I stole away for a couple of days to New York City for the Designers & Agents Spring 2010 show. Since the womens collections that I have started offering on Nonchalant Mom have been such a sucess I decided to check out this show of young and interesting designers. And well, I must be honest, it gives me a chance to steal away and see my friends and have a good time! And that we did... but first I will talk about the D&A show (I forgot to take my camera so I am without photos... sorry!). I have decided to continue with my favorite designers, just as I do with kids and hope that you like them as much as I do....
My first stop, Makié! Makié began offering a womens collection last Spring 2009, and I assume by how fast you swallowed it up you loved it as much as I do. She brought her amazing level of taste and tailoring to womenswear and we are all the better for it! Not to mention her passion for sticking with classic and high quality fabrics. I ended up hanging out with Makié for a few hours just because we had a lot to talk about, I have known Makié for many years and we share a love for things well made and well-done! So there we sat with glasses of wine, a picnic on the floor of her booth, some cheese and crackers and chatting away just about a bit of everything!
Next stop, Margaret Solow! I picked out a handful of beautiful Toumaline necklaces that I just love... she was sceptical that I could not show their true beauty online but I am going to prove her wrong and take some amazing photos! ...I think you are going to LOVE them (online soon). As I wandered around the show there is a lot of wonderful young designers but I honesty feel that the people I work with are really the best! (well of course I do!!) there are a lot of trendy people at these shows but I like to find things that are going to last in their style and color, I'm in it for the long haul! I have already written a collection with Matta that will arrive for 'Resort' in December (just in time for everyones vacations) but I don't think that I can resist a few things from their Spring 2010 collection as well. I wanted to take things right off the rack and take them home with me! (including a cotton burlap jacket that you are not going to believe!!!)
At this point I met up with Jann, from Lucky Fish and we cruised the show together. We like many of the same things but I think that she is more daring, plus she lives in NYC so she has a chance to see more than me, so I trust her opinion. There were really amazing colors at nikki b. jewelry - kelly green, persimmon red, and a beautiful blue together with her gold and silver beads... it was all great! And I asked her to make some things just for us... big secret!
We decided to take a walk along the new High Line and then we met with Meg and Teresa of Kit+Lili for dinner! The High Line was beautiful, the sun was setting and it was full of elegant New Yorkers - so much fun to be away from my desk! I really enjoy getting together with these guys (Meg, Teresa and Jann) and I feel that we all inspire each other... well at least they inspire me! Then our typical session of fun and laughs ensued; let's have a girls weekend up in Rhode Island at our house! the kids and moms!... let's go together to the kids show in Paris!... loosing wallets, finding them, a table of food and drinks, a unisex bathroom (?!), handsome older men, young couple making out at the table next to us... it all rolled into a very fun evening, then back to Jann's house to try to figure out what I was going to buy for the Womens collection from Lucky Fish (best time to buy Lucky Fish is after a few cocktails! ...just watch what comes in this November!)
On Monday, I went over to Erica Tanov to see her epynomous collection and Layla (A new collection that you will see in the store next week! I hope you love her refined take on casual easy clothes for women). When I first opened my store in 2004 I started with a mission to make some of my favorite collections for kids available to everyone; Erica Tanov, Makié, Lucky Fish, and at the time I really wanted to offer Tenant & Son sweaters (but I never found a way to buy them... still looking maybe), among others these were my favorite of favorites! When I am in NYC I never miss a visit to the Erica Tanov store for inspiration (on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring). Both Layla and Erica Tanov for Spring 2010 were just outstanding and I hope that I can bring all of these to you!
I am going to work on a Nonchalant Mom tour of NYC, it's something that I have always wanted to do and on this visit I was able to stop in and see most of my favorite shops and I would love to share them with you (and some great places to eat for yourself and also some unusual places to go with kids!) ... working on this...
But for now, you have an idea of what you are going to see come Spring 2010 (most things arrrive January - March).