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World Cup Fever at Slate

Miguel — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:36:16 +0000

Slate Drop Store 1 – First Month’s Results

Miguel — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:03:01 +0000

This Sunday marked the end of the first month of the new Slate NYC drop store; the only sensible place for anyone in the 6th Avenue/12th Street vicinity to get eco-affordable laundry, dry cleaning, tailoring and home cleaning services.

May 2010 Stats:

Added 2 employees to our payroll (Fabiola and Edgar- two fantastic people with an extraordinary obsession with delivering a top-notch customer experience)
Sales of $4,657 (net of promotions)
50 new customers
Over 20% repeat purchasers
10 days from getting keys to first sale (watch the video of the store here)
Provided seating in our outdoor bench to many of the neighborhood’s elderly and attendants at the next door nail saloon.
3 new friends for Gillie (meet them here)
Two tweets from people walking by:

In other words, we built the best-designed dry clean drop store ever anywhere in less than 10 days, added two jobs to the Department of Labor’s payroll employment report for QII 2010, managed to get 50 previous strangers to trust us with their clothes and more than 10 to keep using us regularly already, revitalized a storefront that had been empty for over 9 months, and generated work for services from designers, printers, lawyers, and IT people. High-five for entrepreneurship!

PS: May also happens to be the birth month of Slate NYC. 5 years ago on May 15 I incorporated the company and sold my first car to finance the purchase of our first delivery van (used, with 250,000 miles, on eBay) and build our website and scheduling system. Feliz cumpleanos to us!

Gillie + Friends

Miguel — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:14:41 +0000

Gillie meeting the neighbors at the new Slate NYC drop store in Greenwich Village (474 6th Avenue 10011).

Case Study | Alexis’s Dress

Miguel — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:25:49 +0000

We just finished cleaning Alexis’s stunning Carlos Miele dress. She came back from a trip to Vegas where she obviously had way too much fun. Her dress was completely covered in a combination of alcohol and mixing juices. To make matters worse, there was a stain that had caused discoloration because of the efforts to remove it.

Our expert spotters worked their magic and now Alexis has permission to get dirty. If you too have the habit of having way too much fun and want to get permission to get dirty you can get it at slatenyc.com

86° F Clear and Sunny, Winds From WSW at 15mph gusting to 25mph

Tules — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:05:07 +0000

Yesterday’s high came within a degree of setting a new record in Central Park. That was topped this afternoon when the mercury blasted up to 91 degrees, breaking the 1991 record of 89! The hot, dry weather combined with a breezy afternoon have led the Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for the area. Temperatures will remain in the 70s along south facing shores thanks to a sea breeze, demonstrating why Coney Island was hugely popular before air conditioning was invented. Shifting winds and late afternoon clouds will hold tomorrow’s high to the lower 80s.

A day like this and I almost called in sick to work to run away to long beach. But the responsible one in my head made me go into work and sadly stare out the window daydreaming of the day I could have had. Oh the sorrows of being an adult.

Also, if you happen to bump into Francis Ford Coppola or Jackie Chan today, please wish them a very happy birthday for me.

Ladies:

1. Basic White Tank top

$45 @ www.clubmonaco.com

2. Asymetric Leather and Cotton Skirt

$595 @ www.net-a-porter.com

3. Balenciaga Womens Handbag

$970 @ www.yoox.com

Guys:

1. Rakun Check Shirt

$61.20 @ www.yesstyle.com

2. Men’s 3 eye shoe by band of outsiders

$199 @ www.sperrytopsider.com

3. Silver Movember Cuff-link

$65 @ www.arbitrage.com

4. Frogskins Collectors Editions

$120 @ www.oakley.com

5. Gradient Hat By Robert Geller

$265 @ www.blackbird.com

6. Obey Poor Boy Khakis

$92 @ www.blackbird.com

“Get on Your Bikes and Ride!”~Queen (Fat Bottomed Girls)

Tules — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:02:33 +0000

A European Approach to Personalizing Your Bicycle

Springtime is upon us. Freed from winter clothes, accessories get to shine. Here in NYC, our bicycles are just tools that we use to get around. We don’t give them names or fetishize about them, we just use them. However, if you’re going to spend half your life on your bicycle, you may as well personalize it a bit. We need to be a bit more like Copenhagen or Amsterdam, you see the bicycle, above, quite often around European cities and it is the ultimate personalized example. Simply gorgeous.

I suppose this isn’t really a How To Guide but more of a source of inspiration from the cyclists of Copenhagen and Amsterdam to you. With love.

There are different reasons to personalize your bike. To make it look a bit nicer, to make it match your personal style, to hide the rust, to make it less attractive to thieves. Whatever the case, the sky is the limit and only you can make it your own.

Off we go then. We’ll start with a timeless classic:

Flowers on Baskets and Other Bits of Bicycle

Flowers on baskets are almost as old as the bicycle. After the invention around the 1880’s of the Safety Bicycle – the design we know today that liberated women and the working classes and provided homo sapiens with the fastest and most effective urban mobility boom in history – baskets were among the first bicycle accessories to appear. Women carried baskets already and it wasn’t a quantum leap to start putting them onto the handlebars. Later came back racks and pannier bags but baskets were first.

It’s difficult to pin down when women started decorating their baskets with flowers but by all accounts we’re still in the late 1800’s. I adore the fact that this most simple and elegant personalizing detail lives on even today. Many flowers are plastic but here in the spring I’ve seen several examples of real flowers or pussy willows branches adorning baskets.

You’re not restricted to the baskets, of course. The back rack is just as suitable, as well as the steering rod and the rest of the bike. And flora on baskets is not a seasonal issue. In the autumn, why not decorate the basket with leaves like my friend, Clara, with her lovely pink bicycle?

Painting The Frame or Stickering It

The whole damn bicycle is personalizable. Is that a word? Who cares. Armed with stickers, paint or even tinsel, you can go crazy.

A classic Christiania bike stickered ad, and a hand-painted bicycle belonging to a girl named Susanne, apparently.

Paint zebra stripes on your fenders, let the world know that it’s your bicycle or get creative with stickers.

Bicycle Bells and Horns

Bells are another way to leave your mark on your bicycle. Bells are required by law in Denmark, so you have every reason to get one. Like this teapot bike bell, above.

Coffee, tea or me, baby?

There are loads of bells out there but there are also squeaky toys and horns. These are all adult bicycles, by the way. You can also go old school with a vintage bell like the old Husqvarna one at bottom left or the lovely, rusty one on the bottom right.

Decorating Your Skirtguard

Decorating your skirtguard is an obvious choice. It’s like a canvas waiting for an artist. Here are a couple of amusing examples from the streets of Copenhagen. On the skirtguard to the left the owner has highlighted the hi-tech features on the bicycle; Fingerprint reader, Theftproof, GPS Monitoring, Neighbourhood Watch.
On the bicycle to the right it reads, “Next time, don’t touch my bike. If you do, do it nicely. Thank you.”

Decorating Your Chain-guard

Chain-guard decoration is one area of bicycle personalization that it often overlooked. Putting funky fabric on is one way to do it, but you could also paint it wild. Chain-guards used to be gorgeous back in the day, like the vintage Hermes bicycle and brand chain-guard to the right. Sweet.

Baskets for Animal Transport

You need a basket for your dog. Nick a shopping basket from a supermarket or dig up a cool, old wooden crate.

Trashing Your Bicycle – Quite Literally

Of course, if you don’t personalize your bicycle, and leave it too long without using it, your fellow citizens will personalize it for you. At no extra cost. Rolling bicycles gather no trash, as the old saying goes.

Here’s a unique way to personalize your bike for a practical purpose. This bike basket is covered with plastic-covered sheets advertising various pieces of furniture for sale.

Go Hard or Go Home

We started this post with a timeless elegant classic and we’ll wrap up with a funkalicious example of personalizing your bicycle. Plastic grass beneath your ass, funky painted bell, colorful tape on the handlebars, you name it. Go hard or go home.

Mostly clear with temperatures falling to near 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tules — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:27:32 +0000

One thing I love about NYC is all the sample sales that go on at the start of every season. The only down side is dealing with all the push and shove. Not to mention you have to be unemployed or not do anything midday during the week to be able to get the cream of the crop. But thanks to the internet thousands of websites have sprung up that now offer that same sample sale feel but from the comforts of your 6×6 cubicle. I’ve always been a hardcore Ebay user, and now it’s gotten even better than before. Ebay Has endured a long awaited facelift and joined the fashion ecommerce band wagon. You can now buy cheap designer goods through their new site Fashion Vault, and they’re all real, bona fide products (eBay has been notoriously known in the past as an outlet for fakes). It works similarly to a sample sale in that a different designer is featured at once, and for a limited amount of time – 48 to 72 hours. And guess what… free shipping! You can sign up for e-mail alerts about which designers will be featured and when. The one catch: you have to be an eBay member.

Their first sale, going on now, is of Romeo & Juliet Couture, and everything is 60% off. So go, explore, then report back here and share your comments on the new system.

I can never stick to one website however when I’m shopping. I must have at least 3 windows opoen to compare and contrast all my style picks. My top picks for these type of “sample sale” websites are: www.ideeli.com, www.ruelala.com, and www.guiltgroupe.com. There’s also a HUGE sale (70% off spring styles yeay!) going on at www.shopbop.com which I’ve included in today’s pick for outfits. So sit back, grab your mouse and double click!

Ladies:

1. Romeo and Juliet Boyfriend Jacket

$59.20 @ fashionvault.ebay.com

2. Grey leather Deux Lux Bag

$59 @ www.guiltfuse.com

3. Yellow Strapless French Connection Dress

$74 @ www.ideeli.com

4. Emerald Ring Set by Made Her Think

$50 @ www.giltgroupe.com

5. Emerald Necklace by Made Her Think

$125 @ www.giltgroupe.com

6. Emerald Bracelet by Made Her Think

$125 @ www.giltgroupe.com

Guys:

1. Black straight Antic Denim

$59 @ www.ruelala.com

2. Ralph Lauren Purple Label Light Cashmere Sweater

$268 @ www.guiltmen.com

3. Costume National Suede Dessert Boot

$248 @ www.guiltmen.com

4. De Longi Espresso Cappuccino Maker

$75 @ www.ruelala.com

Mostly sunny with temperatures rising to near 72F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tules — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:31:01 +0000

I’m absolutely in love with the weather right now. NYC spring is the best time to be here, especially after the winter we had. Everyone that lives here feels like a whole new person. That being said I couldn’t help but use that to do a little window shopping. I created my two outfits today based on picking my personal favorite of the big trends this season.

Also, if you’re anything at all like me. You’re probably miserable to be back at work after a long weekend. Thanks to my aimless internet skills I came across this amazing mindless activity to enjoy at your desk. Check out: http://balldroppings.com/js/

Ladies:

1. Striped Baggy Sweatshirt

$120 @ www.idontlikemondays.us

2. Multistitch Mac Coat

$160 @ www.topshop.com

3. Pyramid stud ring

$165 @ www.net-a-porter.com

4. Stone denim

$165 @ www.madewell.com

Guys:

1. Plaid Linen Tie

$75 @ www.openingceremony.us

2. Mayfield Derive Chambry Shirt Theory

$225 @ www.bloomingdales.com

3. Tailor Cody Pants Theory

$195 @ www.bloomingdales.com

How-To Advice (TIE A TIE)

Tules — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:00:21 +0000

TIE A TIE

A little piece of knowledge that every adult should know. Pre-tied ties hanging on the bedroom door are bad feng-shui! Take ten minutes and learn how to do it right with this handy website. Never have to ask dad for help again!

1. The wide end “W” should extend about 12 inches below the narrow end “N”. Cross the wide end “W” over the narrow end “N”.

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2. Bring the wide end “W” up through the loop between the collar and your tie; then back down.

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3. Pull the wide end “W” underneath the narrow end “N” and to the right, back through the loop and to the right again so that the wide end “W” is inside out.

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4. Bring the wide end “W” across the front from right to left.

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5. Pull the wide end “W” up through the loop again.

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6. Bring the wide end “W” down through the knot in front.

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7. Using both hands, tighten the knot carefully and draw it up to the collar.

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Ta Da!

See it’s simple as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7!

Mostly Sunny. High 67F. Winds Light and Variable

Tules — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:40:31 +0000

I think its perfectly ok to be a little foolish on April fools. Not only is there no work tomorrow, for most, but also it’s sunny! Which means outdoor happy hour the minute the clock strikes 6. I don’t know if any of you noticed but if you’re like me and enjoy your morning coffee with 9 different websites and 63 emails then I’m sure you’ve noticed a few pranks in cyberspace. If not, no worries, I’ve collected the top pranks and jokes. Today everything went crazy at Hulu,Google, Reddit and many more websites I’ll show you the best April Fools’ day pranks and jokes from Internet.

1. Reddit. Login to reddit to enjoy your one day administrator power. It’s awesome to login and see your user panel have administrator rights. You can ban users, vote many times for a story and many more great stuff is integrated to your Reddit acc today.

2. Google Topeka. Google changed their name to Topeka today check related post I wrote an article about this read the full story there about Google and Topeka.

3. Hulu. Visit Hulu and watch any video and you’ll see an option to watch it in 3D, when you choose to watch the video you’ll get a funny story about Tv and movies.

4. Funny Or Die. Our most user based funny video portal became Bieber Or Die check out them while you can enjoy this special front page.

5. Google Translate. Google featured a new translating option for animals sounds for cats and dogs. Record your dog’s bark and the mobile app will translate it to english.

6. Wikipedia. Wiki celebrates Fools’ day with an awesome front page with great articles.

Comment about which joke you liked the most and in case we missed something which I bet we did share in comments. Happy April Fools day and hope you’re all looking fabulous!