Cynthia Rowley Sample Sale

Yesterday, Moya and I trekked out in the incredibly slush strewn streets to the Cynthia Rowley sample sale. Because of the snow, the store was pretty much completely empty, so Moya and I got first dibs on everything at the sale. In addition to the sample sale, a good chunk of the winter stock was also on sale, up to at least half price off on specific items.



Belts, tights, shoes, bags, all of the accessories were incredibly affordable. I really wanted this one belt but it didn't quite fit me the way I wanted it to. It was designed to fit right underneath the bust, but I wear most of my belts at my waist, right at the base of my rib cage. It was 9 dollars, it was a tough decision but for the best. I don't need more things that I really really like but don't ever actually wear.




A lot of the clothing were actual samples, not just things on sale- I know it's called a "sample sale" but often times sample sales are just glorified normal end of season sales combined with unsold stock from previous seasons but with fairly high price points. Cynthia Rowley's sample sale actually had decent prices, with on sale items and samples. But the samples were definitely samples, either running too small or too big, with unfinished hems or were crookedly sewn together.
I walked away with a sample from the upcoming season that had a crooked waist band but nothing that a belt couldn't cover and two pairs of tights. I love the dress even with the flaw and considering that I would've bought the dress anyway (albeit with a perfect waist) from the upcoming season, I consider this a great find. It was a pretty good haul and I'm glad I showed some restraint, because there were about five things I wanted in total. I may go back and see if anything gets further reduced, but I kind of doubt it will.



on a different note, I kind of really wanted these bags and shoes, but I've given myself this rule that I shouldn't buy bags that won't hold useful things such as my camera and I shouldn't buy shoes that aren't my size and are kind of small on my feet and thus would render me immobile.


The Cynthia Rowley Sample Sale is being held until Sunday at the Cynthia Rowley store in the West Village, 376 Bleeker Street.

It's hard to make facial gestures when it's 0 degrees outside

Because Winter just refuses to quit.



A coat I wanted to steal, spotted on Lafayette and Howard.

chloe sevigny for opening ceremony

fyi- you aren't really allowed to photograph in opening ceremony :(
so no photos of the line in the store.

Within the past 48 hours, I have gone to Opening Ceremony twice with two different people to check out the new Chloe Sevigny x Opening Ceremony line.
So collectively, we all agreed that the stuff was cute but the quality was utter shite, totally atrocious. One dress that costs three hundred and eighty dollars was made out of polyester. Not silk, not bamboo, not some pretty high quality cotton, no no, polyester- a fabric that looks like cheap silk and keeps you cold in the winter and hot and sweaty in the summer, a fabric that when lit on fire, doesn't burn but melts. A couple of dresses did come in cotton, but the cotton felt so cheap and thin, that I imagine if you wore them outside, the sunlight would render them see-through.

Color wise, Chloe stuck to classic Chloe. Everything came in only 4 fabrics- houndstooth, paisley, leopard and floral print.

The shoes were cute though, and lightweight, however the leather looked cheap and they cost up to five hundred dollars.
The only affordable things were the Mapplethorpe tee shirts (those were kind of cool, but I'm not really a tee shirt person), the tote bags and the tights- which were a special collaboration with Fogal, however the tights only came in the same four prints and cost 85 dollars. I am debating about getting the floral ones, primarily b/c i love the pattern but also because the other tights look so normal, something that you could find at the drugstore store and don't seem to warrant the 85 dollar price tag.

My issues with the line weren't that I didn't like it, I actually loved some of the dresses and the cropped cardigans were super cute- I just can't reconcile the quality of the garments with the price tags. I understand that Opening Ceremony has to have things at a certain price point, what with overhead, cost of development, ect- but these things looked like Urban Outfitters clothing and Urban Outfitters quality. The price should reflect that, b/c 400 dollars for a very light weight cotton dress in houndstooth is kind of ridiculous.




images from Blogue.

dapper dan in flushing, queens

Yesterday, some of my friends and I decided to go on a food tour of Jackson Heights and Flushing, Queens. Even admist the rain and the snow piled up on the sidewalk from the previous weeks, we trekked. And ate, and trekked and ate.
We walked the last four stops of the 7 train, past Shea Stadium, past the Iron Triangle, over a highway that was over water and into Flushing, Queens.
From eating tamales, to dumplings, in total I spent 10 dollars, max.
It was probably the most fun that I've had in weeks.
That's what I love about New York, you can walk almost anywhere and see all of these places you never knew existed.
My friend, Bobby Bouzouki, joined us. He is a bouzouki player, and plays rebetika music- old time greek music about murder, love, drinking, ect. This is what he wears when it's raining out. It's all vintage.









It was so wet, Bobby's pants appear two tone. Our feet got so cold and wet in Jackson Heights, that we wrapped them up in plastic bags and new socks and put our shoes back on to continue the main leg of the food journey.

peoria, il

i went to visit my grandmother this weekend, she currently lives in peoria. everything is vast, with long stretches of field and rolling hills, everything is cold and snow covered, kind of a beautifully bleak atmosphere.
my dad's family grew up in illnois, along the mississippi river, it's ironic or perhaps fitting that my mother, her family, and i grew up along the mississippi river, too, albeit in louisiana and mississippi.

my sister in the hotel room


emo's, the closed ice cream joint.




view from mimi's hospital window, you can barely see tree tops covered in snow


mama in peoria


obviously, this was the favorite spot in the hotel room






me in peoria



jeffrey campbell brogues, jacket from high school (i think it's see by chloe), sal val dress from my last visit to peoria, urban outfitters hat, hansel from basel tights

my week in photos

things i've shot, processed or watched in the past five days



monique



tony from blind boy chocolate and the milk sheiks



mama's house


a clip from "deadwood." i want to re-create this one day.


walking from the BQE



Feral Foster of the Jalopy Theatre

new orleans street style: featuring alexa chung for madewell

long blazer paired with black tights, alexa chung for madewell dress, moccasins and cool glasses.
Spotted in the French Quarter on Royal Street.

nadine blake store, new orleans

One of my friends told me about this store in the Quarter that I was going to be obsessed with once I went inside. So, I waited until after all of the Sugar Bowl people had left and went.
Yes, I am pretty obsessed with Nadine Blake, the store and the proprietress. Nadine Blake, the woman, grew up in New Orleans, moved to New York and moved back to New Orleans four or five years ago and opened her namesake store. Stocked with affordable art, vintage furniture and knick-knacks, jewelry, art books, bags, and stationary, the store is one a stop shop of everything pretty, eccentric and cool.
My favorites, aside from the vintage furniture that was pretty affordable but I have no where to put it, where the pantone mugs, the fashion art books, minimalist ceramics in white, pale blue and pink, and the stationary. Some of the stationary is New Orleans themed, some of it isn't, but it all has that beautiful vintage-y style hi I also studied graphic design and yes don't you want this print all of your house type of feel.
Hanging on parts of the walls are beautiful collages and mood boards that Nadine has put up- it's touches like that that make the store it's own entity. A lot of stores in New Orleans feature a lot of gold and fleur de lis, however Nadine Blake's store references New Orleans in a really unique way and stay's true to the style of the owner- it's hip, it's cute, and it's for a lot of artistically inclined people.
It's my kind of place.


Nadine Blake is located at 1036 Royal St, at Ursulines Ave in the French Quarter

jam session in the marigny/bywater area

A night reunited with friends in New Orleans took me all over, from a shack of a bar called Snake n Jakes in Uptown to my friend's new apt in the Bywater and to a jam session down the street. I have to be honest, 4 Loko was also involved, as was a fire pit, steel guitars, banjos, washboards and fiddles. If it hadn't been a cloudy night, I would've been able to see the stars. So, it was magically chill night.


J Crew shirt, thrifted skirt, Ann Demuelmeester boots


outside snake n jakes


joesph playing banjo in sarrah's room


sarrah's mirror and her cat sadie


my friend robin, being "literature"


robin's hat


robin's typewriter


jam session