back home.

whoa. I am back from New York! There is much to tell. First off, I apologize for the shotty pictures (and the lack of interesting ones). I didn't make many pictures because besides going to the show, we didn't end up doing that much exciting after the first day. I'll get to that in a minute. We arrived Saturday afternoon and spent the day walking around our hotel and ended up seeing the American Beauty exhibit at the FIT museum. It was so amazing seeing all those gowns in person and it got us in the mood for a week of buying. Then we had a wonderful dinner at Resto, a Belgian restaurant that is known for it's mussels and frites. I absolutely LOVE mussels, and this was THE place to go because we each got a pail of them all to ourselves with a side of frites. Yum. After dinner we headed to the Ace Hotel and as soon as I walked into the front doors I knew we had made a good decision. Incredible taxidermy (check), great drinks (check), Opening Ceremony store attached (double check), awesome decor and friendly folks (check).

We woke up the next morning bright and early and headed to show all day and ended up staying in for pizza (greasy NYC style-awesome) and planned on going to some fun places the next two evenings. Unfortunately that's when my trips turns south. We had dinner the next night at this cute restaurant near our hotel before going out and within 4 hours I had the WORST food poisoning. I ended up staying in our hotel bathroom all night, barely making it to the show the next day, by then I was so exhausted and still feeling gross we didn't make it out again. Boo. It was such a bummer.

Coterie was a success! The show was gigantic, but I thought it was well organized and we managed to pick up a few new lines. Here are some of the fall trends that I saw consistently throughout the show:

-Khaki pants :a lot of the denim lines were really pushing these. Most of them we're a straight to skinny leg.

-Cargo pants :again, a lot of these were on a skinny or even legging body. Not sure how I felt about them...

- Strong shoulders : everywhere! From a basic tank to a sweater, I saw a ton of shoulder pads; ruched shoulders, or slightly pointed ones.The sweater above is from a line called Mcginn which I fell in love with immediately.

-Embellished shoulders: not only padded, but I noticed a lot of detail focused on shoulders from razzle dazzle stones to military type adornments.

-Lace: this was everywhere too. Lots of shirts and blouses had lace detail or a cut-out with small lace patch.

-Slouchy trouser: Usually cropped with loose pockets. I really liked theses!

-Fabric insets on denim: Some of the fashion denim would be distressed and under the distressing would be some sort of printed fabric from stripes to liberty print.

-Dress Shorts: We'll be seeing a lot of tweed and velvet shorts paired with tights this fall for sure!

-Stripes: Still really big!

That's what comes in mind for now. I am kind of brain dead from the lack of sleep and traveling so bear with me. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and week and I can't wait to catch up on your blogs. Have a great day!!

strong shoulders

When I found my vintage holiday dress in Chicago (I know. I still need to post a picture of it...) I was pumped to see that it had some structural shoulders to it. They aren't Arsenio Hall big, but they have just the right amount of poufness that make them look stylish and strong. I think we're going to be seeing them a lot more in the future. I especially love the look of the black blouse. It's funny how things come back around in different forms....

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Thank you for all your kind words. I am feeling much better!

It was so odd. I felt so terrible, and the next day I was fine...

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Photos via Bona Drag, Fieldguided, and L'atelier d'une fée's

one giant leap for mankind

I love how designers are looking through telescopes for their latest ideas. I can't blame them either. After seeing pictures from the Hubble Space Site, how can you not draw inspiration from such massive beauty that is too amazing to form into words?

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Scarf: Risto Bimbiloski, Dress: Mociun, Tights: Tsumori Chisato, Shirt: Vena Cava

vegas and fashion forecast

Well, I'm back from two eventful weeks. I thought I would start at the beginning so Vegas it is! It was my first time going to Vegas, and I must say it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I do wish we had more time to peruse clothing lines, but most of our day was filled with meetings with lines we already carry. We did manage to pick up a few new lines which I'm eager to have and will post on that later. Andrea and I tried setting a curfew for ourselves the night we went out, but what was supposed to be midnight turned into five in the morning! Oh yes we did. We managed to stay out till 5 a.m. and rise again at 7 a.m. for meetings!! I think Vegas does that to people....We had so much though! We ended up at a few awesome bars/clubs (and I don't even like clubs!) and danced the night away. We befriended Bobby, who I guess (once googled), is a pro-soccer player/featured in Cosmo mag for bachelor of the year. He bought all our drinks (and my 8 Fiji waters) the whole night! Not bad right? Hehe. {We spent a lot of time at the Venetian. Great shopping, foods, and where Project was}

{Andrea checking out Nanette Lapore} {Me, Andrea, and Bobby (this was probably taken at 3 in the morning....)}

We did a lot of our spring 2010 (can't believe I just typed that year....) buying for the shop, so I was excited to see all the upcoming trends. Here's what I noticed in a lot of what we saw:

Bottoms:

- Pretty much every denim line we visited was showing some sort of denim legging (as well as jegging-new coined word in the fashion world?). These were everywhere in a lot of different colors and washes from distressed to pastels. They seemed to have come a long way too with zippers and usable pockets.

-The boyfriend jean was still huge, but evolving into more of a slouchy straight leg body instead. I happen to LOVE this body and can't wait to get my hands on a pair.

-Shapely fitted knit skirts (a lot of high waisted bodies)

- I saw a lot of cut-off jean shorts, as well as heavily distressed and high waisted denim shorts.

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Patterns and Colors:

- Floral was still everywhere (thankfully!)

-Color block prints were seen a lot. I saw this a lot in the winter too. It kind of reminds me of Bill Cosby (in a good way)

-Geometric! I love that this is becoming bigger and better. The clothing line Industry had some awesome geometric prints that I recommend checking out this spring (affordable too!).

-Whimsy patterns where seen a little bit in each line. We picked up a really cute silk blouse with little hearts on it from BCBG that I thought was adorable.

-Tie-dye and watercolor was shown in a lot of shirts and dresses. If done right, this can look really pretty in a silk.

-Pastels were everywhere. Pale greys, pinks, minty greens, soft browns, peach, and cream were not only in dresses and tops, but huge in denim as well.

-Chartreuse was definitely the "pop" of color a lot of lines used.

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Tops and Misc.:

-Cropped jackets both in a slouchy easy body as well as a structured one.

-The maxi dress will be back again.

-Slouchy T-shirts and tanks will make a return. I saw a lot of these in every color and pattern imaginable.

-Bib overalls! I saw these in a lot of denim and small lines. Some were actually quite cute!

-Denim jackets

- Jumpers are still evolving and will be around for a while.

Of course there is a TON more to mention, but these we're consistently in every line. Hmm, that's all I got for now! I hope that post wasn't too long for your attention span. What trends are you looking forward too?

ps. its weird to be talking about spring when winter hasn't even arrived!