Personal shopping

Whenever I go to NYC, I’m always slightly overwhelmed by all the things I want to do.  Food, shopping, and the Met are always at the top of my list, but there’s so much more that I want to do, like theatre, other museums, concerts, Central Park, Brooklyn (did that this time), High Line Park.  I’m always reminded of a (rather provincial) friend of mine when I’m planning my NYC visits; I was talking about going once and she turned to me and asked, completely seriously, “but what’s there to do in NYC?” I think I stared at her for a few minutes because I was so stunned, and then I decided, ok, I’m so not travelling with you. It’s not a city for everyone and I don’t think I could live there, but if there’s anything it’s going to be accused of, it’s not going to be the lack of things to do. 

One of the things high on my to-do list for this trip was the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit,but unfortunately I didn’t make it.  I couldn’t battle the insane lineups in the heat on the last weekend (I heard the line was 400-500 people long and the police were called in for crowd control). I was disappointed, but I couldn’t do it.

Saturday morning, after we stuffed ourselves at Smorgasburg, we went to Brooklyn Flea. I’m not a huge fan of flea markets because I don’t like junk, but there were some cool things. 

Like these typewriters:

Bring the typewriter back, I say.

Saturday afternoon, after stuffing ourselves at ssäm bar, my sister and I went to Anthropologie at Rockefeller Centre for our personal shopping appointment.

Two hours trying on clothes with the devoted attention of Julia, the lovely personal shopper who also looked fantastic in Tracy Reese's Tangerine Flicker Dress. Two hours is a long time to be trying on clothes, I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.

Some things I tried on:

Colorblocked Sweater Skirt by Girls From Savoy, size S, US$118

Electric Lights Dress by Leifsdottir, size 6, US$268.

Unknown Dress by Rutzou (and damnit, I can’t remember the size or the price!)

Two hours and only three pictures? Um, yeah.  I should have taken more. And these are three pieces I didn’t buy.  The Colorblocked Skirt was just “meh” (disappointing), the Leifsdottir Dress was a disaster (too tight on the hips, weirdly loose in the chest, felt like a glorified bathrobe—such a disappointment after seeing how great it looks on the model), and the unknown Rutzou dress just wasn’t me (and it fit kinda strange).  Fun to try all of these on though. 

In the end, I did buy the Cirque A-Line, the Splashed Palette Dress, and the Liquid Acres Skirt, but funny thing is, I picked all those out myself.  So I should really be a personal shopper…for myself.  Oh wait, I am!  In hindsight, I’m not all that surprised; who knows me better than me? My sister had better luck with the things Julia brought her, probably because she’s fairly new to Anthropologie and doesn’t know most of the online catalogue inside out and backwards. 

We were so exhausted after that, and the weekend was so hot that shopping wasn’t all that fun.  We did Sunday afternoon in SoHo (Will bought some stuff at Puma and Nike), and I touched things at Kate Spade.

By this point, I was so hot I was melting, too damn sticky to be trying on clothes.  I went into J.Crew and walked right out again because I couldn’t deal with it.  Next time I visit NYC, it’ll definitely be in early spring or later fall, and I’ll be able to shop more then.