Events

It’s the Simple Things

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It’s the little things, like picking pumpkins with the kids and then carving silly faces into them that make a windy weekend a fun one. We headed to the Red Hook Community Farm for the 5th annual Red Hook Harvest Festival. Besides a farm market and live chooks and bunnies, there are always great local food stands – The Good Fork, iCi, and the Lobster
Pound among them this year – and the pumpkin patch. Somehow in 12 years in the US I had managed to never carve a pumpkin. So today, that changed. The kids were happy and dare I say, I was too. It is the simple things really …

Style

Barneys Co-Op Opens in Bklyn

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Barneys Co-Op opened calmly today on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn. There was no long line to get in, no glitterati and very little fanfare. It was the perfect entree for the uber hip store on a stretch of Atlantic Ave. shared largely with Middle Eastern grocers. 

Keeping it local and low key, simply dressed wait-staff offered trays of mini cookies – coconut orange and black and white among them – from One Girl Cookies on nearby Dean Street, and a bar was set up to the back of the store. But there was no over-the-top flash or pretension. It felt comfortable and jolly; the staff all very happy to chat and answer questions, many of them new to the Barneys franchise.

The clothes of course are gorgeous and pricey. The store is split between two levels, with designer denim – think J brand Houlihan skinny cargo pants and Current/Elliott boyfriend jeans – and more casual gear downstairs.

Today was mostly about browsing, with plenty of stroller-pushing mothers stopping by for a look; longer term, it will be interesting to see if the new the Co-Op store, aimed at a young, fashion-forward crowd – and dubbed the “wayward offspring” of Barneys New York – can tempt locals to part with a big chunk of change for an of-the-moment Rag & Bone or Alexander Wang creation.

The new Barneys Co-Op is at 194 Atlantic Avenue.

Style

Wish List

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Forget the pink leopard Mulberry for Target bag – it’s pink crocodile I am lusting after. This iconic Hermes Kelly bag in fuchsia is totally a “wish list” item, dream list perhaps with an almost $30k price tag but I like to look nonetheless. I stumbled across it at Bswank.com, a luxury resale website I like to ogle for covetable, if not (yet?) attainable, designer pieces.

For the record, this divine Kelly bag is pink Nile crocodile with palladium hardware. The details state that the Nile crocodile is farmed in Zimbabwe and that gorgeous high gloss is achieved by buffing with stone. Hermes, the French luxury-goods house, introduced the bag in the 1930s but its popularity soared much later when in 1956 Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco was snapped carrying a large black crocodile Kelly bag, which she used to shield her pregnant tummy from paparazzi. After the image ran on the cover of Life Magazine, the bag became a hit and was later renamed the Kelly bag.

“One of my clients has an incredible collection of amazing Hermes bags in all sorts of skins and colors and is consolidating her collection, hence I have several divine pieces on consignment,” says Lucyann Barry, the founder of Lucyann Barry Luxury Resale, in a sales blurb accompanying the bag.  

I am always fascinated that people have piles of these luxury pieces stashed away in grand closets, being the kind of gal who treasures her single vintage Chanel handbag and would be happy – satisfied even – to add maybe one more and call it a day.

Meantime, it can’t hurt to look …

Style

Mulberry for Target Selling Fast

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This is the “chosen one” from the much anticipated handbag collaboration between English luxury house Mulberry and Target – that went on sale today in stores and online. It’s the bag people are talking about and angling for  – and at last check today, the large cerise leopard tote priced at $49.99 was  out of stock at Target.com though I’m sure supplies are being replenished. A couple of other, less out-there designs were also sold out online hours after going on sale. But surely I am missing something? Perhaps it is more luxe looking in person, or perhaps I just don’t like pink and black leopard print, but I really don’t get the appeal of this bag. Judge for yourselves of course, but move fast – these bags are flying off the virtual shelves.

Naturally the one bag I do like enough at $49.99 – the large denim satchel –  also sold out online on day one of the latest designer team-up with Target. Though I would quickly remove the dangling heart, which doesn’t appeal to me. I guess the drawcard with all of these bags is the similarity in styling to the way more expensive and equally-coveted Mulberry handbags that sell for hundreds of dollars.  Mulberry was established in 1971 in Somerset, England, and fast  became the first British lifestyle brand for its attention to craftsmanship and quality.

Style

Jeggings, Meggings + Mantyhose

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As mother of a 5 year old who has refused to wear anything but skinny jeans for the past two years, shunning all other legwear as “too puffy”, my recent shopping  finds should come as no surprise. And yet, somehow, I’m stunned at the insidious spread of the dreaded JEGGING to children’s wear and beyond.

I was in Old Navy one recent morning before work and wandered over to girls’ leggings to find, hanging alongside the ubiquitous multicolored leggings, baby jeggings. Just like mama owns, only in sizes from toddler to tween..

If somehow you missed the advent of the jegging, let me explain. It’s basically a denim jean in legging form, – so a super-stretchy blue jean, usually with an elastic waistband and often with jean-like stitching details – hence the unfortunate name, jegging. Besides the horrible name, I don’t object to the product per se. Who doesn’t love to pull on something comfortable that gives, tucks neatly into high boots or looks just as good with ballet flats. Jeggings  – I love mine from Uniqlo – can look great.

And then there’s the other side. It’s tricky for women to pull off the skintight silhouette, disguising womanly lumps and bumps under long tunics. Plus, I often feel badly that I resort to the legging look all too much, rather than structured clothing with zippers and buttons. It concerns me sometimes that we – me included – are rearing our children largely unaware of belts, buttons and shoelaces.

That said, it seems the jegging, along with elastic and Velcro are here to stay. And not just in the children’s aisle.

Legwear for men is getting an overhaul too, with man leggings – meggings perhaps – on the runways and already in some fashion forward retailers. The UK’s Daily Mail reported last month that men also are increasingly keen to wear tights. So much so that Selfridges in London has a range of man pantyhose – yep mantyhose – designed exclusively for guy-sized legs.

The mantyhose are made by lingerie brand Unconditional and are a sturdy 120 denier thick. At about 70 GBP a pair or roughly $111 US dollars, the look doesn’t come cheap and really, hipster, fashionista, whatever, this just cannot be a good look en masse.

It’s nothing new of course; think court jesters, ballet dancers, some athletes, Superheros and rockstars – meggings and mantyhose have been on the radar for years. But in 2010/2011, unless you’re Spidey or glam -metal rocker Bret Michaels, perhaps stick with a manbag instead.

Rants

Sticks + Stones …

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It’s not often that I am reduced to tears by a news story but the latest tragic tale of a Rutgers University student killing himself after fellow students outed him on the Internet makes me sick enough to cry.

As a human, it makes me wonder what sort of children we are raising that two college students would think it a funny prank to ridicule another person’s sexuality in public. And as a mother, I feel a massive responsibility to ensure that my children would never think to treat another like this, and to protect them from ever being bullied.

Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22 after learning that his roommate and another student had used a webcam to film a sexual encounter between Clementi and another man and posted it not once, but twice on the Internet . The two 18-year-old freshmen Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei are charged with invasion of privacy, with the most serious charges carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison. Of course, nothing will bring back Clementi or any of the other young people who have taken their lives after repeated bullying.

What really gets to me, besides obviously the length Clementi felt he had to go to in order to flee the public humiliation inflicted by his perverted roommate, but just why anyone would think it okay, let alone funny, to target a boy for being gay. I realise this is naive of me, but I really thought we had come far enough that young adults – especially once at college-age – didn’t have to hide their sexual preference.

Back in the old days when I was at school, I’m sure there were mean girls. I remember being teased for having Greek heritage (unlike some of the pristine WASPS I schooled with), oh and for wearing glasses, and being on the debating team but it was harmless stuff back then. I don’t remember ever feeling shut out by it, and certainly not suicidal. What has happened to make kids so extraordinarily horrible to their peers?

Apparently while technology has made leaps and bounds, allowing social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to broadcast exploits far and wide and encroach on privacy all around,  kids today are dragging their knuckles on the ground and getting thrills from belittling anyone different to themselves.

 Bullying is alive and well, and with more terrifying consequences than ever.

Raves, Style

Things I Like … Right Now

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I love this vintage button pin featuring graphic art by Carol Summers, a master American print maker renowned for his intensely vivid colors and woodblock techniques. The pin is stamped 1971, and may have some collectible value as do Summers’ prints. The Santa Cruz resident has works in museums including The Art Institute of Chicago, Biblioteque National in Paris, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum of Fine Arts.

But for me, the cool vintage pin – purchased from my favorite online vintage store http://www.riceandbeansvintage.com/– is all about wearable art. I plan to use it to drape and pin into place some of my oversized, slouchy winter sweaters. Or maybe I’ll pin it on my bag the way my kids do with their superhero pins!

I’m also loving this Claudia Pearson poster for its bright cheekiness. It’s the first in a series of hand-drawn type posters featuring some classic and some more obscure song lyrics. This one was inspired by Roy Ayers “We Live in Brooklyn Baby!” Pearson, a Brooklyn local, has been published in the New York Times, Elle, The New Yorker and The Big Book of Illustration, among others. She also has one children’s book and is working on another. Besides prints like the one pictured, her illustrations are available on tea towels, totes, cards and books. You can find her work in her etsy store.

 

 I am not the crunchy, granola-making sort BUT I am having a clog moment as the weather turns and the Havaianas no longer cut it to run the kids to school on a chilly, wet morning. Plus, I am not very good at wearing shoes. Seriously, no matter what shoes I wear I manage to end up with red, chewed-up heels and other assorted blisters and bumps. I am obviously meant to be barefoot but since that isn’t practical roaming the Brooklyn streets, clogs – which have no back – seem like a practical alternative. What’s more, they could work well with the whole knee-high-sock-trend that’s promising to be big this Fall. I haven’t owned clogs since I was a very young girl back in Adelaide and probably still in primary (elementary) school, and I probably haven’t worn knee-high socks since then either – but this Fall, it’s all about to change. I like the lightweight Sven clogs, available online or at Refinery on Smith Street, the go-to for Brooklyn women searching for clogs or the other staple Saltwater Sandals. I know there are much fancier and pricier clogs out there right now, but I’m thinking Sven might do the job and be a good “trainer” clog so to speak.

Eating Out

Brucie In Business

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Brucie, the new Italian restaurant-market on Court Street, is finally open and in spite of my early hesitation at the name, the menu looks worthy of a few tries. That, and the fact that while I loitered outside peeking in this morning not only did a local walk by and tell me the food is terrific but the people inside waved and a guy, who turned out to be the chef-owner’s boyfriend, came out and chatted enthusiastically about the new business.

I’m loving the sound of the panelle sandwich with ricotta, vinegar peppers and honey for $9, the Finnociano Salami sandwich with fig mustard, provolone and fennel slaw at $10 and the roasted cauliflower lasagna with hazelnuts and pesto at $11. As is the rampant trend, produce and meats are locally sourced and the menu changes according to daily availability. Whatever is cooking, for example chicken parmigiana, will also be available to take home from the mini market set-up. 

The restaurant opened ominously last week during the now-infamous Brooklyn tornado touchdown. But in good spirits, the guy I chatted to today figured that was a good omen. I already like the cheerful buzz of Brucie and will be trying it soon!

The hours for now are Tuesday to Sunday 5pm to 10pm but once they are up and running, I’m told there are plans to open all day, including brunch. Brucie replaces the defunct sushi joint Cube 63 at 234 Court Street, near the corner of Kane Street. Here’s an example of the menu posted on the website at www.brucienyc.com.

Events

Re Opening Party at Brooklyn Collective

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So, way back before the long summer hiatus, I wrote about the Brooklyn Collective  moving locations into its very own sprawling 1,500 square foot  digs complete with artists’ studio space and room enough to run classes. Well, the space is open and to celebrate, they’re having a re-opening party! Collective parties are always fun and packed, so go and have a complimentary cocktail, browse a whole bunch of new pieces from local artisans – there are about 30 new collections on show – and shop.

The party will be held Friday, October 1 between 7pm and 11pm at the new Brooklyn Collective ,  212 Columbia Street, between Union and Sackett Streets.

Events, Personal Tale

Becoming American

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I have lived in the United States for some 12 years. I married a US Citizen, my children are US Citizens, so I figured it was about time I joined their club.

Friends kept warning me that “you never know what can happen” and the most compelling message from well-meaning advisors: “you should always have the same citizenship/s as your children.” Was I worried my husband might flee with the kids and deny me access, like those awful stories on the 10pm news? No, I am pretty comfortable in the thought that my children will stay glued to me for as long as they can, G*d bless them and their attachment issues.

But it did make sense not to worry about renewing my Green Card every so many years: and it did feel odd having to stand in a separate immigration line to my kids and husband when I travel with an Australian passport and they all have US passports. It’s the little things that made me to push ahead, plus, it seemed like only a little effort  and about $675 to make the application.

Now the fun begins. I have a couple of days to cram the history of the United States, from colonization to present day, with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the structure of government, wars spanning the 1800s and 1900s, a smattering of geography, a bunch of presidents and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in between.

I happen to know from watching late-night talk shows – Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segments come to mind – that the average American, born and schooled in this fine country, could NOT, even on a very good day and with clues, answer most of the test questions laid out in the printed 29-page Learn About the United States: Quick Civics Lessons for the New Naturalization Test publication that citizenship candidates are handed after their fingerprinting and biometrics ‘meeting” with immigration officials.

My husband is a bit of a history buff and could answer most of the questions correctly, but I suspect he’s not the norm. Here is a sampling of the questions: how do you rate?

Who is Chief Justice of the United States now?

The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the US Constitution. Name one of the writers?

When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

When was the Constitution written?

What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

What territory did the US buy from France in 1803?

How many amendments does the Constitution have?

The House of Representatives has how many voting members? They are elected for how many years?

These are just a few of the questions that most people probably have to think about, just a little, lest the number get muddled of the memory is hazy. And I’m willing to bet many, many people wouldn’t even have a clue, but perhaps I am underselling the population. Either way, it’s a task for those thousands of people who, every year, choose to pledge loyalty to the United States, many who speak or read little English and probably weren’t taught about the Civil War in school, and haven’t heard Star Spangled Banner at a hundred baseball games.

I’ll admit, I plan to study the book before I go.

Failing the civics section of the test (it’s not multiple choice unfortunately) is not an option. There are 100 questions; I will be asked 10 and have to answer six right to “pass”. There is also an English writing and verbal test, which I hope not to worry about, given that English is my first language and writing is my living.

But hey, I am not getting cocky about any of this. One dear friend has already made it clear that I will be mocked mercilessly for years to come if I don’t walk out of my interview a citizen. I consider myself warned!