On the second day I was in NYC I went shopping, naturally!! I first headed down to Century 21 (not the realtor)
but the famous dept. store on Cortland St. in front of where the World Trade Center used to be. They have overruns of dept. stores and you can find anything from Gucci to Prada to Seven jeans. I found allot of great tops but only bought one. The shoe dept. as usual was nuts and so I just left out of there quick. After that I walked up to Soho since it was beautiful out that day and stopped into Pearl River. This store has amazing Japanese ceramics and nick knacks as well as kimonos.
Here is a photo of some of the children Kimonos they had in stock, soo cute I wish I had a little girl to buy this for!
Here are some cute stationery pads and papers they have too!!
After Pearl River I walked around Soho for awhile and I was glad to see artists still selling their goods on West Broadway. I remember a time I sold some of my pins there and within 10 minutes I made about 300.00 so I left and went home since I had the money I needed for rent!
Here is the famous Vesuvio bakery that you see in Sex and the City, Saturday Night Live and many movies!
When I could take Soho no more I headed back uptown to this great Japanese book store on 6th ave right across from Bryant Park. I love Bryant Park and have many memories eating there for lunch when I worked in the city and hanging out for drinks after work. It was soo great when they fixed it up and we could get a piece of a park near the Fashion District, and naturally that is where they have the shows every year.
These are some fun erasers for kids. I wanted to buy them but my boys have soo much stuff it just would go to waste I believe.
I love these monster stickers and was going to buy them for reference but I decided to take a photo instead. They were a bit pricey and since I am on a budget these days I opted for the cheap photo.
I could not walk another minute after that so I headed back uptown to my friends apt. to get ready to go out
The next day I would meet clients at Stationery and walk Surtex to see old friends.
I have to tell you that I did not take any photos at Surtex or Stationery and the reason being was I just got soo busy talking I simply forgot to do it!! crazy I know after lugging the camera in my purse all that time but what can you do.
I will tell you it was as I figured for Surtex, the show had even more less traffic than last year and you could see a difference in the aisles as you walked and I noticed that they had less booths so they widened the aisles and put in lounge chairs to make it seem it was as big.
I have to tell you I have heard from many who say the show was very bad for them and I am not surprised with this economy. Stationery was a little busier but I thought overall that there was nothing that struck me as amazing! I saw sooo many letterpress companies it was hard to choose who was the best one much less who stood out more. I used to love to walk that show but this time it was not as exciting as it used to be. I feel that many companies are using more in-house labor and it shows. One of my clients in particular who shall remain nameless had a ton of in-house and so I thought the line look sterile. People who own these companies need to realize its the art on the product that sells not the product itself. Anyone can make a card or notebook, but what goes on the outside of that item is what makes it special!! Remember that!
I think things will only change when they see people not buying their stuff so until then they will probably do more of the same.
Well I am sorry to say that is it of my NYC trip since I forgot to take more photos but I am sure you get the idea of it all. I am off to create many new projects for the clients I met at the show and I will be posting this week of some new goodies I received before my trip so stay tuned!!....
Ellen