My feelings on Black Friday

Happy belated Thanksgiving!! I hope your turkey day was full of family time and fantastic food. This year I truly got to enjoy the day/weekend since I wasn’t working in a store for the first time in years. To all of the retail warriors aka employees out there this weekend.. good luck! I truly appreciate you taking the time away from your families and pumpkin pie, for this consumeristic society. As you can probably tell I have such a love-hate relationship with all of this.

Shout out to Mod Cloth for “taking a break” from Black Friday. They’re donating over $5 million in merchandise to Dress for Success and their site is down until Saturday 11/25/17. What a statement! It also really speaks to how much they appreciate their employees, even more than 50% off of high waisted bikini bottoms. I love that.

After lots of family time, I spent my evening on Thanksgiving in bed with my little sister, binge watching romantic comedies and barely surviving our food comas. It was fantastic, I highly recommend it. We then slept in until 10am on Friday, because what better way to spend a day off from work/school… my sister is going to brunch with a friend now, to get re-energized before we hit a few stores.

My Mom and I, Thanksgiving 2017

I probably sound like a hypocrite congratulating Mod Cloth for boycotting the same day that I am taking part in elsewhere, but hear me out: I have no problem with finding a good deal, but I think everyone should have the opportunity to celebrate the holiday ENTIRELY.

I find it repulsive that JCPenney opened at 2pm on Thanksgiving. My heart aches for the people who were robbed of the valuable family time. When Aunt Linda gives you the inquisition about why you’re single, living at home, etc. before your turkey coma, remember some people are deprived of that. Even if family time strongly encourages you to drink, it’s your time, and their are people who are being paid (more, but not enough) to clean up messes and deal with the most rude people ever. You can tell Aunt Linda to shove it, these workers only wish they could.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the latest retail trend/fad never justifies belittling, arguing and demeaning other people who are just trying to make a living. Never forget that.

Say please! Say thank you! Clean up after yourself in a dressing room! If the associate says that they are out of a product, PLEASE do not ask them to check the back. Put things where they belong. Genuinely appreciate the service or lack of service (because they are helping someone else) that you are getting, because there are people working hard out there to just survive the day that you are relaxing and indulging on.

So yeah, I’m going to Old Navy for $1 pairs of fuzzy socks this afternoon.. but even though I’m purchasing the aforementioned unnecessary hosiery, I’m not going to ruin everyone else’s Friday in the process.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things, but especially for the people aka retail slaves who allowed me to celebrate this weekend with the people I love. The $1 socks are just a bonus (and because Old Navy is awesome they’re donating $1 to the Boys and Girls Club, up to $1 million for every pair purchased too).

The truth about Buffalo Fashion Week

Last week, downtown Buffalo was nearly unrecognizable. Buffalo Fashion Week transformed the city previously dubbed “least fashionable” into something magical. I had the opportunity to attend the Walden Galleria Mall Show, Mansion on Deleware Boutique Show, and Main Event as press! I met some fabulous up and coming designers as well as already established ones (take Project Runway Season 10 4th runner up Christopher Palu for example!!). I even saw E.J Manuel, Quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Did you have the opportunity to mingle with some of Buffalo’s elite and fashion forward? I’m thrilled to say that I did.

Press Conference with Christopher Palu

I sat front row, and so did EJ Manuel!!!

I must be completely honest and say that September 19-26 (BFW) was not all flowers and rainbows though. The Mall Show was a total flop, communication with the people behind the scenes left a lot to be desired, and the Boutique Show started at 8 (2 hours later than press was informed), and then only lasted 30 minutes… I may not be the Buffalo News, but I still consider my time valuable and I had a lot of homework to do (#collegekidproblems).

The good news is: unlike the Buffalo News, I don’t have to be as concerned with making BFW look good, I can just be honest.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM:

*The mall show should not occur for <10 minutes every hour for 4 hours. If this is going to be the style of the show, you will lose your audience and they will leave (like fellow blogger Meg and I did).

*The boutiques and vendors at the Boutique Show were fantastic, but press had to stand behind the audience, and was given no real direction. It looks unprofessional.

*There was a bar, but no free food or drinks available at the Boutique Show to appease the overpaying audience and underpaid press. This should be changed in the future.

*I know what being a volunteer is like, so please do not embarrass them as well as yourself by leaving them ill-informed. Volunteers need to have basic knowledge: where the bathrooms are, if guests can re-enter the event, etc.

*Do not treat your volunteers as if they are beneath you. It’s slimy. (Note: also do not treat your volunteers as beneath you until you find out they are press)

*Send out a memo of what your volunteers and press are expected to wear: I had no idea about wearing all black, I was just fortunate enough to guess correctly.

*At the Main Event I had to endure the embarrassment of not having prepared interview questions because originally I was supposed to volunteer. This “miscommunication” required that I become extremely innovative, quickly. Also, I was not provided with a list of designers so that I could research beforehand, therefore I had only basic knowledge of “who’s who”.

So that other press/bloggers do not have to endure the same humiliation, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE inform them in advance about where they will be, who they will meet, etc.

Maybe, I’m blunt and “they” won’t want to hear it, but you (preppy readers) deserve to know about how fashion week really went.

I know that there is always chaos in fashion, and that this is only Buffalo’s 5th year, but hopefully next year my constructive criticism will help the rest of the week’s events to improve. The Main Event at the Statler City was well worth going to. I sat front row for a few shows (you can call me Buffalo’s Anna Wintour from now on -LOL), had VIP access, and met other people active in Buffalo’s tiny fashion industry. I hope that my commentary does not limit me from having that opportunity in 2014, but I simply could not leave these comments out of my post and feel authentic.

Take a look at some photos from the Main Event (9.26):

The Newspaper Dress

Sitting front row!

Maria Allen’s Balloon Dress

So many unconventional designs!

Maria Allen’s Cup Dress

That model is probably still scrubbing gold paint off.

Franci Jewelry designer Nicole has plans to attend NYFW & LAFW!

There were some romantic looks mixed in., marc ella new york, buffalo fashion week

Marc Ella NY brough some romantic looks into the show.

marc ella new york, fashion week, buffalo fashion week

Check out MENY Designer Brenda Liz in the same design as on the runway!

Some of the press team!, buffalo fashion week

Can’t forget about the press team!

All in all, I am happy that I was involved with BFW. It was a learning experience where I got to connect with some wonderful people.

Have you ever been involved with a small city’s fashion week?

Beyonce got a hair cut. (the latest life ruining event in pop culture)

Beyonce got a hair cut.

And the world is reacting worse than they did when we thought the Mayans cursed us with an “apocalypse” in 2012.

I agree, that Bey should have given us a warning or at least a courtesy call before making such a drastic decision: but this is hardly the 2007 stunt that Brittany Spears pulled!

Beyonce made a huge lifestyle change. Maybe it was the result of a mid-life crisis, but I like to give Queen B more credit than that. This was probably an educated decision (otherwise known as a publicity stunt) that will be fixed by a wig/weave shortly, right?

And hopefully those roots/that hair color in general are taken care of too. I don’t know about you, but if I was ridiculously famous and made an awful decision like this, there would be an overpaid stylist somewhere that no longer had a customer base. I would make sure of it.

You think I’m overreacting? I’m certainly not the only one that’s upset. Check out twitter, or more importantly the account of the twitter king himself Vuanh Dang aka Judgemental Gay:

I’m half expecting him to start a petition on change.org to have Bey’s hair stylist executed.

How are you handling Beyonce’s new look?

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