A Look Inside: Sugarcube

Many boutiques line the historic streets of Old City, but Sugarcube has truly found a way to stand out. Upon entering you’re most likely to be in awe of the warm and inviting vibes that stem directly from the layout and decor.

There is a mix of designer items and carefully chosen vintage to scour. As soon as you start browsing the merchandise you will automatically get a sense of what kind of people are hand picking the items, and who they are picking them for. There is a genuine thought process behind all of the stock choices. None of the garments are purely trendy pieces, but instead are a mix of current and classic contemporary styles.

SA VA LOVE fashion show

On a blistering saturday evening i rushed over to LOVE park to watch the fashion show of SA VA fashion’s most recent collection.  SA VA is a boutique right by my office that carries primarily original women’s designs as well as a small selection of international brands.  The original designs by store owner Sarah Van Aken are what make it unique, but what’s even better is that her designs are purposeful and made locally from natural, sustainable fabrics.

Here are some photos of the set-up:

A Look Inside: Younglove’s

West Philly folks should be thrilled to have this new addition to their neighborhood. Younglove’s is a new(ish) store which is located at 5011 Baltimore Avenue.

Upon first entering Younglove’s you will be delighted by what you see. Guitars grace the walls, Vinyl lines many shelves and you’re surrounded by cute and affordable vintage clothing for men and women.

As if that isn’t enough.. you’ll also be greeted by the owner of this shop, Jeremiah.. or his girlfriend Corinne. Both are knowledgeable about the products they carry and you can tell a great deal of care goes into hand choosing all of the items they carry.

Even if you’re not into vintage clothes you’re bound to fall in love with some of the random bric-a-brac on hand. There are also accessories to sink your teeth into. Vintage sunglasses, optical glasses and jewelry.

Make sure to take a peak inside the back room of Younglove’s while you take a break from digging for fashion/music finds. They are currently featuring beautiful photographs by Molly Landergan.

Keep your eyes on Younglove’s blog for future events and new arrivals.

Younglove’s Vintage
5011 Baltimore Avenue, West Philadelphia
Blog // Facebook // Yelp

A comprehensive guide to Philadelphia

Illustration by Julia Rothman

I’m pretty happy to say that I couldn’t have done it better myself. Amazing home interior and lifestyle blog design*sponge has compiled a great list of places to eat, shop and be merry in Philadelphia with the help of Kevin Derrick. Kevin runs the blog DESIGN PHILADELPHIA.

The selections are broken down by neighborhood. You’ll see some of your old favorites.. and perhaps a few spots you didn’t know about.

Make sure to take a look at the guide HERE.

Vintage Trunk Show – Joy to my eyes. Pain to my wallet.

On Sunday night I attended Sweet Jane’s trunk show at Tattooed Mom. I had the pleasure of enjoying cheap beer and affordable vintage clothing, shoes, records and jewelry.

Puss in Boots had an amazing array of vintage shoes and boots. Dreamy kilted Justin Ropers, harness boots fit for a queen/king and a handful of beautiful heels. Everything they had in tow was of AMAZING quality. Along with the shoes and boots there was a great array of jewelery, bags. and amazing vintage hair combs that I regret not purchasing. What was I thinking?

Younglove’s selection included awesome vintage clothing (including the world’s dreamiest bathing suit) and tons of shoes/records. I swooned over the selection, prices… and the kindness of the owner. I look forward to making the trek to West Philly soon to take pics of the store and do a more complete write-up on the spot.

Sweet Jane brought their A game as they always do. My favorite part of their current spread? The jewelry! There were some ridiculous pieces.

Keep your eyes peeled for events like this in the future and make it a point to attend! I can honestly say there was something for everyone.

“Fashion Week”

i have had the privilege of meeting with production companies involved in the various fashion weeks in this city. two groups produce fashion shows that go on for 2-3 evenings and call it “philadelphia fashion week.”  yet they are pretty different– one is focused on couture and extravagant settings, the other on simplicity and local boutique collections– but both claim to be a display of philadelphia fashion identity eventhough their shows are primarily non-philadelphian designers.  this does not coincide with people’s expectations when they hear “fashion week”, or their philadelphia-centric mission.  if they want to make it akin to other metropolitan city fashion weeks, their intentions need to be adjusted, and if they want to make it a spotlight on philadelphia, the expectations and designers need to be edited.

it turns out that city representative melanie johnson kind of agrees with this.  in a recent inquirer article, there was a generous review of the latest shows, mention of the other fashion week, and they revealed melanie johnson’s plan to bring together all of the fashion week agents to create a cohesive week of clothing. it’s my hope that the city finds this blog and asks me and sarah to help because respectfully, all of the people involved have an insular view of what should be done.

Warehouse Sale

i was very excited when i heard about sugarhabit– the combined warehouse sale of old city boutiques sugarcube and third street habit:

as you can see in the flyer, it was an all-day warehouse sale with 50-90% off past season items at an empty space in rittenhouse.  i actually made sure to go to bed at a decent hour and get there relatively early because i have been to both stores and liked the stock, especially in third street habit (which sells contemporary and a selection of vintage items).  i arrived at around 11am to find this:

“warehouse sale” was meant in the figurative, not literal sense.  i was hoping to show up to find a larger space.  not like a barney’s warehouse sale, but still larger than what it was.  a lot of the traffic were passersbys, since it was so close to the park and it was a gorgeous day out.  but i wonder how many shoppers showed up at 10am when the doors opened, and what the opening selection was like.  the price discrepancies of the items made me wonder if it had all been picked over already or if the deals just weren’t that great.  while they did have dunderdon, a.p.c., steven alan, isabel marant, etc. a lot of what was on sale was in lager sizes.  seeing as how this was one of the first of what i hope will be many more warehouse sales, it was a good start, but i hope in the future i wake up earlier.

how am i doing?