izzi blog

The official izzibag blog

So this is the view from the front door of my apartment building. On our block – for those in the UK reading this, that means street or road. Anyway I digress we have a Drugs store, again translation is a chemist, a liquer store obviously we know this as the local ‘Offi’ and just in case it all gets too much we have a Rehab centre – no translation required. To cap it all we actually have a dunkin donuts which has a huge sign in the window saying we are Kosher, for those in the US, this actually in English means ‘We are the real thing’.

So yesterday I went off to meet two people I had been tweeting with, one is a jewelry maker and the other a PR branding consultant mainly in the bridal field. The venue was in Spring Street a lovely place called the Aqua Grill. Now in London if we say a restaurant is on a street, it is usually an easy feat to find it, not here in Manhattan. I took the tube, of course as you all know by now the subway in New York, downtown (get me with the local lingo!) and got off at Spring Street, are you impressed yet? to find that this street stretches almost from one side of New York to the Other and guess what? yep you got it! I was at the other side. I am now almost late for lunch but not quite and eventually I found it. We all kissed and settled down to a fantastic lunch and so much chatter I almost forgot what we talked about, a lot of girlie talk in an hour. Thank you to both Sue Anne and Lisa for making me feel welcome in New York, I really appreciate it and I look forward to our next adventure in the city.

I then got on the right train back home, phew bet you are impressed now! and then I got stuck in to my work day, not before time and before I knew it, 5pm was here and I knew that supper had to be made. Well I got to it and cooked a great Coq Au Vin, just as well as hubby brought home a colleague. We ate a lovely dinner together and then trouped off to a bar in Murray Hill to watch a game. Well, when I say we watched a game, this bar had about 20 TV’s showing so many different game’s I have no idea what we went there to watch to be honest. The bar was rammed with young people and everyone seemed to be having a good time. A few beers were consumed before we braved the cold and came home to our snuggle warm apartment.

A lovely day all round and to top it off I saved the best to last, I spoke to a retailer in ‘The Hamptons’  SJP eat your heart out, who is very interested in stocking izzi bag in his store, wow, wouldn’t that be amazing our first retailer in the US and in the Hamptons. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

New York is an amazing place and I love it.

izzi bag founder Anne Agoren at the FGI Rising Star's Awards

I have listed the talented people who won the Rising Star’s awards on Friday at Cipriani’s in New York, it was a fabulous day and I am now awaiting the lovely photographs of the budding star’s. I will update you as soon as I have them, so in the meantime you will just have to make do with yet another picture of me! LOL.

The category of  Accessories  winner was Amanda Pearl Brotman from Amanda Pearl.

The category of Beauty / Fragrance from a Corporate Company was won by Juliette Karagueuzoglou from IFF.

The Home /Interior Design category was won by  Dror Benshetrit from Dror.

The Fine Jewelry Category was won my Monica Rich Kosann from Monica Rich Kosann.

The Men’s Apparel winner was Anthony Keegan & Richard Christiansen – Commonwealth Utilities.

The Retail Category winner was Edward Chai & Paul Birardi from ODIN of New York.The Women’s RTW winner was a tie between Joseph Altuzarra from Altuzarra and Peter Hidalgo from Peter Hidalgo.

This week has been taken up with moving and a rainy New York.  I made my husband’s weekend by taking him to his favorate place Shake Shack for the best burger in New York. They are so popular that you can go to their website and check the size of the line waiting to get served. Can you believe that, they have a webcam showing the line! would that happen in the UK? Er I think not, no Brit stands in line for over an hour to get a burger! well this one did and it was worth it, not only as I had to make an exception and eat the Bun, but the burgers are just the best ever. Oh and I forgot to mention that the venue is outdoors, so we stood in line and then sat outside in the park to eat the burger, yep you heard me I sat outside to eat my burger in the freezing cold. It was fun and we laughed to think what our British friend’s will say when we tell them. The highlight of my weekend was AVATAR, we went to the IMAX on Times Square (Eat your heart out!) it was the most amazing film I have ever seen and I cannot believe that my Hubby had to drag me to see it. If you have not yet been GO! you will not, I repeat will NOT regret it. It was full of emotion, it was full of the most amazing animation and the only question I have is:

How did they get the camera crew to that planet?

Yesterday carried a weather warning, the wind was so bad they had to close streets off where construction work was going on due to flying debris. I spent a lovely hour with Dihan, who is the Fashion Editor at 5point Media, lovely lady.We met at the Bryant Park library, where else? We spent ages talking about features for izzi bag together with where I can get the best deals on food! so armed with that information I will be treking uptown to 145th street to PathMark later today. I had no internet yesterday and I got so frustrated that I could not connect with the outside world. How amazing is it that we rely so much on cyber space internet? anyway the world did not end and I am still here, although yesterday I really thought the world was ending when I could not get my computer to cooperate.

I have finally started to receive tickets for the shows for NEW YORK Fashion Week and am excited that it is only a couple of weeks away. The hussle and bustle of Fashion Week is amazing here in NYC and the thing I love most is that is a frenzy around everything in the City.

But before I start to get too excited I have another event to go to which is going to be even more fun, I will be back in London at the weekend for the Fashion Group International event, which is being held at Stewart Parvin’s, I can’t wait. The down side is that I will leave OH behind as he is still in training. Will he manage to remember to collect his shirts from the cleaners and to eat properly? the tirals and tribulations of being a wife and a designer are not always as glamorous as you might think believe me! I am laughing out loud right now, sitting here in the apartment thinking if only you guys could see me!

I love my life and I never forget everyday just how lucky I am to be here.

Oh today has been such a lovely day, I was in such a mess this morning I could not control myself with excitement. I was off to the most amazing place in New York, Cipriani on 42nd Street. It used to be a bank and it is absolutely gorg inside and so many of the bank features have been left in plaace. Anyway I am moving away from the story. I got up super early as I knew I would be amongst some of the fashionistas of the world today and needed to look my best, actually 300 of them so I needed to look great, well as great as I can look anyway judge for yourself. I spent as little time as needed on hair and make up but the biggest dilema was the out fit. I could not decide on Michael Kors or Calvin Klein or Theory I went for the safe bet and wore the LBD which had the loveliest bottom frill which you cannot see in the piccie below, but it looked great and the jacket was a big hit from Calvin Klein. Of course the shoes and handbag were easy to choose and the handbag is one of our concept bags, which a few people asked where they could buy one!

izzi bag Retro hand bag

Cipriani was just so gorg, the ceiling is so high and full of character, never let anyone tell you the American’s have no history.The building was just full of it, in fact if i did not know better I would have said I was in London or Venice or Rome.

Ever fashionista was there and I had a lovely time, I met with some really nice people and I look forward to catching up with them in the coming weeks ahead. The lunch was so scrummy, I had Chilean Sea Bass (not sure if that is how it is spelt) but is was delicious and unfortunately I only ate the topping of the Lemon Pie as it had a pastry case bottom and of course you know I don’t eat carbs on this diet so that had to be left. Promise you all, I did leave it, but I did not leave the glass of wine sorry !

The awards went without a hitch and their were some real Rising Stars who won the awards. Will be here with piccies tomorrow. There were lots of Papps there and everyone was well photographed

so look out for more on izzi bag travel’s and the highlights of my adventures in Manhattan.