Love: Muji, Erin Fetherston for Target, Ports 1961 Sample Sale, In God We Trust, High Places on Mistletonia

I interrupt my semi-periodic scroffhole-disappearance-hermit-becoming to tell you all the style-related things I am loving recently. (Unrelated note: I completely underestimated how going to graduate school in a creative field can really drain you in really bizarre ways. You do things like avoid the Internet and travel out to random nature parks to stare at the playground socialization of small children vis-a-vis the Third World nannies community.) This is my "ooh la love" list of late, the things that make me happy despite the gloriously biting wind and amusingly bitter people:

1. Muji opened in Manhattan! And now all my paper goods fantasies have come true! I love how everything is minimal and Zen and how everything in the store, from soaps to sweatshirts, avoids looking studiously trendy but somehow manages to be chic and wonderful. I have never had such strong, emotional feelings about how aesthetically beautiful pens can be till Muji rocked my world. Muji, you make me happy to be a consumer.

2. There's one Erin Fetherston for Target dress that works for me! Upon first look I thought the Erin Fetherston line for Target seemed charming but way too cutesy-young for me, especially now that I'm all about my old combat boots these days and feeling mean and tough and grizzled like a real New Yorker and general cranky person. But the black chiffon Peter Pan collar dress works really well in my wardrobe: I unprim it by unbuttoning the top few buttons and rolling up the sleeves, so it reads a bit more Chanel-y/Lady Amanda Harlech than Lolita/infantilizing. It is a perfect "terrorize the students I TA with completely dense French-people critical theory" type of dress, especially with fierce Balenciaga-ish ankle boots. I highly recommend if you want a simple, chic yet swishy cold-weather LBD, although you will need to reinforce the buttons so they don't pop off with a simple thumbing.

3. The Ports 1961 sample sale. I love their sweaters and knits; so much of this Canadian line is beautiful and luxurious but in a friendly, modest way. Go Canada! If I could tattoo a maple leaf upon a major artery, I would. Details: Thursday, November 29th from 11am to 6pm. 601 W 26th St at Eleventh Ave, suite 875 (212-414-1050).

4. In God We Trust is one of my favorite boutiques in the New York City area. It's been so for awhile, but I haven't mentioned here so I am remedying that terrible, horrid oversight on my part. I love stepping inside of the store because it is like my own little piece of "Twin Peaks" in New York, with this cozy-earthy aesthetic all the way down to their house label's lumberjack plaid dresses and denim jumpers that are done so well they don't even seem so jumperlike. I am a Midwesterner at heart and will always have affection for things that remind me of "Little House on the Prairie" or Johnny Appleseed and apple orchards in general, and visiting In God We Trust always makes me wish they would take over the Great Plains and make everything earthy, restrained and just a touch ironically preppy. If you are looking for a lovely gift to give from In God We Trust, please do bestow upon someone their brass ID bracelet with lion charm because you indeed have the heart of a lion and love them so much.

5. And finally, holiday records are kind of weird, it is true, but Australian label Mistletone (who have released Beach House, Dan Deacon and a slew of others) are putting out a holiday comp called Mistletonia. You can download a track on it from Brooklyn dreampop outfit High Places, which the dudes from Pitchfork described as "a sort of dubbed-out half-cover of "Iko Iko,"" which is actually right, for once, so good on them. The High Places song is called "New Grace" and is really pretty and bright and much better than that John Mellencamp Christmas song (although I have strange affection for that at times, damn the Midwesterner in me.)

And now I return to the darkness of my scroffhole, armed with my Muji pens and black dresses and plaid gloves and pretty songs, only to emerge for the occasional movie and sample sale. What a strange creature I've become.

Posted by Kat in Love
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