I Love New York(ers)

Yep, it was darn cold here the last few days (windchill of -20 degrees celsius) so I was able to break out the faux fur that was too warm to wear last year.  The massive 80's shoulders are part of the reason I loved the coat in the first place.  It was definitely warm enough, but when I got out of Heather's car I discovered that it was shedding like crazy, and her passenger seat looked like a large white dog had been sitting there.  I know that real fur will start to shed as it dries out but I didn't realize that faux fur will shed too.  Anyone else have that experience?

Not much worth reporting on has happened here lately, and so I'm going to go alllllll the way back to the end of October, when I was in New York, as there are lots of things you haven't seen yet...

Some of the people (and critters) I spent time with....

This is the sweet, 13 year old, blind-in-one-eye, cat named Bowie that kept me company in my AirBnB.  His owner said Bowie had never paid as much attention to any of their previous guests as he did to me (which I took as a compliment) and he was always waiting outside my bedroom door when I opened it in the morning so we could have cuddles.  He didn't bother my allergies, and is the primary reason I started to seriously consider getting a cat of my own.

a real New York pigeon - looking a bit rough around the edges, but a badass nonetheless

As much as I love the energy and culture of New York city,  it's the people who make it my favourite place to visit.  New York embraces all manner of personalities, eccentricities and styles, and encourages you to be your best possible version of yourself.  I feel very much at home when I'm there! 

Debra Rapoport was one of the first people I met through Ari Cohen and his Advanced Style blog when I started going to New York regularly in October.   We have since become friends and I can count on her to organize some sort of marvelous adventure during my visit.  This year, we did a photoshoot with Jocelyn McKenzie in Brooklyn, which I wrote about here.

I love spending time with my friends Valerie and Jean, aka The Idiosyncratic Fashionistas when I am in New York, and this year we attended a performance of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at The Joyce Theater in Chelsea.  After the show we were outside talking about the show when the man next to me (whose name is Rudy Baker) in the photo above joined in the conversation.  From his velvet bowler to his painted fingernails, his style suited his personality pefectly, and I wish I could have sat down with him as I bet he had some great stories to tell.

I first "met' Hillary via Instagram and after we had followed each other's accounts for about a year, we were able to meet for lunch while I was there.  She is a total sweetheart, and the only disappointment was that I wasn't able to meet her four-legged baby, Harvey Noodles.

Above is Dayle Berke, (her instagram is @artfulcitystyle) another superbly stylish woman I have had the pleasure to meet while in New York.  Dayle volunteers as a docent at the Museum of Arts and Design, and gave an excellent tour of the current exhibits, to a group which included Jean and I, which I will post about soon.

The Baroness of Latex (right, posing with friend) hosted a Halloween Party in her apartment and I attended as a guest of the Idiosyncratic Fashionistas.  The Baroness was wearing one of her own designs and was a delightful hostess. 

She had asked guests to come dressed as a version of her (which you can only do when you are the Baroness of Latex) so there were some very impressive latex outfits worn by some of the other guests.  I had no latex, so I made do with a form-fitting dress I had purchased at Value Village.  The last photo I had seen of the Baroness showed her with pink hair, so most of us turned up in pink wigs, only to find she had moved on to blonde.  One of the Baroness' cats decided to join me in this photo, in which I look like I am very elegantly hailing a cab.

As luck would have it, fellow blogger Patti was also in New York at the same time, so we met up in Washington Square Park for a coffee.

While I was chatting with Patti, Amanda Dolan came by with her dog Pearl.  Amanda is the owner of Spark Pretty, and usually has a booth at the Manhattan Vintage Show with her partner in style crime, Meagan Colby.