Oh Lyell how I love thee

Gah damn these January recession sales. Everyone is tempting me with bargains and I continue to give in despite my income ceasing as of yesterday (last paycheck). To ease my guilt I went to Beacon's Closet and Buffalo Exchange earlier this week to unload some unwanted items. Honestly I don't get the logic of those places sometimes. Buffalo Exchange took a good amount of my cheap H&M and Forever 21 stuff while passing on Marc Jacobs, Built by Wendy, Orla Kiely, and Deborah Sweeney. I only made $50, which I promptly spent on... groceries. Great.

So despite better judgement, I headed to Nolita today to check out the Lyell sale. Lyell is one of my favorite NY designers, up there with Mayle, Mischen, Samantha Pleet, Lauren Moffatt, etc... yet I never owned any pieces, primarily because they are so expensive. I thought their F/W collection was exceptionally strong this year and I fell in love with this top:



And today it is mine! For only $80, down from $500. It is really delicate and beautiful. Hooray! There was also a really gorgeous sweater but I had to pass as I really don't need more sweaters.



The Lyell sale is on through tomorrow so go check it out, they're at 173 Elizabeth Street.

Godard and Beauty Products

Yesterday was my first day being officially, officially unemployed (I don't count yesterday as it was a federal holiday). While I had learned that I would not be hired by the organization I had worked for temporarily in November, it was not until Friday that we finally parted ways. Alex likened it to a bad relationship... we just. wouldn't. break. up. But yesterday the reality of things crept in a little bit. Fortunately I had plenty to keep me busy. Ana came over in the morning and we drank coffee and watched the inaguration. How funny was that last guy who made the benediction? We had many LOLs about that one.

Later I met up with Megan to score free beauty products. While not a huge beauty product junkie (I wear basically the same make up look every day, plus my best friend works in beauty PR and tends to keep me stocked with anything my heart desires), we couldn't resist the allure of this mysterious "class action" free-for-all." I mapped out the major department stores participating and Megan and I set out to hunt. Bloomingdales was first. That one was probably the most efficient of the stores I went to. The line started out on the street but then they gave you a sheet of paper with all the products that were available. To our dismay, you were only allowed 1 product TOTAL, not one product from each brand as I had previously thought. We made our picks and then moved on to Barneys. Not participating! Gah.... though we still peeked in to the Co-op on the 7th floor. On to Bergdorfs, a store I would never really set my foot in (Hi, I'm not Blair Waldorf) otherwise, where the selection was much smaller but the line was short-ish. I got talked into getting a little mini makeover at one of the cosmetic counters on the way out so Megan bailed to go meet her boyfriend. Eyes freshly made up (with no pressure to buy, fortunately), I trudged on to Saks for Round 3. This was the worst run of the bunch... the line was super long (though moved fast), and near the front you were given a ticket representing one of the brands, but were not told what products were available from each brand. Unsure of what to get, I randomly decided on Dior, and handled my ticket in to receive: a mini bottle of J'adore... which would be great if I hadn't gotten 3 FULL SIZE BOTTLES OF J'ADORE FOR FREE in a gift bag a few years ago. Its an OK scent but not my favorite, so now I have more of it. I tried to trade it in for something else (as did many women) but the Saks bitches were having none of it and we were told to move along. Anyways these are todays spoils:



Later on I went to go see Made in USA, a "lost" Godard film from 1966 featuring french hottie and Godard regular Anna Karina. Apparently it never got a US release. While it was definitely not one of my favorites of his (I got a little sleepy and got, admittedly, very confused with the plot), it was great to see a Godard film in color (on a new print), and Anna's style was, as usual, to die for.




She was all sweater dresses, trench coats, blue eyeshadow and black eyeliner. Plus, in the midst of swilling some scotch she clocked a guy in the head with one of her low heeled Mary Janes. Brilliant. I looked all over for a great colorblock sweater dress like the one in the first picture above but couldn't find one, but here's an outfit inspired by Anna.


Anna Karina in Made in USA - by nouvell_vague on Polyvore.com

The most amazing apartment EVER

OMGZ so Friday night my friend Jesse had a 30's themed birthday party at he and his boyfriends apartment in downtown Brooklyn. Wowza... decor aside, this is the apartment to end all apartments. 28th floor penthouse? Yes, please! I need a boyfriend who works for Google for realz.


jesse's apartment from Rachel Hill on Vimeo.




My thoughts exactly.

New shirt project finished

It being 18 degrees outside (optimistically) I opted to stay in this evening and finish a project. While I knew I should be cleaning in preparation for Robin's arrival, after 20 minutes of organizing CD's and throwing away old papers I decided to attack a sewing project instead. I'd started this shirt project over the summer and it had been sitting in a plastic bag patiently waiting to be completed. While not a huge fan of 40's fashion (long hemlines heldover from the 30's, not my favorite), I fell in love with this pattern and envisioned the finished product in black and white:



I purchased the main fabric at Stone Mountain in Berkeley, one of the best fabric stores around (and I live in New York!), around last winter when I was spending a lot of time out there. It's from Moda and is a quilting weight cotton. I opted for a contrasting black eyelet fabric that I picked up at B&J. FYI: eyelet is way expensive. Maybe just at B&J but anyways... I'll not be making a dress completely out of eyelet any time soon. Anyways I finally put the hem on the bottom tonight and voila!







I haven't quite decided how I want to wear it yet, maybe with a nice black pencil skirt?

c-c-c-cold shopping and burgers

It was sooooo cold today. Like, bone chilling, nose dripping, foot numbing cold. I ventured out of the house to get a facial at this place called Finesse Spa. I get them about once a year, usually when my skin is acting up which it has been ever since I got back from London. They were having a special... it was nice, they steamed my face and put my hands in these warm gloves things so it definitely thawed me out. The plan was to go to the gym and then go home, but the spa was across the street from the Chelsea Flea Market where I've never been so I decided to go check it out to see if they had any vintage patterns or anything of interest. Did not find any patterns but I did find some other things, this one lady had a stall where everything was really cheap, she gave me the following all for $115:


I had been wanting a good 60's vintage suit for some time, one with a fur collar preferably contrasting to the suit. This one is a dress suit with a mink collar, by "Visconti." Was not familiar about the label but it is in great condition. Do you think people would think it was weird if I wore this to interviews? I sooooo can't stand my Nine West pantsuit, I don't feel like myself.



Then I got these boots:



I probably didn't need these, since I already have a pair of red boots, but not ones with heels. These are dreamy.

And as it was an exeedingly cold day, I was on the lookout for a good muff. Even with gloves on my hands were numb, so I picked out this awesome black one. I know, I know, I'm Cruella DeVille. Whatever, it was already dead. She threw in the polka dot gloves for free!



I think I could wear all this together.

I felt bad for all the market vendors, it was FREEZING in there and business seemed a little slow.

After that my motivation to got the gym fizzled as I could no longer feel my extremeties, and I decided to get home as fast as possible, but on the way back I had to pass by Shake Shack, Danny Meyer's burger place. This place is known for its insane line:


So since there was none, I got a burger ($3.75) and then hopped on the subway. Waiting in the cold for it to be cooked was unpleasant but it sure was tasty. Not Dumont tasty but you can't get a much better burger for that cheap.

First post

I started a blog. I don't know really what its going to be about yet. Here is a set I made on Polyvore of stuff that I would buy if I had the money.


my dream outfit by nouvell_vague