Sunday, February 27, 2011

March (Market) Madness

It’s been a busy few weeks for D&B to say the least.   Although we are totally our own bosses, we’ve been on quite the hectic 9-5 (or more like 9-9) schedule.  After a particularly busy day of meetings with real estate brokers, contractors, our lawyer, and our insurance agent, we found ourselves in shock over the amount of "real business" we've been doing.  And, we feel really blessed to have found a team of people, including our bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, contractor, and architect, who we truly trust and respect.

Before we delve into details on NYC Market Week, perhaps the biggest update since our last post is that we have officially begun negotiations on a lease!  We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves or jinx anything with the negotiations, so the location will remain undisclosed at this time, but we are very excited and hoping to have our lease signed ASAP. 

We’ve also been extremely busy with Market Week- the week following Fashion Week when designers present their collections to buyers, typically at showrooms or at trade shows.  We’ve had some amazing appointments where we looked at some beautiful clothes, jewelry, handbags, and scarves (we are dying over the scarves we’re going to carry), and last Friday we kicked of the weekend filled with Trade Shows.  Capsule and d&a proved to be the most successful for us—we’re really committed to finding new, up and coming designers that aren’t sold at every other store in downtown Manhattan, and those two shows had the most unique offering.  All of the big names in the contemporary market were at Coterie, which was great to see but we weren’t able to find as many new designers as we had hoped.

Now, we’re preparing to head to Paris for Market Week Round 2, where we hope to pick up at least 50% of the merchandise we will be carrying in our store.  Because our *potential* store is sandwiched between two areas already filled with some great boutiques, we need to find European designers who will be totally exclusive to our store.

So, what’s in (our) store for fall, you ask?  Here are some of the trends we can’t wait to share with you:

A-mazing blouses and sweaters with leather details
Mohair capes and jackets
Navajo print bags
Rose colored blouses, dresses, bags…everything!
Long skirts

Let us know if there’s anything you’ve seen from the F/W collections that you can’t live without and we’ll definitely try to carry it (or something very similar) in our store!

We have lots to do before we leave for Paris on Wednesday but we’ll be in touch soon...likely with a recap on our favorite looks from the Oscars.

Xo
Posted by Dagny & Barstow at 3:21 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

LUST LIFE: Our Fall Faves from New York Fashion Week

We've been busy with buying appointments and various Market Week activities, but wanted to share our favorite looks from NYFW:


Proenza Schouler: Fashion Gods Among Men
Lazaro and Jack Dominate with Navajo for the Digital Age

Proenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearProenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear Proenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearProenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearProenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear\Proenza Schouler Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear


Phillip Lim:  One of our Perennial Favorites
Prep Done Right: With Leather and Studs!
3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear


Alexander Wang: We've been feeling a little iffy on Alex recently, but this collection has us now worshipping at the Temple of Wang once more.
The knit to satin degrade technique is pure insanity, and we're happy that our fashion bad boy is back.


Alexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear Alexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

Alexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearAlexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearAlexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearAlexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear




Helmut Lang: Winner of the Lust Award. 
The most wearable collection that showed this February. We can already see ourselves wearing every one of these pieces out to sushiwithmygirls

Helmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear Helmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

Helmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearHelmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearHelmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearHelmut Lang Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear





J. Mendel: The Very Meaning of Luxury.  
PETA eat your heart out.


J. Mendel Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJ. Mendel Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

J. Mendel Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJ. Mendel Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear



Rodarte: Remeniscent of the Earlier, Girlier Mulleavys: The Ruby Slipper gets a modern update
They took the ubiqitous angular prints of Fall 2012 and broke them down into the shapes themselves, noticeable on pinafore-like collars, waistbands, lapels, and geometric sweater motifs.  

Rodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearRodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearRodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearRodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearRodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearRodarte Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear


Jeremy Laing: The Whiz Kid
The Lunar Cycle Never Looked So Good 

Jeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

Jeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear


Jeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

Jeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-WearJeremy Laing Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear

*All photos courtesy of Style.com
Posted by Dagny & Barstow at 1:37 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, February 10, 2011

So you think you can dance?

Welcome to The Dancehall, Dagny & Barstow’s blog, where we, co-owners Meredith Blank and Emily Titelman, hope to share with you our journey as we open our first women’s clothing boutique in Manhattan.  As you may or may not know, we met as students at The University of Pennsylvania and have dreamed of opening a store together for many years.  Now that we’re finally making our dream a reality, we hope to share our insights and advice through the whole process, while also giving you a sneak peek of what Dagny & Barstow is all about.


Currently Dagny & Barstow is set to open in mid August and we are at the initial stages of putting together our fall collection while also trying to settle on a location for the store.  In a few days we’ll be giving you our back story and will explain all that has happened with Dagny & Barstow thus far.  In the mean time, here are a few photos so you can start to get to know us a bit better…

Dancing
Dancing with a man baby

Sunglasses are an essential item in any sort of light

THE CRAMPS (inside joke, sorry)

One of our few normal pictures together
Not sure what's going on here... 
Celebrating Meredith's 24th birthday by playing dress up and having a photo shoot on the subway...






Posted by Dagny & Barstow at 1:51 PM 0 comments
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