happy memorial day weekend

vintage and hand crafted items to wear, look at, and serve on, at your fabulous memorial day bbq. hoorah

1. timebombvintage

2. citrustree

3. merritthyde

4. acero studio

5. twoguitars

6. kitschenqueen

and what will you serve at this fabulously stylish bbq, you wonder?

this grilled tuna is really really delicious and super easy (make sure to marinate for at least an hour). this corn and tomato salad is perfect for the summertime — fresh and crisp and ideal for outdoor eating on a hot day. if grilling isn’t yo thang, this heirloom tomato pasta is one of the yummiest things ever (hopefully your farmer’s market is open for the summer and you can get some very very fresh tomatoes and basil). and also veggie kabobs (zucchini, onions, mushrooms, campari tomatoes, etc) and corn (shuck it, slather with butter, sprinkle on some cajun seasoning, put the leaves back up, wrap in aluminum foil, and grill baby grill) and applie pie of course and homemade popsicles and memorial day wouldn’t be memorial day without some delicious summery beers (we like anchor steam, harpoon ipa, and brooklyn summer ale) and maybe if you are lucky some delicious mojitos.

remember your sunscreen.

[ stefanie ]

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their wedding is better than your wedding

Dumdeedum, lazy Saturday spent watering plants, cleaning, doing other tasks I’ve otherwise put off… including watching some Say Yes to the Dress, the TLC show that follows brides as they shop for their wedding gear at Kleinfeld in Manhattan.  As reality TV goes, it’s not a particularly brilliant show (The Real Housewives of NY has really stepped it up this season… especially that last episode with Kelly-gone-psycho and Bethenny’s high-larious “46 pinot grigios” comment), but I still get hooked.  It reminded me of this one Gatsby-esque wedding dress that I liked at J. Crew, which sadly is no longer for sale.  In an attempt to find something similar, I google-imaged “Great Gatsby wedding” and stumbled upon Once Wed, a photograph-rich blog chronicling, among other things, hipster theme weddings.  It has to be seen to be believed.

Josh Goleman behind the lens for Great Gatsby wedding

their wedding is in a forest?!

circus wedding!

…really? really? I love that these people have avoided the cheese of 99.99% of all weddings.  It’s so artsy fartsy and dreamy and in the countryside and blah blah. Fantastical.

[mairin]

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Lolita, outfitted

What’s up with Urban Outfitters spring ’10 look book being all Lolita?  From fetish-ized shots of awkwardly bent little girl legs & their shoes (mimicking the iconic cover of the novel) to the photos of a very lithe young thing, dressed in culottes and frilly 1950s bikini tops, the inspiration is hit-you-over-the-head obvious.  In theory I’m in favor: I love the book and like the reinvention of its esthetic, but something feels odd about a store for young girls marketing to their audience with tween erotica.  Honestly, then, mission accomplished: the photographer has realized visually what Nabokov elaborated verbally- uncomfortable, voyeuristic beauty.*

Check out the looks here and judge for yourself.   (Oh, and P.S. towards the end, more too-young-for-comfort borderline porn with their night-out looks, but I loves it anyway, especially those vampy, pointy shoulders! Viva los 80s silhouettes! Even if they are tired and blah blah…)

[mairin]

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photobooth intimidates me

yesterday i found the glasses i have been searching for ever since i gave up the dream of huge, nerdy, 70s-inspired old lady glasses last year.

the new dream: clear plastic cat-eye frames.

(stop laughing. i had a vision.)

they are from fabulous fanny’s, 335 e 9th street in manhattan (but you can also order frames online, so do not fret if you do not live in new york), a very cute little store full of very helpful very stylish salespeople as well as an enormous selection of vintage glasses (and hats, purses, shoes, shirts, dresses, jewelry, cufflinks, etc). most were in between $75 and $100 (very reasonable, eh?), and were organized by shape and color, to make for easy searching.

this is what they look like:

so i haven’t gotten lenses for them yet, on account of “the plastic is too old and brittle” (according to lescrafters) (i am holding out hope however that i will find an optometrist who is up to the challenge; if you know of one in new york/new jersey/virginia please let me know). and now my conundrum: i think the whole lens-less glasses trend is a bit lame. but now that i have a pair, albeit unintentionally, i start to wonder, why shouldn’t glasses just be another accessory to throw on, regardless of necessity? lots of accessories are vestigial. like, suspenders worn with tight pants that would stay up without the extra help; triangular scarves worn around the neck by people who are not at a protest and therefore are not shielding their faces from tear gas; rolled-up pants worn by non bike riding pedestrians; etc.

thoughts?

[ update, because you care. i found a willing optometrist (in madison, nj, if you are curious) who was all “lenscrafters doesn’t know what they’re talking about” and also “my lens-making machine is broken right now but i’ll ship you the glasses as soon as they’re whole”. and she did. my glasses work, now, and i have once again come to the conclusion that LENS-LESS GLASSES ARE DUMB please don’t wear them. ]

[ stefanie ]

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my dreams do not usually revolve around shoes, but

i had a dream once in which i was wearing the dreamiest pair of flat black lace-up boots.

incidentally i went antiquing a few months later and stumbled across the dreamiest pair of (inexpensive!) flat black lace-up boots, and they have been a staple of my day-to-day life ever since.

we find shoes like this to be just right for many many outfits:

( both photos are from facehunter, the top one from some months ago and the bottom one from this past thursday )

( those boots would be perfect with these dresses; this photo, by the way, is by diane arbus, who can always be counted on to produce endlessly fascinating images; if you are ever in stockholm, there are three fantastic onces to see in moderna museet )

if you are in the market for some footwear of your own, start with these patchwork boots on ebay, and there are tons more (slightly less mondrian-esque) pairs to be found if you search for words like vintage flat laceup grandma pixie boots. for a decidedly larger sum of money you can get this amaaazing woven pair from urban outfitters. in brown or white, they will attract very positive ogling from all angles.

[ stefanie ]

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shmampire shmeekend

a friend sent me a link to this blog the other day. it is called voodoo funk, and it’s full of super fun african pop music from the 1970s, that a man named frank found while collecting vintage records in guinea, sierra leone, ghana, and benin. if you live in new york, frank throws voodoo funk parties every thursday night at santos party house (on lafayette). thank you frank, and thank you friend.

happy friday.

[ stefanie ]

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