Best Of New Orleans Blog

Sometimes New Orleans doesn’t feel as southern as other cities, and I am not speaking in respect to the heat but more in regards to our tea isn’t quite as sweet, or “R”’s don’t drawl and I don’t see Vera Bradley bags on every shoulder of every lady. But this Friday’s event at Canal Place always reminds me of our location in the deep south as patrons of the Sippin’ in Seersucker event are dressed to the “T” in their breathable striped attire.

I personally think that men look like handsome gentleman in seersucker suits but a good friend of mine has been known to tell men that she thinks they look like great big giant babies. Regardless of your feeling on the fabric I recommend checking out this event and dressing the part of the southern lady or gentleman. Fashion coordinated parties are always the most fun. Tickets are $35 and entertainment will be provided by Topsy Chapman’s Tribute to Dinah Washington, The Preservation Hall Hot 4 Jazz Band, and The New Orleans BINGO! Show. This event supports the Ogden Museum and light food and summer cocktails will be served.

The cute Chaiken Clothing dress shown is available online on the Saks website. Guys need a suit? Perlis sells them for $250, and it is an investment that will last you for years (my father just replaced his after 25 years, and it was still in adequate shape). And trust me- most women will think you look great, there is just one girl in town that may approach you and tell you that you look like an infant child.

Shop the $1 Sales Rack at Buffalo Exchange this Saturday, April 19th and help the Pinta Tortoise.

Lonesome George is lonely again this Earth Day. Lonesome George is the very last of his kind, the Pinta tortoise. But with your help, the closely related Espanola tortoises will soon restore the ecosystem of George’s home. Bring tortoises back to Pinta Island in the Galapagos Islands as you shop for hip used clothing at a bargain! All proceeds from Buffalo Exchange’s Dollar Day Sale will go to Galapagos Conservancy to fund a project to repopulate Pinta Island with giant saddleback tortoises. All sale items offered for $1 each at your local Buffalo Exchange store on April 19 will support this ground-breaking work  

www.buffaloexchange.com

www.galapagos.org 

New Orleans is getting noticed by the fashionistas of the publishing world this month.  

W Magazine’s photographer Bruce Weber and stylist Karl Temper created a gorgeous 60 page spread headlined “Come on Down Nawlins” on location featuring notable locations like the Soniat House and NOCCA.

Also, in the April issue of Men’s Vogue, Chris Paul is profiled as the “most electric NBA player you haven’t heard of”.

Of course monthly in CUE, you can check out true local New Orleans style and see where to shop to upgrade your spring wardrobe..

by Sam Winston

Another reason to go to Baton Rouge? That’d be the new Apple Store, the first in Louisiana, with its grand opening on Thursday.

It would be way cooler if the store was in New Orleans.

New Orleans girls turned Miami residents, Lynda Martin and Maria Cagol-Landrieu have launched their highly anticipated fashion line Nibbatti, in local stores this month.

Lynda (a former looong time Gambit Weekly Ad Rep) describes the line as a “contemporary, casual clothing line for woman that is inspired by classic silhouettes with a spin on modern edge”. The chic designs stay true to their roots with fun names like, “the new orleans nights”, “the ninth ward ” and the “do me right ” dress and the light weight flowing fabrics obviously state that the designers created them to look hot and stay cool in the Louisiana and Florida humidity.

Another reason to love the line, besides the totally fun designers, is all of the production is taking place in the USA (no child laborer fingers on these garments).

Local New Orleans stores now carrying Nibbatti include Ah Ha, Angelique, Azby’s, Shoefty, Chatta Box and Em’s. The line can also now be found in the Florida panhandle and in five more states next month. Congratulations Lynda and Maria for an amazing premier launch!

Nibbatti is buddhist term for Rebirth.

This week is the catch twenty-two of all shopping weeks in the year. Along Magazine St, in the malls, online there are SALES everywhere…but at the same time most budgets are feeling the crunch (which is why I haven’t posted in Window Shopper recently, I cut myself off from the stores).

All weekend long I spotted 50%- 70% off sales everywhere. Some of my best sightings included Magazine Streets Pippen Lane’s 50% off rack, West Elm’s online sale, Pier Ones 75% off ornaments (if you can think about next Christmas), Gae-tana’s 20-75% off racks and World Markets center aisle. (more…)

Friday, December 21st- one of New Orleans favorite local fashion designers, Leah Bauer of Pooch Clothing will be hosting a trunk show at Le Phare (523 Gravier) - the show moved from the original location at LOA- from 3:00 pm- 7:00 pm.

Leah will be featuring some of her new “Chari-tees”, a stylish collection of shirts that give back to important causes. Past designs, which reflect Leah’s “fashion” sense of purpose have given back to Cystic Fibrosis Research, Habitat for Humanity, Breast Cancer Awareness, Multiple Sclerosis Research and the Daniel Price Memorial Fund. ______________________________________________________________________

2007 marks the 4th anniversary of the tragic death of local artist and NOCCA graduate, Daniel Price. This Sunday, December 23rd, House of Blues will be hosting the “Home for the Holidays” Event to benefit:

The Daniel Price Memorial Fund for Aspiring Artists, a fund established to give exceptional fine arts graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts an opportunity to pursue higher educational studies in a fine arts discipline. 

The Patron Party ($125 ) will start at 6:00 pm, and include food, an open bar and a special performance by Irma Thomas. General Admission ($30) begins at 8:00 pm and includes entertainment by Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth Brass Band, Troy Andrews & Orleans Ave, Jonathan Batiste, John Boutte and Rockin’ Doopsie. Tickets are available on the House of Blues website.

It was not at all like Frank Costanza described it to Kramer. There were no “Feats of Strength.” Unless you count the little poles holding up some of the vendors’ tents, there was no official “Festivus Pole” to speak of. (I had heard there would be one, but I never saw it.) And I didn’t overhear any exchanges that would qualify as the “Airing of Grievances.”

But Seinfeld disparity aside, make no mistake, there was a Festivus miracle last Sunday. In my eyes, the miraculous thing about this bustling holiday arts market at the corner of Magazine and Girod streets was just being there! Being there and perusing the wares of a good number of indie artists and artisans — jewelry, ceramics, textiles, artwork, house wares, etc. — and seeing all of the other shoppers who came out, not just to support the local arts community, but to buy some really cool stuff. (more…)

Twelve shopping days left until Christmas.  Why not buy a family member a blighted New Orleans property?  The New Orleans Tax Sale ends this evening at 8:00 pm central time, unless the system isn’t fully compatible on my internet browser (the system is unavailable on Safari Browsers, but works with Firefox),  it seems like there are 4 pieces of New Orleans real estate left up for grabs - all for under $15,000 (as of 5:30 pm).

300 properties were announced this morning.

Make sure you read all of the stipulations online, for instance you won’t take full ownership of your newly acquired land for three years.  Happy house hunting!

As a follow-up to my previous blog entry, analyzing how Baton Rouge seemed to be trumping NOLA for large commercial retail spaces, The Advocate announced today plans for Louisiana’s first Apple Store at a new extension of the Mall of Louisiana.  Apple filed a permit to build a 5,500 square foot store.  If you haven’t been to an Apple Store-it is a holy experience for any MAC lover and if your like the PC guy, you might be converted.

Sephora must not have heard my pleas to open in New Orleans, as they have plans to open a 6,000 square foot space near the new Apple Store as well.

In other Baton Rouge shopping news, Anthropologie officially opened this past weekend at Perkins Rowe. 

And if the Sex and the City movie buzz, gets you craving Sarah Jessica’s adorable and affordable line-BITTEN.  Well, you’ll have to hit up Steve and Barry’s at the Mall of  Cortana, in sigh, B.R.

It seems like whenever I ask someone who lives here, but who wasn’t born here- “Why would you move to New Orleans?” I often get the response “I came down for Jazz Fest and stayed”… which always conjures up an image of the person stumbling out of Jazz Fest drunk with crawfish bread in one hand and an Abita Beer in the other, calling a realtor to make an offer on a house and having all of their belongings shipped from wherever they had come from a few days before.

In actuality, I suppose that this common response, is more of a “code of appreciation” for New Orleans rich cultural mix of music, food, crafts and fun that may not exist elsewhere.

If one of these “transplant super festers” are on your Christmas list- then stop by the Jazz and Heritage Fest Bazaar this Saturday from 9:00 am- 4:00 pm- where a host of Jazz Fest collectibles will be up for sale. Items up for sale include Vintage Jazz Fest Posters, T-Shirts, CD’s and more. The sale will take place at 1205 North Rampart St. For more info call 504-588-6100.

Crocheting ain’t just for grandma anymore. Needlepoint is fly and knitting is hip once again among the coolest of cool — a new, younger wave of Indie DIY-ers and uber-fems with a flare for fashion are bringing back homemade crafting with a counter-cultural twist. Subversive re-fitting of iconic female images from the 1930s, 40s and 50s — on everything from napkins and table settings to journals and t-shirts — seem to be popping up more frequently these days as pastiche gains popularity and a reappropriation of the retro is all the rage. Any of you who, at first glance, read that as crotch-eting, well, you’re clearly behind in your Indie trends.

Books like Stitch ‘n’ Bitch and Happy Hooker Crochet, and Web sites like www.reprodepot.com (where you can buy reproductions of fabulous vintage fabrics at cheap, cheap prices) and www.sublimestitching.com are taking early/mid 20^th century (more…)

The Holiday Corporation is a big and important business to our local economy- but remembering to keep a balance of the “true” spirit of giving and purchasing tangible items must not get lost in the madness of the mall parking lot.

Five years ago, a friend working in the fashion industry, told me how her mother bought her a “cow” for Christmas instead of the latest Prada Bag. This gift bought through Heifer International was to help ground her from the materialistic 7th Avenue lifestyle.

In place of branded designer merchandise, the gifted cow would produce 4 gallons of milk a day for the family to drink and share with neighbors and also earn the family income for school, healthcare, clothing and shelter through dairy sales. (more…)

Today I am kicking myself for not purchasing a dress for an upcoming holiday party while in Europe last week, but as I searched from the Eiffel Tower to the Bastille for the perfect cocktail attire, my husband was constantly whispering in my ear, “you realize what that costs in dollars, right- you should wait till that style hits the US.”

While Europe was amazing, all week long there were constant reminders on the weak American economy, from the below amusing/disturbing CNN International clip, to hearing a couple in line at the Louvre discussing how “UNREAL the exchange rate is now, and how they are leaving for New York to go shopping the following weekend.”

This led me to think. If New York is cheap for the Brits and other EU residents, how disgustingly cheap is New Orleans??? Are we like visiting a 3rd world South American country? So I realized it is time for everyone to email their Europeans friends, family and colleagues and sell New Orleans. The economic impact could be huge.

Here are some rough price conversion comparisons to sell my point: (more…)

Giving is so much fun, and when your giving is doing double duty and giving back to something else- it can be 2x the celebration. This gifting season think of the planet by giving earth friendly themed gifts. Here are some jolly green ideas:

For the mom or the compulsive cleaner on your list, Earthsavers has developed a line of organic cleaning supplies, creating a practical and luxurious option. The bottles are sleek enough not to hide under a kitchen cabinet and come in relaxing spa scents like Rosewater and Organic Citrus. (more…)

I simply remember my favourite things…and than I don’t feel so bad!

Ichabod’s New Orleans t-shirt shop on Magazine Street was building a reputation right before the storm and like so many other local favorite shops became one for the nostalgia files. They have risen from the dust through another medium- an entertaining online site including memorable logo designs on cute tee’s and messenger bags framed next to old New Orleans You Tube videos . Everyone has their own personal and special memoirs of former local spots…. Some of mine include: (more…)