When I heard CEO Jay Finch pitch SocStock (short for Social Stock) by Common Equity at Applied Brilliance’s 2011 event, I thought two things- first that I had never heard such a Gen Y-meets-finance proposal, and second that Brooklyn is about to face total take over. Never have I heard of such a timely tech launch.

So how does SocStock work? Say a local business that you love- perhaps a sandwich shop that makes things that taste like heaven- is hypothetically trying to expand and needs a new oven to keep up with demand of their immaculate sandwich The Singing Angels. Instead of applying for a small business loan that they might not get, The Sandwich Shop would ask their loyal patrons to invest something like $100 each of SocStock to be able to buy a new oven and keep up with demand. I, the loyal customer, would go to SocStock’s website, buy $100 worth of SocStock via my PayPal account, and would be reimbursed over the coming months with what could be behind the scenes tours, sandwich-making classes, or even discounted or store-credited Singing Angels sandwiches. 

As an alternative for small businesses applying for small business loans that are virtually impossible to come by these days as banks continue to constrict, it’s simply Brilliant. 

Filed Under: The Bad Brilliance of Drive

I have to admit, before this weekend, I did not get the Ryan Gosling thing. I knew that there was a Ryan Gosling thing, I just didn’t get it. But after seeing Drive this weekend, I fully get the Ryan Gosling thing.

Unbelievable neo film noire set in the underbelly of LA’s crime scene, director Nicolas Winding Refn captures what could be considered a modern western- more gore than you might have anticipated, but moreover one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful cinematic masterpieces, with a perfect sound score, and a touching love story between Gosling and Mulligan. My only want was more of Christina Hendrix; looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer to see her become a full-fledged film actor (though it seems inevitable). 

Missoni for Target is already sold out! The Target website is down because they have so many hits! How will the masses get their Missoni?!!

In case you haven’t read our previous post on the Missoni for Target collection, Missoni for Target launched this morning and already Targets around the country are sold out. Influencers everywhere are at their wits’ end. God only knows if they will restock as fast as the flood of demand for the record-breaking collaboration.

An article today in Lifehacker demonstrates how to create your own, surprisingly effective, Wifi Extender with an empty aluminum can. Apparently, you really only have to cut the can, (clean and dry the body and cap of the can) and attach to you modem with silly putty. Anyone who is siphoning off someone else’s wifi in their apartment- you can now get a better signal to watch Netflix with! Nearly a perfect article for Gen Y- how to recycle your way into better wifi.

A great article in Jezebel today reviewed a new prototype for a German model IUD by Berlin-based designer Ronen Kadushin that uses the copper of a single euro cent to act as a means of contraception. The prototype, though clearly in its preliminary design phase, address a huge issue of woman looking for alternatives to the IUD pharmaceutical companies charging hundreds of dollars for what is essentially a plastic and copper parts model. Ladies it’s time to crack open that piggy bank!

I could not be more adamant about matching recently. Which, strangely enough, puts me at odds with most of my fashionable peers; clashing is all the rage, clashing-centric editorials condemn matching to prove their point that it is all about clashing, not matching. All the same, I am becoming a matching freak. I blame it first on Betty Draper, who I am convinced is happy with the ease she must have when choosing her sweater sets, skirt suit ensembles. Who is going to try to tell me that Betty Draper isn’t scintillating in a skirt suit? 

Secondly, I blame pieces like the above from No.21’s 2010 Resortwear collection, or below Maria + Corneja 2012 Resort. There is nothing better than this in my mind. What’s more is the upcoming Fall 2011 ladylike trend has me thinking that matchy-matchy is on the rise, encouraging coordination of intricate patterns and textures.

Y’s are funny about Bohemia. We want it in very practical, secure doses; surfing, camping, spelunking, trailer road-tripping. Which is exactly why El Cosmico in Marfa TX is a fantastic idea- a hotel campground of beautiful retro airstream campers and teepees, outdoor showers, and fireside kitchens where Y’s can pay a moderately affordable amount to let go of the reins of our tech-saturated day to day. A retreat into rustic, southwestern bohemia, no internet or indoor restrooms? Yes please.

On the Foursquare Walking Tour Tuesday I was led through the Manhattan downtown neighborhood of Tribeca, directed by Alex Rainert, their Head of Product on a maze of cool-mom spots from an artisinal lemonade stop to a handcrafted wooden toy shop (buyer beware- I am not a mom, but the experience of walking through the introduction of an emerging tech tool is not to be resisted!). The tour was the perfect synthesis of realworld experience with emerging tech that today’s consumers crave; a necessary grounding component to a technology that some might think takes away the last stronghold, previously untouched by social media- place. 

After the tour over a few drinks the Foursquare PR team and I had a conversation about serendipity and location-based technology, that people generally think that tech tools like Foursquare take real life serendipity out of the equation- when really it was designed to put it back in. Almost everyone at the table had an anecdote of Foursquare amping up serendipity. I also liked it when they mentioned that their CEO describes designing Foursquare to be used to get to a place, and then to disappear (as opposed to some tech tools that are designed to keep users on the site). Have since become the office Foursquare spokesperson, as I near mayorship of the McQueen exhibit at the Met!

Entering Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum on the weekend is like entering the depths of a Metallica concert; throngs of sweaty New Yorkers packed in between the corners of the room looked up at the romantic/ gothic figures that were sometimes more Silence of the Lambs than Isabella Blow. Even so, the show is masterfully curated, definitely one of the best exhibits of the year, anywhere. The exhibit ends August 7th.

This year’s resort wear/ summer collections have been completely dominated by lounge wear, as well as street fashion and leaked into mainstream labels  But now, the real question is which came first- Steve Madden introducing pony hair slippers mid-summer or the launch and quick unleashing of Celine’s street-ready silk pajama sets? Was is a bottomless Gwyneth, clothed solely in a classic Brooks Brothers’ boyfriend pajama shirt in that Vogue editorial last August? I like to think it’s all the meow meow people are taking, all that planking, that has people a little bit more hesitant to leave their bedclothes behind.

Labels shown clockwise,

Salvatore Farragamo Men’s Spring/Summer 2011

Celine Spring/Summer 2011

Karen Walker Spring/ Summer 2011

The Sartorialist 

Rochas Spring/Summer 2011

Bottega Veneta Slipper 

The last two summers have harkened the coming of the needlepoint belt, without much to show for it. But the recent move of Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon and Carol Kim to major fashion label Kenzo might mean that this niche WASP accessory could finally make its way into international fashion limelight. 

Last summer the New York Times editorial, Belts That Spare Muffy the Heartbreak, told the history of the needlepoint belt- that it was called The Breakup Belt because young girls would make them for their beaus and often (always?) the process of needlepointing the length of the belt would outlast the relationship. Personal anecdote: last summer I decided to take my chance at needlepointing a belt for a longtime boyfriend whose birthday was approaching. Suffice to say, I broke up with him a month later and the belt carried on in notoriety.