city folk.

Emily and I took pictures together today. We went into the city to get supplies. I remembered I needed to go for some reason but I couldn't remember what for.

Emily is wearing a handmade hat from convention, borrowed sweater from Thrift Town, dress from Bodyline, TUK cat mary janes, Pusheen pin. I'm wearing an Esprit coat from Goodwill, swacket from Harputs Union, Alice and the Pirates Horoscope print JSK, TUK creepers, scarf on head from Tiffany's.

I stopped by Midtown Comics because we passed by on the way from Elegant Fabrics. They always have the most recent Adventure Time comics in stock but I'd never bought them because I'd want to buy all of them. Adventure Time came out with a compilation so I bought that one, and then a couple single issues of covers I liked.
A comic I drew today. Lately I've been sleepy all the time starting from when I wake up. I would want to take a nap when I have breaks between classes but I need that time to make lunch. I've been in need of those naps really badly. But somehow when it hits 12 when I'd like to go to sleep, I start to feel really productive and want to work on things.

Love, Kaia

afternoon tea.

Last weekend I had a field trip up to the Frick Collection on 70th and Madison. I had arrived 20 minutes early, before the doors of the museum were open and didn't want to wait outside because it was raining so I looked around for a cafe where I could buy myself breakfast. Unfortunately, being on Madison didn't give me much of a selection (the only stores in the area were upscale designer boutiques)

There was a macaron display next to Juicy Couture and I had thought it was part of Juicy, but as I walked down I noticed that it was a different store altogether.
Laduree, how convenient. I'd been meaning to go for some time but never made a trip up. I don't frequent anywhere above midtown.
Most of my pictures I took outside because photos are prohibited (though I managed to sneak a few). There is a Hello Kitty collaboration going on that just started recently. Before that was Tsumori Chisato so I went in expecting Tsumori boxes, but it seems that those are all out.
I couldn't get over how pretty the whole store is. To the right of the entrance, there's a gift section with everything from stationery to bags to scarfs to umbrellas. There'd been a scarf that I would have loved, I quickly put it back from shock after seeing the $70 price tag.
The macarons themselves are pricier than most also. For one, it's $2.70. Which makes some sense considering the prestige of name and crafting in Paris. Paulette's (now known as lette's) was over a full dollar cheaper. There used to be one in San Francisco, but they closed down before I ever got to try one.

I decided to splurge and buy the prettiest box. Each box is different price despite being the same size. Buying in a box is more expensive than buying individually.
I went with one of the Hello Kitty boxes of eight. I felt like I as paying a fortune until the cashier swiped up the two people in front of me ($250 for several boxes and $53 for one box).
It's still a huge splurge. When I was on the train, I kept thinking how many pints of Haagen Dazs I could have bought with the money. A LOT, in fact, since the price of one pint on sale is the same as the price of a macaron.
Laduree macarons are something that I feel would be given as a wedding present.
Choosing the flavors I wanted was hard not only because there are a lot of flavors but because the only flavor I really like is chocolate. Because it was my first time there, I thought it'd be a waste for me to get a whole box of chocolate.
I bought: raspberry, coffee, almond, praline, blackcurrant, vanilla, cherry blossom, and chocolate. I took down notes of them all in my notebook so I would remember the taste of each next time. A few of them are much too sweet to be enjoyed without a cup of tea, and I have a sweet tooth (so that's saying something). I took them with English breakfast tea with no sugar and for a few of them, that balanced the taste out.
These are so expensive that I can't imagine I'll be going back anytime soon, but having them once is a good experience. One mission completed!

Love, Kaia

thrift shopping in the upper east side.

Today I had to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a field trip, so I decided to make a round to the Upper East Side Goodwill, because I've been wanting to visit for months. Before moving to New York, I had always wondered if the clothes would be any different in thrift shops if they were donated in the Upper east and west side. Just the front of the shop gave me a pretty good first impression. It looked a little bit different than all the other Goodwills I've been to.
The inside isn't really much different than most other Goodwills. There are still some parts that are kind of grimy, especially the fitting room.

The difference is that it's true. That the price for clothes are a little bit more expensive. And big brands are everywhere. Really. There are still the Target items, of course. A pair of shoes from Target were $15. They would have been half that price at the Goodwill back at home. Brands like Steve Madden and Nine West and Stuart Weitzman and BCBG are $25.

In this location, they have their boutique items and regular items. Boutique items are more expensive, but it's not hard for me to find something I really love. I found a beautiful printed silk dress from Tracy Reese, which would have retailed for over $400, for just $25. Definitely a markdown. It looked really new too. I would have leaped to buy it, but it was three sizes too big, and chances are I would just have it hanging in my closet if it's not my size.

I was in the shop for a pretty long time; definitely past an hour. And I hadn't even looked through everything. The shop is pretty small, but I found several things that I wanted to try on. After trying on piles and piles of clothes, I narrowed down to three pieces.
The left one is the expensive one; a $60 Coach coat. The middle one is $20 Esprit, and the right is $8 J. Jill. I'm not kidding when I say brands everywhere. There is the occasional designer piece, too. I'm still a little sad about the Tracy Reese dress. It would have been smart to take a picture.
That's the end of my thrifting trip. There were a few other instances where I've gone thrift shopping since I got here, but I haven't written about them. I was in the 23rd street area where a lot of the thrift stores are, and went to the Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Housing Works there. Because of limited time, I was only in Housing Works for five minutes. My friend went to check prices, though and it's not very cheap, it seems. I'll have to go back to see. The interiors are very nice, though. It's not the usual grimy thrift shop feel. In the five minutes I was there, I bought a tea pot that was missing a lid which I decided to use as a vase for my newly dried flowers.
I've been getting a lot of acne since school started. It's not going away until I get enough sleep and stop stressing, which wont happen until winter break. I an so looking forward to breaks.

Back to the museum, I was supposed to meet my class there at 10am this morning, but because of slight miscalculation on my part, and all the trains that were under construction today (everything, pretty much), I arrived at the museum past 11. I don't think I found my class until around 11:30. Just being able to find them was pretty lucky.
I didn't want to stay around to long when there were so many people and the Costume Institute doesn't have an exhibit, so I'd only been around for an hour.

I did visit the gift shop, though. There are some nice things, but nothing is cheap. I found a bookmark that I wanted to buy as a present to my friend, but for the bookmark alone was $17.

There was also a shirt that I was digging. It's a cityscape photo style shirt, made of cotton and spandex. This t-shirt is $55 if I remember correctly.

Their selection of handkerchiefs are so nice. There are two sides of handkerchiefs. My friend bought me one for my birthday last month, and I've been wearing it pretty frequently recently. It's the one that I'm wearing on my head in the picture with my vase.
While leaving the Met, I dropped a piece of paper, and a guard was trying to call me, and he seemed pretty confused. He called, "lady...sir!" like he couldn't decide if I were male or female. I don't know how many times this has happened. I don't find myself to be all that masculine.

I'm in the workroom tonight, working on homework. Hopefully I can get something done, at least.

Love, Kaia

out on a school night in the city.

To be totally honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to go out this year for Fashion's Night Out. I only had one destination, and both of my friends had classes till 8:00-8:30 at night. But as a fashion major, all the teachers encourage us to go one way or another.In the end, we went around 9pm, which is a little past fashionably late for the party, but better late that never.
I went with Finn and Shaelyn, and the three of us didn't have much of an idea where exactly we were going. The only destination I had was Miu Miu because I wanted to see Tavi. I think I even subconsciously threw in some Tavi vibes while putting together my outfit.I'm a total beginner with my camera, so Finn took most of my photos for me since she has the same camera. It's kind of nice to not take all my photos myself all the time; no need to look for a table the right height and running back and forth till I get a good one.
I think originally we were planning on seeing Daniel Radcliffe, but we missed the stop and went to Macy's instead. I hadn't seen the Karl line yet so I wanted to check it out.
Tempted to get the leather shorts and a Karl tee from his Impulse line, but even Macy's prices are a bit of a stretch for me. I put back that FNO tee shirt too.

We stopped by H&M after Macy's and I started trying to shield my eyes because there were a bunch of things that I wanted that I could have easily bought, but I didn't want to spend money. Which is kind of silly considering I've been needing to get new clothes.
But all the things that I wanted were things that were similar to the clothes I already had, so I didn't end up buying anything.
dress from H&M, petticoat from flea market, furry cardigan from thrift, H&M lace scarf, accessories from flea market and Forever21, Docs from Asos.

I'll make this an outfit post.
Bunny bag! The other ear is hiding. There was a guy in H&M who commented on it and asked me what it was.

Next stop was Sephora because it was right across the street.
They were doing this photo taking thing that I kind of wanted to do, but it was too crowded and the line was too long and the music was too loud so it didn't take too long for us to leave.

It took us a while to find Miu Miu. By the time we got there, it was just about 11:00, and everything was closed at that time. Bummer.
There was this gigantic sign and carpet on the streets just outside of YSL that was up for grabs. I desperately wanted to take it back to hang on my dorm wall, but there was no way that I could have taken it back. I think a few guys claimed it in the end.
Louis Vuitton window display.

After 11, there weren't many places left to go. We bumped into a big group of kids from our school, and they had a little more luck with meeting celebrities than we did.

The only shop that we could find that wasn't closed yet was the Apple store, so we sat around for a bit. I had no idea the Apple store was open 24 hours a day. It doesn't seem that necessary, though. Convenience stores I can kind of understand.
By the time we got back, it was past midnight, and I still had homework to do and a classes to go to in the morning. Being out is a good experience, though. More planning into next year.

Love, Kaia