Cheryl shops...Century 21
Since the weather was so nice last weekend, instead of going to a museum or doing something else of cultural interest, MW and I decided to walk to Century 21. This was MW's first time, and I think he was slightly overwhelmed. "Everything is either for Eurotrash or golfers," he remarked as we walked through the men's department--and it was a pretty fair assessment. If you're a guy, it also helps if you're ridiculously skinny (size 30) or on the large side (38), as we discovered when sifting through the Diesel and Seven jeans. MW was impressed with the men's underwear selection, but he turned up his nose at most of the "ugly" button-down shirts.

I then hustled us up to the third floor (I like to work my way down at Century 21), which was an absolute zoo. MW hung out by the escalators and read his book as I ventured into the fray. Pretty much everything in the European designer section is on sale, and thus everything is grouped by item of clothing and size, rather than by designer. If you have patience for this sort of thing, go for it; I prefer to shop by designer, so I lasted about five minutes before I headed over to the "contemporary" side of the floor. They have a lot of Earl Jeans, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Juicy, Seven, and Joe's Jeans; that section is still mostly grouped by designer. But nothing really caught my eye.

We then hit the second floor, only to discover the shoe section had been moved. Now, before I bitch about the new shoe section, I will say that in Century 21's defense, the second floor is a lot more orderly and less cramped without the shoes. However...you have to follow these red footprints, which lead you through the children's section to the stairway. You then descend two full flights of stairs in an all-gray, dingy, poorly lighted stairwell, to emerge in the "new and improved" shoe department. One good thing I will say is that now all the shoes (men's, children's, and women's; regular and athletic) are in one place. Also, you can reach the shoe department from the street. But the rest of it sucks. The department is even more cluttered than before, with sometimes 10 different styles in one section of shelving. The sale shoes are spread all over the place, along the walls. The shoes are in no order whatsoever, even though the walls read "pumps," "sandals," etc. And speaking of sandals, you have to descend yet another flight of stairs for women's sandals--although I certainly spotted several pairs of sandals on the main floor. The "lucky size section" is nowhere to be found, and the designer shoes are set back in hard-to-reach shelves (they were way more accessible when they were on tables). Finally, the only ways to reach the shoe department are down through the weird stairwell or directly from the street--so if you want to go back into the main store, it's up two steep flights for you. ("What if you're handicapped?" I wondered. "Well, you probably don't need to buy a lot of shoes," MW said.) So, "new and improved" shoe department: not so much.

Sadly, this was the first time ever that I went to Century 21 and didn't buy anything. Granted, I'm not a big fan of clearance-sale time, and I didn't want MW to be bored to tears--I can easily spend two or three hours there. But, of course, to quote everyone's favorite governor, I'll be back.