New York, New York: Pink Fur, Sexy Self-Portraits and Jeffrey Campbell Booties

New York, New York…. Sexy, dirty, inspiring, energizing…
As you know, recently I went to New York. My boyfriend attended a programming conference, and I tagged along. The conference hold place in Manhattan, so we stayed close to it in an AirBnb apartment. My NYC plans included some shopping, enjoying city and of course doing fashion photoshoots! I did two shots, and here I will show you the first one.

About My Outfit

In this outfit I wanted to create an effortless yet ultra modern look. I combined a coral fluffy coat with a black vintage top, bold black and white pants and a pair of Jeffrey Campbell booties. The vintage top was the same one I wore in one of my Christmas outfits. It is a perfect basic item that goes well with the majority of my clothes. It was made in late 80s or early 90s by a Montreal company in Montreal, and I feel good thinking that I wear a piece of Canadian fashion history.

The coral fluffy coat, I actually brought it with me from Montreal in my suitcase. It took maybe a third of the space in my suitcase, but I so vividly fancied strolling in it on the NYC streets that I could not just not take it with me.

As of the booties, I bought these ones the day before in one of the small boutiques in Manhattan next to the Union Square. Below in the post I will tell you the story about how I bought them almost by accident.

How To Get The Look

• Coral  faux fur coat: Urban Outfitters
• Ankle booties: Jeffrey Campbell (similar, a cheaper alternative)
• Black velvet top: vintage (similar)
• Black and white geometric pattern cigarette trousers: Forever 21 (similar)

Behind The Scene Of The Photoshoot

We did this photoshoot on the street right in front of our AirBnb apartment. The streets of Manhattan, New York, is one of the best locations for fashion photoshoots in the city. The black-n-white picture below was actually taken in the little space under the stairs of the apt building. The space had concrete walls and metal bars on the window that gave it a distinctive look of the urban slums. I have a soft spot for such places, so I could not miss an opportunity to take photos there.

I also did a few shots of the neighbourhood. We stayed in the area that was 5 min away by foot from the Union Square, and it was pretty hip and at the same time crowded and cramped. You can see snow on the streets, and indeed the winter in NYC is almost as cold as in Montreal (ok, maybe here in Mtl we have more snow). However, on the day of the photoshoot I got lucky: It was above zero, warm enough to wear a fur coat on top of a tank top.

In fact I wanted  to take sexy pictures with a bit of skin showing off. But the weather forced me to cover up. So, instead of undressing outside, I undressed inside! I took a few provocative self portraits wearing nothing else but a vintage slip and posted them on my Instagram (yep, you can totally follow me on IG. and I will follow back 😉

Streets of New York

Monday morning, the street traffic is quite bearable.

click to see the full size image

How I (Accidentally) Bought Jeffrey Campbell Booties

Every time I go to the US, I go shopping, and in most cases I buy shoes. Every fashionista from Montreal knows how disappointing the choice of footwear is in our stores, while few styles that are available cost a pretty penny. Given that, I could not miss yet another opportunity to extend my shoe collection for less.

I made a list of Manhattan stores that sell the boots I was interested in (mainly Jeffrey Campbell and T.U.K. Shoes) and planned to visit them all. However, after visiting a few, I got greatly disappointed. Despite the fact that the brands had sales in their online stores, the local “independent” stores did not want to keep up with it and had the prices unchanged. I did not want to pay the full price, so I left buying nothing. Some of the stores on my list were actually closed – right, I was not the only one who knows how to find good deals on the Internet.

In the end of the day, tired of fruitless searching, I was walking somewhere on 14th Street near the Union Square when I saw yet another shoe store. Its window was showing off a pair of pretty JC booties. I came in, and a nice girl greeted me. I looked around and noticed that the shelves in the back had some pieces of paper attached to them. The numbers hand written on the paper suggested that the racks had shoes on sale, so I headed right there. The back shelves contained mostly the summer shoes I was not interested in, so I turned to the girl and asked her: “Do you have any other JC on sale?” Gosh, was it a simple question to answer. But the girl just mumbled something incomprehensible and turned away. O-o-ok, you do not want to help me… I wandered about a bit more, failed to find anything exciting and headed toward the door. Then I saw a bootie standing on the shelf next to the door, probably the one I noticed from outside earlier, and the bootie had a white label attached to the heel. On the label there were two prices, and both looked appealing. I asked the girl which price was valid. She did not know and went to ask the cashier guy. Turned out the booties were on sale for $90. Nice! Let’s try them on! They were exactly what I was looking for, so I ended up buying them. While taking my payment, the cashier guy thanked me multiple times for the purchase – and so did the girl. Their excessive thankfulness made me think that the store business was not going well. The rent in Manhattan must be crazy expensive and it must be hard to survive for a little shop, I was thinking to myself… I grabbed the box and headed towards the exit. While getting out, I accidentally looked up and saw a familiar looking piece of paper attached to the top shelf next to the door, right above the spot where my new booties were standing. It was written $90 on it… The door closed behind me, and at that moment I realized that whole shelf was also on sale. The whole shelf was on sale, and I learned it on my own only after leaving the store! Aggrh!

This is a good example for you, my dear readers, how to fail your retail business. Do not make the sales signs visible and clear. Asked the sales person to never ever mention the sale. And of course instruct them to turn away when a customer asks a question. This will make you succeed in reducing the numbers of sales  and eventually filing a bankruptcy.

I was thinking to come back to the store and tell them my thoughts. But that night I was so tired and hungry, so instead I just hurried back to the apartment thinking of what I would prepare for the supper.

While writing this post, I went to Yelp and found the store. I thought: “What a great opportunity to finally give them my feedback”  and did write a review. You can read it here.

Disclaimer: Yup, this post may contain affiliate links! If you buy something from me, I get some margarita money (not enough to buy a pair of shoes). Read more here.