Design Guy: NEW YORK NOW: Day 2

We are now in full swing in New York at market and Sunday will be even more intense as several hundred more vendors will have opened their booths. The various exhibition halls have staggered openings this year, which is a real pain in the ba-joo-by.

Before I start on todays “finds”, I wanted to share with you an excellent restaurant where we had dinner Friday night. ROBERT, the restaurant on top of 'the MAD' (Museum of Art & Design) Building on Columbus Circle. The Executive Chef Luisa Fernandes prepares 'modern American fare', in a spectacular space overlooking Central Park West.

But, I couldn’t help but include the photo, below, of what unfortunately has become an all to typical young couple in 2013, engaged in…no not that… texting others while they’re out on a date together.

We started the day at Pier 94, where new and first designers and vendors were relegated to show for their debut at the NEW YORK NOW. We did see some fresh things, some good, many bad, and even picked a vendor or two for worst of show (but you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of this article to see who and what it was!

Our first find was carved wooden handbags. Sounds dreadful, I know, but there was something interesting about them. We didn’t buy them because we just weren’t quite sure as we contemplated your tastes, our valued and tasteful customers. You be the judge, and let me know what you think of them.

Then we found Sailormade a line of bracelets for men and woman woven of leathers, or marine ropes, with real marine hardware in solid brass or stainless steel. Super clean and very sharp.

Next was Animana, an importer of South American Alpaca throws. The designs were simple, and the weaving and workmanship extraordinary. We bought ladies wraps, and throws for your sofa.

Last cool thing at the Pier was a new take on the "Jam Box", a couture portable stereo, disguised as a chic ladies handbag! Check out the pictures below. Alexander McQueen will be turning over in his grave when he sees what they’ve done to his designs! I did think they were neat, but we didn’t buy them as we don’t sell electronics. But if we did…

Sooner than we thought we were on the shuttle from the Piers to the Jacob Javitz Center. Again, not all of the exhibition halls were open today, only “Designer” (mostly semi-precious jewelers) and “Handmade” (mostly a lot of ‘kumbaya’ types).

We did find some things in both areas:

In Designer, we found this wonderful jewelry designer rom Paris, who made cast bronze jewelry, plated with 22kt. yellow or white gold. We did buy into this line for our hotel store, Away from Home at El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara. Beautifully detailed and perfectly scaled we loved this line.

Hand cast bronze jewelry, above, plated in 22 kt. yellow and white gold.

Next was glass blower LBK Studios, who did sculptural, blown glass sea urchins, piled high for a stunning look. She also did organic glass molded bowls sheathed in mouth blow stalactite looking shards. Her collection was fresh, and loved the color palette.

I know, the last picture from LBK, above, looks a little phallic.

We met a good ‘ol Texas gal who had a very chic line of shagreen and alligator cuffs with interesting oversized clasps.

Loved these longer length necklaces that were micro-beaded with semi-precious metals and glass beads, below:

How about trading in your tired old Stainless & Gold Rolex, collecting dust in your dresser drawer, for a newer model made of Ebony wood or Sandalwood. Check these out:

Felted evening bags that can be dressed up or down with interchangeable pins (one included with each bag). Handmade by 12 older, retired woman who hand felt the wool and knit the bags.

We also loved these side tables, suitable for indoor or outdoor use, artisan painted and high fired ceramic, each one of a kind painting. Approximately $2500 each.

In the Handmade Hall, we loved these colorful and finely needlepointed Throw Pillows from Peru, in fresh designs and colors.

At 6:00 PM they threw us out because the show was over for the day. No sneaking around trying to get a jump on tomorrow! We hailed a cab and headed straight to the Nike Town Store on 5^th avenue to buy tennis shoes.

Yep, my Gucci’s are officially going to get a break, because tomorrow I’m wearing new Nike’s to market! I don’t care what they look like with my dress clothes! This store is a behemoth. Far bigger and much more dramatic than even the LA Nike Store in Beverly Hills. One of the neatest things was a laser light show surrounding the newest Nike styles, making their debut on pedestals as you entered this work out-wear palace.

We ended the day at the Apple Store on 5^th Avenue, see the glass temple of knowledge, below:

Seems my newish IPhone 5 is not holding a charge, so had to belly up to the Genius Bar and have a look with a pro. Seems some file had corrupted my something or other and it need to be cleared and reset…egads…and lose all my stuff and pictures? No, not a chance with the genius I dealt with, who scheduled an appointment for me for 11:15 PM tonight for a “reset”. You see, this store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It has over one-hundred-twenty employees and serves over 1200 customers per day. So, at 11:00 PM tonight I traipsed back down there and he did the reset, and I’m now home working on this article. God Bless the genius’!

Below is the apple store at 11:00 PM at night!

On the way back to the Hotel, I had to take these shots of Tiffany, right next door to Nike. Tiffany has such extraordinary window dressers.

Then from elegant to Avant, across the street is Louis Vuiiton, the venerable fashion house that seems to always push the envelope with their 5^th Avenue windows. This season they feature huge silver plated dinosaurs, making off with their namesake handbags, as chicly dressed stoic mannequins look beyond the chaos in a cool gaze.

And in the next block, I couldn’t resist photographing these two windows at Bergdorf Men’s Store on 5^th. See below:

Above: Save a horse, ride an ~~cowboy~~ ostrictch!

Above: Go where?

Worst in Show:

The very first booth, as soon as we walked into the first building this morning featured cute little Teddy Bears emblazoned with… well you can read it for yourself. I mean really, is there a market for this?

Next there was a hat just a few paces away at another booth, featuring altered lyrics from Katy Perry’s smash hit, “I kissed a Girl…” This hat one celebrates “I Kissed a Dog and I…” Whatever!!

Lastly there was what looked like a leprechaun to me, dressed in a blue coat trimmed in bright white, with bright green pants. Well top of the morning to you Mister?