Hindsight

To update you from the last post:

Firstly, I didn't get charged overweight! The woman was an absolute gem and went to charge Madison and I but decided to be lovely and thus no fines for us!

Secondly, Alannah and I were miraulously seated next to eachother in business class - wow. That was an ahhhhmazing turn of events that I am seriously greatful to god for!

And thirdly, my gorgeous boyfriend was waiting at the airport with a sign and a bag of lychee's to welcome me home. What a darling. 

Back to the present .......

I went on the road not even 24 hours after arriving home to Australia and only got back to a computer today. As much fun as I have been having on my roady it is a completely different experience to New York and I fear that nothing will ever compare to it again. I loved every minute I spent in New York and it will stay with me as one of my favourite destinations in the world alongside Paris, Greece and Israel. Everything in New York simply blew Australia out of the water and if this is the industry I want to devote my life too then this is exactly where I want to end up. The overall buzz of the town is excruciatingly creative and innovative and with such a vast population you can understand why so much of the worlds talent comes from America. It truely is a wonderland of possibilities and I am so grateful that I was able to experience it.

I loved New York for its dogs, fashion, fabric, multiculturalism, culture, museums, galleries, food, parks, bikes, taxis, fashion, markets, street art, Brad lives there, Becuase you can eat anything at anytime, 8 dollar washing, 12 dollar drycleaning, shoes, subways, colours, parades, holiday spirit, they have a black president, because Christians and Kabbalists, Wiccans and Zoroastrians, have a home there, yankees, mexican food, italian food, japanese food, china town, designer fashion at nearly affordable prices, and most of all I love New York for simply existing. I always thought i'd hate America which was why I avoided it all these years, but there really is something about it. Carrie has it all. 

New York, I love you. 

HOME!

Today we are going home. This isn't going to be a long post because i'm struggling to pack but I figured I should post one more time in NYC! 


Everything is in the bag.... but goodluck to me if I dont get charged overweight - and i have two bags! I'm going now to Billys Bakery again for the final cupcake with the girls!


New York, You've been great. 


I'll miss you. 

The Big Finale

Conference day two and our last day in new york! 


This morning I met Anna Sui! I got a picture with her but unfortunately the photo is on one of Kay's camera's! She was lovely and her talk was awesome! It was really cool to actually hear a real designers perspective and processes. Her actual designs were really beautiful too! I had never really been a huge fan but I actually loved the 70's inspired cuts and fabulous colours and patterns! I loved it.   It was also cool to hear about how she made it. I don't know how i'm going to do it, but hey if theres a will (A really big will) theres a way right?


After Anna Sui I decided to leave the conference until Hamish Bowles becuase after all it was our last day in New York and I still had things to do and literally places to see! Unfortunately this blew up in my face becuase when it came time to see hamish bowles it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a cab and thus I missed it. Beleive you me, I effing kicked myself. Death by cab. Instead Stef and I had to simply give up and so we got Japanese for literally the 4th time and met up with everyone else at Billys bakery for some cupcakes - or in my case coconut cake!


Enjoying cake with everyone was the perfect ending to the perfect trip. 

Tziporah Salamon

This morning stef and I decided to do some washing before heading to the conference - and by washing I mean it cost us 8 dollars to have an entire bag of washing washed for us and folded and ironed. I love you America!


After we had handed over our washing and finished our daily bagels we headed to the conference. I was truely unsure about what to expect from the conference as at the party it had seemed like it was going to be a wealthy wives indulging in a pastime however I absolutely loved it! I wont lie there was times where it either repeated things we had learnt in class and there were times where it was plain dull for one reason or another, but as a whole it was absolutely great. 


The first speaker of the day was named Catherine Moellering and her talk was entitled 'Fashion's Power Play: Consumers Take the Lead.' She heavily reinforced alot of concepts that we had already learnt, however, she had character and was in the industry. I always feel like its an actual confirmation of what we learn at uni when someone from the industry who is faced with these problems agree's with what you have learnt. She was really knowledgeable effective and interesting to listen too.


After Catherine came Hal Rubenstein and oh my gosh was he a joy to listen too! Not only is he the fashion editor of America's no.1 magazine (As he kept repeating!) but he knew his stuff and he knew it well. There was nothing he said that I didn't agree with! His entire concept of women, shoping and fashion was brutal but on the ball! Unfortunately however he did run overtime which set the rest of the day back. 


After these two spoke it got slightly less exciting for a while and I wont lie the suspense about hearing Tzipporah (Who I am now going to refer too as Zippy) speak was killing me! Finally after some sustainable fashion babble it got to the Women of style panel which consisted of 'Tzipporah Salamon', Pamela Keogh, Phyllis Magidson, Mitchell owens and Patsy Tarr. During this time each of the panel members chose three of their favourite women of style and discussed them vocally. This was one of the most exciting talks of the day (Not Just because Tzipporah was speaking) each member chose vastly different women for vastly different reasons and it was SO enlightening to hear 5 experts speak about women and not only the particular styles they embodied but also the time and place they embodied them and also it was incredibly fascinating and riveting to hear what these experts thought about modern fashion and modern fashion icons! I loved every minute of this talk until Lisa shuffled them off stage!


Aside from genuinely loving the panel, Tzipporah herself is an absolute genius. You don't meet people with such character every day and she was insatiable! Everything she was saying was things I completely agree with - and by the way she actually does do the show and she's Jewish (Love it!). She dressed in character, moods, colours etc she beleives one should always look stylish and that if you are actually stylish it isnt an effort to do so! I just loved everything about her and then when I actually got to speak with her she was just so lovely! She even gave me her card! I will email the second the conference is over - I have no idea what I will say but I love it!

We also had another cocktail party tonight. It was at a vintage store called 'What Goes Around Comes Around', which was where I bought my Valentino skirt! It was fun but it was no where near as exciting as yesterdays party unfortunately. I did have a chat with Tzipporah again though and she was just lovely and said that if we had've been staying longer than the conference she would've 'performed' for me! A dream come true!


What a wonderful day!

Cab Hail Fail

Today was the day I had most been looking forward too,


The day we went to the American Natural History Museum!!
As I said in my last post I love history, but what I love more is animals and the future (Space).  I had been looking forward to this SO MUCH and it fulfilled every expectation! I was a little bit disturbed to find out the animals were real and had just been 'taxidermed' (I think that is the equivalent to being stuffed only with enzymes so it doesn't deteriorate or something?) but none the less it was absolutely incredible. I also loved seeing all the tribal ware, not to mention we got to go to the planetarium INSIDE the museum! Going to the planetarium is one of my favourite things to do in brisbane its incredible. Whoopi Goldberg narrated the film and it was so awesome i even bought a galactic t shirt? The reason we were able to see the planetarium film was because we bought special tickets which also enabled us to see this thing about the human brain! That was amazing and genuinely interesting! Alannah is probably going to base her collection on it so there was definately some good from this adventure. The other great part about this museum was of course the DINOSAURS! It was wicked.


 I just love this kind of thing I just get so excited about so many things I swear I become illiterate!!

Unfortunately for us we got completely entranced in the museum and lost track of time, this meant when we finally went to get a cab home to get ready for the conference opening party we couldn't get one - peak hour! Serious cab hail fail - we ended up subwaying and getting dressed in half an hour. An achievement in itself. 


The cocktail party was, albeit, not what we were expecting! But it was certainly beautiful! It ended up being in Fred Leighton on Madison Avenue! It was insane. The jewellery was absolutely exquisite and had all been designed by a new turkish designer names Sevan. It truely was a sight for sore eyes!

The ring on the left is $180,000 and the ring on the right is $400,000?


Aside from the beautiful jewellery we also got to mingle with a number of the speakers. I myself met the woman of my dreams! Her name is Tzipporah Salamon and it was quite literally love at first sight! She was impeccably and eccentrically dressed and I loved it from head to toe! Unfortunately amoungst our chit-chat I was so nervous and forgot to ask her what she actually does! I found out that she will be speaking tomorrow on the 20th century women of style panel and APPARANTLY she even does a one woman show where she simply - get's changed!! I'm not sure but I am absolutely intent on speaking with her again! 

 Tzipporah Salamon!

Sevan the deisgner!

For the thousandth time New York, I have no words to explain myself!


After the party (which didn't last very long) we all decided to head back to the infamous cuban resturant for cocktails and dinner! It was really fun and it was nice to have dinner as a full group! I won't lie - we were all a bit shika! (Considering i'm in New York I figured i'd use yiddish, shika = drunk)

After dinner we decided to - keep drinking! So we headed to Sex and the City hangout 'Buddakan' for cocktails and dessert!

Oh New York, How will I ever adjust to real life now?

Happy Hunnukah

Today is the first day of Hunukah! and it was certainly a good day :) 


We had another day of freedom today so we did what all good fashion students do and we went shopping! First however we decided to visit the museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) to see Japan Fashion Now and also 'His and Hers'. The exhibitions were entirely different and I definately preferred the His and Hers section. This was dedicated to show casing matching his and hers outfits throughout the ages and eventually his and hers outfits compiled by designers. It was interesting to see the male progression as I never really think about male fashion and I especially never think about have far it has evolved! As for Japan Fashion Now, there was two sections to this exhibit. The opening room was dedicated to showcasing Comme Des Garçons designs. This room was much more exciting than the second room however as much as i respect and like Comme Des Garçons it is not my style and thus i didn't love it as much as I loved Balenciaga. As for the second room it was very harajuku with bright colours and baby doll dressing etc. It was all very over the top asian schoolgirl/even prostitute which I am really not interested at all unfortunately. It was cool to see the elaborate outfits up close though, Personally I never realised how much detail goes into each of those outfits.


After the exhibitions we hit the town!
Today we reserved our dollars for only the 'necessities'. (Necessities was a system of purchasing we devised which entailed questioning every purchase with "Can I live without you or are you a necessity?" It's genius). We ventured through NoHo again and it was really nice becuase Em had been shopping with Diani and Emma and had found a whole bunch of cute vintage stores to take us too. 


We walked past a bakery and couldn't resist but to eat some of these macaroons - ahhhmazing!

Today was much more reserved which was really nice after our hectic run for the last couple of days. After Noho we walked to the west village where we visited Bookmarc, which is Marc Jacobs personal bookstore and was absolutely incredible! After that we visited Magnolia bakery from sex and the city then headed home to 'Lasagne' our gorgeous little italian resturant on the corner of the hostel. The food there was indescribably delicious and whats better -the door girl commented on our superb outfits evey time we walked past - Bellisimo!

The circle of life.

I started my day like every other day, with a bagel but today I tried the cinnamon and rasin bagel  - not the smoothest move considering the amount of sugar these americans are fond of so i'm certainly back to basics. 


 We had an early start today, Stef and I decided we wanted to see a Broadway show but considering how much we had on our agenda we decided to go early to get tickets. We then met up with the rest of the girls in the 42nd street station in an attempt to finally visist the 20th century women of style: notorious and notable exhibition but unfortunately we ended up in the projects. Not the smoothest move but hey it was certainly an experiance and we all walked away with body parts and jewellery in tact!


After our fearful detour through the project end of central park we finally arrived back at the exhibition and it was well worth the fear. There is just something about women of style from the past that i find obscenely intriguing. If I could admired like that I think my life would be complete! The absolute respect they command simply from reading a blub and a quote and looking at one dress is incredible. These women really did it for themselves and I just love it. Iris Apfel was my absolute favourite and I bought her book from the met store! (coming later). This exhibition was great as we were able to get close to the garments and also because we could actually take pictures! It was great!

After the 20th century exhibition we went to the glamourous 'Met' museum. The met was everything I expected and MORE.  Unfortunately the costume department was closed which absolutely sucked because we had heard it was incredible! On the upside however the Egyptian section was out of this world and there is something about the heritage and the animals, the glamour, myth, gold and colours of this era that has me absolutely entranced. It could genuinely spark my interest for my collection. I ALWAYS loved egyptian history and now maybe it'll be useful? Don't hold me to that but you never know!

After the egyptian section we beelined for the modern art. It was exquisite and it was incredible to see another pollock and be so close to Warhol and Lichtenstein works! 

After we had finished with the met we walked to FAO Schwarz and played the gigantic key board from the Tom Hanks Movie 'Kid' it was awesome and it was on my 'To do' list for new york. 

 Lego Chewbacca

They also had an INCREDIBLE Barbie section. My dream come true designer barbie clothes!

After our walk to FAO Schwarz took longer than we had planned we had to hail a cab to get to  the Lion King in time! The show was INCREDIBLE I actually wanted to cry. It was so so in tune with the movie and the casting was so perfect that you could feel what was happening and it was just magnificent. The costuming was absolutely out of this world and exquisite! They quite literally brought the animals to life. It was truely aweinspiring and I am 100% glad I finally saw the Lion King on broadway - In New York nonetheless!

Today was incredible and seeing the Lion King made me so ecstatic and even a little homesick - I just wish my parents could've seen this. I was ALWAYS so in love with Disney its on par with the love of animals and space. 

Aside from that for some reason the notion of heritage and different heritages keeps playing in my mind for my collection. It's actually stupid but my entire life revolves around thinking about this collection! I think i'm onto something. I can't quite word what i'm thinking but when I do, you'll know!