The girl that never sleeps...: January 2010

First full day. First stop off at F.I.T, Fashion Institute of Technology. We all get the chance to go study there for 4 months next year, if we apply and proove that we really deserve to go...fingers crossed!

This is me and Caia, just before we went inside the 'American Beauty' exhibition. This exhibition showed almost 100 garments that date from the 1930s to the present, representing a broad spectrum of clothing types-from affordable ready-to-wear to luxurious couture.

Notes from FIT...'American Beauty' Exhibition. We then looked around the permanent exhibition downstairs, this showed us a reflection of wars, revolutions and other historical events and gained a visual impression of social, cultural and aesphetic change through time.

We then ventured down to Soho and just explored the shops, I love this part of the city. I think its the best for shopping, as it has all the high street shops, such as Old Navy and Victoria's Secret, then it has the big designer shops like Prada and Agent Provocateur all within a small district. Everything was easy to find, and if we got lost we just asked, and every one was always willing to help!
On the way to Soho, as we walked from our hotel...we came across a few Vintage shops, this one 'Vintage Clothing' turned out to be a hidden gem, we had never herd about. Take a look at the sneaky pictures we took in the shop. Full of designer clothes, mostly from the 40s and 50s, they were all in really great condition and had obviously been hand picked specifically, as they were all glamerous, timeless classics. I especially loved all the cute little winter hats, fur and embellished to the maxed! Also the scarfs and accessories were amazing and bright with sparkles, glitz and glam every where!

We also found Patricia Fields boutique in Soho, who is best known for designing some of Sarah Jessica Parkers character Carrie on 'Sex and the City' and soon became Costume Designer for the whole cast on the show. Her shop was full of excentric clothing, and surprisingly most of it was affordable. I was close to buying a coat, which I later found advertised on her website on the home page. I was going to buy the yellow and purple one for $70, which I thought was reasonable for a coat!

I found this picture of Sarah Jessica Parker and I instantly thought of Patricia Field's style!

I got reminded of this competition I saw a few weeks before Christmas on an Australian blog. Featuring Kim Cattrall (Samantha from SATC) in a beautiful Patricia Fields 'Ribbon dress', advertising Baileys this christmas. Concequently, every bottle of Baileys in Austraila this christmas has a giant red bow on it, advertising Fields gorgeous dress.Baileys is auctioning the Baileys Red Bow Dress dress in aid of the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation, an organisation that sells the hottest celebrity attire to benefit children’s charities.

Soho is so good to just explore, we found really niche little places, that didn't feel like tourist area's, but more actual 'New York'. I loved this graphitti we found next to a random pavement in the middle of no where in Soho. Exploring all the side streets with individual boutiques and cafe's was a dream.
Even the most random things, like a meat shop we came across, was so ornate and 'cute', we all had to take a picture of it. It's nothing like I have ever come across in England and I was surprised to find it in New York, the capital of chain stores.

My faveourite cafe from the whole trip, was no, not Starbucks surprisingly...but this little cafe we randomly came across, about 5 mintutes away from the main high street in Soho (where all the big brand shops are). I don't even remember the name, but it was the cosiest thing ever. And I felt like a New Yorker in it, away from all the tourists, there were just local people, usually in pairs, just meeting for a quick drink. I could definatley imagine Carrie Bradshaw with her laptop out writing her collumn in there. Plus the hot chocolate was amazing.

This is what I say to Starbucks...