Nothing Quite Like Neon

This post is for you baghags and art & fashion lovers out there!

I've been assigned by my On The Radar editor, Cecile Van Straten, to write about Rock on Mars, the retrospective exhibition on the work of Stephen Sprouse, the downtown Manhattan fashion designer and artist best known for his punk, rock and grafitti splattered creations. Oh, and should I even mention, the now collectible collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton in 2001? I'm sure that body of work you remember very well!

So yesterday, a Friday, I made a trip to SoHo to Deitch Projects to check out the exhibit. But not before dropping by the LV store on Greene Street to get the Pink Neverfull GM for CVS!

When I got there at 11 am, I was greeted by the bright orange graffiti outside the store! I was super pleased there was no line, after all the store just opened. But as I opened the door, a guard asked me if I was invited. "Invited to what?" I asked. "The private event" he said. Ooooh, that explains the limos and Town Cars parked outside I thought. He told me to come back at 2 PM, when the store would be open for business. Drat!



I looked forlornly at the display window. Much like this lady in the photo...


...who was already clutching a Louis Vuitton paper bag. She told me she had just come from the Fifth Ave store and got herself the Rose Speedy. But she thought of getting the wallet, and the graffiti line was sold exclusively here at the SoHo store. "Which of the Speedies do you like better?" she asked me. And I assured her, I liked her pick.

Since I had time to kill, I walked around Broadway, ducked into Uniqlo, H&M and Mango to check out their sales and avoided APC, Miu Miu and Y-3 like the plague (hey no high end shopping, scratch that, no shopping allowed for me! Just letting time pass you know!). With still a lot of time on my hands, I headed out to a friend's place on Broadway, and snacked on chocolate chip cookies as they happily ate their lunch, wrapping fresh sushi, rice, cucumbers and avocado on nori wrappers and dunking it into wasabi spiced Kikkoman. They told me to join in on the fun, but I'm not allowed to eat raw food and had to decline. Drat again!

By 1:30 PM, I told them I should go back to the LV store in case there was a line out. And true enough, this was what greeted me this time!



So I stood in line, in the freezing cold, and struck up a conversation with the girl in front of me, who just told me she was sick but just had to go and get her bag, and the elderly man behind us, who drove from New Jersey so that he could get the Pink Speedy for his wife's 70th birthday (cue collective "Awww!" from us girls here)! So we chatted for a good hour or so, and talked about everything under the sun, until it felt like we were friends forever. Finally, the doors opened at 2:30ish and I was able to get what I came for!



Which brought tears to Cecile's eyes, awww again!

With the more important mission accomplished (haha!) I then walked a couple of blocks to Wooster Street and got permission to take photos (with prior clearance from the powers that be of Deitch Projects) for my article coming out next Sunday! Read all about it On The Radar in the Philippine Star next week ok!

In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures I took with my Canon point and shoot!











Of course, the limited edition bags were there as well, chained together like prisoners from Guantanamo Bay (ok I may be exaggerating here!)









The Keepalls by the way, are out of stock in the SoHo store, sold out on the first couple of hours upon release!

Oh and wouldn't you want this in your living room?



I'd be scared to sit on this though, the paint might rub off?



Wear or Wall?