall/winter season. Stay warm and covered to ward of flu and plague, babe.

Regularly $39.99, I got them on prime day for $31.99 which is a great deal considering it’s 5 shirts. They did come quite wrinkled but it was nothing my hand steamer couldn’t handle and they arrived quickly. I was a little worried they might be cheap or thin but they are not and I am happy that I got them. The shirt I wore held up nicely through my brisk, autumn date with the theatre to see the Crucible without any concerns! With all those colors, there’s so many options now! As far as my outfit project, I planned to use either the white or black solid shirt that came in the pack with my Chanel-Lagerfeld inspired look because these brands really use these monochromatic colors—or shades—more than just about any other fashion house and it’s such a staple of their aesthetic.

Needing some tweed

Any good Chanel or Karl Lagerfeld dupe outfit needs tweed—it’s a rule. I’m pleased to report that Amazon has an abundance of tweed and since it’s a texture I’m embracing, this makes me happy. Amazon offers all different kinds of tweed whether you’re looking for a blazer, dress, sweater, or anything else with this fabric. I could do a whole post just on Amazon tweed, my god. For the season and my purpose, I was in search of a tweed sweater with statement buttons, preferably in black to go with the shirts I mentioned above. I wanted it as affordably as possible without sacrificing quality or style—it needed to be inexpensive while looking expensive but that’s always the goal, isn’t it?

After scrolling and scrolling, I found what I was looking for! It a tweed cardigan sweater consisting of mixed black, white, and gray woven into the fabric complete with a thick black border and those gold door knocker buttons I wouldn’t leave without! And the price was absolutely fantastic! I’m not going to lie, even if it hadn’t been prime day and it hadn’t been on sale, I still would’ve either gotten this sweater myself or asked Santa for it this year. Regularly $29.99, I got it for $18.99 with prime day deals. Again, I was a bit nervous about the kind of quality I would be getting for something so inexpensive—even at $30 it’s a nice deal—but it was the last to arrive and it didn’t disappoint! Soft to the touch and not scratchy, it’s absolutely perfect!

I’ve ordered tweed online before and been frustrated with it’s lack of quality whether it be because of the shedding fibers or the cheap buttons but this is not what I received and I am thankful for it! The buttons are good quality though I do think at some point in the distant future, I may need to have them sewn on a little bit tighter. It’s made well, I just always anticipate little things like that when it comes to clothing with heavy, big buttons because the weight of them tends to pull the fastening threads looser over time until they sag or droop—which is another reason clothing with buttons are sold with spares. You see this a lot in vintage shirts, blazers, and sweaters, and it’s just the price you have pay for gaudy buttons and living here on earth where there’s gravity.

Give em’ the boot

Every outfit needs shoes and though it’s hard to believe, I feel like I neglect my shoe collection so it was important for me to find a nice pair of fall/winter boots. Besides, Karl would approve—he loved boots, especially black ones. Karl was a man of many shoes but he almost always wore black leather combat boots himself. Given the fact that I’ve broken my ankle and foot, I try to avoid shoes that hit me right at the ankle and typically either go lower or higher which is what I would recommend for anyone else whose had foot injuries. Always overshoot or undershoot but try to avoid wearing shoes that will hit you right where you injured yourself if you can at all help it.

Tall boots are my favorite and since I’ve still kept a bit of my southern flair, I decided to get a pair of cowgirl boots but like fancier so that it still went with my elegant outfit aesthetic! This was also a nod to the current country revival taking place. I found a pair of black suede, understated western boots that were knee length from Dream Pairs. Regularly $29.99, I got them for $20.78 and I’m glad that I did because they are some of the most comfortable boots I’ve purchased and I’m picky about my feet! I wore them to the see the Crucible at the theatre and had to brave a long parking lot and hill in the dark which I was able to do easily in these beauties!

I definitely recommend these and since western fashion is trending again, I think it’s a great value item that you can get multiple uses out of for many different looks. It’s still western but as I said, it’s understated enough that you can just wear them as regular winter boots for versatility if you wanted. They’re cowgirl boots, yes, but they don’t scream it at you, you know? More subtle, more elegant, more like Lagerfeld.

Shh, it’s not Chanel

The crowning jewel in this shopping adventure was the quilted flap handbag I found as an affordable Chanel alternative. Oh, I love her! Listen, I have taken this bag everywhere with me since I opened the box and I named her Ebony. We know that I am a handbag collector and so we know that anytime I can compare different brands and bags, I do and I am so happy with this particular deal, I can’t even tell you! Chanel made the quilted flap handbag popular but Chanel’s prices are very unpopular. The good news is that despite the Chanel brand making this handbag variation sky rocket, it’s become a more generalized trend which means that it doesn’t have to be specifically Chanel for it to be considered timeless and elegant as an accessory. The style of the handbag has actually become more important than the Chanel label which makes room for lower cost with the same sophisticated effect when worn.

So I found a black leather (it’s probably faux but whatever) quilted handbag that’s regularly only $26.99 and I got it for $20.00. Either way, it’s a total steal because of how versatile and chic of a handbag this is! Now, the thing that sets this quilted handbag apart from other ones that I saw on Amazon is the front. The circular closure is actually pretty similar to high end handbags—specifically Salvatore Ferragamo’s Gancini handbags. What does this mean? It means that this handbag is automatically elevated and looks way more expensive than it actually is because it appears to have more design and craftsmanship. You can see what I’m talking about here in the pictures of my handbag collection for comparison! Look at all the different buckles and closures to compare. It’s the best designer dupe for this type of handbag that I’ve found on Amazon and it’s all because of that one very small important detail.

Handbags with those types of closures just look more luxury than the other ones that I saw and combined with the quilting, I was very impressed. Having spent as much time as I have looking at handbags, I would say this is a pretty good designer dupe and the price is fantastic. I’ve been using it without any issues and it doesn’t feel cheap or like it’s lacking in anyway. I just got it and it’s still new so I can’t say how it will hold up with time yet but so far, so good! Watch me get it in every single color, honestly. It was the perfect way to crown my successful Chanel-Lagerfeld inspired shopping extravaganza!

Natural faced

It’s that time of the year where I need to purge my old and expired makeup so I decided to get a couple things for my Parisian look. French makeup in general is all about a natural, neutral, and sometimes faded smoky look if you’re going for a night out. From my understanding, you don’t walk around Paris finding many full faced women caked in cosmetics. If you look at Chanel’s runway makeup, most of the time it’s very light neutral shades like gray that have been faded out to achieve either a smoky or a masked sort of effect around the eyes or liner without eyeshadow but in general, French makeup, like their fashion, is very timeless and purposefully understated—they believe in good skincare, not heavy foundations and they believe in rest, not eye under eye creams.

I needed some new neutral makeup anyway and so I decided to get an eyeshadow palette from Profusion Cosmetics for $8.00 which I will talk about in a makeup post at a later date. The first one came broken and I had to wait for a replacement but it came quickly and I wasn’t charged again, so I shouldn’t complain too badly, right? This palette might not seem as neutral as others but with my hazel eyes that transition between gold and dark green, the hues in this Citrine palette will compliment my natural coloring and amplify my irises. The outer shades are definitely great for those faded, smoked out edges which can be blended thoroughly for a wash of pigment rather than a coating. It’s also a bonus that they go with the brown shirts from my 5 pack and the tiger scarf!

French women also aren’t known for wearing bold lip colors ordinarily in their everyday lives so I purchased a clear L.A Colors lip gloss for $4.45 to stop chapping and add a little shine to natural lip color which I’ve been told looks like lipstick but it’s actually not. Again, the more natural the better if you’re trying to capture the clean, French aesthetic. You can obviously add your own touches if you like to wear more makeup, this is just a quick explanation of why I bought what I did and how it all relates to each other.

Sweet scarf savings

I did get a scarf because I had exactly $5.00 left in my budget and while most people would’ve just let that go, I cannot. I will get as close to my budget as possible at all times—something that I’m admired but also feared for. With only 45 minutes left of prime day and $5.00 to spend, I was in a crisis! Everything I found was either over budget or under budget and the clock was ticking away the sales with each passing moment. I almost gave up!

I tried to order a couple of things but when I put them in my cart, they hiked the price back up so like screw that—back to the drawing board, you know? I actually tried to get a belt to go with my outfit but whatever. Luckily, I was able to find a silk tiger print scarf to go with my Ferragamo coat and even though it’s totally unrelated to my original goal, I did need a scarf and I have been in the mood for animal prints! I managed to find one for exactly $4.89 with 10 minutes left of prime day to spare. The scarf is regularly $4.89 as well so I’m assuming it stays affordably priced which is a welcome bonus!

I was up all night shopping but I that day I slept victorious. The scarf was the second to last thing to come and it took about 2 and a half weeks to arrive so if I’d needed it in a pinch, I would’ve been out of luck but for the price I paid and the fact that it’s just a leisure accessory I was excited to wear but didn’t necessarily need for a particular look, it didn’t bother me. I did go back and double check for the purpose of this post and saw that standard shipping time is about 2-3 weeks so keep that in mind if you’re in the market for it! I will also mention that this scarf is true to size and actually large enough to be worn as a cape which is fabulous! Most silk scarves come a lot smaller than their advertised when ordered online but not this one! It fits me and all my cats in it.

In my prime

There you have it! These were the pieces I decided to invest in this prime day and none of them are a disappointment! It’s always worth while to invest in chic, smart, and classic things that will never go out of style. In 20 years, everything I got will still be a sophisticated outfit of good taste. I do encourage these kinds of staples for any wardrobe simply because of the longevity and wear you’ll get. In a world of fast fashion and quickly changing trends, remember that class never goes out of style and elegant pieces always come back into fashion one way or another.

Like I said earlier, I went for things that were priced under $35 with the exception of that 5 shirt pack which is $39.99 without the sale (I paid $31.99 through the sale and got free shipping on all my items) so if you’re interested in any of these items, they’re still a good value even if you missed them on prime day! I also got the Profusion Cosmetics Citrine eyeshadow eye palette for $8 and a clear L.A. colors clear lip gloss for that natural, French makeup. I know the Citrine Palette probably doesn’t seem natural but I matched it to my eyes so that when I blend it, it will compliment my natural hazel eyes.

This is not a sponsored post or anything but I will link what I purchased in their respective paragraph for anyone that wants to swiper swipe. It was a good prime day, my friends—a very good prime day indeed. Sending you love and strength in preparation for our next day of deals, Blessed Black Friday.

disclaimer: sometimes prices change and I can only account for the prices I see for an item at the time. The prices I’ve posted here as the “regular price” are the current prices listed at the time of this article’s publishing. I will try to check back and update it in the future if need be.