Day 4: Soho and Meatpacking District

August 8, 2012August 28, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

Soho is my favourite place in whole New York! Because of the architecture, design, fashion, food, art and of course shopping. Our day began from visiting Victoria’s Secret (593 Broadway) really pink boutique. There was such a horrifying ton of all those perfumes, bras, etc. that we had to go to the Nespresso Cafe (Prince Str.) for relax. We ordered coffee and an small hamburger. After recollecting our energy, we moved to Agent Provocateur (133 Mercer Str.) boutique, that was also pink, however more elegant and exclusive than VS. Then there was time for Rag&Bone. Those clothes there were so cool, that we bought there so much items, that two huge bags were needed. However, A.P.C. was a huge disappointment. Our next place to go on map was the Crosby Street.
1.Victoria Secrets, 2. Nespresso, 3. Agent Provocateur, 4. Rag&Bone
There we went to an artistic design shop, Artifacts 20th Century (125 Crosby Str). In this shop the owner finds and sells furnitures and decoration from 20th century (Eames Lounge Chair, Eero Saarinen Womb Chair). Jill Platner (113 Crosby Str) sells a hand-made artistic jewellery. And everything is made out from silver. After this we’ve tried out some cupcakes in Georgetown Cupcakes (111 Mercer Str) and moved to Metal Pointu’s (235 Elizabeth Str) were you can by metal jewellery straight from Paris. As for me Elizabeth Str. On Soho is the most artistic one. There are lots of beautiful graffiti, art galleries… the next destination was Love Adorned (269 Elizabeth Str). This the most adorable shop ever! It sells hand made furniture from around the world like Kenya, India, Australia, artistic jewellery, some small things (for example antique stickers with Siwa, Rama and Ganesha, that were found on a market in India hat I bought) and even hand crafted in Kenya clothes for little children and dogs!

1. A.P.C., 2. Artifacts 20th Century, 3. Jill Platner, 4. Love Adorned
The next place were we went was the small shop of Le Labo (233 Elizabeth Str), so the cosmetics and candles that are made only from biological ingredients and are from USA. I really loved Three Monkeys Eyewear. It sells some really cool and colourful sunglasses and optic glasses. Then, on the same street was small library Mcnally Jackson (52 Prince Str). I bought there an Alessandro Mendini book, and some nice notebooks. But the biggest surprise was the All Saints Spitalfields on 512 Broadway. There I bought a burgundy sweater. And then it was time for the dinner…

1. Three Monkeys Eyewear, 2. Le Labo, 3. All Saints Spitalfields
For the dinner we went to Buddakan (75 Ninth Av) in Meatpacking District. The food was great. Lots of spring rollls, chilli, noodles. I ate an delicious chicken in chilli dressing and whole pecking duck with pancakes.

Day 3: Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Soho

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

Most of the third day in NY, we have spent on Ellis Island, there where the Statue of Liberty is located. We started from a cup of cofee in Nespresso on Madison Avenue and then we went there. First of all we had so sail with a huge boat from the Battery Park in the Down Manhattan. We were waiting in a quite long line, then we were checked just as on the airport by the security system, and just after those long procedures we stepped into the boat. After 15 minutes we were on Ellis Island. And there she was. The Statue of Liberty, symbol of Freedom and New York.It looked even bigger than I thought! After few minutes of taking photos, we’ve got hungry, so we bought hot dogs, chips and Coca Cola. It all was quite good… But I think just because we were really hungry! Then we stood in a line again, waiting for the boat, and after 20 minutes we were in Battery Park.

We caught a taxi and went to Soho for a small walk (I think we fall in love with it… Those buildings and shops and restaurant are so great!). We found a cool shop called The Frye Company. They were selling leather shoes and boots. We bought two pairs of them, and went further. Isabel Marant and Acne were the spots that we have visited. For the dinner we chose again The Mercer Kitchen. I ordered an japanese Tuna Spring Rolls. Fantastic! And for the second dish a hamburger with turkey, chilli peppers, and an specific dressing. As a side dish- of course french fries! And I should say this hamburger was really good. For the dessert- chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. New York is never boring!

Day 2: Midtown, Chinatown, Soho and Chelsea

August 6, 2012August 16, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

This day in New York was really artistic. We have began from a croissant with chocolate and a brioche in a bakery next to MoMa, Museum of Modern Art. It was my biggest wish to visit it! With excitement we are reaching the third floor of the museum. The whole floor is for Design, Architecture and Photography. It was really cool. We saw some of the Eames chair, Jean Prouve and Alvar Aalto. The fourth floor was full of modern sculptures and painting by such artists as: Roy Liectenstein, Edward Ruscha. But the best of all were Andy’s Warhol paintings- Gold Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Fifth floor was with more traditional artist like Claude Monet, Mondrian, Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh. And on the sixth floor we could find contemporary art- Jeff Koons and lots of different less known artist’s works. After the exhausting walking through all those sculptures and paintings, we tried out Modern Restaurant- the MoMa’s restaurant. It was quite good we ate an tartar from tuna and beef angus. The view was really nice- it was the garden of sculptures.

I really liked MoMA. It was for me, something new! After the museum, we’ve decided to visit Chinatown and Little Italy. And I should say that, I totally disliked it. Everything was dirty, stinky, noisy, crowd, narrow… The only thing that I thought was quite interesting were the fish shops with huge crabs, lobsters and so on. I tried out a coconut drink- it was fresh, but really sticky and sweet… Little Italy didn’t really look like Italy. It looked like it was made for tourists that never came to Italy. So, I was quite disappointed with those two. And it was so hot that day! Now we are on Soho. We went to Alexander Wang on Grand Street. It wasn’t nothing new, however there was air conditioning. On the same street we visited Vans Dqm and we found a Damien Hirst Gallery were was his painting for 45,000$! There were also some of the Andy Warhol paintings. It was a lot of fun at Kidrobot shop, where were tons of different and funny collecting figures. In the evening we went to Chelsea to an Morimoto restaurant, but because we came too early, we visited Chelsea Market. That was really cool. We bought some ham and vegetables for breakfast and in Chelsea Market Basket, we found a funny figurine of Elisabeth Queen and an I ❤ NY bag. Then it was time for Morimoto. That was awesome. We’ve ate sashimi selection, nigiri, shrimp tempura, udon in three different styles, ramen, wagyu beef carpaccio, and the normal wagyu beef with japanese sweet potatoes. And everything was so fresh and tasty! It is impossible to write it how good was the sashimi and tuna spicy rolls… That was the next great day in the big apple! Here is the address of Morimoto- 88 Tenth Avenue.

Day 1: Fifth Avenue and Soho

August 5, 2012August 13, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

My first day in New York, was mostly happening on Fifth Avenue and Soho. It all started in Women Bergdof Goodman were we have went through all the floors… At the beginning there is this big jewellery/bags hall that is really mind-blowing. I should say that Paris all Avenue Montaigne shops are nothing, comparing to the variety of labels and sizes on the 2,3,4th floors of BG. There is everything. Clothes of Givenchy in every size to the newest Louboutin’s high heels. After this “expedition” we went to men’s BG, but I was quite dissapointed… There were only those really expensive suites, Prada and Dolce&Gabanna. The next point of the walk on 5th Av. was the Gucci huge boutique and New York based Abercrombie and Fitch. I bought there like five things… We went also to Prada and to a great BG’s restaurant on 7th floor. That was so delicious… I ate an roasted chicken and seasonal asparagus soup. Then we had a small walk on Madison Avenue. We went to Reed Krakoff, Loro Piana, Tom Ford, Celine and Barney’s.

On the photo: BG Louboutin
The next part of our day we spent on Soho, where the first thing what we did was a visit to Marc Jacobs Loft boutique on Mercer Street. We saw the new fragrance Dot with the Kusama design. Then, Lena bought in Acne Studio on Greene Str. A beautiful red coat with fur at the top and white and black boots. We also met there a girl that worked in he shop, that is from NY, however her parents are from Greece and she lives in NoLiTa. We visited the shop of Isabel Marant on Broome Str, John Varvatos and Diesel on Spring Str. By the way I bought in Diesel an awesome parka jacket. And there was also a very mystery shop at thesame street called Revolution. They were selling there real skulls of racoons, skunks and rats and even of humans for 249$. You can buy there also some insects in jars, bones, dead rabbit with horns and other really disgusting things. But, we ended our day in an awesome restaurant called Mercer Kitchen on 99 Prince Str. We ate an grilled organic chicken, plat de mer, and roasted beef. One more time, DELICIOUS! That was a great day in New York!