May 21st--So Frick-en Excited!

I'm a little behind on my blogging, but I promise to catch up. Now that I know I have at least three people checking this I am more motivated to keep it up to date!

After our late morning run by the East River and a quick 12:00 breakfast at Subway, we(my mom and I) threw ourselves together and headed to Grand Central Station. We took the subway uptown so we could go see the Frick Collection. This is a mansion turned museum showcasing the art collection of Henry Clay Frick. While there, I learned something very important… have you ever wondered why it is called a “drawing room”? It is not because it is a room used exclusively for drawing, but because it is the room the women would withdraw to after having dinner with the men. I love random bits of trivia and immediately catalogued this into my brain, you know, just in case it comes up in a game of Trivial Pursuit or as a question on Cash Cab (which I am determined to find, ride and conquer).

Walking along Park Avenue I was stopped by the most amazing cropped vest in a store window. I just stopped, pointed and dropped my jaw. Luckily my mom stopped and turned to make sure I was keeping up. “Mom. LOOK.” Were all the words I could get out. Turns out, it was the Juicy Couture store!!! I couldn’t believe it! Of course I had to go in. Three out of the4 girls who worked there had super annoying voices and all complimented me on my silver sparkly Toms I was wearing. I was on my way to the vest but got distracted about 75 times on the way to it. Everything in there was absolutely amazing. Words can’t even begin to describe…so anyways, turns out the vest is part of the Bird line by Juicy Couture. Only 5 Juicy stores in the US are carrying it and the collection is to die for! (If my brother reads this I’m sure he will say to his computer, “really Mikelle, would you literally DIE for these clothes?” in a sarcastic but serious manner). All the while, one girl who worked there was following us around and making the dumbest comments. By the time I got upstairs, I wanted to punch her right in the face. She would just make really obvious comments, thinking that it would help sell me on something. For example, I picked up this black satin skirt that was flat and fitted in the front and then I turned it around, revealing the layers of satin ruffles that covered the back…skirt crush…anyways, when I did that she said, “yeah that skirt is really great because it has ruffles on the back”. Well OBVIOUSLY! Tell me something I don’t know or can’t see with my own eyes while I’m holding the piece right in front of me. Tell me something interesting like, “oh, Kate Moss was in here yesterday and she bought three of those”. This happened with everything I picked up or glanced at. A tan dress…”oh that dress also comes in pink, which is really cute”…the pink one was hanging right next to the tan one on the rack and I could obviously see it came in another color. On the second floor there was a white dress with light blue and orange flowers on it. On the same rack there was a shirt made of the same material and some blue and orange cardigans that were clearly made to go with the dresses and shirts. Little annoying girl chimed in, “lots of people have been putting those cardigans with that dress and it is really cute!”. Once again….DUH! I GET THAT! Why do you think they used the exact same colors of the flowers for the cardigans and put them on the same rack? Just for fun?...I don’t know, maybe I am just being overly dramatic about it, or maybe it was a combination of things I don’t like…short girls with annoying voices who think they know about fashion but they don’t, who also have a need to say things that are blatantly obvious to people functioning on normal brain wavelengths. Oh, AND she kept repeating to us, probably about 17 times that they were having a promotion on their jewelry, “buy one, get the second half off”. I had just about enough of her by the time we got out of there. What did I end up getting you ask? Only some killer black leggings with gold button snaps that go half way up my calf and a blue silk ruffley romper. Both are beautiful and the romper is part of the Bird collection J.

Next we hit up Dylan’s Candy Bar. It was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, complete with candy printed wallpaper in the bathrooms that looked like you could lick it and it would taste like candy. I didn’t try it. I’m not that adventurous.

We got some dinner and decided to head down to Mood. I had some things on my supply list to get there, so we hopped on the subway and headed to the Fashion district. Mood is on the third floor and so we walked in a pushed the button for the elevator. There was a man already waiting there, he was young, tall, dark and handsome. He had a dog standing next to him, also waiting patiently for the elevator. The man turned to us and asked if we were heading up to Mood, we said yes. He then told us that the dog was Mood’s mascot. Sure was! It was Swatch, the dog often seen running around Mood as the designers from Project Runway searched for fabrics for their challenges! I counted Swatch as my first celebrity encounter.

Mood was all I hoped it would be and more. It is full of awe-inspiring fabrics, buttons, lace, trims, and everything in between. Plus, everyone who worked there was friendly and extremely helpful. I had to buy some muslin and this guy named Adam helped me. He was beautiful, dark and British. He asked me if I had a collection coming up…I melted. I don’t know why. Maybe it was a combination of everything: that I am in New York, going to Parson’s, buying fabric at Mood, and being helped by a sexy British man. He asked if I checked out “blog sites”. I said yes! and he wrote down his for me to check out. He works at Mood on Thursday and Friday, sells vintage men’s clothing and antique furniture at the market on Saturdays and is working on his own men’s clothing line because, “the men here need some help”. I couldn’t agree more.

So I got my muslin, my pins and my needle and thread. We had some extra time and decided to browse a little bit. I came across this amazing pink and gold brocade silk fabric. I stood and gawked at it for a while, then one of the workers came up and asked if we needed help. I nodded, still googley eyed, while he pulled out the bolt. He pulled the tag out of the cardboard tube the fabric was wrapped around, and announced it was Carolina Herrera…amazing. It was love at first sight, for me anyways, and I couldn’t leave the store without it, so I didn’t.

We picked up some magazines on our way back to the hotel (I am supposed to be tearing out inspirations of details for one of my classes, things like collars, trims, buttons, waistlines, etc. Best homework ever). Once we got back, I began taking inventory of my art supplies and writing down what else I needed to get…then SLAM! Hungry again. Neither one of us wanted to leave to get food, so we ordered room service; we got a pizza and a cheeseburger with fries. Oh, and Diet Cokes. All were satisfying and put my mom right to sleep.

She just woke up, looked at my computer and said, “wow Mikelle, that’s a lot of writing”. She’s right. I promise I’m done now.