Fall/Winter 2010: Burberry Prorsum

This looks like one of the best collections of the season.  This stuff is mighty expensive but it's absolutely fantastic.  Christopher Bailey is a genius.  I don't know what I like most - the coats or the boots.  It's all looking REALLY nice.

Here are some more pics:

You don't necessarily need to spend the money to buy these exact pieces, but they are inspirational.

Electric Feathers

I love to walk the streets of NYC, looking for new places to shop.  When I was heavily into vintage, I used to go to this one store, La Reina, on Avenue C.  The shopowner, Leana Zuniga sold the best pieces.  She was also a stylist and designers would frequent her store for inspirational pieces.   One time, I was there as Stefano Pilati the head designer for Yves Saint Laurent and one of his muses swept up all of the good stuff and held up the one dressing room for over an hour.

Anyhow, one day Leana told me that she was looking into starting her own clothing line and was looking into good seamstresses in Chinatown.  She eventually did start the line, called Electric Feathers.  Her pieces were pretty funky but I was so heavily into vintage that I didn't pay much mind to the pieces that she encouraged me to try on.

She closed the store to focus on designing about 5 years ago.  I stopped by her showroom in Williamsburg to use up a store credit on one of her original pieces.  I bought a black cotton dress which remains one of my favorites to this day.   Now, Leana's label has blown up.  I see her stuff all over the internet, from online stores (Jumelle, La Garconne) and other blogs (Vain and Vapid; style.com).  There's a hard-to-find jumpsuit that I want to buy from her, but she's too busy these days to return my emails.  I'm not mad at her.  Here's a silk version of the exact dress I bought:

It's now on sale at Jumelle.   Dammit - I wanted to be the only one who had this dress:)

A great night at Barney's

I had gone to Barney's tonight to return a dress.  On my way out, I could hear club music coming from the second floor.  A salesperson suggested that I check it out.  What a surprise awaited me when I got there.

Chloe Sevigny, Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez (Proenza Schouler), Zac Posen, Rachel Roy.  Tamara Mellon, the woman behind Jimmy Choo.  Jamie Johnson.  Cecilia Dean.  Pat McGrath.  Simon Doonan.  Waris.   Genevieve Jones was one of the first people I saw.  I was trying not to stare too hard so I couldn't take in her whole outfit as much as I wanted to.  I'm not quite sure how she became a socialite, but Stephanie and I agreed that she sure knows how to dress. 

It was a who's who of fashion.   Not people that a majority of the American public would care less about, let alone recognize.  Sevigny and a couple of other socialites were hosting a book signing for Derek Blasberg's Classy, Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady.  I met an equally mesmerized shopper/party crasher named Stephanie, who knew the names of all of the big people in attendance better than me.  She just graduated from Dartmouth and works in finance;  yet she, like I, has a real love for fashion. 

Champagne and hor d'oeuvres were a-flowing.  Stephanie and I were hanging buddies for the event.  It was quite a night.  Nate Berkus let me walk out the door first on the way out of the store.  He and McCullough were behind me, joking with each other.  It felt exciting yet comfortable being there.  As I told Stephanie, it was as though fate led us there.   I got a natural high being in the presence of style greatness.  I created this blog because I love fashion and it inspires me.  Now, I'm more inspired than ever.

I'll post party pics once they make it online. 

Daal

I found this website on the Refinery 29 blog.  Daal Clothes are all under the $300 range and for the most part don't require dry cleaning.  I like this denim dress in particular:

Comes in white stripe as well:

Cost: $245, but it's worth every penny since this can continue to be worn season after season.

I like these cargo shorts, too:

At $115, the price isn't that bad, considering the cost of clothing these days.

Maleeka

I just finished writing a review about this place on New York Magazine.  Maleeka is my favorite place to shop in Brooklyn.  Whenever I want to buy something nice - anything from a gift for my mom to a break-up pick-me-up - I go there. They sell the kind of jewelry (and clothing, for that matter) that people say, "Wow! Where did you get that?" about -- on a daily basis.  I just bought the best pair of earrings today, a picture of which I'll post at some point.  I've continued to tell people about the place, but they either lose the napkin that I wrote the address on or never bother coming into downtown Brooklyn.  In either case, oh well.  I could care less.  I'll just keep on getting the best jewelry and keeping it all to myself.

The website isn't an online store, so you can't see any of the great stuff this store has to offer.  But believe you me, you will NOT regret checking this place out.  Get your butt on the A/C/G, get off at Hoyt/Schermerhorn and walk on over.  You won't regret the effort made.

Collection: Reed Krakoff F/W 10

When I heard that Krakoff, the genius behind the resurgence of the Coach brand had come out with a new collection, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I must say that I'm very pleased with what I've seen.  Here are some of my favorite pieces from his debut solo line:

There's some great vintage on eBay

As I was perusing through all of the vintage clothing stores on eBay, I found a great dress in a store that didn't look that good at the beginning. 

This 50's skirt/bolero set from Violetville is so nice!  I probably would have paired it with a black or grey shirt instead of white, and a lower neck but still.  I can work with this.  The auction ends 4/7 at 10:27 PDT. 

Ooh!  I found another one:

This camel-hair wool georgette dress looks like something you'd find in the Burberry section at Bloomingdales. 

Sweeney's Picks: Shopbop.com

Shopbop is one of those sites where you'll always find something really pretty (and expensive).  I never cease to find the great dress or pair of shoes (that I have no business buying).  This time, I found mainly accessories and shoes.  Here are some of my favorite items:

This Ports 1961 clutch is so fantastic.  It'll never go out of style and you can wear it with anything from a cocktail dress to jeans.  Fabulous.

This Rebecca Minkoff Heartache bag looks vintage, which is probably what drew me to look at it.  The feature that sets it apart is the double chain strap which gives it a more modern feel.  It's a great size too and appears to sit well on the shoulder.  These days, paying $550 for a great handbag is somewhat normal, but at least this one can continue to be worn season after season.

This Vanessa Bruno tote has a similar look to the Rebecca Minkoff one and reminds me of the early Coach bags.  The ones that were just simple leather without all of the emblems and brightly dyed color.  I miss those bags.  This one is $615 but you'd better hurry up because there's only one left on the website.

Something classic from DVF

I'm absolutely loving this strapless navy dress that I found on the DVF website.  So chic and simple.  Love the buttons.  And it's the kind of dress that can be worn all year long.  If I hadn't bought so many clothes already this year, this would already be in my closet!

Something cute at Neiman Marcus

This particular striped dress by Ali Ro caught my eye, but it's not looking like there are many left.  Such a perfect summer piece.  A little bit steep in price, but you could wear it year after year.

Just say no to clogs

Spring 2010 ain't looking totally pretty.  From what I've seen in the Bloomingdale's catalog as well as Intermix, clogs are a trend this season.  But seriously....
The reason why clogs fall in and out of style is because they are so damn ugly.  I'm surprised Uggs haven't gone this route.

La Garconne

Although the pieces can be rather expensive, I love going to La Garconne to look at inspirational pieces.  Opening Ceremony has a great dress on the site.  It's cute but not trendy.  It's also available at shopbop.com.

I bought this 3.1 Phillip Lim linen dress.  Pretty expensive so I might end up returning it, but it's a great piece.  It looks sort plain on the hanger, but check it out on the model.  Cute, eh?

Here's a somewhat affordable leather dress by Susana Monaco.  I like how it ties.  Wideneck, too.  Can get a lot of wear out of this.  Can wear it with and without tights.

Eryn Brinie

Hi everybody.  Welcome to my blog.  I'm so excited to be doing this.  I don't work in the fashion industry but like those of you reading this, I LOVE great pieces of clothing and accessories.   I often get asked by people where I buy my clothes, so I thought, what better a way to share my secrets.  Throughout the years, I've discovered stores, both in retail and online that (in my opinion) sell the best and most unique stuff;  whether it's a new dress or a vintage handbag.  What I like most about the pieces I'll feature is that they're don't necessarily follow the big trends; they may help to SET the trends.  I hope that you like what I have to share with you!

Has anyone heard of Eryn Brinie before?  They had some great dresses on ssense.com, so I decided to check them out.  What a find.  Check it out: http://www.erynbrinie.com/.  From looking at their Press page, they have some items just featured in the March issue of LUCKY, so you'd better buy quick before everyone else finds out about this place.

For those of you in the NYC area, they have a store in SoHo and two stores in Europe.  The salespeople are great and the prices are pretty affordable.   Their style is very similar to that of Theory, just for a third of the cost.

Here are two of my favorite pieces:

This ultra-funky romper, which works great for work as well as for weekends.   I think the dark blue is the coolest, but ended up buying the beige since I already own a couple of dark blue jumpers.

A painter's dress that I should have bought now since it just got marked down from $120 to $70.

Enjoy!
Shelli