spotlight: manhattan weekend

this weekend, one of my girlfriends from san diego, who goes to school in upstate new york, took a little drive down to the island we know as manhattan. so friday morning early afternoon i attempted to shake off my hangover and ventured into the city to meet shel. after immediately getting starbucks, we strolled through midtown to hit up h&m, where i made a few purchases which included 2 pink structured and unstructured blazers and a fun little dress--all for a total of $93.

 

not the best fashion shot, but you get the point of the blazer. on saturday we also made a stop in zara [(after being refused entry due to our venti starbuckses (starbucki??)] where amidst hoards of font-of-the-store sale shoppers i found these beauties

lovely coral-brown polyester trousers that make me so so excited for springtime. my lady and i then headed down to the village, where we got shelly a cute new down coat then stormed the various marc jacobs utopias that reside on bleeker st. never one to leave a marc jacobs store empty-handed, i found myself purchasing a maroon cashmere beanie (what a hipster) and a pair of long-needed black rainboots. apparently mr. jacobs had teamed up with playboys and designed three t-shirts for "designers against aids" and there was a hunny bunny standing in the front store of the store, to which we were ushered towards and an photoshoot ensued. what was cool about this paparazzi-esque incident was that we each got a pretty little copy of the photo in an envelope. nice pr team, mj.

 

talk about winners...

didn't she get a great coat?? and on sale, to boot. we dined in a tasty little corner restaurant and made our way back to midtown to drop our things off at a friend's apartment, where we regrouped and headed to 'inotecca, a semi-chic fancy-fare italian restaurant. absolutely delicious, however my only criticism was that when i told asked our waitress to have the bartender make my specialty drink a little less strong (still dancing with that hangover), she came back a few minutes later saying the bartender didn't want to "change the integrity of the drink." are you kidding me?? where are we, tavern on the green? i wanted to tell the bartender to shove it, however i ordered another drink and continued with our evening. 

and a good evening it was.

saturday afternoon i ventured back into the city. unaware that i would not return home until the next day, i only planned for a daytime outfit.

due to the cold and the low-buttoning neck of my black calvin klein coat, i decided to double-up on scarves. here i tied together a simple white scarf with my thin-but-warm cashmere burberry one. thigh-high socks are quite the trend at the moment, which i am a fan of considering my tendency to avoid pants.

 in retrospect this was a terrible idea--in the time it took me to walk 3 blocks from my apartment to the train station i decided i needed another pair of tights---stat. luckily for me there is a store in penn station with a plethora of tights (it pretty much only sells overpriced tights, socks, and hooker lingerie... classy) where i bought a great pair of thick knit ralph lauren dark grey tights. talk about a livesaver! between my thigh high boots and socks (double trend points!) and chunky tights, i was beyond warm in the chilly late afternoon.

shelly and i headed downtown where i showed her the glamorous canal street and then we hit soho. i was trying to limit my spending, so i limited myself to one purchase at topshop. spoiler alert: students get 10% off!!! will be returning soon. anyway i got myself some adorable little suede oxfords that retail for $60. they are so light and thin on the foot i feel like a little quick-footed elf when i wear them. don't judge me.

the new loves of my life--can't wait til spring.

we then headed to mulberry street for some little italy dining, where we ended up dropping $110 on dinner... half of which we didn't eat. standard. after dropping off our purchases at the same apartment, shelly and i met up with some seton hall alumni boys. but not before she hooked my up with these killer bebe heels to compliment my new grey tights

surprisingly easy to walk in!

anyway, my lady friend departed to spend time with gentlemen friends, and i did the same to meet my boys at the empire hotel on 63rd and broadway (yes gossip girl fans, that empire) where we indulged in vip, dancing and grey goose til 4 am.

long live manhattan

interview wear

as most of you may or may not know, last week i had a few interviews for internships with various places. everyone seems to get nervous around the word interview. the thing about an internship is that it isn't a job, you're i'm not going to get paid (not in the fashion/communications field, at least), so it shouldn't give you as many butterflies as a real job interview should. every time i have gone to a interview for an internship, and there have been many, there have been a few questions like "tell me about what you did at temperley?" or the worst, "tell me a little about yourself," however i have never encountered any situational example or otherwise earth-shattering questions.

however for me, the most intimidating part of an upcoming interview is the all-important ensemble. so rather than "what can you bring to our company," its the "what am i going to wear??" that makes my knees shake.

this is the outfit i wore to my intervew with the fashion departments at cosmopolitan and allure magazines, pretty much down to a t, except for my large, almost diaper bag-sized tan canvas coach bag with white trim and double straps. i also wore black opaque tights, my white button was was ann taylor, and my silver chain was my grandmother's.

oh yeah, this one!

big enough to fit a shoddy portfolio filled with press releases and setonian clippings, a large water bottle and an umbrella that i bought in penn station after leaving my apartment without one...


the next day i got an offer from cosmo for the fashion closet internship, however i still had an interview with stella mccartney that i really wanted to follow through with, to which i wore this:

 

blazer by michael kors; top from nordstrom; jeans, necklace, and booties by forever 21 (i think i shop there a little too much...)

the booties i wore were similar to these, other than the color.

feathers in my hair and on my neck... excuse the makeup smudges in the mirror and messy room.

i threw on my black circle scarf and my brand-spanking new calvin klein coat and was ready to hit the town.

the interview at stella went well, and i told my interviewer that--no pressure--but i had an offer from another internship that i had to accept or decline by then end of the day, so if she could please let me know how seriously they were considering me by then. she then told me that basically they'd love to have me there and i should just let her know, so i e-mailed cosmo that afternoon and thanks but no thanks. i got an offer from allure the next day as well. it's rough being so popular...