Workin' for the weekend

My time is up at Erin Fetherston and after a week in California I now have a new job at the Ivana Helsinki/Love Contemporary concept shop. What started out as a pop-up has now become a permanent location. The space functions as a retail fashion store for Finnish designer Paola Sahonen, a sex toy shop, and an event space... all brought together by the new magazine Love Contemporary for which Paola is the creative director. I'm so excited to work there! The clothes are great and are all made in Finland.

Like Erin, for every collection Paola does a video which encapsulates the story of the collection. I am loving this video for the Spring/Summer collection. Also, I want that pouffy polka dot dress. And the romper.

I'm not dead

It has been a while, hasn't it? There's so much I want to post but I've been extremely busy working and have gone out of town and we had a death in the family and lots of other stuff... so no time to write. I've been working w/Erin Fetherston for the past couple months and its been a really great learning experience, albeit long hours and lots of stress. We had our show last night, and, if I do say so myself, the design team accomplished a thing of beauty. If this was my wardrobe for the next 5 years I think I could die happy (although they didn't put a lot of my favorite pieces in the show).

I also started another blog to vent frustration that I am running with my friend Heather, but even that one has been suffering due to lack of time. When winter is over hopefully I will come back to life.

The nail in the coffin

Monday afternoon I got called by my temp agency, who had not called me in almost 4 months despite nearly two years of faithful service, with a 4 day placement at a charity on Wall Street, doing straight data entry. The problem? Data entry makes me want to shoot myself in the face after doing it for a couple hours and I end up constantly looking for ways to distract myself. But I took the job anyway cause, hell, I needed the money and had spent half the money I had made at Artists and Fleas this weekend on a pair of shoes at Topshop (typical).

After I got through the 8 hours without managing to jump out the 16th story window, I got a call from my agency saying that I was not needed back at this assignment for the rest of the week, and that they had said I work too slowly and was on the internet. Seriously?!?!? Who is programmed to be able to bang out data all day long quickly and without error? Apparently not me. I was also pissed at how non-confrontational this was, the company calling my agency instead of criticizing me to my face and demanding I do better.

Whatever, screw it. I am so over working for non-profits. If it means doing data entry all day when I am so capable of doing more then I don't really want any part of it.

On the way home I saw this coffin set up on Wall Street. I'm not really sure what it was for but I felt it was a sign.

Adventures in the Romper Room

So, after 4 years of higher education, 2 degrees, and 4+ years as a working professional, I have once again become an intern. As my degree of interest in the non-profit world has waned (no doubt due to the 2+ years of rejection whilst searching for a new permanent job), I have often thought about what else I could with my time that I would find fulfilling. In other words, if I was not going to be able to change the world via public policy analysis, in what other field would I excel?

I'd been kicking around the idea of opening a boutique for some years, but that has been put on the backburner for a while, what with the shrinking economy and my shrinking mutual funds making that an impossibility for now. Over the summer I took some classes at FIT on fashion business, and as I found myself unemployed since mid-January with little to no prospects, decided now would be the time to pursue it. If I'm not going to be making any money, I might as well be learning something.

Enter Samantha Pleet. I'd admired Samantha's work for some time... she has a style that is distinctly Brooklyn and she makes vintage-influenced clothes for girls and guys that are totally recognizable and unique. Also her signature is the romper which is one of my favorite things to wear. Anyway, I emailed Samantha (who's studio is based about 20 minute walk from my apartment) to see if she needed any interns at the moment. I told her I could work 2-3 days a week, on a temporary basis, and that I was looking for permanent work but could work with her as long as I was unemployed. She said she liked my aesthetic and that she could definitely use the help, so a couple weeks ago I became one of her assistants. Yes, world, I am a 28 year old intern. To be honest, its ok. In a way, unless I don't think about the fact that I am not getting paid, its fun and not at all demeaning; and the work so far has been a lot more varied and interesting than most of the temp work that I've done in offices.

This past week we were preparing for Samantha's show and party at the Tribeca Grand. Well, not show rather, but presentation. She put together a video of people wearing the clothes, and models stood around wearing pieces, including me, which made me a little uncomfortable, but it was kinda fun. Here are some photos of the models getting ready and the party itself.

I'm not sure what will happen now that the crazyness of fashion week is over, but I'm sure there's much more work to do and much more to learn. I actually have a lot of ideas about how she can make the business run more efficiently. There are a lot more similarities than you would think between running a fashion business and running a non-profit... keeping track of every expense, finding creative ways to make the most out of limited resources, finding people with money and influence to help you out, etc... who knows where this will lead...

the week in pictures part 2

The culinary adventures continued the rest of the week with visits to Teany, Coffee Shop, Oak Wine Bar, Sunset Diner, Motorino, Lombardi's, and special visits to One if by Land, Two if by Sea (restaurant week menu!) and Craftbar, where I had a gift certificate courtesy of guests who stayed with me back last may. We also had some delicious pizza prepared by James Ryang at Keren's now on hiatus Gossip Girl dinner party night. I'd say One if by Land was probably the highlight... we were able to eat in this legendary restaurant based in Aaron Burr's old carriage house, a 300 year old building in the West Village. Thanks to Restaurant Week we were able to experience it for $35 prix-fixe, whereas the regular prix-fixe is $78. The stunning room featured some impressive paintings, ornate chandeliers, working fireplaces, and live piano. Amusingly, they got our dessert order wrong 3 times (first two cheesecakes, then cheesecake for me, then cheesecake for Robin: neither of us ordered the cheesecake), but it was still over all a special experience. Oh, and I gained a couple pounds. To be expected.





Life is back to normal now as I continue to look for work. I had a phone interview today with the Third Wave Foundation for a very cool job that would definitely be a challenge for me, but something I think I could handle as well. Unfortunately, interviewing is not my strong suit and I faltered a little bit. Phone interviews in particular kind of throw me off so I don't know if I'll make it to the next round, but here's hoping.