bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

Viktor and Rolf @ H+M

Holy fucking shit is all we can say about that.

We don't like the big shopping things. We'd rather be at home, preferably asleep, possibly watching television, possibly staring at the wall. We don't like drama, or fighting, or rugby scrums. We really really really do not like standing on line. But our third post today is late (believe it or not, there is a schedule at work here) because. We have just come. From the third circle of hell.

And that would be the one on Powell Street today.

Honestly, we weren't going to go. We're sitting there in bed, thinking about how we should really be making good on the $7000 on new student loans we just signed for, and go to class. And then we start thinking: about that trench coat. We really wanted that trench coat. And besides: We always pussy out of stuff lik ethis. And we. Are not. Pussies.

So off we went to H&M. We did think the store was opening at 9, and so we would put our little theory to the test about how as long as you go at some point on the same day, you'll get what you want. We no longer believe this to be true. So we spent 45 minutes on line, with Rebekkah (from Sweden) and a woman from Australia who did not provide her name. We did sort of feel like there should be some Swedish-only express line, just like we think we should be allowed to pay for our Gap jeans in American money when we try to buy them in London and discover they cost three times as much as they cost at home.

Final H&M Alert

So: This is the last-warning for our H&M field trip tomorrow. If you want us to pick something up, e-mail us by ... midnight, plus or minus, tonight, and we'll do what we can.

So, further: pick out what you'd like. E-mail it to us, with your size and color preferences. Then we'll send you directions for PayPal'ing us the $$ for the item[s]—no surcharge, obviously, just enough extra to cover the PayPal fee and the shipping. Find the whole campaign here. Remember: We make no promises. It's going to be crazy. And wish us luck tomorrow morning!

Field Trip: Shoreditch Art Party

This weekend we went on a little walking tour of Shoreditch.

For some reason, every time go to an art party in East London, it is always like two dozen people standing out in the cold, drinking beer and looking grumpy. Obviously we are going to the wrong parties, lacking, as they always seem to, Pete Doherty and Kate Moss making out. Or, who knows, maybe they were there, but we didn't stay long enough to see them. Here is what the parties we go to always look like:

This was quite depressing as we were very excited about the art project the party was ostensibly celebrating: Shop Local by Bob and Robert Smith. We believe in shopping generally, when done smartly and not in desperation, and even more when it is done locally, and he made four big signs advertising quite small Shoreditch businesses. Someone we know very well who wisely turned down the party but foolishly turned down the art said, "How is that art? Why isn't that just a sign?" to which we said, "Well, if the intent of the sign were merely to advertise the business, then, fine, it's just a sign. But obviously he's doing something more interesting here, so besides the aesthetic qualities—really, I think they're quite striking and lovely—there's a political commentary as well: They ask you to think about the idea of shopping locally, why you haven't done it more, what that ends up meaning for the community as a result." Hey! $20,000 of art school, totally paying off!

Moving on to subjects that terrify us less than our pending student loan payments. Above is a picture of the sign for the electronics store, and here is another picture from the project, for a local eel and shellfish shop. Our photos are terribly out of order today.

And we love this bag (at top). £15 is pretty steep for a carrier bag, but ... Shop Local! Hmm. It's a lot of money. But it's really cute. Argh. This could go on for many days. Fair Trade, fair wages and all that.

To see the show: Peer Gallery, 99 Hoxton Street
To buy the adorable, limited edition Fair Trade bag: Peer Gallery's bag info page

 

Field Trip: Century 21

Century 21: It is the most wonderful store in the world. It is the only appropriate place to begin our  25 Best Stores in Manhattan, now that we have one each in London and Brooklyn. Real progress there. But still: Century 21! We love it, we hate it, etc. All we can say: Missoni and Prada and billions more, new fall arrivals. Note the extremely undercover camera-phone subterfuge photos. It was all that was available to us, because the place is that undercover.

The annoying thing about Century 21, at least for our purposes here, is that it can only be experienced in person. The nearest online equivalent is Bluefly, or maybe eBay. There is no online replication. For instance, no one can push you online, or step on the back of your flip-flops so many times that you want to pluck out their hearts with your bare hands. You can, however, find $325 Marc X MJ blazers for $114, or this $500 Catherine Malandrino dress for $159. Ergo, allure. That photo really sucks. There were spies everywhere.

We went looking for a dress for our friend's wedding. Our next stop was Forever 21, or our own closet, because really, money is expensive, if you get our meaning. So we went back and forth from the floor to the dressing rooms. They have curtains now! Otherwise unexceptional.

Here is the line behind us. We almost cheesed out with a Miguelina top that was so awful we will not replicate it here. Love Miguelina, but the top was, as it was put to us by a shopper more level-headed than ourselves, "Stevie Nicks gone wrong." That is the problem with Century 21: Mistakes are made. The good news: There were plenty of other choices, like the Narciso Rodriguez and the Prada, below. Really, we have never seen so much Prada in our lives. And. All. Like half off. Really. It's too much, emotionally speaking.

We haven't even mentioned the Missoni rack[s].

In the end, though, it was a Filippa K with unbelievable detailing that won us over. $550. Marked down. To. $49.99.

We swear we have boobs, even if this photo does not show them.

For a while we stopped going to Century 21, fed up with the dressing rooms and the pushing and the sandal-stepping-on. However: $500.01 off. We are, again, its bitch.

Century 21
Now in Paramus! (As of August 10.) Our field trip took us to the main location at 22 Cortlandt Street.
(212) 227-9092

Unpractical Decorating Tips From The Getty Villa

We've already discussed the photography debacle we encountered last week at the Getty Villa. This did not entirely detract from our visit. This, by the way, is how Wikipedia describes J. Paul Getty: "In 1917, he announced that he was retiring to become a Los Angeles-based playboy." Ha! That's like retiring to be a golddigger or professional consigliere. We especially appreciate how he restricted his playboy activities to the Los Angeles area.

However, we have fewer problems with now-deceasd oil baron playboys than we do with any of those billionaire oil-producing, environment-destroying war profiteers actually now living, so with the Getty we will stay. We will avoid the whole looting-of-Italy-and-Greece problem in this space. We imagine the retired playboy would simply say: "Suckas!"

Anyhow, some home decorating elements from the Getty:

1. Columns and reflecting pools are a nice addition to any space. As are scary statues:

2. The really funny thing to do would be to have statues made of, say, all your ex-boyfriends, so you have a sort of Gallery of Unexpected Misjudgments. Along your reflecting pool.

3. It might also be nice to have tales of your recent, minotaur-slaying deeds available for convenient access.

4. Geometric marble floors: also good.

5. Atriums. Atria. With pools. We are wishing at the moment we could have been born as a slave-freeing noble Roman princess. With an atrium. This is a little tilt-y and overexposed because of the pre-battery-dying running around issue.

6. Now in all seriousness, rather than partial seriousness, these flowers were painted on the ceiling, Sistine style. Wouldn't it be great if you could do this in your bedroom or something? There must be a stencil or something.

7. And we legitimately love this color scheme: We're going to call it butter, rust, teal, and cerulean. Maybe we can forge a new career as one of those people who come up with the new names for paint. Except that was not really the skill we just exhibited. If any skill was, indeed, exhibited, which is unlikely. Also handy in any home: helpful directions to restrooms.

8. This is the lily pond our camera fell into immediately after we took this picture.