I told you I would!

As many of you know by now, I used to live in New York for several years (pre-Beijing, Singapore and DC. I'm old!) Coming back now is so much fun – not only because I get to see friends and eat in my favorite restaurants and hit up a slew of beloved vintage stores, but also because I have the time (and the energy) to explore the city from a visitor's perspective.

Which brings us to yesterday. After a morning at the brand-spanking-new Gucci flagship at the base of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue (my notes include: "Donald Trump's hair is really just as ridiculous in person"), I headed downtown for some good ol' fashioned New York shopping and eating. First, I popped into Mott Street vintage mecca Resurrection, which is always worth the visit just to be in proximity to so many fantastic high-end vintage pieces (And, if you happen to have a spare $1200 lying around, there is an amazing 1950s Dior couture cocktail dress that is. Just. To die for.)

I headed over for lunch at the seriously awesome (and highly adorable, thanks to its home in a former diner) taqueria La Esquina, which is a recent find for me, but whose fantastic tacos and roasted corn on the cob covered in parmesan cheese is really worth the trip.


Then I popped over to check out the "new" Old Navy, which looks an awful lot like the "old" Old Navy, and where my fun oversized tote is now on sale for $11.99 (grumble). I scored the second-to-last pair of the adorable printed flats everyone's gaga over (hooray for having big feet, for a change!). They are not so comfortable, but definitely really cute, and I suspect some of their popularity comes from Fops and Dandies bringing out The Sound of Music nostalgia in all of us. Oh, how we love Maria and the clothes made of curtains!


I popped back up to midtown for a private blogger tour of the new store (it's now the largest store in the world, and reportedly, they're paying a whopping $16 million per year in rent for the prime location). Gucci CEO Mark Lee personally took us around (it seems he's the one who spearheaded the blogger component to the launch) and didn't even flinch when we collectively squealed over the bubble-gum pink patent stilettos or when I needled him to reveal who was in the VIP dressing room. (Apparently, it was Gucci Creative Designer Frida Giannini giving a TV interview, and not, say, Madonna trying on her dress for tonight's big gala event, which is what I was really hoping for.)


Of course, we had to check out what they're touting for Spring, and it's pretty:



Here's a little bonus for you designheads: The store has some seriously fantastic velvety furniture.



All that touring and talking fashion makes a blogger hungry, so I decided to head back downtown to New York's finest burger institution The Shake Shack, an adorable little concession stand in Madison Park that is pretty much world-renowned for their burgers and fries. I'd never been before – I've heard you've got to hit it in the off-hours, otherwise you're stuck in a line around the park – so it was a pretty big deal for me, being a majorly large fan of cheeseburgers and all. Plus, its outdoor-café-style location with a view of the Empire State Building is just so cute.



(Oh! I almost forgot! On the way down 23rd street from the subway, I walked by The Sartorialist himself. I recognized him almost immediately, and managed to give him a little smile. He did not ask to take my picture, but I'm just going to tell myself that it was because he was busy talking on his cell phone.)

Okay, back to The Shake Shack. {And our apologies for diving precipitously close to food blogger territory in this post.} The Shackburger is Just. So. Good. Plus: Crinkle-cut fries! The best.


I was totally stuffed from my burger so I decided to walk back up Fifth Avenue to digest a bit. After a rainy day, it was clearing up and the Empire State Building was in perfectly glowy, Giants-supporting glory.


And then I stumbled upon insane vintage emporium Cheap Jack's. It is massive. (It is also, at an average of about $125 for a dress, not exactly cheap.) Still, I couldn't resist doing a little dressing room photo shoot.



Um. Tulle!






I didn't end up buying anything, mostly because of the exorbitant pricing, though my big-skirts-for-spring fantasies almost gave in to that last skirt. Ultimately, I decided the pattern was a little too '80s for my liking.

But apparently, where I should have stopped was a Starbucks, because I nearly immediately fell asleep upon returning to my hotel at 7pm. It's just as well: It was a pretty jam-packed day, and I needed a good night's sleep before tonight's major festivities. Stay tuned…

Before we go any further…

There has been quite a lot of fascinating brouhaha this past week about bloggers, and freebies, and blog integrity, and everything else that goes along with that ongoing debate. We aren't one to delve into too much serious on this here blog – because it is our outlet for things that are pretty! and fun! and Zac Efron-related! – but we do want to be sure we are forthcoming with all of you. We are not exactly sure how we ended up on the Blog Shortlist – seriously, we've never even been offered a free lipstick, but somehow we suddenly became worthy of trips to Paris – but we've been extremely flattered that someone, somewhere thought enough of us to include us in some of these events, like this week's Gucci store opening and charity gala.

We have really enjoyed the opportunity to be part of a few of the pioneering blog-focused campaigns, to have this unprecedented access to some of the most creative fashion minds in the world and especially to meet other bloggers from around the globe (this week's happy find is the fantastic Elisabeth, whose comparison to all this as a "Kim in Bye Bye Birdie" moment rings true to our similarly Broadway-minded heart. But beyond that, she is a completely fun person and an excellent writer, and I know a lot of you are going to want to put her site on your blog list immediately.)

Where were we? Oh yes. We have always made it clear to our hosts upfront that our inclusion in such events does not guarantee good press, or any press, on our blog and that we will write what we want about the activities we participate in. It is a delicate situation, but we definitely wanted to thank *all of you* for being so completely awesome and congratulatory and encouraging (and not, for one second, rude or catty) as we test out this new phenomenon. We suspect that there are many more excellent blogs (see list at right, for starters) that will find themselves in similar situations in the near future, and we hope you are just as supportive to them.

When Gucci invited me to come up to New York, the only stipulation was that I take a photo of myself in my favorite New York spot as part of their festivities and fund-raising activities. (Which I did, and which you can see over here. Please ignore the fact that they've currently got me identified as Cory Kennedy, which is a little bit surreal. And yes, I did pair my Gucci with Chuck Taylors.) They've also included me in various other events, and I'll probably tell you a bit more about them as well (or at least, I'll tell you what people are wearing. My scribbled notes read something like "**groomed eyebrows**" {see above – there was a girl at one of the events with the most amazing cheekbone-enhancing arches} and "shrunken fur jackets – so cute!" and "Gucci CEO Mark Lee can really rock a slim-cut suit". We definitely do not expect you to run out and buy Gucci, but we do hope you enjoy the ride. It's been fun.

But we digress. We are done with being overly serious for the moment, and now we go back to our regularly scheduled content of being frivolous and fawning over celebrities. There is a party with Madonna (and Gwyneth and SJP and Timbaland and about a gazillion others whose outfits we really cannot wait to see) to prepare for, after all. And really, what's the point of fashion if it isn't fun?

Hello from Noo Yawk City

It's 5:15am. Can we say lingering Beijing jet lag?

But! We are pretty thrilled to be ensconced in an impossibly fluffy hotel bed in the middle of New York, our favorite city in the world. (Yes, yes, we know we say that about every city, but this time it's really true.) I arrived yesterday afternoon and headed out to do a lil' photo project for Gucci (more on that later), and then had the rest of the day to wander around and drink coffee and take photographs and (of course) do a little shopping, window and otherwise.

Of course, any self-respecting fashion follower has one destination this week, and I couldn't resist dropping by the New York Fashion Week tents at Bryant Park to check out the scene. Which looked something like this:


Truthfully, the big white tents make it kind of look like a wedding with a lot of fashionably dressed people -- plus a handful of gawpers (it was mostly a trio of tourists in ski coats and me, fervently checking out the parade of colored tights and majorly large hats and tons and tons of booties). Curiosity satisfied, we left the other lurkers to gawk in peace and headed up to Rockefeller Center, where we may have had to check out the huge Anthropologie flagship. With windows like this, how could we resist?


We also admired the ice skating. It's just so perfectly New Yorky.


Then we meandered up 5th Avenue, stopped by a deli for a bagel snack (when in New York…) and Cherry Coke Zero (best. drink. ever!), took a bit of a rest on the gloriously pastel pink-and-purple couch in our hotel room and went to meet Susie and others for drinks and dinner. I am happy to report that Susie is as charming and utterly fashionable as ever, despite her awful computer woes. (Note to self: Ask for Susie's Williamsburg shopping itinerary, because we obviously need to be checking out the vintage over there.)

We're going to attempt to navigate the crazy double-headed shower in the bathroom and head off for some more adventures today. Stay tuned!

Oh, and while we're at it: We had a perfectly lovely weekend vintage treasure-hunting in Delaware, where we picked up this funky plaid coat, among other goodies:

Tulle: A Love Story

It's funny how these fashion things go sometimes. For example:

1. A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about tulle. Mostly because I had to name my Most Wanted fashion item for the D.C. Goodwill Fashionista and I've been obsessed with finding a poufy, tulle-skirted '50s prom dress for the past few years.*

2. And then I fell in love with this awesome vintage-inspired party dress and I started thinking, I really need to get on this tulle thing.

3. And then, in preparation for fashion week, I pulled out my fabulously voluminous taffeta-and-tulle vintage skirt, and tried it on with a little fitted black sweater and was all like, I don't care how much room this takes up in my suitcase, I'm bringing it.

4. And then on the train from DC to Delaware Saturday, I was reading my new Teen Vogue with Blake Lively on the cover (stellar issue, by the way), and I saw a cute advertorial for Lycra-enhanced denim in which they had spritely young ballerinas wear jeans to show how you could plie in denim, if that was something you would like to do. And the girls were wearing jeans under these fabulous poufy tulle ballet skirts (which, incidentally, totally distracted from the jeans).

5. And then, on the way home from the train station, we stopped off at one of (okay, three of) my favorite thrift stores, and I noticed they still had this amazing majorly tulle skirted wedding dress that has been there for the past couple of months. I eye that dress every time I go to the store, which is kind of funny because a) I'm not getting married anytime soon; and b) if I do, it will not be in a big white confection of a dress. And yet, layer upon layer of gauzy white tulle… so, so pretty…

{I have to admire the dress quietly, because I'm afraid if I start showing too much interest in wedding stuff, my mom might have a small heart attack from joy and anticipation.}

6. And then I checked out authentic ballet skirt options online before I went to bed.

7. And then I woke up yesterday and opened up the New York Times and there was Bill Cunningham's page, all about big, romantic skirts and Alaia's "ballerina silhouette" and several pieces that looked a lot like my vintage version (see #3). Crazy.

8. And then I opened Elle and realized that everyone is all about tulle for spring, and was I just not conscious of the fashion industry's immense power over my wardrobe?

9. Finally, I'm going to try to whip up an inexpensive, DIY version (under the sewing supervision of my mother) very, very soon.

*This kills me, because I once owned a fantastic bubblegum pink '50s prom dress from the thrift store, in which the bodice was too small, so I just cut off the poufy pink tulle skirt to wear. And it was awesome. And I gave it away in the Great (and Ill-Advised) Closet Cleanout when I moved from Beijing to Singapore, along with about a hundred other fantastic vintage pieces that I really, really wish I still owned. It's still very painful; perhaps we will have to agree never to talk about it ever again.

Will Work for Versace Couture

I joined up with some other fashionable thrifters for a little online chat hosted by the DC Goodwill Fashionista (aka Em) and a review of Goodwill's recent runway show. It was lots of fun -- topics of discussion: tulle, nude lips and SJP's crazy/awesome pouf capelet -- and Em tipped me off to something I'd completely missed: the Versace spring couture collection. These are my favorite looks, and I seriously love them all: Such incredible designs and amazing use of volume, and not even a hint of potato sack-yness. Drooooooooool. (Also: Justin Timberlake Super Bowl Pepsi commercial? Droooooooool, but for completely different reasons.)


{This pink one. Is. Perfect.}

Things we meant to mention last week, but forgot

+I miss Gossip Girl. {Sigh.} I am placating myself by clicking through lots of styley photos of the shows that aired. Starting with: bows!

+Free Valentine's cards from Maquette! They're purdy.

+Make the best of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day with Gala's great suggestions.

+More from Gala: Her top five fictional style icons, complete with lots of great pics.

+A very compelling perspective on why less is more.

+Er, and on a totally different note, Tamron already has us earmarking our economic stimulus refund for an insanely adorable Marc Jacobs dress.

+We have got to try the Rasterbator thing that everyone's gaga about. {Totally SFW, by the way. Also: giggle.}

+And! Don't forget to tell me your favorite blogs (fashion-y, design-y, kitten-y or otherwise). We're racking up a great list; I'll be sharing them all in highly convenient link-y form next week.

Under construction

I hadn't gotten around to reading the latest Elle until now, mostly because Jessica Alba doesn't excite me enough to shell out the money when my subscriber copy was waiting for me at my parents' house. (Kate Bosworth on Vogue on the other hand, I had no trouble paying double for.) So when I finally got my hands on it yesterday, I was pretty thrilled to see that Karl Lagerfeld, who shot this spread, and I were both incredibly excited by the amazing Olympic buildings that are under construction (and also equally excited about other Beijing landmarks, it seems).




Also: The hard hats were a nice touch. And really, they're no more ridiculous a fashion accessory than the Balenciaga riding hats, don't you think?

{update: I've amused myself so much with my last comment, I've decided to include it up here: If the models had to wear hard hats inside the construction sites, does that mean that Karl Lagerfeld had to wear one too? I'd *love love love* to see pictures of Kaiser Karl running around the Bird's Nest with a bright blue construction hat atop his coif.}

A long, long ways from roll-neck sweaters…

J.Crew's whimsical, retro-style floral dresses for spring have been getting a *ton* of blog press this past month (we're expecting a follow-up surge of magazine press very soon). Not that we're surprised or anything: There's just something so quirky and charming and instantly covetable about the designs (plus, love the flower below!). We tend to skip over the items with a large amount of overexposure (it reminds us too much of middle school, when we could place any Gap item from the past few years, as in striped denim oxfords? so spring 1990!), but we'll definitely be using these images as inspiration in our upcoming vintage dress quests.

We'd kind of given up on J.Crew – who basically dressed us all throughout college; we had about nine of those cable-knit fisherman sweaters, no joke – but have really been enjoying the intensely colorful, quirky-preppy thing they've embraced recently. We have not been enjoying their increasing priceyness, but what can you do. Except covet from afar, of course.

Shoes! Shoes! Shooooooes! {end internal monologue}

I love this shot of Agathe's fab mix of colorful shoes, from a recent photo shoot in her apartment. (It's tough to tell definitively, but I just might really need to own something like those eggplant purple satiny ones.) I also love her Canadian mini-pig, the insanely adorable Molvin, who is clearly the the most stylin' pig in the fashion blogosphere. And while I'm at it, I really really love this black tiered skirt she was wearing recently. Note to self: Must keep an eye out for tiered skirts in thrift stores today.

Let the games begin!

I look forward to New York Fashion Week for a lot of reasons (like Phillip Lim, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs, for starters) , but the thing I love most might be The Daily, the glossy magazine that's distributed in the tents each day over the course of the Week. The best part is that you don't need to be there to get your fashion coverage fix (which wasn't always the case - I use to actually have people collect them and mail them to me). Now, anyone can download a PDF of The Daily every morning for a full dose of tidbits, show reports and highly insider-y gossip – no matter if you're following the shows from Seventh Avenue or Singapore. Which, during the last few Fashion Weeks, is exactly where I was.

Ports 1961: From China to Africa and back again

There is absolutely no point in shopping for international brands while in China – with a 40 percent markup on luxury goods, you'd be crazy to pay local retail prices (even most Chinese don't shop in China - they head to duty-free Hong Kong, where the prices are lower, the selection is bigger and the savings more than makes up the cost of airfare). While I was in Beijing, I kept almost all of my shopping to the local boutiques (like the aforementioned Spin Ceramics, where I wanted absolutely everything. More on that soon.)


The one exception to this rule might be Ports 1961, the international line from Ports International, the formerly Canadian luxury brand that was bought by Chinese entrepreneur Alfred Chan in the 1990s and completely rejuvenated a few years ago by his sister-in-law, Tia Cibani. Because it's now pretty much a Chinese brand, I was curious if it got to avoid the import taxes and would actually be much cheaper to buy in China than abroad (the answer, in a nutshell: I still don't know. The brand's first U.S. retail store won't open until this spring in L.A. – followed by New York in the fall - and the only easy source is the online offerings at Vivre and Saks, which have a much smaller selection than in the China stores and don't give me much to compare. So, in summary: I'm still working on it.)


I had never paid Ports much attention before, but a growing list of glowing press (starting with this highly readable Time for Style article) had gotten me curious. I can't say I was wowed by all the items in the Beijing stores – there's a reason the company is one of the top-selling in China, and that reason seems to be a fondness for beading and trim – but I was pleasantly surprised by the 1961 collection of internationally-aimed clothes, which were exquisitely made and absolutely gorgeous. Some poking around on their site turned up these images for the upcoming Africa-inspired Spring/Summer collection, and I think you can get a good glimpse of the detail and construction they're offering.

Their NY fashion week show is Monday night and very highly anticipated. Plus: It's kind of nice to have a little bit of sunny warmth on an otherwise chilly, rainy Friday morning, don't you think?

Knitting, Take 2

OK, so I've been to Stitch DC three times now (thankfully, they are really friendly and also conveniently located between the highly browsable duo of Anthropologie and Barney's) and I think I'm finally ready to tackle my much-anticipated knitting project. Er, again.

Ideally, I'd like to finish my cowl before, say, it gets too warm to wear. So for a little extra motivation, I'm filling my head with the gorgeous designs at Pip-Squeak Chapeau (like the amazing chunky neck warmer above, $108), discovered via Fabbergasted.

Bargain O' the Day: Old Navy Tote

Through the Lucky Shop Girl blog, I stumbled upon this Old Navy canvas tote in dark gray with a slightly geometric pattern. At just $24.95, it's an easily affordable, hold-everything-and-then-some kind of carryall. Which is definitely my kind of bag. And so, I ordered it.

To Tie or Not to Tie: That is the Question

We have an ongoing fashion debate in our household (at least, in as much as Mike will humor me about discussing style stuff) and that is over tie-neck tops. He finds them a bit too precious. Whereas I'm like: "Bows! Bows! Bows! The bigger, the better! Wheeee!"* Which is the immediate response I had to this highly adorable Marc by Marc Jacobs shantung vest, seen on ASJiNE. Thoughts?

And! Just as I was writing this, I spotted this totally awesome bow ensemble on Tricia's Wardrobe Remix recap (plus, it has a charming handmade quality that seems way more fiscally responsible than Marc's $300 price tag). I now declare myself to be firmly back on the bow bandwagon, any preciousness be damned:


*I'm pretty sure this is quite literally the reaction I have in my head, give or take a "wheeee".

Etsy Love

Design*Sponge has a nice little round-up of Etsy finds today. We don't know about you, but we find Etsy to be perfectly wonderful but completely overwhelming, and we're always really happy when people point us to the good stuff, like the retro print from JennSki, $39, above.

Share With the Group Friday: Currently on Thursday!

We looked at our Bloglines account this morning and realized that we now read 226 blogs on a regular basis – the overwhelming majority of which are fashion- and design-related (though we also admit we have a huge weakness for celebrity gossip and adorable kittens). We're adding amazing new blogs to the list every day – there's so much good stuff out there, we can barely keep up.

And so, we thought we'd ask you, dear readers: What blogs are at the top of your must-read list? We have too many favorites to try and name them all, so we thought we'd just list our newest favorites, in no particular order.

We're really digging:
--the inspiring personal style of Fashion Toast;
--the highly adorable Poppytalk, and her incredibly helpful Etsy Pick of the Day;
--Etsy's own blog Storque (featuring Tricia this week!);
--total fashion fun at That's Chic;
--and a new burst of Singapore street style at WAYW (we especially love the extra info in the snappy q&as).

OK, your turn. What blogs are burning up your bookmarks these days?

{Add to Friends t-shirt via Swissmiss. I just couldn't resist.}