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Walking in the Livari NYFW Show

Livari founders, Alysia Reiner, celebrity stylist and founder of Caravan Stylist Studio, Claudine DeSola and Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, the designer behind Tabii Just and is the Youth Initiatives Coordinator for the Women’s March movementWell, I can now officially check “walking in a New York Fashion Week show” off of my list! Recently, I hit the runway for the introduction of new fashion brand Livari, a zero waste and ethically sourced label that focuses on empowering women and helping the environment. Created by the environmental and feminist activist and award-winning actress from Orange is the New Black, Alysia Reiner, my good friend and bad a$$ celebrity stylist and founder of Caravan Stylist Studio, Claudine DeSola and Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, the designer behind Tabii Just and is the Youth Initiatives Coordinator for the Women’s March movement!!!! These incredible women created this new brand, to take their cause further and empower women through fashionable clothing that is made ethically and sustainably.

For the premiere Livari fashion show, they partnered with brands who promote environmental and social change such as Cool Effect, Ivy, and Brother. Hosted by Kia and Style360 NYFW, myself, as well as my fellow models were chosen to walk in the show to help spread the brand’s social impact.

All about that plastic…

Melissa Shoes moved around the corner in from their location on Greene Street to the booming block on Broadway. And lets just say the new store is on a whole new level of cool. They adopted an experiential store concept that features part boutique and part art gallery. This larger flagship location is chalk full of unique and engaging decor, from the fixtures to the live green wall and my personal favorite, the infinity room — mirrors everywhere (hello selfie opportunity!).While there was no shortage of designer plastic, rain shoes, flip flops, platforms and everything in between that I wanted, I opted for the Melissa Shoes x Vivienne Westwood Anglomania + Chelsea Boots at the opening and am obsessed!!!! Like their other Galeria locations around the world, the store will stock styles from Melissa’s main women’s collection, as well as their infamous designer collaborations with brands including Vivienne Westwood, Jason Wu, Jeremy Scott…

Greetings from Mykonos

necklace // sunglasses // dress // ring // bracelet // arm ring

I don’t know what to say except island life is really agreeing with me. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so relaxed. Mykonos really agrees with me. I have no concept of what time it is or even what day it is. Patricia Field threw the most fabulous party and runway show for her ARTFASHION x Apostolos Mitropoulous collaboration on the island (I’ll be posting the video and images shortly), and she’s been the most amazing host.

Her friends are incredible, full of life and just so happen to have the best taste in restaurants — great food with exceptional views of the water. Speaking of her friends, Darren Star and Debi Mazar came from filming the finale of Younger to be at the show (are you all watching? Because it’s one of the best comedy shows out right now, plus Patricia Field is styling it!). And yes, Debi Mazar

Rodarte Paris Couture Week with Morgan Taylor Lacquer

I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced anything as magical as the Rodarte Spring/Summer 2018 fashion show during Couture Week in Paris. The Mulleavy sisters really brought it for their first showing in Paris. No detail was left unturned.

For this trip I was with the nail sponsor for the show, Morgan Taylor Lacquer, and had the pleasure of joining in on the nail tests and getting to watch their lead artist, Tracylee Percival in action. I’ve known Tracylee for years, she’s the best of the best but getting to watch her vision come to life… she’s a genius and an incredible artist. Just look at this look she created using real flowers — and my small part in bringing her vision to life!

Proenza Schouler Paris Couture Week with Morgan Taylor

Paris for Couture Week is like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve done Paris and New York Fashion Week on repeat. For this trip I was with the Morgan Taylor Lacquer team, who traveled to do the nails for Proenza Schouler and Rodarte’s Couture Week shows. Here’s a quick video from behind the scenes and also at the show for Proenza Schouler (I’ll have a video up soon on Rodarte!). It was really cool to be apart of the nail tests, which is when the nail team joins the hair and makeup team before the show at the designer’s studio they they can test and make the final decisions on the beauty look.

We did our beauty test the day before the Proenza Schouler show. Based on the designers vision, Morgan Taylor lead artist, Vu Nguyen along with Taylor Daniel (or as I like to call her THE Taylor of Morgan Taylor), put forth some dark reds and burgundies, as well as some variations of nudes with different top coats. Ultimately they settled on their deep burgundy, “Take the Lead” shade for some of the models and the others were met with just a single coat of “Matte’s A Wrap” over a well manicured nail for a more minimalist look.

It was a modern take on a minimalist look with the matte top coat, while the deep burgundy choice was all about going against the grain for spring (move over pastels) and challenging tradition.

Then came show day, and right down to the invitations the show was gorgeous (see photo above and shop my jewelry HERE). Set at the Lycée Jacques-Decour, a school built in the 19th century, the label sent down beautiful prints, slim fit dresses with cut outs, straps, and texture down the runway to a dramatic beat (I’m sorry I had to cut the music, Youtube is a challenge with any music you don’t have the rights to), but you can catch the show finale in the video above.

Judging the Belmont Longines Fashion Contest

It was back to the races with me this weekend, only this time to judge the Longines Fashion Contest during at the 149th Belmont Stakes for the Racing Festival. Presented by NYRA Bets and Longines, contestants put their best foot and hat forward on the ‘Most Elegant Woman’ catwalk for a chance to win the Longines Prize of Elegance and their DolveVita timepiece. And these ladies brought it! 149th Belmont Stakes Longines Competation from prettyconnected on Vimeo. Here’s a quick look at the event and our top 10 finalists!  Such diverse style and so many incredible hats, it wasn’t an easy choice. I joined fellow judges, Tom Murro, Entertainment TV Host and Huffington post columnist and New York Jets, Brent Qvale, and style writer, Laura Brookins as we narrowed down our top 10 and ultimately giving first place to Leckie Roberts — I mean she had a clock as her hat — it was pretty impressive. She wore Ted Baker with a Chanel bag and custom hat from East Village Hats. 

Palm trees and Panama Hats

There really isn’t anything quite like a 3 day weekend to hit the recharge button, especially when you have an exciting 4 day week to look forward to. The beauty and booze lover in me are both being appeased between the FounderMade Beauty Summit on Friday and then Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Saturday, which ahem Alicia Keys is performing at! They are really going all out for their 10th Anniversary, I CAN NOT WAIT. I’m also looking forward to being with Nylon on Friday for the celebration of their music issue, which is awesome since it saves me the trip to Barnes & Nobles to buy every issue. Also Charlie XCX is performing and hopefully Tove Lo who is hosting the event.

Life updates, Blogger advice and this retro Lafayette 148 outfit

Happy last day of February everyone! This year is flying by and I for one am ready for a vacation. It has been the most exciting few months of filming and magazine collaborations which I can not wait to share with all of you! Between Health Magazine announcing my campaign with Olay (we have another surprise coming soon!), Redbook featuring my charity and I got to announce my partnership with Vanity Fair, February will be hard to beat. However, March brings some awesome projects with Glamour, New Beauty and Amazon which I dying to see! I started my site 9 years ago because I worked for the best beauty and skincare brands and it felt like no one was leveraging experts or sharing product formulations and information in the way it’s so readily available now! And the fact that this industry (not just in beauty but fashion and travel too) continues to surprise me and push my creativity, it is never a dull moment. What I did with Olay was groundbreaking. I’ve never known a blogger or really any identifiable person go through clinicals to have their skin checked during product testing. It’s always just an anonymous clinical statistic and some number of a percentage of women that saw changes.  I’ll have more to unveil on that soon! I think the best part of working non-stop this new year was after months of being excited but so exhausted from early call times and the hours I spent researching, testing and reading before going on camera is now I get to sit back and see all of these projects come to life. Every collaboration has been so different and I’m so inspired how much magazines are embracing bloggers, these past few months I have been inspired and challenged in ways I didn’t even know were possible.

Outfit details:

Sunday Somewhere Isabella Sunglasses

Lafayette 148 Visionary Plaid Silk Blouse, Lacquered Lambskin Skirt, Elise Coat (similar)

Kenneth Cole Booties (similar)

Balley vintage bag

Jumping for joy

I am so excited! I woke up to a tweet yesterday that I was featured in “The Best Makeup and Beauty Blogs That You Need to be Following” by Total Beauty as one of six bloggers! I work my a$$ off everyday swatching, trying, going to events looking for the latest and greatest. Meeting so many of the pioneers and founders of makeup brands that to have that recognized, means a lot to me. I started my site 9 years ago and the changes I’ve seen — my site is older than twitter, snapchat and Instagram, if that helps put things in perspective. If you’re a beauty enthusiast, you should vote in Total Beauty’s 8th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards. You get entered to win prizes and most importantly help them pick the winners!

Anyways, it’s Friday, and after a very long, epic, Fashion Week (recap coming soon!),  I’m so looking forward to a weekend in sweats and to play with all these new products I just got.  This was one of my outfits from Fashion Week, I wore Eliza J almost non-stop. How cute is the jumpsuit with this velvet backpack? I picked up the bag at the Six:02 store, which is my favorite place to shop for workout gear. They just opened their second location in Times Square last week and if you’re going through an athleisure phase, or just like really hot workout clothes — the Ive Park, Fenty Puma… this is the spot. They also have a website, which I’ve been shopping on before they opened their stores (I’m like their super fan).

The road ahead…

For the first time in a long time I’m looking to the future with a big question mark. I was considering a big life change. I love blogging but after doing it full-time for so long I thought I might want a change of pace but New York always has a way of opening doors and helping me find new ways to grow. The pull has never been so strong. I was actually supposed to be in LA for a few months but all my plans were set on hold in anticipation of what could be the biggest month for my site! My Olay campaign is seconds away from launching, Glamour Magazine asked me to judge their beauty awards for the 2nd year in a row and I’m filming a project with New Beauty and Amazon StyleCode Live. I also have something in the works with Health, Vanity Fair and Redbook and all of this gives me chills. In a good way, I’m so excited! I’m not a stranger to humbling moments and big collaborations, I’m just not used to them happening all at the same time. I’m not in the habit of comparing myself to other people so sometimes I need to take a step back to realize OMG this is a big deal!

Rag & Bone Coat and Skinny Coated Black Jeans (on sale!)

Sorel Tivoli II Blanket Boot in Red Dahlia

Dagne Dover The Tiny Tote

Growth is important, no matter what stage you are in your blogging career. And so are opportunities. The fact that 9 years later this industry finds new ways to surprise and challenge me gives me hope. And hey a winter in New York isn’t so bad… at least I have warm boots. The only Sorel’s I’ve ever owned are the Joan of Arctic style, which I love but are literally for the arctic. They make my feet sweat unless it’s extremely cold outside. The perfect compromise are these Sorel Tivoli II Blanket Boot, and I love them in red!