Travelogue + Lookbook: East Village Street Styling

Travesty of travesties, this weekend marked the last bit of my four-month stint in New York City. What's up next, you may ask?  Next in a few weeks is the exotic and mysterious land of "New Hampshire", where I will in no doubt fight an army of lobsters with my bare hands.  Just kidding.  It will probably be more blog posts about food, travel, and fashion.  In any case, this weekend proved to be jammed packed with East Village culture, much needed girl time, and necklaces with dinosaur robots attached to them.  To celebrate my last full day in New York City, I met up with my friends Nicole and Jodi to explore East Village through cookies, coffee, and clothes (clearly the three most important C's in my life).

Zucker Bakery at Avenue A and E. 9th Street

Fully caffeinated with some 9th Street Espresso coffees and ice teas, Jodi and Nicole insisted on trying out Zucker Bakery a couple blocks away.  Funny note, 9th Street Espresso is actually on 10th Street.  Who would have thought?  Zucker proved both adorable and delicious, with light powdery confections that weren't too sweet and brought foodgasms all around.  Not to mention the decor was simultaneously quaint and fabulous.  I can't imagine that a single person would hate a stuffed moose with bedazzled sequin antlers.  We fully approved of the honey almond fingers (essentially Mexican wedding cookies, but in stick form) and the alfajhores (dulce de leche short bread).

Cloak and Dagger on Avenue A and E. 9th St.

Down a couple stores was quite possibly one of my favorite boutique finds, Cloak and Dagger, which was filled with flowy tops and dresses in bold prints, blues, reds and neon yellows.  The store itself was a tad pricey for on-a-budget me with  pieces from $60-$120, but it was definitely somewhere that was getting a second visit in the future.

To see me "awkwardly" pose through some photos in a "summer look", click the next page.  If that doesn't convince you to click the next page, there's a pretty sweet photo of a dinosaur robot necklace.  Trust me, it's worth it.

Left: Rings and Necklaces at Verameat on 2nd Ave and E. 9th Street; Right:  Necklaces at Tuttitrendy at 2nd Ave and E. 9th Street

See?  Wasn't the dinosaur robot worth the click through?  9th Street on East Village was the equivalent of a boutique 5th Avenue, with its plethora of vintage stores, boutiques, and jewelry stores.  Verameat had some killer pendants, rings and other things that were all hand made.  Not to mention, the store also allows you to customize your own pieces for prices between $25 to $150.  Designs included brains, two headed dinosaurs, horses, ropes, and so on.  Nothing is limited to the imagination.  Tuttitrendy also included a variety of little known designer clothing and jewelry.

To lessen the extremities of Heatpocolypse 2012, I dressed down to my drapiest of shirts and billowing of shorts, and mixed in some gold accessories this weekend.  A big thanks to my friend Justin for taking these pictures, somewhat unwillingly.  "You'll turn it into a photo shoot," he said.  "Ugh," he said.  Well, that's what you get for bragging about your photography skills.  As a result, here, you have more pictures of me laughing into the air like a crazy person.

Aqua Scooped Tank; Aqua Micro Linen Shorts; Madewell Green Belt (sold out - similar); Madewell Gold Chain (old - similar); Kelly and Katie Sandals from DSW; Sunglasses from a St. Mark's Street Vendor

East Village street style definitely revolved around the idea of flowy shirts and dresses mixed with edgy geometric based jewelry.  Skin is definitely in, especially given that it was 98 degrees outside.  As such, nothing is really left to the imagination as far as undergarments go.  I mixed some large white shorts and accented it with a forest green belt to play off the electric blue of the tank top.  The Aqua outfit cost under $35 at Bloomingdales, and I'll admit that I only bought it because I ran out of clothes to wear for the weekend.  The gold geometric necklace from Madewell pulled together the gold in the accessories.

Rings from Darling NYC

As always, some bling is a must.  With the nails, it looks like I ripped the outfit out of the cool colors on a color palate.  My favorite?  The rope ring from Darling, which only cost about $6.  Clearly, I am a spendthrift.

Alright.  I'm literally out the door and about to catch a flight to Atlanta.  I've stockpiled so many New York experiences, that I will probably continue writing about New York for a while.  If not, I will concede that those experiences were never meant to see the light of the written day.  In any case, happy travels and holler at your girl down below.


Peace out cub scouts.