Not rushed, easying going, spur of the moment decisions, and not being a tourist - this is the way I love exploring cities. New York City is not an exception :)
This is my third time to the city, but my first time by myself. It has been great fun to blend in with the locals, taking the Subway, biking around, and working in the NY public library. Yes, I do some touristy things - I get to see Mary Poppins on Broadway today! That was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision: I woke up this morning and when deciding what I wanted to do today, I realized that I had a great opportunity to see a show on Broadway, something I've never done before! I am really excited, I've heard it is a great show. I really wanted to see the Lion King, but I prefer $30 tickets to $130 tickets!
When I got to NY yesterday, I had some time to kill before meeting up with Hannah, my friend from Brooklyn, so I ran into Macy's to see about finding a suit. My grandparents want to buy my a nice suit for a graduation gift. After doing a ready-to-wear design project for class last quarter, I know that my measurements fit right in the average size 8 for women's wear, but I couldn't find a thing that fit! Granted, half the suits were way to matronly for my taste (think some Mother-of-the-bride outfits) and some of them just had design details that I didn't like. I'm looking for something that is not too outrageous (ruffles under the collar?) but also not in a cheap feeling/tacky fabric or with oodles of topstitching. And I think I want a gray suit, but finding one that works well with my complexion is challenging. I also kinda want a dress and suit combo, mainly because I've never had one and I think they look sharp. Unfortunately the one I could find fit around the hips, but not around the top (story of my life) and it was about twice as expensive as my budget would allow....but the fabric had a wonderful hand and drape!!
I liked the color and texture of the fabric and the different cut of this suit, but the top was too big :(
This was the suit with the nice hand and drape, but way too expensive!!
After Macy's, I tried to find the fantastic fast-food steak place my dad and I went to when I was in 8th grade. It is now a Chinese Express...but at least I found the location!
Because I was in the Garment District, I popped down to the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum. It was pretty small, but there was a great exhibit called "His and Hers," that explored how dress changed with or defined gender roles throughout history. I've done some research in this area (mainly with traditional Asian dress) and found the exhibit interesting. It didn't make the gender role tie-in as explicitly as I would have liked, it mainly felt like a historical costume tour. The gender roles were explored subtly, as on could draw inferences from the particular garments chosen to describe each time period. Overall, it was great to see so many historical pieces in person!
an Alexander McQueen dress, part of the exhibit
I also dropped into a small fabric shop in the area, but didn't get too much of a chance to do more than glance around before Hannah called, done with class.
Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to grab some bikes and head out to see some of the city from the road. It was great fun! We biked over the Williams and Mary bridge (I think) and winded through the city to the Financial District. We went down to water and passed by the new Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center. Afterwards, we made our way to a 'bike class' Hannah had been to before. Basically it was in the basement of someone's house - when we first were pulling up on our bikes, I asked where it was on the street, and Hannah pointed to what she called "that hole down there." We went to a door that was down a few steps from the sidewalk, covered in graffti and it opened to an unfinished basement bike shop. There were about 8 people gathered around a gentleman with a wheel on a truing machine. We learned how to check spoke tension, change a spoke, and generally keep our wheels in good condition.
Leaving the bike class
Hannah made some great chili afterwards and then I got to sleep in until 10 am today! It was great :)
3 comments:
Your blog likes to delete my comments with regularity.
But what I was trying to say was.. :)
I love the gray suit!! Too bad it's also the most expensive. :( And Chinese fast food in place of steak?! Hahaha! Sounds like a pretty fair trade in my humble opinion. ;)
Anyways, sounds like you are having fun!
Williamsburg bridge :D
Also, the bike class was in the basement apartment of a lot of people's apartment building... there aren't any houses on the Lower East Side!
I'd say go to BCBG for a suit. I don't know if you have a Lord & Taylor's by you but they often have BCBG in them and you can generally apply the store discount. :)
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