Sponsors! Still keeping the lights on. We love them of course, so visit them, if you will. The perfectest way to end a work week that does not involve a beach.
Speaking of, these are the shoes we will wear with our new shorts. Classy gladiator, is what we're saying. Tod's sandals, $425
Ethnic sexy! Generally impossible to do, but not here. From our beloved sponsor, Zenys Boutique. Sky Pipper mini dress, $248
Madewell is basically our favorite new store on the planet, and if you are in New York, they are hosting a Bunnyshop-approved event with "graffiti knitters" Knitta. Tomorrow—that's Saturday, May 17—from 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. you can buy a pair of Madewell jeans and they'll custom-knit belt loops for them. We'd go, if we weren't in Africa. Highly recommended!
Madewell is: 486 Broadway @ Broome.
Sponsors: They keep us in clothing, and bikinis—notably crucial when the official summer kick-off is only one week away. (Hurrah!) This is from the lovely Fashion Rome: Eau Vive's white silk bikini, $77.60
Is which one sold better. This is just like when Blair's mom gave Serena her modeling contract.
We're going with Leighton. Who else has a vote?
This is exactly the nail polish we want at the moment. We're calling it Springtime Gray or Gray Gardens or some shit but they call it Stormy nail polish, $18
We also totally like the lemony yellow.
In today's Reader Mail:
I just finished grad school and am about to start my first real job with real benefits and stuff. I was a Peace Corps volunteer before grad school, so I've really never done the professional dress thing. I'll be working for an NGO in Washington DC and basically need to buy a whole new wardrobe of office worthy stuff. Most of my money will be going towards my student loans, so I was wondering if you or your readers have any tips on being thrifty and professional—any staples I should have? Stores I should know about? Any advice would be appreciated!
We've apparently gotten much more comfortable with posting questions we can't personally answer, because this is definitely one of those. One of the funny things—oh, ha ha!—about being freelancer is that you can basically judge your periods of feast and famine by your clothes, because you'll buy a whole bunch of things when you're actually making enough money to support yourself, and then go eight months without buying anything. The good thing, though, is that you can pretty much get by as long as you have your interview dress (we're still looking), the dress for when your friends get married (H&M!), and leggings (American Apparel). But to the question above—as we say, we don't even have the interview dress. We go to the store and think we've found it, then bring it home and realize that we definitely have not.
When we get really desperately broke we'll work in an office, as we did this past very-early-spring, and we swear we wore the same sweater at least three times a week. But we hated them so it didn't matter.
So we're really looking for outside information: What's your number-one office staple? And where do you buy it?
We think ours would be some professional-looking jeans, but what do we know? Nada. Joe's Jeans trouser jeans, $174
These are, without a doubt, the jeans we want. Click here for the sale item of the day.
In today's Reader Mail:
dear bunnyshop,
i'm not really sure how to phrase my question, so i'll just put up my whole story thing.
all my life, my mother has told me that i'm fat and ugly. however, on a recent trip to LA, i was persuaded to try on a gorgeous light purply-grey dress. not only did i look good, i also discovered that i'm a size 2. thanks to this realization, i'm now sick of hiding myself in baggy, black clothes and i want colour in my life! being asian, i've always been afraid of colours making me look yellow and so... i think my question really is, how should i start bringing colour into my wardrobe? and does the whole colour analysis thingummy work? should i bother with the what colours i can or cannot wear thing??
with love,
k.
Oh! Sometimes the people who are supposed to be nicest to you just aren't, and that is so ridiculous, and all you can do is be like, Can you not be approaching with the love? It sounds like you've gotten that part of this terrible dilemma under control, though, and good for you on that. We hope that instead of being defeated by this, you are all phoenix-like and ignoring the naysayer and being super strong and invincible, which we can tell just from this note that you are.
Moving on: color! Above is a photo of our traveling-clothes rack, which is basically just the clothing we can literally carry on our backs (or at least in little roll-y suitcases). Not much color there! (Do not judge us based on our traveling-clothes rack, as in our permanent space we are totally Mommy Dearest about our hangers.) So we get you. Whenever we come home to NYC, we realize two things: New Yorkers really do wear a lot of black, and we may very well be the loudest sidewalk cell-phone talkers on the planet. We buy a lot of black because it goes with everything, more or less. Well, and because it doesn't show most spills. We've realized it's what we buy when we're really excessively short on cash, because it is, if nothing else, versatile—and specifically because it is black, not memorable—a boon when you're trying to get more than one occasion out of the same dress, but a serious con in any other sense. We would have been so much more excited to wear something super bright and awesome—something unmistakable and stand-out-from-the-crowd. Black can be totally sophisticated but it can also be totally hiding-in-a-corner. And this is definitely not the time for hiding in the corner.
Of course, this is the time of year to do it, since there's so much brightness in the stores anyway. We particularly like all the royal blue at Club Monaco and this acidic yellow at J. Crew. We don't love all the looks at Express, but that entire store is like exploding in neon.
As far as choosing your colors: We guess it's true—it's obviously true—that some colors suit some people better than others. We remember having our colors "done" when we were a kid, and we were informed that (thanks to the olive skin and light eyes) we were a fall, which meant we should be wearing autumnal colors like pumpkin and moss and other super organic shades forever. We have recently decided that we don't feel like giving this theory much credit anymore. (Check out Color Me Beautiful, but don't take anything in it too seriously.)
There's been a lot of rambling in this post. The only answer is to go for it, totally, because we can totally see that you're on the verge of something totally exciting. We say, sequester all the black stuff in the back of your closet, and brutally cull anything that doesn't make you feel awesome. And then, piece by piece, build up something new and better. We were about to say we'd start small, but forget that—start huge! There are a million bright dresses out there. Our first stop—since we're perpetually on a budget—would be Forever 21. BCBG has fabulous bright pattern dresses. And ditto for French Connection.
Finally: We know we have some Asian readers out there, so please please chime in if you have any suggestions specifically regarding skin tone and color management.
We love this magazine despite its former flirtation with Kirsten Dunst—not least for its amazing type treatments. How beautiful is that, with the cut-through lettering there? Oooh, we love it.
In today's next installment of Reader Mail Thursday:
Hi BS,
I'm interested to try the Fekkai spray, being a wavy-haired lady myself. But I also want to share my own miracle product, as well as ask for some advice...
The product I'm raving about is Natural Instincts Shine Happy. I think it's a gloss treatment? It was $10 at Walgreen's. I used it, not knowing what to expect—maybe some shiny hair? But I got much more than that. I have weird hair—it's kind of thick, but not so thick I need a flat iron, kind of wavy, but not so wavy I can style it that way. Anyway, I have been struggling with my hair lately because I don't know how to make it look the way it looks when I come out of the salon. One particular salon. No other place can do it the way they do.
Anyway, this glossing treatment made my hair super soft, but with tons of body, and shiny, and very easy to blow dry. I guess that's normal, but this was the first time I'd done a glossing treatment. I had THE BEST hair day ever the first day, and now I'm on my second shampoo, and my hair still looks pretty good—but I'm scared it's going to go away. Is there anything else one can do to preserve this great texture? Would a professional glossing treatment work better? And how often can you do them? If you can do them once a week, I would definitely pay the $10 a week for the glossing treatment and do it.
Again! We have no idea. We've only had a glossing treatment once, and it was amaaaaazing, but then it went away, and we were poor, and our hair has never been so glossy again Has anyone out there had one, and have any suggestions about how to maintain it? Comparisons between at-home and salon glossing treatments? Fill us in, people.
Above: Clairol Natural Instincts Shine Happy, $8.29
In today's Reader Mail:
I present to you the greatest shopping challenge of my life—buying a wedding gift for my best friend of 20 years who is getting married next month. She and her new husband are granola-crunchy, earth-loving, globe-trekking, small-space-dwelling folks, and I am daunted by the task of finding the perfect gift that will remind them of my love for them and respects their asthetic, but won't be a gift they pull out of the closet to display when I visit. Please, save me from buying practical towels from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and show me the gift that will solidify my status as favorite friend!
We are thinking this is another one of those times when it takes a village to make a wedding present. We are biiiig believers in the official-etiquette-gives-you-a-year thing (and then occasionally forgetting, something about which are deeply ashamed, unless they're already getting a divorce, in which case we just feel prescient).
We will share our two best presents—one which we gave, and one we didn't. The latter: for our best friend, we wanted to buy a bookshelf, and then have everyone coming to the bridal shower bring their favorite book. (We decided it was presumptuous to buy someone such a big piece of furniture, but we told her about it later and she said she wished we'd done it.) And then, for our first friend ever to get married, her maid of honor and I chipped in and got them a hotel stay at an inn in Vermont. That was super good, and that's what we'd suggest hear—a weekend away, maybe learning cool environmental things, like how to make their own cheese or compost or something. (And we have specific places for that, if anyone out there has any interest.)
Above, because we were reluctant to put up a picture of a random hotel, we share this porcelain platter, which is basically the opposite of what we'd suggest here. Porcelain platter from DWR, $98
Con: This may be ugly. Pro: This is definitely a Marc Jacobs handbag, 2/3rds off. Click here for the sale item of the day.
We love this song so fucking much we swear to God it makes us stand up straighter and try harder and just swear that we are going to make cool things that will make at least one other person feel as super-alive as we feel when we hear this song. It just blows up our head, kaboom.
We really used to think of Phantom Planet as excessively whatever, but now our heart just explodes when we listen to this new album. We swear, we just swear we're going to spend the whole summer at music festivals listening to as much music as humanly possible.
We were torn between posting a full, acoustic version of this song and this ridiculous version. We went with the latter. But we do think the album version is even better than either.
- Have you seen the Great iTunes Playlist Spectacular—and even better, sent us yours?
- And have you, we hope and pray, sent us your favorite summer recipe—because if you have, you could win this adorable madras mini-skirt from Cape Madras!
J. Crew has a dedicated yoga store? We don't know that we need—aye, that anyone needs—the $14.50 J. Crew yoga headband, but the yoga jacket:
is cute. None of this is groundbreaking and it's annoyingly pricey, but we're sort of quietly into it. At least that cute tag, with the dog stretching, and even if we're still going to class in much-cheaper American Apparel. J. Crew yoga jacket, $69.50
In today's Reader Mail:
Dear BS:
I have the most annoying problem. I'm trying to be good and use sunscreen all the time, but every time I put it on, I totally break out. That's not acceptable! Can you recommend a sunscreen—or even better, a moisturizer with SPF—that won't make me break out?
Love,
C.
We have the same problem! We've previously mentioned on our ongoing inability to totally give in to the whole sunscreen thing, and so much of our issue was the exact same thing—either we damaged our skin or we broke out, and we just aren't adult enough to deal with the latter. We know that tinted moisturizer with SPF isn't the idea way to go—it's not heavy duty or anything—but it's our one solution at the moment: Becca's Luminous Skin Color which has an SPF of 25+ and never makes us break out. We've also been staring at this container of Peter Thomas Roth sunscreen for four months, and we're pretty sure we're going to crack it open any day now.
Anyway: Does anyone else have a better suggestion for a non-break-out sunscreen?
Not that anyone could tell from this morning's post, but the Great iTunes Spectacular can be found here.
We like this dress from the front, but we love it from the back. Bonus: one of our super-favorite designers. Click here for the sale item of the day.
We had such little interest in seeing this movie before we saw this poster. But now. Things are different! Manohla Dargis wrote a brilliant piece on Sunday about how little women have to do in the movies:
Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become.
This could be awesome. At least Audrey's not stuck being all Da Vinci Code assistant-y \ nominal love interest forever.
So we know summer is basically, if not officially, two weeks away, but we have learned our lessons, and we have been reminded anew of the wisdom in always having a jacket handy. And we have, equally recently, been thinking about how great North Face jackets are. They're like the functional opposite of all those thin, short-sleeve, completely impractical jackets we've been seeing, and which we know will just leave us cold and lonely in the long run. Also, these NF jackets have really chilled out on (too) omnipresent logos—we remember the extreme satisfaction a Scottish friend took in counting up all the NF logos on the way up the Eiffel Towel—which makes us very happy.
Above: We totally love this one, and even if it is May spent most of yesterday wearing it. It's cuter in person. Geographica jacket, $179
And this doesn't look like much online, but, as above, it's cuter in person. And they really have worked the nipped-in waist thing to our satisfaction. Bara jacket, $99
Being cold in the summer is ridiculous. Speaking of, we wonder who we can talk to about relaxing the air conditioning standards, nationwide. Has Al Gore taught you nothing, person who makes that decision at the Bridgewater Commons movie theater? Nia jacket, $129
In today's reader-submitted (as always, our favorite kind!) Bunnyshop Hearts:
Hey bunny!
I just wanted to share some good news for all the wavy-haired ladies (and gents, perhaps) out there. After years of searching for a product to enhance waves and many, many disappointed trials, I have found the greatest stuff! Most products leave my hair stiff, dried-out or looking like I just came out of the ocean (in a bad, salty way). However, Frederic Fekkai's Wave Creating Spray is superb. Instead of leaving nasty residue behind, this spray leaves your hair very soft, natural AND deliciously wavy! No more crunchy waves! It's a godsend, I swear!
Yay!
E.
We used to work at a Bumble & bumble salon, and all the stylists would talk people out of buying the B&B Surf Spray because they thought it was basically like spraying chunks of salt on the hair. We are, of course, delighted to find an alternative to actually dunking the hair in the ocean for the post-beach effect.
Frederic Fekkai Wave Creating Spray, $19.50
P.S.: There is nothing we love more than suggestions from readers, so if you have one, totally email us.
Ok, we know we're not quite ground breaking when it comes to the music area, but our favorite band is also one that broke up before we were out of diapers. We are content listening to the same 7 gb of songs on our iPod, and we tend to download a new song here and there every week or two. Last week, we downloaded M.I.A's "Paper Planes", and holy hell, this song has been in constant rotation since.
We drove kind of an obscene amount this past weekend, through 3 states, 2 rain storms, in 2 different cars, and about 9 bottles of Diet Coke. The most challenging point was driving through lower Manhattan, down Canal Street on Saturday. The amount of people buying knock-off bags (perhaps Mother's Day presents, we think) was staggering. As was when we approached the Holland Tunnel and the police turned two cars around and they were not allowed to enter the tunnel. Did we mention we were driving a car that costs as much as 2.5 of our car? Totally stressful, but we listened to this song on repeat about a hundred times and we were remarkably chill when we got to our destination.
We even made it our ring tone, and we've listened to it on our way in and out of work to ease our troubled mind.
-LB
So it's the second round of the amazing iTunes spectacular! (See the first one here.) Picking up where we left off, here's our next playlist, from T.. This is as close as we'll see to our own, we think, owing to all that Ryan Adams and Wicked. We hope and pray Ryan Adams know he's constantly next to Wicked in playlists around the world.
For the next playlist, click here.
Today we decide that $145 marked down to $58 is more reasonable—if less spectacular—than $5275 marked down to $2110. Click here for the sale item of the day.
Someone we've long being trying to shape into a Sleater Kinney fan—because really, how could someone not be a fan of the best band of like the last million years—recently asked us to name their most accessible songs. This was a bit baffling, since of course we think they are all sort of equally completely accessible ... and completely not. This was our vote, as it was the first SK song we loved. We would love to know if there are other SK fans around, and if so, what they would vote for.
Our favorite SK story: After they were mistaken, backstage, for groupies, Corin was all, "We're not here to fuck the band. We are the band." Oh! Why are we not devoting all of our time and energy to becoming a rock star in the Corin Tucker mode?
This video, btw, breaks our heart into a thousand million pieces, as it's from their last show, and it's obviously a huge sing-a-long and we can't imagine what we could have been doing that was better than attending it. Oh, SK! Come back to us! Sigh.
We had finished this post and realized we needed to share more SK:
We love this song even if in general it's Corin rather than Carrie that makes us so deliriously in love. We were going to go back to art school next semester, but we think instead we'll just make SK videos and post them on YouTube. Please! Come back!
American Eagle remains our source for inexpensive summery items, including what we are calling the tote bag of the week. It's still about $10 more than we'd like it to be, but we're totally into the colors and the dirt-resistant leather straps.
AE tote bag, was $49.50, now $34.95
Okay so honestly, if you haven't seen this yet, see this immediately. It may be the funniest, most amazing thing we have ever seen. We watched this in art school two years ago and it is just as incredible as we remembered it.
Other Wire fanatics will not want to miss our Omar at approximately 12:05. This is forty of the most unbelievable video footage minutes ever put to tape.
We beg you, just do not turn it off until the line:
Not only is there a man in the cabinet but the man is a midget—midget—midget!
Because we have been thinking: "We want to give out our OWN stars!"
Beauty product: DiorShow Blackout Waterproof Mascara in Kohl Black
What Sephora says its does: "Dior's sensation new DiorShow Mascara knocks out any waterproof mascara you've ever tried. Never sacrifice color and thickness for waterproof protection again. Creamy new Black Out Waterproof creates incredible black kohl intensity and spectacular volume, stroke by stroke. 100% smudge proof. 100% waterproof. 100% amazing."
What we think: We have always been terrified of waterproof mascara, fearing getting soap near, or in, our eyes. Our solution to that is to just not wash our eye makeup off. But, we would really like to wear mascara every day. We never thought it made much different until we were completely envious of our ex-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's amazing lashes. We actually said WOW because we don't normally by nto the hype, but mascara can do it. We have dark lashes, so we're all about lengthening and thickening and blackening. We think curling, as in chemical and not mechanical, is weird. DiorShow is kind of awesome - it's definitely better than the Clinque we bought not too long ago, but it came off easily with cool water. Is it supposed to? Is that what waterproof is supposed to do? We are unsure. Is this a good mascara? Sure. It definitely lengthens and defines and doesn't really clump. Is it worth $24? Eh. Depends on how much money you're looking to spend. We say firmly, maybe.
Stars(!): * * 1/2. We like what it does as a mascara, and we're unsure how waterproof is SUPPOSED to work, but the cost and washing off factor limit our stars. Dior DiorShow Blackout Waterproof Mascara, $24
-LB
We always hate gladiator sandals until we see them on someone, and then we're all, Ooh, totally want those.
They don't have to be the $275 Tory Burch ones, but we're mostly saluting her for—as far as we cann see—avoiding the oversized TB logo here. TB gladiator sandals, $275
These are actually cuter in person than they are online, and only $240 cheaper than the ones immediately above. American Eagle gladiators, $39.50
Piperlime is calling these "Rachel Zoe's pick." You know someone on staff there is just like, "Jesus Christ please save me and do not make me ever write those words again." Matt Bernson gladiators, $170
Topshop has like 40 million gladiator options at the moment, and none of them very expensive, but this bronze one is our fave. Holly flat gladiators, $30
In today's Reader Mail:
Bunny!
When I was living in Boston I went to this awesome haircut place where I’d sit down and say, “Make me look cute!” and while they were giving me a fabulous, hip, $30 haircut they’d also give me free brownies! So now I live in Brooklyn, and I can’t find any place to get my hair done. I’m not expecting brownies, but it seems like the range out there is cheap-and-sketchy to out-of-my-price-range, and my hair isn’t getting cute on its own. As someone knowledgeable of Brooklyn and cuteness, do you have any suggestions?
C.
Here is our sad truth: We have never gotten our hair cut in Brooklyn! And by "never," we mean "never in a way we liked." We are quite lazy about getting haircuts, and wait until the absolutely shaggiest moment to get them—this is true even when we spent three months working at a hair salon in San Francisco, where we were judged on nothing so much as the appearance of our hair. (And, we add with absolute truth, our astrological sign.) Anyway! We were thinking we could make this into a group thing: If people have a great stylist and they don't mind, they could comment or email us their location and the salon, and we'll compile the results, all geographic-like. We'll start by saying that no one but Rosette at Edo Salon in SF has cut our hair for the past two years—she's particularly awesome with our fine but wavy hair—and ditto re: coloring for Jet Black at Bella on Fillmore. Who else can recommend someone, in Brooklyn or elsewhere?
That picture, by the way, is of Audrey Tatou, in one of her rare midlength-hair incarnations.
Books! Our friend, Jen A. Miller, has a new one out, and if you're thinking about visiting the Jersey Shore—and of course you should be—you will obviously need to pick up her new book: The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May. We talked to her about one of our favorite places on earth—and then, if you're anywhere near the Manayunk Brewing Company tomorrow—Saturday—stop by for her signing!
How would you explain the Shore to a visiting German tourist?
"The shore" is a cluster of barrier islands that has been the traditional vacation spot for Philadelphians since the 1800s. The same thing that drew people back then still draws people now: the escape of the beach. But obviously the area has changed—there's a lot of dining, shopping and just things to do that don't directly involve the beach. It's also the birth place of boardwalks, which is where you can walk along the ocean without getting sand in your feet (and the place most people go way over their calorie budget for the week let alone the day).
What's your favorite meal on the Shore?
I love having dinner at the Blue Pig Tavern at Congress Hall in Cape May. The lobster mac & cheese is such a nice twist on a classic kid meal. You can also cap off dinner by hitting the Brown Room at Congress Hall for drinks in a very Gatsby swank setting (lots of brown leather and zebra print) or, if it's a Saturday night, head down the Boiler Room for live jazz.
I also have to tell you about Upcakes from Dixie Picnic in Ocean City. Genius: take a cup cake, cut off the
