nyc day 3

Ahh, my last day, so sad.  I spent quite a bit of time looking in stores with display and packaging options.  Most of them had the same kind of things, cheap, generic, poor quality, made in China.

There was really nothing I couldn't live with out at any of these places.  They all had large collections of creepy mannequins and were all pretty crusty.  I was pretty disappointed in the selection.

 

It's interesting because in NYC there are blocks and blocks of wholesale only stores and many block with several of the same type of store on the same block which made my life a lot easier.  Of course these areas seems a little extra sketchy.

This picture (above) doesn't capture the essence of this street, very small and felt European, it was kind of neat.

Again this picture really doesn't look half as sketch as it was.  It was interesting because you had to go up stairs, through the "Hair Factory" then down another set of internal stairs to the huge display shop where I bought nothing.

The best place, Lifestyle Trimco ended up being literally right next door to where I staid.  Very upscale and I am sure expensive since no prices were listed and they do almost all pieces custom.  They sent me an email with some pictures of the store and some examples of displays they have done for other jewelers; Cartier, Polo, Ann Taylor, Bon Ton, Dereon, you know.  These were some of the standard pieces...

Very pretty in person.

Then it was a quick trip uptown to Cooper Hewitt and of course I took the wrong train and ended up on the wrong side of Central Park.

So I snapped a few pics, wasn't able to get any pics of any dogs, they were everywhere.  I thought this bridge was pretty.

 Got to see the Guggenheim through the trees, I will have to make time for that on my next trip.

I had an hour to get through the Van Cleef exhibit, which was not enough but I got the idea.  You couldn't take pictures in the Museum but you can download a free appfor your Ipad where you can view all of the work.  They had I pads you could check out for free there to guide you through the exhibit.

I am warning you, if you decide to download this it takes about 45 mins.  I did it and then I when it was all downloaded I realized it was for I Pad only.:(  If you don't have an Ipad you and want to check out the work the micro site for the exhibit is very informative with lots of pictures and videos.  Van Cleef and Arpels has a wonder website with lots of history as does Cartier.

I loved these butterflies, there were about 20 hanging from the ceiling in different designs and colors, they were so delicate and different than most of their pieces covered with diamonds.

This was really the perfect way to end the trip, everything was so beautiful and perfectly made and many of the pieces had some historical significance or a story behind it.  Greta Garbo, Princess Grace, and Elizabeth Taylor has many Van Cleef pieces made for them or given to them and several were on display. 

Bracelet given to Elizabeth Taylor from her then husband Richard Burton.

A piece from Princess Grace of Monaco's engagement set.

All very inspiraional, I got lots of ideas from classic elements that I want to incorporate into my designs.  I can't to design some new things!

This was the last stop.  As I waited for the airport shuttle to pick me up I did get one shot of a NYC dog.

 All in all a great trip!