Fashion's Night Out at Chanel Soho - Jade Nail Collection

Fashion’s Night Out was like a big party in the streets of NYC.  We started out uptown on 57th Street where all the luxury stores have flagships and then made our way down to Soho.  The scene uptown was very subdued compared to the partying in the streets of Soho.  From Opening Ceremony’s block party to the Kid Cudi listening party at A Bathing Ape, the streets were jam packed with shoppers looking for good deals and celebrity sightings.  One of my favorite destinations?  The Chanel Soho boutique.

Just in time for FNO, Chanel debuted its Jade nail colour collection: Jade and Jade Rose.  A pale pink and pale green, the Jade collection is a perfect match of the elements that inspired the colors.

As part of the FNO festivities Chanel offered free manicures using Jade and Jade Rose at the Soho boutique.  People sipped champagne, did some shopping, and got their nails did – all while shaking to the beats provided by Alexa Chung.  Having stopped by a few FNO events, this was definitely one of my favorites.  You can find the Chanel Jade nail colour collection and Chanel boutiques and online at Chanel.com.

NYFW

Fashion's Night Out - Sept 10th

If you’ve been looking forward to New York Fashion Week, by now you must have heard about Fashion’s Night Out, and all of the in-store events going on around the city. With over 700 retailers taking part in the event, it can be quite overwhelming to plan an evening around the celebration.  In the process of figuring out what events we’re going to hit while we’re on our Fashion Week grind, we figured we ought to fill you guys in as well, so here’s a roundup of some of the best events and sales going on around the city during Fashion’s Night Out, by neighborhood, to strategize your travels! Click the links to view the retailer’s information, or visit the designer’s listings to see if your favorite retailer has anything planned for the festivities.

Uptown

Gucci
725 Fifth Ave., at 56th St.; (212) 826-2600
* Gucci is the only retailer giving the official Fashion’s Night Out charity t-shirt out for free while supplies last.

Chanel
737 Madison Ave., near 64th Street; (212) 535-5505
* “Be among the first in the United States to own a customized, monogrammed Chanel classic bag” Chanel will have a create-your-own-handbag studio.

Bergdorf Goodman
754 Fifth Ave., near 57th St.; (212) 753-7300
* Zac Posen will be painting one-of-a-kind creations in the 5th Ave. window @ 5:30 – 6:30 PM
* Padma Lakshmi judges a designer cookoff with Cynthia Rowley, Peter Som, Lela Rose, Naeem Khan and more @ 6:00 – 7:00 PM.
*Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen tend bar @ 7:00 – 8:00 PM.
*André Leon Talley hosts a Fashion Rules game show with teams led by Donna Karan, Linda Fargo, and Robert Verdi @ 8:00 – 9:00 PM
* Isaac Mizrahi performs a cabaret act @ 9:00 PM

Bumble and Bumble
146 E. 56th St., near Lexington Ave.; (212) 521-6500
* Free champagne and a free styling session for your summer weary locks.

Saks Fifth Avenue
611 Fifth Ave., at 50th St.; (212) 753-4000
*Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Peter Som, and other design idols will be mingling with shoppers.
*More than 7,000 cosmetics giveaways from Estée Lauder, Frederic Fekkai, Laura Mercier, and Tom Ford.
*Complimentary brow-shaping services,
*Free clean-ups at John Allan’s men’s salon.

Barneys New York
660 Madison Ave., at 61st St.; (212) 826-8900
* Alexander Wang will be hosting runway-strutting lessons.
* Guest bartending by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
* Sue Devitt beauty counter — the first 50 visitors get a free Eye Intensifier Pencil.
* Lip reading by Lipstick Queen, Poppy King.
* Knitting lesson with Wool and the Gang.
* Mingle with designers Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Thom Browne and more.

Juicy Couture
650 Fifth Ave., at 52nd St.; (212) 796-3360
* Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles is singing Noel Howard classics while shoppers lounge in a “gentleman’s club, reminiscent of founder Gela Nash-Taylor’s eccentric English manor (featured in Vogue’s September issue).”

Downtown

Patricia Field
302 Bowery, near Bleeker; (212) 966-4066
* Custom airbrush demonstration.
* Trunk show from a-morir by Kerin Rose, Tom Tom Fashions and Pavon by Luz & Victoria.
* Refreshments and an appearance by Patricia Field.

A Bathing Ape
91 Greene Street, at Spring St.; (212) 925-0222
* Special item releases while Kid Cudi hosts a listening party of his new tracks.

Billionaire Boys Club
456 West Broadway, near Prince St.; (212) 777-2225
*Exclusive releases, and Pharrell Williams working the register, ringing up sales.

Tory Burch
257 Elizabeth St., near. Prince St.; (212) 334-3000
* La Esquina across the street is barbecuing, paired with Champagne.

Chanel
139 Spring St., at Wooster St.; (212) 334-0055
* Free manicure in Jade, Chanel’s new limited-edition polish.

Tracy Reese
641 Hudson St., near Gansevoort; (212) 807-0505
* Sally Hansen manicurists will be offering complimentary nail services.  They’re also serving drinks like the “Frocktail” and the “Plentini.”

Opening Ceremony
35 Howard St., near Broadway; (212) 219-2688
* Opening Ceremony block party, with Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Alexander Wang, and Scott Sternberg selling custom-made wares out of the back of befitting custom cars
* Thai Tie truck nearby from Band of Outsiders, selling clip-on bow ties and neckties and serving Thai-inspired desserts from Momofuku pastry chef Christina Tosi.

Anna Sui for Target Pop-up
54 Crosby St., near Spring St.
* First dibs on the Gossip Girl–inspired Anna Sui for Target collection in this three-day pop-up shop. Prices range from $19.99 to $149.

Rachel Rachel Roy Pop-Up
111 Spring Street, near Greene St.; (212) 966-3415
* Week long pop-up shop for Rachel Rachel Roy collection for Macy’s.
* Hosted by Estelle, with music by DJ Lady Bunny.
* Custom graffiti creations by George “SEN One” Morillo and treats from a vintage Good Humor Truck.

Brooklyn

Bird
203 Grand St., near Driggs Ave.; (718) 388-1655
* Block party including specialty cocktails, pizza, disco D.J.’s, and carnival games.
* Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai of Vena Cava will be creating limited-edition T-shirt-style dresses from archival fabrics salvaged from their past ten seasons, priced at $100.

New Window & Spaces at Dover Street Market

I love it when Dover Street Market updates their windows and spaces – they have a flair for making truly unique spaces that are borderline theatrical.  Each space is created and focused on displaying featured products in a way that highlights their beauty, as well as their artistic qualities.  The window features a giant sculptural black octopus by Les Trois Garçons and new spaces include Nowhere (where Bape was born), Lanvin, Loewe, and Stephen Jones.  Read the full story for photos of the spaces and a description of what makes them oh, so special!

Read the full story

The March issue of W has a really interesting interview with NIGO of A Bathing Ape . Personally, my love affair with the brand started in the mid 90’s and ended as soon as the streets of America became flooded with the items, real and fake. Regardless I can appreciate a successful business and the empire and following he has created. I mean really can you imagine the money?? The article quotes Marc Jacobs , the artistic director of Louis Vuitton , as stating "I hope we’re going to do something with NIGO very soon", a la the collaborations with Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami in past seasons. The article goes on to say that "Nigo’s proposal is for a capsule line of "street cred" items for Vuitton, ranging from puffy jackets to a carrying case for turntables". No matter your love or hate for the brand, the potential of this collabo is really brilliant and gauranteed to be bananas (pun intended)!! And although the project has yet to be given the "go" just do yourself a favor and get on the wait list now and get your camping gear ready…the lines are going to be long for this one!!!

One last tid bit of info from the article is mention of a store opening on Melrose Ave. in L.A. this year as well as expand his London store and open up shop in Paris, looks like business is good!