Monthly Archives

December 2015

Lifestyle

The Magic After Midnight

On a night like New Year’s Eve, when everyone dresses up and dances into the night in celebration of a new day, life can feel like a vibrant dream, reminiscent of a fairytale.

Thinking back, in Cinderella’s case though, the magic lasted only until midnight. Once she got ready to attend the ball with the help of her fairy godmother, rode away into the night on her pumpkin-turned-carriage, and danced on glass with her true love, our princess only had a few brief hours to seize her opportunity at a life of royalty and freedom, before she morphed back into a withered servant.

Indeed, Cinderella’s pre-midnight-magic enabled her life changing dance with the prince during the ball; nevertheless, the true spark, the main event, if you will, occurred following the ball, after the clock struck twelve, as the prince sought through the entire kingdom to find his mystery girl the next day. And when he did, it was love at first sight all over again, even after the magic seemingly expired. Soon after, Cinderella turned into a princess, but more importantly, she became an autonomous individual without the help of any “bippity boppity boo” magic, but as a result of her own power and choice to keep hope alive for love. She courageously shattered conventional class standards, to openly welcome what the future beheld for her, even after the magic faded.

Here in reality, the defining moment of our New Year’s Eve will also be when the clock strikes twelve – with champagne bubbling, corks popping, glittering confetti streaming through the air, and lovers sharing a kiss at the final countdown. Even though our evening festivities peak at twelve AM, New Year’s Eve celebrates the lasting promise of new beginnings, full of excitement, hope, romance, and infinite possibility, that continue well beyond the “3-2-1” into the following chapters of our lives.

So with all due respect to the classic tale, Cinderella’s fairy godmother was wrong: the magic doesn’t expire at midnight; midnight is just the beginning. Let us celebrate this next beginning to embrace all of the enchanting, fresh chances that follow the countdown. As Cinderella teaches us in part, we must bask in the magic that lingers on the other side of midnight – the wonder that perpetuates eternally that doesn’t come from the wave of a wand, but from within ourselves and our faith in the sparkling mystery of what’s next.

Chelsea Market – 75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Fashion & Style

Baseball & Backpacks

Baseball is undeniably a pastime definitive of our national culture. Emblematic of victory, our country’s history, and the enthusiastic pride we take in athletic competition, the baseball glove itself serves as an American sports icon.

I am by no means your classic sports enthusiast, but I appreciate the culture rooted in athleticism – abundant with fan excitement, team camaraderie, and memories of the game that we all take away with us. Although the extent of my participation at a baseball game merely reaches the edges of the sidelines, I have worn a baseball glove before for an amateur game of catch, as I’m sure we all have at some point in our lives. We’ve all slipped our fingers through the mitt’s opening, as our bare skin grazes its firm leather, to throw ball with a friend or family member. And while my interaction with baseball gloves was rare growing up, the athletic staple recently introduced itself into my life – in a rather inventive and fashionable way.

Wandering through SoHo one afternoon, I passed by COACH’s window display. The American brand boasted a row of beautifully crafted leather backpacks in its window, inevitably luring me into the boutique. Nathaniel, the sales associate, greeted me. As I picked up the Manhattan Bag off the shelf, Nathaniel explained the item’s significance: in celebration of COACH’s 75^th anniversary, the aesthetics behind this particular bag in the collection stems from the initial inspiration that led to COACH’s conception – a baseball glove.

The brand’s founding piece, dating back to 1941, was its Manhattan Leather Bags. The company founder was impressed by the design of a baseball glove, inspiring him to create a handbag with similar attributes. Like a baseball glove, COACH’s first collection of bags was made from tan, supple, high quality leather, and featured excellent stitch work and craftsmanship.

While the brand has notably evolved since its birth almost a century ago, its current collection of luxury bags tastefully revisits its roots, paying homage to the sport in a fresh context: The new, revitalized Manhattan Bag that I saw is uniquely crafted in black textured leather with large olive green pockets, suede accents on its sides and base, and thick caramel brown accent stitching around the sides – reinterpreting the appearance of a baseball glove from a contemporary stance. Even the bag’s leather is soft and sensitive, prone to scratches and marks, like a baseball glove that becomes charmingly withered with each use.

When I tried on the backpack and looked in the mirror before making my purchase, I felt pleasantly divided between two different worlds: the world of fashion and the world of sports. I never would have guessed that two contrasting forces could intermingle and marry to produce something so beautiful. Even more so, I never expected to wear something every day inspired by a baseball glove – a symbol of a realm of which I am merely an observer.

Countering the age-old saying, therefore, it seems that opposites actually do not attract, simply and seamlessly merging in unison. Nevertheless, as the Manhattan Bag exemplifies, opposites can be deliberately combined, patched and woven together into a new product with an innovative function. And when two contrasting worlds collide – such as fashion and sports, or the acquainted and the unfamiliar – they can exist harmoniously and even inspire us, blurring the boundaries between our different worlds and the sidelines on which we stand.

COACH – 143 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012

Sights

Paperweight Hearts

During my morning commute to work, I let my senses wander aimlessly per usual, basking in December’s chilled sunlight and the aroma that is Magnolia Bakery. And as I stood there across the Village’s sanctuary of sweets, on the corner of Bleecker Street and West 11^th Street, my eyes were drawn to the glimmering window display in front of Bookmarc – a quaint jewel of a shop, part of the Marc Jacobs empire. This time, though, it wasn’t the store’s eclectic collection of coffee table books that caught my attention, but rather, two small red hearts that winked at me through the glass.

I had some time to spare, so I listened to my own heart and walked into the store. I picked up the small, red, leather hearts off the wooden table, sitting on top of unraveled brown paper wrapping, and held them each in my palms. I looked closely; the word “YES” was embossed at each heart’s center in large text.

The man that worked behind the counter explained that the items are paperweights to be placed on a coffee table or office desk. I held both hearts next to one another, staring at them. From afar and at a cursory glance, they looked exactly the same. But when examined closely, the paperweights themselves differed ever so slightly: One was heavier than the other, each of their stitching faintly varied in thickness, and the leathers possessed feeble nuances in pattern and texture. The only element that was consistent between the two was the “YES” engraved on each.

The hearts in the window were the last two in stock, and the store is not expecting to receive any more. I eagerly bought one of the hearts, leaving the last one for another hopeless romantic to claim as his or her own.

I left Bookmarc and continued walking down Bleecker Street, as I slipped the paperweight in my backpack. At that moment, I had two full hearts: one replete with leather and stuffing, wrapped inside my bag, and the other one beating in my chest, filled with joy and excitement from my new purchase.

Just as the two paperweight hearts subtly differ from one another, so do we as human beings. Yet, we all possess this same organ within our rib cages that pumps blood and sustains us, with our veins acting as their stitching. And while we are all unique, each of our distinct hearts behold the same essential purpose: to let us live and to feel. In life, personal intricacies aside, we are all exposed to love – an emotion and a state of mind that ultimately makes us vulnerable. In this sense, we can feel as though our hearts are as heavy and susceptible to being ripped and torn as a leather paperweight.

When I got back to my apartment and set my paperweight down on my coffee table, I briefly pondered over the sight of my new trinket; maybe this fear of vulnerability is that which sometimes prevents us from revealing our hearts openly to others. The reason the paperweights sparked my interest and grabbed my attention so charmingly through Bookmarc’s glass window was because they were unwrapped and exposed to the world proudly for all shoppers to see, unconcealed beneath any brown paper packaging.

Perhaps, therefore, we must take note from these paperweights and remove the inhibitions wrapped around our own human hearts – to make them visible to those around us and to bare our potential to love. If we seize this freedom of being uncovered and unhidden by our fears, we can then embrace the possibility engraved at our cores: to be beautifully vulnerable, to exist boldly and openly, and to say, “YES” – to love and to life.

And in doing so, in living free of the worries we might tie to the prospect of love, we invite the space for romance to exist around us – for another person to respond, and to gravitate towards our open hearts that we display in the glass windows of our souls.