slippy

remember these chinatown slippers that we all use to wear ten years ago? i popped into pearl river in soho a few weeks ago and picked up a pair for two dollars and seventy-five cents. it's funny to be so over a trend and then fall back in love, love, love. i wear them every sunny day to skip around my neighborhood. 

easy come, easy go

i've been really into green smoothies for the past few months. i drink at least a nalgene a day. blend: three handfuls of spinach, two cups of water, a cup of frozen strawberries and one banana. they taste surprisingly divine and have cured my terrible knees. so much so that within the first three days of drinking them, i no longer feel any pain walking up the five flights to my apartment. magic, really.

though many smoothies means many trips to trader joe's, two or three times each week.

the cashier applied chapstick before acknowledging me, taking his sweet time as i stood there, and then said he couldn't live without it. he noticed my shopping bag from dior. he said that it was impressive, but i told him that it was not from shopping there, but rather acquired from work. i told him what i did when he asked. again, he seemed impressed. he said he was a photographer and that along with bagging groceries, he also worked at a (a very well-known) photo studio. i'm not really a waitress came to mind, though i wasn't judging. especially on that day. but now writing that seems a little judge-y. anyway, he asked me a few more questions that led me to believe that he thought i was super fancy. i looked fancy and i guess that's enough. but i was feeling particularly disgruntled and i thought that i was projecting a different image than what i would have liked and felt. i can't remember what exactly he asked but my response was, "well, i just spent my last 20 bucks on bananas and spinach, so..." and immediately he replied, "easy come, easy go." then he handed me my grocery bag and i left.

i am still trying to think of how that even applies to what we talked about, or general appearances, or whatever. i'm sure if i thought about it long enough, i'd figure out what he meant. but for now, i have just been taking it as general life advice.

on top

it's not really an accomplishment, but in a way, it still feels like one. this morning i was on top of the city! or more truthfully, on floor 57 of the setai in midtown for an event. but still, it sure felt like the top of the city. especially at 9am. and it beat my all-time high of the 53rd floor. 

and on that note, you couldn't pay me to go up to the top of the empire state building. i wouldn't go up there for $1,000. maybe $5,000. minimum. the thought alone gives me the chills. 

the laundry

if you really want to indulge, go out there and get yourself a bottle of le labo's rose 31 detergent. it is beyond divine and it will make wearing a white tee, slipping into sheets, drying off with a towel, etc. more lovely than you could ever imagine. trust me. 

my mother has been using this stuff for years, so whenever i travel back to connecticut, i am overly eager to bring my laundry along with me. but this weekend, she got me a bottle of my very own (merci, merci, merci!), so i guess this means i can pack a bit lighter from now on for a weekend home.

elle

somewhere in soho.

ink

when i love something, i can not stop talking about it. to the point where i might as well just do the product's/place's pr. this list includes dr. dennis gross glow pads, clarisonic [order your mia 2 today─you're welcome], wolford tights [in matte opaque 80], ysl volume effet faux cils luxurious mascara and/or eyelash extensions, wild ride beef jerky, momofuku milk bar birthday cake truffles and blue bird coffee. 

and magazine cafe. oh gee, i have definitely blogged about this joyous store before. but really. this is one of my favorite places in manhattan. they have all of the best mags. and even though i am there twice a month to pick up my required reading, they always tell me that they've missed me. and even before they were featured in the daily a few seasons ago [should find a scan of this, they proved to be very knowledgeable], it has always been my go-to.

magazine cafe
15 west 37 street
new york, new york

rabbit

last year's weekend in burlington included at least four trips to thrift stores. i was trying to stock up on tschotskes for my apartment. my bedroom [in the lower east side apartment that i shared with emily] was stuffed to the brim with beauteous knickknacks, but i soon realized that i would have to distribute everything from a single bedroom into a kitchen and living room when living on my own. my new apartment suddenly seemed empty. so last year's trip to burlington was my chance to stock up. new york just doesn't have that many options. at least not in my budget. nothing ever seems that unique at picked over second-hand shops in the city that i can afford. 

my usual motto of don't buy unless i love did not apply so strictly on this trip. this phrase pops into my mind when i am debating whether something is a must-have. if there is any debate, i put it down. this time in vermont, i purchased just about everything that caught my eye. including a seashell rabbit.

and this rabbit [or mouse, i can't quite tell] is so bizarre. because, though hard to see in this picture, it has googley eyes. and i always try to understand if it was someone's craft project or something that was once sold in a store. after painstakingly taking the time to apply all of the shells to the animal's body, why are there googley eyes? there are plenty of real-looking eyes at craft stores that would make this shell rabbit look less like a [talented] 14-year-olds arts and crafts idea. i didn't exactly love it at first, but now i really find it quite fancy.

nyfw FALL 2012

the monday before fashion week started, i got an iPhone and quickly became an addict. au revoir, blackberry. so you can imagine how much fun i was having using instagram backstage. even though i have always thought the app was super cheesey, once i actually had it, i was hooked.

pretties backstage at marc by marc jacobs:

and even though the pictures' saturations and contrasts were all changed with i.g., all of the beautiful things [and people] i captured still would have been just as lovely.

and the models! they're so young, but so fab. one of my favorites is daphne groeneveld. she caught my eye ever since i saw the dreamy jill stuart spring 2012 campaign [shot by mario sorrenti] and i am obviously not alone. it seems like she is everywhere. i snapped this pic of her at derek lam:

super geeky but i instagramed this photo, tagged her in it and she LIKED it. and then she looked through my other pictures and LIKED others, too. i also saw her many times backstage...at marc by marc, jill stuart, and other shows that i just can't remember right now. i should have written this post when everything was fresh in my mind. anyway. here she is on the cover of tuesday's daily. does the collar look familiar?

also, here is frida on the daily's cover on day one:

i've mentioned my love of the daily before. lighthearted fun but informative. there was a nice piece on the gentlewoman's EIC penny martin in the weekend edition. i love the gentlewoman. i can't even get started on my pile-up of magazines right now [stress], but my gentlewoman copy is definitely on top. anyway, i was up at lincoln center everyday except for thursday, so i have almost a complete collection from fall 2012.

i also saw hanne gaby odiele. again at derek lam:

and another favorite: miss lindsey wixson. this was taken backstage at jill stuart:

 

see how fun instagram is/was? i just wish i kept things more in sync with each other - so many options for colors/borders. whatever.

backstage at elie tahari:

at jill stuart:

 and narciso rodriguez:

 

so now it is all over. and i have free time again, though everyone knows how much i love this time of year. it's not every day that you say hello to betsey johnson. or witness a rather moving pep-talk by mr. tahari himself, which was full of warm thanks for his team. or the chance to talk to super-famous models about jeweled cellphone cases. or get photographed outside of a backstage entrance like a celebrity. ha! le sigh, along with all the wonderfulness that happened last season, and the season before that.

oh and i was photographed by the cut! they took down my name, profession and such -- but sadly, i didn't make the cut. literally. but whatever. it would have been quite funny if i did as i was wearing my big sleeping bag coat. [courtesy of my mother, from talbots, which i refuse to give back.]

and here are a few more!

at marc by marc jacobs:

 

at richard chai:

makeup at charlotte ronson:

history lessons

dilemonade

instead of thinking about the pulled a muscle in the back of my leg (must google this) from ballet class tonight, being on day 7 of a nasty cold, or about the paper bowls scattered around my apartment that are filled with coffee grounds to cover up the unbearable stench of a deceased neighbor that wasn't found for a few days (very sad/disgusting), i am going to think of happier thoughts. my leg will fix itself within a few days and so will my cold. i am lucky to have an apartment, especially in this weather. my senior year of college, i participated in BOX CITY to raise homelessness awareness. we slept in cardboard boxes on the campus green in chilly, chilly november. did i mention that i went to school in vermont? brr. throughout college, i was super-involved with the homeless community in burlington. i volunteered three times each week providing childcare at the local shelter. but it wasn't until i spent one night in the cold that i realized, even the littlest bit, what it feels like to not have the option of a warm home. so i am thankful for all that i have, even with my patch of bad luck the past few days, which as my mom said, isn't all that unlucky to begin with.

labf

had to.

white lightning

after the quiet of summer, the energy of fashion week is electrifying.

pretties getting pretty

lunch

the look

gains

i made smalltalk with the cashier. he was funny, friendly and fairly disgruntled about his job. when he rang me up, he only charged me one dollar for my entire purchase, which should have been around $4.50. i gave him a five dollar bill and he shuffled with his register for a bit. he handed my money back to me, along with three extra dollars and a handful of quarters. all with a wink.

it (sort of) reminded me of the time when (get this!) a new york city taxi driver did not charge ash and i for the ride and said happy birthday. it wasn't either of our birthdays.

isn't that peculiar? (every once in a while) here in new york...

SPRING 2012

yesteday: anna wintour and i walked down west 15th street together around 1pm and i snapped an awkward picture of her. it was well worth it. i love her. later, in the middle of a tweet about the party going on backstage at betsey johnson, rose petals showered down on top of me thrown by ms. johnson herself. i love her. then britt and i up-streamed a cab at lincoln center from robert verdi. i really hate when people do that, but we were cutting it close with the betsey show and had to race down to the armory for marc by marc jacobs. i still feel just awful about it though. i grew up watching full frontal fashion. anyway the traffic was terrible, but why did the cab driver try to cut through the top of times square? the day ended with a wonderful dinner provided by mr. jacobs. well ok, it was the backstage food and he probably had no part in it, but it was still a divine falafel sandwich. some days are just so lovely. le sigh.




spring 2011

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fall 2011

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bambi