Baos in Bao Bao Bags
Having some fun with fashion this week.
I must have been hungry when I was reading through my emails a few weeks ago because when I read the one about the new Bao Bao flagship opening, I only had one thought. Wouldn’t it be funny to shove baos into Bao Bao bags? And so an absurd IG reel/TikTok idea formed in my head and the folks over at Issey Miyake kindly humored me. $50 worth of Chinese buns later, ordered on Hungry Panda, and I found myself stuffing them into various sized handbags. A few takeaways from this silly endeavor below:
1. Barley Time in Sunset Park has some weird combos that I’m not even sure that I like. Case in point the above that I promptly tried to shove into a Bao Bao pouch. It’s a sponge cake but there’s also mayo and pork floss. It was both too savory and too sweet to work together and yet somehow I ate an entire one. I did regret it though.
14 pastries was somehow not enough for the largest tote bag — it’s really that roomy and I probably could have shoved the entire four-pack Portuguese egg tarts into it. And yet, the order is also far too much for 2 people to eat in a healthy manner.
I thought my Issey Miyake story came full circle when I did something with the brand last December, in honor of their Nolita Pleats Please store. But this really the moment my character arc came full circle. The new Bao Bao flagship, their first standalone outside of Asia, is now taking the place of the old Pleats Please space on Prince Street, aka the location of my failed interview. That’s pretty major considering how hard it is to buy these bags in Japan as either they’re sold out or you’re limited to one per person. Granted, you won’t be able to reap the benefits of a strong dollar against a weak yen if you’re shopping here but on the plus side, there will be store exclusives.
Speaking of exclusives, there’s a collection unique to this store and it’s all red if you can’t tell by their advertising images which transform a red tote. Folded into a heart, it nods to the iconic I Heart New York motif. Also in the group is the pouch from above, which can be used for toiletries but also happens to be the perfect size to protect my new camera while I’m traveling. I’m having so much fun with the new Fujifilm x100vi and you’ll be seeing it a lot more in newsletters.
Hermès Knows How to Stage a Fun Immersive Experience
If you’re a fan of escape rooms, Clue, Hermès, or all of the above, their new interactive experience at Basketball City near Chinatown is SO MUCH FUN. Called Mystery at the Grooms, it’s open to the public from June 19-29 and it’s totally worth signing up for a slot. The premise goes as follow: you’re on a tour of the stables but out of nowhere, you learn that all of the horses have somehow made an escape for it. It’s up to you to find them.
I don’t want to spoil it too much for you, should you go, but it’s like one giant game of photo hunt. When you enter you’re give a QR code that leads you to a site. On your phone you’re presented with 12 different horse illustrations and you’ll need to find the five in each room. With names like Cinnamon, Cabbage, and Ruby, it’s a clever way to reinforce Hermès’ history and branding without feeling like you’re being beat over the head with it. Plus, the setups are just really amazing sets with actors who are completely in character and interacting with you.
Some horses are easily found, be it on the print of a tie or on a scarf hung as a wall art. Others are require playing little games like Tic Tac Toe or finding a ball under cup. And my favorite are the ones that require solving puzzles, whether it’s how many carrots you need to add to their snack pile or figuring out the combination to a safe. What can I say, I love me a puzzle game (once I yelled at a random couple during an Escape the Room who was among our group. I’m still going to blame them for our loss) and this is the ultimate fancy version of one. Highly recommend going and experiencing it all.
Also: a special mention to all of the handbags scattered throughout. They had some incredible ones including a MASSIVE Birkin in the “stockroom” as well as this Rocking Horse Kelly. I joked that a secondary game would be to find all of them.
CFCL Gets Personal
I’ve written about my love for CFCL this time last year, especially their incense. This time around, it’s the clothes that caught my attention. The brand is launching a made-to-order service, which is a brilliant idea for those who like a personal touch in thier clothes. You can mix and match color placements on their array of pieces whether it’s doing giant stripes or opting for a contrast trim detail. I actually really love that big red dress above and if I were to do my own, I’d probably do something similar or opt for the voluminous sleeveless dress with giant stripes. Also, seeing these pieces as flat lays does it disservice. I first learned of the brand after attending their presentation in Paris, as it was in the Palais Tokyo, right after Peter Do. These were clothes made to move, they’re so bouncy.
For those interested, there are 11 womenswear styles ranging from dresses to tops to skirts as well as three kids options. In total there are 10,000 possible combinations and they’ll be switching up the color palettes and graphics every six months. With an expanded size range, they also made it a point to incorporate customer feedback. As for how long it’ll take, it’s a bit of a wait — six to eight weeks but for a one-of-a-kind piece, that’s worth it. Check out the full selection here.
A Travel Makeup Bag That Actually Makes Sense
For the longest time I was a fan of the Away hardshell cosmetics case — as in nearly a decade. But times and beauty routines change. Instead of traveling a handful of times a year for less than a week in 2017, I’m flying nearly once a month and usually for longer swaths of time. Also, I’ve finally learned (somewhat) how to do my makeup for everything from everyday to fashion week to cocktail to black tie events. That’s to say, that hardshell bag no longer fit my lifestyle and I was on the hunt for a new one.
Parallelle randomly popped up in my inbox and I was definitely intrigued. Founded by Annie Fan, they’ve gotten a fair amount of press mentions from Elle to Conde Nast Traveler to the Today Show. The premise is simple: roomy bags that feature dividers, pockets, and slots to keep everything organized. They come in three sizes. The small is recommended for everyday, the medium for weekend getaways, and the large is for longer trips.
I opted for the medium, for all of toiletries and the large, for my makeup and brushes. As for the small, I was afraid it would be too small. In retrospect, I could have gotten away with using it for my skincare and placing cosmetics into the medium but it’s also nice to have the space. One feature I really appreciated was that it’s designed so that all of your products and brushes are stored standing up and you don’t have to toss them in horizontally. Instead, the entire thing sits on the counter so when you unzip, everything is within reach. Normally I’d find whatever cup was available and stick brushes, pencils, and tubes into it but here, I didn’t have to. It made for unpacking, getting ready, and packing to be a much more seamless process. Also, when not in use, it folds up courtesy of its flexible design. I’m a big fan so far and the fact that it matches my Pleats Please happens to be a happy accident.
That’s all for today, but see you this weekend, where I’m revisiting wedding season dressing. It’s indeed that time again.
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LOVE... Your Bao story inspired me to break out my little black Bao Bao crossbody this week, now I've gotta get some dim sum this weekend--- FUN.