My new party frock

This is the back view of the pretty black lace overlaid silk party dress by Anna Sui which I wore last night. It was reduced to $88 from $249 in the Lord & Taylor sale on Fifth Avenue. Even more pleasing to discover that it is currently for sale unreduced here at Netaporter for $249/£165.

Sales over here are nothing like they are in London. Lord & Taylor has not just marked down a load of stuff by 30%, they've got another 50% off the already reduced stock, and the lovely assistant gave me a further 20% off the total. Remarkable. (I didn't mean to buy anything, honest guv.)

But, somehow I ended up with a bronze shutter pleat, Hervé Leger-ish, body con cocktail dress by the pageant dress king, Tadashi, for $80 from $348, a dark cream Tara Jarmon coat for $120 from $510 and, bizarrely, a brown jersey princess line dress from a diffusion line called OC by Oleg Cassini. (A bargain $30). I had no idea one could still buy Oleg Cassini, much less that a (to be honest, gobsmackingly tacky) diffusion line existed.