Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2014 NYC

Starting today, don’t forget to tune in via Live Stream! Let me know your favorite runways! Enjoy!!!

http://newyorkfashionweeklive.com/LIVE

February 6 to the 13th!

Letia 😊

Courtesy of New York Fashion Week Live, Indue Fashion Media!

A Perfect Wait at the Carlyle Hotel – New York City

Early last week, I met one of my friends at the Carlyle Hotel in NYC for lunch!   I was quite early and I knew there was about 20 minutes to go before their arrival.   I hadn’t been at this hotel for years, this would be my second time!  I love this hotel because of its history and the interior design.

Immediately you seem to be put right back in time, although some of the furniture is current – the style still resembles the 1930’s time period.  However, I must say there are still true overall hints of authenticity; which is so delightfully present in the Carlyle Hotel today.

Taking a seat, I wondered if anyone notices? Like the Chinese Chippendale mirror, the Art Deco style of crown moldings, the marble floors with its inlay of granite!  How the chandeliers are pristine and inversely high in the ceiling, beautiful.  The curves of each stair on the staircase – each stair was one entire piece of marble.  I could have sat there forever, it was so hard not to concentrate on every nook and cranny….I was trying not be so obvious (so I took a few snapshots)!  

The elevators, originals!  Each only 4 ft wide and little over 6 ft tall; many have to walk in sideways!  A total of 5 elevator doors; all giving a very lovely scene.

What a wonderful experience to also be still and watch the guests come and go out of the Carlyle Hotel lobby!  Each elevator door has a maître ‘d.  “Hello, sir!  Floor 30?”  “Floor 18.”  Beep goes the elevator,  as the door closes; another one opens!

Beep…just saw the actor, Brad Garrett from the television show Everyone Loves Raymond!! I love his new show, How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)!  I’d smiled when Mr. Garrett had to bend his head to get in the elevator, he’s only 6 ft 8 1/2 inches tall!   

Beep, the maître d is giving directions, “Mam, the tea room is to the right.”, looking immaculate with his dark grey suite, silk black tie and spit polished shoes; so shiny – you could see your face!  Beep! “11th floor please!” Beep! “Bonjour.”  “Which floor are we going?” “18”.

My friend arrives!  So I sigh!  Off to Cafe Carlyle for lunch, where we talk while enjoying a delicious crab cake and their special martinis.

Other patrons were having fancy imported teas and lovely cakes; some where reading their newspapers and others were asking questions about getting to Times Square in time for a Broadway play.

I really enjoyed myself, the atmosphere was so very nice, I just kept imagining how wonderful it must have been to be here to hear Bobby Short play!   It was a great day indeed!  So, if you ever get the chance to visit New York City, the Carlyle Hotel is a must to see!

The Carlyle Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, is a combination luxury and residential hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, in the Upper East Side area of New York City. The hotel is designed in Art Deco style and was named after Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle.

The new thirty-five floor hotel “was to be a masterpiece in the modern idiom, in which shops and restaurants on the lower floors would give residents the convenience and comforts of a “community skyscraper”. However, by the time the Carlyle was ready to open its doors, the 1929 stock market crash had decisively ended the boom times. The new hotel struggled, went into receivership in 1931 and was sold to the Lyleson Corporation in 1932.  The new owners kept the original management, which was able to dramatically improve the property’s financial situation through maintaining high occupancy and rates favorable to the hotel’s costs. However, the hotel’s reputation at this time was “staid rather than ritzy”.  The next postwar boom allowed the hotel to take on new high-society prominence.

The Carlyle became known as “the New York White House” during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor for the last ten years of his life. He stayed at the apartment in a well-publicized visit for a few days just prior to his inauguration in January 1961. Marilyn Monroe was sneaked in through the service entrance on East 77th Street.

The hotel’s Café Carlyle has featured a number of well-known jazz performers – notably George Feyer from 1955–1968, and Bobby Short from 1968-2004. Woody Allen and his jazz band have been playing weekly at the café since 1996.  The Carlyle is the regular residence of Mick Jagger, when he is in New York.

The Café Carlyle is noted for the murals by Marcel Vertes, which were cleaned in the summer of 2007 as part of a renovation and redecoration of the café.  Reopening in September 2007, making it appeal to a younger generation.

Related articles

• Bemelmans Bar (storms.typepad.com)  
• Luxury hotels in New York: reviews (telegraph.co.uk)

 Letia 🙂

Pictures by Letia Mitchell LifeStyle & Design.  Brad Garrett photo by http://www.fanpop.com

Warby Parker… Their Eyewear is Awesome and I Love My Selection!

Last month, I took a trip down to Soho, New York based on a recommendation by Gayle King.  She recently visited Warby Parker to select new frames.  Based on her rave review, I said let me go see too!

There are various showrooms in New York, however there are additional showrooms across the country!  Not one near you, don’t worry – Warby Parker has this great program for anyone who love convenience!

Get this! They will send you up to 5 pairs of glasses to try on at home for 5 days free, even include a pre-paid return shipping label to send them back to Warby Parker with no obligation to buy (this is offered to anyone in the contiguous 48 states).

And…..if you’re not 100% satisfied with your new glasses for any reason (any reason), call them or send an email  –  a pre-paid return shipping label will be sent allowing you to return your glasses for free. Not even a question asked!

The Selecion made at Warby Parker

Great styles, great selections and a friendly staff I found at the SoHo showroom!  I love their dove-gray and signature blue eyeglass case! Not to mention, their website takes in consideration the customer who wears glasses!  Great fonts, easy to read and not too much, but just enough information to get on your way to do a selection with their virtual models!

Warby Parker

However, the most important thing that I love about Warby Parker is for every pair purchased, they give a pair to someone in need!

Eye exams and eyeglasses can be quite costly.  I without a thought, get my routine exam and every year look to see the latest frame styles! As for others, it’s a struggle just to obtain an examination and then glasses.

Warby Parker’s co-founder Neil Blumenthal previously served as VisionSpring’s director and helped pioneer VisionSpring’s model to train low-income women to sell affordable glasses in their communities.

By doing this jobs are created, glasses are provided to customers who lose or break them; plus prescriptions!   It’s trickling down effect which does good work! Wonderful work by Warby Parker and Vision Spring!

So you want to see the frames I selected with my prescription?  Well watch!

 

Warby Parker Thank You!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letia 🙂

 www.warbyparker.com      Photos by Letia Mitchell LfeStyle & Design LLC