Ehhh, so I’m a few days late on this one. Work happens. So do 3-hour flight delays that quarantine me in the airport and finally afford me a few uninterrupted hours of tinker time on the laptop.

In the meantime, true to form, Lululemon kind of sort of brought us a shred of hope in the first week of this month. With the increased frequency of uploads for the holiday season, I know the whole lulu/non-lulu balance of my 5FD posts is totally thrown off. Forget Oprah, I’m currently mulling over what to include in my own version of my favorite things for the holidays (and life, in general), so be on the lookout for that one soon!

Anyway, let’s get back to the luon & stuff.

5 Faves & a Dud – Lululemon Lightens Up

Favorite #1: Swiftly Tech LS Crew ($78) in aero blue

Let’s think through the lineup in my laundry pile. Fresco blue, heathered jet stream blue, tranquil blue, heathered sapphire blue… the last thing I need is a new Swiftly LS, but I just can’t help but hover over the ‘Add to Bag’ button on this one.

In fact, I meant to run by lululemon when at the mall last night, but I got distracted by the Apple store. Damn you, shiny objects.

Favorite #2: Wunder Under Hi-Rise Tight ($98) in blush blossom alpine white midnight navy

They’re *probably* sheer(ish), but I have a bit of a thing for swirly blue patterns that make me think of snow, ice and water. Once upon a time in high school, I had a pair of the Nike Air Kukini, which looked like pool water. One of the coolest pairs of shoes (IMHO) I’ve ever owned.

Let’s just say if Elsa & Anna headed outside for a little cold weather workout, Elsa would 100% be rocking these.

Favorite #3: Invigorate Bra ($52) in blush blossom alpine white black

It’s funny that I tick away at this keyboard time and time again about how enraged I am over ANOTHER black & white print. Then, I find myself liking one on occasion. I like this one because of the contrast, it reminds me of my old school brisk bloom Energy Bra. RIP ENERGY BRAS WITH FUN STRAPS.

Melodramatic cry face emoji.

Favorite #4: City Trek Trouser II ($128) in black

At Seawheeze, lululemon did a courageous thing and let attendees loose on some of the designers at the pre-race expo. While I’m sure plenty of women passed through and wrote an “OMG I <3 Wunder Unders” post-it note and left it at that, I took up a solid 20 minutes talking about ideas, asking questions, etc to see what the f was up and let them know that as an owner of 20+ OG CRBs, I wouldn’t dare buy a CRB2 because of the shortened length. One of the questions I’d asked was about if &go was officially dead, and the prognosis wasn’t good.

Because, shucks. Some of my favorite work clothes are lululemon &go.

Therefore, these are an unexpected and pleasant surprise to see on upload recently. I’ll admit, the price tag is pretty heavy – even with a reduction from 2015’s asking price of $148. I have one pair of these in dark fuel, and scored them off a rack in Memphis 2 years ago for $59.

One of the best parts of this design WAS that much like the OG Align Pant, there were 2 inseams, with a flexier luxtreme panel on the inside of the legs, to make these even more comfortable for when you’re confined to a cubicle or an airplane seat. Unfortunately, by the looks of the heathered black stock photos, they’ve updated the II to be a bit more like “real” pants.

Favorite #5: Runderful Long Sleeve ($88) in space dye camp silver spoon

In the last 2 weeks, I’ve been on four separate business trips. When it comes winter, all I do is pack black & gray stuff, because I get lazy and matching is easy. While not exactly a ‘color’, I consider this one an opportunity to brighten up my monochromatic winter wardrobe. If a moment of weakness presents itself (or a purple sale tag), I may bite.

The Dud: Twist Around Tank ($68) in white

Mesh on top. The whole point of having ‘under’garments is so that they remain under whatever you’re wearing on top, right? Yes, that’s a totally hypocritical statement because just a few paragraphs earlier in this post, I was talking about tastefully displayed sports bras, but this tank really isn’t even trying to hide it.

About the only recommendation I can make in favor of this tank is if you have a very pointy-tipped pair of scissors and want to liberate the sports bra from the top layer. Nothing I haven’t done before.

Even MORE Favorites:

No Shivers Mittens II, Circuit Breaker Skirt II in blazer blue, Speed Up Short in speckled foil white blue/black

Lululemon Gets Gifty & Other Notes

Like I mentioned last time, lulu keeps churning out a bunch non-clothing items that do nothing but scream to me, “clueless person who knows your girl likes this random place called lululemon, buy her something with our brand on it that won’t cost you as much because you’re too cheap to buy her our pants!”

• In case you want to show some city pride… there are now lulu-branded yoga mats & water bottles that have got me scratching my head – maybe, because I’m from suburban limbo and can’t stake claim to NY or Boston and have no metropolitan identity.
  • For a minute I thought France was mixed in with the rest of a bunch of US cities with the water bottle. It’s San Francisco. Heh. Anyhow, the cities featured on mats & bottles are: NYC, SFO, ORD, DEN, ATL, HOU & LAX. Yeah, I speak in airport codes. I’m sitting in one right now.
  • I’m not quite understanding the introduction of the Sparkle Sock 3-Pack. Are they gym socks, dress socks? Any Eds out there that read this blog? Fill us all in, please.
  • The whole point of my love for the Baller Hat is that it’s totally nondescript. The Baller Hat Squad ruins that by plastering the brand across the front.

As for things that have uploaded between when I started this post and when I actually am finishing it…

• The Enhearten Tank makes a return! It’s a slim fit, but when I tried one on last year, it looked surprisingly flattering for how fluffy I felt that day. Win.
• The Speed Up Short Hi-Rise is coming along in more colors, which I’m a fan of. Something to be said for that ‘held in’ feeling while still having full freedom to SQUAT!
• The misty pink Acute Tote (also Large) is only so cute until it comes within breezing distance of a dust particle. This will definitely be one of those “want to own it but don’t want to use it because it will get dirty” purchases. It’s the reason why my Manolos haven’t left my closet in over 5 years.
• I’d be down for the blue Rest Less Hoodie… if it weren’t SHORT. (Sorry, shorter readers… tall girl on her dramatic soapbox)
• I want to like the Kick Swerve Sweat Tight, but something about them is stopping me short. Is anyone else having flashbacks of ultra mega incredibly wide leg JNCO jeans with the swirly pattern down the side? I wanted those so badly in my angsty tweenage years. In hindsight, good call by my Mother for not letting me have them.

Alas, my internet connection is becoming unreliable and I’m not in the mood for blowing through my hotspot’s data allowance this early in my billing period (real talk).

Therefore, shutting up now. If Santa swings by and asks me what exactly I’d like for Christmas, I’ll be telling him about the aero blue Swiftly. HO HO HO, errbody!