I admit, I was a bit frightened by the prospect of hanging with a bunch of high-heeled strutting, faux fur donning, runway model-sized 20-somethings for two days at the Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference (a.ka #IFBCon) in NYC last week. My blog, as I suppose you know since you read it (thanks for that by the way), is not exactly a fashion blog. Rather, it’s filled with sweet moments in my everyday life and the occasional “isn’t the print on this jacket fancy” post thrown in the mix. But I loved every minute with these lovely girls. So here are a few of my favorite moments.
1. What you can’t see about that obscenely tall girl with the massive flower on her head above is that she is wearing furry 6 inch Louboutins, which made her 6 feet, 6 inches tall. I repeat that’s 6’6″. To my dismay, that’s even too tall for a motorboat. Emily designs accessories (including that red man-eating flower on her head) and they are stunning. I bought one. A bracelet. Right there at the conference. I can’t wait to show you. In the meantime, check her out at E.Kammeyer Accessories. Liz, of Dear Andi, (you’ve seen her bracelets here and here) gifted me that neon bracelet from her Etc… Modern Vintage line to match my pumps on the first day of the conference. She’s the sweetest. Moral: follow these girls. They are lovely. And buy their jewelry, too.
2. Neil Blumenthal is one-quarter founder of Warby Parker. He and Lulu Frost founder Lisa Salzer (unfortunately not pictured) both gave amazingly inspiring “CEO talks.” If you don’t shop either of these brands, their backstories alone (not to mention their amazing products) will convince you. Their positivity was contagious.
3. Photographer Lydia Hudgens and Jenni, of ISpyDIY, (photo top right) are one talented photog/blogger duo. I loved hearing their tips for how to capture my best side no matter the circumstance. Also great to hear I’m not the only one who needs 100 shots to get five that are blog-worthy. Thanks to Lydia’s thoughtful advice, this is now on my wishlist. She called it a pancake lens, but I promise I want it for more than just its name.
4. In an exciting not-pictured moment, I discovered two things about accessory line Alex and Ani: Carolyn Rafaelian’s designs are eco-friendly and one of my old friends works on her team. Small world! It was so wonderful to reconnect, especially over beautiful bangles. That’s right, bangles. You know me, I’m about to get extremely acquainted with Alex and Ani.
Before heading out of the city after the conference, the girls and I headed to check out BaubleBar‘s NYC pop-up shop, BaubleBar Unwrapped. The online accessories retailer set up shop in a temporary storefront in celebration of its second birthday. Since the store is only open until Feb. 16 (you still have time!) we just had to visit (and, ahem, shop).
Wrists from left: Lauren (The Style Darling), Liz (Dear Andi) and moi. Apparently Liz and I have very similar taste.
I also learned a lot about SEO, affiliate marketing, and how the who’s who of bloggers got their start. But this post has got to end eventually. So here’s one last look at the early morning view from my uncle’s West Village apartment. Are you as jealous as I am?
Sounds like you learned a lot of really cools stuff and met awesome people. Can’t wait to keep learning more from you!
As for Warby Parker, I did their home try-on twice and visited their ‘class trip’ in Philly. I finally bought a pair of glasses and love them. I’ve been meaning to write a Warby Parker post for awhile, so maybe I will now!
Love this! Love you! Thanks for the sweet shout out. xo
Ooo lucky you! I have wanted to go for years now, but aahhh it never ends up working out.
Happy to have found you and your blog.
Cheers.