The Aussies and TV

Remember that episode of The Simpsons when the family goes to Australia? Lisa tells Bart that toilet water drains in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere - and wanting to find out if it's true, Bart makes a ridiculously long collect call to Australia. Then the father of the boy Bart called finds out about the charges, he's super duper pissed, and the Simpson family travels down there to try and rectify the situation.


Pretty great episode.

And apparently it's not the only thing that we can oggle at when it comes to the Aussies and TV. In this case, though, TV is a label by an Aussie designing team. Soooo funky and soooo fresh, I can't even deal with it. Is the recession over yet? Cuz I'm ready to SPEND on these threads. They just released a preview of their Fall/Winter 09 line and I'm thrilled...take a look:



Siiiiigh. The floppy boots! The knits! The leopard print! It's casual, but it's chic and feminine - and it still has edge. And, I'm going to state this on the record...I'm down with the jumpsuits - TV's silk one in the army green khaki is no exception. Want more? Check out all of the previous collections, bio, and other goodies HERE on the TV website.

I'm ready for the knockoffs and copycats to kick into production - mamma needs a brand new sweater.


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Cures for the Common Manicures

During my usual web browsing (or "style research") this weekend, I came across some images that inspired a topic I neeeever thought I'd write about. Sometimes though, I suppose, a person can surprise herself with what she finds interesting.

This post is about manicures. I, myself, get them from time to time, but I'm a basic file, clip and polish girl - no acrylic, no designs, no tips, just straight up pink or red. When I started searching for different kinds of manicures, there was no end to the amount of crazy ish out there. Granted, these aren't the norm, but since when does Snaps & Daps bring you just the norm?!

Let's begin with the fruit manicure:

Seems pretty perfect for the Chiquita Banana lady right?

Then for the sneaker head in all of you...coordinate your kicks with your fingernails!

Do you like to garden? Got a "green thumb" as they say? Well now all your fingers can be "green":

Musical fingers has now taken on a whole new meaning:

And last, but DEF not least...can't afford those sexy Christian Louboutins? Well now, apparently, you can turn your nails into them! I bring you, the Louboutin manicure:


Aint nothin like a mindless Sunday post to get your mind off of the fact that it's Sunday and you gotta go to work tomorrow. Whoops, sorry. Can somebody get an Obama manicure and send me a photo of it - I'll post it if you do :)


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Honey, I Shrunk New York

Remember the good ol' days- the days of knowing your grocers name, writing down funny moments, having a soundtrack with your friends? Remember your couch? If you're reading this (I can guess a couple things about you), chances are you don't, because those weren't your good ol' days.

Our days were much bigger than those days, thanks to the fertilizer known as the dotcom era. The internet blew up, and so did we. We were living large, in a world, or rather, in a New York that was excessive and completely at our finger tips. And with that, we lost sight by seeing too much, we lost the trained beauty of being able to see the tree when we became singluarly capable of seeing the forest. And in this forest, money grew on trees. So we picked the leaves and used it like it was 1999, and we needed to party. It was pretty much drive-by spending, and anything could get hit: bars, clubs, clothing stores, liquor stores, movies, concerts, bars, clubs, clothing stores (and repeat). The hulking of the world at the impetus of our then accessible money pot set us up for an even greater fall once the recession lumberjack came to chop down the tree. And our humility.

So now a lot of us are running scared, definitely multiple degrees past nervous- mofos are losing jobs!! The country's unemployment rate is at 6%, nearing 10, housing has generally dropped by 30%, people are foreclosing and going bankrupt. The impossible truth is that even New York is being affected. Our armor of capital and cool usually protects us from the worries of the rest of the nation, but not this time. Even in the coolest industries, New Yorkers are being given the axe. You work at MTV, goodbye, magazine editor, see you at the unemployment office, fashion, you too, out the door. Times are bleak and will get worse before they get better.

Good!

I for one, and Mihal for two, are looking forward to the downfall in a twisted way. Even though the fiscal worries are still there, there's a bit of joy in knowing that New York and it's usually can't-touch-this inhabitants will be vulnerable, dare I say, even, normal! It means that the city is going to shrink. Not in size, nor importance nor presence but in attitude and ideals and norms. With the possibilities being smaller, our world will eventually shrink to fit our means and that will, theoretically, create lives that will be more filled with ourselves, our neighborhoods and our friends than they were before the fall. Now we'll revert back to friends stopping by because it's the cheapest way to have a great night. Artists will crawl from under their Billyburg drug nests to actually produce art- the reason their parents are/were shelling out cash wads for the overpriced lofts and living expenses. With a little less to do, people will have more time to stop and do nothing. All in all, even though by accident, the new possibilities of having less possibilities means an incrementally more fulfilled New York life.

It's will also be a great time for creativity. Across the board, the best works of art were created when there has been some kind of struggle. Art that tells stories, and continues to tell stories carry a context with them, and challenging contexts are perpetually more interesting. My favorite New York existed before I could spell "recession", between the 70s and early 90s when the city was small, tight-knit, family oriented hub of utter coolness. This was when a dude named Basquiat kicked it with Warhol. Keith Herring- crack is whack! This was when Cheers was on, and told us about friendship right at the beginning. It's when hip-hop started, when fashion grew it's own identity, when we felt the significance of technological advances (we all didn't have Macs and PCs back then). There were (and will be) definite benefits to a smaller world for us all.













Still, being broke is wiggity wiggity whack.






While we're all having our financial meltdowns and mourning the loss of our over the top lifestyles, just remember that everything that is real will still exist in the smaller world- creativity will thrive, more than ever, scenes will die out, but real New York "societies" will go on, fashion will liquidate but style will remain, weekend booze schmoozing won't be as normal but friends will still be the corner stone of our existences here.

I'm on the corner, with a forty and a wine glass. I pour some on the floor for all my dead luxuries. Then I fill up my wine glass and cheers to the the small, new world ahead of us.

Game night anyone?

Rain(boots), Rain(boots) Go Away!

I don't know about where you guys are, but here in NYC it's a gloomy rainy day. Personally, I like the rain. Especially on days like today - don't have anywhere to be, can stay at home, watch Weeds, write and work on my shirts (yeah, I'm designing shirts now, y'all) and drink a smoothie. It's when I have to go out in this weather that I take issue with it. Luckily I finally got the Sorel's...I'm set for rain, snow, wind, avalanches...you name it. I'll admit, they're not the most feminine of rain boots, but really, rain boots are rain boots...should they really be that feminine?

Here in New York City you see it all. Women will go to great lengths to be "fashionable", but the majority of us know that living in an on-the-move city like this requires practicality as well. For instance, women in midtown can be seen on the way to work carrying their $400 heels in their $600 totes, running across the street in their beat up Nike running shoes...nothing worse than breaking a heel or scuffing a pointy toe. There's a similar issue when it comes to winter coats. New York winter is effing freezing, yet we can't just throw on a bigass bubble jacket and call it a day. A woman needs to have a defined waist, can't be too long because it'll make your legs look 6 inches long, and can't be too short because it will distort your hips. But damn!! A girl's gotta stay warm right? So, I can somewhat sympathize with the business woman and her "commuter shoes", and I can definitely sympathize with the jacket issue. I absolutely cannot sympathize with women who try to reconcile fashion and practicality when it comes to the rain boot.

Let me show you some examples of no-no's that I've been seeing around:

The Marc Jacobs Patent Rain Boot ($900)...Marc you know I love you but you're doing me real durrty here.

Paul Smith Swirl Rubber Rain Boot - You can get these puppies at Neiman Marcus for a cool $115...matching umbrella for sale as well.

Dr. Scholl's Original Women's Aquarius Rain Boot - vomit.

Ok? Are you starting to feel me on this? Whatever happened to the good old days of plain black rubber or little yellow ducks or stripes or polka dots? I suppose they disappeared along with our innocence when we moved to the big bad city. At least now I have one more excuse to stay inside in this weather...it's warm and dry inside, I have a Weeds marathon to get to on Netflix, must attend to the shirts, and I cannot be exposed to any more terrible rain footwear or else I might be forced to return to the suburbs.


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All-Black is the New Black

My latest obsession is the self proclaimed "seance de travail" ("work in progress") fashion blog, Jak & Jil - where every day is fashion week. It is essentially a photo blog that follows fashion, models and industry bigwigs to fashion shows all around the world. Not only are the clothes and shoes and people so fresh and sassy, but the quality of the photos themselves are stunningly crisp and vivid. The site has several parts: HERE is the main page where you can choose to follow particular models and worship their styles, go inside the fashion shows, or browse the "special features" where you can find topics like "shoe gazing @ NY fashion week" or "london style 2006-2007". Then there's THE BLOG - this is the one I usually follow...and by usually I mean religiously.

In my time browsing this blog, something very important has come to my attention - the fashion industry is calling out something new. Or maybe it's not new...but it's hot, and I plan on figuring out a way to make it work on me. Let me show you a few pictures (source Jak & Jil):

Do you get it yet? No? Want more pictures? Okfine.

I'm assuming you get it now. The All-Black outfit. And though the majority of these photos feature ladies, this post is for the dudes too. Anybody with the right state of mind can and should partake.

I Googled "how to wear an all black outfit" to see if there were rules I didn't know about, but it turns out there aren't, so I'm going to have to write them myself. So without further ado...

The SND Guide to Wearing All Black:

1) All black articles of clothing are not created equally - Just because we're saying All-Black is Back, doesn't mean you should run out and get anything black you can find. You are not a stagehand and you are not a gothic angsty teenager.

NO TO THIS:
AND NO TO THIS: 2) Pieces can be classic or unique and funky - It is perfectly ok, even encouraged, to go for classic all-black looks (black jeans, black boots, black wool sweater) or more whimsical ones (black dress with insanely tall shoes with an embellished black coat)...or to find a way to combine them!
3) TEXTURE TEXTURE TEXTURE - This is perhaps the most important piece of information when it comes to wearing all black. The texture of each piece of clothing must be different from one another. What do I mean? Leather, lace, denim, suede, knit, silk, fur/feathers, sheer, velvet, plain cotton, metallic...catch my drift? Great.
4) Don't forget the accessories - Those can be all-black too if you really wanna go for it, or you can use them to spice up the outfit. Scarves, gloves, jewelry, bags, hats, sunglasses...here are some good examples:

5) Be practical - Is the all-black ensemble appropriate for where you're going and what you're doing? It's a statement. It's slightly rebellious, it's sexy, it's a little moody, it's mysterious...I think in most situations it is appropriate and you should be fine, but always double check with yourself just to make sure.
And last but not least 6) Own it - Like I just said, wearing all-black is indeed a statement. Just like plaid shirts with skinny jeans and converse, just like sweatpants and a college sweatshirt, like Uggs and miniskirts (cough cough), like tie dye shirts and corduroys, like leather and...whips? Everything you put on yourself means something - there is no such thing as accidental dressing. So if you're going to wear all black, wear it, walk it, work it.

Well there it is, my dear readers. We'll be experimenting more and more with it ourselves...so if we come up with anything interesting we'll be sure to report back. Brace yourselves for this one:

Until the next one - stay stylish, stay hungry, stay black.


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Broke girls are still allowed to fantasize...right?

I just canceled my cable, because frankly in these tough economic times, a girl's gotta prioritize. I signed up for netflix though, and I own all of the Sex and the City dvd's (who says you can't watch each episode 89 times?) so I think I'll be ok. And though I've pretty much axed all excess spending - buying clothes, going out to dinner, buying clothes - I can't seem to get my mind out of the spending gutter when it comes to shoes. Why is that??? I just want more and more and more. And my not-yet-acquired shoe collection just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and more and more adventurous, and more and more out of my non-existent price range! Bah. Here's a taste of what I'm coveting...some semi-doable...most of them absolutely not.

1) I need snow/rain boots...and I would like them to be these Sorels:

There's really no explaining the logic. I want them big, I want them floppy, I want them dirty...like a lumberjack in the snow.

2) I need more ankle/just-above-the-ankle boots and I believe these Sam Edelman Balenciaga knock-offs would do the trick:

They can be seen here worn by Rumi on her blog Fashion Toast. Ok they're not Balenciaga...do I care? No. Would I accept the Balenciaga's as a gift? YesIwould. But sometimes I'm more than happy with knock-offs. I would take really good care of them...alas I can't find them anywhere.

Speaking of knock-offs I came across something pretty fabulous/terrible not too long ago while searching on ebay for a wildly cheap and beautiful pair of Louboutins (obviously I didn't find any because cheap Loub's don't exist) I came across these:

HERE is the link that goes with the photo. If you'll take note, the shoes are not what's being sold here, but rather the soles. The 1.00 mm thin red soles that you can pay a cobbler to attach to your heels so people think you're wearing the real deal. Sigh, I'm all about good lookin' knock-offs, but really? I should start selling them just so I can make fun of the people who buy them.

Needless to say, I'm always in a state of coveting (covetation?) over the real thing...
3) Even though they're totally not my estilo, I've always been drawn to the Louboutin Petal Sandal:

They have them in black too...I feel really good about both of them. And ain't nothin like a flesh colored shoe to make your legs look super long (assuming that's the color of your flesh...if not, sorry).

4) Though I've somewhat outgrown my sneaker phase, I will never turn my back on Supras and these are no exception. The Purple Supra Soprano Highs:

They look like sexy superhero wonderwoman shoes...and I feel as though they belong just south of my ankles, paired with some really skinny, really stiff dark denim Levis.

Well I'm going to stop there, because I'm salivating all over my computer and the keys are starting to stick. I had a birthday recently so if you feel so inclined...you know. If not no biggie, have a safe and sexy new year, see you in the oh-nine!


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