A Weekend in New York
It's been many years since I lived in New York, maybe even a decade. I return to the city as much as I can. Last weekend, we brought our son for his sixth birthday, which is just about the time you get your New York walking legs.
As always, the city did not disappoint. It exhausted, surprised, and delighted but did not disappoint.
This is the ground we covered in about 48 hours from our home base hotel in SoHo (the Trump SoHo which I highly recommend):
Central Park west-east traverse
Upper East Side (solely for a stop at Shake Shack)
Chinatown
Little Italy
Nolita (for a proper cafe at Cafe Gitane)
Tribeca for dinner at Ninja New York (this was taking one for the team, but hey you are served by REAL ninjas)
Eataly in Flatiron District
Obligatory shopping in SoHo
Bergdorf Goodman (Could not afford to even try anything on, but fell in love with a new designer, Isabel Morant Etoile. My love of her will remain from afar.)
A few rides on the train
And a Lexington Avenue bus.
I'm tired just remembering it all. The trip was planned in meals (pizza, walk, pizza, walk, pasta, walk, etc) and a six-year old's agenda (to see the real dinosaur bones, buy a toy at FAO Schwarz, ride the subway).
I swear in ten years the city has gotten WAY more crowded and much dirtier, or I've just gotten older and more suburban. Perhaps it's a little of both. I've definitely lost my edge, but not my love, not even an ounce. It kind of blows my mind that a city this grand exists just a couple hundred miles from me as I type this.
So here are the goods - the New York street trends as far as I could observe between eating pasta and urging my six-year old to "just keep walking." By the way, this is more off duty model style than Bergdorf Blonde style (I think I started to hyperventilate in their shoe department).
<< 1 >> Round sunglasses. Everywhere.
<< 2 >> Baby doll dresses. Short, flowy, flowery dresses. With ankle booties. Think Donna Martin circa 1993.
<< 3 >> Camel colored thin trench coats in cotton or linen. Like an updated Burberry. I saw this one at Zara but was running out of suitcase space after trip to the toy store.
<< 4 >> Bomber jackets.
<< 5 >> Eclectic ensembles mixing prints and patterns with bold accessories. This is probably the quintessential New Yorker look. The chicest women I saw always looked slightly off, i.e. perfectly tailored suit with messy undone hair or patterned dress with opposing patterned tights, but all in a way that works.
**Other styles worth noting: fringe, mom jeans, sneakers with everything, and mini-sized handbags.
I came home with a renewed spirit (and a slightly renewed love for my small green space around my own free standing house). New York is an anomaly. It's big, dirty, electrically charged and full of people on a mission but what it offers is greater than the sum of its parts. It just works. It's New York.
XO