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YSL Parisienne Masquerade

The party last night was INSANE! It was the launch party for the YSL fragrance “Parisienne” down in the Lower East Side, that our agency helped organize. There were three of us working the door, and it was just too much to handle at some points! We had a line outside before it even started, so needless to say the place filled up quickly. We reached capacity around 10, 1030, so I ran outside to take a look at the line. There was a huge group of people standing at the gate, and the line went all the way down to Houston and around the corner. There were also more people in line across the street. Then the police showed up and real chaos ensued. But, everybody looked absolutely fantastic! Some of the outfits and masks were INCREDIBLE! The venue itself was perfect, and the music and drinks flowed endlessly through the evening. Around 1130 I gave up on the door and headed upstairs for some catch-up drinks. And by catch up I mean drinking 2 glasses of champagne, 2 glasses of wine, and a whiskey on the rocks within 45 minutes.

Check out some of the coverage from the event:

Nylon Magazine

WWD.com

Seventeen Magazine

And here’s a link to some pretty amazing photos: Lastnightsparty.com

My photos look terrible in comparison to those above, but here’s a link to my photos on Flickr. They’re mostly setting up and pre-party, since I was busy helping to contain what seemed like a thousand people at the door.

Bonne année!

It’s almost 2010- a new year, and a new decade. That sounds like the perfect reason to ring in the new year with a night you’ll never forget! Or should it be a night you’ll never remember? I guess that’s up to you!

Why not spend this new years in Paris? What’s that you say? Recession? Does this economy have you penny-less, and instead planning a stay-at-home party complete with leftover Chinese food? Fortunately, YSL has got you covered. For the launch of their new fragrance, Parisienne, YSL is looking to send one winner and a guest to Paris for new years. All you have to do is head over to the Experience Parisienne website, submit a story & corresponding photo(s) on how you’ve experienced the spirit of Parisienne in your life by 11/2/09, and wait for a winner to be chosen!

It’s too bad our company is directly involved with the creation of the contest, which makes me ineligible to apply. I’ve been dying to go to Paris my entire teenage & adult life, but every time I try to plan a trip something goes wrong.

Good luck to all the entrants! Sounds like an amazing prize!

ADC: Dirty Weekends

Pictures from the ADC’s DIRTY WEEKENDS: PRINTMAKING workshop. Not the best quality photos, but it was a good time!

Clearly, I was the only non-designer there. My contribution to the photo above was the second N in “gonna.” You know, the plain, generic block letter? Yeah, that was my creative input.

Printmaking

I’m at the ADC for the Dirty Weekends Printmaking workshop. We used potato stamping for these prints. Mine is the one in the upper right hand corner- you can kind of see it says “Kim.”

Next, screenprinting!

Brooklynites, Unite!

A picture from Bodega’s Mapping Project event last night. They projected an illustrated map of Brooklyn on the walls for everyone to slap their Polaroid photo in the appropriate neighborhood.

The Mapping Project

I’m heading across the East River tonight, into Brooklyn for the first time in about three months. BODEGA is hosting their very first event at 303 Grand, entitled THE MAPPING PROJECT. The Mapping Project is “an initiative aimed at fostering community collaboration between creatives, startups, and social entrepreneurs in order to bring their ideas to fruition. Beginning with the thriving borough of Brooklyn, The Mapping Project’s goal is to consider how geography and the proximity of an area’s clustered residents can stimulate change through collaboration. bodega wishes to gather Brooklyn’s creative and entrepreneurial class by hosting a cocktail party, to draw awareness to the project, begin creating a platform for connecting change-makers, and have them register for the project. The meet-up will allow Bodega to collect the data needed to construct an online interactive map of all community members that will not only stand as a symbol of the growing movement taking place, but serve as a resource for the community to continue business development.”

I don’t live in Brooklyn, but I’m all about meeting new creatives in the city. Hopefully I won’t be the only awkward Manhattanite hanging around. If it counts for anything, I’m bringing along several Brooklyn-dwellers.

Dirty Weekend

Saturday, October 17, 2009
2 -6p @ the ADC (106 West 29th Street)

I signed up for a Printmaking class at the Art Directors Club, which will hopefully teach me the techniques of screen printing and potato printing. I’ve always wanted to do screen printing, but could never justify taking such an expensive elective that didn’t add up to much towards my degree. Registration is free for members, and $35 for nonmembers.

For a list of other events going on at the ADC this fall, check out ADC Events.

Night of the AdEaters

Okay so it’s not the best photo, but Friday night I went to The Night of the AdEaters, which made its US debut here in New York City. I must say I was expecting a lot more. But since I got a free ticket, I guess I can’t complain since they were running $100 a piece. One would think that after paying a one hundred dollar entry fee, there would be snacks and booze galore. Wrong. That entry ticket included one free drink ticket, and your admittance. After chugging down my 8oz. drink, I opened a tab and quickly racked up a forty dollar bar bill. I stayed just long enough to see the first half of commercials, which were increasingly more difficult to pay attention to the more people drank and the louder the venue became. However, I did see a few commercials from other countries that blew my mind. Some were pretty fascinating, and others were just down right wrong. I’ll see if I can look them up today and post them for your viewing pleasure.

SHESAYS NY

This Wednesday I was planning on going to see Nine Inch Nails & Mew at Terminal 5. However, due to my lack of funds, I’ve decided to sell my ticket and attend a free event at the One Club instead.

SHESAYS NY

And to whom am I speaking exactly?
Ladies with an attitude. May’s session threw up a great idea about self promotion. So we are going to talk about talking about yourselves – without sounding like a bitch or a Spice Girl. We’ve gathered some super smart speakers who’ll tackle the subject from different angles and give you great ammunition to help start your sparkle.

Teressa Iezzi, Editor from Creativity Magazine
Louisa St Pierre, Partner Bernstein & Andriulli / Editor Spread Art Culture Magazine
Cindy Gallop, former chairman of BBH and founder & CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld

I’m curious to see how this session turns out. Sounds like it could be a total hit or miss. But regardless, I’m young and impressionable, so I can always learn a thing or two from someone with more experience than I. This event is free for One Club members, you just have to RSVP. If anyone else plans on attending, let me know!

Super Birthday Bash

I spent around 13 hours over two days making my own awesome cake. I’ve been wanting a Goomba cake for a while, but when the bakeries told me they wanted $400 + delivery, I figured that I’ve watched enough cake shows in my day to figure out how to do this myself. So I spent Friday night baking five cakes and a dozen cupcakes. Then on Saturday Natalie came over and we spent the day assembling and decorating before the party. The entire thing is completely edible, and it even tasted DELICIOUS! That was my first time ever baking something that wasn’t straight out of the box. And overall, I think it turned out pretty darn amazing!

We took the cake to Dave & Busters. I put 24 candles in it and managed to blow them all out in one breath, made a wish and my wish came true Everyone kept coming up to me asking where I bought the cake, and when I told them that I made it myself I started getting inquiries to make cakes for people. I wish I would’ve had the guts to give out my business card and tell these people to call me if they’re being serious. Bottom line; I was incredibly satisfied with the outcome of this cake! It was pretty sad cutting into it, but it tasted just as good as it looked!

Upon getting home at 430 am, I demanded that Mike go get me Taco Bell even though he wasn’t hungry- I was. So I took his keys and went in the apartment and PASSED OUT. Apparently he came back with the tacos and couldn’t wake me to let him in, so he had to go stay the night at his friends house! Haha woops. I haven’t had a night like that in a VERY long time, so it was much deserved!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmerritt/sets/72157622058892528/ from the decorating process & the party. More to come as I gather pics from everyone else! Thanks to everyone who came out last night, I had a BLAST! Perhaps I probably shouldn’t have went to Brother Jimmy’s afterwards, because that just resulted in my complete obliteration…