www.welovetonywang.com

Philadelphia-based fashion designer/blogger/student/PR man Tony Wang thinks you should love him, at least, that’s what his web address claims (www.welovetonywang.com). Decide for yourself tomorrow at Wang’s first Philadelphia trunk show. Hosted at Matthew Izzo, the afternoon boasts 15% off Wang’s 3st (said “thirst”) line as well as freebies from BCBGENERATION for anyone in attendance.

The afternoon guarantees plenty of male-friendly pieces though Wang says his skinny ties (a mainstay of his collections) could be for ladies too according to a recent interview. I can already picture his thin ties spattered with geometric shapes fluttering in the wind behind hipster boys on track bikes and if the current trends of asymmetrical pixie haircuts and boyfriend jeans are any indicator of where women’s fashion trends are heading, Wang’s collection should appeal to the masses. Bring on the androgyny!

R.S.V.P. via Facebook…or just show up.

Friday plays host to quite a few events, including Fashion & Soul a shopping happy hour by Showroom 77 at Ms. Tootsie’s on South Street.  From 5-10pm snag $7 drinks and soul food downstairs, while upstairs (after you’ve presumably cleaned up from all the BBQ wings) shop among local designers, including Strangefruit, Walish Gooshe, and Commenwealth Proper.  It’s like Philly Fashion Week all over again.  Paperless invite here.

Or, depending on what part of town you’re in, you can always head to Made to Order as they unload new fall womenswear and accessories from Hellz Bellz, CTRL, Rojas and more.  One of the sponsors is Nuvo, a sparkling liqueur with Red Bull, which says everything you need to know, really.  After party in the Piazza at PYT, open bar 10-11pm!  More info on their blog.

Saturday morning Fashion for Food takes place in South Phil (and combines two of my favorite things).  Pro boxer and Philly designer, Simon “One Punch” Carr is hosting a food drive at the Marion Anderson Recreation Center (where all proceeds will go to) starting at 11:30am.  Tickets are $15 for the live entertainment event (and perhaps a pap shot of Mayor Nutter, who is supposed to attend?) and guests are encouraged to donate a canned good and/or winter jacket.

Poshreview.com is hosting Fashion Rocks Philly—a glammed out “tour” of the luxury lifestyle and fashion website as it celebrates its Philly launch at Patou Restaurant from 7-10pm.  Aside from a fashion show (and more food!) the tour goes through each category on the website, from Jewelry to Arts and Culture will be on display.  Head to their website for more info.

If you’re looking for something a little more subdued, The Toothless Cat art gallery in the Piazza will be hosting an art opening for their latest exhibit, Wild Things.  Expect paintings from tattoo artist turned fine artist Bird Reynolds and additional works from artists Monique Ligons and Joe Leonard.

But wait wait! If you’re not completely physically exhausted by Sunday, you should probably exert the rest of your energy at the Philly Roller Girl Tryouts at Millennium Skate World in Camden.  Starting at 11am, battle it out for the chance to compete with the league.  The website recommends bringing your gear—pads, helmets and all—and I do to.  Bruises aren’t stylish, ever.

Courtesy of Kaboodle.com

If you’re looking for somewhere to keep track of all of your holiday shopping and wish lists, look no further than Kaboodle.com. They’re currently featuring this USB drive on their homepage, which is shaped like a key.  While it’s probably not a good idea to leave your entire key chain hanging out of your USB port, the key is still one of our faves.

If you’re interested in cupcakes without the calories, FredFlare.com has just what you’re looking for. Fred Flare also has the cutest Holly Golightly sleep mask. Now if only we had a little mailbox to store our perfume like her to spritz on the way out the door.

While we were browsing through some December magazines, we noticed an ad for Dillard’s. Even though their closest store is in Virginia, you can still purchase things from them via text message! We found this dangerous and intriguing. By using the service Shop Text, you can register to receive updates on sales and promotions from some of your favorite shops, as well as make purchases. We registered but didn’t link it with our billing information — it’s just that it’s SO EASY to make a purchase that impulse buys could get to be too much of a problem.

Lastly, blogger Chandra Hayslett caught our eye recently. A former newspaper reporter who is in love with fashion, Chandra describes her love affairs with things like capes from Anthropologie and patterned tights. Chandra describes things in such an accessible way that we’re starting to fall in love too.

Courtesy of Glamour.com

Happy Hump Day!  This morning Marie Claire’s got links to the 25 beauty products that will change your life. While we haven’t tried them all, we can’t argue with the benefits of the Chanel Nude Blush or Mac’s Bronzer just to bring a glow to your face during the drab winter months, the Jergens Natural Glow Express Body Moisturizer which helps us look like we had a nice weekend getaway to Cancun even if we sadly haven’t taken out our passports, as well as Olay’s Body Wash with exfoliating ribbons. With such a moisturizing body wash, you can even skip a post-shower moisturizer. Nice. Marie Claire also posted tips on how to care for your skin depending on your climate.

Lilliana Vazquez, who contributes to NBC10 posted some  cute and affordable sweaters on her blog – The Cheap Chica’s Guide To Style. Glamour magazine is also looking out for your wallet, with their list of shoes for $50 and under.

Philadelphia Magazine is on the lookout in Rittenhouse Square, spotting some styles that they love as well as a type of yoga we hadn’t seen yet. It’s called Slackline Yoga, and it’s done on a tightrope. Philadelphia Magazine spotted Jennifer Nehila practicing Slackline and did a writeup and shot video. Just as Jennifer mentions, YogaSlackers.com gives more information on the practice as a whole.

Lastly, we’re not sure how the #4 resturant on this ESPN list earned it spot, but we’re cracking up.

We mentioned a couple of days ago, spurred by the above excellent neon skyline tattoo above (done by Chad Knight at Boulevard Tattoo in Collingsdale), that we were gonna try to round up the boldest and beautiful-est Philly-love tattoos. We found a lot of LOVE Parks, a lot of sports team logos and a lot of Liberty Bells, but we’ve sorted through them all and come up with the neatest ones, starting with a rather less abstract skyline than the one above:

Damn.

it was composed from 3 different photos found on the google image. design was re-drawn based on those photos. it was rearranged so that all main buildings can be shown in narrow space. i had hard time finding the “perfect photo” and unfortunately could not find one thus end up just making it up (based on the real thing).

This tattoo, still in progress, is being worked on by Masami Inagaki, a PAFA graduate with skills. She works out of Gemini Tattoo up in the Northeast, you can contact her there if you want some work done starting in 2010. But not koi:

i will be taking a break from koi tattoo til next summer. (9 koi designs just this year alone. sorry i’m bit tired of them. thank you for understanding!

These three are by Benjamin Harris, who works at Sink the Ink in Willow Grove. He got his degree in illustration from MICA and then did animation in video games, and boy are these some good-looking, original tattoos.

This one, of the giant clothespin sculpture at 15th and Market, was done by Clay at Body Graphics, at 4th and Bainbridge. It was emailed in by Kristen (whose leg that is), who said:

I got it because I wanted a Philly tattoo and I also wanted to make fun of the massive amount of people who have the Love Park sculpture tattoo. Hey people, there are other things that represent our city other than Love Park and the Liberty bell!

Indeed! It’s tough to strike the right balance between “instantly recognizable symbol of a city” and “touristy cliche in real life,” but the red clothespin does it pretty well in our opinion. Or you could just go across the street…

…to City Hall. I said goddamn! This was done by Shane O’Neill, who works out of Wilmington, Delaware and who obviously does some pretty fucking amazing black-and-white photorealistic stuff. O’Neill is an illustration graduate of U of Arts, so probably saw this south view of City Hall pretty frequently back in the day.

And as long as you’re gonna do the LOVE Park thing, you may as well get done it beautifully. From John Howie of Moo Tattoo on South Street near 5th.

Joey Vento? Can’t imagine anyone else would get this; although it looks very nice, we can’t imagine there’s more than one person willing to act as a billboard for Geno’s. It does, however, very much recreate the atmosphere of that one gaudy, neon-ass block, so we’ve included it regardless of opinion of Joey Vento. This one was done by Philly Ink Tattoo, near the Allegheny El stop.

What more can you say? There is no place like home, especially when home is a Keystone Ben Franklin surrounded by Mountain Laurels and fireflies (those would be our state flower and insect, btw). Not entirely sure about the lilies and the Canada Goose (as our state bird is in fact the ruffled grouse), but I did find out while looking those up that our state toy is the Slinky and that is totally sweet.

Like the clothespin above, this one was done at Body Graphics, but by Carla Hopkins, who has a portfolio that’s heavy on the interesting before-and-after coverup work. We suggest you click through the link, because tattoo coverups are inherently pretty tragicomic.

By Braden Kendall of Eddie’s Chinatown Tattoo (in, uh, Chinatown). We like the pairing of these two little demonic birds with Philly imagery (PA may be the ruffled grouse, but Philly is the HELLBIRD WITH EYES OF FIRE. Or probably the Eagle, on second thought. Never mind).

Lastly, I was positive that if I went looking I’d find at least one person with a tattoo of Will Smith, and, as it turns out, I was triply correct. One person has this insane Will-Smith-as-Hancock on his leg, by L.A.’s Cecil Porter:

And it is alleged that not one but TWO people have this same tattoo of Will Smith eating Rap Snacks, and that the tattoo copycat is Creighton Barrett of Band of Horses.

OK, seriously, as an unconfirmable rumor that’s way too good to be true, “The drummer from Band of Horses ripped off a tattoo of Will Smith eating Rap Snacks” of  of this ranks up there with “Nicolas Cage was once arrested for stealing a chihuahua” and “A-Rod has two paintings of himself as a centaur over his bed.”

If it exists, Rap Snacks Willie is always hiding under a lot of plaid stuff in photos. Anybody got a picture of Creighton Barrett with his shirt off?

Courtesy of the New York Times

The NY Times has an article that may solve all your reservations about buying a designer dress. Granted that all you are concerned about the price, the price and the price. Rent the Runway is a company set up to let you borrow dresses when you need them, and only pay for the nights you have them. It’s like the Netflix or the Bag, Borrow, or Steal of dresses.

Lucky Magazine is full of nuggets of information, including this one — Sears is carrying a line of Rock & Redemption Jewelry, all for under $100! Allure’s got some nuggets too, including information on how there are some winter beauty myths out there that they’d like to clear up.

We love our Carol’s Daughter’s shea butter lotion, and we love knowing that it’s made from all natural products. If you don’t love Carol’s Daughter you should read up on the company – and the fact that Erykah Badu and Brad Pitt are fans. What’s got us smitten right now is the new beauty collections branded with The Princess and The Frog designs.

Lastly, play around with Net-A-Porter’s suggestions to winterize. Even if you can’t afford their price points, the design of this page is worth a look all on it’s own.

Cargo's Runway Kit

I came across Uniqlo while I was studying in London. The Japanese retailer wasn’t on this side of the pond at that point, and I thought that I had come across buried treasure. There’s a store in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood now, but it’s still not as common as it is in the UK, France, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong or Singapore. However, thanks to the magic of the Internet you can order any of their products online, including their awesome HEATTECH Line. HEATTECH does magical things – generates heat, and controls odor (that’s always a concern when we’re trying to stay toasty — but not too toasty) while remaining soft and static free. You can also check out Uniqlo’s winter collection HEATTECH and otherwise.

Also inspired by across the pond designs – this cute skirt that Rachel Zoe also loves from Topshop. Rachel discusses it in her blog in the Parallel Universe section.

This morning Marie Claire points the way to Bright Bags, the NY Times discusses the cultural phenomenon that is Blake Lively’s hair — and to think, it was under a hat in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. In addition to having Ellen on the cover, O Magazine discusses Cargo’s Runway Kit available at Sephora – blush and eyeshadow styled to look like chunky sweater knits and buttons respectively.

Awesome USB Ports -- Courtesy of SmilePanic.com

Somehow we’ve never come across this one before. 2leep.com – a website that features blogs from what seems like EVERYWHERE. If you look through the links, which are endless, you’ll find posts on creative USB Port Drivers, sneakers made out of paper, weird iPhone holders, creative candle designs. That’s just a limited sampling. The posts linked at this site are on every topic you could possibly think of.

Glamour.com let us know that Christian Sirianos designs are available at Payless – all for under $50! Nice. Glamour has also found boots for under $150 – they’re so good to us!

Lastly, Ellen is finally on the cover of O Magazine!  She campaigned for months and she’s finally on the cover. Check out the photo shoot here.

Courtesy of Lucky Magazine

Lucky also has a gift guide broken down into categories that we really like: Artsy, Moroccan, On The Go, Victorian, At Home, Country Chic, Bejeweled and Ten Dollars and Under. We especially love this tea cup with little claw feet from the Victorian section, it reminds us of those awesome tubs with claws. We also like the Moroccan section and all of it’s gorgeous embellishments, especially this gorgeous decorated platter. There’s also a website with more finds from the North African country called JustMorocco.com While some stuff on the site is pricey, other stuff is not. Check out these lanterns for under $100.

We also came across this post on Jezebel, which claims “If you wan’t to be popular, you can’t afford to be skinny.” It’s a vintage ad. It’s just interesting to see how beauty ideals have changed.

Rihanna’s interview with Diane Sawyer seems to be the media’s latest obsession — but we’re just admiring her as an artist and style icon. Check out these outfits that she’s worn, as well as pictures from the photo shoot for Glamour magazine’s cover. Gorgeous! Just so we’re clear, we’re glad Rihanna was comfortable enough to come forward and talk about such a painful moment in her life, but we also want to focus on the positive as well.

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.