You go Jada!

Dang Jada! Doesn't she look amazing. This is Jada Pinkett Smith at the Beckham welcoming bash in L.A. wearing a black mini strapless dress with some adorable black booties. I am so in love with this look, and on her little athletic body... Wow simply perfection.

Open your gifts

'Tis the season for weddings, bridal showers, and bachelorette parties. Well bachelorette parties can be fun, especially if you go to a fun location, i.e. Las Vegas, but with fun people! This weekend I have a bridal shower to attend. Yippie. Should consist of finger sandwiches, forced conversations, and games like 'don't say the word "bride"', or wedding word puzzles - gag me now! Now I'm off to go and purchase a gift for the bride to be, which will be an experience all by itself. At least she doesn't want lingerie, although that would have been easier to pick out. Now I'm forced to think, would she like this would she like that. I'll just throw in the gift receipt and hope it doesn't go longer than two hours! In all seriousness this could be fun. The host is a great party planner and has a beautiful home, so if nothing else I get to eye an appealing decor and prepare to be entertained. My girl Victoria Beckham says it best, "there's only one way to go here, and it's get more drunk". I kid I kid!

I won and it means nothing!

What do I get myself into? This past weekend my friend and his roommates threw a party at their apartment in Harlem and invited me. I gladly accepted and took a flight out to NYC. Filled with anticipation, as I've heard how their past parties went down, my girlfriend and I walked through the door to see Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, Eva Pigford, Yoanna House, Naima Mora, Caridee English! Okay the party's theme was "Harlem's Next Top Model" with pictures of the cast and the models from the actual show posted all over the apartment. They also had the season's past shows playing on DVD for further inspiration. Pretty early into our arrival one of the roommates stop us to ask for our participation in being in the running to become "Harlem's Next Top Model". What! No way, I'm not putting myself out there like that! What's involved?!? Didn't take much arm twisting to get me to agree to having my very own photo shoot and, get this, a runway walk-off... Sold!

So participating in the challenge was me, my Naomi Campbell hot friend, and some pretty good-looking boys, who you guessed it, like boys but that's neither here nor there; let's get to the festivities. So the first task was to "smile with your eyes". Huh? Next - pose with an exotic animal, and by exotic they meant plastic spider. Third and most fun was the runway walk-off challenge. Since I watch every televised fashion show there is to watch, I killed that challenge... no brainer. All this done by interrupting the party, stopping the music and clicking on the lights for all to view... can you say embarrassing!

Later after all participants completed the tasks, three judges went to deliberate and not soon thereafter returned a verdict of ME - The Girl! I win I win. I was later brought back to reality when an "audience member" approached me saying, "Congratulations, it means nothing". BAM below the belt, but so true. No spread in Elle magazine, no $250,000 modeling contract. It was fun though while it lasted.

Styleyes

Ever wonder what happened to those "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" boys? I was such a huge fan of that show. It was innovative, creative, fun and had some major eyecandy i.e. Kyan Douglas and Jai Rodriquez. Well I recently stumbled upon a show called "Styleyes" where Jai is the host. The show is a televised magazine about Miami, which includes Miami, South Beach and Miami Beach. Anyone who knows me knows that I am practically a Miami resident and just adore that city. This show focuses on Miami's fun side (what other side is there?) going behind the scenes of Jai and friends enjoying Miami's nightlife, recommending to viewers where to eat, lounge, dance, etc. Jai shares tips on how to get into a nightclub, and if you know Miami you know that information could come in handy.

Miami nightlife is not the only topic Styleyes covers. Jai covers the cultural aspect of Miami as well. He goes into the neighborhoods and talks with the locals. He interviews prominent figures in the community such as Emilio Estefan. He shares trends and tips on Miami style and Miami shopping. And who can forget about the Miami beaches - he covers that too. Rodriquez is knowledgable, interesting, sincere, and endearing. I love his personality, and they couldn't have found a better host for this show. Styleyes airs on SiTv Thursday nights at 11:00pm... watch it tonight!

My homage to V Beck

I'm watchin V Beck tonight

Gotta pay homage to my girl Vikki Beckham. Her reality show special is airing today showing her and her hubby along with their three kids moving from London to LA. Word is that David Beckham didn't want too much air time, but that won't deter me from watching the fashionista and obsessing over her bags, shoes, outfits, everything.

Breaking Back

Tennis star James Blake released his autobiography today, Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life. In the book he discusses his life on and off the tennis courts; how he's had to overcome tremendous obstacles like his father passing away to breaking his neck while playing tennis. From what I've heard, the book seems to be a very inspiring story. If nothing else I can stare at the cover of his smokin' hot picture. But in all seriousness, Blake seems like a nice, genuine, and humble guy. I'd be happy to support him with this project.

How much is too much to pay for a bathing suit? I was looking through my July issue of Lucky Magazine and came across the style bathing suit I've been searching desperately for. You would think a simple bandeau style wouldn't be difficult to find, but I've been having major troubles... No strap, or the strap on the top doesn't tie from the spot I prefer i.e. from the center, etc. Now here it is in Lucky mag! This one by Lisa Curran is the exact style I've been wanting to add to my collection and comes in some really cute colors, but costs $140! For two pieces of material are you crazy?! But I just adore the style and the cut of this bikini. I did find something kind of similar at Old Navy, but the fit was less than desirable. I haven't tried on the Lisa Curran piece, but perhaps that's the difference and justifies the large variance in price points. Ready or not for her prices, the collection is very cute and sold on her website or shopbop.

More than meets the eye

I'm being the biggest kid right now. I saw the new Transformers movie yesterday and I have to give it an assessment of COMPLETELY AWESOME! The movie was great. Okay there were times where I was looking for Will Smith because it looked a little too "Independence Day" for its own good, but you'll definitely appreciate the film if you grew up in the '80s. This youtube video shows really cool clips from the movie to the Transformers theme song done by Mute Math.

Au revoir

A couple of my friends are leaving New York City this month for good to live in Luxembourg. It's such a gutsy move to leave your home for unfamiliar and foreign territory, but also very exciting. Luxembourg resides around 500,000 people of which French is known as the official and dominate language. While it seems as though most people took Spanish in high school, my friends took French, so that should come in handy. Realistically, probably not. High school French is so much different from the real thing. But luckily English is widely spoken there. It will be mighty expensive to live there, especially since the Dollar sucks against the Euro, something they'll need to get use to. Luxembourg also happens to be ranked no. 1 in the world regarding alcohal comsumption per capita dethroning Ireland. They got a kick out of that statistic. This is such a cool thing they're doing and I have to say best wishes to my friends.

Runway to the streets

I'm on elle.com viewing some runway shows and come across a look I've been seeing a lot of: Sandals with socks. I love this look on the models and am dying to try it myself, but would it work in the real world? It's a completely different world on those runways, and not many people could even pull off those designs deemed "ready-to-wear". By definition ready-to-wear indicates that you can walk right off the runway and onto the streets in that piece. The below is from Marc by Marc Jacobs' spring 2007 ready-to-wear collection showing the girls with an open toe sandal accompanied with an ankle sock. I purchased some ankle socks last fall with every intention to sport this look, but every time I choose the perfect outfit to wear my foot accessory with guess what... I chicken out. This look kind of defeats the purpose of what each item is meant for. You know, socks are meant to warm the foot while a sandal lets the foot breathe. Having said that, I'm just not sure people will get it, but I do adore the look and will eventually muster up the courage to wear it. Since when do I care what people think! Right?

Paris up, no down, no up

Since I'm in investment banking I receive tons of publications and e-mails about the financial markets. I just had to laugh when a pretty credible financial website e-mailed me a link to the Paris Hilton Stock Index. It's a composite portfolio that picks stocks based on anything Paris Hilton. Is she not everywhere or what? Even (insert stereotype) old gray-haired executives are concerned with her. Below is a blog site and website regarding this index. It's really quite hilarious; especially as they track the index upon jail visits and release dates. The trend shows that the index is fairly volitale as she is in jail.


http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/paris-hilton-stock-index.html


http://stockpickr.com/port/Stockerblog-com-Paris-Hilton-Stock-Portfolio/

MJ

Okay I'm being real touristy but I just heart Marc Jacobs and I about jumped out of my skin when I saw his plaque on Fashion Boulevard located on 41st and 7th. It's just a little homage to fashion designers a la Hollywood Walk of Fame. If you can deal with the Time Square crowds go and walk all over Marc and many others.

Party over here

So how cool is this.... I stayed through the weekend after my business trip to New York was over and did some shopping as any shopaholic would. Anyway, ventured over to Macy's and didn't want to spend too much so landed in the junior department there. I'm in New York often enough, but for some reason never visit Macy's. In the junior department I'm greeted with P.Diddy's hit "Last Night" blaring through the store. There's a DJ spinning in the store - pretty cool right! He's spinning hit after hit after hit - Lil Mama, Lloyd, Fergie etc. They accomplished their task with me, because I was entertained and it put me in even better spirits to shop, which means money to them. More shops should do that.

BITTEN, pushed and shoved

I am in New York City this week for work so of course I have to pay a visit to Steve & Barry's who sell Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line 'Bitten' exclusively. Steve & Barry's is in the Manhattan Mall and upon walking through I'm beaming from the anticipation. The anticipation is immediately dissipated by discouragement.... The checkout line is wrapped around the store, TWICE! But I'm in NY, I'm already at the store I must go in, so I do. Nothing in SJP's collection is over $20. She's said as much in press releases and interviews, but there's something about seeing the modest price tag in person. The collection is pretty casual with tees, polo-ish shirts, and jeans, lots and lots of jeans. She also has espadrilles, cute dresses, and button-up shirts ideal for my office job. The only thing though, the stuffs been picked over. It was pretty difficult to find a size other than large and extra-large. The shoes were everywhere; out of boxes, scattered all about on the floor. These women were relentless. The aisle ways aren't that wide, but these woman were behaving as if they would get to meet SJP if they found the treasure. The staff had to be please about that.

So once I made my selections, I braved the extremely long and outrageous checkout line. It was so amusing to see the faces of the people who walked into the store go from all smiles to complete shock at the checkout line. "We're not actually gonna stand in this line are we?" I can actually say the line was fairly efficient. Because of the prices people had loads of stuff at checkout, but my wait wasn't long at all relatively speaking.