*AmongMany

Well, its officialy. There’s carols playing, trees decorated, and windows being revealed across the city. Call me bitter, call me Scrooge, but I’m just not ready for the holiday onslaught yet. I’d be much happier if it would wait until after Thanksgiving (or at least the week-of).

But since I’ll clearly have little effect on the situation, I might as well embrace it right? And what better way to embrace the holidays than by planning to do all of my shopping online?

To make that a little easier, the crew over at NotCot has kicked things off with a holiday coupon book. The range of coupons covers a variety of brands from Hard Graft (I still prefer “Working Class Heroes”) to Hulger to WeJetSet. There’s definitely enough there to ensure you’ll be able to find something for everyone on your list. Yeah, some of the discounts are better than others, but that’s to be expected. Shop smart and you could score as much as 25% off!

Let us know what some of your best finds are!

Ever notice how many art school students are floating around out there? Ever notice how many artists have work in galleries? There’s a bit of a discrepancy in there. Obviously, “making it” in the art world is phenomenaly difficult. To the point that many art students wind up in career paths that have nothing to do with their field of study (let alone their artwork).

This trend hasn’t gone unnoticed, and a groupe of art-minded business school students decided to take it upon themselves to do something about it. Alex Farkas, Greg Rosborough, and Stephen Tanenbaum put their heads together to create an outlet where budding artists could get their work in front of the world. Ugallery.com was born from their efforts.

Ugallery.com helps art students begin their careers and offers patrons access to affordable original artwork.

As you’d expect from a collection of work from young artists, there’s a wide variety of styles and polish across the body of work, but Ugallery.com is an excellent place to discover work from an up-and-comer that you might not be familiar with. With works created in all mediums and available in a range of sizes and prices, it’s well worth a stop.

Let us know what you find that catches your fancy!

You may have noticed my afinity toward fashion discussions lately. I admit it, I’ve had clothes on the brain. Between the seasons changing - Fall is finally knocking on the door! - and the fact that nothing in my closet fits anymore, I’m faced with a dilemma. While the need for a bunch of new clothes may seem like the perfect opportunity to reinvent my fashion statements, it does pose a minor problem in the cash-flow department (it’s all flowing the wrong way).

After asking a number of fashionably minded friends where I should look for my new choices (many of those recommendations have been represented over the last few posts), I’ve been continually directed toward thrift stores. Never having been much of a “used clothes” person, I’ve finally begun to open my mind to the possibility and agreed to start digging through the racks a bit.

But that begs a question, and it’s one I’m putting to the readers:

What are your favorite thrift/vintage stores in NYC?

I’m familiar with, though haven’t shopped much in, the usual suspects: Beacon’s Closet, Buffalo Exchange, Salvation Army on Bedford, Housing Works (do they sell clothes?). And a quick search reveals a few reviews of other “bests” for thrift stores.

[image cred: cafemama]

Just stumbled across this one. The NY Times is reporting that Style.com, the online address of Vogue, is launching an iPhone app this week that will allow fashion week fans to watch the runway shows directly on their iPhone. It doesn’t appear that the feed will be live streaming, but will be available in an edited format shortly after the end of each show. For all the fashion fanatics who don’t have tickets to see their favorite designers (I’m assuming that covers most of them), this might just be the next best thing…

The article also digs into some of the shopping solutions that are currently available for mobile users. Ralph Lauren recently announced that they were planning to launch a mobile, commerce ready mobile site, and Chanel has also launched an app that provides video content as well as a direct-dial option to any store that carries the brand.

For our NY readers, here’s a quick heads-up that seems to fit with the theme of the week. The legendary(?) Barney’s Warehouse Sale is going on right now, here. It runs through Monday, Labor Day (day off anyone?).

If anyone has had the opportunity to swing by (in NY or LA) and is willing to share your experience, please let us know! Was it a mad-house? Were the deals amazing? Was it in some creepy loft space? What’s the scoop??

No, it isn’t some obscure reference to the home of a norse god. Odin, the well-known boutique sporting a couple of Manhattan locations, is a bit of a hot spot for men’s fashions. Though I haven’t had a chance to swing by myself, it’s been recommended a number of times in conversation. Based on the reviews I’ve read, I won’t expect much in the way of service, though the selection is supposed to be pretty solid.

Spreading their reach a bit, the crew at Odin opened Den not long ago. Den is a 350 square foot adjunct to Odin’s East Village location featuring the work of a single designer for a limited period of time. Essentially a revolving mini-store for the up-and-coming designers that you want to know about. Unlike Odin, Den will show both men’s and women’s clothing, depending on the designer.

Den is currently showcasing the work of Common Projects, a relative newcomer to the footwear market. Keep an eye on Den’s site for their upcoming collaborations with Engineered Garments and Shipley & Halmos.

My head is in the fashion world! As you may have caught on our AmongMany mini-feed, I spent yesterday afternoon munching and chatting with Yuyu Chen, a graphic and fashion designer based here in NYC. Reasonably, much of our discussion centered around the fashion world…I need clothes, she designs clothes…it all fits. So much of my Sunday evening was spent surfing through my repository of fashion sites and blogs in search of interesting stuff. And, apparently I hit the jackpot.

We already mentioned Gilt Groupe - and offered up invites as well. Here’s another sweet little find from last night’s adventures in web-world: The Choosy Beggar is one of those difficult to find resources in the fashion world. They scout out the best “sales, deals, and trends fit for New York men”. That’s right, a fashion site dedicated to helping us guys find deals on the good stuff!

Top of the page right now is up to 70% off at the L.E.S. boutique Bblessing (both in store and online)…

There isn’t much more “New York” than the sample sale. Riding the freight elevator to some random loft space with a group of people who look like they’re willing to go to battle over the right shirt is an experience to behold. Of course, it’s also rather unpleasant as far as shopping experiences go. You might be getting boutique names, but for the price, you’re sure not getting boutique service…

Now you don’t have to deal with any of that though; the sample sale has now gone digital. Thanks to Gilt Groupe, all you need now is a few quick clicks to grab that coveted piece. And you can do it all from the comfort of your own computer.

Established last year, Gilt Groupe is already garnering pieces from some of the top names in fashion. This week’s sales feature Zac Posen, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, and John Hardy jewelry, among others. (Last week’s line-up featured Rag & Bone.)

Sound too good to be true? Well, its not, but there are a couple of catches… They sell out FAST (and, unfortunately, their remind emails are always late), so if you’re excited about a designer, set a remind for yourself and hop online as soon as the sale starts.

AND, Gilt Groupe is invite only. Luckily, I have invites to spare. If you’re interested, leave your email address in comments or drop us a line and we’ll get ya set up!

As most mid-century fanatics well-know, finding the right piece at the right price is really difficult these days. Factor in the issues of shipping and receiving, possibly having to refinish a piece, etc., and the plight of the mid-century furniture shopper can be downright daunting. Sure, we can scour ebay (and deal with all the trouble that comes with the ‘bay), hunt on craigslist, or spend hours wandering through flea markets and “antique” stores…

Or we could just sign up for Lushpad. Launched in early August (yeah, like 3 weeks ago), Lushpad is an exchange platform aimed directly at the mid-century modern market. Users can browse or place ads for furniture items (and a few other decorative pieces) that meet their fancy from a range of well-known designers. Based on their Canadian price listings, I’m going to assume these guys are based up north somewhere. But that doesn’t limit your ability to shop by location, designer, object type, etc.

Despite being stocked mostly with newly produced reproduction items at the moment, the Lushpad platform is extremely promising for connecting interested buyers and sellers. Hopefully once the word spreads, they’ll limit the number of retailers and promote the system more toward individuals.

Around here, we’re HUGE mid-century modern and classic modern fans – names like Eames, Bertoia, and Knoll definitely get us a little hot under the collar. Of course, any discussion on on mid-century classics inevitably leads to the big question: to buy or not to buy knock offs. While we’d love to commit our money to the true classics, the unfortunate reality is that a commitment of that sort would add at least a decade or two to our purchase timeline. So knock offs are a fact of life.

So if you happen to be in the same boat. And further, if you happen to be in Australia, you should check out Mybid.com. Dot au. Essentially an Australian-based Ebay for furniture and art, this place has some killer deals. Everything starts at 1AUD (about 86 cents for us Yanks) and the pieces looks pretty solid. Butterfly Stool for a buck anyone? Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like shipping is available to the US at the moment. Hopefully if they do well, that’ll be an upcoming step on their list.