Instagram Diaries

Jonathan's Birthday Cake

In the midst of my entire apartment falling apart (windows, lights, and plumbing somehow all simultaneously must be fixed), my camera also decided to give up on me this week, leaving me with nothing more than my iPhone to document everything I've been up to and everyone I've been visiting.  Seeing as it's my last free week before I start my new job, I've been running around town getting all my errands done, and catching up with some of my favorite friends and local designers.  Better photos of said designers are on the way, but in the meantime, here's my past week via Instagram.


Floral bouquets at the opening of the new Bijules flagship store at 355 Bowery


Jules presenting the latest collection of her jewelry at the Media Seance at her new shop


Hearts on fire at the Bijules flagship store


Becca custom fitting my Chromat bikini at her new studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yards


The Chromat inspiration board


Degen Knitwear mood board


Anne Koch's installation at Allegra LaViola Gallery


Carved tree stumps at Figment on Governor's Island


Figment


Stilt walking musicians at Figment


Victoria on the Statue of Liberty installation at Figment


A puppet from the Children's Museum of Art's stop motion animation program at Figment

-Tiffany

Nails, Cocktails, and the Gang at Hester Street

Annie and Christina at the Cirque and Shelter booth at the Hester Street Fair

I've spent the last two bright beautiful Saturdays hanging out with Annie, Christina, Sofia, and Riza while they worked at their new booth at Hester Street Fair.  After months of laboriously mixing colors, experimenting with glitters, and probably breathing in tons of fumes, Annie has finally launched her brand of nailpolishes, Cirque.  Her first collection, Dark Horse, features a dozen shimmer, glitter, and sparkle based colors in shades that you won't find in any drugstore beauty isle.  She gave me a few of her favorite colors to take home, and I've been playing around and mixing them with my own nailpolishes all week.  It's hard deciding a favorite, but Epoch, a holographic bluish-green that's the shade of a beetle wing, is what I'm wearing right now, and I never want to take it off.  I also love how well all of the colors work so well together, and seem to look the best when layered or paired with one another.

Christina has also been hard at work with Shelter, a line of candles she's been making Sofia and Riza.  In addition to their line of beeswax candles shaped like bottles and twigs, they've moved on to making scented candles now (finally!), and are planning on coming up with new scents every season.  My personal favorite is Pink Moon, which has a lovely scent of lavender, citrus, sandalwood and berries.

On both of my visits to Hester Street, I only meant to stop by to say hi, but ended up staying to hang out with my favorite lady friends, taste a sampling of the delectable selection of food from local vendors, sip on secretly spiked drinks, and of course, paint my nails with Cirque.  I even switched my energy from corporate windpower to cheaper, non-corporate windpower.  So productive!  Anyway, both Cirque and Shelter will be at Hester Street Market every other Saturday this summer, so make sure to pay the girls a visit if you're in the city.

All the different shades of Cirque polish, which range cost $12-$16

Today's Cirque manicure: Debris layered over Epoch

Shelter bottle shaped candles

New Shelter mini scented tea lights, $4 each, or $14 for a pack of four

Cirque polishes

Beautiful packaging to take my Cirque nailpolish kit home in!

French manicure using Dark Horse (tips) and Potosi (overcoat), by Cirque, and Nude (base coat) by Urban Outfitters

Tibetan Nights (base coat), Fascination Street (tips), and Potosi (overcoat), all by Cirque

-Tiffany

The Secretest Sale of Them All

Alexander McQueen Sweater, $195

I'm largely avoiding shopping, as I'm trying to save my cash rather than letting it flow freely into the depths of my already hemorrhaging  closet, but I couldn't resist sharing this sale with you all.  I don't know why it's so under the radar, but the annual Pop Shop sale run by JCP (which stands for Jewish Community Project, a pre-school, rather than J.C. Penney as you might assume), is probably one of the best kept secrets in New York.  The two week long pop-up store is comprised of designer items culled from the closets of JCP mothers, in addition to donations from designers like Lela Rose and Charlotte Ronson, and stores like Edon Manor.  The incredible selection of goods includes troves of Comme des Garcons, Lanvin, Marni, Prada, and Dries Van Noten, and is at least 70% off retail prices, and is replenished daily.  The sale is at 64 N. Moore Street, and is open from 10am-8pm every day except Saturday until May 25th.  Here's just a small sampling of what's on offer at the moment, prices will be further reduced as the sale moves along.....

Comme des Garcons jacket, $450

Marni Jacket, $350

Jil Sander leather coat

Dries Van Noten skirt

A sampling of shoes, including a furry pair of Opening Ceremony sandals for $75

Alaia ballet flats

An entire table of designer shoes from the store Edon Manor

-Tiffany

Jewel School

Kristin Hanson's Fine Jewelry School Workshop

After graduating from college, I went back to school at F.I.T. to get an Associates Degree in Jewelry Design.  While I learned a lot from the program, there's always room for improvement, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to take a sampling of one of Kristin Hanson's courses at her Fine Jewelry School in TriBeCa.  Kristin herself is an accomplished fine jeweler, who specializes in colored diamonds, and who sells her eponymous collection in her own store at 60 Reade Street.  Behind the discreet boutique lies a massive three story studio, which houses her showroom, as well as the jewelry school.

Founded in 2006, the school offers courses ranging from the fundamentals for the complete novice, to advanced workshops for professionals, as well as an intensive two year program designed to help aspiring designers launch their first collection.  The studio is lovely and spacious, yet the setting feels slightly more intimate (and well kept) than the studios at F.I.T.

For the workshop I attended, we did a basic introduction to piercing and sawing, carving out a simple flat pendant from a sheet of brass.  While I've done my fair share of sawing, it's been a longtime (lets just say it's not the most fun part of jewelry making), so it was good to get back into shape.  I was amazed by how fast Kirstin and John taught the course, and with a bit of their help, almost all of the students managed to knock out a pendant during the course time.  I will definitely consider returning to brush up on some of my bench work skills, and I highly recommend the studio for all of the untrained jewelers out there who are looking to take their work to the next level.  Here are some photos from the course, including my final piece, which took about an hour and a half to make (I'm proud to say I didn't break a single saw blade in the process).

Starfish from Kirstin's latest collection, stones, and a wax ring model.

The first step involved designing a flat shape on paper and then gluing the paper to a flat piece of brass to serve as a guide for carving out the pendant.

I designed a simple geometric shape using stencils, and made two prongs that would later be bent over and used as bales to slip chain through.

After our shapes were designed, we used jewelers saws to cut out the shapes from the metal.  Here is Kirsten herself, helping a student complete their piece.

Once the shapes were carved out, we used a metal file to smooth and file down the sharp edges. 

John, the instructor from the class, helped create the bales, and attach the chain to the pendant, before we gave the piece a quick satin finish.

My piece after the course. I might go back and cut out holes and refine the shape.

Pieces from Kirstin Hanson's Men's collection

Pieces from Kirstin Hanson's Men's collection

-Tiffany

Eye Poppers

All photos from the Mercura Sunglasses site and blog

The Chelsea Hotel is currently in the throes of a major legal battle, with the building's longtime mix of eclectic tenants going up against a new landlord who is seeking to throw them out.  While I was following the on-going scrum back in New York (the landmark is only a fifteen minute stroll from my apartment), I've somewhat lost track of what's going on since I left.  The last I heard was of a controversy concerning a planned private performance for the hotel's tenants by Patti Smith.  I don't know how many people have been kicked out, and how many remain, but one tenant who seems to remain firmly in place (at least according to their possibly outdated website) is Mercura Sunglasses.

I look at Mercura as one of those quintessential little New York labels.  They have been busily doing what they do best--making outrageous one-of-a-kind sunglasses and accessories--for several decades, attracting attention from industry insiders while remaining relatively under the mainstream radar.  The line, designed by Rachel Cohen-Lunning and Merrilee Lichtenstein Cohen, counts Lady Gaga as one of it's biggest fans, and is a wardrobe staple for stylists and collectors.  Nonetheless, the made to order sunglasses aren't mass manufactured, meaning that you're not going to find them on the shelves of your average department store.  They're also made from non-standard materials, like plastic flowers, trinkets, miniature animals, feathers, and other bits and bobs, making them more appropriate for special occasions than for being smushed up in your purse with all your other junk. I love the off-kilter eccentricism that the line represents, undoubtably somewhat influenced by the famously artistic and outrageous tenants of the Chelsea Hotel.

-Tiffany

POP SOUK!

Lovely Becca of Chromat modeling one of her head pieces, and a Triskaidekaphobia tooth necklace, hidden by her hair!

Yesterday afternoon fabulous freaks from all corners of the city descended on Hiro Ballroom for the first ever installment of Ladyfag's Pop Souk pop-up market.  We were there selling both Triskaidekaphobia and Arms and Armory alongside some of our favorite nightlife and daylife friends, and I have to say it was definitely the most fun collection of bright new talent, dirt cheap designer finds, out-there outfits, and of course, straight-up random realness/weirdness.  Chris Habana was there selling eyeball necklaces alongside antiques, Chromat was peddling outrageous cage gear, Patricia Field set up a booth full of candy-colored glitter wigs, and half naked men sauntered through the stalls modeling three-foot high feather headdresses.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by. We can't wait for the next one!

Part of our Triskaidekaphobia Booth

The Arms and Armory section

Shoppers in the main ballroom

Zana stopped by, wearing one of her own signature leather creations.

This dude was walking around

Hiraku was working the Patricia Field booth, wearing a spider-web top of his own creation!

Naomi Yasuda at her Nail Art booth

-Tiffany