New Shopping Center: Legacy Place

Since I'm at the tail-end of my pregnancy, all I can think about is my post-pregnancy wardrobe.  And it's even easier to think about now that we have our tax returns done!  I'm totally loving the Garden Collection at H&M and Liberty of London at Target.  I like select pieces from others too, but these are two collections of which I would buy everything!  The problem is actually getting my hands on the pieces!  I've had some luck buying LoL at Target; not everything has sold out.  But I'm a lot more enticed by the home decor stuff than the clothing, so that has kept me a bit distracted.

H&M is a different story.  Despite the fact that there is an H&M on Newbury *and* one in Downtown Crossing, I can't get myself into Boston at this point.  I'm too big, too tired, and still need to deal with Kira.  If I weren't pregnant, I would hit both locations in one day!  To my surprise, there is an H&M in Dedham at a relatively new shopping center called Legacy Place!  They opened in summer 2009.  Even though Dedham is technically farther than Boston, it's easier in a lot of ways because there is lots of parking and less crowding/traffic.  Besides H&M, they have other chic stores like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, and interesting restaurants like Aquitane.  There is a Whole Foods there too!  I was pretty excited to check it out.

Last Wednesday Kira had a class in Brookline so I dropped her off with my mom and headed straight for Dedham.  My first stop was Whole Foods for lunch; it was pretty standard.  I wanted the white pizza, but they didn't have it that day, so I had tomato basil instead.  After lunch, my first stop was H&M.  I was super excited when I saw the tops and dresses from the Garden Collection in the window!  I went in, and to my dismay there were only two racks of clothes, and the tops and dresses modeled in the window were not out on the floor.  I found out later from a sales associate that I was a day early and that the Garden Collection was not officially out until the next day.  Actually...I knew that.  But I had been reading on a few blogs that some H&M stores were starting early, so I was pushing my luck.  I grabbed whatever they had from the Garden Collection that was out and walked through the rest of the store toward the dressing rooms.  I was surprised that the store was very small.  I was hoping to find some left over stuff from the Sonia Rykiel Collection, but a sales associate told me that I won't find anything from that collection in the store because they never even got it.  I asked why, and she said that collection went only to the larger stores, like Newbury and Downtown Crossing.  Bummer.

After H&M I went to Urban Outfitters.  I don't usually find anything that suits me, but it was worth a look, especially for shoes.  I love the shoes UO has.  Another disappointment: very few shoes, and small store.  They had about 20 pairs of shoes; not very many in my opinion.  And they were all boring shoes; I want to say there were all black booties.  My last stop was the Paper Source.  I'm making invitations for a friend's baby shower and I needed paper.  I walked in and could see the entire store from the door; it was very small.  I didn't find the paper I needed and walked out empty-handed.

In summary, the Legacy Place has some interesting stores which I would normally spend hours looking for stuff I want, but I was disappointed because each store seemed to be an abbreviated version of the real thing.  Unfortunately I don't think I will be going back to the Legacy Place.  It's too far, and does not have enough to offer.  Now I just need to figure out how to hit the H&M in Boston before the Garden Collection sells out.