Posts tagged Bravo
An Ode to Our Valentines
Feb 14th
Between the multiple outfit choices, floral arrangements and gifts, Valentine’s Day is a very style-oriented holiday. So to celebrate this, we’re announcing our love to our very own style valentines. Won’t you be ours?
Louboutin (the man and the shoe)
There’s a reason that the sole is red, it’s the color of eternal love, the kind you can only feel for a shoe. Louboutin, you have captured our soles (we couldn’t resist).
Sparkle
Who doesn’t want to shine a little brighter? No one we know. We’re thrilled that a little sparkle has made its way into a multitude of the Fall 2012 NYFW shows this past week. From Erin Fetherston to Alice + Olivia, the designers doled out the sequins, glitter and shine (even Theysken’s Theory had a gold piece). What do we say to you, sparkle? After seeing the dresses at Reem Acra, “be mine” only touches the surface. Sparkle, you will always be our brightest valentine.
Andy Cohen
The most fashionable man in our hearts may only live in our TVs, but we’d like to think that if we ever got the chance, Andy Cohen may reciprocate our style love. We give you this valentine mazel, Andy, as a thank you for being your incredibly stylish self, now five nights a week.
Children at NYFW
For a series of such high-profile events, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the seriousness of it all, especially when all of the models look so depressed. That’s why we’d like to make the kiddy fashionistas at NYFW our valentines. What’s better than a wide-eyed child sporting a tiny designer handbag?
STA Consignors
This could be an entire blog post in itself. There are no words to describe some of the people who have brought their pieces into STA stores. As avid shoppers, we would like to take a minute to thank the people who may not even know how deeply they have touched our hearts. To the consignors who outgrow their classic, black Ray Ban wayfarers, we salute you. To the consignors who have brought in special occasion sequin dresses and make another girl’s dream of the perfect party dress a reality, we honor you. And to the consignor who brought in a pair of black patent Louboutin pumps, if one of us could hunt you down and give you a hug, she would.
And Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you, our special valentine fashioniSTAs. You are our best valentines, we love you all!
Women Who Work Wednesdays Shopping Event with Ambria!
Nov 15th
Wednesdays mean the workweek is half over, so why not reward yourself with an after-work trip to STA? This Wednesday, November 16th, the Thompson Street store in Soho, NYC will be staying open until 10:30pm to accommodate our favorite working girls.
Hosted by Ambria Miscia from Bravo’s Fashion Hunters, she’ll be pulling out all the stops, from champagne to an extra 20% off your purchase!* Here’s to making Wednesdays your new favorite shopping day!
Second Time Around Soho
111 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 925-3919
*Cannot be combined with other outside offers, excludes furs.
Putting the ‘Fashion’ in ‘Fashion Hunters’ with Tara and Ambria!
Oct 19th
Craving the pieces you’ve seen on Bravo’s ‘Fashion Hunters’? So are we! To get you in the style spirit, we’ve outlined our take on the best part of the fall season (the fashion, of course), and how you can get in on the haute couture fun for less.
Summer merchandise is colorful and fun, but fall and winter is where our meaty, pricy pieces start to come in. Cashmere sweaters, wool coats, buttery leather boots…it’s that time of year again and this time we are going to be consigning all fall while our show airs. We are anticipating people will be excited to bring their gems for us to sell at this fabulous, soon-to-be-nationally-recognized store.
Some of our favorite items in the store now are a great mix of timeless and trendy. We love sexy staples like classic little black dresses, as well as sparkly pieces like this Chloe wave-printed, multicolor skirt (shown below), which we have priced at $149. It’s such a great statement piece that all you need is a black top and a neutral shoe and you’ve got a dazzling fall ensemble. We also can’t get enough of the interesting outerwear that comes through our doors. This M Missoni coat (shown right) is $329 and is a great classic alternative to a regular, black coat! These silver pumps (shown right) from Sergio Rossi ($219 at STA) are the perfect pop of metallic that will go with any outfit. But when it comes to shoes, no one can resist those absolute couture stunners that we see on our shelves, like the rose-gold grommetted Stella McCartneys that we recently had in the store. Cooler weather doesn’t mean your wardrobe has to be boring, we say bring on the sparkle and the shiny details!
While we love these couture and high-end designer pieces, we also love getting our ‘middle-of-the-road’ designer labels that are a huge component of our business engine. Labels like Diane Von Furstenberg, Theory, Tory Burch, Milly and Paul & Joe have been rolling right in. Ambria is clearly a DVF fan, wearing a printed dress (shown below) by the designer ($119 at STA), and pairing it with gold heels and hoops, of course. This is a great dress option for spring, summer or fall, it’s all about how you accessorize it!
We also love separates that these designers put out, especially for fall. We always have a bunch of individual pieces in the store that you can mix and match to maximize your outfit choices. It’s important to think outside the box with this as well, try out putting unexpected pieces together, you might be pleasantly surprised! Tara paired this A.L.C. soft denim blazer with leather lapels (shown below, $199 at STA) with this plaid-printed Rugby Ralph Lauren skirt (shown below, $39 at STA) for a modern take on conservative pieces. You can do this with as well with other plaid details and blazers, or you could try out mixing a traditional pencil skirt with a printed blazer, obviously found on the racks of Second Time Around. Same idea, great new look!
So if you come on down to New York City, or live here and just don’t find yourself with a reason to go to Nolita, let us give you one – our Mott St. location! It’s fresh, it’s packed with amazing merchandise and pretty soon you will be watching it on Tuesday nights at 10:30 p.m.! Couture kisses to all!
~Tara and Ambria, fashioniSTAs and Bravo’s Fashion Hunters
Go Behind the Scenes of ‘Fashion Hunters’!
Oct 3rd
As our “Fashion Hunters” October 4th premiere date inches closer, many are wondering what changes the Mott Street New York store has undergone, both during filming and now in preparation for the series to actually air on Bravo!
There were in fact, many changes. As you know, our motto is “Rescale Goes Upscale.” We wanted to make sure that we were being true to what the company stands for. We’ve always been proud of STA’s ability to change peoples’ minds about negative consignment stigmas by keeping our merchandise fresh, and being choosy when taking in items for the store. We re-curated the racks prior to filming in about a two-week time period and then an entire TV crew came in and set up shop!
It was a total adventure, both personally and professionally for all of us. Consignments are usually personal, with people handing over pieces they initially shelled out major money for. Doing them on camera changed the dynamic a bit, but, we were pleasantly surprised how much our consignors wanted to participate and how well they rolled right into ‘TV mode’! It’s never easy to point out stains, rips or holes in someone’s clothing, but that was a large part of what the show was about – how meticulous we have to be when doing our job.
There were also amazing moments where we found things people had brought in were one-of-a-kind couture or vintage pieces with values up to the tens of thousands. There are a lot of goodies in store for everyone to see – including an unforgettable trip to New York’s exclusive Hamptons towns, where we got to mix consignment with pleasure and saddle back to our store with unbelievable merchandise to sell!
After shooting for four months, we said good-bye to our Bravo family and had the summer to get the store (and our personal lives!) back to normal. Thanks to everyone who has been cheering us on and supported our endeavors in this show. It was a joint effort between the entire cast, the STA Boston management team & investors and our new joint family, the Bravo & Leftfield networks. Our shoppers and consignors also played a huge role every time they took a chance, bravely signing a waiver and volunteering to showcase the consignment process.
Now that you’ve heard our preface to the show, don’t forget to tune in on October 4th at 10:30pm for all the consignment and couture that STA Mott Street has to offer!
~Tara and Ambria, fashioniSTAs
P.S. We’re starting off your hunt the right way! Come into any STA on October 4th and mention the secret catchphrase “I live for the hunt” to score an additional 10% off everything!
Alex McCord blogs from Fashion Week!
Feb 16th
Alex and Simon enjoy Fashion Week!
WEDNESDAY
Fashion week began with a snow day!! Our two boys, aged 4 and 6, love clothes almost as much as my husband and I do, but they love snow more. I took them outside after lunch and we made a fashion week snowman – Frosty the Fashionista – whom I thought looked a bit like Patrick McDonald from Bravo’s Launch My Line, complete with artfully tilted fedora. Later that afternoon, I ran over to the Mott Street store with old STA friend Derek Warburton to play in the racks and choose a few outfits for fashion week. This season I decided that I’d either wear the designer whose show I’m seeing, or something from Second Time Around, and the first look we pulled was a really adorable pink satin and black lace Nanette Lepore, topped with a gray suede jacket by Torn. Why this outfit in the middle of a snowstorm? My snow boots are pink and black leopard, and you never know whether there will be time to change before the photographers find you…so just in case I wanted to match.
First stop was John Bartlett’s show, and I really couldn’t wait to see it as not only do Simon and I love his menswear, but this was the first time in years that he’d offered a women’s collection as well. The work for both genders was polished, elegant and so very wearable, with sassy touches such as a leather t-shirt under a scarf and metal studs on the cuffs of a sweater. As we waited for the show to start I spent a few minutes staring at Simon who had been decked out in head-to-toe Bartlett with a long coat and vest over a turtleneck – very nice! After congratulating John and catching up with the other Simon at the show (Doonan) we headed out into the blizzard that ate New York. 5 minutes, 10 minutes…where, oh where is the car?
Frosty the Fashionista!
During fashion week, everyone shuttles from venue to venue and you don’t always get to eat properly, so the money you save on meals is well spent on a car service to get you from A to B. In this case, the car was stuck in New Jersey, so after a few minutes of Simon valiantly trying to hail a cab, our friends Joe and Ed from ChicUniqueNY.com decided to get their car out of a nearby lot and just drive.
The snow continued to fall and we had a near miss with an unleashed dog who couldn’t see where the sidewalk ended and the road began…thank goodness we missed him as it would be a very bad idea to start fashion week with a pelt! We arrived at the GenArt presentation featuring four new designers, and were thrilled with the winning collection by WesFeld utilizing recycled plastics. After admiring the eco-friendly collections and chatting with friends, we repaired to Morimoto for some tasty Japanese before putting the boots back on, finding the car (finally!) and heading home.
THURSDAY
Spent most of the day working, but did catch the ClaudiaE show on the way home – she’s a brand new designer who is very accessible to STA shoppers. Her looks were a bit Annie Hall crossed with sexy young things – think long button down shirts, perfectly cut, over fishnet stockings, knee socks and heels.
Stay tuned for the next chapter – the weekend is always fun as Simon is able to attend shows with me!
~Alex