• 1 1/2 cup of gin. I used Brooklyn Gin.
• 1/2 cup elderflower liqueur.  I used St. Germain.
• 1 cup club soda
• 1 large handful of fresh raspberries
• 1 handful of fresh mint, additional sprigs for garnish
• 1 lime
• 1 lemon
• ice
• large pitcher, wooden spoon or muddler, cocktail glasses

First, take all of the fresh ingredients and add them to your pitcher.
Take care to wash everything and slice up the lime and lemon.

Muddle, muddle, muddle.

Next, add a good amount of ice to the pitcher, and then pour the liquors and the club soda over the ice.  Serve immediately to avoid the club soda going flat and the ice melting.

Voila! Garnish with a raspberry and a mint sprig.

So, what’s with the name?

One of the most iconic Marilyn Monroe movies — yep, the white dress/subway grate one — The Seven Year Itch was directed and co-written by Billy Wilder and was released in 1955.  Featuring an exceptionally hot summer in New York (ahem), the story details the overactive imagination of publishing executive Richard Sherman (a role that Tom Ewell originated on Broadway), who has been left to his own devices in the city while his wife (yep, of seven years) heads off to Maine for the summer with their son.  Settling in for a long, hot few months, Mr. Sherman is surprised to find his upstairs neighbors have sublet their apartment for the summer to a model (Monroe).  Proper Wilder-esque hijinks then ensue. It’s a lovely little film and one of my very favorites.  And when I thought about what I wanted to call my cocktail, I immediately thought of Marilyn’s dress, crisp and fresh in the hot city night.  Perfectly fitting, no?

Cheers!

YMC sailing jacket
Tibi striped crepe tank
MiH jean shorts
Warby Parker Preston gimlet tortoise glasses
MARC by Marc Jacobs silk scarf
Hunter wellies
A.P.C. anchor tote
Bodum Chambord coffee press

On the docket: a long, rainy, warm weekend to officially open the summer season — do your best to keep cool and dry and ready for any last-minute barbecues that you might happen upon.  I’m just back from my business trip to Boston and looking forward to catching up with some out-of-town friends, sleeping in a bit late and using my french press, and a picnic in Central Park (fingers crossed!).  My aspirational goals include a visit the Met to see the Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations exhibit, trying out John Derian’s blueberry smash cocktail recipe, and finishing a painting that I’m taking forever on.

Lastly, this weekend I will definitely take a moment to remember those who have died in service to our country, and I hope you will as well.

Have a lovely — and dry! — weekend!
What will you be getting up to?
xoxo. M.

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I don’t know this lovely couple personally, but I do know the groom is one half of the duo behind Rogue Territory, an excellent Los Angeles-based handmade denim goods company.  Nor do I personally know the photographer who shot this, but I do know he is the exceptionally talented Duncan Wolfe.  What else do I know?  That this film is perfect and beautiful and that I was left speechless after viewing it…and wanting to hop the next flight to CDG.  And while I don’t generally talk about weddings and such on here, I had to share.  It’s that good.

Congrats K & L.
May your life together be as filled with love and beauty
as these 4 minutes and 29 seconds are.

Many thanks to Ryan for the tip.

I’m off to Boston for a few days on business, and I thought it would be the perfect time to share this set of photos I discovered in the Life Archive.  They were taken in 1949 at the original Filene’s Basement, then called the “Automatic Bargain Basement” for the automatic schedule of its discount percentages (pegged to the number of days the item had been on sale).  Created in 1909 in the basement of Boston’s flagship Filene’s department store, Filene’s Basement was eventually spun off as its own entity and outlived the department store until it too became defunct in 2011.  Fun fact: it’s actually where the term “bargain basement” originated.

Sadly the gorgeous original flagship store at Downtown Crossing in Boston, built in 1912 and where these photos were taken, was largely demolished in 2007 after Filene’s went out of business.  Because only the building’s facade was landmarked, developers were free to gut the interiors of the building, which also dated back to 1912.  When those developers lost funding, the building was just left gutted — a huge, gaping hole with the facade looming like the ghost of sales past.  (I haven’t been to Downtown Crossing lately to see if anything has changed at the site — has anyone?)

In these photos, Life photographer George Silk captured the annual $11 suit and topcoat sale at Filene’s Basement.  Just like today’s sample sales, customers started forming a line for the 8:30am sale at 6:30am, and made a mad dash as soon as the doors were flung open.  In less than three hours, 5,000 garments were sold.  In the article, entitled “Improper Bostonians” (which you can read here), Life delightedly informs us that a 200-pound woman fainted and had to be carried away, a blind man was nearly trampled and a man posed as a salesman and swiped someone’s $11! 

Nice to see sample sales haven’t really changed all that much in over
60 years, even if the customers do look a little more refined!

Taken by George Silk for Life Magazine, via the Life Archive.

A springy New York weekend calls for refreshing hues & sparkling cocktails:

Paul & Joe Sister chambray blazer
Equipment signature sleeveless washed-silk shirt
Mulberry braided belt
Levi’s Made & Crafted mid-rise skinny jean
Illesteva Leonard sunglasses
Sam Edelman Sophie mid-heel wedge
Mulberry Alexa bag
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Pimm’s Cup No. 1

This week has been something of a grind, with jury duty (ugh!) and rainy days.  However, with a whole lot of sunshine on the docket for the weekend, my spirits are already lifting — so this pretty shade of tangerine seems completely apropos.  I’m loving it paired with crisp white denim and leather that’s a rich golden tan.

Sherbet shades aside, did you notice I’m in a distinctly “mid” kind of mood (e.g., the mid-rise jean and the mid-heel wedge)?  Indeed, I’ve gradually come to favor a higher rise, initially for its somewhat retro feel, but primarily because of the realization that its actually much more flattering for my body type.  But don’t get me wrong, I definitely was a hipbone-baring, low rise-wearing, blue jean baby a few years ago when I lived in Los Angeles.  I’m not sure what has changed my inclinations.  Age, perhaps?  Locality?  Comfort?  Confidence?  Some combination of them all?  The New York Times recently wrote about the personal process of breaking up with your formerly beloved fashion brands (you can read it here), and I couldn’t help but also think about the evolution of my personal style in the same context.  My 23 year-old midriff was practically an accessory, while today, despite being practically unchanged, rarely sees the light of day.  Perhaps I’ll break it out this weekend.  Please don’t hold your breath.

This weekend I will brunch in honor of friends running the Brooklyn Half, attend a performance of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at the Joyce, and repeatedly check the mailbox for the arrival of my new Owens from Warby Parker.  My aspirational goals include starting The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (I’ve something of an obsession with Northern Africa these days, more on that later) and making a Pimm’s Cup or two.  You can find a great Pimm’s Cup recipe here via NPR, as well as a short discussion of the very civilized and very British origins of the drink on All Things Considered.

Here’s to a grand weekend!
xoxo. M.

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A newly released cache of vintage beach photographs taken for Vogue Spain?
Don’t mind if I do…

Hop further down the rabbit hole here.

To see Edith Piaf and Théo Sarapo sing ”A Quoi Ça Sert L’amour?” live, head here.
Many thanks to Tara for bringing this to my attention.

Had a lovely time visiting the Brimfield Antique Show on Friday with Lani!  Luckily, we had lovely weather to match.  Unluckily, the week’s rain had kept away a lot of the other antique hunters for the better part of the week, resulting in a very crowded and lengthy drive in, but we didn’t let that get us down!

As to be expected of the Northeast’s (and perhaps the country’s?) largest antique show, Brimfield doesn’t really offer many deals.  The Brimfield dealer is savvy, picky even.  They know that somewhere, someone is wandering around in the fields that would be willing to pay their inflated prices, either because they don’t know any better or because they just don’t care about the cost.  And for good reason, as the creative services and design teams of some of the biggest mainstream Americana brands (Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie and Fitch) regularly sweep through Brimfield looking for inspiration (and pay top dollar for it).

That said, going to Brimfield is still a lot of fun — there’s great food and even better people watching.  There’s also some truly weird stuff out there.  It’s definitely my favorite Brimfield pastime to play “Didn’t you tell me you needed _______?”  In which the blank is filled in with the weirdest thing within sight, e.g, a Liberace pillow, a 5 foot-tall tea kettle, and the like.

Canadian yacht club plaques from the 1930s.

My Brimfield kit included:
wellies, a waxed cotton parka, and a Boat and Tote bag

The fonts! So good!

Butter dishes and Somersize. Best product placement ever.

Lani is excited for…

…some amazing lobster rolls.

Love my new leopard and zebra!
They join a thrifted elephant in my burgeoning apartment menagerie.

Also, if you’d fancy reading a post I did for the Rugby Ralph Lauren Style
blog about three style lessons I learned from my mom, you can find it here.

Apesi field jacket (mens)*
J.Crew Blythe blouse in pink
Oliver Peoples Sheldrake sunglasses
J.Crew windowpane scarf
J.Crew Abingdon waxed cotton tote (only $100!)
PF Flyers Sumfun lo in black canvas
Citizens of Humanity Elson straight leg jeans
Panasonic Lumix digital camera like this one
Lots and lots of cash (Dame Bassey knows what’s up)

Additional inclement weather ingredients to include:
This jacket by Brooks Brothers (mens, currently on sale!)
My green Hunter wellies

* It’s worth noting that because I only use item shots without a background (or a person wearing the item) in my collages, I’m really limited by what I can choose.  Please don’t think I mean to recommend you must drop nearly a thousand dollars on a field jacket.  It’s a great jacket and if you can afford it, by all means — but I definitely can’t.  See more affordable jacket options here and here. 

This weekend I am very excited to make my annual trip to the Brimfield Antique Show with Lani!  I will also spend time in Cambridge and Boston, is there anything I should do or see?

Have a lovely weekend!
xoxo. M.

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