In An Effort to Be Less Self-Indulgent...

Via Grub Street (photo: NY Mag/Jenny Miller), Ray Alvrez of East Village shop Ray's Candy Store (Ave. A nr. 7th St.) needs our help! Go get some delicious Belgian fries or some sugary goodness and keep the man in business people.

Now go, be good New Yorkers...or tourists if you aren't from around these parts...and give our economy a boost.

Happy Friday!

-B

Inauguration Celebration! | Obama Watch Begins

So I think we can all agree that yesterday was a pretty amazing day. Very cool to be around for such a historical moment. Unfortunately I have to catch up on his speech because EVERY live stream I tried was just not working. Since I only caught fragments, I won't comment on how moving, profound or not, the speech turned out to be.

The clothes, however, are fair game and Michelle Obama is certainly going to be under much scrutiny concerning her wardrobe choices. Seems a bit silly sometimes, what with our recessiony economic downtown, the war and all that super important business, but it is what it is.

I for one really liked her day look. The yellow Isabel Toledo dress and jacket ensemble is beautiful and looks fantastic on her, and it's definitely an unexpected choice, not your typical safe, plain jane suit. I also hear Simon Doonan, so thrilled was he with this choice, he took down he usual Barney's windows and created a display for Isabel Toledo. Can't wait to check it out!

No pic of her evening dress, but I'm sure everyone knows by now she chose a white, one-shoulder gown designed by Jason Wu. I can't say it was my favorite, but she looked nice and I respect her for choosing so many up and coming designers. Great publicity for them, and they deserve the recognition, Wu himself was a CFDA nom.

And just to note, Sasha and Malia looked adorable as usual.

Yay for our new Pres. and First Family!

-B

Oh. Em. Gee.

So I'm sure I'm more than a little behind on this, but I got two of the GG books through work and decided I'd start reading them.

OMFG! Is it just me, or are these some of the poorest written books EVER? Don't get me wrong, I love GG, the TV show at least. But the books just don't cut it. I realize that these are marketed to a much younger audience than myself, but hey, so is the show.

My argument? These books read like one long, terrible, product placement ad. To describe things strictly by a luxury brand is a cop out in writing. How much intelligence does it take to write sentence after sentence about the new Coach, Prada, Christian Louboutin (feel free to insert any designer you like here) shoes, etc. that these UES kids are wearing, buying, coveting, etc. They may as well include a catalogue in the back of the books so that after you read them you can also purchase all of the items (and there would be A LOT) that S, B and Little J wear. On top of this being a poor, and not very writerly way to develop a story, how much of the desired audience of these books can actually afford these things? How many of them truly even understand what and who some of these designers are?

Personally, I feel the show accomplishes something similar in a much more tactful manner. Instead of constantly dropping designer names, they drop New York names! That's the point. We already know they're wealthy, so it's much more important to have a more real connection by means of actual faces and places related to and present in the city. They go to actual NY restos, clubs, lounges and stores. They hang out with Tinsley Mortimer, etc. They DO NOT go around saying things like, "omg B, I love your Tory Burch headband...Coach flip-flops" or "hey Chuckles, hang on 2 seconds so I can adjust the camera angle to zoom in on the Prada logo on your sandals."

Thoughts?

Ciao,

B

I'm Baaaaack...

Hey! Yes, I'm officially back to blogging...I hope, haha. Sorry for my long absence, but I needed a little break for the holidays, family time and the like. And just generally, things have been crazy busy. C'est la vie, right?

Happily enough, all of my fave peeps (meaning TV characters, hehe) are back as well! Possible Spoiler Alert:

S and Lonely Boy are sort of, maybe, back together again. Of course with the minor issue of them sharing a half-brother. That could put a damper on all of their happy-go-lucky coupleness.

AND Mr. Zac P. graced Ugly Betty with his fantabulous presence last night. LOVE him.

Now I've recently started netflixing and am almost through Heroes: Season 1. I didn't really get into it when the show first started, but I'm quite liking it now. And I'm a little bit in love with Milo V. Seriously, why is he with H.P.? I only just realized how much younger she is! He and I would be much more suited to one another, hehe.

Anyhow, on to some fashiony stuff. I'm in the market for some new boots. I still love my tall black flat Anne Klein's, but everyone tells me they've had their day. The toes are scuffed up and now they also a sort of white line across the front from snow salt. Boo. So I'm looking at a two styles by Pour La Victoire, one being the Rosella Toggle Boot on Shopbop. On sale but still kind of expensive. I'd really like a pair of brown boots as well AND a new pair of rain boots. I've been eyeing these Aigle boots (that's eagle en francais mes cheries). I think they have a simple, classy look and would be great to wear on a rainy day without obviously wearing rain boots because they're styled as riding boots.

However, I recently came across these fab rain boots by Jimmy Choo/Hunter via FashionIndie. Soooo pretty. But not sure if I'm willing to fork over $395 to have them. Esp since I used to think I just HAD TO HAVE some Hunter boots, until I tried them on and realized not so much. I'm tall so I have big feet and oftentimes because of that the calf area of boots is just too big, and that was the case. Just looked ridiculous.

La la la, ok, must get back to work. Yay Friday!

Have a glorious weekend kids! Ciao.

-B