Until recently, I really, really disliked the Manhattan Mall.  It was always desolate and grimy with dumpy tourists and sketchy mallrats.  However, with the implementation of the ginormo JCPenney’s and an overhaul on renovations, life returned to the Manhanttan Mall.

But then!  My normal, boring walk through Herald Square to work was dramatically changed when the mall’s windows were plastered with announcements that a Spring Shoes store was going to open.  As if I weren’t already excited, within a few days I was invited to celebrate the store’s opening with local press and bloggers! 

I first became obsessed with Spring Shoes when TONY featured a pair of super sexy strappy platform pumps last year, and I had to have them.  I was irrationally pissed that there wasn’t a store in Manhattan, but once the lovely shoes came to me in the mail, all anger disappeared. 

Flash-forward to Wednesday, September 1st: Spring Shoes is now open in the Manhattan mall and we celebrated alongside Spring Shoes PR Director, Effie Giannou.  Guests were immediately spoiled by being handed a $150 gift card and we were encouraged to start shopping.  ‘Ho boy!

Everyone was going nuts asking for 6 pairs of shoes in 4 different colors in 3 different sizes.  I don’t know how the sales associates stayed so patient.  People were carrying multiple boxes around with them - considering that most of their shoes range from $20 to 80+ (less for strappy sandals, a little more for pumps, heels, and clunky boots), $150 goes a long way.

While the crazies were mostly women, the men could shop pretty leisurely.  Spring Shoes also has a great assortment of shoes for men, in addition to some accessories to jazz up an outfit - think super skinny 1.5″ ties.

DJ Reach spun energetic music to further rile up shoppers with fuel by Indianna catered food and passed cocktails.  Oh yeah, ALDO Group is the parent company for Spring Shoes, so that may explain a lot about their awesomeness.

With great prices, Spring Shoes may or may not replace Payless as my go-to store for affordable shoes.  [Don't EVEN get me started on how much I love Payless.  Yes, they've had a poor rep in the past, but in recent years they have revamped their image with a fashion overhaul in addition to collaborating with great designers, and are still able to maintain low prices.  And their BOGO events!!  Holy crap, you got me started.] 

Clearly, I have a shoe problem.

Yours,
Von

Spring Shoes
in the Manhattan Mall
100 W. 33rd Street
at Broadway, First Floor
NYC, NY 10001

Spring Shoes can also be found on Facebook.  Twitter using #CALLITSPRING

About Spring Shoes

Spring specializes in the creation of high-quality fashion footwear, leather goods and accessories. This sought-after brand pays close attention to detail and to fine craftsmanship. Spring is dedicated to bringing you both quality and cutting-edge trends at affordable prices, season after season. What’s more, Spring’s dedicated team of buyers and stylists constantly travel the globe to keep you on the pulse of fashion. Whether the latest footwear trends are breaking in London, Milan, Paris, New York or Tokyo, Spring will have them on your feet first! Spring shoes is also the sister company to Aldo Shoes. Visit Spring Shoes on the web at myspringshoes.com

SPEAKEASY Invites you to meet John Farr, the celebrated movie critic and founder of:
Best Movies by Farr, a Web site with a simple concept: Farr comprehensively critiques thousands of films, so you don’t end up watching a dud.

Sky Terrace
15th Floor of The Hudson Hotel
356 W 58th St, New York City

Thursday September 2nd, 2010
6pm to 11pm

By invitation only, click here to RSVP

Free Dessert Day!
Wednesday, September 15

Celebrate the premiere of Top Chef Just Desserts with a free dessert! Just make an online reservation and dine at one of the restaurants below on September 15, and you will get a free dessert for every 2 diners at your table. See the list on OpenTable.com for participating restaurants and their meal participation.

Tune in September 15 to watch the premiere of Top Chef Just Desserts on BRAVO!

*Note: Can not be combined with any other offer, event, discount or promotion. Not all restaurants on OpenTable.com are participating in Free Dessert Day.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Benefit
Please join us for a night of champagne and chocolate tastings

Tuesday, October 5th
7:00 – 10:00 pm

For more information:
http://makingstrides.acsevents.org
*Tickets Are Only Available Online – No Sales at the Door*

Flute Gramercy
40 East 20th Street

The event will feature:
* 3 Hour Premium Open Bar *
* Champagne Tastings *
* Specialty Drinks *
* Chocolate Presentation by Chocolate Sommelier Roxanne Browning of Exotic Chocolate Tasting *
* Music by DJ Chopps (Celebrity DJ) *

Raffle Prizes Include:

• Dinner for Two at Rayuela Restaurant
• Halston Heritage Clutch courtesy of Shopbop.com
• Warren Tricomi Salon
• 6 Months of Yoga at Yoga Works (all Manhattan locations)
• Erica Fleischman Salon for Men
• Apple Seeds
• Spa Merge
• 2 Broadway Tickets each to ”A Little Night Music” and ”Promises, Promises”
• Wine Making Class for 2 at The Brooklyn Winery
• Cupcake Making Class for 2 at Butter Lane

Tickets:
$75 (August 18th – September 1st)
$100 (September 1st – October 4th)
$125 (Day Of – Oct 5th)

2 free raffle tickets per guest, redeemable at event
*excludes Yoga Works and Broadway Tickets

100% of Proceeds Benefiting Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
*Presented by Charity Scene*

Get tickets here!
http://sipofbubbles.eventbrite.com/

For any event inquiries please contact Laureen Lipsky or Amy Lurie:
laureen@charityscenenyc.com
aelurie@gmail.com

Celebrate 10 Years of truth with Legacy

We invite you to join Legacy’s Young Professionals Committee for an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music, dancing and a fabulous silent auction to benefit Legacy, the organization behind the truth® youth anti-smoking campaign!

Legacy’s Young Professionals Committee is a network of dedicated, talented young professionals ranging in age from early 20’s to early 40’s in New York City. The group has a simple agenda: To enrich our community by uniting and developing other NYC young professionals to help Legacy build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.

• truth ®  is responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke from 2000 to 2004 – a major catalyst in decline in youth smoking.

• In two years, truth saved the US as much as $5.4 billion in future healthcare costs.

• Legacy’s EX campaign is the only national public education quit-smoking campaign not funded by the tobacco industry.

You can help us by attending this event, since all proceeds raised will go to Legacy to sustain our lifes saving programs like truth and ex.

Be there:
Wednesday, September 15
7PM to 10PM

Touch
240 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Dress Code: Smart Casual
Tickets: $50

We look forward to seeing you as we celebrate truth!

Socially Superlative is going overseas, to London!

…. I wish.  We just got this invite for a super cool launch party at The Tramshed.  Truth be told, the address with Rivington Street totally threw me off, since I assumed this was in the Lower East Side.  We’re trying to slowly take over the world, but for now we’re going to park our butts here in NYC, but do let your Brit friends know about this!

Yours,
Von

Join us for the Launch Party at The Tramshed on the evening of 24th September. Autoban, Matthew Hilton, Studioilse, Vanhoffontwerpen, Charlene Mullen and Leif.designpark will exhibit along with over 25 other carefully selected brands including BMW, Benchmark, Ercol, Dezeen Watch Store, Kvadrat and Bocci.

Spaces are extremely limited, so please RSVP to rsvp@delaespada.com and we will confirm your name on the list. Spaces are first come, first served and we regret we may not be able to accept all RSVP requests.

If you can’t join us for the party, come by another time for The Tramshed Live talks, which feature distinguished speakers including Patricia Urquiola, Lucia van der Post, Ilse Crawford, Matthew Hilton and many more. More information

Location
The Tramshed
32 Rivington Street
London, EC2A 3LX
www.thetramshedevent.co.uk

Launch Party
Friday, 24th September
6:30pm to 9pm
RSVP rsvp@delaespada.com

Ask any New Yorker how to get from point A to point B (Central Park West, say, and the Lower East Side) and you’ll get a range of options wider and more varied than you ever could’ve expected.  I’ve witnessed many a tourist’s eyes cross when a host of New York subway riders chime in on their personal preferences for quick routes to Chinatown.  As many ways this city offers its face-paced inhabitants to get around, generally, kayaking is not one of them.

After this weekend’s little adventure with Long Island City Community Boat House, I will never see the commute between LIC and Astoria in quite the same light.  I’d known about, and wanted to show up to, the weekly community kayaking at Hallets Cove (near Socrates Sculpture Park on the waterfront in Astoria). When I finally decided to carpe diem, and looked up the details on their website, I realized that not only does the LICCB offer the community paddle on Sundays, but they also offer several kayaking trips weekly.  The trips are open to everyone, regardless of experience (though, for longer trips, they do recommend you’ve at least participated in one of the easier paddles first).

Not having kayaked a day in my life, I suddenly found myself, blissfully bobbing up and down in the east river, gazing up at sky scrapers, smiling to myself in the bright sunlight and noting with satisfaction that I’d checked off another “must try” item on my New York lifetime list.  I recommend that anyone even vaguely inclined to water sports, adventure, or even just getting the best view of Manhattan should not let the indian summer pass without trying this at least once.  And since the LICCB will be kayaking well into October, there are still plenty of chances!

- Ava

Words of Wisdom, LLC (WOW) in conjunction with NA Sports Inc., and Friends of the Woods Inc., is hosting a charity bowling event this September. The event will take place on September 16th, 2010 at 300 New York, located at Chelsea Piers from 6PM-10PM and will certainly be a night to remember.

This event will focus on charities that provide direct care and services to youth and women primarily in the areas of Education, Poverty Relief, and Health Care. The following charities will benefit from this event:

* Keep a Child Alive (KCA)
* The Fistula Foundation
* Cecil K. and LeRoy J. Watkins National Pro-Am Foundation*

The honoree, Cecil K. Watkins, served as the Director of Community and Special Programs for the NBA and was one of the organization’s first ten employees. He also transformed communities with his unconditional generosity by serving as the President of the National Pro-Am City Leagues Association and Governor of New York Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union. This event will help continue his vision of giving-back.

The event itself will include:
· An auction of autographed memorabilia
· A photo/autograph session
· Bowling with a team

Youtube Video of the Event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04bQzUOWbY

via Refinery 29:

We know you’re already stressed about Fashion Night’s Out (uh, we are too). There’s a bajillion parties, traffic will be sucky, and let’s not get started on the crowds. Do you really want to traipse across the city, riddled with immense FMO (fear of missing out) on FNO? Well, we’ve got an invite that won’t have you saying “FML.”

The deets? We’re hosting a bash with Diane von Furstenberg and HP to celebrate the début of the HP Experience Lounge. The DvF Gallery will be transformed with cutting-edge fashion installations, HP TouchSmart PCs, notebook PCs and web-enabled printers. Plus, look for a “Fall Favorites” photo booth featuring DvF items curated by our editors—the photos will stream live on giant social feed monitors all over the place. And what’s a Fashion Week fete without celebs—Olivia Palermo and Molly Sims; food—yummy bites from hotspot MPD; drinks—champers by Moet, coconut water from Vita Coco; and music—beats by DJ Elisa Sednaoui. If you don’t make it to this party, you really will have FMO.

R29 GIVEAWAY:
Want more DvF? Of course you do. Two lucky readers will score a $750 DvF make-over redeemable at the store or online, meaning you’ll be the coolest gal at the ball. So would-be FNO Cinderellas, what are you waiting for? Click here to win & wear a DvF party outfit for FNO. See you there!

Friday, September 10
6 to 11 p.m.

Diane von Furstenberg
874 Washington Street
(at West 14th Street).