Let me preface this by saying I don't have any emotional attachments to Macy's stores. I have never seen the parade and neither of my parents have ever taken me there for magical memory making, et cetera. All I know is that the department store is in a neighborhood of Manhattan that feels like punishment and their clothes aren't worth the tourist viruses you have to wade through to get at them because Macy's is also near that one SUPERWalMart Victoria's Secret where there are many people who like to wear things from the Pink collection. In real life. Without dying laughing. You'll identify them by their see-through bra straps.
Anyway, now Macy's is doing something that I think is just a damn good idea. They're holding a casting call for new designers. They're letting n00bs swan into their doors, full-on PRETENDING that they didn't think Macy's was "played" and their swishy bottlejob Leigh Lezark/Olivier Theyskens hairdos TOTALLY love INC International Concepts and Lucky jeans and want to be down with them really bad.
I think it's clever of Macy's to spin this exactly this way (instead of OHGAWD FUGGOMAYDAY!) and if their buyers are on-point about the new vanguard I may get properly excited.
Sure, this open-source fashion jam has been done before. TopShop stays fishing for new ideas in a similar manner in highly cunning and successful (and FINE OK, sometimes weirdsies) ways but there is a Red Lobstery stodginess about Macy's that I truly hope this effort will help mitigate.
I also hope really talented fashiony awesomes are as nimble of the mind as they are in outsourced sewing labor because the application is maybe totally scary.
If you hadn't written something today, I was totally going to send a note to notes@theawl.com IN A TERRIFIED PANIC.
MATHY!!! Goodness you're not at work in an office today are you?
I'm at work in my home office today, dear one. I kind of like working when no one else is, so that I can not work when everyone else is?
Oh you sound good at things and productive. I wish I could work in a home office. It's too close to a kitchen for me to get anything done. Not that I cook or anything. The kitchen is where the chips live.
I was starting to suspect that Mary had been Violet Blue'd.
Confession: I was asked to buy an item of this "Pink" business for a relative for the holidays--NO SORRY I DID NOT COME UP WITH MY OWN BETTER IDEA BECAUSE LIFE IS SHORT OKAY??--for a twelve year-old. I duly complied.
Fine, sure, whatever. At least I made .08 cents for the Malaysian twelve year-old who made it.
Oh, what's the use. I was going to Hell anyway.
I think it's OK when they're 12. It's definitely way less funny when they're 12. See, that's what's so interesting about Pink. It's infantilizing and precocious.
My 4th grader is asking for sweats with Pink embroidered across the rear. All the "cool" girls have them. I keep saying no...and that Pink does not mean what she thinks it does.
It doesn't, does it?
Oh man. Hmm... well, Pink means all sorts of things obvi. BUT (and God I might be totally wrong) I think the reason why 4th grade girls like the stuff is because it's marketed as being "way fun collegiate" and maybe it's OK to pretend that's all it means until they just grow out of it and it never gets mentioned again? GAH. IDK Holy crap it's scary raising girls.
The one thing I will take as a non-scary sign is that some of the Pink stuff is super peppy athletic which I'd prefer any day over pure slutfest "it looks like a tiger tattoo with diamonds" clothing.
Hahaha!
So either I'm overthinking or my mind is in the gutter.
So Pink can just mean, pink...like a color.
Ed Hardy, on the other hand, will always mean Douche. And no spawn of mine is wearing that crap.
At Project yesterday, Ed Hardy had the largest booth in the show. It was, like, three normal booths spot-welded together right in the prime spot next to the cafe (windows!) and filled with rhinestones and Excited Buyers. Pace Simon Doonan, saying Ed Hardy is cheesy is like criticizing Liberace for being tacky. It's like, "yeah, and so?"
Is Pink and Ed Hardy what I have to look forward to for my 7-year-old? Crap. Mary, you are not kidding - it's totally freaking scary raising girls.
I work in this neighborhood and can attest it to its terribleness. THERE IS NO WHERE GOOD TO EAT, although there is a Stumptown THNKGD.
Don't you think the coffee is way more delicious when you take it home than when you drink their drip? IS WHAT SHE SAID. No but seriously I've had two consecutive weaksauce coffees from the cobble hill location and am confused.
I've yet to have a bad cup and the baristas are CUTE which keeps me going back. Failproof business model.
Coffee is always better at home, yes, mostly because I use a LOT of coffee beans when I brew - like, could restart a man's heart.
Someone please tell me the best coffee to buy at Trader Joe's. It's all starting to taste the same. Otherwise, I'm going to start a rating system and accompanying chart.
Sounds like a listicle without commentary in waiting.
OOOH YES. Someone please answer the captain because I would like this information also. kthxbai
Thirded; the kinds I have suffered through have not been worth the three dollars saved from Pike Place. My Trader Joe's also has about 200 square feet, which doesn't allow for contemplation.
Cap'n French Roast.
oh yes yes yes
Speedy's if you like soup. And, um, hope you like soup.
I've tried many of the TJ's coffees, from the cheap ones to the Kona. I think the more expensive ones sit around; they seem less than fresh.
TJ's coffee beans seem to get stale fast after you open them. I think the cap doesn't seal it well. If you can, after you open the canister, transfer the beans to a mason-jar like container.
I actually prefer the cheapest one, called "Joe ... one exceptionally smooth cup of coffee." It's a medium roast with a nutty flavor. It's about 3 or 4 bucks a canister.
Make sure to use a lot of grounds. For one average-sized mug (usually about 8 to 10 oz or 1 to 1 1/4 cup), I grind at least 4 or 5 tablespoons of beans.
Whoops, Trader Joe's coffee reply below.
I will say that the window design team at Macy's is terrific (and their old boss, Sam, is a peach).
I've worked with them on several projects and they are as funny, bitchy, delightful and kooky as you would imagine.
Also, they are not paid nearly enough.
My friend does their installations that involve any video.
Your friend is talented :)
THANK YOU for calling out clear bra straps. It's like, you're still wearing a completely inappropriate undergarment for the top you have on, but it has cheap, gummy-looking plastic straps that are most likely acting like suction and are going to leave you with welts over your shoulders. Invest in a damn t-back, girl.
.. and all this time I thought those clear straps were for hanging strapless bras on hangers. I didn't think they were supposed to touch skin.
They make them with embedded rhinestones, too, which I find truly confounding. If the logic is that you're wearing clear bra straps so it doesn't look like your bra is hanging out, then how does it follow that you have rhinestones in your skin?
Clearly I don't understand "sexy".
If you have large breasteses and want to wear pretty tops without sagginess you have one of 2 options. Corsets or clear straps.
Bendel's has also been doing this for years. When I was a director at Takashimaya (1997-99) the buyers there also would do open calls.
Which is what I love about this. It's SO "here's a press release about this thing we were maybe already doing/should've already been doing." Also, I love the takashimaya web site. So womby. Is the inside of the store amazing?
Now THIS is a day spa. When the city gets to you, take your laptop to the Cafe Teabox in Takashimaya's basement. Maybe also splash out on the thickest pair of cashmere socks known to man (save the hatemail-- they cost no more than one of those fire-hazard implant-trainer brassieres at that awful VS), then bury your snozz in the flower displays on the way out. Good as new!
Does this mean all of the Macy's men's sections will offer more than preposterous low-rent Ed-Hardy skull-tattoo LA knob-head gear ...
http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=425579&CategoryID=44049
Because in all the Macy's outside major metropolitan areas, THAT is all there is. It is terrifying. 40-year-old midwestern guys are all dressing like that now. If we don't turn back soon...
LOL. There is something on the "also recommended" bar on the right that is called "a SHINJUKU KNIGHT GRAPHIC" T-shirt. God, I hope not. I didn't even consider the menswear and now it's all scary. I just thought it would mean things other than shrunken denim jackets with pleather panels and 20% spandex and ruched plaid skirts for girls. Also I just found a $300 Ed Hardy diaper bag because they are BREEDING.
Look Fashion Lady, I don't care what you do or how you do it but I cannot keep going out to adult social events and being forced to hang around with "the guys" group where they are all dressed like this
http://rebelliousclothing.ca/images/products/big/lsw217.jpg
and I will soon kill one of them. This is a dire situation. DIRE!
We need an awareness campaign or something.
You may now wear plaid to adult social events.
Plaid is popular with the young hipsters.
You probably already own some plaid, so this will also save you money.
However, you will be forced to buy a pair of cool jeans to wear with the plaid.
And no matter how many times Brett "Pants on the Ground" Favre says Wranglers are OK, do not believe him.
I would pay - PAY! - to have some guys I see out in Wranglers instead of the butt-flaps low-rise back-pocket-insignia stuff that's increasingly popular (which ALSO has these worn-in lines that all point your eyeline at the crotch which ;ldjgaokdhjf;jsbco;iwefdnc!
Also Hockeymom: Beware the Favre blaspheming. He is going to take your little semi-pro team to the super bowl and win which you will be able to shove in Packers' fans faces for the rest of your life saying, with a straight face, Favre gave both teams one bowl, he's as much yours as ours. Oh my.
special effects jeans are the worst. there was a period a few years ago where I felt like I had to pay $100 more to get men's jeans without those whiskers. I am sorry the rest of the country now has to go through this.
You guys, what's wrong with Levis? (Seriously asking)
BTW: this is them
http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=420233&CategoryID=24147
ALSO: Mary, I think YOU could be Macy's next art director!
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/diesel-names-new-artistic-director-1870747.html
OMG! I LOVE WAD magazine. ALSO, why did you do that really mean thing where you sent me a link of that guy with the face and the shirt that make TERROR? Although I should've known by the "rebelliousclothing dot ca."
I do think an awareness campaign is in order. Sincerely. It's totally a post I want to read because I don't think I knewknew that America People were dressing like this to get sex. It's to get sex, right? It's not because this stuff makes them feel good when dudes "dress for themselves"? Or is it? Seriously, what's going on? I am genuinely lost on this subject and its motivations.
Is this a newly divorced realguy thing? are there expectations for the ladies to wear the complementary douchelia? I want more information.
"Douchelia" - heh heh.
Oh no, it is not to get sex. These dudes, witha few exceptions, are married. So not only is not-to-get-sex but it appears to eb sanctioned by a wife. So who is to blame is in questions as well.
And it is not white trash either. There are husband guys who are married to women with VERY advanced professional degrees and raining and they wear these things. I think it is because they want to imagine themselves smething that somebody other than their wives would like to ave sex with. It is worse than zepplin-crotched Dockers guys.
DO THEIR WINDOWS, Mary!!
MHKC = Simon Doonan (but taller) of 2K10! IN LIGHTS!
You know what they should design? A less stinky store. Good smells, bad smells I can't stand that place now. It used to be the "crown jewel" of my parent's shopping trips to "the city" and now it's a joke. Feh.
Man did I grow up at the right time to enjoy department stores at their peak. Even local stores! Long live Alexanders and Mays!
I like sweatpants that say PINK on the butt.
"Turn IT to the left", or "Turn to the left?" BWAHAHAHAHA if the latter.
Best TJ's coffee is the Costa Rica in the pale blue can. De gustibus, etc., so see also: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/292337