DVF Sample Sale: NYC

I fear I am slipping into a deep, unavoidable, fashion depression.

In my own defense, I think I have been fairly upbeat about this whole “not living in New York anymore” (sigh…) thing. But something extremely traumatic happened to me today, setting me back several PTSD therapy sessions, while I was sifting through my daily batch of junk email (why I still get emails from the stupid place that monogrammed our letter shirts for our sorority in college is beyond me, maybe I haven’t unsubscribed because I want to pretend I am still in college. Gamma Phi Beta 4life!) I came upon a sample sale notice for DVF in NYC starting tomorrow. Those who have never lived in NYC do not understand the all-encompassing beauty that sample sales radiate. To me, there is nothing I enjoy more than waiting in line outside of a warehouse in the fashion district, only to be rudely ushered inside and shouted at like cattle while fighting with a stranger over last season’s Lupa fur trimmed vest. But, I digress. My life in DC is now devoid of the privilege of NYC sample sales, but I am sending in some spies tomorrow to see if the sale is any good. Like a good friend after you get a heinous haircut, I hope they will spare me the agony of the truth and just lie to me.

Best Birthday Dive Bar: Adams Mill

Adams Mill Bar & Grill

202-332-9577

1813 Adams Mill Rd. NW, Washington, DC 20009

As anyone who has ever lived in New York knows, every weekend is oversaturated with birthday parties, work gatherings, and any other sort of excuse to get together with friends and acquaintainces and get unreasonably drunk. New Yorkers are especially fond of the flat fee open bar party. I suspect this is a commentary on the lack of space in New York and the limited ability for its residents to have house parties, so bars allow you to rope off a space, take a floor of the bar and replicate a private party at your own home.

However, due to the fact that most bars in the city offer such a service, open bar parties are constantly being thrown, and they usually aren’t cheap. Unless it’s a good friend, in which case you would likely plan on spending the entire evening at the party, it rarely is worth the $50+ fee for a few watered down vodka & sodas.

Enter Adams Mill. In my quest to find a fun birthday spot for a party I was throwing for my boyfriend, I wanted to find a place that made the event as simple as possible. When you are throwing a party  for a dude, you must keep only a few things in mind: booze, music, more booze and proximity to late night pizza. After unsuccesfully discussing a potential party with many locations, I found most places had a high barrier to entry, such as a high room rental fee, expensive bar tab minimums and an unusual clause in which I was asked to give my firstborn child to the bar.

Adams Mill is a dive bar in Adams Morgan and has two upstairs floors available for private parties. We didn’t have to pay a room fee, so the only charge was $25 open bar for 3 hours, from 10pm-1am. We had the entire upstairs floor and the place was dive-y enough not to care when we pulled a table into the middle of the room and started playing flip cup. Warning: BRING YOUR IPOD. I am an equal opportunity music lover, so when they told me I could bring my own playlist, I got lazy and figured I would leave it up to the deejay downstairs. Oh wow. Mistake. Above the deafening noise of screamo, I could at one point hear a friend saying “They are playing Marilyn Manson at Hadley’s birthday party?” Luckily I was able to plug my iPhone into the speakers and play something a little more…jovial to liven the spirits of the party. Like, you know, a song that didn’t describe murdering puppies in gruesome detail. Save that for my holiday party…

The bartenders were awesome and accommodating, we had our own private space to hang out, everyone seemed to have a great time and the location turned out to be accesible to other bars after the fiesta had ended. If you are looking for a no frills, drinking equivalent to the pancake buffet at IHOP for your birthday party, Adams Mill it is.

Happy Friday

Tiger Woods: Why I Am Not Surprised

Epic fail, TW. Epic fail.

The last few days, the media has been in a frenzy over Tiger Woods alleged affairs and mistresses and strippers and cocktail waitresses and possible alien babies with all of the aforementioned. It’s nuts. Anyways, the most pertinent conclusion I have made from this whole mess is how utterly sad it is that I am not even vaguely surprised.

I have this theory that men in power have their egos stroked so vigorously on a day to day basis that they begin to feel they are above the banal moments of our everyday existence. Men who are constantly praised and garner enormous amounts of attention begin to develop this hero complex; they are invincible and should not have to deal with insipid things like, say, their wife being a little crabby because she was locked in the house for 9 hours while her children threw pureed squash at her face.

For whatever reason, it happened, but to be honest, I do not appreciate the media coverage of this. Last night on Larry King Live, a commenter said that anyone who ‘didn’t know this was happening, was blind’. Sure, I agree. Adultery happens a alot, far more than it should, but this insane media coverage almost vindicating him for what he did gives this underlying sense of credence to the whole thing. Some notion that men have such voracious sexual appetites, that really they can’t help any of this. It’s biology! And nothing, not wedding vows, not babies at home and not even a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Nike, can stop it.

New Consignment Shop: Current Boutique

I work on King Street in Alexandria, and definitely have taken the liberty of checking out the shopping options on my lunch breaks over the past few months (sorry boss!).
Current Boutique
1009 King Street
Alexandria, Va 22314
703-549-2272

Just noticed yesterday that an adorable consignment shop opened up , Current Boutique. Apparently, this is their second location, with the first located on Wilson Blvd in Clarendon. With a range of brands, from Givenchy kitten heels to Ann Taylor work blouses, their prices are affordable which reflects the entire purpose of consignment shopping. My brother likes to remind me that “vintage” also means “used”, so items should be priced accordingly, and at Current Boutique, they are. The store also had a small section of new clothes by unknown (to me) designers, for reasonable prices, including some adorable embellished holiday dresses. They also are accepting Fall/Winter clothing for consignment, so I obviously took the opportunity to get rid of my Vera Wang chocolate brown silk dress that has been staring me down in my closet for years, telling me to lose weight. Sorry, Vera, the permanent freshman fifteen wins. It always does.

The Jean-ification of the T-Shirt

Don't worry- this Kimberly Ovitz t-shirt that barely serves its function as a nipple covering is on sale! All yours for the bargain price of $192.50

When I was in high school, Seven For All Mankind jeans became the biggest status symbol since Tommy Hilfiger cologne began odiferously overpowering our school dances in the 6th grade.  I remember being so horribly in love with a pair that I somehow convinced my mother to purchase them for me for my birthday. Clad in my Lacoste polo and Seven’s, I strode the halls of Skaneateles Senior High School like a champion the day after my birthday; god damn it, I looked good.

I remember my mother’s absolute horror when I initially broached the subject of these jeans. At the time, I distinctly recall they cost $130.00, which seems almost paltry in 2009 standards for designer jeans, what with many of the brands up in the $300 range. In my mother’s day, jeans were…jeans. They were destroyed because.. YOU destroyed them. They were cool because YOU made them cool. They were just jeans!

In my defense, I made the (somewhat valid) point that she probably would not have bat an eye if I had asked for a $130.00 dress for a school dance, prom, etc, which would realistically only be worn once. These would be my favorite jeans! I would walk them, and play with them, and brush their fur, and feed them and clean up after them!

So I had an “omfg-I-equal-my-mom” moment when I went to look for some tank tops/t shirts last night. In my haste to purchase things I adore and love and forget the “boring details’ (like pants, underwear, etc) I realized I had barely any suitable tank tops or t-shirts for layering, and it was becoming a serious problem. Plus, it’s the season of giving (to myself)! Thus, as a good samaritan, I went to my old standby, ShopBop, to look for some good closet staples.

Much to my dismay, everything was $75.00 and up. That’s right. Seventy five U.S. dollars. For.a.tank.top.  I know there must be a difference between the fabric Alexander Wang uses and the fabric Old Navy uses but… it’s still just a tank top? How is this possible? It annoyed me for about 5 minutes until I realized that the fashion industry was totally trying to pull one over on me! THEY ARE JEAN-IFYING THE T SHIRT! They thought “Wow, we got these suckers to pay crazy clams for jeans, lets try some other American-as-apple-pie-and-costs-five-cents-to-produce-in-Cambodia item!”

In the end, I went to my other standby, Urban Outfitters, where I found some tanks for $15 each, allowing me to purchase a multitude of colors. And then, I went and called my mother to complain about prices, because, you know, when I was young, movies only cost a nickel, kids had respect for their elders and t shirts weren’t considered couture.

DC Hair Salon: Parlour, U Street

Parlour

1522 U Street NW
Washington DC
202.986.0080

Home

SO… as I mentioned before, I was desperately seeking a hair salon that had prices that were high enough for me to be able to reasonably assume that all of the stylists were trained in their profession, but low enough for me to continue to eat for the rest of the month. This is difficult to find. Just as in New York, there is the Hair Cuttery and then there is Oscar Blandi. When I read some Yelp reviews about Parlour, I was intrigued. The prices were reasonable and the review was good; I looked like the Shaggy D.A. (awkward early ’90’s reference, don’t mind me) and I was about to be in a wedding. Resolved, but frightened, I made my appointment.

I wake up on a gorgeous Saturday in D.C. and traverse to U Street. Truth be told, I adore U Street. It encompasses everything I used to love about New York; grime, quirky vintage shops, eclectic panhandlers and the vague feeling that a murder is about to take place at any moment. Totally dig it. Anyways, so I arrive at Parlour and love it. It’s a spare but decidedly hip salon; a downtown vibe with exposed brick, lots of natural light and not much else.

Nicole was my stylist, and was awesome. First of all, she commented on how much she loved my faux fur vest. In DC, I have noticed that most of my Burberry-quilted-coat-wearing-friends are frightened by my faux fur vest. Nicole was not. This was true love.

Beyond her obviously amazing taste in fashion, she HEARD ME. I wanted subtle, subtle lowlights and a trim. Thats all. I don’t like bleached blonde highlights that lend themselves to black roots, I don’t like thick bangs, I don’t like looking “done”. When I left, I doubt anyone would have known I got my hair done (save for the fact that I told EVERYONE), as I simply looked polished and like myself.

To sum it up, Parlour rocks. It’s high end, yet still affordable, young and modern, yet still natural and beautiful. As well, no one will mock you for wearing your faux fur vest, and that’s really a selling point on it’s own.

Back to the Beltway…

Hi all- Well, it was a long weekend of traveling. Several days of carbo loading and wine guzzling later, I am back amongst the living in our fair city. I have taken the liberty of totally Christmas-ing out our apartment for our 1st annual holiday party on Friday, which should prove to be a stellar time. In order to represent all religious holidays, I will be utilizing a traditional Kwanzaa soundtrack for the event and am forcing my roommate to dress as a Rabbi for our party. Good times.

In other news, I have the pleasure of heading to Georgia Brown’s this evening, despite the rain, because hey, a girl’s gotta eat (and I do it well). Anyways, I have heard a lot about this joint and am hoping that it lives up to it’s reputation.

Just a thought….

After Work Spot: Public Bar

Public Bar

Dupont Circle

1214 18th St NW
(between N M St & N Connecticut Ave)
Washington, DC 20036

(202) 223-2200

publicbardc.com

I begin this post with a major caveat- New York is filled with boring, run of the mill, after work sports bars that attract all of the ex-Lehman employees and their would-be girlfriends. I hate these bars- no creativity, no innovation, always crowded, and filled with the type of people who have faces you just want to slap.

On the other hand, I am totally cool with a bar that is laid back, fun, non-gimmicky, and attracts a clientele that isn’t so obsessed with their coolness that they are unable to enjoy anything mainstream. Public Bar is…a bar. It has three levels, a roof (that, incidentally, is unable to serve glass bottles because some jackass kept throwing them off the balcony last summer. Way to go, you’ve ruined EVERYTHING) plasma TV’s for sports enthusiasts, etc etc.

Why I like it:

Location, location, location. If you’re like me, your friends, co-workers and past cell mates live everywhere from Bethesda, to Capitol Hill to Arlington. Forcing Arlington-ers out to Capitol Hill or vice versa is, in short, annoying to them. Public Bar serves as a great middle ground. 2 blocks from Dupont Circle metro, its also located in a good area to bar-hop.

Clientele. In my experience, there are normal people hanging out here who look like they may have a checking account and probably don’t want to talk to you about their antique sword collection.  Really, this is all you can ask for.

As well…. they play good music, it’s reasonably non-crowded on weekdays, the bartenders are nice and they have a weekday happy hour. Do it up.