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Like every great movement throughout the ages, I too need followers…
… You may find Mulberry buried beneath!
Food fashion is totally on my plate these days ever since Louis Vuitton released their candy shop campaign and Dolce & Gabbana models walked the Spring Summer runway with Rigatoni handled handbags and Farfalle earrings. (I have high hopes for a pas-tastic DG display- which is why I am holding off on their runway pics).
For the fashionably diabetic, if you need an instant sugar fix stop by Bloomingdale’s on 59th, grab a Magnolia cupcake and take a peek at the sickkk Vuitton window that will make you question why as a kid you ever uttered the words “pretty please with a cherry on top” when clearly a Loius was the much better way to go! If this window is indicative of their flagship’s display to come, we are all in for a real treat!
For those of you looking for something sweet to wear on your feet, I’m obsessed with Irregular Choice’s Sundae Best shoe. Imagine how sickkk they would be styled with black skinny jeans, a striped scarf, leather jacket and a relaxed white tee… The lacquered heel on this shoe is not my favorite but what it lacks in chic it makes up in kitsch!
And lastly, no window shop would be complete without Mulberry’s corresponding runway treat, so have your fill with two more foodie fashion pieces:
Mulberry, 605 Madison Ave, 212.453.4722
Bloomingdales, 1000 Third Avenue, 212.705.2000
Images courtesy of Style.com
One of my all time favorite things to do in the city is gallery walk in the art district. The drinks are free, the installations are inspiring and it’s a much better crawl crowd than Santa-con. All of these pieces are home in the Taché Gallery with the exclusion of the horse, he belongs to the Illuminated Metropolis Gallery, and is by an artist named Omar Odeh.
Here are some of my favorites from summer time gallery walking:
Taché Gallery, 547 W 27th St., No. 602
Illuminated Metropolis Gallery, 547 W 27th St, No. 529
Although the fashion community is gearing up for Fall Fashion Week, and Couture shows are still unraveling, back in the retail world we are still in resort mode. And it’s a good thing because aside from refusing to think about another fall/winter while I’m still freezing my ass off in the current one, unlike store windows which are on display for much longer and have a much wider audience base, runway shows are over in a matter of forty minutes give or take and reserved for vip invitees. (Save for Valentino Haute Couture which I totally tuned into for yesterday’s live stream).
Rather than catwalks which catcall to the elite, who in theory should be previewing the seasons’ best to place their personal wardrobing orders (which was the original purpose of runway shows); store windows speak to the many individuals who actually do pay for the clothes they see. Which is the exact opposite of today’s tinsel town who not only clog up front row but score designer freebies; a total hypocrisy. Yes celebrities do give lines serious publicity, which in turn makes money, but Miu Miu is a star in it’s own right with actual design merit, so fuck this paparazzi visibility. Runways or windows, you tell me which has greater money making opportunities…
Nevertheless, I do love both insatiably, it’s not a competition, and runways and windows are featured together on this blog post after post. Besides, the windows’ “buy now wear now” shows are a little more my speed. And there is no shame in that. Even the most early bird shoppers put off buying fall winter until sale time this year, which as Mother Nature would have it was when the temperatures actually dropped.
For more on Miu Miu resort click here. Peruse some of the other sickkk resort windows here. And if you’d like to shop this amazing periwinkle double gabardine double breasted pea coat, go on and click here (but I’ll be honest I much prefer this tulip hem stunner)!
Miu Miu, 11 East 57th St, 212.641.2980
Images Courtesy of Style.com
Check out Prada’s florally inclined spring collection & other fabulous floral fashion moments here.
And here’s me channeling neon, light switches and other such electricity.. Hey, I may be reaching but I’m pretty sure you missed seeing this “happy face” :)
Shirt: H&M, Skirt: LF, Jacket: Gap, Jewelry: Vintage
Prada, 724 Fifth Ave, 212.664.0010
I am so happy to report that in the past months I have been blogging about sick windows, Ralph Lauren, notorious for their dramatic “movie-set” like visuals are finally camera ready, and they’re Palm Beach-tastic!
You may wonder why it is I post so many articles on some stores, like Fendi and Prada, while others not at all, and it has to do with a variety of reasons. The first being that a sick visual display doesn’t always translate well into photograph. This was the case for Ralph Lauren’s wonderfully opulent holiday windows, Giuseppe Zanotti’s waves of heels and nearly all of Tom Ford’s displays. Try as I might, but between the lighting and curtains, and glass and glare it just doesn’t convey their true beauty and this blog is not a devotee to mediocrity!
The second and third reasons are location and weather. I am a hop skip and a jump away from Madison Avenue uptown so it’s no surprise that a large majority of the sick windows I capture are on the Upper East. And now that it is winter, with the unabashed cold, you can only imagine how little this Florida born blogger is motivated to traverse the city in search of windows.
Lastly, some stores just don’t change their windows that often, while other retailers do, realizing just how important a constant flow of energy and movement is to their business. In many of the stores I’ve worked during my extensive retail tenure, we updated windows and had floor moves during the day. Without fail the surge of motion and change in energy sent waves into the universe and always brought people in to shop. It’s the same concept as when sharks can sense a hurricane before it happens and flee, people not near the boutiques who otherwise had no intention of coming inside all of a sudden become struck with a shopping pang!
Ralph Lauren, 888 Madison Ave, 212.434.8000
Norma Kamali is an industry veteran on the forefront of innovative technology when it comes to branding. Kamali has used bar code embedded mannequins that give window shoppers the opportunity to purchase from outside, composed an entirely 3-D runway presentation and launched a unique “try before you buy” program, giving clients a 48 hour window to try online purchases at home before buying. Kamali has a futuristic foresight that is beyond impressive for a designer of her tenure and even launched her e-commerce site in the early 90′s, lightyears away from the e-com boom of today and at a time when no one could predict the importance of an online presence.
Visually speaking, from her use of mannequins with computers as heads to a display of stacked tv’s, today Norma’s windows are no less on the cutting edge, featuring larger than life model-kins rather than traditional anonymous mannequins. On her photos turned sick window display, Norma said in a 2011 interview for Stylecaster, that the decision has not only “had a profound effect on the people coming into the store” but arose out of her desire for the “life-like quality of what a photograph can translate.“
And it is true, upon walking past the grandiose flagship where gold flags wave you haply forth like a child who just won the Golden Ticket, you do feel a real sense of profundity and realism; something that has been vacant from the face-less expanse of store fronts. Whereas most retailers rely on nondescript mannequins to give passerby’s the imaginative sense of being able to wear a certain look, Norma actually gives you real faces and forms and warm invitation inside!
Normally I match windows with their runway shows but Norma’s spring windows are in progress and I am not going back to winter, so here are my favorites for spring and hold tight for their sick upcoming display!
Norma Kamali, 11 West 56th Street, 212.957.9797
Images courtesy of Style.com
Dress: 2812 by Sienna Miller, Shirt: Free People, Jacket: Gap, Shoes: Fendi, Belt: Urban Outfitters, Necklaces: Vintage
For those of you who don’t remember, I recently posted that come the New Year my fashion and nightlife tips will be broadcast throughout salons nationwide! And as excited as I am to share with you my article, until I get the official go ahead, you will just have to visit one of the many salons that broadcast the Itandi network to read it for yourselves.
In the mean time, here are some pictures that accompany the piece, any guesses on what it’s about??? Loyal Sick City Window followers know my Spring obsession is mixed prints, so it will come as no surprise that my first article details tips on how to be a mixed print master, and rock the look from catwalk to sidewalk!
Sickkk photos by Katie Finger
Growing up in Boca Raton, Florida (as fashionable as the city may think it is) seriously stunted for some time my fantastical fashion capabilities and lead me through a childhood believing that Fendi was nothing more than a small bag retailer. Now before all of my Boca readers flip their shit let me explain…
Boca Raton in its infinite “style” redundancy has a way of turning even the most tacky designer goods into over popularized highly sought after shit… Growing up every girl aged 10-17 toted their parents’ plastic inside tiny LVMH monogrammed pouches, every middle aged woman was spotted at the Boca Beach Club with her Morikami Speedy in tow, and every dad, husband and adulterer could be found footing the bill. Having spent a full month over the summer in Boca, I know for a fact that right now the tons of fake tits walking through Town Center still have no idea that Louis Vuitton is highly capable and quite successful at producing so much more than luggage and handbags; and that just because everyone has something doesn’t mean its attractive nor does it make an item worth purchasing (think back to the cherry covered Louis’ and the crayon colored Coach C’s.. totally tacky and yet all over the place). And perhaps I am being a bit harsh to my native hometown and we should forgive them, for Juicy Couture terry has clogged their ears for years and Chanel quilts cover their eyes, but I am cut throat and feel no sympathy for a town this bombastic…
I have a real problem with the fact that popularized best sellers make notorious bland silhouettes and overshadow the true intricacy of a designers craft (remember the DVF wrap debacle?). The constant repudiation of one bag, one sweatsuit, one bad blonde dye job after the next prevents even the most discerning of fashionistas to ever think that a true sense of style actually exists outside of these tropes; which is why they don’t and only perpetuates the cycle. Because for the majority of individuals in this world, what you see and hear on a daily basis shapes your belief system as to what constitutes normalcy, in so much to say that the repetitious fashion you see on a daily basis, whether attractive or not, because of their overwhelming presence in your life have become well fashionable. And although this is not a new concept, we’ve seen one ugly trend after the next in nearly all parts of the world (so I guess you’re off the hook Boca), it still doesn’t bode well with me.
And were this not the case, women’s studies, sociology and media courses would stop spending so much time and effort trying to re-shape our culturally constructed ideals of normality. Scholars would wave their white flags in submission to their refuted ideas that our constant exposure to singular normatives in society preclude our ability to recognize endless forms of humanity as the norm, or exist devoid of one; albeit fashion, beauty, religion, sexuality etc.
And it’s a good thing I left the sunny south (not once but twice), where along with the millions of wrinkled raisins each year, individuality comes to die; or I may never have known a sublimely stylish life existed outside of my childhood singularity. Six years ago, and then again six months ago, I left the beach for city streets and said goodbye to like minded style sense (except maybe for Williamsburg). Oh, and I also stopped asking Fendi who?
Fendi, 677 Fifth Ave, 212.759.6464
Images courtesy of Style.com
For those of you who missed the entire first season of American Horror Story I strongly suggesting opening a new tab, getting onto Amazon and watching it in its entirety. It was captivating and creepy, extremely well written and expertly executed, and I just can’t wait for the new season!
Unfortunately, it was said that the show would be switching cast members and locations each season as this was the creators’ original intention, so we may not be getting another run of Dr. Harmon’s hotness (Dylan McDermott), Tate’s lovesick psychopathic wiles (Evan Peters), or Violet’s vintage flare (Taissa Farmiga)…. I’m pretty bummed, but as phenom as the first season was, I cannot imagine the second being anything short of brilliant.
What did you think of American Horror Story and will you be tuning in for season two???
Images courtesy of Wegotthiscovered.com & Derpytumblr
