Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Devil in Balenciaga

I just received a phone call that my Balenciaga jacket arrived! I can't wait to put it on me! It's been 5 months sinced I ordered it...and I hope that it's worth the wait. I'll also go to Louis Boston on my way home to pick up the black tank with the print:"Devil in Balenciaga".
Wait for my updates;-)

Monday, March 20, 2006

Balenciaga FW '06 - Skyrocketing price v.s. a semi-couture collection

Nicholas Ghesquiere is officially my favorite designer after another solid collection showed in Paris a couple of weeks ago. The Balenciaga FW 06 collection is the fruit of his research on Cristobal Balenciaga's archives, and it showed Nicholas' modern interpretation of Balenciaga women.
After appreciating the looks for weeks, now it's time for us to face the reality and see how much those semi-couture pieces cost. I will list some looks and the prices below...honestly I am itchy on some of them but I am not sure if the prices are justified compared with the spring '06 collection. Let me know what you think.
Look #11
Jacket $2,995 (double sided); Top $2,675; Skirt $1,285
Look #14
Top $1,160; Pants $890 (Satin lined wool pants)
Look #15 $1,650 (one piece)
Look #18
Jacket $1,975
top $1,685
Look #23 $15,000 (!!!) - the material is specially made for Balenciaga
Look #24 $2,919
Look #25 $4,700
Look #32 $990
Look #35 $4,375

Look #37 $4,695


Friday, March 10, 2006

Barneys New York's Boston store is open!

The store is renovated from an old movie theatre and they take advantage of the existing structure to introduce sky light to the two-floor space. The entire store was full of sun light on this sunny Friday.

I checked out the store during lunch hour. I am very impressed. For the past years I have shopped in the New York store for many times (including calling them for certain items that I couldn't find elsewhere). Now, the store in Boston will totally save my to New York. The first floor looks like a fashion museum. It features Rochas, Alaia (!!!), Ann Demeulemeester, Lanvin, Rick Owens, Martin Margiela (line 1 and line 4), Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Tao, Comme des Garcons, and so on. They are the most original designers in this world but not covered by adjacent Saks or Neiman Marcus for a long period of time (what a shame!). I also have to say that Barney's buyers did a great job to pick the most gorgeous pieces from the spring collections.

The men's department and Co-op are located on the second floor. Only a few designers are featured in the Co-op department, but they are the best ones in that tier.

Service is very nice. My SA was very helpful looking for sizes for me, and customers can put things on hold for up to 72 hours. Sales are not pushy, which is consistent with their culture in the New York store.

All in all, I give it 4.5 out of 5. The half point deduction is from the lack of Balenciaga ready-to-wear. I understand that there might be distribution restrictions on that brand, but for a department store like Barneys, the selection is not complete without it.