This is so adorable.

Those aren’t manakins – that’s actually Weileen and Walice.

Creepy photo of me thanks to Eileen. Eyes very non-Asian here.

Dijital Fix founder David Auerbach.

Treating myself to birthday gifts the other week, I picked up two timepieces from Nooka – a ZAZ and a ZEM. I had the pleasure of meeting Nooka founder Matthew Waldman at the ICFF Offsite ‘Sounds Like’ opening and he’s an awesome dude. He was wearing a black Zem and asked if I had one yet – and now I do! These new high-end Nookas come in sleek gem-cut cases and are beautiful. Peep the photos below.

The Zaz features an off-set translucent Zen-V face. The time is told through 4 vertical bars over a backdrop of the wearer’s skin. This is maybe my favorite among favorites in my ever-growing Nooka collection. When I wear it I feel like time is hovering over my wrist. The Zaz is available in three different band options, silver mesh, black leather or white leather. I chose the silver mesh so I could capitalize on shine. Tell me this is not one of the coolest watches you’ve ever seen.

The Zem is a fun new watch that brings a new feel to wearing the future. The Zem features a gem-cut minteral crystal lens and in-person, these things look borderline computer-generated. I had a hard time picking out the color and the Zem is available in a few different forms. You can get the Zem with four different face styles (zot, zen-v, zen-h, and zoo), ‘night’ or silver face, and a black or silver high-gauge stainless steel bracelet or smooth black leather band. After a long time of mulling it over, I decided to opt for a little contrast with a Zen-H silver face and a smooth leather band. This watch is badass.

What’s next up for my collection? I’m eyeing a Pink Zub Zirc….

Here are the watches actually being rocked.

http://www.nooka.com/

One of the things I love about Gilt is exposure to brands I hadn’t heard of before. Zuriick is a great example of one such brand. Zuriick is a small-time 3-year-old footwear company that doesn’t “overdo branding.” Their main bit of branding is that all of their soles are purple. Zuriick features a lot of cool, colorful shoes. I love this pair of Alpha Beatas. Love the blue accents on the lace-holes.

Zurrick currently runs their entire online business on Big Cartel. I checked out their online store and lo and behold, they had a sale that I had to get in on. I got their Albert Ocean, which are hip and comfortably puffy hi-tops. Love that signature purple sole! They don’t even have a size printed on the tongue.

Here is a mini-documentary with the guys from Zuriick discussing their mission and how they use Big Cartel to run their business.

Zuriick | BigCartel | Gilt

I picked up this pair of Paxton kicks from Jump in Soho the other weekend. These shoes are somewhere between dressy and casual – a nice all purpose pair. The shoe is patent leather with a pony hair upper. Very nice. I believe these are a relatively old release from Jump, so they’re pretty cheap at the Soho store if they still have them in stock.  I love that Jump has such a wide variety of shoe styles, but manages to kill it on all fronts.

http://www.jumpcorp.com/

This shirt is a badass special limited edition collaboration between Matthew Waldman (of Nooka) and Graniph. The shirt features the Nooka “creatures of the night” design found on the Nooka camo watches. Also loving the little ‘Matthew Waldman’ signature on the back. At 20% polyester and 80% cotton, this shirt is super comfortable. Knowing Japanese sizing tends to run small I’m glad I made the right choice of getting my Graniph gear in medium. They fit perfectly! Catch me rocking this piece soon.

Coming in at ￥2,500 (around $23.75 USD), this stylish shirt is quite cheap and with the order processed early Monday morning Japan time, I got my package in the morning on Thursday in New York. I had some strange issues navigating through the english Graniph site but their customer service was great and made sure that the order was all good. I will definitely be getting more Graniph gear in the future. Get the shirt here!

Matthew Waldman | Graniph | Nooka

I couldn’t resist snapping a great photo of my Gourmet L’Nove kicks while I was at Prospect Park even as Gao Di and Alexa made fun of my ridiculous shoe obsession. Ah, so pretty.

I’d like to introduce a new segment to this blog called Style Play, which will just involve putting up whatever I’m wearing in whatever photo. So, the only difference between my usual posts of stuff I just got is the fact that I’ll actually be wearing it. Pretty simple. Anyway.

Archinect is a top online destination that brings together progessive-design oriented students, architects, educators, and fans (me!) and it just so happens that these guys produce some sweet t-shirts (architecturally inspired, of course).

Up top I am wearing an “I ♥ POMO” (Postmodern) designed by Evan Geisler and Paul Petrunia. I love the typeface here and the pink heart really stands out over an already extreme blue. Also showing off the polka dot inner lining of my Tommy Hilfiger peacoat. I am so lame.

On the bottom I’m rocking an Archinect Robot shirt in Magenta designed by Peter Rentz, from one of my favorite design firms, GHAVA – (Graphic Havoc, A Visual Agency). This shirt design is cool as hell, featuring a robot made out of architectural blueprint. Loving that color, too.

There are tons more cool shirts to be had over at Archinect, so go check ‘em out and get your own!

By now it’s become ever apparent that I am in love with all things Nooka. Here is a custom collab with luxury jewelry designer Deviant Design Group. This is a blinged out nooka zot with a 12k gold face plate with 4 carat diamonds all across the rim and a white leather band. The beautiful watch comes in at a price tag of $12,000 – just a bit over my price range. I WANT. Would feel like a badass rocking this, but in the meantime my ever growing collection of nookas will do.

EDIT: Kate over at Nooka was kind enough to e-mail me to let me know that the featured watch comes to $12,000. Customization with DDG starts at $2,500. Thanks, Kate!

Nooka | DDG (via the Nooka blog)

Here is an awesome project called ALIVESHOES (not to be confused with ALIFE) that brings together ideas of high fashion, sustainability and artistic expression. Each shoe is beautifully hand-crafted and numbered in Italy with sustainable materials like untreated and organic natural cotton, leather and cork, ecologically scented foam rubber and fully biodegradable TPU polyurethane. Each shoe is also individually hand-colored. These shoes also feature the original sketch of the installment stitched into the tongue. As ALIVESHOES says on their own site, “wearing ALIVESHOES is like wearing nature itself.”

These shoes are then used as the medium to create sculptures and art installations. Above is a photo from Steve Siegel’s Beach Blocks, an installation of a large number of shoes on a beautiful landscape in Srolo, Italy. The shoes used in the installation are now available for purchase for a base level of 150 EUROS, which covers the material costs, and the option to build up your contribution to charitable partners and future art projects. The purchase page is super cool as well and let’s you pick the individual shoe you want. Tons of monochrome color options!

These are some seriously beautiful shoes and I am yearning for a pair myself. You can tell a lot of love went into each shoe. There are more projects to come from ALIVESHOES and they look awesome so I recommend you go check them out. The price is a bit steep but hopefully, one day I’ll get my hands on a pair! My birthday is coming up, friends & family… I would like light blue.. size 43….

Check out ALIVESHOES (via Thrillist)

Gourmet | Gilt

This deal was something I could not pass up. Y-3 Yohji Yamamoto Honja Hi Tops. I have been wanting a pair of Y-3’s for a long time, but never really wanted to pay the full price for a pair ($250+), and lo and behold, a sale comes and I’m on top of the shit like I’ve got rabies. Check these badass shoes out. Unique shape featuring crinkled leather and perforated stripes and tip…. glorious.

Y-3 | Gilt

Sperry Topsider | Gilt

JUMP

photo from the New York Times

That is a great outfit right there.