Last week I had the pleasure of attending a holiday blogger mixer with my buddy Michelle at the fairly new DownEast Basics store at the Irvine Spectrum. Before the event, I had never even heard of DownEast Basics. Although they sell nationally on their website, www.downeastbasics.com, they only have one other store in California (located up north in Sacramento), so I guess that’s why I wasn’t privy to them.
I was pleasantly surprised by their selection; believe it or not, both my mom and I could shop there and find something we love. Not to mention, the prices are super affordable ($15-20 tops, $30-40 skirts). It’s comparable to H&M in price, but beats them out in quality – and quite frankly I found a lot more to love here than during my last visit to H&M, where everything was drab, solid-colored, and a bit boring.
I ended up purchasing this adorable fête top (“festival” or “party” in French) – it worked well with the baby bump and was a steal at only $29.99. I also had a brief love affair with this seabreeze skirt made of layers of organza and lace.
Their fall/winter collection focuses on some of the top trends of the season including metallics, sequins, and lace. A lot of their items have some very girly details (like rosettes and ruffles), which I heart.
What I love the most is that girls with different styles can all shop here; each of the bloggers I ran into found something to love, and we are all very different (don’t believe me? Check out what Field Trip Mom had to say). You can go as “fashionista” or as plain jane as you want with their selection, which is perfect for moms since one day we’re at a meeting and the next we’re at the park.
If you’re in the Irvine/Southern Cali area, the DownEast Basics store is located between H&M (ironic) and Anthropologie (yay!). If you’re not from around here, you can always buy online at www.downeastbasics.com. You might also want to check out their style blog (which I am finding is a really fun read), www.downeastbasicsblog.com.
By the way, I’m not getting any compensation to write this post, I just genuinely love their product (just in case you were wondering).