bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

Reader Mail: The Domestic Guide to Haircuttery

In today's Reader Mail:

Bunny!

When I was living in Boston I went to this awesome haircut place where I’d sit down and say, “Make me look cute!” and while they were giving me a fabulous, hip, $30 haircut they’d also give me free brownies! So now I live in Brooklyn, and I can’t find any place to get my hair done. I’m not expecting brownies, but it seems like the range out there is cheap-and-sketchy to out-of-my-price-range, and my hair isn’t getting cute on its own. As someone knowledgeable of Brooklyn and cuteness, do you have any suggestions?

C.

Here is our sad truth: We have never gotten our hair cut in Brooklyn! And by "never," we mean "never in a way we liked." We are quite lazy about getting haircuts, and wait until the absolutely shaggiest moment to get them—this is true even when we spent three months working at a hair salon in San Francisco, where we were judged on nothing so much as the appearance of our hair. (And, we add with absolute truth, our astrological sign.) Anyway! We were thinking we could make this into a group thing: If people have a great stylist and they don't mind, they could comment or email us their location and the salon, and we'll compile the results, all geographic-like. We'll start by saying that no one but Rosette at Edo Salon in SF has cut our hair for the past two years—she's particularly awesome with our fine but wavy hair—and ditto re: coloring for Jet Black at Bella on Fillmore. Who else can recommend someone, in Brooklyn or elsewhere?

That picture, by the way, is of Audrey Tatou, in one of her rare midlength-hair incarnations.

A New Book From a Friend: Jen Miller's Jersey Shore

Books! Our friend, Jen A. Miller, has a new one out, and if you're thinking about visiting the Jersey Shore—and of course you should be—you will obviously need to pick up her new book: The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May. We talked to her about one of our favorite places on earth—and then, if you're anywhere near the Manayunk Brewing Company tomorrow—Saturday—stop by for her signing!

How would you explain the Shore to a visiting German tourist?
"The shore" is a cluster of barrier islands that has been the traditional vacation spot for Philadelphians since the 1800s. The same thing that drew people back then still draws people now: the escape of the beach. But obviously the area has changed—there's a lot of dining, shopping and just things to do that don't directly involve the beach. It's also the birth place of boardwalks, which is where you can walk along the ocean without getting sand in your feet (and the place most people go way over their calorie budget for the week let alone the day).

What's your favorite meal on the Shore?
I love having dinner at the Blue Pig Tavern at Congress Hall in Cape May. The lobster mac & cheese is such a nice twist on a classic kid meal. You can also cap off dinner by hitting the Brown Room at Congress Hall for drinks in a very Gatsby swank setting (lots of brown leather and zebra print) or, if it's a Saturday night, head down the Boiler Room for live jazz.

I also have to tell you about Upcakes from Dixie Picnic in Ocean City. Genius: take a cup cake, cut off the top, flip it upside down, and ice all over. I even had an Upcake Party this spring. Must. Have. More. 

What was the most surprising thing you discovered while working on the book?
How many people who don't live in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area love the shore and will travel from all over for that week on the beach. I started putting the link to my blog in my email signature and got comments about it from people as far away as Europe. It seems that if you've visited once, you always have strong ties to the area (see? Not all of NJ looks like the Newark airport!)

If you had to live in one Shore town and never, ever leave, what would it be?
Cape May. I was there in January to do a photo shoot (at the top of the Cape May lighthouse—very cold) and could see living there year round. After Atlantic City, it's one of the most year round open towns. It has a different pace in the off season while still drawing visitors. Plus you can watch the sun set at Sunset beach—not something you can get much on the east coast.

Where's your favorite shopping on the Shore?
There's a shop in Stone Harbor called Suncatcher & Mimis. Back when I was in my tomboy phase, I'd shop surf wear at Suncatchers, but once I realized that, hey, I might like girlie stuff, I'd stray over to Mimis. The best part is that they're all in one building, so you can wander from store to store. Actually, the even BETTER part is "The Attic," which is in the same block and has the odds and ends from Mimis that either didn't sell, or they only have one size left. The stuff is great, and the longer you wait in the season, the better the deal. On Labor Day Weekend, everything is $20, whether the original price was $350 or $100. I stock up every year.

The Friday Sponsor Shout-Out

Above: Lately all we want is Diane von Furstenberg. We will say that we quite like her American Express—it is American Express, right?—ad, where she goes out and talks to the trees. DVF sandals, $275

And these may be exactly the jeans that we need. Dark, slight flare, etc. It's well past time we returned to the flare \ flair. People's Liberation jeans, $180

Panic at the Disco's Nine in the Afternoon

 

We have been listening to this song on repeat for about the last 100 hours. We are thinking it might have another 100 hours in it. It is the perfect mid-spring weekend song, we're thinking. We were a lot snobbier about our musical taste when we were 15, we're realizing, which is weird.

Our Favorite Page in the New Lucky

Gucci dress! We waited attentively for someone—Forever 21, are you listening?—to provide our $12 version sometime between now and when the little elves come to deliver our basket of gold coins.

Lucky subscription, $9.97

 

15% Off at Moyna!

It's the last day for 15% off at Moyna! What we love about these bags, noted earlier, is the way they totally dress up otherwise basic—read: boring—dresses and make them evening-appropriate. We love this bag because it is totally paillette-bonkers. There are few better things to be, we say. A silver version of this was in Cosmo.

Moyna paillette clutch, $165—type discount code "bunnyshop" into the notes box and they'll apply the discount—with discount, $140.25

The Euro: Rootote Bag of the Week

Basically all of our tote bags could come from Rootote and we'd be perfectly happy. A4 - Euro bag, about $32

How to Tie a Scarf: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear Bunnyshop,

This is ridiculously basic, but I am so bewildered: I keep seeing girls around me who have the ability to tie a scarf in such a way that it stays on their heads. I cannot do this! I so want to do the head-scarf summer thing. Please help!

Love,
T.

Argh! We have absolutely, positively, no idea. None at all. But we bet someone out there does. Bobby pins? Hairspray? Tape? We shrug. With aggravation. Teach us!

Above: the dandelion scarf from the super-fab designer Virginia Johnson, $98

The Bridge of San Luis Rey: What We're Reading

While All the King's Men continues to mock us, we've moved on—physically, if not emotionally—to an old favorite: The Bridge of San Luis Rey. It has one of the best opening sentences we've ever read: "On Friday non, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." Oh! And it only gets better from there. It's really very short, and a fast, easy read. Plus it ends with lines Tony Blair read at the memorial for British victims of 9/11. It is one of our very favorites and we could not recommend it more highly.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, $11.65

Timeless Tiaras by Diana Scarisbrick

We've been trying to make an argument for tiaras as day wear lately. This Rashida Jones photo from Timeless Tiaras, we're thinking, is the closer we're going to get.

Abitare: One New Website

We passed this shop on the way to the subway the other day and—true love! So much less complicated when it happens between a person and a store. Of course we wish they had more of their stock online, but until we get to Brooklyn Heights again, online will have to do.

We don't really use coasters, since all of our drinks come in plastic cups, but if we did, we would be so pleased to use this one. Set of four rubber coasters, $24

We feel like there might be a bit more order in our life if we had these nice hooks, from which to suspend things. Flower hooks, $65 for 3

Savon de Marseille is an all-time Bunnyshop fave. We tried to get this in Marseille, but they were too heavy to bring back. Now, of course, we won't buy them because we could have gotten them cheaper in France. We recommend these for anyone not as beset by psychological torment about this as we are. SdM liquid soap, $20

15% Off at Moyna!

More from this week's discount, the lovely Moyna bags. Yellow! It is, at the moment, our favorite color. Added bonus: This was just in Self! That should not make us like it even more, but we're obviously and easily bought and sold.

Moyna yellow evening bag, $158—15% off with discount code "bunnyshop"; just type it in the notes section—$134.30

Madras! The Round Up

All of a sudden, we feel like we're seeing madras plaids everywhere, in a way we haven't since, like, 1989. Fair enough. We are most interested in the APC version—or, as the case may be summery diffusion line. At first we weren't so in love with this, but now we see it for what it properly is, which is we would wear every Saturday afternoon for all of July and August. APC Madras dress, $120

We are trying not to let all the preppiness interfere with our honest enjoyment of this skirt. J. Crew madras skirt, $64

We love description from Cape Madras: "Mini Mini skirts came into our line by demand from the local high school girls. We’re hoping they’re still not too long." Ha! Cape Madras mini-mini, $88

 

Aviator Sunglasses: The Round-Up

Aviators! They are our sunglasses of 2008.

These are our top choice. This is unfortunate, since they are about $325 over our sunglasses budget. Oliver Peoples Aeros, $350

We find Marc by Marc Jacobs sunglasses to be surprisingly affordable, given the not-surprisingly affordable nature of the clothing line. MXMJ aviators, $95

And these, of course, are the ones we'll probably get—even if sunglasses are one area we don't mind spending a bit more, since the difference in lens quality is often literally unbelievable. Forever 21 aviators, $6.80

Phantom Planet's "Do the Panic"

 

We basically moved to California because we loved that Phantom Planet song. We are not sure what sort of hypnosis-techniques they have included in this new album, but we are totally enjoying this song, "Do the Panic"—which was on Gossip Girl last week! (Or the week before. It's all fuzzy at the moment.)

A New Contest With Cape Madras!

Yay! A new contest! The lovely people at Cape Madras have generously provided us with one of their awesome mini mini skirts to give to some lucky person in the BS community. To enter, all you need to do is email us your favorite summer recipe. (We will be sharing all of them, obvs.) Winner chosen at random. Send them in! We are dying to know what they are. Perfect summer skirt, perfect summer meal, etc.

Above: the mini mini skirt from Cape Madras, $88

Our Favorite Thing in the New Domino....

Is totally this wallpaper. We're a little wallpaper-crazy at the moment, and totally drawn to these super-bright, graphic designs. Oh! Can we not just have small apartments around the world, so that we may decorate them all? The wallpaper is Cavern Home, with proceeds going to an orphanage in Peru.

Domino subscription, $8.95

Sale Item of the Day

This is like, discount on top of discount: 70% then an extra 25% off? Indeed. Click here for the sale item of the day.

Our Favorite Look from This Week's Gossip Girl

Blair's dress! This is our favorite. Does anyone know who the designer is? We will cloak the rest of our comments after the break here so as not to spoiled the unspoiled.

Moyna: This Week's Discount

More from this week's super-exciting discount! This is like the quasi-fancy upgrade on the $8 totes (er, one of which we will be shilling ourselves soon): infinitely prettier and more together, which is really the direction we're aiming for, however slowly. There's something super-apt our yoga teacher always says about this, about getting better by degrees, but fuck if we can remember it.

Can we also say, in our "keyword analysis" from last week, someone ended up here looking to see if our fave yoga teacher is married? (For the record, we have no idea.)

Anyway: Moyna bag, $46—with discount code "bunnyshop"; just type it into the notes section—$39.10

Today's Beauty Review: Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer

Because we have been thinking: "We really need something where we can give out stars!"

Beauty product: Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

What Sephora says its does: "Packaged in a precious, genie-like bottle, Eyeshadow Primer Potion is an ultra-sheer, totally nude eye base that glides on with the wave of a wand and then disappears instantly. It's the ultimate eye prep for smoother, longer-lasting, crease-proof eyeshadow."

What we think: The reason we don't wear eyeshadow more frequently is because it all slips right off our eyelids. Totally, unbelievably annoying. This is the reason we don't own any eyeshadow. But we gave this an official test, and we at least saw a remnant of our eyeshadow four hours later. For us, this is a record. Is it worth $16? Probably. Maybe. We think so. We're not entirely sure.

Stars(!): * * 1/2. We know lots of people who would call this a favorite, so we're keeping an open mind. Maybe our expectations are just too high here. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, $16

We Feel Like Victims of a Marketing Campaign at the Moment

"You know you love me": We do not! But we can deal with it in the Gossip Girl context.

"You know you want me": We do not! And fie on you, McDonald's, for tricking us into hungering for your fat-filled "foods"!

Lumosity: BS Hearts

So we read this story about brain-exercising computer games, which led us to Lumosity and Raindrops, one of their games. We are obsessed with this game. Added bonus: We went to the shop to get Starburst, our new favorite sugar-fix, and came back to our apartment. We decided to play a round of Raindrops before eating our candy, and for the five minutes we played, we completely forgot about our snack. We ate it anyway, but next time, if we're more interested in math games than the food we just bought, we probably weren't that hungry to begin with.

Free trial! Check it out.

The Perfect Cami: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Hi!

I am rather, um, large chested, and many shirts that look fine on ladies with less up front leave huge, gaping amounts of cleavage on me. (Definitely NSFW.) I usually solve this problem by wearing camisoles under pretty much everything, and am partial to the sort of 1970s lacy-topped ones. I got two fantastic ones at Old Navy about four years ago in green and white, and I wore them with absolutely everything. Now they are disgusting and I can't find anything to replace them. I can't wear camisoles with bras built in because these bras are tiny and always just serve the purpose of pulling the neckline down far enough that there's no point in wearing them. Any ideas? Thanks!

-P.

We'll be honest: As one of the universe's small-chested children, we have no freaking idea. But we bet other people out there do. What say you, Bunnyshop community?

Above: Joelle cami, $78. We are under no illusions that this answers the question.

Today's Perfume Review: Marc Jacobs Daisy

Because we have been thinking: "Smelling nice is good!"

Today's Perfume: Marc Jacobs Daisy, $55 and up

What Sephora says: "Enter the world of Daisy: fresh and feminine, with a playful innocence. At the heart of Daisy is a floral with vintage edge: violet. Sophisticated, with a touch of whimsy, violet captures the eclectic, vintage flavor of Marc Jacobs' feminine, edgy designs. Always elegant, always enchanting - but not too serious - Daisy is a sparkling floral bouquet, spirited and fresh, wrapped in comfort and warmth."

The packaging: We love it. The daisies are a bit super-suburb-cheese, but ... we're from the suburbs. We love it. The Marc Jacobs font. It's not exactly ... rustic French chic. Or elegant. Or a lot of other things. Sometimes adorability is the way to go. A+

The smell: We put it on and were all like, 'Why do we smell like high school?' We're going with the term "entry-level" to describe Daisy: It's not, like, challenging, or layered, or witty. It's like: 'Hey, you! Yeah, you, middle-schooler, looking for something to wear to your first dance! You want to wear this because it's all fruity and sweet and comes in a super-cute bottle with plastic daisies!' They use the word "edgy\edge" twice in that description above. We wouldn't quite go there. But as a starter-perfume, why not?

Our grade: B-

Monocle Issue 13

We swear the only things in the world that makes us want a job where we actually need work clothes are Monocle fashion shoots. That suit is Kilgour and that giant bag is Hugo Boss.

Sale Item of the Day

1: For us, this is the ultimate in buy now, save for fall. Click here for the sale item of the day.

2: We just want to be sure you didn't miss the Amazing iTunes Playlist Spectacular!

Prospect Park in May

So we're sort of obsessed with taking pictures of trees. Prospect Park! It doesn't get any nicer. If you're anywhere nearby, don't miss the last of all the blooming trees. Painful sincerity! Oh, we just love it.

Parkhaus: Bunnyshop Hearts

We were scouring all over the place looking for these Parkhaus bunny-shaped egg cozies we found. What we'd with an egg cozy, we have no idea, but the bunnies were awesome. Anyway: We couldn't find them, but we did find these felted bird ornaments. They're not quite as cute as the bunnies, but until Parkhaus expands their online site, we'll be forced to make do.

Parkhaus felted bird, $10

Moyna: This Week's Discount

Next up in this week's fabulous discount with the equally fabulous Moyna! We have decided this is an exceptionally worthwhile spring bag; we're just total suckers for the cut-out design. Easy-peasy, jeans and a t-shirt. Moyna bag, was $68, with discount code "bunnyshop"—just make a note in the appropriately named notes box, and they'll apply it—$57.80

The Rolled Jeans: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear BS:

Everywhere I go, I'm seeing people with their jeans rolled up. What's up with this? Are you doing it? Should I?

Baffled,
R.

We know! As soon as we got this message, we started seeing this everywhere we went. (As above, which we took this weekend a half-block from our house.) This to us is suspiciously like one of those fashion memos that go out and then everyone does it, and then it's a trend. When we were in Paris last month, we saw all these kids—12-14, we judge—sucking pacifiers. This is practically the same thing to us.

We're still wearing skinny jeans that are too tight for breathing, much less rolling. If we had looser jeans? Well, we do enjoy wearing them long, and walking on top of the hems with our shoes, and grinding sidewalk-dirt into our jeans. But the whole thing reminds us of last week's Law and Order: SVU, when Robin Williams started talking about all the sheep. The other cool cats out there who watched this with us will know what we're talking about.

We want to add that we love both pairs of shoes here.

Who's rolling up their jeans?

Edited to add: We felt very sure of our position when we wrote this post—but then we were out this morning at a meeting, and while we were looking for the bathroom at 202 in the Chelsea Market, we found a full-length mirror—and lo and behold, one leg of our too-long gray jeans were rolled up! And we looked at them, and were like, "hmm, so we're not getting them all dirty." And then we reached down and rolled the other one up. Fickle!

Our taste meter must be totally off on this by the way, because we thought that was the greatest SVU ever, and apparently everyone in the entire world thinks we're wrong.

 

The Great iTunes Playlist Spectacular!

Here they are! This wasn't so much a contest as a show-and-tell with prizes: Thanks to our amazing reader Melissa, who came up with the idea, we asked our readers to send in their top 25 iTunes playlist. We have totally loved getting them, and we hope you enjoy looking through them as much as we did. So many ideas!

To start things off, here's Melissa's, with her original note:

Your music picks today gave me an idea for a reader question. It would be kind of fun if everyone posted their "Top 25 Most Played Songs" list from iTunes. It would be fun to see what everyone is listening to most on their computers or iPods. Kind  of voyeuristic. Get some cool new music ideas. Gauge the personality of your readership. Could be kind of embarrassing, too if you've listened to some Air Supply song like 67 times. I've attached my list below as an example.

Yay! Without a doubt, one of our favorite projects here ever.

Here's the next playlist.

Uniqlo Handouts at Hanami

So we spent a sizable portion of our Sunday afternoon at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's cherry blossom festival—totally awesome, even if they did make the bizarre decision of plopping down these super-ugly tents right in the middle of the cherry trees. Anyway: two amazing things. 1: DJ Jaiku Suzuki, "spinning 70s and 80s Japanese pop and rock," and she was totally, unbelievably awesome, and 2: this guy at the door handing out these Uniqlo posters. We totally want to be buying the Uniqlo t-shirts right now. Targeted marketing! Totally successful.

Moyna: This Week's Discount

Hurrah! Another week, another discount: Today, it's Moyna and her beautiful bags. We saw Moyna in like every single issue of Lucky, so eventually we just emailed them and put this together. Double hurrah! We love their bags. Their bags make basic dresses perfectly acceptable.

It's 15% off with special code "bunnyshop", though note this week you'll just need to type that in the notes box so they can apply the discount. Don't worry if it doesn't show up in the shopping cart.

Left: Moyna bag, $159—with discount code, save $23.85 for a total of $135.15

Today's Beauty Review: Laura Mercier Creme Eyeshadow

Because we have been thinking: "We really need something where we can give out stars!"

Beauty product: Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Color

What Sephora says its does: "Lush metallic color floats across the eye leaving a gorgeous, shimmering sheen. High metallic pearl. Waterproof, lightweight, and non-greasy."

What we think: We were all excited about cream eyeshadow after last week's huge success. But this did everything our Shiseido choice from last week didn't—but, er, in a bad way. It creased, it was hard to apply, it rubbed off in like twenty minutes. There were also only five colors to choose from. We were not at all amused.

Stars(!): * 1/2. We'll stick with the great Shiseido from last week. Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Color, $22

This Is Why We Just Don't Go to the Uptown Bloomingdale's

No offense to the woman pictured, but pink-outfitted dog + giant Juicy Couture handbag = a more aggressive shopping environment than we pr