This semester I was lucky enough to get to travel to New York on a field study with my classmates. We were there for a week, and during that time I got hear from industry professionals, eat great food, and do some shopping as well. This blog post will highlight some of my favorite moments!

The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of the highlights of the trip. It is located near Central Park, so my friends and I walked around before going to the Met. This museum is one of the largest museums in America, something that I wasn’t aware of prior to my visit. As I approached the Met, I was overwhelmed by how large and beautiful it was. The Met itself is just as breathtaking as the history and art that is inside of it. The displays and architecture is everything that it stacked up to be. Every section of the museum is a different time period and region. We followed a map that took us along all of the different exhibits. We did not give ourselves enough time to carefully examine the entirety of the building; the sheer amount of history that is there is amazing. When I visit New York again, I will purposely set more time aside to spend more time there. My favorite area was ancient Egypt. I have always found this time period intriguing, and the Met did not disappoint. They had a whole area that was designed to look like a landscape of the nile river, which also included a whole temple! Needless to say, The Metropolitan contains art and is also art itself.

Erminia Ristorante

This was by far my favorite restaurant in New York, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. It is an authentic Italian restaurant. The outside is covered in vines; it resembles a small brick cottage. As you walk in, you are greeted with candle light, which creates an intimate dining experience. There are no phones aloud, which forces conversation. I found this to be sort of odd, but it really increased the whole ambiance. The staff were friendly, and the food was amazing. I ordered the Gnocchi di Patate con Crema al Tartufo, which is a potato gnocchi with a truffle cream sauce. The truffles literally melted in my mouth, and I am not exaggerating when I say it was best i’ve ever had. We also got dessert, a cheesecake and a chocolate lava cake, which was amazing as well, but not as good as gnocchi that I had. I spent a lot of money on dinner, but it was well worth it. The atmosphere and the food lived up to the Yelp reviews, which deemed it the top 100 most romantic restaurants in America. If you’re planning on visiting New York anytime soon, I would highly recommend this place.

Sequin

Sequin is a licensing brand for jewelry. This means that they design jewelry for other companies, that later sell their pieces with their own brand. Some of Sequin’s clients are Lauren Conrad, which sells at Khol’s, and Target’s Everyday brand. They sell to many more brands, those are just a few of their clients. The owners of this company are Iowa State Alumni. Sequin is located in the garment district. As I entered their space, they had beverages, cupcakes, and jewelry set out for us. On top of all of this, they also had a few dogs running around, which is something that will automatically make me happy. The whole place had a lot of light coming in; it was decorated with fancy chandeliers, fresh flowers, and mirrors. The owner told us her story, and they also had employees speak to us about what their jobs and roles entail. After this, we were able to customize a free necklace, as well as browse around other free Jewelry. The staff also stuck around for us to ask questions; they were super friendly and informative. We visited many businesses while in New York. This one was by far my favorite, because we were warmly welcomed and treated with a lot of kindness.

Marc Jacobs

While in the area for the Ralph Lauren visit, we were in close proximity to some of the best shopping in NYC. Marc Jacobs has always been on of my favorite brands, when I passed by the store, I knew that I had to go inside. The whole store had an impressive visual display. The mannequins were used as statement pieces, they wore apparel from their runway line. They were black and white polka dot, which is on brand for Marc Jacobs. One of the aspects that caught my eye was the color coordinated clothing on roller racks located mostly on the main floor but was also in other places as well. The store was three floors and had an open concept. Upstairs is where they displayed all of the bags. They did this in pink displays that had individual cubbies. Backlights in each cubby lit up the bags that were displayed in each one. The staff were all young and were friendly to us, even though it was obvious that we wouldn’t be purchasing anything. On of my favorite aspects of the store was a Photo Booth on the third floor. You were able to take as many photos with your friends as you pleased, and it printed a Polaroid with the Marc Jacobs brand at the bottom. To view all of the photos, tap/click of the photos to scroll, there are a few!

Calvin Klein

On the same day that we went to Marc Jacobs, we also visited the Calvin Klein Runway store. As of this year, Calvin Klein has discontinued their runway line. We made it to the store within their last week of being open. It was cool to know that we were some of the last visitors that saw the store, so I made sure I took a lot of pictures. The store reminded me of an art exhibit. It was in a small space, but it inhabited about four floors. The walls were yellow and it also had cream colored pile carpet throughout the whole store, which was odd to me. It was completely manicured and without stains. There were also giant candle shaped stuffed objects with the American flag printed on them throughout the entire store. This added to the artful element of the place. The clothing was being hung on metal framework-like structures. The color scheme throughout was red and yellow. The runway line was reminiscent of a sports or football inspired aesthetic. There were bags that resembled footballs, letterman jackets, and baseball mimicking shoes. The whole store was impressive. There were staff dressed in all black accompanying every corner. They silently walked around, and they did not say a single word to us. We felt unwanted. As I was happy that I got to see it, I wished the employees had been more friendly. I suppose it created more of a museum type feel. As I walked around, I really did feel like I had entered an exhibit. To view all of the photos, tap/click of the photos to scroll, there are a few!