We are, very literally, eleven time Amazing Race rejects. We are about to send in our audition tape—and we thought, for an exceptionally brief time, we'd share it here. We would really love any thoughts or comments on it—it's not too late to fix!
We are finding it very difficult to get any work done this week, what with the tone all warm and holiday-y. Why can it not be the first week of July every week of the year, is what we're asking ourselves.
We march on with our Jocasi giveaway: Once again, the question with the most comments wins. Easy peasy!
Today's question, from K.:
What is the best gift - big or small - you have ever given someone AND do you have a good fall-back gift that is 100% guaranteed to please when you are otherwise out of ideas?
Our answers: She may disagree, but we feel the answer was an inspirational message for our BFF at Christmas last year, written by a cookbook author and framed. We were very pro this gift because it didn't cost us anything, and it was thoughtful, unlike basically all of our other gifts. Speaking of: Our default is always, inevitably a book, and the one we love giving most is the one above: It's short and just perfect, which makes it appropriate for all sorts of readers.
Above: The Bridge of San Luis Rey, $10.36
Okay! So our Jocasi contest, despite a few procedural hiccups, is moving along swiftly. We were just looking for something fun to do with our regular audience - apparently the deal in summer is that people are like, Fuck the Internet, I'm going outside, except for a few places that they already visit - so we thought this would be a fun way to chat about random things and give a super nice bag to a regular reader. We have three questions up, and again, the winner will be determined not, like usual around here, at random, but by the highest number of comments under the post. We'll be Digging them and everything and passing them around - there's only a few comments separating the leaders, so rallying a couple friends could make the difference!
Promotion. We are so not promoters. But we try to share the love. The entrants, thus far:
What are your top three beauty "sins"?
If you could pick just one, what would be your all time favorite article of clothing or accessory ... and do you still have it?
We beg you to ignore Nicky Hilton above and focus on the poorly photographed dress, which is great. Karta dress, was $225, now $150
The Jocasi reader mail contest continues. In brief: You email us a question (with the word "Jocasi" in the subject for easy sorting, perhaps), we run it here, and the best question—measured in this one instance by the number of comments it receives—wins a fabulous Jocasi bag. (Not exactly this one pictured.)
Today's question:
If you had your dream body what you would you buy immediately to wear and why do you think you can’t wear it now?
J.
We will answer that we would buy knee socks. We may just go buy them anyway, right this minute! This is a very complicated question, we're thinking. Answer! And let's get J. on her way to the Jocasi bag.
Above: the Jersey bag, was about $220, now about $110
We're just recently been converted to the idea of rings lately. Like cabs. Last night we took a cab home from Pen Station—this is after we were so jet-lagged we actually imagined we saw a 2 train coming, at which point we decided hallucinating was our official get-a-cab cut-off—anyway, touch screens! Extremely fabulous! We had no idea it was like 2078 in the back of cabs these days.
Anyway: equally fabulous, this ring. We love it. Girly rings, eh. Clever rings, yes. We believe this is the latter. Forget Me Knot ring, $50—minus 25% with discount code BUNNYSHOP.08, so $37.50!
In today's entry to the Jocasi giveaway—remember, whoever's Reader Mail question garners the most comments, wins the bag.
What are your top 3 Beauty "sins" [this part of the message is cut off, but we're guessing it says something like, "you regularly commit?" or something similar]
1) Thou shalt not Pop Pimples
2) Thou shalt ALWAYS wear sunscreen.
3) Thou shalt remove make every single night.
N.
Great question! Our are quite similar: we never wear sunscreen or remember to take vitamins (these are beauty-via-health issues, we feel.) Also, we are extremely lax with the maintenance haircuts. Just. So. Expensive!
Anyhoo: What are yours? Fill us in!
Above: Bare Escentuals make up remover, $14
We're taking it easy this holiday week, and focusing our energies on (a) our awesome Jocasi bag giveaway and (b) our fabulous Fred Flare discount. Week of superlatives, it is. It's 25% off all everything (everything full priced, that is—no sale stuff) with discount code BUNNYSHOP.08. Yay!
We thought we would begin the week with these very seasonally appropriate sunglasses: the fred, white and blue sunglass pack, was $20—with discount code BUNNYSHOP.08, now $16
Oh goodness! Here it is, the contest we've been waiting to debut for ages. The amazing folks at Jocasi are sponsoring it—which means they gave us one of their gorgeous bags to give away. We love Jocasi so much we have no fewer than five in the BS HQ—they could hardly be more awesome. We would likely be capable of more effusion if the washing machine in the apartment we're staying in this weekend hadn't been cycling for literally six hours, but here we are.
Anyway, it'll work like this. There are only going to be ten entries. You get an entry by sending us a Reader Mail question. The bag will go to the person whose question gets the most responses in the comments section. (We'll be making sure that there's only one comment per person, not that we think any member of the Bunnyshop community would consider doing that.) We hope this isn't as confusing \ convoluted as our contests usually are.
Today, we begin with this question, from LA:
If you could pick just one, what would be your all time favorite article of clothing or accessory ... and do you still have it?
Thanks!
LA
(mine is a silver cuff bracelet, that I received as a gift over 10 years ago, and I still wear it all the time. I think it is timeless ... and it makes me feel like Wonder Woman.)
LA is now entered for the contest. We'll be running a new Reader Mail question each day, and then we'll give this gorgeous bag to the reader who came up with the best question—"best" in this case measured by the number of comments. Send us your questions—and definitely let us know your answer to LA's question, below. Very important last thing: Definitely put "Jocasi" in your subject line—otherwise we'll think they're garden-variety reader mail.
Above: the Jocasi Montana, about $170
It's surprising to us how much we like Suze Orman. We like her no nonsense attitude, we like how she makes it possible for EVERYONE to save, and she makes the impossible seem totally possible. We came across a link for her new book, Women & Money. It's a free download until tonight, and while reading on our computer is about as fun as watching the fan oscillate, it's environmentally friendly, and we bet Suze would be proud. The free download link is here (you can also just read it as a PDF).
If you'd rather buy it, and we can appreciate this because we have a rather extensive library and we never actually go TO the library, you can find it here for about $17.
-LB
Platform shoes: making us taller, which is all we ask of anything in the entire world. We love these, and they're half off, even if we need them to be about another half before we can afford them. Chloe stacked heel platforms, were $735, now $367.50
Love the metallic peach color here, as well as the thick platform sole. Topshop platforms, $120
And these arent usually our style but there's something about these very work-y platforms that we find strangely appealing. Marc Fisher platforms, $79
In today's Reader Mail (and please! send us yours!)
Dear BS:
I know this is a bit off-topic, but I'm going off to the beach today and looking for a book to bring. Advise!
Love,
A.
Well! Other than the one we wrote (currently available for purchase at Amazon, Powells and the occasional neighborhood bookseller!), we will say—all we ask for a beach book is, you know, any good book. This, above, is the last book we brought to the beach: Eye on Europe, from our fave-ever MoMA show. This is for when we are in those moods when even words just feel like too much effort. Honestly, this is a difficult question for us on two level—one, we can never really read successfully on the beach (too bright) and we've had trouble lately finding books we're really wild about. Who has some better ideas than our really bad one?
Chosen at random... it's the haloumi cheese salad from Sara!
Once more:
3-4 tomatoes, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 chili, sliced
1 cup orzo/risoni pasta, boiled OR 6-7 small fresh summer potatoes
one bag of rucket
1 can of beans (red or borlotti)
1 cucumber
1/4 cup lightly roasted pine nuts
1/2 cup kalamata olives (or any type of olives you like)
1 haloumi cheese, sliced and fried until golden in olive oil
Lemon juice from one lemon, to squeeze over the salad
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
sea salt and pepper
Mix and add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. ENJOY!
We're guessing the "rucket" is "rocket," which is (as far as we can tell) British for arugula. We will get Sara to clarify.
Now, the new contest. All we will say at this point is that it is SPONSORED BY JOCASI which is A-number one exciting! To get to the contest, we need the best reader mail question of all time—a question that everyone can answer (what's your favorite color, etc., but better). Send us a question here and it'll count as your entry.
But we just scored the most fantastic booties at a Steve Madden shop. They were approximately $40, they are flat, above the ankle but not much, and the perfect, softest cognac colored leather. Steve Madden is having a pretty sick sale, and we're surprised by how often they have very edgy/fashionable-in-a-good-not-mall-way. We picked up a pair of sandals and those booties, and spent just under $100!
-LB
This is so odd and full circle-y, but the exceptionally lovely Punky Style is giving away a copy of a book ... that we wrote. All we could offer is the Word doc, so that is a better deal. Check out her post here—and above, we debut the new paperback cover. Please love it as much as we do.
We're really not entirely sure what we think of these new-fangled cutaway swimsuits. No, right? Especially the ones with the cut-outs on the sides—so there's like the bathing suit, and then there's all that extra flesh! We seriously, seriously do not get it.
This one above is the one we like the most, though we're still not entirely sold. Juicy Couture cut-out suit, $160
This one we like because we basically couldn't tell it was a cut-out—that square in the middle isn't white fabric—and we love those straps in the back. Lenny swimsuit, $285
And this—this is not ideal, in our opinion. ASOS suit, about $40
Dit-to! Guess Collection swimsuit, was $110, now $82.50
In today's Reader Mail (and send us yours!)
Dear BS:
We are only one week into summer, and I'm already breaking out from my stupid sunscreen! Fix!
love,
C.
We have this same, exact problem, which is why—horrifying truth be told—we rarely ever wear it. (Don't take our advice! It reminds us of this day in art school when our video teacher was like, Don't worry about paying your taxes, and we actually raised our hand and were like, Do not listen to Martin today.) We use Becca tinted moisturizer, which has SPF 25, even if it's not as heavy duty (sweat resistant, etc).
We thought we'd look around for something a bit more intensive, and what we came up with was powder sunscreen:
Actress Cameron Diaz is known for her impressive resume of movie roles, but until recently she was becoming just as famous for her battle with acne, as highlighted by unflattering close-up shots of her bare face in tabloid photographs. ... Diaz revealed that she had finally detected and defeated the cause of her break-outs: sunscreen. She now uses sunscreen in a powder form. "Powder sunscreen!" exclaims Diaz in the interview. "I'm not using lotions any more, and my skin is completely different. I haven't had a pimple since!"
Well, if Cameron Diaz says so, it must be true! Er, anyway: this is the one that we found to be most popular, but we haven't tried it, for the reasons above. Has someone out there given this a go—or other, skin-friendly sunscreens?
Above: Peter Thomas Roth Instant Mineral SPF 30, $30
It's the sale we wait for all season long. Click here for the sale item of the day.
Zeny's Boutique has the newest swimwear from Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier in stock. For the rest of June, buy two or more Ed Hardy/Christian Audigier pieces and we'll supply a $10 iTunes gift card for each item.
So we are finding it just impossible to believe that it's been 15 years since Exile in Guyville, but apparently it is so—as evidenced by the album's re-release yesterday. Above, 6'1". It seems like such a long time ago that we thought this was the best song we'd ever heard.
We flipped for this skirt when we saw it. Totally on the straight and narrow above, all ruffles below. This is our recipe for summer happiness. (PS: We do not endorse those shoes!) Above: Reiss skirt, about $180
We are pretty sure that with the right shoes we could wear these outside. Ruffled boyshorts, $48
So normally we wouldn't show something so expensive, but this. Is. So. Pretty. And it totally has the ruffling we want: just swoop-y, loose-y layers of a swoosh-y material, not at all bulky or "tiered." Ah! Paul & Joe dress, was $728, now $509.60
We've been reading loads of Lynn Yaeger lately, and we are ready to rate her as our favorite fashion writer of all time. Why doesn't she have her collected works in some sort of book form [assuming one is not hidden in some Amazon corner we were somehow not able to access]? From her latest column for the Voice:
Austerity, rampaging beige, and a glut of good taste have invaded Times Square, and I hate it. The new Muji store, that temple of high-concept Japanese housewares, opened late last month across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the notoriously louche denizens of that historically seedy corner must wonder what it's doing there.
And we like Muji! That's their acrylic table above.
In today's Reader Mail (and send us yours!)
Hello Bunny:
I know you will be able to help me.
My friend and I plan to go to on a tour of Europe in a few weeks. We plan to hike and bike and climb mountains (maybe not). We also want to look reasonably cute. We don't like shorts, but feel we may need to wear them—or at least (gasp!) skorts or something (hiking in a skirt is not practical). We also NEED to get a cute pair of brown sandaly-things that are comfortable to walk in for hours and then go right out to dinner. We've encountered mostly ugly practical-shoe-lady sandals in our quest.
Any thoughts??
Thanks!
S.
This is perhaps one of our most difficult questions ever, as there may be no good answer. This is our fear. We have done quite a bit of hiking around at least the British part of Europe, and we mostly did so in entirely inappropriate jeans or leggings. (Equally ridiculous: the former, hot, and the latter, just annoying). Our favorite hike ever here was along the Channel coast, and we (and we really do mean "we" this time) ran into the famous Naked Walker, who was, true to the name, completely unclothed. We are really tempted in this situation to just say: hiking clothes for hiking, going-out clothes for going out, because the transition is going to be tough.
That said, we gave it our best shot—this picture above (again, sorry about the glare) is from a window of Field & Trek, as far as we can say the nearest British equivalent of EMS \ REI. So much clothing, so much not-cuteness. We would personally be happiest in more athletic-y choices like these Nike shorts—it is what it is, we're thinking, and we like these, even if they're not, like, tailor-made for hiking:
Nike track shorts, $28
Our opinion is that there are plenty of circumstances where function should trump form—we mean, yes, let's definitely avoid the knee-length shorts horror ... but: wicking. We demand wicking!
These are officially trail shorts. We just refuse to go down the khaki road. North Face trail shorts, $40
As for shoes—this is definitely another situation where we're just like: We give! We give! And go with function. We usually hike in trail running shoes, but you say you're looking at sandals. Really, we feel as long as you avoid the Crocs, we're with you. These are definitely the closest we could get to a happy medium—they're Tevas, with a cork sole—not specifically made for hiking, so definitely on the going-out side of the going out\\hiking divide, but ... they're the best we could do. We worry that they're neither here nor there, but we actually like how gladiator-y they look. Teva Venturas, $70
Anyone else with some ideas?
We really thought we'd had enough of the online sample sale, until we heard that Lil Bunny got two Foley + Corinna bags for about $5 at HauteLook. We. Are. Converted. Aggravatingly it's too late to partake of that one, but NB: William Rast is up today. These above are seriously on sale, but we're sure HauteLook will have some equally excellent buys. Consider the Kool-Aid ingested.
William Rast flares, were $249, now $99
There is a ridiculous number of cute, cheap shorts available at Forever 21—not a single pair over $25. These are equally attractive in white, if basically impossible to see on an equally white page. F21 linen shorts, $17.80
Honestly these shorts would be a reasonable purchase at twice the price—but even more attractive at the normal one. Brilliant shorts, $9.50
And we have already mentioned that these are our favorite shorts of all time. Maria shorts, $22.80
Just noticed that ShopBop is having a 20% off regularly priced apparel (er, dresses, tops and bottoms) - orders need to be placed by midnight.We'd buy this Theory cashmere sweater because cashmere never seems to go on sale, it's super classic, and we love it. We, however, will not wear pleated shorts with it.
Theory sweater, orig. $325, now $260
-LB
We were a bit meh about a BS Facebook group—we're not so leader-y about things, when it comes right down to it—but we are glad we did: We started a little discussion about which retailers to hit up for a discount. One lovely person suggested Fred Flare—and we'll have one from them in a matter of days! Extremely exciting! Join our group, and tell us your other favorite discount-y shops!
And it looked awesome. Baffling. But we want! AA romper, $28
I have come to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, in search of the quintessential—or at least stereotypical—Arabian shopping experience: centuries-old souks, gold sellers and rug dealers lording over warrens of little shops. "I want to go shopping," I say to the concierge at the Beach Rotana Hotel, a sprawling resort on the Arabian Sea. "I want to go to the souk."
"You want to go the mall?" he says, pointing vaguely across the hotel's lobby, which is filled with bored American wives and, I have been told, the prostitutes who have landed high-visibility jobs playing the flute and piano for dishdash-wearing businessmen.
I wouldn't even have to brave the 110-degree heat to get to the adjoining Abu Dhabi mall, with its KFC and Hardee's and a Starbucks I have already visited three times; in a few weeks, a Cold Stone Creamery will open across from the Baskin Robbins \ Dunkin Donuts. Foreign brands—not just American but pan-European; there is a Mango, a Debenhams, a Massimo Dutti—seem not to have intruded upon local ones as much as they have decimated them. Homegrown goods are evidenced only in a handful of shops, notably La Reine, which is filled with the loveliest abayas I have ever seen: flowing black gowns with Swarovski crystals embroidered around the cuffs or with gold thread sewn across the bodice. But I have already been to the mall a half-dozen times. I grew up in New Jersey. I did not fly 17 hours to see a mall not quite as good as Short Hills and slightly better than Livingston.
"No," I say. "The Iranian souk."
"The Iranian souk?" the concierge, Amin, repeats. "It's very far." He measures out a distance on the map that, according to the scale, looks less than a mile from the hotel.
It is hot, but not, on this day, any hotter than New York, and I am tiring of this advice, which I suspect is given only to women. "Will I die?" I say.
"No, no, it's very safe," Amin says. "But please take a cab."
I do, realizing too late that the meter has never been switched on. I pay twice the expected fare ("Whatever makes you happy, lady," the driver says as I shove the money at him) and find myself in a covered flea market where the dominant wares appear to be flower pots and brooms. I'm not even sure I'm actually at the Iranian souk—the pictures in my guidebook were of spices, not brooms—when I decide to walk back: It is, pleasingly, a faster, prettier walk than I had anticipated, one that leads to the Corniche along the sea. In minutes I am back in the air-conditioned confines of the Abu Dhabi Mall, waiting on line for today's Frappuccino, wondering if Sex and the City is playing alongside Indiana Jones at the third-level cinema or if the cultural censors—who have already blacked-out a pair of bare breasts in my British Elle—took one look at the title and broke early for dinner.
* * *
Abu Dhabi is only around 90 miles from its sleeker, chicer counterpart, Dubai, a giant construction pit of a city: Around one-third of the world's cranes are at work here, some on the Burj Dubai, potentially the world's tallest building when it's completed 2009. (Its projected finished height is secret.) I see no Priuses on the jammed, malevolent roads surrounding the city—notably the Sheikh Zayed, which rather magnificently bisects a valley of hotels and unfinished skyscrapers—but then, with gas around $2 a gallon, there seems to be little need for them. Air-conditioned bus shelters belie a desperate need for public transport: Armies of immigrant labor, largely from Pakistan and India, cram on to buses leading either toward or away from 24-hour construction sites.
Dubai is what happens when virtually unlimited wealth meets relentless marketing: Every new housing development or improbably green golf course "is poised to become a stunning landmark on the skyline of Dubai" (the Trump International Hotel & Tower) or offers "a delightful combination of three developments: Maple, Magnolia and Mulberry." If American developers have historically invoked the natural features their property has just destroyed (Pretty Oaks Mall, etc.), their UAE counterparts invoke those same features—flora and fauna more familiar to a Vermonter than an Emirati national. Of course, the expat population in Dubai is 80% of the whole—so perhaps maples and magnolias are just as appropriate as dwarf mangroves and acacia trees.
The marketing hyperbole extends to Dubai's malls: the Mall of the Emirates, the "world's first shopping resort," is the biggest in the Middle East, satisfying undiscriminating expats with not just a Borders and (two) McDonald's—which advertises itself as "the taste of home in Dubai"—but a roller coaster, a "dancing waters" fountain complete with fire feature, a five-star Kempinski hotel, and an actual skiing facility, Ski Dubai, with five slopes and "the world’s first indoor black run". What looks massive from Sheikh Zayed Road—a tilted gray slab lifted into the air by two square pillars—is more puzzling within, a showier, snowier riff on the incongruous patches of scrabbly green grass that line the access roads surrounding the airport: the effect is more "We did it" than "We did it in a particularly nice and inviting way." Regardless, the slopes are packed each of the three times I visit the mall over a few hot June afternoons: on the first, a class of children in the complex's matching blue-and-red snowsuits mill between life-size statues in a training area, while tourists take their pictures through the heavily insulated windows.
The Mall of the Emirates is the first I've visited that includes a code of conduct on its directory hand-out: prescriptions against revealing knees and shoulders as well as "overt displays of affection". (The accompanying graphic shows a man-shape and a woman-shape holding hands, and a red slash through them.) The crowd is more international than its counterpart at the Abu Dhabi Mall, meaning that for every abaya there is a pair of capri jeans, which seem to honor the letter if not the spirit of the provision. The atmosphere here is more spend-y as well: the ground level in Abu Dhabi housed the Abu Dhabi Co-op Hypermarket, selling groceries and TVs, like an oddly down-market Walmart; there is a sizable Carrefour here, but the vibe is more accurately conveyed by Via Rodeo, the small, high-end wing featuring Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Dolce and Gabbana, YSL—and curiously no Fendi, which seems to be the handbag of choice amongst the women wearing the most elaborate abayas. (I count four in the sprawling accessories department at Harvey Nichols, where the chief attraction seems to be a wall of gorgeous Celine patent leather bags.)
It is difficult to locate much here that could not be purchased, more cheaply, at home, or at Galeries Lafayette, or on a London high street: the dirham is pegged to the dollar, so less capable of breaking an American's heart than the pound or Euro, but there seems to be little point in buying H&M here, or Reiss, or BCBG. If the mission is to locate the authentic Emirati shopping experience, this spectacular ersatz may be, in its way, it: "Everyone shops here," one woman says, as I pay for my copy of Brownbook, an excellent art and culture magazine produced in Dubai. "Or at the other malls." There are many: Mercato Mall, Wafi Mall (with a new pan-Arabian souk), Deira City Centre, and two poised to overtake even the Mall of the Emirates in terms of space and spectacle: the Dubai Mall (world's largest: mall, gold souk, aquarium), opening in August, and the Mall of Arabia (world's largest: mall, Starbucks), debuting in 2010. I go to Forever 21, with, apparently, every American girl between the ages of 12 and 15 whose parents are stationed here, and buy a knee-revealing pair of shorts and a shoulders-revealing top. My knee-jerk position is that if I can buy a garment at a particular shopping center, I should be able to wear it anywhere within that particular shopping center, which I do, and which is probably not worth the ensuing discomfort.
Before arriving in Dubai, my shopping heart had been set on a single destination: Naif Souk, only because a local designer had recommended it as a place to pick up fabric. It burned down in April; a plan for a redeveloped, air-conditioned update circulated soon after, an event met with some local consternation: "I'm not a conspiracy theorist so I didn't wonder about a complex architectural design being created and finished in about three days after the fire, and everything in place, such as contractors, to be able to confirm that it would be built in six months. A conspiracy theorist might think that it was all in place before the fire," read one of several similarly minded comments on a blog called Life in Dubai. The authentic experience of a place—shopping or otherwise—is typically bound up in the historical one: What is truly of this place? Here, the notion of authenticity feels flipped on its head. The covetable experience here is unlikely to be the newest, most fake, most plastic, most unlikely—something other than the gold bracelets or spices of the souks: In its own, ironic right, I'm not sure there is a more authentical
