My First NYFW
HELLO, NYC!
I love you already
Fashion Week in NYC has always been a dream for me; not to see the runway shows, but to connect in real life with girls who I have followed & created friendships with the last several years of blogging. The girls I stayed with and myself chose to fill our stay with events, networking, and a little sight-seeing. We chose not to attend any shows our first year because we wanted to focus all of our time there on people. It was the perfect choice - I will forever hold these memories in my heart with some of the most amazing people I have ever met!
WHO I WENT WITH
CAN YOU SAY #GIRLGANG?
I first met @candidlychan and @kathleen.post about a year ago, but not how you may normally “meet” new friends. We started our friendships on Instagram, bonding over blogging & fashion. It is sort of amazing to see how social media can actually create and cultivate REAL friendships; this week in NYC was the ultimate testimony to that. From the moment @karlierae and myself walked into the hotel room, Chandler was just bubbly and sweet and so welcoming. We met up with Kathleen on the roof of our hotel just about an hour after, and honestly had never felt more like I had known someone forever, rather than just for a moment. This is why I love blogging, why I strive for community with followers and other bloggers, and why I know that there is so much more to Instagram than “followers”, numbers, analytics, and posting photos. There is real friendships to be made & I had the best week EVER with these three that I met through the platform. Here is a glimpse into our amazing, busy, tiring, laughter-filled week that I will never forget.
WHERE WE STAYED
OUR HOME FOR THE WEEK - INK48
This gorgeous hotel was where we got to call home for the days we were in NYC. The doormen were kind enough NOT to laugh at Karlie and I for bringing 6 massive pieces of luggage for just the 2 of us haha. The four of us shared a room with 2 queen beds that had a view over the city. The first night in NYC we decided to go up to the roof before heading out to meet some other blogger friends for chips & salsa. The view was UNREAL. You basically get a 180 degree view of the whole city from the rooftop at the Kimpton Ink48. You could see Times Square in the distance, and the H&M building, lighting up the sky 24/7. There is nothing quite like seeing the New York City night lights for the first time. We literally stood on our rooftop for an hour in the drizzle (even tho it was like 95 out still) and enjoyed the incredible views. You can see that even at 7pm the traffic is still bumper to bumper haha!
TIMES SQUARE
WELCOME TO NEW YORK
“Times Square can’t shine as bright as you..” but, like.. maybe it can haha! I have never seen anything like it before! We got to Times Square about 11pm, after meeting some new blogger friends for Mexican food. Even tho we were only staying about 2 blocks from it, the drive in our taxi still took about 30 minutes because the traffic in NYC can’t stop won’t stop. For real LOL. I love the picture on the right of @nataliekennedyblog and @alexa.anglin because Karlie and I had just met them for the first time that night. They are best friends in Nashville just like Karlie & I are in Seattle; I just love the community that blogging has brought me. We had the best time walking down Times Square and looking at all the lights. We decided we wanted to get a good view of the city from above for the rest of the night, so per one of Natalie’s IG followers suggestions, we went to a rooftop lounge that had an incredible view of the Empire State Building. It was massive, all lit up, and just as beautiful in person. NYC, you’re pretty good so far!
OUR FIRST DAY IN NYC
BOLLARE & BUTCHER’s DAUGHTER
Our first full day in New York started with a breakfast at the Butchers Daughter; coffee + avocado toast, of course! This day was not as hot as the day we arrived, although I can’t say the air is a fresh as Seattle, that is for sure haha! I felt just stuffy the whole day, because of the humidity, but regardless of the temperature it was fun! The first stop of our Friday was to the Bollare showroom. Bollare is a PR firm that connects bloggers with brands, and I have worked with them several times, more specifically on a gifting basis to try new products. The showroom was UNREAL. The theme was urban jungle - so there was greenery everywhere! I loved that they had an artist there drawing pictures of the girls at the event. It was a really personal touch & mine is now hung in our place! Such a fun physical memory to have forever of that day. We got to walk around this room and pick out a bunch of new makeup products, clothes, shoes, cell phone cases, backpacks, earrings.. literally there was stuff everywhere we could pick from to take home! Being the dummy I am, I came to NYC with two full suitcases haha so I couldn’t take too much - but that was fine with me! It was fun regardless!
REWARD STYLE PARTIES
rooftop party + cocktail book launch
I have been wanting to attend a RewardStyle party ever since I joined the RS community last year; nothing was going to stop up from this rooftop party.. not even our Uber driver dropping us off 10 blocks away from the event. Ha!! So yeah, we may have walked 10 blocks in 90 degree weather to get there, but better late than never! It was pretty humid still by this time in the day, so my hair went up real quickly into a little pony. Thankfully the glasses I was wearing kept my hair out of my face, so it ended up working out perfectly. I loved this look at the daytime rooftop party because it was fun & felt like fall to me. I think an oversized blazer is perfect because t can be worn as a dress, with leggings, or like I did here with OTK boots.
SHOP MY BLAZER DRESS + OTK BOOTS
A few of my fave babes from the RS parties:
@peyton.baxter
@daniaustin
@nataliekennedyblog
@karinastylediaries
@tallblondebell
@dressupbuttercup
@oliviarink
For the second RewardStyle party (Saturday night) we got a little more dressed up. However, you know me.. Mrs.Casual over here had to wear sneakers because her feet were killing her ha! Oh well, it’s fashion, and I can do whatever I want ;) That truly IS the best part about fashion haha. This event was really different because they had a video booth that took small boomerangs of you and then pieced them together in one video. You can watch mine, Karlie, and Kathleen’s here: #FollowMyStory. There was a DJ and dancing, and it all just felt like a dream on a New York City rooftop. Once again, the highlight of my night was actually spending time with these girls after the party was over! Some of us ended up going to get pizza after and it was just hilarious watching all of us in our heels and dresses eating greasy slices of pizza in a tiny Pizza shop in the city. It was the best!
SHOP MY REWARD STYLE LOOK
flatiron building
photoshoot + sightseeing
We started this “tourist” day with coffee at a cute little shop right down the street about a block away from our hotel. They made delicious lattes! The flatiron building was a lot of fun because it is so iconic (to be honest I am not sure why), but there were people taking pictures everywhere! It was sort of funny because it’s not necessarily a “sight”, it is a building haha, but was so busy still. This day was foggy and drizzling, but we had so much fun shooting with Chandler’s friend & photographer. We got lots of pictures together as roomies, and then ran in to some other blogger friends who we asked to join in for photos. They turned out super cute!
An artist I love on Instagram also drew the photo of my roomies
& I and you can view that here: @iamnoyes
SHOP MY FLATIRON FAVES
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
a bucket-list item for sure!
Although the Brooklyn Bridge was definitely a bucket-list type of thing.. holy cow I have never experienced wind & rain like that haha. You know it is bad if it’s coming from a Seattle girl! In Seattle we rarely use umbrellas, and I remembered exactly why as we watched them flipping inside-out on people all along the bridge! Regardless of the weather, the view was still incredible. You can see the city skyline behind the busy bridge, with taxi’s running under you and the view of Brooklyn, it is really incredible.
My favorite memory from this day was walking back from the bridge; Karlie and I were hoping to change into a 2nd outfit and shoot more content together. As we were walking back down to meet the Uber driver, the paper bag of our clothes that Karlie was holding ripped. All of our clothes fell onto the wet, dirty, New York pavement on the side of the road haha I literally do not think I have laughed that hard in so long. It was just so funny that we were hoping to change into those clothes, and they were soaked & so muddy. We took it as a loss, but laughed it off and just realized you can’t win em all!
SHOP MY BOLD BROOKLYN STYLE
TOP OF THE ROCKEFELLER
empire state of mind
The Rockefeller Center “Top Of The Rock” was probably one of my major highlights from the trip. Experiencing something SO iconic, while it being my first time in NYC, and so close to 9/11 was just pretty much indescribable. It made me feel really prideful of our country and thankful for everyone in that city who is so strong. Like I said, it is sort of hard to explain but WOW I felt really thankful and overwhelmed looking out into the city.
The view from the top of the Rock is incredible; you can see for miles, even in the fog and rain. It was drizzling rain but we did not let that stop us once from enjoying our time. It sort of felt weird to be somewhere that I have seen a million times on Pinterest, and to experience it in person! This day I decided to wear my full outfit from Boohoo. The inspo behind this look was from a photo I saw of Hailey Baldwin on Instagram a few months ago from Paris Fashion week last year. She was basically wearing a baggy sweatshirt and boots, and I thought, HEY I could do that hah! I wore the waistbag to cinch my waist a little more and give me some more definition. It was definitely the most comfortable look I wore all week - the boots were surprisingly comfortable and I got so many compliments on them too because they are very unique!
THE FUNNIEST THING THAT HAPPENED ALL WEEK
no, seriously
At one point, Chandler was taking a photo on her iPhone of the city, and I walked up to her to ask her something. My hood was on and cinched tight because of the rain, and I looked like a TOTAL creeper like coming up to her to ask a question. She was taking the photo and didn’t even hear or see me so I just stepped back. But the BEST part is that Karlie got the whole thing on IG story, and it looks like I am some boy walking up to Chandler trying to talk to her, and she’s just ignoring me hahah! I can not even explain it, it was so hilarious.
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED (LOL)
GET THAT HAILEY BALDWIN STYLE
NEW YORK CITY
The land of opportunity.. oh, and street food
SHOP THE LOOK
LULU’s PARTY
bringing the retro vibes
The Lulu’s party is one that is always talked about as being amazing, so I had high hopes for what the party would be like. It didn’t disappoint, and it was once again so fun to see all of my friends and be able to spend more time talking & being together. They had an artist there who drew our names on a rose that we got to take home. They also had a clothing pop-up shop where we each got a ticket to walk thru and pick out a dress and earrings to match. It was really interactive and unique, and I loved that we got to move around the rooms and not just stand in one place! I also ran into my friend Jessica at the party who I have not seen in years. She recently moved to New York after living in Seattle her whole life, so it was great to run into her & be able to catch up a little bit on life!
I decided to wear this orange dress (from Boohoo) because I thought it was really fun and I love the bright color - it is not something I would usually wear but I was loving it! It made me look tan haha! I chose white accessories because I thought that it gave the look a retro vibe, plus I found these amazing black & white earrings at Forever21 for literally $5, and they were the total inspiration for this outfit. The coral lip was also fun because even tho it didn’t really “match” the orange dress, I think it was a fun other pop of color.
SHOP MY ORANGE DRESS + RETRO ACCESSORIES
NYC YOU WERE GOOD TO ME
BYE FOR NOW
Karlie and I left NYC on Monday the 10th of September, and to be honest we were ready to get home haha! Traveling across the country really takes it out of you; especially Fashion Week where you are just nonstop for 5 days straight. We needed sleep ha! I loved that we both wore our @zsupply matching camo outfits for the flight home. This trip was one that I literally have dreamed about for the last two years & I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to go this year! It was so rewarding to meet all of my Instagram friends in “real” life and to make connections that are so valuable in this industry. I loved every moment of NYC and I can not wait to go back next year!
