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Swimsuit selection

I took an early spring trip out to the Rockaways a few weeks ago, on that crazy hot day in NYC, and it was beautiful, just me, my boyfriend, and the resident regulars. It was pointed out to me that my bathing suit (a much loved VPL suit I picked up a few years ago), was getting thin in all the wrong places. A result of all of the biking to the beach that happened last summer, I'm sure. I didn't have bathing suit shopping on my radar (or my list), but I don''t need much encouragement to start a new search.

I began by checking out a few of the swimwear sites that Reserve has recently featured deals on and I immediately found the bikini for me on Sirene. The Mara Hoffman tiki underwire cami bikini.

It's perfect, right? I thought so. But as I was trying to figure out what else to buy to round out the Reserve purchase amount (if you don't know how this works: you spend a set amount, say $200, but you receive $400 to spend on the site within a certain time frame) the suit was gone! I searched for it elsewhere, and it turns out this is one of the hottest suits from Mara's collection this year and it is sold-out almost EVERYWHERE. And it certainly wasn't on Reserve anywhere else.

There is also this other little problem with swimsuit buying for women. Many, no, most of us, aren't the same size on our top and our bottom. So committing to a size usually means the bottom is too tight or the top too big. We don't buy our other separates this way, which would be absurd, so why WHY can't bathing suit tops and bottoms be sold separately?? Mara Hoffman suits, btw, are almost always sold as a together size.

So I put together a few other swimsuit selections as I debated if I should spring for the Mara in one size (it's available in a few places in different colors: Zappos, Shopbop, Bloomingdale's) or go with something else. Here's the roundup of my favorites:

 

 

Giejo @ Needsupply; Rosa Cha @ Sirene (on sale!); Chloe Sevigny for OC @ OC; VPL @ Shopbop; Pret-a-surf @ Pret-a-surf, Mara Hoffman @ Revolve

I obviously have a preference for the high waist this year, and I basically wanted everything from Mara Hoffman's collection. I was tempted by the Rosa Cha one-piece, but my torso is pretty long and I wouldn't be able to return my sale pick at Sirene if it didn't work out.

So, I kept up my search for the Tiki, and I FINALLY came across it at Nic del Mar in a different color, which I prefer, actually. And guess what, you can CHOOSE your own top and bottom size, which sold me. Props to Nic del Mar for figuring this simple option out. Introducing, my new bikini:

Zero zero

I dropped by the Zero + Maria Cornejo sample sale this evening. I expected lines and a scant selection, but came across more workers than shoppers and there was plenty to go around. Items from last fall could be found, and the seasons beyond, including a few great prints from spring/summer 2011, and some legit samples. There were a lot of knit items, and a few good coats in men's and women's sizes.

I admire Zero Maria quite a bit-- her spring show this year was killer, and I have lusted after many items online over the years. I only have a few of her pieces: an excellent drapey black sweater (from fall '10, I think) that I wear all the time, and a bathing suit that also rocks, both items on the basic end of her design spectrum. It's just that so much of her clothing is difficult in a way that I can't entirely get into.

I had a hard time figuring out how to pull on a few knit dresses and shirts at the sale. There were armholes in places where no natural arms grow, and there were too many dresses with one side that ballooned out like you might see in costumes from a children's theatre production. One woman at the sale was informed by a worker that the shirt she was trying out, and getting compliments on, was in fact a skirt (Another shopper dubbed the shirt/skirt a "two-in-one").

Again, much of the work is gorgeous and I would have loved to take home a (still very pricey) coat or two. I'm guessing the explanation for the bounty of remaining items is the so-so discounting. Very few items were lower than 60% off, even knit tees were still above $100. So I ended up walking away with nada.

There was a small smattering of Rick Owens, Surface to Air, and other designers marked at 80% off, and a strange selection of Repetto that I noticed in the final minutes. Nothing great, but these were the best deals.

The sale is running through tomorrow, and I would imagine the discounts will probably drop more too. Here are a few photos to keep it lively, and the address:

 

 249 Centre St. (between Broome and Grand)

Snaps

A few years ago my boyfriend smashed my fairly new camera into a tree at the Jardin du Luxembourg. Bad problem, beautiful place. He was running after me to take a photo, and I was being evasive, so I can't entirely blame him. Though I still have mixed feelings about it.

Instead of getting a new camera I went for a new iphone. They're also great cameras, right? Well, not really, if you want to photograph anything in a serious fashion. So if anyone out there (if anyone is out there...) has camera recommendations, let me know!

I'd like this blog to be a culling together of images both virtual and actual, that is, from my Internet life and my real life. The sooner I find a solution to the real life photographing, I'll snap away.

Utility canvas safari twill cargo cotton miltary green Vest

These and a few other key words I entered into various search engines as I sought out the vest that eluded me. Daily, for weeks, I entered various combinations of these words until I had it down to a neat algorithm. The Internet is vast and wide, and the retail apparatuses expanding as I type, but I simply couldn’t find it.

Why did I want it?

A few reasons: about 5 years ago I put into a donation bag a perfect green military style jacket that I had throughout my college years. It was covered in memories and they weren’t all good so I thought it should go. I carried my donated goods to the Grand Army Plaza farmers’ market donation and handed my bag over. I still regret it.

Military jackets have been back in the style world with various new additions for the last few years (leather sleeves being one of the most confusing, but also attractive editions), and it could probably be argued they never went out. What with war happening all the time, and our cultural consciousness being connected with these images, and for some reason copying them.

In any case, I suddenly wanted something of that type in my life again, badly. Not a jacket, I still hold out the slightest hope that I’ll wander into a Salvation Army and find my old one. But a vest would be a perfect spring/summer transitional piece. It wanted it to be green of some faded hue, cotton, military-esque but not too, with a stand-up collar and epaulet.

So I searched. I kept coming across this J.Crew version from last year, the twill utility vest:

Jcrew.com

It seemed almost right on but it was sold out. Or, as an employee at the flagship store told me, ‘we were trying to get rid of those things forever, but I think they’re finally gone.’ I still wanted one. And so did other people. When they popped up on Ebay mad bidding wars erupted.

J. Crew did a factory version of it too, and that’s still around, but not in the right color.

So I expanded my search, one night catching a glimpse of a green vest on a NYC red bus advertisement, I went to a site I never would have considered before: Tommy Hilfiger.

tommy.com

This Tommy "sleeveless light twill jacket" just wasn’t quite right though: no stand-up collar, no epaulet. And it’s by Tommy. Which I associate with the 90s and with that weird news blurb about his rapper son. 

But I held on to it as a last resort option while I checked EVERY site I knew of that purvey clothing  that might be described using any of the above keywords, or as utilitarian chic: needsupply, gargyle, oaknyc.com, shopbop, billy reid, rag and bone, rogan, APC, totokaelo, bird, ssense (a few a these a bit of a stretch, I know) and even those places I haven’t thought of for years: diesel, g-star.com, banana republic. I scoured the Flea, I looked through men’s clothing, I stalked ebay. Until I read that club monaco was trying to up it's game and that they have recently opened an online store.  I found this, the Luella shawl-collar parka:

clubmonaco.com

I called to ask if it was a vest, and they said yes. I feverishly bought it online after checking if it was available in any of the stores in the New York metropolitan area, feeling sure it would sell out in minutes. It arrived. Only it’s not a vest. It has weird vinyl-like sleeves that I somehow failed to notice . So I did what any self-respecting worn-out clothing seeker would do (I think?). I cut off those sleeves.

Problem solved. And I’ve worn it every day since.

Beginning

After a few recent obsessional searches on the Internet for a clothing item that I knew must exist SOMEWHERE (1 military-style utility vest in faded green with epaulet and a stand-up collar), and a guide to choosing the perfect Rick Owens leather jacket, but coming up empty on both fronts, I have decided to venture into the land of crafting my own fashion blog.

I have been following them for years. Admiring certain styles, feeling annoyed by others, and all the while studying the ways of the fashion (and culture!) blogger. So here I go, writing about my love for fashion, bargains, the beautiful, and whatever else is out there. For me this will mean a few things:

-Admiring beautiful objects, primarily clothing and accessories, made by all of the the talented designers out there.
-Documenting the quest for the perfect this or that (and enlisting help from some of you?).

-Making sense of my own personal style.

- Maintaining a list of desired items and holding myself (semi) accountable to sticking to that list. This will be a first.

-Wondering about best practices in the consumer realm (e.g. re-stocking/return fees, the ethics of ordering online when an item can be found locally, to name a few).

-Sharing my life lived in the clothes I wear whilst writing (day job), editing (other day job), teaching (other other day job), cooking, spending time with my cat, and going out and being in the world.