Spa East: First Friday Spa Retreat Phillymag.com phrased this Friday event really well: “This Northern Liberties spa always celebrates First Fridays of each month with special deals. Come by for oodles of luxe treatments being offered for up to 50 percent off their original prices, just for the day, like their aromatherapy sugar scrub, for $50, green tea detoxifying facial, for $45, or their citrus and honey pedicure, for $20. RSVP to the spa to make an appointment for the special deals”… well, when you put it like that! More details on their site.
Giant Dwarf @ Art Star Oh hey, we saw this tweet about Sue Eggen hanging out at a fav Old City boutique and thought we’d set out the word about the custom crafts and complimentary mimosas. But you already knew about it, right? Saturday afternoon– deets here.
Arcadia’s Denim Brunch A little birdie told us that this Saturday, from 12-6pm, Arcadia Boutique in the NoLibs is taking 25% off all denim. Gasp– yes, you read right. There will also be fizzy daytime cocktails and complimentary hems with seamstress extraordinaire, Sokthy Seng.
StrangeFruit @ Matthew Izzo It seems the universe is all a-twitter about this trunk show. Our own Emily F chatted with/ about StrangeFruit around Philly Fashion Week about the Fall 2009 line, The Regal Warrior. Fear not! Matthew Izzo is on it, and there will be a trunk show from noon- 5pm this Saturday.
Typhaney Shanker @ Fairmount Park Horticulture Center Typhaney Shanker, the former owner of Old City’s Conspiracy Showroom and local jewelry designer, is showing at Fairmount Park Horticulture Center for an event that benefits the historic museum. Friday – Sunday, November 8. Check here for more info.
Gah, I love this White Lotus dress by Zahra Saeed. I guess I usually don’t take most stores directly on Rittenhouse Sqaure seriously, because they always seem like places to outfit a child, Pomeranian or overpriced condo of privilege, and I have none of the above. When I’m (window) shopping, I generally don’t venture past the Barnes and Noble on Walnut Street.
But I’ve been missing out, apparently. Philadelphia Magazine did a story on the Moorestown designer’s second collection, and I was super impressed.
The Pakistan-born Moorestown resident (whose personal history includes an arranged marriage, a divorce, and moving her way up the corporate ladder at a South Jersey mortgage bank while raising two daughters; she self-financed her fashion business) is constantly inspired by the fabrics she finds around the world. And with the wholesale success of her eponymous lines throughout Europe and the Middle East, she sees quite a bit of it.
While I generally appreciate color and pattern more, and there are quite a few pieces in the collection that use those fabrics from around the world extremely well, what I especially like here is what this woman can do with plain ol’ white:
And what’s more, she has a way of keeping balance when employing interesting silhouettes and structural bits so that the wearer looks like she’s wearing something neat that you haven’t seen before, but doesn’t look like she got lost on her way to the Met Costume Ball (OK, the one on the right’s a little bit Swan Lake costumey, but I still like it).
I’m not gonna lie, though: her website doesn’t work very well (at least, not on my computer), and if you click “home” you’ll get blasted with unwelcome music. Whatever. Just wander past the Barnes and Noble next time, and check out all this gorgeous stuff from a for-real local designer.
Zahra Saeed, 1905 Walnut St.
Courtesy of Vintage Connection
A lovely lady from Vintage Connection has posted info on Vintage Coats on Philly2Philly. Vintage Connection is worth a look, it won the title of “Best Vintage Shop” from Philadelphia Magazine and your favorite newspaper, Philadelphia Weekly. With a little luck, you might even be able to get a Mad Men esque coat – for MUCH cheaper than those on sale at Banana Republic.
Even with the colder weather creeping up, Christmas commercials are freaking us out. They’re on entirely too early. Or so we think. However, we are positively tickled by the Sephora Holiday offers like this set of mascaras for $39 – valued at $104. Nice. There are similarly priced sets for fragrance, glitz & glam – that’s shimmer and bronzers for those who don’t speak Sephora. The only set we’re leery of is the lotion one. Sometimes skin freaks out when you use that many different lotions, especially in the winter months!
If you LOVE eyeliner Sephora’s got a kit with pencils in literally every color from Make Up For Ever. This set has 25 different shades. We think even Rainbow Brite would be jealous. This Smashbox set with 5 colors might be a better choice if 25 colors seems like too much of a commitment. We’re also loving this cute little set from Bare Escentuals avaliable only at Sephora called A Wink and A Kiss. It’s mascara and lipstick. So cute.
Sooo…we got a little excited about makeup. This morning NBC10 takes a look at Justin Timberlake’s style and how it’s progressed through the years. NBC10 also lets us know that there is going to be a piece of the Berlin Wall at Ripley’s Believe it Or Not in Atlantic City! I personally saw an itty bitty chunk of the Berlin wall and that was pretty moving. I can’t even imagine seeing a huge chunk like the one at Ripley’s, let alone actually being there for the historical event – which celebrates it’s 20th birthday on Monday, November 9th.
So I’ve been cleaning up the (blessedly minimal) effects of having my identity stolen for the last couple of years, and as I ran around town for the last couple of days printing things, faxing things, collecting other things, getting things notarized, etc. to deal with the latest thing that’s turned up, I tried to burn off some of my frustration by thinking of my situation as one of those LucasArts adventure games I loved when I was a kid. They also tend to involve one large goal, which is accomplished by doing hours and hours of smaller, seemingly unrelated tasks until you stumble backasswardly upon the princess or the secret of Monkey Island or whatnot. This was just like that! Except how I can’t stop playing and it’s frustrating and expensive.
Anyway, I came home with the idea of my life as Sisyphean, no-fun video game still a bit on my mind, and happened across this pair of polygonal shoes by United Nude, which seemed sort of perfect for the moment. The style probably looks pretty familiar to anybody who played video games during the rather quick evolution of computer graphics in the late ’90s:
The United Nude Lo Res is part of an new semi-automatic design method by United Nude. An object is digitially scanned into a 3-D computer model and re-generated into various resolutions. The Lo Res shoe is part of an automated design revolution.
So in celebration of having hopefully faxed my last document and rescued the princess (if she’s not in another goddamn castle), here’s a bunch of stuff based on 8-bit nostalgia that doesn’t cross over into literal video-game territory, like so:
Even though I do find that shirt funny. Anyway, here they are!
Floral rose prints don’t look quite so grandmotherly when they’re pixelated. Digital-print scarf and dress, from Matthew Williamson’s fall 2008 collection.
Stolen Jewels, by Mike & Maaike. They used google to ’steal’ lo-res images of some of the most famous and ornate jewelry in the world (such as Imelda Marcos’ ruby necklace and this image of the Great Chrysanthemum, on which I believe the above is based:)
and then converted them to tiny leather pixels as a statement necklace.
8-bit dress from Modcloth, vaguely evoking some mod-as-hell Space Invaders.
The Icon wristwatch; numbers would have ruined the effect.
OK, yeah, this one’s literal, but it’s just too cute. From Erin at A Dress A Day.
Our pants-less lady friend Gaga picked up a style award this past Monday from the Accessories Council. While she doesn’t look like a Slim Jim like she did during the MTV VMA’s, Gaga does still look pretty out there. Where does she come up with this stuff?
Gabi of Young Fat and Fabulous has styled illustrations. They’re like virtual models that are available on some shopping websites, and they’re cute.
Try not to stay mad at NY, because they held a Snuggie happy hour in the East Village, and it’s headed to Philly this weekend. Check out the video of how it went down in Gotham:
Lastly, Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter of the Vancouver Olympic Games! A little pricey, but nice designs!
Cool exhibit alert! I’ll have a guide up with plenty to do this First Friday, but I thought I’d feature one that really caught my eye a day early:
Art in the Age is a cool gallery/store/performance space in Old City. It’s named for an essay (Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) by a German cultural theorist. The mission and common theme behind each artist is to “bring integrity back to art in the spaces of everyday life.”
In Impermanent Bliss, mixed-media works by Eric Amling, Kirkland Bray and Matt LaFleur examine the fluctuating nature of memory and its effects on our ongoing sense of self and place. By manipulating and transforming man-made artifacts, the artists press the viewer to reexamine the identities of the familiar. We should be approaching our own memories with the same scrutiny that these works demand, as memory often distorts the places, events and emotional states of our past.
Check out some work from the artists:
Kirkland Bray
Matt Lafleur
Eric Amling
Eric Amling’s uses printed matter to create new forms of present space in motion through collage. He is the author two books, Twin Vapor and Split Level Igloo, and his collage and written works have appeared on albums by Dr. Dog and the Bowerbirds. Matt LaFleur’s paintings evoke an imaginative environment filled with cabins burgeoning spectrums of color and contrast. He currently lives and works in Taborton, NY. Kirkland Bray’s recent paintings explore a series of elevated forms of construction on found surfaces of wood and canvas. He has exhibited on both coasts, and co-owns the leather goods brand BillyKirk.
Impermanent Bliss: Examining the Fluid State of Memory
Mixed Media Works by Eric Amling, Kirkland Bray and Matt LaFleur
November 6-29, 2009
Opening: Friday, November 6th, 6-8 pm
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
116 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia
As a longtime freelancer, my prayers has been answered by this crazy outfit-bed… thing: The Selk’Bag.
The Selk’Bag is a “sleep and wear” system (–and all this time I thought that term was specific to my undergrad). Let’s take a little walk through what their website has to say about the product. Just when I thought a dude who looks like the baby of the Stay Puft man and a convict jumpsuit was the most amusing thing on the page, the copy had to go and completely boggle my brain.
Considering that almost a 30% of our time is occupied sleeping,… greater fatigue and less hours of light (winter), a good sleep is the key factor to recover consumed energy. A comfortable position, a suitable temperature and less restricted mobility are fundamental for a good rest.
(Duh.)
Nowadays, the maximum comfort level a sleeping bag offers, has a “material” relation: its filling and the space and air to warm up by our body (less space, better, due to a smaller cost of caloric energy)… high mountain trekkers, have special gear designed for extreme low temperatures: all the body parts together to transmit heat in a adjusted amount of space, spending the less amount of caloric energy as possible.
(WHAT? I think this was a fancy way of saying wearing warm clothes makes us not cold. Novel concept. Bill Nye is rolling his eyes.)
Movement is the greatest obstacle which we, the majority of sleeping bag users, face.
(WE?! I was not aware of the upwardly-mobile demographic of sleeping bag users, but I must have been mistaken.)
Therefore, we believe that, to be able to rest in spaces that are not high mountains, snow or cold places, a sleeping bag must be as nice and friendly as a bed is, and should give us the correct protection level towards coldness thanks to its materials, filling and the possibility to spread our heat through our body thanks to a good level of blood circulation.
(It’s okay, Selk’Bag copywriter. We like warm clothes and we’re not on a mountain, either.)
It’s interesting to observe what most of camping, cabin, beaches, woods, mountain, desert, lakes, etc. users are shouting for, mouth to mouth through a sorrowed hope: MOVEMENT.
(Can I get an Amen?!)
Selk’Bag® is a sleeping system which allows to dress with your sleeping bag, giving a maximum mobility and comfort in periods of rest in a tent or outside it:
- Separate, move and join arms and legs
- Roll with your Selk’Bag®, not in it
- Stand without any trouble, walk, cross your legs and even grab certain elements with your hands thanks to its reversible zippers.
Mobility, maximum comfort for a perfect rest is Selk’Bag®’s fundamental idea, and each part of it is designed for that purpose. Enjoy your excursion with a 100% comfortable rest, just as you do in your bed.
(That’s all we needed to know, man.)
This could be a crime scene. Or your bedroom floor.
As awesome as this wearable sleeping bag is, I will always want one for the wrong reasons. Why? I think it looks like a Rebel jumpsuit… and really– what helps you sleep better at night than knowing you’re fighting the Empire?
I’m just sayin’.
Have I mentioned how pleased I am that Maggie, of the street-style photography blog Broad and Market, came back from Japan and started shooting Philly again? The blog has been back and regularly updating from Philly for a couple months now, but every time I try to post on it I remember that there’s some event that night I need to mention or some or Chase Utley hits another home run and I forget… but now!
What I especially like about Broad and Market is… well, you know how there was that funny flowchart about How to Get Shot by the Sartorialist over at Refinery 29:
The Sartorialist, while it certainly is great and what street-snapshot fashion blogs everywhere aspire to be, kind of has a type. I was briefly considering starting to do something similar as an occasional feature for this blog, with the brainstormed title being “OMG, your outfit is amazing!” Not “something I would wear”or “something that looks like it came out of Vogue,” although those wouldn’t hurt, but more like “not something I see every day, and you clearly made an effort to make it that way,” although that title is a little long.
That’s the reason I like Broad and Market so much: I ended up scrapping the idea for a great many reasons, but I feel like Maggie does almost exactly what I would have done. Because while the photo I started the post off with would probably ring the Sartorialist’s bell, there’s also this guy:
And this lady:
And of course this lady, too:
Which: not something I’d wear, nor something that would be in Vogue. But it’s definitely not something you see every day, either.
Say what you want, but there is so much amazing layering and pattern/color play going on here – plus dreads, eyebrows, and the custom baseball cap. If you click either image, you can see the extra huge version for all the little details. For real, who picks out a fitted pastel-quilt pattern hoodie and rocks it like that? This is real good.
Exactly!
So what if it’s a crisp fall day out? There’s free frozen yogurt in West Chester! According to NBC10, California based Sprinkles is opening a location in West Chester, and to commemorate the occasion they’re giving away free frozen yogurt with free unlimited toppings! We’re pretty excited because we’re big Red Mango and even bigger Pinkberry fans – neither of which have hit the Philly area, YET.
Daily Candy is pointing the way to Tide’s Loads of Hope Campaign, which is working towards helping those effected by natural disasters. You can help by purchasing Tide with yellow caps or by purchasing one of their cute t-shirts. With products like that, helping couldn’t be easier. Daily Candy also has a write up on these interesting rose thorn earrings from Lee Hale, available at Egan Day on South Street.
Courtesy of Daily Candy
We also peeped these boots from Sorel on the Nordstrom.com website – they’re cute and look like a great alternative to Uggs for seriously icy or snowy days.
Show your allegiance with a hat that’s dapper.
The pillbox is an unconventional enough silhouette that it’s only available on New Era’s Japanese site, which of course leads to your standard crazy-ass incomprehensible Babelfish translation:
To 1985, it is the design which [pitsutsubagupairetsu] has worn with the tournament. Size is the same standard as the usual FITTED cap, but it turns out even at the same size by comparison with 59FIFTY from the form and/or with it becomes the fitting impression of doing.
It took like twenty minutes of thinking about something else entirely for my subconscious to equate “pitsutsubagupairetsu” with “Pittsburgh Pirates” and “kupazutaun” with “Cooperstown.” So with some googling (because despite my recent enthusiasm for the Phillies, I’m fundamentally sports-illiterate) I have determined that this pillbox-type shape is based on the style of the 1977-1986 Pittsburgh Pirates hats, which… I guess I had expected it to be more in the WW1 date range. When I imagine someone wearing a hat of that shape, they also have a waxed mustache and are sepia-toned. (If you’re interested in that sort of thing, btw, Bianca did a post on the evolution of the Phillies uniform a while back.)
The pillbox-esque hats (which are available for a few other teams, too) are ￥5,250, which is about… $57.50? Damn you, tanking exchange rates!
And one more Phillies-related thing today, from the dudes at chwuny, because god knows we have a thing for homemade-ass bootleg t-shirts and last night’s game was pretty awesome. This one’s for you, Chase Utley:
Yeah, that’s Giant Utley; in his spare time he enjoys throwing cars, telling people that he’s 15 feet… AROUND and complaining about this chick who’s kind of crazy but who’s the only one who really gets him, you know?
