2006 June » Bunnyshop

The Fresh Sale

06.27.2006

Well, impressed we aren’t, we have to say, by the Fresh sale, if for no other reason than we can only access parts of it without running into error messages. And, as always: So many things in the non-sale areas to buy. So few things in the sale area. Unless, say, you loved Memoirs of a Geisha, and were looking for some MoaG-themed cosmetics to remember the film by. Er, not. Really, that is like party of two. So we were quite discouraged when there were only things available in the entire skincare section: MoaG rice face wash ($8) and MoaG flower petal face mask ($9, and it would be pictured above if Fresh’s site was working a tiny bit better).

Fragrance: It’s not like we really expected to see our favorite Sugar perfume on sale, but we could have lived without more MoaG leftovers. Instead, we might content ourselves with the Linden “EDT” ($9), which at least comes in a nice-looking bottle.

Bodycare: This is definitely the best of the sections. We would consider the index body oil and the Sugar shower gel ($8). We would not consider the MoaG bath with sake. What we’d really like to see, actually, is say, Dr. Strangelove Face Mask or some Apocalypse Now Exfoliation Now Scrub. Tss.

Candles: Our experience with Fresh candles has been so sub-par that we wouldn’t use them if they magically sprouted, like dandelions, in our front yard.

We find the entire accessories section uninteresting. Unless you are in the market for a $5 lacquer dish. WTF?

Fresh Sale at Noon, ET

06.27.2006

That reads like “Fresh Sale at Noon,” “ET,” like extra-terrestrial. It should not. It should mean instead that our regular morning post will arrive when the details of Fresh’s sale does. At: noon. Eastern time. We could have avoided this whole mess by going with “EST,” but really, we can never remember if summer equals Standard or Daylight time. Tss. We don’t know why they won’t unveil the details of the sale in a little pre-sale action, but alas. They’re just not giving up the goods. We want to add there, “literally,” but in fact they are still giving them up, just at the full, rather than sale, price. Double tss.

The e-mail notice we got promises that this is “a rare and brief opportunity to order many of your favorite Fresh makeup, bodycare, fragrance, candles and gift sets at prices ranging from $2 – $20 (originally priced at $18 – $65.)” We really want to know what Fresh is going to be selling for $2. (We’re hoping it’s this, but we’re not holding our breath.) We’ll be back after noon (ET!) (so maybe something close to noon CT, if you follow) with our report….

Paul & Joe at Target

06.27.2006

We almost totally slept through this, but Target’s announced its latest Go: International designer, and it’s Sophie Albou from Paul & Joe. We love Paul & Joe so very much, and we are so very aware that there will be absolutely nothing from the Target line we’ll have any interest in buying. This is the way things are, and always will be. See the full fall line here. We just think the line should be smaller, and better. Isn’t it smaller and better at H&M?

Meanwhile, we will always want this $329.70 P&J bag from Shopbop. We cannot answer, however, why the model appears to be leaning forward, like into a hurricane.

Selfridges Summer Sale

06.26.2006

Selfridges’ summer sale is back, and with it, the Barbara Kruger anti-consumerism, anti-advertising advertising campaign. Is it ironic? Is it sincere? Are they paying Barbara Kruger buckets and buckets of gold irony coins, possibly wrapped in the foil of everyone’s smug self-awareness?

We wouldn’t mind if the fact that Selfridges on sale is about equal to full-priced Barney’s, thanks to the conversation ratet that recently saw us paying $2.25 for 500 mL of Diet Coke. Honestly, the whole thing just gives us a fucking headache.

Ask the Stylist: European Vacation

06.26.2006

Our house stylist is too busy covering the WAGs [Wives and Girlfriends] of the various World Cup team footballers still in action, so this week we turned to another one, conveniently based in Europe, to answer this extremely continental question:

“I will be going to Europe for about three weeks. I have very little packing room, my budget is *ahem* quite tiny, and I’ll have approximately … 10 minutes each morning to do the whole getting ready thing. I’m also required to wear a ‘uniform’ each night, consisting of an ankle-length black skirt or pants, and a white dressy top. I could REALLY use some suggestions for the entire wardrobe!”

Personally, we’d just pack a bag of whatever you’ve been wearing the last week, and then spend all the money you have saved up at Topshop, Selfridges, or Galeries Lafayette, etc. We know we mentioned the summer sales. But if you were packing from scratch….

“You probably have jeans you’d be happy wearing, so I would say not to spend your money there. However, if they’re part of your new wardrobe, it’d be fun to bring along some EU brands—ideally these tight dark Neps from Denimbirds and the washed black [read: gray] narrow jeans from APC.”

“Throw in a pair of black leggings and a mini-skirt or shorts and you’re sorted for bottoms.” Anthropologie leggings and Juicy Couture safari shorts, $138

“A cotton tunic can work as either a modest top with jeans or leggings, or, in a pinch and with the right pair of knickers, as a mini-dress on its own.” “Naughty tunic” from LOVE from Ya Ya ($143, belt included) and Velvet Ella tunic, $58

“My favorite, though, is this Sunner tunic.” ($181)

“Otherwise, I like to throw in a couple tank tops and just layer them as need be.” From C&C California, racerback tank ($42) and the double V tank ($40).”

[If $42 is a little rich for a tank top, there's always American Apparel [sheer racerback, $18] or Wait’ll-They-Get-Their-Hands-On-You-Etc Hanes “more than ‘chillin’ out’ wear” (their words) tank for $6.]

“For shoes, the only thing you want to think about is comfort. I’m wild about these [Belle] Sigerson Morrison silver flats (now on sale for $192.50), and I also like these silver flats from Office ($45). I’m into metallics but these area also in black.”

[Budget options: these resort glitter thongs, perfectly acceptable at $14.99, and these Isaac Mizrahi ballet flats ($29.99):

aren't hideous.]

“And for those tunics, you’ll definitely need a belt. I love double-ring belts right now, and luckily there are two terrific options at very different ends of the budget: one is Jovavich-Hawk ($165), and the other is Forever 21 ($7.80).

“And you’re not going to want to spend any money on your bag since it’s probably going to get totally knocked around, but you’ll still probably need it to hold quite a bit of stuff. This Fashion Targets Breast Cancer tote bag ($15) should do the trick.”

So that’s it for our very portable, quasi-European, and hopefully sufficiently inexpensive wardrobe. Ask our stylist[s] another question. Really. They have so little else to do. Questions go here.

Young Black Farmers

06.26.2006

One of our favorite things about Britain is undoubtedly its television, and now, specifically, Young Black Farmers, a sort of Survivor populated only by poor black teenagers and set on a farm in the country.

Our favorite lines from the scene in which they learn to artificially inseminate cows:

“Aye, there’s the towel.”

“I ain’t putting my hand up no one’s batty, and that obviously includes a cow.”

“She’s tensing up a bit!”

“I’m so sorry, cow.”

And then there was the white farmhand talking to the [all-black] wannabe farmers: “Now we’ll set up a chain gang.” Pause. “You should know what a chain gang is.” Pause. “Part of your culture, and all.” Double pause. “Not that you’re slaves here.”

Ah, Young Black Farmers. Next Sunday, too, at 9 p.m.

Field Trip: Royal Academy of Arts

06.24.2006

So today we decided that what we really wanted to see was some terrifying fetus art. Er, no. Actually, we wanted to go to one of those nice cafes in the art museums here, and we were closest to the Royal Academy, so we figured all that lay between us and some nice scones was … well, not much. Except for the giant fetus sculpture by Damien Hirst (officially: “The Virgin Mother”), which we are just going to file away under: Pregnancy, Terror of, Evidence Why.

Here is a close-up.

Still, we guess the whole thing is still not as scary as the whole thing with the sheep on the toilet and the hyperdemic needle.

Or, for that matter, this etching, which we quite liked, called Adolescence, until we realized it was a portrait of the artist’s 15-year-old Lolita \ girlfriend, and now we are just quite disturbed by it.

But our favorite thing was the vinyl hand-cut pieces by Sinta Tantra. They were super cool. If we had $200, we would totally buy this hand-cut gold vinyl thing. We are not doing it justice.

Today’s Lunch Hour Bikini

06.23.2006

J. Crew should really be “the official swimsuit provider of Amagansett” or really any of those other towns in the Hamptons where you’re trying to divide 17 into 1 in an effort to figure out who gets one of the beds this weekend. Oh, summer shares: We miss them. Because we were, even then, only marginally employed, we’d drive out to Amagansett in our roommate’s car at one in the morning and get there at four, a situation which once nearly ended in our death, as our fellow share-ee attempted to prove his manliness to the girl he’d just finished fucking and nearly attacked us—as we lawfully, legally unlocked the door—with a baseball bat.

So off topic: This is J. Crew “wonder-dots” halter. We’re thinking the wonder part has to do with the fact that the dots are slightly bigger directly around the boobage area, making for some sort of boob-enhancing optical effect. Got us. Top + bottom = $82

Friday Night Express

06.23.2006

Consider this our very own version of Casual Fridays. Because it is summer and there are parks and places to shop and hot soccer players to ogle, we’ve been farming out our extremely-semi-regular Friday feature, wherein we construct a suitable-for-going-out outfit. This week, we asked our friend the Anthropologie buyer to make us her favorite going-out outfit. The only stipulation was that it include these shoes from Topshop, because, as our helpful commenter Emily pointed out, they look almost exactly like the more-expensive Beatrix Ongs. Unless we’ve completely misinterpreted her. But we’re betting we’re right.

Anyhoo, this Friday night’s outfit:

“This is just a simple little outfit, very bright, with lots of white and just a few dashes of color. I hope you like it! It’s very Wimbledon-meets-dinner out, if that makes any sense. First is this simple white shirtdress. You can’t really see it from this image but really the bodice is quite detailed and beautiful.” Mia dress, $288

“Love this Londontown belt…. ($168)”

“And these Grecian sandals, too.” ($78)

“And then the Sienna leather shoulder bag ($288).” (This looks a lot like Jocasi-lite to us.)

This is when we reminded her about the Topshop shoes (about $150).

“Oh, I totally forgot about that. I’d wear dark skinny jeans, a white blouse, and a black u-neck vest.”

Well, there you go. This is what happens when rely on outsiders for assistance. It’s Trust Fall in high school all over again. Argh. Still love the shoes, tho.

Reader Question Thursday: Pia Wallen Bags

06.23.2006

In the non-actual mailbag:

Help! Where can I find a Pia Wallen felt bag in New York City? I’m going to be in New York City
for a few days next month and I’m desperately trying to find a store that sells them. I know you can buy them from her site or from modernseed.com, but I live in Canada and we get totally burned by customs when you order anything from abroad. So I was hoping to find somewhere while I’m in NYC.

Our investigation—and we need to say here that the reason we love reader questions is because they make us feel a little big like we are in the Da Vinci Code—led us first to Pia Wallen’s website, which was Scandinavian-ly helpful, but failed to list US retailers. But it was okay, because they wrote us back:

Thank you for your e-mail. We have one retailer in New York who have had the bag and that is Clearly First at 978 Madison Avenue. Perhaps if they have any left.

So then we called Clearly First (this is how all our favorite stories go: “And then I called Tiffany, and she was all like, whatever, so then I called Carrie…”). They have “a couple” left. What we would do, in this situation, is order the bag of choice from Modern Seed on the way to the U.S., have it delivered to wherever it is we were staying, and ta da. Of course, it would without a doubt work out so that the bag would show up the day after we leave or something, so this could be a completely ridiculous and naive plan. But it is, nonetheless, a plan.

Please! More questions. Those having to do with grails \ Louvre \ Mary Magdalene receive priority.

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