Hello all!
I'm finally back home from NYC and ready to give tPF the devotion it deserves. I was able to get online for about 15 minutes on Wednesday, but that was it. Here are the details...
We arrived on the 14th, late in the afternoon. LaGuardia is amazingly close to the city, so the trip in was short. The first night I ate like a carnivore. Here at home we rarely have steak, but my SIL had to have as she called it a "New York Steak" We went to Kennedy's on 57th, and it was cute to see the couples celebrating Valentines day. The food was delicious. Since the trip was really to visit Toy Fair, I went there all day Sunday. Toy Fair is huge, there are about 1000 toy vendors, and lots of fun things to play with. In the evening, we attended a banquet at the 5th Ave FAO Schwartz toy store. That is a really fun place. The theme was New Orleans, yum...but I was too chicken to eat a crawdad.
Monday, I took a trip on the bus out to the Woodbury outlets. I made a beeline for BV, naturally! If that had been the only outlet there, it would be worth it. I found a great woven felt and leather man bag for the DH. I also got one of those little pink coin purse thingies. There was a lovely satchel that I snagged. Now it was called the Viva Italia bag...but wait, hold on, wait a minute! This was NOT the same orphan bag on Bluefly. The bag was an ash scuro-like color. There are small enameled metal squares around the bag. I like an unusual satchel, and this was not garish. I managed to find a Carmino agenda, too. That is the best red. Also, a pair of Ebano embroidered suede shoes followed me back. Actually it is all being shipped and I will post pictures here when it arrives. I made a quick visit to Choo, Ferragamo and to Loro Piana. That was it...all I needed to see. That evening, we went out with some of my SIL friends to Ralph's Italian restaurant. It was good, too.
On Tuesday, I went back to the Toy Fair to visit the Steiff booth (love those mohair animals) and kill a little time before noon. I met up with Mid- at Hatsuhana for sushi. Mid- is as adorable, kind, sweet, softspoken, and elegant as you would imagine. The restaurant was wonderful. Afterwards we set out for some shopping. We visited BG, Saks, BV, Mikimoto, Hermes, and Swarovski. I found all the scarves I had been looking for. The pearls at Mikimoto are absolutely beautiful. Mid- was not wearing her Pearls in Motion necklace, but I did see them at the store. It sure is great to get to a big city with the flagship stores...they are well stocked.
The important one...the BV boutique. Oh my...that place is huge! It was fabulous to see so many items in person. No oxidized copper, though. It all flew out the door immediately. Mid- tried on a gorgeous triple strand woven silver bracelet. And there were so many shoes! All the great stuff from the catalogs.
They had the embroidered Tea/Nero Florette Settansei (76) bag. I have no idea why it is called that, but the shape is the same as BL's Mattita. They also had the Caramel/Tea Pensee´ bag with the embroidered violets. I saw the divided knot in both the Vachette and Nero. What a great new style. Love the two sections. One section opens using the knot clasp on top, the other with the buckled strap.
And then...there it was.... My HG Knot, the Pepe sterling silver with the cloisonne enameled snakes. Wow. The SA took it out of the case, so I could hold it. Oh boy.
We headed upstairs to the men's department. Get this, the elevator was lined in suede. It smelled great in there. I got a bow tie for the DH. Also, we saw lots of the new men's bags. The light was out in the absinthe case, but we did get to see some accessories in that fantastic color. The home furnishings and RTW were also upstairs. I love the natural fabrics that BV uses. Oh, we also saw a woven cot with a pillow. I think the color was Tea.
We spent about an hour in BV. Although we did see some BV in both Bergdorfs and Saks, they were mostly the Cruise collection, and cannot compare to the thrill of seeing S/S in person. The day ended too soon, I hope to see Mid- again sometime, perhaps on this side of the country . That evening I attended a toy store owners dinner at Saigon 48 with the SIL, a Vietnamese restaurant with delicious food, and so reasonably priced.
Wednesday began at the Toy Fair with the SIL to finish up her business, placing orders, collecting information, etc. Then she and I headed over to Soho for some exploring. She really wanted me to see a purse store called Braccalini (meh), as well as a shop that sold pewter kitchen items. We puttered around Soho and had a great late lunch at a place called Boom. The day ended after we attended Wicked on Broadway. I am not the biggest fan of musicals, but it was very enjoyable.
Thursday was an all day travel experience. I don't need to tell you how great it was to sleep in my own bed. I also seemed to have brought back a chest cold...most likely from the plane trip there.
Next time I visit, I hope to see the Met, especially the Japanese Woodblock prints. And, a whole host of other things. As much as I like to think I'd love to live in a forest in the middle of nowhere, you just can't take the city out of the girl!
I'm finally back home from NYC and ready to give tPF the devotion it deserves. I was able to get online for about 15 minutes on Wednesday, but that was it. Here are the details...
We arrived on the 14th, late in the afternoon. LaGuardia is amazingly close to the city, so the trip in was short. The first night I ate like a carnivore. Here at home we rarely have steak, but my SIL had to have as she called it a "New York Steak" We went to Kennedy's on 57th, and it was cute to see the couples celebrating Valentines day. The food was delicious. Since the trip was really to visit Toy Fair, I went there all day Sunday. Toy Fair is huge, there are about 1000 toy vendors, and lots of fun things to play with. In the evening, we attended a banquet at the 5th Ave FAO Schwartz toy store. That is a really fun place. The theme was New Orleans, yum...but I was too chicken to eat a crawdad.
Monday, I took a trip on the bus out to the Woodbury outlets. I made a beeline for BV, naturally! If that had been the only outlet there, it would be worth it. I found a great woven felt and leather man bag for the DH. I also got one of those little pink coin purse thingies. There was a lovely satchel that I snagged. Now it was called the Viva Italia bag...but wait, hold on, wait a minute! This was NOT the same orphan bag on Bluefly. The bag was an ash scuro-like color. There are small enameled metal squares around the bag. I like an unusual satchel, and this was not garish. I managed to find a Carmino agenda, too. That is the best red. Also, a pair of Ebano embroidered suede shoes followed me back. Actually it is all being shipped and I will post pictures here when it arrives. I made a quick visit to Choo, Ferragamo and to Loro Piana. That was it...all I needed to see. That evening, we went out with some of my SIL friends to Ralph's Italian restaurant. It was good, too.
On Tuesday, I went back to the Toy Fair to visit the Steiff booth (love those mohair animals) and kill a little time before noon. I met up with Mid- at Hatsuhana for sushi. Mid- is as adorable, kind, sweet, softspoken, and elegant as you would imagine. The restaurant was wonderful. Afterwards we set out for some shopping. We visited BG, Saks, BV, Mikimoto, Hermes, and Swarovski. I found all the scarves I had been looking for. The pearls at Mikimoto are absolutely beautiful. Mid- was not wearing her Pearls in Motion necklace, but I did see them at the store. It sure is great to get to a big city with the flagship stores...they are well stocked.
The important one...the BV boutique. Oh my...that place is huge! It was fabulous to see so many items in person. No oxidized copper, though. It all flew out the door immediately. Mid- tried on a gorgeous triple strand woven silver bracelet. And there were so many shoes! All the great stuff from the catalogs.
They had the embroidered Tea/Nero Florette Settansei (76) bag. I have no idea why it is called that, but the shape is the same as BL's Mattita. They also had the Caramel/Tea Pensee´ bag with the embroidered violets. I saw the divided knot in both the Vachette and Nero. What a great new style. Love the two sections. One section opens using the knot clasp on top, the other with the buckled strap.
And then...there it was.... My HG Knot, the Pepe sterling silver with the cloisonne enameled snakes. Wow. The SA took it out of the case, so I could hold it. Oh boy.
We headed upstairs to the men's department. Get this, the elevator was lined in suede. It smelled great in there. I got a bow tie for the DH. Also, we saw lots of the new men's bags. The light was out in the absinthe case, but we did get to see some accessories in that fantastic color. The home furnishings and RTW were also upstairs. I love the natural fabrics that BV uses. Oh, we also saw a woven cot with a pillow. I think the color was Tea.
We spent about an hour in BV. Although we did see some BV in both Bergdorfs and Saks, they were mostly the Cruise collection, and cannot compare to the thrill of seeing S/S in person. The day ended too soon, I hope to see Mid- again sometime, perhaps on this side of the country . That evening I attended a toy store owners dinner at Saigon 48 with the SIL, a Vietnamese restaurant with delicious food, and so reasonably priced.
Wednesday began at the Toy Fair with the SIL to finish up her business, placing orders, collecting information, etc. Then she and I headed over to Soho for some exploring. She really wanted me to see a purse store called Braccalini (meh), as well as a shop that sold pewter kitchen items. We puttered around Soho and had a great late lunch at a place called Boom. The day ended after we attended Wicked on Broadway. I am not the biggest fan of musicals, but it was very enjoyable.
Thursday was an all day travel experience. I don't need to tell you how great it was to sleep in my own bed. I also seemed to have brought back a chest cold...most likely from the plane trip there.
Next time I visit, I hope to see the Met, especially the Japanese Woodblock prints. And, a whole host of other things. As much as I like to think I'd love to live in a forest in the middle of nowhere, you just can't take the city out of the girl!
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