Online shopping has reached its peak.

Seriously, whereas five years ago people wouldn’t dare ordering swimwear or jeans online, today it’s no biggie. Not to mention that you can also order your groceries, your drugstore products, and pretty much anything else you could ever need with a click of a button.

I hopped onto the online shopping trend early, probably because I’ve been blessed with body proportions that are pretty damn close to the sample size, so I’ve never been someone that had difficulty finding things that fit.

People would always say things like, “how do you buy so much online? Isn’t it annoying having to return stuff?” But I had gotten so used to online shopping that I usually had a good eye for what would look just as good in person as on my computer screen. Sometimes I’d go through detailed measures like chatting up the online sales people to ask them to measure a hemline or waistline, just to be safe.

But lately online shopping has been failing me, and I think it’s partly because there have been so many fast fashion, online only retailers popping up. Plus, retailers that I used to swear by for online shopping, such as Nasty Gal, have had serious declines in quality, which also equates to ill-fitting items most of the time.

Regardless, I still was dead-set on buying over-the-knee boots online, because there seemed to be such better options in online stores. It took me a bit of time to realize that this was a mistake.

First, I tried ordering a pair of latex-looking boots from Dolls Kill, made by Cape Robbin. They actually looked amazing for the price ($68), but when I put them on, they were slightly too tight on my thighs, so I sadly had to return them. This ended up costing me about $15 since Dolls Kill doesn’t do free returns, which is one thing I really dislike about shopping there.

Then, I asked my boyfriend to buy me a pair of boots from Public Desire for my birthday. While the boots were super affordable (around $60), and looked relatively nice in person, they would fall down my legs as I walked. They did have an adjustable tie on the thigh, but no matter how tight I tied them, they’d still fall down.

After attempting to returning those (my boyfriend still hasn’t been refunded, a month later), I asked my boyfriend to buy a pair of Vince Camuto ones from Nordstrom Rack, which had a Cyber Monday price of about $100. They looked and fit great–at first, but after walking around in them the heel area gave me horrible blisters.

Finally, I went to my trusty Philadelphia boutique for cheap shoes and found this pair of Cape Robbins boots in an amazing purple crushed velvet for $40! They were half a size too big for me, and the thigh area was a bit loose, but a woman in the store suggested that I get them taken in by a tailor. At this point, I figured it was worth it. I took them to a tailor in my hometown over Thanksgiving, and even though it was $45, I really liked the boots so I sucked it up. It helped, although they still fall down when I am speed walking through the streets of NYC, which is kind of a bummer.

After returning the boots to Nordstrom Rack last weekend, I went across to the Bloomingdales Outlet and found another great pair of black leather boots by Marc Fisher that were on their second markdown, and only $65! These fit great and had a nice leather elastic tie built in for fit around the thigh. Unfortunately, now that I finally have a basic black pair of over-the-knee boots, it’s way too cold to wear them with a mini skirt like I originally planned. But hey, there’s always the spring.

Fishnet Top: Lady Love Philly

Dress: Ragged Priest from Goodbye Bread (2 dresses in one, and on sale!)

Boots: Cape Robbin

Belt: Vintage

Choker: Lady Love Philly

Coat: Calvin Klein from Century 21

Choker: Bauble Bar

Photos by Zachary Zirlin Photography

For a couple days there, it was almost perfect fall weather, and I took full advantage of it.

Summer may be the “fun” season, but fall is when you can layer and look your cutest.

Last weekend when I was in Philly I wanted to wear something super comfortable for walking around the city, but I also wanted to look hot (I mean, who doesn’t?). This interesting combo of stuff came together.

My roomie just recently gave me these amazing velvet leggings from HUE and this super glam choker from Bauble Bar. The leggings are amazingly comfy, but also elevate leggings to a slightly more luxe look which I love. The choker does the same, and is a definite upgrade from my usual black beaded chokers.

The sneakers were also a gift from a friend (my birthday was this month!) and they are my new favorite shoes. It’s crazy because I would probably never buy them on my own, but they seem to match with everything and are amazingly comfortable. I guess it goes to show that sometimes buying basic, low-key stuff serves you well.

I spent most of the day walking around after having brunch at Schlesinger’s Deli. I won’t go into details about my meal, because personally I didn’t think anything was super note-worthy (although they did have a complimentary pickle bar, which was fun) except for the dessert.

Blame it on my sweet tooth, but their “stuffed cookie,” which was essentially two chocolate chip cookies with chocolate cream in between, was fucking amazing. They also had an oatmeal version, and a sprinkle cookie that was the size of my head, but I definitely don’t regret going for the classic chocolate chip.

The cookies were the perfect texture, the cream was so sweet but not too sweet, and I was a happy girl. My boyfriend and I took turns taking bites and passed the cookie across the table as if it was a bottle of rum or something. I may or may not have taken two bites on my turn occasionally…

Choker: Bauble Bar (similar here)

Jacket: Forever 21 (pins vintage)

Bodysuit: Nasty Gal

Bag: Vintage Chanel

Belt: Vintage

Leggings: Hue

Sneakers: Adidas Ultra Boost

As someone who’s almost always looking to wear something as tight as possible, I’ve recently been having a moment with oversized t-shirts. So when my good friend Kyle designed these dope shirts for his brand, TWN Clothing, I had to have one.

The thing about oversized shirts is that they still have to fit right, in my opinion anyways. When I’m thrifting, I always seem to want the XL length, but the Medium sized fit, and certain fabrics hang too wide and make me look like a cube or some shit.

This shirt was super comfy and just the perfect length without being over-sized on the torso. I just popped some spandex shorts on underneath to be safe, and then added these American Apparel thigh-high socks to make it a bit more fun.

I also played around in this dope bomber jacket, which is the perfect emerald green, and the matching hat. Hats aren’t usually my thing just because my hair is curly and my head is small, but i still liked the matchy-matchy thing I had going on with this.

All the clothes are basically unisex, so it’s the perfect gift to get your boo for Christmas so that you can steal it 😉 Or, you know, just get it for yourself.

Kyle started the brand whilst his mother was battling cancer, and while she’s in remission now (yay!), proceeds from sales are donated to cancer foundations. So you can feel good about shopping for yourself.

So I’ve always been a huge sucker for latex dresses, which makes sense considering I’m pretty into all things BDSM-inspired. But unlike spiked chokers and fishnet tops, latex clothing isn’t easy to come by, cheap, or easy to take care of.

For my 23rd birthday (which was this past election day, FML), I wanted to rock something latex. Because I didn’t want to spend a ton of money, I first tried to fake it with a faux-latex (“wet look”) dress from Yandy.

I had my doubts about the fit (it was one size fits all), and I was right. But what was even worse was the fact that the dress was legit not shiny whatsoever. It was practically matte with random sparkles in it. Very sad. Not to mention that the bottom half of the dress was far too large on me.

I returned it (although I kept a bunch of other shit, including some sexy bodysuits that you can see on my Instagram), and accepted the fact that I’d have to pay the big bucks for real latex to get the look I desired. I splurged on a House of CB two piece set I’d been eyeing for some time, which was $225, but I rationalized with the fact that I could mix and match the crop top and skirt with other pieces in my closet and get my money’s worth.

When I opened the box (which was beautifully packaged, BTW), I got scared. The first thing I saw was a pamphlet on how to wear latex, how to put it on, and how to make sure you don’t fuck it up and are then unable to return it. The pamphlet suggested using lube to get the garment on, and urged that you use the palms of your hand to pull the latex onto yourself rather than your fingertips, which could leave marks.

Sufficiently intimidated, I let the box sit for a few hours before deciding it was time. But when I unwrapped the skirt and bra-top from the tissue paper, I was dismayed to see that instead of the bright red color seen in the photos online, the latex was a dull burnt orange color.

I tried it on regardless, hoping it would magically appear more beautiful once I put it on. While I didn’t need to use lube or baby powder to get the garment on (it was surprisingly easy to put on), and it fit decently well, I couldn’t get over that sad color.

I knew from reading the pamphlet that some latex needed to be “shined” with special latex polish, but I couldn’t see how I would ever get the color shown online. I emailed customer support, hoping for an answer, but all I got was them saying that there is fine print online saying the color may differ. Well yeah, no shit, but this was a huge difference.

If it was maybe $60 or something, I would have kept it. But I couldn’t justify spending so much on something that was falsely advertised and the color of bologna.

I’ve never ordered anything else from House of CB before, so I’m not saying that all of their clothing is disappointing in person (although I’ve heard of other friends of mine having issues with color), I think this is just a lesson that if you’re going to be buying latex, you should always buy it in person. Oh, and maybe grab some lube while you’re at it.