New York Part 2: Bloggers, Shopping, and Sights

I've finally compiled some more photos and thoughts from the New York portion of my trip. There's more to come from Seattle and Oregon, but I'll get to that later.

Big train stations are one of my favorite things to see when I travel. I spent a whole day in Paris just going to each of the major stations and wandering around before hopping back on the train and heading to the next one. So obviously I had to spend part of my first morning admiring Grand Central, which was right down the street from where Sal and I stayed.

Here's Gertie, Sal, K.Line and I after dinner at Republic and drinks at a nearby wine bar, where I tried to convince everyone to have a taste of my Fernet Branca. As I recall, Gertie was utterly horrified at the taste (most people are the first time they try it), Sal was too scared to even let it touch her lips, and K. Line actually seemed to enjoy it. I was fairly amazed to see it served in a bar in New York; I think of it mainly as a San Francisco phenomenon, and increasingly a Seattle one thanks to the tireless efforts of Jess and Lisa. I tasked K. Line with spreading the word in Canada about the wonders of Fernet, because my goal is to make sure it's readily available wherever I may decide to travel. And Canada is on my list!

As I've already mentioned, Sal, K. Line, Sara and I spent a day shopping together, starting off at Barneys and then hitting another couple of the big department stores before we finally wore ourselves out and had to reluctantly say goodbye. Sara is every bit as charming and sweet as she comes across on her blog, and although it was wonderful to finally meet her in person, I'm now missing her terribly and wishing we lived closer together. It's one of the hazards of travel; you meet lovely people who you will never get to see nearly enough.

Here's Kenneth, Peter, K. Line and Sal during our morning of shopping at the Chelsea flea market. I only met Kenneth for a couple of brief moments, and had no idea he was somewhat famous until K. Line told me later; but then again I've stood right next to celebrities on the street and been completely oblivious until whoever I was with pointed it out. The Chelsea market was fun; I enjoyed poking around the booths and listening to all the great New York accents, but I was a little disappointed when one of the vendors steadfastly refused to come down in price for a full length black silk skirted I wanted to buy. Even for silk, I felt that $75 was way too much to pay for a used skirt; from a vintage store I could maybe understand, but from a flea market I expect to get a better price. I did manage to pick up a pretty beaded choker for myself, and a few vintage brooches to use for trimming hats.

I snapped this forbidden photo (not realizing it was forbidden until the salesman rushed over to admonish me) in a fancy department store in Chelsea. I can't remember who the designer was, probably because I was nervous after being busted, but I just loved the liquid metal look of the fabric. You'd have to have a body like the mannequin's to ever actually wear this dress, but it was so gorgeous to look at that I wanted to remember it. If anyone knows the designer, please let me know. As I recall it was some exotic-sounding name that I imagined being very difficult to spell.

We couldn't leave Chelsea without a visit to the All Saints store, if nothing else than to see the window full of vintage sewing machines. Both Sal and I brought back some goodies from there; you'll see what I got in a couple of days.

Here's the night I met up with a whole gaggle of bloggers at the Empire Hotel, didn't eat any dinner, and proceeded to drink several GIANT martinis (hey, they were delicious; what could I do?). This group photo was taken earlier in the evening, when I was still coherent; from left to right we've got Stacy of Taffeta Darlings, Kristin of BonBon Rose Girls, Cameron of 33 avenue Miquelon, me, Wendy Brandes, and K-Line. Wendy let me try on both her Cleves Black Swan ring and the one-of-a-kind Onyx Skull ring, and holy crap were they amazing. She's lucky I didn't get up and dash out of the bar with them, never to be seen or heard from again. I hope she's insured for that sort of thing; her jewelry could turn even the most mild-mannered lady into a wanton thief.

The next day I made my way all the way out to Coney Island at sunset, where I had a hot dog at Nathan's and strolled along the boardwalk until the chilling wind drove me back to the subway station. I'd never been out there before, and I loved the deserted feel of it; I probably enjoyed it far more than I would have if it had been sunny and packed with people. Empty amusement parks have an eerie feel to them, sort of like a dusty old antique store but on a much larger scale.

On Monday night Sal and I met up with Rad and Blokey in Brooklyn; I was still feeling the effects of the night before at the Empire, which clearly shows in how haggard I look here. Interestingly, the three of us talked very little about blogging or fashion; Rad is clearly an intellectual first and foremost and that really comes across when you meet her. A smart woman with style is always a joy to hang out with, no matter how hungover you are.

Home at Last

Well I'm back, and boy is it good to be home. Despite the fact that I now feel like I've got a cold coming on, I had a great trip; I met many wonderful bloggers in New York and spent lots of time with my dear Sal, I saw both my friend Lisa and my sister Jessie get married, and I visited with family and friends. I also spent a great deal of time being cold and having dry skin. Again, being back in San Francisco feels great.

I'll try to put together a recap of my trip later this week or next, but first I need to get caught up on some of my pre-vacation outfits, of which this is one. In the meantime, check out these posts, which detail some of what I was up to:

• Sal's New York recap

• Sal's Eileen Fisher fall preview

• K-Line's New York recaps here and here (you should also check out the beautiful cape she bought while we were all shopping at Barney's together)
• A variation of what Sara wore for our shopping extravaganza
• Wendy B's Fashion Week recap -- including a great shot of several of us doing the Wendy B signature pose
• Cameron's recap of our blogger meet-up at the Empire Hotel (in which she mercifully does not mention how drunk I got)
• Rad's description of our Brooklyn meet-up (in which she mercifully does not mention how hungover I was)

I think that about covers them all. Also, be sure to stop by at Inside Out Style and take a look at the Stylish Thoughts guest post I did. Thanks to Imogen for including me!

Hat, sweater, socks: Noa Noa
Shirt: H&M
Dress: All Saints
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Tights: Foot Traffic
Boots: Bastien

Tribute

This is my Wendy B tribute pose; I totally missed out on the contest, but I figured I could still rip off her signature pose and post it over here. Hopefully she doesn't bitch slap me for it when I'm in New York later this week. You don't scare me, Wendy! However your weather does. Don't throw a snowball at me!

Every time I wear this dress someone comments on the bright red color. On my scout's honor this dress is ORANGE. A reddish orange to be sure, but still squarely within the orange family of hues. My camera clearly does not agree.

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Dress: Orla Keily
Belt: a gift from mom
Tights: Foot Traffic
Boots: from Scoop in Copenhagen

Momentous

Holy smokes! How could I have been so remiss in directing you to the guest post I wrote for gorgeous Clare's blog?? This is what happens when you get old, folks -- and when you're in the midst of moving. At any rate, it's certainly not too late to stop in and check it out. Clare is running a whole series of "Fashion Is..." posts and kindly asked me to contribute a few words about fashion as a creative outlet. Click here to read it!

As you can see, this is not my usual background. It was one of those hectic days; the good camera was over at Mark's place because he was taking shop photos, and I was on my way to have cocktails that evening with Chelsea. Mark's place being closer to where she and I were meeting, I went there instead of home and took my outfit photos in front of the rather ghetto-looking setup we have for the shop photos. Looking at these photos makes me really, really happy that we'll have more space and better lighting very soon.

Ordinarily I would've just skipped the photos and recreated the outfit to some extent another time, but since this was the momentous occasion of meeting Chelsea, I had to immortalize it! And oh look, I'm wearing my Skunkfunk dress with my Skunkfunk skirt -- also a first!

Dress and skirt: Skunkfunk
Belt: Lazaro
Leggings: Foot Traffic, via Sock Dreams
Vivian Girl Shoes: John Fluevog

After-Work Cocktails

Sometimes it's fun to just take an outfit all the way and play dress-up with it, and I felt like this was one of those. The military vibe is pretty overwhelming here, but I didn't care -- I felt like one of those stern brigadier general characters from an old John Wayne war movie. This was a good intimidate-your-employees look, even though I'm probably the most laid back boss ever. I can dream, though.

This outfit transitioned from work right to after-work cocktails with Fawn, and since it was a rainy night, the leather pants and wool beret gave me plenty of waterproofing. Speaking of after-work cocktails, last Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting the divinely adorable Chelsea of Bright Side Dweller, which I know will make many of you jealous as hell. Believe me, I would've hugged her for all of you, but then I'd have just stood there hugging her all night and we'd never have had time for the marathon chat-fest that ensued. Needless to say, Chelsea is awesome in person and we easily blabbed away two and a half hours without even noticing.

Hat: ADS Hats
Jacket: thrifted
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde
Shirt: Max Studio
Belt: thrifted
Leather trousers: Pepe Jeans, via Asos
Boots: All Black

Inspired by WendyB

This outfit was inspired by the incomparable Wendy Brandes, because when I grabbed this shirt out of the closet, I realized that the stripes are the color of cement. I decided to try to pull the purple undertones out of it by pairing it with my dusty purple ruffled skirt, fuzzy purple hat, and deep eggplant tights, punching up the contrast with some black accents. Had it not been for the fact that Wendy recently railed against the wearing of this drab and unflattering color, I probably wouldn't have given it nearly so much thought. She's right though; this color doesn't do anything for any skin tone, so it's best worn in small doses and with plenty of other contrasting shades.

Don't worry Wendy, if I'm ever nominated for an Oscar, there won't be a trace of this color in my outfit! Deep scarlet, flame orange, or emerald green perhaps, but I most certainly will not be strutting down the red carpet in cement.

Since Wendy inspired the outfit, it was only fitting that I topped it off with my fabulous swear rings. I liked the pairing of the flashy silver rings with the prominent brass buttons on the jacket. Mixing metals makes me feel like such a rebel.

Jacket: F21, modified by me
Shirt: thrifted
Hat: Accessorize/Monsoon
Skirt: a gift from mom
Tulle-trimmed slip: Glam Garb by Gunlis
Shoes: Tsubo

Verklemt

Did I tell you I've been appropriating outfit ideas from other bloggers lately, or what? Here's another one I lifted from Sal after I saw her rocking a cute 90's look. The girly dress/chunky shoes combo was one I loved in the 90's, and still do, partly because it's a unique way to mix feminine and masculine elements, and partly because it's one of the predominant looks in Amélie, and I am deeply convinced that Amélie is the greatest movie of all time. Just thinking about that movie makes me all verklemt, in a happy way.

There's a lot of black going on in this outfit, but if you look closely you'll see that the vest is actually charcoal gray with a subtle plaid pattern in it. The vest is part of my convertible flight suit; a closer photo and different configurations of this piece are shown in this post.

Happy weekend! I'm off to enjoy the sun before it goes away again!

Vest (flight suit): Shawna Hoffman
T-shirt: H&M
Floral dress: vintage 90's; altered from a romper Skirt: a hand-me-up from my sister
Boots: Dr. Marten's

Surprise

I'm always inspired by other bloggers, but lately I seem to be borrowing ideas from them more directly. A few days ago I posted my outfit that Sal inspired, and this one is my take on adorable Healthy and Homemade's brown and yellow ensemble. I loved how she blended sunny yellow with soft shades of brown and beige, and punched up the contrast with black leggings and shoes. Mixing in the brown shades allowed her to use the black accents without looking like a bumblebee, which was perfectly brilliant.

I was limited in my choices for yellow items, so I was stuck with the vest to work with. To bring in some more yellow tones I added the skirt, and then built around those two pieces with various brown items. As it turned out, I had olive green as an accent color because of the detailing on the skirt and the ties on the obi belt. For that reason I went with dark brown legs instead of black, because I felt the look was more harmonious that way.

The cardigan is actually longer than the skirt, so as an added bonus I ended up with an outfit that looked really different from the back. All the detailing of the skirt and the complicated layering of the tops and belt are saved for the "surprise" front view.

Brown top: Noa Noa
Vest: Solemio
Cardigan: Max Studio
Skirt: Attila Design
Belt: Audra Jean
Boots: Bata

A Birthday Tribute to Sal

As you've probably already guessed, there is a deep mutual admiration and in-real-life friendship between myself and Already Pretty blogger Sal McGraw. So since Sal's birthday was just a few days ago, I thought I'd do something special and dedicate an entire post just to her. Can I make her blush? Will I get her to cry?? I promise I'll do my best!

I first "met" Sal via blogging in the last half of 2008, and was thrilled to get to meet her in real life when she and her awesome husband Mike came to visit last April. I'm sure you won't be surprised when I tell you that they were wonderful house guests, and generously brought me not only a basket of fantastic Minnesota-themed goodies, but also a couple of Mike's beautiful photos. Mark and I had a lot of fun getting to know Sal and Mike, as well as helping Sal to rediscover San Francisco after her not-so-happy experience of living here several years ago. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that one day they'll move out here and give it another shot, though Sal has steadfastly maintained that it isn't for her.

A rare photo of two wild McGraws, sighted far from their native habitat

In person, Sal is every bit as sweet and wonderful as you'd expect her to be. She's intelligent, loves great food, is one hell of a shopper, and despite having classic Gemini (ETA: whoops, that should have been Capricorn) over-planning tendencies, is actually very flexible and laid back (a great relief to my haphazard, spontaneous self!). And did I mention beautiful?? Sure, we all know how stylish Sal is, and what a great smile she has, but up close she has something else too: a serene, elegant beauty and grace. Hers is the sort of beauty that doesn't try too hard; she just radiates it naturally through her regal profile, cascading mane, and warm smile. Without a lick of makeup on, she has perfect porcelain skin and big, deep, thoughtful eyes.

Sal also has truckloads of unaffected charm. She gets giddy at the sight of fabulous drag queens, squeaks with delight at accidentally sort of almost meeting Paul Smith, does a silly dance after finding a long sought-after pair of Fluevogs, and says adorable things like, "Holy cats!" and, "you can bet your sweet bippy." Of course her blog posts are informative, self esteem-boosting, and thoroughly researched, but they're also laced with offbeat humor, irreverent silliness, and plenty of personality.

Sal, you're a true original and an all-around awesome person. You're a lovely woman in every sense of the word. I hope your 33rd year brings you much joy, prosperity, and, most importantly, a move out west. :-)

See how cute we are together? Clearly we were MEANT to live in the same town.

Thank You -- and a contest!

There's been a lot of interesting discussion swirling around in the blogosphere about a certain blogger who recently issued a mandate to readers about how and wherefore they may comment. I first caught wind of it, albeit a bit late because of my holiday break, over at Sal's blog, and was really impressed with Franca's excellent discussion over at Oranges and Apples.

I'm not linking the original post because it annoyed me too much, but you can follow Sal's or Franca's links if you haven't seen it already. If you follow fashion blogs at all you probably already know to what I'm referring; the gist of it is that readers were instructed to only provide positive comments, a mandate to which many people, myself included, took exception. But as I've thought about it more, the thing that has risen to the surface as being the most irritating was the assertion that the blogger is happy with her style exactly the way it is and is not, "looking for pointers." Oh, really? So you're the world's foremost expert on style, and nothing that anyone has to offer could possibly be of any value to you? Huh.

Rather than embarking on any sort of diatribe about the original post, because I think it's already been covered quite well, I'd rather share with you today my own philosophy of blogging and the comments that come from it. As always, I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

I started this blog without any sort of expectations other than having some fun with it and perhaps cataloging my outfits for future reference. The fact that it has continued to grow in readership and participation frankly floors me. Every day I eagerly log on to read all the wonderful feedback I get from my awesome readers, many of whom offer insightful commentary on what they like about my outfits, or what they'd try the next time around. It is from these comments that my style grows and evolves, and I'm always (I think) receptive to any sort of constructive criticism. Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but my default assumption is that if someone takes the time to stop in and say that an element of my outfit is off, they do so with the best possible intentions, in the spirit of friendship and collaboration.

I know myself that my outfits aren't always perfect, and frequently it's due to the limitations of my wardrobe. Often I have gone after a look that didn't quite succeed simply because I didn't have the right piece in my closet (yes, even my massive collection has holes!). Other times I'm pressed for time, I'm tired, or I'm not feeling particularly creative. Sometimes I'll scrap a look altogether, but more often than not I'll try it anyway on the hope that someone will offer me the solution that I just didn't see when I was putting it together. With any luck, the solution won't even have to involve me purchasing something new.

I believe that the beauty of the blogging community is that it offers the opportunity for everyone to participate, and that's why I prefer it to fashion magazines or other mediums where the communication is largely one-way. I'm no fashion professional; I'm just a clothes horse with a day job, and I for one am open to all input as long as it's presented in a respectful way. Sure, if you drop by just to tell me I look like crap then I'll probably delete your comment (thankfully no one has ever done that!), but if you want to offer me a suggestion that you feel would would improve my outfit, I'm all ears.

My main objective in writing this post is really to thank everyone who takes the time to stop in and comment, whether you love my outfit or think I really missed the boat. And just to prove how earnest I am, I'm going to offer you a special prize. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post sometime before midnight (PST) on Friday, January 22 and you'll be entered to win one of my handmade hats, custom designed just for you! Tell me your thoughts about this post or the one that started this discussion, tell me which of my outfits in the last month you liked the least and what I could've done better, ask me for style advice or tell me about your 5-toed cat; this is an open forum and you're invited to help make it a collaborative space for sharing ideas, stories, and advice, or simply for being fellow fashion enthusiasts and friends.

Drawing will be at random, and international entries are welcome. Good luck to everyone who enters, and a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU for participating!

This outfit:
Scarf: Banana Republic
Top: Just Angels
Cords: Marlowe
Shoes: Jo Ghost

P.S. Beautiful blogger Eyeliah from Style Symmetry has interviewed me for her Symmetry Seven feature! Check it out!

Lunch Meeting

I wore this outfit when I went to lunch with gorgeous fellow bloggers Sonja and Jennine from The Coveted and Tami from fête à fête. Yes, that's how far behind I've gotten with my outfit posts -- I wore this on December 18. Thankfully Jennine was on the ball and posted about our meet-up in a much more timely fashion.

Since I was having a lunchtime meeting, I figured what more appropriate than a tie? I've really grown to love the look of a tie, and I'm inspired to try to thrift a few more in the coming months. Some pointers on wearing a tie without looking too androgynous:

• Make sure there's at least one piece in the outfit that looks feminine. In this case, it was the fitted, short-sleeved jacket. While the plaid print and neutral color scheme are harmonious with the menswear look, the shape is figure-defining.
• Don't tie the tie too perfectly; keep it a bit sloppy as if you're truly wearing your boyfriend's clothes. This was an easy one for me since I really am quite inept at tying a Windsor knot.
• In the same vein as the point above, keep the outfit slouchy and relaxed looking, even if the individual pieces are tailored. I left the jacket unbuttoned, and let the cropped pants bunch up around the tops of the boots as if they came untucked on their own.

My outerwear was this lightweight, hooded black jacket with gray piping. The day turned out to be one of those glorious San Francisco winter days where you barely even need a jacket at all. We seem to be blessed with a lot of them in November and December, which makes up for the fact that we don't get much of a summer.

Short-sleeved jacket: A. Byer
Tie: thrifted
Top: Max Studio
Pants: Noa Noa
Boots: Modern Vintage
Coat: Liso Bono