Day 1:
Walked around with my sister's fiancé. It was absurdly hot (96 degrees or so according to Yahoo!, but I'd estimate more). Stumbled upon Times Square (was walking through to another destination and realized where we were), unimpressed. Went to the Top of the Rock, and I must say, the recommendations for the Rock were very true. The views of Central Park, Manhattan in general, and the Empire State Building were pretty unbeatable, I was very much so impressed.
Day 2:
Did SoHo to fulfill a bit of my shopping needs. Went to eight of the SoHo shops I wanted to see, was able to take the day at a leisurely pace and even went to Century 21 after.
45RPM: Amazing store layout, though it was more like a museum than a store
Bloomingdale's SoHo: Not sure what I was expecting here, not good at all
Blue in Green: Such a great selection of denim, though since I was the only customer in at the time I felt a bit hawked over
Burberry: Being able to look through a large selection of Prorsum was nice, staff was quite friendly as well. The double-collar coats for FW10 are amazing, especially the shearling one with leather trim
Daffy's: Complete waste of my time, the only positive was the air conditioning
Marc Jacobs: FW10 is so strong, wish I could afford any of it. Saw a few amazing coats, all with nutria lining, that were beautiful, especially a cashmere Chesterfield with a retail of a mere $7500 or so. A lamb hoodie was actually pretty decent, I've never been a huge fan of those from pictures, and one of the other leathers I can't thin of was even better. There were also a pair of jodhpur boots that were to die for. Only down side to the collection is that they moved production of knits from Brunello Cucinelli to STAFF, not a fan of that (though I believe this started in SS10)
Paul Smith: Love the man as a designer, but I was really not a fan of this shop. Very stuffy with 2 or 3 guys standing over the door and eyeing customers as if they're going to bolt with merchandise at any second. Shoe selection was worse than the flagship Nordstoms, pitiful. Upside was a bunch of Paul Smith Mainline that isn't easy to find outside the store
Rag & Bone: A lot of nice stuff for FW10, though their continued move towards complete Chinese production is dropping them further down on my list of good brands, especially since their goods/prices haven't bettered. Again there were 2 guys standing at the door, though they were at least not overwhelming, they were chatting and looking very nonchalant, though there was no mistaking what their purpose was
Uniqlo: Nice, not the greatest clothes (and I hate spending on cheap goods) but I ended up buying a lot of socks to fill a hole in my wardrobe of casual, fun socks. At $4/$5 a pop, pretty cheap (though I get my Robert Talbott Sea Island cotton dress socks for an even better deal at $6 for 3 pairs)
Century 21: Loved the gems in the shoe department, there weren't too many, but they were marked down to the $200s from $600-$800 retail and I'm very tempted to buy a pair, though that'd mean I wouldn't be able to afford the amazing Boss ponyhairs I posted before. Their clothing section was a pretty big failure, in my opinion. The "Famous Designer" section was laughable with "designers" like Lauren Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Joseph Abboud, etc. They had a decent selection of Marc Jacobs (some of which I saw were SS10), though prices were still really high, far higher than I'd be able to get in Seattle though the selection improved. Every other designer had, at best, 1 item in a Small (34/36) and all to often none at all. Didn't do too much digging though, just a quick skim. Will return and see if anything improves with an earlier visit.
Went to a Mongolian Grill-style eatery a few towns away, pitiful. The smallest selection ever. This place had a Yelp rating of 4 or 5 stars, New Jerseyans do not know their Asian food.
Day 3: Pretty boring day. Sat around watching some football games and tried to acclimate to the time, failed miserably. Went out to get lunch and accompany my sister looking over wedding invitations and the like (terribly boring). Then went to dinner in Flushing (some hot pot place), not bad but the "Rabbit Tempura" which I got to amuse myself thinking it'd be Tempura du Lapin, turned out to be rabbit shaped fishcakes, wtf? That was depressing, though the rest of the meal wasn't that bad and cost only $30-something for the two of us.
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