bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

Reader Mail: The Ring Thing

In today's Reader Mail:

Hi Bunnyshop,

My brother is coming to visit me in Brooklyn next week and wants to go engagement ring shopping for his lovely girlfriend of five year. He is looking to spend $500 - $1500 (max $2000) for a vintage ring (diamond or not). Do you have any store recommendations? Thanks so much!

L.

Of course we love the Brooklyn question. And: We do! We hope. First, we started with our favorite ring designer on the planet, Melissa Joy Manning. This is just one of the ones we like, and well within budget. MJM white diamond oval ring, $690

According to her website, she's sold at the Clay Pot in Park Slope (which we will forgive for passing us over for a copywriting job.) They definitely do stock this one:

which was just in Lucky. MJM opal ring, $350

Supposedly she's also stocked at Jumelle in Williamsburg (148 Bedford) but their website isn't giving up much info.

Bird has shops in Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Williamsburg, and they have great jewelry lines. Speaking of, they actually did hire us to do their copywriting, a million years ago, and they traded us Diane von Furstenberg dresses, which was a more than perfect arrangement. Sarah McGuire sapphire ring, $595

Cog and Pearl (190 Fifth Ave) might be too casual but it's our neighborhood go-to for indie jewelry designers.

Hmm. We just re-read the question and see now that it specifies vintage. Mm. Hopefully this is not a complete fail. if it is, indeed, vintage-only, we would start with that weird (but awesome) vintage store in Park Slope that's just south of Flatbush on Sixth Avenue, on the west side of the street. (Sorry, those directions kind of suck—but it's there.) We also hear very good things about Dolly G's in Williamsburg. And the Hooti Couture people (conveniently, right around the corner from the mysterious Sixth Avenue shop above, at 321 Flatbush) could very likely offer valuable advice here. 

Does anyone else have suggestions? Or! More questions! We love them! Email them to: thumper-at-bunnyshop-dot-org.

One Lovely Object: Jene DeSpain's Gold Heart Necklace

We would wear this every day, with everything, even when we were going to the gym (er, which we haven't done for like seven years), or buying magazines (daily), or painting our walls, or cleaning out our closet (literally, not metaphorically), or any other ridiculous errand we can think of. Jene DeSpain necklace, $80

Recession? What Recession?

These are just a few of the highlights from yesterday's Me&Ro sale at Gilt. We're torn: While we truly (truly) embrace anything that suggests the economy is not actually dead yet, and instead just a bit sniffly, this still freaks us out. We only hope (for the sake of our understanding of the world) that there was only one of each of these available, and Paris Hilton bought all of them.

One of Our Favorite Designers Has a 25% Off Sale

Nominally for Valentine's Day. We are so anti-that holiday. And not because we are a bitter harridan. When we were at Sundance a few weeks ago, we saw the world's most annoying romantic comedy, and when we described it thusly to the guy sitting next to us, he was all, "Wow, [are you] just out a bad relationship?" And we were like, no, you douche, that movie just sucked. Like the only people who don't like bad romantic comedies are harridans. Argh! February. Give us March. Or better: April. Even better: May!

Moving on from our seasonal affective disorder: Maya Brenner's having a 25% off Valentine's Day sale. It may be the best thing to emerge about the holiday, which we maintain is designed to make everyone—single and not—miserable and question-y about the status of their relationships. Gah! We hate it.

We keep getting sidetracked! Maya Brenner. We would buy this locket, because lockets are nice: Maya Brenner heart locket necklace, $185, with discount code MAYA it's $138.75

Or this, a perennial favorite here at BS:

Maya Brenner NJ necklace, was $230 (in 14k gold), with discount code MAYA it's $172.50

Today's Awesome Fred Flare Discount: The Forget Me Knot Ring

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!

The Emergency Ring: Reader Mail

In today's reader mail:

Hey there Bunny,

So this question is about personal adornment. See, I am newly single and so have cast off the wedding and engagement rings that I have worn for the last few years. But, of course, now my fingers feel naked and I don’t feel very pretty overall, so I’m looking for a little present to myself. And yet, I don’t want to fall into that sad clichéd trap of either a) the “right-hand ring” forced down our throats by the DeBeers company or b) jewelry with messages about “the journey” or “strength” etched into it.

Do you have any suggestions for a beautiful ring that is worth a not-too-big investment, makes me appear like a stylish, confident girl and will also fit my freakishly small hands (the biggest ring size I can wear is a 5)?

E.

Oh dear! This sounds like a very stressful episode!

First, we will say: The best medicine we have ever provided to ourselves or anyone is travel. It is our favorite cliche, that travel is transformative, and in our opinion, one of the most accurate. It heals all wounds, if you will indulge us in another one.

That said: We also despise the marketing campaign known as the right-hand ring, and believe in a world without power-messages inscribed upon our jewelry. We are hoping that LB will chime in here (as well as anyone else with a suggestion, of course) but we love Melissa Joy Manning's rings. We're not sure if this qualifies as "not-too-big," but this ring definitely does come in a size 5 (or 4, or 4.5) and we just love it—the entire collection, but this one in particular. It completely sidesteps that ridiculous right-hand-ring stuff—it's not a pathetic replacement for anything. It's just gorgeous. Melissa Joy Manning druzy agate ring, $485

We also really like this one: You're a star! It's a better statement, in our opinion, than a whole shitload of other rings. We're pretty sure it's harder to be a star than it is to get some guy to hand over a ring. Adina Reyter star ring, $238

LB Loves: Ema Takahashi

So, while your regularly scheduled writer toils away over a redesign, we're going to bring you things we love. It's Friday, it's spring (which we noticed when we woke up one day and suddenly could not breathe out of our nose), and we are on some serious allergy medicines (because of aforementioned stupid season). If we blather a little, you'll have to forgive us.

We came across Ema Takahashi and we are a little like whoa with her intricate designs. We have never been good at 3D art (our last attempt was a 5' cardboard/paper Zippo lighter. Yes, we went to art school, and yes, it was as awful as it sounds), so when someone takes a simple material and turns it into the incredible, we're always impressed.

These necklaces are no exception. We love words and we so so so love abstracting words ever so slightly so the letters look more like shapes than a word. It takes the context away and makes you concentrate on the movement - maybe it's the ex-art student in us that thinks that way. We also love the kind of secret aspect of it - like you have to get close, or at least pause for a moment, to figure it out. Or maybe that's just us. Either way.

I Love NY necklace, $170

Ok, ok. So 'yes we can' has a really strong political connotation these days. But we've always been incredibly positive minded, we annoyingly always find the silver lining in the dark cloud, etc. Aside from looking awesome, this necklace is just a really nice way to encourage yourself/others/political candidates/etc.

Yes We Can necklace, $285

Clearly, this isn't a word. Rather, it's a peony based off Chinese drawings. We would very much like this necklace for a birthday present from someone we know. We would totally wear this with anything, all the time.

Peony necklace, $155

-LB

HayLuv Discount Week

We're just about wrapping up HayLuv discount week—20% off these lovely chunky necklaces.

Today's pick: the Sassy Ice, $154—until we factor in the amazing Bunnyshop discount code ("bunnyshop", not to be all repetitive about it) and then it's $123.20!

The Raffia Necklace

So we're in France at the moment, which is cold as fuck in a way that's really interfering with our springtime buzz. Anyway, we've noticed too things here: April snow is an abomination. And we have seen like three million store windows with raffia on the mannequins. This is, below and to our surprise, one of the few raffia
necklaces we were able to find. 

This isn't exacccccctly what we were looking for, but it's as close as we're getting. Wood, Lucite, and raffia-wrapped bead necklace, $63.50

Spectacularish Discounts at HayLuv

HayLuv discount week continues! We just love big, chunky jewelry like this. One piece is all you need, and especially something like pretty much instantly dresses up an otherwise boring black dress. Which is apparently the only sort we have.

HayLuv Love Hug, was $265, with discount code "bunnyshop", $212