INSPIRATION
This month I've been into fashion history and popular critique of the fashion industry, as well as some fashion business reading. If you're also into these topics then check out our August gems:
Trying out the Bamboo paper app. I can't believe I hadn't used it before, I guess I've been out of the app world for a while, but absolutely love it. I've never been great at sketching and I'm practicing to get better. First try on the app:
What's your favorite sketching app?
Remember when shopping meant physically going to a store? Or better/worse a mall or strip mall? These days, between online shopping, mobile shopping, and even instagram shopping, (who's participated in an instagram sale?) it's easier than ever to get that instant adrenaline rush of making a purchase. What's interesting, is that successful e-commerce shops are beginning to establish real life stores. Online companies seem to have caught on that sometimes we need to try things on, play with our future purchases, and yes, physically swipe our debit cards (entering the numbers at home just isn't the same). E-commerce going brick-and-mortar is a trend that is sticking, it's as if even online shops need a place to call home.
The most recent activity of this trend was the opening of Birchbox's first brick-and-mortar in Soho last Friday. Oh how I wish I could've been there, their instagram account gave me serious fomo.
433 West Broadway New York, NY 10012
Co-founders Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp launched Birchbox in September 2010, and now less than four years later they have their own brick-and-mortar. As a responsible millennial, I started my $10 a month Birchbox subscription as soon as I got my first steady-paycheck, real-person job. I love these boxes, they provide me with the excitement of shopping, without having to do any work at all. I've fallen in love with some of my sampled products (*ahem* Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish), including a few that I would've never picked out for myself (*ahem* Lara and co purple sheer lip lube). Even though my Birchbox comes every month, I can track its shipping, and even sneak a peak at the samples before they arrive, I always want more, and anxiously await my next box. Birchbox's 4,200 square foot brick-and-mortar, complete with a Try Bar, BYOB - Build Your Own Birchbox bar, and hair, make-up and nail studio, sounds like my kind of Wonderland. I can't wait to get back to NYC to BYOB.
hours: M - S 10am - 8pm, Su 11am - 6pm (212) 966-5395
121 Greene Street
New York, NY 10012
Before their brick-and-mortar, Warby Parker partnered with boutiques to have stores-in-stores, an array of pop-up shops, and even a Warby Parker class trip van tour. I even remember visiting the Warby Parker class trip van on M Street in DC last spring. Now they have showrooms in Oklahoma City, Chicago, Nashville, Richmond, and Philadelphia, and brick-and-mortar's in LA, Dallas, NY and Boston. It's incredibly easy, convenient and, of course, charitable to have a pair of Warby Parker glasses - that you tried on in store - these days.
hours: M - F 9:30am – 5:30pm, s 11:00am - 6:30pm, su 11:00am – 5:30pm (646) 517-5223
230 Fifth Avenue suite 610 New York, NY 10001
I admit I have yet to try Baublebar's gems. However, in researching and viewing almost/probably all of their instagram posts, I absolutely need to get myself into a Baublebar to look at the jewelry in person. While the Bar by Baublebar is in New York, Baublebar has locations within Anthropologie and Nordstrom, including two right here in DC.
hours: M - F 10am - 6pm, by appointment only (646) 664-4827
291 Geary Street, Floor 2 San Francisco, CA 94102
Stephanie has a beautiful black monogramed leather tote, which goes great with our etxe wallet. She constantly gets complements on the quality of the leather on both. I'm lucky to have seen the leather tote in person, and of course I want my own someday! For everyone else, you'll have to visit their showroom in SF.
hours: M - F 10am - 5pm 1 (888) 993 9092
coming soon LA
Sophia Amoruso summed up the reasoning for why an e-commerce shop would want to go brick-and-mortar in a SXSW interview when she said about the nastygal customer, "We want to engage with her in the real world." I trust that this ultimate #girlboss will make this dream a reality in the very near future, and I can't wait to shop there.
What's your favorite e-commerce gone brick-and-mortar store?
Two things I am loving this week that reuse, recycle and upcycle fabrics and thrift store finds for fashion statements. I think the crazy amount of clothing and fabric that exists in the world is a huge problem/waste and I've always been inspired by ways to create with it. And not something ugly and worn, but something fresh and beautiful. Here are two expressions of creators doing just that. Enjoy!
Jillian Owens is a writer and refashionista. She finds things you might pass over in thrift stores, and makes them wearable, even chic. She posts her before and after photos at Refashionista, often including how to.
Eckhaus Latta (the duo Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta) source forgotten fabrics to create futurist wears, and then make Harmony Korine-esque fashion films with filmmaker Alexa Karolinski.
[gallery columns="5" link="none" ids="3645,3646,3647,3648,3649,3650,3651,3652,3653,3654,3655,3656,3657,3658,3659,3660,3663,3664,3667,3670,3671,3672,3673,3674,3675,3676,3677,3678,3679,3680,3681,3682,3683,3684,3685,3686,3687,3688,3690,3692,3693,3694,3696,3697,3698,3699,3700,3701,3702,3703,3704,3705,3706,3707,3708,3709,3710,3711,3712,3713,3714,3716,3718,3719,3721,3722"] I am not a fan of big stadium concerts. Too often they are filled with annoying crowds and fail to live up to expectations. Even so, when I found out Beyonce and Jay Z were going on tour I snagged the cheapest seats for my sister and I so we could celebrate her birthday and check out this rare appearance of the two performing together.
Then I forgot about it. It wasn't until last week we realized we didn't quite know where the concert even was or how to get there from DC. Thankfully, Val figured out the logistics and we decided easier to rent a car and drive out than to rely on the train (or get stuck somewhere late at night in Baltimore).
We ordered a car and parking online literally the night before. On Monday, we grabbed the car after eating some Shake Shack, which seemed a good idea at the time but it's only after you eat fast food that you realize you never really need to eat fast food...anyway we figured out how to drive this car, then headed out on the 295 E to Baltimore. Traffic was horrendous, as expected, but it gave us some time to chat and the tree-lined highway made the trip enjoyable. We fought over 50s on 5 vs top 40 and tried to guess what types of music sirius stations like 'Watercolor' played--smooth jazz ;0. It was nice to have some wheels, a sunroof over our head, a/c on and a tank full (or, quarter full, it was a rental) of gas.
Eventually we got to Baltimore, found our parking garage, hopped in an uber and arrived at M&T stadium. We were a little bit late so we didn't waste any time trying to find our seats, but instead just walked in to the first place that looked like a good view. It was a great view and with no one checking tickets, we just stayed dancing in the aisle all night.
Beyonce and Jay Z did not disappoint. Equally show stopping, in very different ways & with polar opposite attire, they graced the stage each individually and as a duo. Their star-quality could be felt across the field, and the energy in the open air stadium, hot and humid under the full moon, was electric.
They played some hits, but mostly focused on 2014 material. My favorite parts were the French new wave influenced visuals throughout--especially the tree dressed city playground during Jay Z's Hard Knock Life and the black and white film montages, the subtle glances between J + B, Beyonce's Houston jacket and Flag dress, Jay Z's command of the stage, Beyonce's command of the crowd, the covers, including Tina Turner and Michael Jackson, clever transitions and the most cinematic home videos I've ever seen.
The finale moment when the two physically joined together and, visually, appeared with Blue, revealed a family affair of heart and soul with a backdrop of fame and a foreground of hard work + dedication to some semblance of privacy...it felt almost spiritual. They may be worldwide super stars, but at the end of the day it's the three of them, building a family and somehow keeping it together, living the life just like the rest of us (well, kind of).
For them, it's just real life.
Overall, a very curated and aesthetically pleasing post-modern tale of love, life and modern-day culture. All the single ladies ain't got ninety nine problems but a surfboard is drunk in love can I get a ?
Really though, well done production and art team behind the on the run tour. And kudos to whoever is taking care of Blue Ivy.
Here are some quote about freedom by women that inspire us.
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” ― Coco Chanel
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ― Gloria Steinem
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” ― Virginia Woolf
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” ― Toni Morrison
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” ― Toni Morrison
“Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.” ― Anaïs Nin
“I'm single because I was born that way.” ― Mae West
I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” ― Charlotte Brontë
“I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.” ― Charlotte Brontë
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” ― Mary Wollstonecraft
“We love our lovin'....but not like we love our freedom.” ― Joni Mitchell
“I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said 'I want to be let alone!' There is all the difference.” ― Greta Garbo
“Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.” ― Patti Smith
“Don't let the man bring you down.” ― Maya Angelou
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” ― Rosa Luxemburg
“Politics should be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.” ― Lucille Ball
Until we are all free, we are none of us free. ” ― Emma Lazarus
“I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily.” ― Joyce Carol Oates
“Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.” ― Margaret Thatcher
“Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.” ― Susan Sontag
