Do You Want To Give Fashion Advice to Thousands of Online Shoppers?

If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ve probably seen our posts in the past featuring some of our fantastic employees and their favorite shoes (if not, click here). Well, we thought we’d open up a similar feature for our customers!

Right now, we’re looking for one hard-core Gotham City Online fan to feature in our blog. You know how other sites only let celebrities share their picks for the hot shoes each season? Well, you could be the one sharing fashion advice this time with thousands of shoppers worldwide! We’ll also let you show off your shoe collection to jealous eyes everywhere

Do you read all the fashion magazines? Do strangers always compliment you on your outfits? Did you name your chihuahua Manolo? If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 5 things, would a pair of shoes be on that list? We want to hear why you think you’re a super shoe fashionista and want to be featured in our blog. A love of Gotham is also, of course, a must,  so be sure to tell us how you heard about Gotham City Online, how many pairs of shoes you’ve gotten from us, or how long you’ve been a customer!

Ok, what exactly do you have to do to become Gotham’s #1 fan? Well, we want to see your shoes! First, “Like” Gotham City Online on Facebook. Next, post a picture of your shoe collection or your favorite Gotham find on our Facebook page under our Fan Photos. Last, leave us a comment on the Facebook post announcing this contest, to tell us why we should pick you!

We’ll announce the winner Monday, August 23, 2010, right in time for the beginning of the fall shopping season. Good luck!

Summertime in New York City

Being in New York City certainly has its perks. For one thing, there is always something to do! But, as you can imagine, the events really start piling up when summer rolls around because the days are long and the nights are warm. We thought we’d share a little about the things we’ve been doing on the New York end of Gotham City Online and, if you’re in the city or coming to visit, we hope you’ll be able to get in on the fun!

First of all, there are tons of great new movies coming out in the theaters this summer. But have you ever felt that the day was just too nice to be cooped up inside a dark movie theater for 2 hours? Well the solution comes as the following two fantastic (and free) summer movie festivals going on now that are showing old favorites and maybe even a movie or two you’ve never seen.

One is being held in the gorgeous Bryant Park every Monday evening as part of the 2009 HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival. And the second is the Summerscreen in McCarren Park which offers free movies in Brooklyn. Now you have no excuse to miss out on the fun no matter where you are in the city.

Second, a few of us happen to be seriously thrilled by flea markets and there’s no better place to go searching and shopping than in New York. At these flea markets you can find anything from up and coming designers trying to gain exposure for their brand new items to cheap garage sale treasures to rare and pricey vintage finds. The few we visit most in the summer are: the Brooklyn Flea, the Green Flea on the Upper West Side, the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market on West 39th, and the Union Square Greenmarket (mostly a farmer’s market, but if you keep walking you’ll see paintings, jewelry and street performers too!).

And last, Manhattan’s Summer Restaurant Week is nearing its end July 31st so be sure to get in on the deals before it’s over. You can eat at some of the best restaurants in the city for less than $35! For a list of participating restaurants and to make reservations online, click here to visit the nycgo website.

Have fun!

Planning a Trip to New York City? Useful Websites to Help!

We love being in New York City and thought it might be nice to share some of the things we love to do in case anyone is planning a visit into the city. Given that  an estimated 47 million visitors come to New York City every year, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll make the trip at least once in your lifetime. 

Time Square, NYC

Below is a list of useful and interesting websites that you might want to bookmark for your future NYC visit. With such an unlimited amount of things to do in “the city that never sleeps,” we hope to continue adding the best websites for you as we find and use them ourselves. And of course, we’re happy to take suggestions! Just add a comment below if you know of a helpful or interesting website we’ve forgotten for something fun to do in New York City. We’re working towards a complete list!

 Museums

• moma.org - The Museum of Modern Art
• metmuseum.org - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• amnh.org - The American Museum of Natural History
• guggenheim.org - The Guggenheim Museum
• whitney.org - The Whitney Museum of American Art
• nyscience.org - The New York Hall of Science

Getting Around

• mta.info/nyct - The New York City Transit website
• hopstop.com – Point to Point Subway, Bus or Walking Directions in New York City
• citypass.com - An All-Inclusive Ticket to Popular Tourist Locations
• nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/neighbor/neigh.shtml - Map of NYC Neighborhoods

Landmarks

• esbnyc.com - The Empire State Building official website
• rockefellercenter.com - Rockefeller Center
• nps.gov – National Park Service (Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island & other NY parks)
• centralparknyc.org - The Official Website for Central Park
• tributewtc.org - World Trade Center Tribute Visitor Center
• madametussauds.com - Madame Tussauds NYC
• broadway.com - Tickets to all Broadway and Off Broadway Shows
• bronxzoo.com - The Bronx Zoo
• centralparkzoo.com - The Central Park Zoo
• nybg.org - The New York Botanical Gardens
• grandcentralterminal.com - Grand Central Station (great walking tour info)
• nypl.org/pr/history.cfm - New York Public Library Tour Info (nypl.org for main site)

 Events/Seasonal

• nyc.gov/calendar - NYC Citywide Events Calender
• unionsquarenyc.org  - Events in New York City’s Union Square
• brooklynpaper.com/sections/go/events - The Brooklyn Paper, events listings

 Famous Desserts

• magnoliacupcakes.com - Magnolia Bakery (cupcakes)
• serendipity3.com - Serendipity Restaurant (deserts & famous clientele)
• crumbsbakeshop.com - Crumbs Bakery (more cupcakes and goodies)
• dylanscandybar.com -Dylan’s Candy Bar (popular & old-time candies)

Celebrate the First Day of Spring with Shoes!

Although the current weather outside may suggest otherwise (it’s snowing today in New York City!), we heard on good authority that the weather will become more spring-like very soon. At least you still have plenty of time to get your Spring footwear styles from Gotham City Online!

Shoes to Celebrate Spring! – by Gotham City Online on Polyvore.com

February Fashion Wrap-Up

February was full of fashion! The Gotham City Online buyers visited the Fashion Footwear Association of New York’s (FFANY) New York Shoe Expo earlier in the month and saw tons of great new brands and exciting shoe designs for next Fall. We hope to be able to feature a few of those shoes in our new store opening in Kentucky soon, but we’ll have to keep the details hush-hush for now!

We also visited Bryant Park for New York Fashion Week 2009 (Feb. 13-20), which we always love. This season’s tents were as exciting as ever; happily, the economic recession did not dampen designer’s artistic spirit! We took some photos while we were in the area and we hope they give you an idea as to what its like to actually be there in the moment. Enjoy!

Fashion Week Main Tent

 

Here are a few of the high-fashion shoes we saw coming and going from the tents. Gorgeous!

 

We loved seeing a wide variety of attendees. We spied stilettos and sneakers at the same show, and the second picture is proof that not even those with careers in fashion can always wear (or want to wear!) heels all day long.

Fashion Week is more than just runways, it's also about the people working outside the tents and the fantastic outfits people put together for themselves.

Now you decide… Eccentric fashion designer? Wandering street performer? Whimsical runway critic? Well, there’s no doubt that smile helps him pull off the look.

Batman Strikes Again

Although Gotham City Online has no affiliation with the superhero crime-fighter pictured below, we do feel a sort of camaraderie for some reason . 

We all laughed when we arrived to work one morning and saw this poster on our New York building!

Have a great weekend.

A Glamorous Afternoon with Darby Scott

The Gotham Girl team was recently invited by our friends at Darby Scott to an exclusive trunk show at Bergdorf’s for her luxe new handbag and jewelry collection! If you’ve never been, let me tell you that the Bergdorf Goodman store on 5^th Ave is breathtaking. The ground floor is a maze of chandeliers and gilded glass cabinets (filled, of course, with designer accessories starting in the thousands). And the entire building is strategically speckled with near-perfect personnel ready to assist you in maxing out your credit card.

Darby Scott setting up

Clients trying on jewelry

Darby Scott, of course, fit right in with her gorgeous handbags made from rich skins like python, alligator, stingray and lizard. But what really sets her apart from other designers that also love the exotic, are the jewelry-inspired clasps, closures and handles on her bags made up of semi-precious stones and minerals (though she occasionally strays to other clever materials like bone, shell or wood). 

I have never seen anything like her Karung (snakeskin) shoulder bags (pictured from her website below) which feature multi-strand handles so beautiful, they could be necklaces themselves! Naturally, Darby’s jewelry line got some well-deserved attention too. I don’t think I ever saw anyone walk up to her jewelry display that day who could resist slipping on a ring or two. 

After pulling ourselves away from all that opulence, Gotham City Online’s amazing photographer and I decided to take a walk down 5^th Ave for… some more opulence! New York City’s 5^thAvenue is like a roll-call sheet of the most well-known brands and famous design houses: Rolex, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Christian Dior, Rock & Republic, Burberry, Apple, Tiffany’s, etc.  

The Disney Store, 5th Ave	The Apple Store, 5th Ave
Gucci & Trump Towers, 5th Ave	Rock & Republic, 5th Ave

But don’t think you have to be a millionaire to enjoy the area, just the window displays alone are worth the trip! Check out these shots below of the displays for the Louis Vuitton store!

Louis Vuitton window 1

Louis Vuitton window 2

Fashion Week 2008!!

Fashion Week (officially September 5 – 12, 2008 ) was really fantastic! Spring 2009 collections belonging to some of the world’s top designers were shown on the runways and you couldn’t help but bump into gorgeous people everywhere. TV crews were hanging around backstage for interviews; paparazzi, fans and bloggers alike had their cameras ready for chance celebrity encounters; and free samples were handed out to every pedestrian in the area. On that note, one great thing about New York Fashion Week is that security only exists to prevent uninvited people from entering the actual, individual tents. Anyone can wander around the area, mill with the fashionable people, or sit and relax in the beautiful Bryant Park!

Now, let’s talk about the shoes! Any blog or fashion magazine can show you photos of what went down the runways so I thought it might be a little more interesting to show you what real women were wearing that week! Some were dressed for comfort, which is understandable since hopping from tent to tent all day can equate to quite a bit of mileage. But others looked like they probably sleep in their stilettos. In the pictures we took for you below you’ll see what I did: a ton of black pumps (with the tallest heel you can manage), cowboy boots, gladiator sandals and bejeweled styles. Cheers! -Chloe (aka GothamGirl)