te casan: jeweled pumps

I have not seen these shoes available at te casan in person, but I am really digging the colors. Also, the embellishments are interesting and not in the "bedazzler" camp.

Street (un)Fair

After the gym this afternoon I strolled through a street fair on Broadway near Union Square. Oftentimes, street fairs are all alike and have the same jewelry, bedding, makeup, lemonade and New York Post subscription stands. But this one had more than its fair share of artisans, so I decided to check some of them out. I encountered one interesting stall that featured groovy cotton stretch dresses and handbags seemingly made from upholstery. I began to touch and admire one, and ran my fingers along the be-chained hand strap at which time the woman (owner? designer? salesperson?) became EXTREMELY annoyed with me and gave me a disgusted glare shaking her head and saying, "oh no...we don't do that..." Um, do what? Actually touch the MERCHANDISE that I might purchase inside the stall of a public street fair in the middle of New York City? I am still annoyed at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Needless to say I floated on out of there without buying a thing.

And thus ends another street fair season. Stay tuned until March 2008!

Crumbs Cupcakes: The Artie Lange

Once in a while I discover that I am no different than most other women. I love cupcakes. I love them so much. And with the cupcake bakery explosion, the competition for cupcake customers is fierce. I've been uptown, downtown, and all around the town on a quest for the best cupcakes ever. Last night, I went into my neighborhood Crumbs and learned two things:

1. My favorite cupcake is the "Cookie Dough"

2. Call me late to the party on this one, but Artie Lange from the Howard Stern Show has a cupcake named after him, i.e. the "Artie Lange Cupcake." Details include:

• Designed and created exclusively by Artie Lange of the Howard Stern Show
• Vanilla sponge cake filled with chocolate buttercream covered in vanilla cream cheese frosting and topped with chocolate fondant icing w/white and chocolate sprinkles on the sides!
• Retail: $3.75 per cupcake
• Portion of the proceeds benefit LIFEbeat - dedicated to reaching America's youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. LIFEbeat mobilizes the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and to provide support to the AIDS community.

Shelly & Renee Big Sale: Nov. 4 - 14

Shelly & Renee's famous big fall sale starts this Sunday, Nov. 4 and runs through until Wednesday, Nov. 14. (it's closed on Saturday).

Starting at 10 a.m., head on over to 140 W. 57th St. (b/t 6th-7th Aves.), 9th Floor.

Top Shop - Coming to Soho

Hi all and Happy Halloween. First, please enjoy some great costumes I encountered at a party in Williamsburg this past weekend. Nothing like a late-night taco and PBR.

Second, excuse my continued laziness. I am sicker today than I was yesterday, so I am allowing my friends at Racked.com do the talking for me today:

Thought you might be interested in the news that British retailer Topshop, long rumored to be planning an NYC store, has decided to open in Soho at 278 Broadway. http://racked.com/archives/2007/10/31/exclusive_topshop_coming_to.php

Prescriptives Lash Finder

OK, I admit I am being totally lazy today, but I have a wicked cold and everything seems to be going wrong at my day job, so bear with me as my creativity wanes. However, I am eyelash-challenged, so this is actually a topic of interest --

Prescriptives, the cosmetics brand that embraces all women, all skins, and all ages has created a fantastic tool to help find your PERFECT mascara. Prescriptives presents LASH FINDER, the interactive site that will help you create the look you want with the mascara that's best for you.
Four “how-to” videos featuring Prescriptives’ Director of Artistry and QVC® spokesperson, Jillian Veran will help you choose the right lash look:

• 24-Hour Lashes (featuring Here To Stay 24-Hour Longear Mascara)Long
• Luxe Lashes (featuring Lash Envy Volumizing Mascara) Curled, Conditioned
• Lashes (featuring False Eyelashes Plush Mascara)
• Beyond Long Lashes (featuring Beyond long Maximum Length Mascara)

My Hat is Dead! Long Live My Hat!

I recently learned that my two favorite hats in the world were lost amongst all of the post-fire craziness. They made it to Fabric Renewal for cleaning, and were - in theory - delivered to me with my initial "RUSH" items...but I never got them and didn't know it until last week.

So I did what any normal clothes-freak would do. I freaked. And I searched. I called everyone. I even sent emails to the stores where I bought them hoping that I could get replacements. But no dice...

Well not exactly. This weekend I visited Barbara Feinman where I purchased two hats. The pictured lid may arguably best the one that was lost in transit. Although the photo does little to depict that. I am slowly coming out of my lost-hat-depression. Rejoice!

WSJ: Fashion Bullies Attack -- In Middle School

Wow. The meanies are meaner than EVER these days. Back when I was in middle school the kids who wore lots of expensive clothes actually got MADE FUN OF for it. At the time the main culprit was Guess, which goes to show you the difference between then and now (Dolce & Gabbana for kids?!).


When I was still in elementary school, designer jeans a la Jordache and Sassoon were all the rage (yes I am tragically dating myself), so the moms in the neighborhood made a pact that NONE of us would have them. It was a noble cause, but when one girl's aunt bought her hot pink Gloria Vanderbilt's, then all bets were off and my mom bought me some Jordache as well as my own purple GV outfit. Yes, purple pants and a lavender "woolly mammoth" shirt. But she got them as discounted prices, I assure you.


Read on for why money is not a good thing in more ways than one - fashion should be about personal taste and style and not about being beaten down because you don't wear the right label...unless of course you are wearing Skechers, and then you should be beaten:


Fashion Bullies Attack -- In Middle School --- As More Designers Target Kids, Label-Consciousness Grows; The Snarky 'Nice Clothes'
By Vanessa O'Connell
25 October 2007
The Wall Street Journal

Aryana McPike, a sixth-grader from Springfield, Ill., has a closet full of designer clothes from Dolce & Gabbana, Juicy Couture, True Religion and Seven For All Mankind. But her wardrobe, carefully selected by a fashion-conscious mother, hasn't won her friends at school.
Kids in her class recently instructed her that she was wearing the wrong brands. She should wear Apple Bottoms jeans by the rapper Nelly, they told her, and designer sneakers, such as Air Force 1 by Nike. She came home complaining to her mother that "all the girls want to know if I will ever come to school without being so dressed up."
Teen and adolescent girls have long used fashion as a social weapon. In 1944, Eleanor Estes wrote "The Hundred Dresses," a book about a Polish girl who is made fun of for wearing the same shabby dress to school each day. The film "Mean Girls" in 2004 focused on fashion-conscious cliques among high-school teens. But today, guidance counselors and psychologists say, fashion bullying is reaching a new level of intensity as more designers launch collections targeted at kids.
As a result, an increasing number of school and community programs focused on girl-on-girl bullying are addressing peer pressure and the sizable role clothing plays in girls' identity. In Pennsylvania, California, Maryland and several other states, for instance, community groups and some schools have started Club or Camp Ophelia, a pair of programs developed by Penn State professor and author Cheryl Dellasega that teach girls relationship skills. A "Bully Quiz" the girls take asks, "Have you stopped being friends with someone because she wore clothes you didn't like?"
Dorothy Espelage, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who has studied teenage behavior for 14 years, says she has seen an increase in "bullying related to clothes." She attributes that to the proliferation of designer brands and the display of labels in ads. In the more than 20 states where she has studied teens, she has been surprised by how kids revere those they perceive to have the best clothes. Having access to designer clothing affords some kids "the opportunity to become popular -- and that protects you and gives you social power and leverage over others," she says.
Over the past three years, numerous designers have targeted the lucrative children's and teens' markets. Little Marc, the kids' clothing label by New York designer Marc Jacobs, expanded its line this winter and dropped its price, making it more accessible to a greater number of shoppers. The French luxury label Chloe, Milan-based Missoni and Italian designer Alberta Ferretti are launching new kids' labels for spring or summer next year. Other designer kids' lines include Dolce & Gabbana, Armani and Burberry, while Michael Kors, Coach, Dooney & Bourke and Dior have been targeting teens or kids with accessories.
Retailers, too, have rushed to cash in, opening offshoots of their boutiques specifically for children. Cantaloup and Scoop, which sell designer clothing for women in New York, now have Cantaloup Kids and Scoop Kids boutiques that carry a similar selection of designers for their customers' daughters and sons.
The greater focus on fashion in teen magazines and on TV has increased girls' awareness of designer labels. "The market has become more sophisticated," says Fiona Coleman, children's trends editor for WGSN, a fashion-consulting service. Kids today follow not only what celebrities wear, but also what their children wear, she says. Brooklyn Beckham, the son of soccer star David Beckham, was photographed wearing Junior Dolce & Gabbana in magazines as a toddler, propelling the brand into the limelight. Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon, who has her own stylist, has appeared in magazines wearing Juicy Couture tracksuits.
School guidance counselor Angie Dooley sees the love of labels at Lawrence Junior High School in Fairfield, Maine, where some girls wear the same few brand-name items they own again and again. "They don't want anyone to know that's all they have," Ms. Dooley says.
In one study, more than one-third of middle-school students responded "yes" when asked whether they are bullied because of the clothes they wear. Susan M. Swearer, associate professor of school psychology at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, surveyed a total of more than 1,000 students at five Midwestern middle schools from 1999 to 2004, with about 56% of the sample female. While the prevalence of fashion bullies was greater in wealthy cities and towns, where more designer clothing is available, she found the problem is significant in poorer communities, too.
Teens and adolescents are expected to wear not just any designer brands but the "right" ones. "The better brands you wear, the more popular you are," says Becky Gilker, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Sherwood Park in the Canadian province of Alberta. "If you don't wear those things you get criticized." In many schools, the most expensive designer goods, such as those by Chanel or Louis Vuitton, have the highest social ranking among girls. But popular teen brands such as American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale are also important. Miss Gilker says Hollister and Roxy are big logos at her school.
But even the wrong color can bring put-downs, Miss Gilker notes. When she wears pink, she says, "I get the snarky 'Nice clothes!' when people walk by in the halls." Her mom, Karin Gilker, who is 44, says she has tried to explain to her daughter that she should ignore such comments and wear what she likes. She also has tried explaining that "pink looks wonderful on her -- she's a blonde -- and she looks really good in it."
Several new programs are trying to help parents, teachers and girls cope with bullying. In Maine, a nonprofit called Hardy Girls Healthy Women has developed a curriculum that has caught on at a number of junior high schools and is being adopted in after-school programs in Florida, Ohio, New York and other states. The program encourages young girls to build coalitions and gets them to look more closely at the messages they get from the media, including those about fashion and clothing.
In June, a national conference on "Relational Aggression, Mean Girls and Other Forms of Bullying" in Las Vegas drew more than 800 teachers, educators and counselors. Many of the sessions focused on the role the media plays in putting social pressure on girls regarding fashion and appearance.
Susan Bowman, vice president of Developmental Resources, a Chapin, S.C., educational consulting firm that put on the conference, told the audience that for many girls, the answer to the question "What do I wear?" seems to define who they are. In 2005, Developmental Resources began holding a series of "Mean Girls" workshops for educators around the country. The workshops, she says, explore why fashion is such an important part of a girl's identity, and how that, in turn, "creates even more social pressure on the 'have nots.'"
Some psychologists believe that fashion bullying is happening at younger and younger ages. Megan Flynn, director of children's services at Westchester Jewish Community Services, says she has recently begun using an anti-bullying program with girls in the fifth and sixth grades, as well as with older students. The program, she says, provides "a process where they can take a closer look at the messages they get" in the media.
Aryana's mom, Ava McPike, feels it is important that Aryana not be pressured to conform to the dressed-down standard at her school. She believes that generally other people favor those who "look good -- the cute kids," says Ms. McPike, who drives to Neiman Marcus in St. Louis, Mo., with her daughter to help pick out clothes. But Ms. McPike does give in every now and then. She recently bought two Ralph Lauren dresses, in pink and green, and her daughter rejected them, because, her mom suspects, they wouldn't pass muster with her classmates.

Doc's Cider at Bar Great Harry

Have you been to Bar Great Harry on Smith St. in Brooklyn? Well, if you are a beer aficionado you need to go. I am actually not. But I love cider (such a girl, I know). I have asked the fine proprietor of the Bar at least 12 times what the cider they carry is called, because it is the best dern cider I have ever had. He writes, and I quote:

"The cider you like is Doc's. It's the only one we carry. It's a bit expensive, but it is good as hell."

Doc's Draft® Hard Apple Cider
This cider is semi-dry and wonderfully effervescent with a remarkably fresh apple nose. Its crisp, fruit forward taste and a clean, refreshing finish, have won our cider countless awards and praise. (4.5% alcohol)

Sample Sale: Chaiken, Oct. 23-26

The time for sample sales is certainly upon us. I haven't checked this one out yet, but while standing on line for the Elie Tahari sample sale yesterday a woman urged me to check out the Chaiken sale as well.

261 W. 36th St. near Seventh Ave. 2nd Fl.
They take credit cards.