There is a night. This night is not like all the other nights. No, I’m not talking about Hannukah. But I am talking about another tradition that, like the aforementioned, almost everyone on the island (and now, far beyond) celebrates. This is Fashion Night Out. After my third fashion night out, I have some very strong feelings about this evening, but I will keep them for a dissertation for another time.
All over the island people are going crazy. Jumping from party to party, pushing their way through the crowds trying to obtain access to that restaurant, club, showroom, etc. Ah, but alas they will not get through. Because not only is it one of the most fashionable nights out, it’s also worse then monday morning gridlock.
It has become less about the original idea; to bring life, spirit and most importantly MONEY back into the economy and city, and more about the flash of the light bulbs. For straight men in manhattan, it’s a goldmine; a once a year opportunity as girls use the evening as a platform for their absolute most fabulousness. This means strut after strut, outfit after outfit of girls one upping each other all throughout the land. And the men get to watch.
But there are some saving graces left to this night. And while the mayhem was going on outside, I was safe inside, in Duane Reade. They were hosting their own fashion night out on 63rd and Broadway, appropriately right around the corner from Lincoln Center, the mothership to which all fashion mavens flock for 7 days.
The downstairs section had been turned into a quasi beauty parlor as women lined up to get their hair curled and straightened, their nails done, at a beauty bar featuring only Sally Hansen nail strips, and try their hand at fake eyelash applications.
My first stop was the discovery of a product that I didn’t even realize existed, which will in turn, wind up changing my life. This is hollywood fashion tape. This is not your mother’s ‘wear this when you wear a low cut shirt to keep things in place’ fashion tape. This is something…. magical. It’s not just for… those areas. It’s for, well pretty much everything. A sleeve that you want to roll up, and actually have it stay up (a constant issue for me personally) is instantly fixed. A quickie hem, or an accent or pin to something that you don’t have time to sew… (or okay, maybe not time, maybe you just can’t sew). And the girls treated me to their brand new product, the refillable tape gun, and I’m already obsessed.
Next up was my nails. I settled on the leopard print and literally 5 minutes later, I had a brand new manicure. The Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips go on so easy, and are made with nail polish, so come right off with nail polish remover. And the best part is, they last for 10 whole days. 10 days for $10, makes that a great, affordable alternative to a manicure.
I didn’t go the eyelash route, but by the end of the night, I had my new tape gun, hot new nails, and a bevy of other fun products to play with. That night, the first 100 people to arrive at Duane Reade were welcomed with a huge gift bag FILLED with fun products. I wasn’t one of those people, but luckilly Duane Reade likes me enough that I got one too.
And in the midst of the hustle and bustle going on outside and everywhere around the city, my mind was set on going home and testing out all my fun new products. Fashion night In, is the new Fashion Night Out… You’ll see…





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I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric . All ideas and writings come from my own blogger brain :).
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