KMart Gets Fierce...Even with Pre-Attached Accessories.

Alright, I'm going to explain this title a little bit before I get a supoena in the mail from Christian Siriano (yes, we love you Christian).  I'm not usually the biggest fan of "dress for less" marketing.  To see why, read my post Confessions of a Bargain Shopping Convert.  I'm not a huge walmart shopper and I don't try to ever haggle down designers.  That being said, what I'm going to say next is going to sound extremely contradictory.  I've always had a special spot in my heart for KMart.  In fact, I actually might have shed a metaphorical tear when they had the buy out blues a few years ago.  I wasn't sure what would happen to them. 

Kmart has been on the main drag of my not-so-small town as long as I can remember. Its where I always go if I quickly need hangers, lip gloss, extra bed pillows, sunscreen and things of that nature.  When I was younger, if I was wonderfully lucky my grandmother would take me to Kmart's food court to get a fountain soda (pretty sure their pretzels one-upped the ones at Target)...but I've never purchased clothing at Kmart (certainly not because I'm too wealthy for it, but more so because the clothes were not shaped for me etc), well, except once...

A few years ago a place I was working was having a crazy pajama pant day.  I didn't own any weird enough, so I knew I could count on the neighborhood Kmart in a pinch to find some of the most off the beaten path pajama pants out there.  As luck would have it, I scored hot pink fleece beauties with a big black drawstring and little cats thrown all over the fabric amongst the word "FIERCE" which was printed about every two inches.  This was not only c-ra-zay, but also perfect in the fact that it included a word I would offten mutter after drinking way too much back in my early 20's (before Christian's run on Project Runway).  He was fierce, she was fierce, the purse was fierce, a car was fierce, his jager bomb was fierce (this is Jersey) and the Kmart pants? Definitely Fierce...but at the time, in a sarcastic way.

These days, Kmart has been getting fierce in a real way.  They've hired an on the ball design team which uses the season's trends to create some of the best looks I've seen in a bargain shopping wonderland (yes, better high fashion repro styling than Target...and more ageless and work appropriate than H&M and F21). 

With almost 20,000 fans on facebook alone, Kmart might be on to something.  After five years of working on improving its clothing, their "Fall 2010 collections" are getting a lot of attention.  Adrien Field of The Huffington post, who attended Kmart's Fall preview with skepticism, found herself saying "I can't believe its Kmart."  Even the two-for concepts manage to look fashionable in a too cool to care Jazz hands sort of way.  I honestly couldn't believe it was Kmart either... and I found the styling a lot tastier than I can't believe its not butter. spread.  I think Fabio would agree.