Just a Couple Strawberry Picks

Shopping Strawberry Manhattan Mall is an experience that always entertains, as one is guaranteed to discover at least a couple great, inexpensive finds. The store is also chock full of the most fun clothing on the block. 

I don't peruse Strawberry weekly, because I have to be in a mood. You know, some days you want the hunt, some days you don't. But if every time I drop by I find an irresistible Mickey tee or a scrambled egg-colored faux-leather jacket, then I'm a happy girl.


Strawberry 
Manhattan Mall, level one and two, 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue

34th Street Weekend Sale Picks: Spring Sales and More!

Uniqlo
The first of a series of Uniqlo's Designer Invitation Project, Beautiful People, is on sale. And if you can resist this checkered combination of coat (now $59.90) and pants (now $19.90), you're a stronger person than I.  31 West 34th Street between 5th & 6th Avenues

Macy's Herald Square

After dining at Macy's new Italian restaurant, Stella 34 Trattoria (amazing, more on that next week), I walked around the sixth floor where I spotted this gorgeous bed set, below. Visit Macy's Herald Square this weekend not just for the fabulous new restaurant, but also for 50% off all quilts and bedspreads, and 40% off all sheet sets (see store for details).  151 West 34th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue

Gap

Get 30% off your entire purchase this weekend for Gap's Friends Event. I love these simple print dresses and the cropped, 1969 denim jacket. Warning: not many of these dresses left on the rack!  60 West 34th Street at Broadway

Strawberry

Get your Keds on for spring at Strawberry, $34.99! 14 West 34th Street in the Empire State Building

bebe

These flats on sale? Yes, please. (ed. note: previously posted coupon was removed as it expired yesterday)  1 West 34th Street at Fifth Avenue

Strawberry's Spring

Strawberry is really good for spring/summer '12, particularly in the shoe and accessory department. The shoe selection at the Empire State Building locale is more robust than the Manhattan Mall store, as there seems to be more real estate dedicated to footwear. Right now it's packed full of espadrille and sandal love.

Fun, fun, fun is to be found on the lower level. If you think black and white striped espadrilles and trippy, I'm-not-quite-sure-what's-going-on clutches aren't fun, than I can't help you. Move along, please.


Strawberry Empire State Building, 14 West 34th Street 

Strawberry for Boots

I dropped by Strawberry* in the Empire State Building before the holiday, and had to take pictures of their great boot selection. I'm a longtime fan of the Strawberry shoe department, and I still am although I really dislike their new version of shoe display. I miss the old-school, display-shoe with boxes beneath technique, as opposed to the new, banana-clip en masse technique. But this will not dissuade me from picking up some of these for NYFW Fall '11:

These are $29.99, bargain!

Blurry photo, cute boots.

I think these are my favorites.

The classic 80's combat, it could have walked right out of Contempo Casuals.

Flat boots

20 inches of snow convince you to finally get practical snowboots? Try these Levi's.

*prices slashed for New Year!

Strawberry Empire State Building, on 34th Street just west of 5th Avenue

&

Strawberry Manhattan Mall, levels 1&2, 33rd Street & Broadway

Destination Strawberry

It made me laugh when my sister and best friend came to NYC for a visit, and the first store they wanted to shop was Strawberry! Obviously I've been properly promoting the Berry here on FH (thanks for reading, guys). However, unattended by moi, they first visited a non-34th Street Strawberry and were disappointed. It was not a big, fun 34th Street Berry, but a small one without fabulous walls of flip-flops and sandals, and racks of tattoo-sleeves.

We remedied this by going to a proper Strawberry where my friend picked up this adorable vest by True Blue ($12.99):

Her home is spotless! Next trip she's coming over and organizing my apartment mess :)

















Perfect for summer. As my friend said, the vest is "light, soft, and flowy." And I love how she's styled it with the tank, jeans, and espadrilles. I'd also like to give kudos to her talented, 7-year old photographer. Well done, little Demarchelier.

Strawberry Manhattan Mall, levels 1 & 2, 33rd & 6th Avenue
or
Strawberry, 14 W. 34th between 5th & 6th

Strawberry: The Graphic T

I'm so grateful to Strawberry in Manhattan Mall for stocking fun, inexpensive, and very stretchy graphic T's ($12.99). I like how you can't see where the T shirt ends and where the black "leather" paneled dressing room begins.


















Instead of wearing T's that say "Baby on Board" and such, I prefer the psychedelic neon paint drips. There were also some Necessary Objects boyfriend jackets, for those of you who haven't hopped on that trend yet. A good fit and a great deal at $46.99.

The Berry's accessories department in Manhattan Mall is also quite impressive. There's a 3-for-$15 leggings sale, loads of sandals, and fun stockings. I even saw tattooed, slip-on sleeves but can't find the picture of the mannequin wearing them. They totally made me do a double-take. Tragic, perhaps, but they seemed like something good to have in your sock drawer. You never know when you'll need a fake tattooed sleeve.

Strawberry, Manhattan Mall, levels 1 & 2, 33rd & Broadway

The New Berry @ Manhattan Mall

Way before the grand opening of JCPenney, signs of a Manhattan Mall rebirth are already evident. One can always take the pulse of The Man Mall by the state of Strawberry, the store that has outlived several different homes around the mall during renovations to finally land on the second floor in a brand spanking new abode. Remember my dark and stormy Strawberry photo shoot in their temporary spot with makeshift dressing rooms? Yes, I am very excited to shoot in the new spot. It's so big and open and airy, oh, I could cry.

The New Strawberry on the second floor of Manhattan Mall.















Strawberry socks!















Strawberry hats and flip-flops!













What's good enough for Olivia Palermo....anyway, who needs a celebrity/socialite endorsement when you always find what you need, like a solid umbrella on a day of city thunderstorming? Thanks, Berry.

Totes umbrella from Strawberry, $12.99.










Strawberry Manhattan Mall, l. 2 (their 1st flr will open soon & carry mostly accessories)
33rd & 6th Avenue

Bona Fide 34!

Lindsey is almost 100% bona fide 34th Street today:


Dress she just bought at H&M, $29-ish, sunglasses from Forever 21, $6-ish, leggings from Strawberry, also $6-ish, and, I quote, "crappy ballet slippers I have had forever."

Her outfit makes me want to wear cute plaid dresses all summer long. And it has inspired me to finally jump on the ballet slipper bandwagon. Late, I know, but sometimes I'm contrary like that.

H&M, 435 7th Avenue @ 34th Street
Forever 21, 50 W. 34th between 5th & 6th
Strawberry, Manhattan Mall level 2, 33rd & Broadway

Favorites: 2008

Enough with this 2008 blogging! Well, except for some circa 2008 34th Street favorites:

Shoes:

My Nike lo dunks and sun-burst Converse, both from Foot Locker; my wooden Gap Pierre Hardy platforms, with many apologies to my downstairs neighbors; the navy GeeWaWa's I just got on sale at Daffy's for $24.99; and my yellow rainboots from Macy's that allow me to walk straight through major curb puddles.

Jeans:

paper denim cloth from Strawberry, the blues are a perfect straight peg-legged jean; and the Radcliffe's from Daffy's Herald Square, the brown are great for work and the blacks are so soft I wear them as often as possible.

Shirts/Blouses/Sweaters:

My purple Celia Birtwell from Express blouse (tres boho chic!); the polka dot CdG for H&M cardigan; my Chaiken sweater from Daffy's which I bought end of '07 but didn't officially wear till '08; and my green Paul Stuart sweater bought at a Soiffer Haskin sale.

Dress:

This Paramita sample dress from Daffy's that received a compliment from a very chic older woman when I wore it to a charity function (those are the best kinds of compliments).

Etc:

Bitten gold headband that oddly looks good with everything, hides my roots and doesn't give me a headache; my Fiberwig mascara from Sephora that still doesn't shed or give me panda/raccoon/koala eyes; and beloved Paul Stuart scarf also from sale.


It's going to be a challenging retail year, this 2009. But I'm feeling up for it, aren't you? I think hunkering down, dodging bullets like credit card debt and overflowing dresser drawers is not necessarily a bad thing. And look, I was making a concerted effort last year to not spend a lot of money. The most expensive thing on the above list were the Pierre Hardy platforms that cost, as I recall, around $120. So here I will do my little plug thing: keep the faith and shop 34th Street in '09! Enjoy your new year's weekend.

Tell Me About It, Strawberry

While walking through Strawberry on 34th Street yesterday, I was reminded of a few 2008 phrases I'd be pleased to hear less of in 2009:

"Color Block." Although, if there were any 9's, I would have totally bought these color block boots for $10 (1/2 off of the reduced price of $19.99). Which goes to prove one can tire of the phrase but still be a sucker to the trend.

I prefer to call these "Mondrian Chic."


















"Body Con." Yuk. I was privileged to wear Leger back when it was Herve-made, and shoved a leg or two into an Alaia in my heyday. I appreciate the incredible things those dresses do for one's figure. But I wouldn't be sad to never hear "body con" in '09.

Not seeing another bad Leger knockoff would also not make me sad.














"Boho Chic." No one was happier than I was to embrace boho chic. I love boho chic. I want to look boho chic for the rest of my life. But if I have to read about one more boho chic designer, dress or handbag, I may turn into a button-down pumpkin.

Boho chic? Honestly I hardly know anymore.














But I can't end 2008 on such a negative note! As much as I can't wait to kick her to the curb and embrace '09, The Berry reminded me that "Yes, we can still find Obama bling caps, and for 25% off."

What a great country.














Happy New Year to all!


Strawberry, in the Empire State Building on 34th Street between 5th & 6th

Back & Happy at the Berry

(Be sure to check out the Comme des Garcons for H&M giveaway)

I hadn't visited one of my favorite 34th Street stores in a while, and really felt the need for a fun Strawberry fix today. As usual, the Berry did not disappoint.

I couldn't resist these today. We've seen these before but I had to try them on with a top that can hang with the gold latex look (cheetah top, $16.99, gold leggings $14.99);

















And naturally there's black. I bought these because they are $14.99 and I started sweating almost immediately. I'm thinking the pounds will just fall off after an hour. The flash shot is to get the full shine effect (sweater, $16.99);















The gold, hmm, maybe not so much with this coat (Steve Madden, $109.90)?;

But this one, ooo la la, I like! (M60 Miss Sixty, $99.99)
















This is perhaps my favorite new piece, as it's reversible. And I really like it in reverse.

A nice quilted grey vest ($16.99);

then something kind of good crazy;

and the grey acrylic sweater underneath, $19.99.








Please forgive Strawberry's appearance in Manhattan Mall (and my awful photos). The mall is going through some big changes (JC Penney) so their temporary space doesn't have their usual dressing rooms with doors, better lighting, and mirrors that aren't desperate for some windex.

Strawberry, Manhattan Mall level 2 (temporary location), 33rd & 6th Avenue

Put the Petal to the Breast

Do you guys utilize breast petals? I've got them lying round here and there, and find them very handy. Strawberry currently has this Braza version ($6.99) hanging on a wall in the lingerie department. Yes, right next to the Hello Kitty hotpants.

Need I explain more? Handy. Sometimes you're OK with a little exposure, and sometimes (cough, WORK, cough) not so much. These are great because they're reusable, up to 30 times or something like that. Just wash in between use and they'll last longer. Oh, and a certain breed of fearless buff tabby cat likes batting them around, so take necessary precautions.

Strawberry, Empire State Building, on 34th close to 5th Avenue

Hello, Kitty

How do you feel about Hello Kitty pajamas?


How about the Hello Kitty hotpants?


If you need something a little darker, try the skull robe ($19.99):


Then walk down the aisle for some real racy goods:

Latex-like leggings, $14.99

Hello Big Kitty, $19.99

I love Strawberry, never a dull moment in the lower level on 34th Street.

Strawberry, Empire State Building, 14 W. 34th near 5th Ave