On Rue Chapon

I wonder if all Paris trips will feel like a blur/dream. Now that I'm back at my desk, I look at these photos and I wonder did that really happen? These were taken after an over-the-top lunch at L'Ambroisie, a place that set a new bar and frame of reference in my mind for what classic French cooking is really about. In one way, it was a learning experience and while I am no expert on the matter, I now feel like I have experienced what may be the best French cooking in the world. But I digress. Forgive me, but this post is much more superficial than a discussion of that meal — it is what we wore to that meal. I bring you a long overdue contribution to my his & hers series.

His: Suit - J.Crew // Shoes - Alden for J. Crew // Shirt - CEGO // Pocket Square - Some Hawaii joint
Hers: Coat - J.Crew // Scarf - Everlane // Pants - Zara // Shirt - J.Crew // Jacket - J.Crew // Shoes - Louboutin // Bag - Givenchy // Sunglasses - Illesteva

His and hers (sorta)

Why hello there, little blog that I've abandoned for too long. I got back this morning after a rough night on the red eye. I will just never be able to sleep on planes. Our trip to the Napa area was really lovely - I actually didn't take many photos (mostly because it was too sunny, hah). Most of our time was spent enjoying the wide open roads, the golden hills, copious amounts of wine, a mud bath spa treatment (a veeeery new experience for all of us), and killer sunsets.

J and I spent the first day or so visiting his family in the bay area. We happened to take a few photos of each other, and it's been ages since the last his and hers outfit post, so why not? It looks like we both could use a haircut... ;P

Outfit details: Jacket - Zara // Shoes - J. Crew // Dress - Madewell // Bag - Goyard
On J: Shirt - J. Crew // Pants - J. Crew // Shoes - Clark's // Bag - c/o Kelly Moore (more on this camera bag later!)

The last photo is from the same day, but I had to add a trench coat - I was still freezing in it! I forgot how rapidly temperatures dropped in the evening. Though I will take bay area California weather over summer in NY any day.

Jazzy

This edition of 'his and hers' was made by possible by the lovely Jen Sosa, who took these photos at the Jazz Age Lawn Fest this past weekend. We didn't quite go all out as other attendees did (a post on this to come when I have my film back!), but tried to make do with what we had. I put no effort into making my hair look 20s, as it has never cooperated with anything I've tried to do. I don't think it can even hold a curl for ten minutes.

J scrapped together his outfit from Sperry Top-siders, J.Crew pants/shirt/bowtie, H&M vest, and a hat he picked up at the event. My dress/earrings/bracelets are Forever 21, with Lanvin flats and Chanel wallet on chain (um yeah, there may have been quite a bit of shopping in Paris as well...).


Photos c/o Jen Sosa. :)

Gratuitous shot of me by J from the Fuji x100. How awesome is that doorway!

His and hers: makeshift studio edition

Anyone who has visited the apartment has probably heard me complain about the awkward space on the left side of our living room. It's a fair sized space but I haven't been able to figure out what to put there (though I thought it might house a full-sized bar pretty well ;P). For some reason, watching The September Issue inspired us to get a little background stand and shoot in front of it for kicks.

I haven't done one of these his/her looks in ages, so it was the perfect prop to get us wanting to shoot again. Here's what we actually wore today - minus the mustache (c/o Ashley!) and kitteh.


Obviously our white muslin background could use some ironing... and I eventually want to get some colored backdrops for moodier shots. I'm just terrified of the background looking like those hideous ones used reserved for elementary school portraits.

I think we'll leave the stand set up there for now. I want to collect some fun props, and whoever comes by the apartment will be forced to take a photobooth style portrait there. :)

For a casual date night

The heat of summer is really killing my his and her look series. July has come and gone without a single outfit post, so I thought I'd kick off August with one! This is more or less what we'd wear on a cooler night to go out for drinks or a late dinner.

J and I definitely need to take some pointers from The Sartorialist... both in terms of being behind the camera and in front of it. I found myself slouching in 95% of the shots and I'm horrendous at directing J how to pose. And how come I still look short in 4+ inch heels? Yech. The curse of short legs!

This is not a fashion blog. For good reason. :P

Casual sunday in the city

Well guys, it's finally been done... Jimmy is out of a suit for this edition of his look, her look. I only realized after putting this together that we are both wearing almost head to toe J. Crew (for me, even down to the belt and yellow bracelet!). Erm, I may or may not have had some influence on his casual wardrobe.

Love how this little dog snuck into the first frame.

We also happen to be donning matching Ray Ban Folding Wayfarers - his in matte black and mine in tortoise. These are fun because you can completely fold them down the middle, and they fit neatly into a little square case.

I think not wearing a suit immediately shaves like ten years off his look, yeah?

What we wore to lunch

This is my first time trying a scheduled post as I'll be on the other side of the country until Sunday, so if you're reading this right now, I guess the scheduling worked out okay! To complement yesterday's post on lunch at Jean Georges, here is a little his and hers post taken in Central Park for what we wore on that Saturday.

Lunch even at a fancy restaurant is a much more casual affair but dresses like these, I rarely wear, so I felt like grabbing the opportunity to drag it out of the closet. I do wish I had more funky accessories I could bring into the mix, but I've always been pretty bare-bones about that stuff. I'm definitely making more of an effort to bulk up my accessories and hold off on the clothing.

Can you tell I'm an iPhone gal and he's an Android guy? :P

I must admit I ripped this style of text overlay completely from shopbop.com. I wanted to give it a try because I admired it so much. It does seem like everyone is using some type of italic Bodoni plus Gotham these days, but hey I guess it works! If anyone is remotely curious or a typography geek, the caps text that I've been using recently is AW Conqueror Sans (it's the same as in my logo tagline).

A pseudo his and hers post

This is a bit of a cheat post, because these were just some miscellaneous gratuitous portraits from Sunday up at Blue Hill at Stone Barns (MUCH more to come on that). It also lacks coherency pretty badly. The first shot was on Fuji Pro 400H, the second on Kodak Portra 400, and the last two are digital (you can probably even tell the dimensions aren't the same!). This really does not meet the standards of the blog, but I am pooped tonight, and it's been way too long since the last installment in this series. Also, that portrait looks nothing like me, hah.

This is Jimmy's new summery H&M suit I picked out. He'll need to ditch those desert boots in favor of boat shoes asap given these temperatures. He's also toting a new camera bag - the Think Tank Retrospective 10. So far, it's pretty user-friendly and not TOO ugly. It fit the 5dmkii + 24-70mm, the 50mm f1.4, the Contax with 80mm, and a ton of film and misc. accessories - not too shabby at all.

I'm not sure why I have such an icy glare going on there. Better content to come soon.

An unlikely combination

My leather jacket plus leopard print scarf and his chalk-striped double-breasted suit, that is. And yes, we actually wore these outfits today... to Abraço, dim sum in Chinatown, the MoMA, the Bar at the Modern, and later to Belcourt. I'm sure we got a few stares!

First up, two silly shots of me giddily gulping down my iced cappuccino. Note how long my hair has gotten since the dramatic chop I got in the last his and her post. It's become rather unruly again. A bit of a boring outfit from me again (as I have gone an all-time record long for me not buying new clothes and I no longer am excited about dressing myself), but I definitely count the Contax as my statement-piece accessory.

And below, his (somewhat matchy-matchy) getup. I didn't get a good shot of the whole suit - it's hard to shoot faceless portraits - but it's quite unique and apparently fits somewhat "like a sweater." I also failed to capture the shirt details but it's a light pink stripe and made from vintage fabrics (oh and it's got a friggin' TAB COLLAR). Needless to say, any stares we might have gotten today were almost certainly directed at Jimmy. Wah.

And for the next round in this series, perhaps a casual look from Jimmy... we'll see!

His and hers ii

Hello! Firstly, let me thank all of you for your kind comments on my last post. I was seriously overwhelmed! Your support and well-wishes mean a great deal to me and I am so happy to have you all aboard for this adventure. I admit that I do definitely get terrified once in a while about not getting to where I want to be, but I just need to remind myself to take baby steps, dream big and keep the big picture in mind.

Secondly, in the last "his and hers" post I did, I ended wondering if I should make a series out of it and received enthusiastic responses, so here is the next episode. This is a more his-focused post, because my look was lackadaisical at best. This would be a great excuse to go shopping, but I've gone and spent all my money on letterpress business cards. Oops.

I call this the warm and fuzzy grey suit. He usually likes to pair it with purple. I'm giving you a peek at some suspender action this time too.

I got a good 6+ inches of hair chopped off on Saturday at a great cute little salon in the East Village - Lovemore & Do. My hair grows so fast that even though I'll usually feel slightly remorseful after a dramatic haircut, I get over it pretty quickly. It's a bit shorter in the back and longer on one side than the other, totally a new look for me.

Nothing special to see here. Wearing a combination of Zara (linen shirt), J.Crew (cargo pants!), H&M (the flower pin), Rosegold (booties), and his Seiko watch. :)

His and hers

As many of you have noted, "my man" (sorry I can't help but chuckle at this phrase) is often seen in the bokeh of my photos wearing a suit and always, always a pocket square. Well, that's pretty much what he wears 95% of the time, weekends included. What can I say? The guy likes his suits. I can't even begin to get into how picky he is about them. It's funny because my favorite suits of his are the generic so-so material, modern ones from stores like H&M (you know, stuff guys in this century actually wear), whereas he prefers his fancy shmancy three-piece bespoke suits from some guy in England who only makes like one or two trips to the states every year to fit his clients here. Maybe I'm just envious because when we go out like this, he gets way more attention than I do (heh heh).

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to post his outfit detail from this past weekend. These were haphazardly shot as an afterthought so they definitely don't do his clothes justice!

It shouldn't come as a surprise that there are suspenders hiding under that vest there. I voted for no-tie otherwise that'd be in here too. I won't even broach the topic of shoes this time...

I say those shots were an afterthought, because he was actually shooting me for the most part that afternoon. We used the 85mm on all of these. The lens is nice for these kind of full body shots because you get better bokeh than on the 50; however, there is some NASTY spherochromatism (color fringing if you will) with this lens that is pretty obvious on the larger sized photos. Glowing green bokeh? Ugh, no thanks.

Posing to not look short always poses a huge challenge. Perhaps I need to bust out the 4.5+ inch heels next time. This one is probably my favorite from the set.

As I was putting together this post, this lightbulb went off and I was like, "HEY THIS COULD BE A SERIES." Mayybe? :)