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J.Crew Harper Patent Flats

July 30, 2014

J.Crew released their first round of early fall arrivals last week and for the first time in several rollouts, I was in the “love” camp for a lot of the items. I very rarely place full price orders on the first day of release and I placed a few for this week! Sadly, all of the items I had my eye on were backordered (which I suppose gives me some time to think about them) but the first item to arrive were the Harper Patent Flats in Garnet Flame. These shoes also come in Soft Desert, Caravan Blue and Black.

B1791_RD5455

I am a complete sucker for anything in the garnet color family. Perhaps it’s my January birthday, or my 90’s teenager self (my favorite colors were maroon, hunter green and navy!) It was the color my bridesmaids wore in our wedding and well, I just love it.  And…at a price point lower than the Viv flats, I was sold. I’m not sure if they’re phasing out the Vivs but I guess it’s a possibility since I don’t think I saw any new styles this past rollout. I only have one pair of Vivs and several pair of the Factory counterpart Emery flats. I tried my best to capture the color of these shoes but I found it very difficult to photograph! First up…right out of the box.

harper1

J.Crew seems to be going with the new script logo on their shoe boxes and the dust bag…Ilike the change from the block lettering. The biggest difference I see out of the box compared to the Vivs are the square toe box, which after trying them on I believe is a way to make them look slimmer. They are very slim looking out of the box but do not feel tight on my feet. I ordered my almost always J.Crew size of 9.5 in these shoes which is also my Viv and Emery size and they were perfect.

As you can see, there is not a lot of toe cleavage, but there is some.

harper4

And here is a side by side with my Viv flats. I didn’t realize that I only own one pair of Vivs…and the metallic ones are clearly very worn. So…you can see an example of how these look after constant wear for a year (I’m admittedly pretty hard on my feet). And you can see that the square toe box actually creates more toe cleavage than the Vivs.

harper viv compareFor me, an understandable concern with shoes as pointy as this is the inevitable bending that happened with my silver Vivs. I’m hoping with the dark color of these shoes that won’t be a concern.

harper sideHere’s a side shot (I’m so bad at getting these photos).  I also wanted to compare the color to my Martina wedges in Cabernet so I compared those as well. Aside from the Martinas being a little dusty (oops) the color of the Harper flats is definitely a bit richer, but they are very, very similar. The Harper flats have more of a polish in my opinion.

harper martina2In my opinion, these are keepers. My Vivs definitely took a bit of breaking in and while these do seem comfortable out of the box, I anticipate that they could be problematic for some people with the more constricted shaped toe box. I personally love the patent leather but I would love to see these (and the Vivs!) in a plain leather. They’re definitely a fall/winter color and most of my cold weather items are packed away but I know these will incorporate well in to my wardrobe for work and will look just as good with a pair of jeans. I also recently purchased the J.Crew Factory Quilted Vest in Red Currant and these are a perfect match!

As an aside, I’m surprised we haven’t seen a full price promotion at J.Crew yet, so while I’m glad I snagged a few things, I’ll definitely be waiting for a promotion before I indulge in anything else for Fall.

So, what do you think? Have you tried the Harper flats? Love? Too pointy? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

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9 Comments CATEGORIES // J.CREW, review, shoes

Comments

  1. Maqsad says

    July 30, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    What a lovely detailed review! I’m not sure of them yet, but will likely fall for them eventually!

    I am becoming a proponent of buying true love items full price , rather than buying tonnes of extras on sale. The only flaw in that though is there seems to be a learning curve or deviousness, take your pick, for the retailers: their later iterations of things are more appealing, oftentimes, and then one has buyer’s remorse. All very tricky!

    Anyway, I love the shoes on you and I think you’ve made a great choice!

    Reply
    • fablifeforever says

      July 31, 2014 at 11:24 am

      Hi there! Thanks for visiting…yes I agree, I constantly struggle with that. Sometimes, budget is a driver but I agree that I’d rather have a few items I love and want to wear repeatedly than sale items that I might wear once. (I guess one really wants sale items that they get a lot of wear out of!) What I want to get better at is predicting which items I’ll wear repeatedly and which ones sit in the closet with the tags still on!

      Reply
  2. jcrewismyfavstore says

    July 31, 2014 at 4:19 am

    I LOVE these shoes!!!! And, thank you so much for the very detailed review. That garnet color is stunning.

    Reply
    • fablifeforever says

      July 31, 2014 at 11:25 am

      Thank you! I agree, the color is my favorite part!!! Thnks for taking the time to comment 🙂

      Reply
  3. JenniferD says

    July 31, 2014 at 10:11 am

    Greetings FabLife – I heard from an online CS representative that J.Crew may be phasing out the Vivs as _all_ the colors are now on markdown with the additional promotion. I have many pairs of Vivs, so I’m holding off on the Harpers. But I do love that color! Cheers – Jennifer

    Reply
    • fablifeforever says

      July 31, 2014 at 11:26 am

      Hi Jennifer! Thanks for the inside scoop! I will definitely be interested to see how they wear, considering the state of my Metallic Vivs. I might consider a basic black pair if they stay on sale! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

      Reply
  4. Chandra (@MoMoMod) says

    July 31, 2014 at 11:02 am

    Awesome review! I’m here by way of Instagram!

    I have the Factory Emery flats that I’ve worn to death, I’ve been searching eBay for the Viv flats, and now I think I need the Harper flats!

    Chandra
    http://www.momomod.com

    Reply
    • fablifeforever says

      July 31, 2014 at 11:26 am

      Hi Chandra! Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment! I also wear my Emery flats like crazy – I just purchased the navy pair and have been lamenting not purchasing the coral color! I am sure you will be seeing a lot of these flats on me this fall!

      Reply
  5. JenniferD says

    August 3, 2014 at 11:23 am

    Greetings Anne – It’s me again. I was just on the J.Crew website taking advantage of the Viv super-sale and noticed a new color (Manchester Grey) in all sizes. So perhaps the Vivs are staying around (which is good because I have a lot of them!). They did the same with their 120’s suiting in Heather Flannel . . . I picked up pants, a skirt, and a jacket in that color at the beginning of the summer on super-final sale thinking they might phase out that color (it was a great deal and I needed a grey suit anyway), but all suiting items are available in that color. Perhaps just clearing out some old inventory? Cheers – Jennifer

    Reply

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