While And Just Like That had its weak points, featuring that glorious Gabriela Hearst shawl/cashmere wrap/stuff of dreams was not one of them. In my mind it upstaged pretty much everything else going on in that episode. But alas, it’s crazy expensive (like over $2,600 expensive!) and I will likely never own it. Drew Barrymore has one and I applaud her taste and will choose to live my best shawl life vicariously through her…well, almost.

You see, sometimes when a thing is out of my budget, I can help but look for the next best thing. This strategy doesn’t always pay off. Too often I’ve chosen to go this route and save some money only to later splurge on the thing I wanted in the first place. But since my chances of acquiring this $2,600+ dollar beauty are probably less than my chances of being struck by lightning, I thought I’d look into finding a substitute.

I found a few at first, mostly on Etsy, as well as this space-dyed number on sale at Shopbop, but nothing was really what I was after. You see, the original is 100% cashmere and big enough to use as a blanket wrap, ponchos wouldn’t cut it.

I ended up finding a pretty cashmere rainbow color blocked wrap from White & Warren on sale. This one was much more to my liking and can double as a scarf, however, it admittedly looks less like the original than the Shopbop poncho.

Then, when I had all but given up searching, I stumbled onto a really amazing (and also on sale) shawl from LoveShackFancy, that ticks most of the right boxes. This is the Fresca Shawl, which is on sale right now from multiple shops. It comes in 3 color ways and I ended up finding one in Autumn Rainbow. Although it isn’t cashmere, it’s really soft, big enough to feel blanket-like, and has gorgeous rainbow pastel hues.

I purchased a second on sale (more than 50% off!) in the Pink Cloud color since I liked the first so much!