Cheryl Maday started Cheryl Shops in 2003 as a way to channel her fever for fashion into an outlet where others could benefit from her style savoir faire. Thus was born one very thorough destination site for all things designer…and discount.

Tell us about your blog. My friends were always asking me about sample sales and where to shop in New York, and I’ve always loved fashion, so that’s what I decided to focus on. Sample sales are my most popular feature, but I also write about everything from designer-mass market collaborations, store reviews, seasonal trend guides, and general fashion news, and I’ve gone to the last five Fashion Weeks in Bryant Park.

What brought you to New York?

Back in college, I came to visit a few friends who were going to school here, and I completely fell in love with the city – the energy, the pace, the whole nine yards. I also majored in magazine journalism, so New York seemed like a pretty logical place to move.

What do you love about living in New York?

I love that everything happens here first – whether it’s a restaurant or a band or a fashion designer, there’s always something new and exciting happening. I love that you can walk through a neighborhood you haven’t been to in a few months, and it can be completely different than the last time you were there. I also love not needing to own a car.

What do you think makes a New Yorker?

You definitely need a certain level of resilience to live here – a combination of ambition and persistence wrapped in a tough skin. Kind of like a weed!

What surprises you about New York or New Yorkers?

New Yorkers definitely have the reputation of being rude, and I don’t think that’s necessarily true. We’re just really efficient, and maybe that comes across as brusque. And we love to give directions – I’ve had other New Yorkers stop and interrupt and correct me while giving directions!

Best tips, tricks or insider info?

Since New York City is the fashion capital of the country, there is really no reason for you to pay full retail for anything. Between sample sales, end-of-season sales, amazing resale boutiques, and all of the discount stores, plus the Woodbury Commons outlet mall upstate, there are endless off-price options. For assistance in this endeavor, read Cheryl Shops-I list the week’s sales every Monday night.

Best corny tourist attraction that you secretly love?

I love toy stores-both F.A.O. Schwarz and Toys R Us-and am more than happy to accompany visitors with small children there. When my boyfriend’s brother and his family were in town, we spent several hours playing around at F.A.O. Schwarz, like Tom Hanks in Big. I had a blast.

Best place to dine late night?

Had I responded to this several months ago, I would’ve recommended Florent in the Meatpacking District; the food was great and the clientele was ultra-fabulously downtown, but, sadly, it’s now closed. As a slightly more mellow replacement, I suggest my favorite neighborhood restaurant, Bar Tabac, which is open till 3 a.m. on the weekends. The goat cheese salad is heavenly.

Best live music venue?

Radio City Music Hall. The Art Deco lobby makes you feel totally swanky, the sound quality is amazing, and-this is important because I’m an old lady-you get to sit down the whole time.

Best kept secret in neighborhood fashion boutiques?

I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a best-kept secret in media-saturated New York, but Gabay’s in the East Village is fairly under the radar in terms of discount shopping. They get overstock from stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel, so you can usually find designer clothes and accessories-think Chloé, Marc Jacobs, Manolo Blahnik-for pretty good prices.

Best area or neighborhood for fashion steals?

Chelsea has Filene’s Basement, TJ Maxx, and Loehmann’s, plus the Barneys Warehouse Sale twice a year, and there are frequently sample sales at the Metropolitan Pavilion. I also love the designer resale shop Fisch for the Hip on 18th Street. If you’ve got time to dig, go dig there.

Best way to spot a trend?

For a refined experience, walk around Soho on a weekday – between the shopgirls, showrooms, and various artsy people who work down there, everyone is devastatingly stylish.

Best high end shop? Best place to find reasonable knock offs?

For high end, count me among those who worship at the altar of Jeffrey. The shoes are to die for (and somewhat more affordable during the twice-yearly sales), they have a great mix of big-name designer and cutting-edge labels, and the salespeople are lovely. Of all the fast-fashion chains in the city, I still think H&M is the best. Zara has better quality and Forever 21 has better prices, but H&M has a stronger, on-trend runway influence. Of course, once Topshop opens later this year, I’m bound to change my mind!

www.cherylshops.blogspot.com

Which Sales Have You Sampled Successfully?
Post A Comment And Let Us Know!

AltaMira creator Craig Arend was inspired to create his fashion/photo journalism hybrid blog on a Paris vacation in 2006. He started by shooting candids of fashionable Parisians and then progressed to asking them to pose on the street and show off their style. With street fashion fast legitimizing itself as a solid reference for high fashion magazines, runways, and designers, the time was right to organize his portfolio. And thus Altamira was born.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started? My blog is a street fashion photo blog first and foremost. It documents people who wear their clothes with a unique sense of style, a couture sense of fashion, and an aura of self-confidence. I capture the middle ground: the balance between a Parisian fashion sophisticate wearing Lanvin and Chanel pieces to someone wearing a self-created pair of knicker pants they rescued from a dumpster.

The name AltaMira comes from the caves in Spain. The paintings in the caves have inspired people for decades, Picasso included. When literally translated to English, the phrase means “high view”. In my blog’s case, that means “high view” of the streets. In the same way that the caves were crowned a UNESCO Heritage Site, I hope to someday achieve equally great recognition in the photography and fashion communities.

What brought you to New York?

A childhood dream. I remember when I was young my family would take vacations and drive across the States. Before we’d go, we’d shop at bookstores for books on where we were going. I would always gravitate to the books on New York City. To this day I can still see in my mind’s eye the Berlitz travel guide to New York City, in its glossy cover, with the skyline in the foreground.

What do you love about living in New York?

New York has something for everyone if you know where to look. It epitomizes convenience by condensing into one tiny geographic pin point.

What do you think makes a New Yorker?

I view the city like a garden/gardener relationship. A New Yorker is someone who allows the gardener (the city and all the challenges and greatness it has to offer) to cultivate, water, and pull the weeds out of the garden (the person). If you allow New York City to make you a better person, then you are a New Yorker.

Best tips, tricks or insider info?

My best tip is actually non-fashion related. If you show up at Mario Battali’s Babbo before it opens, you can get a table when they open the door without waiting weeks to exercise your reservation.

Best kept secret in neighborhood fashion boutiques?

For women, the shoe boutique, Girls Love Shoes. It’s on Ludlow and Hester and they stock hundreds of vintage shoes from the 1930’s to the early 1990’s.

Best area or neighborhood for fashion steals?

Nolita

Best way to spot a trend?

When certain articles of clothing repeat themselves over and over again, either on the runway, the press, or the streets, a trend is forming. From the Fall/ Winter 08/09 collections, Chloe, Lanvin, Balenciaga, and Lanvin all styled their models in pointy toed stilettos–that’s a trend to watch for.

Best high end shoes? Best place to find reasonable knock offs, of said shoes?

The quality craftsmanship of a Louboutin. The knock off version from Nine West.

www.altamiranyc.blogspot.com

What Street Styles Have Stopped You In Your Tracks?
Post A Comment And Let Us Know!

Take advantage of Celia San Miguel’s experience as a writer and editor for in the know magazines like In Style, VIBE and, currently, GIANT. All those connections keep her “up on the hotness,” as every stylish lady should be. On her blog, San Miguel will explain how a funky belt from Waist Candy Buckles can make your outfit much sharper than jewelry or a handbag, why the future of mineral foundations can be found in Beauty Cosmedic’s Brush2Go, and that the right throw pillow can transform your drab bedroom into a sexy boudoir. This artist, fashion lover, and mom has got the hottest books, movies, decorating tips and beauty products to keep you “Sicka Than Average”. Since Celia has her finger on the pulse of what’s hot, we asked her what’s hot in NYC.

Tell us about your blog: what is the premise, what are your main coverage areas, how did you get started? I launched SickaThanAverage.com in February, mostly because I felt that there weren’t too many sites that catered to women like me, girls who love haute couture but who are also into vintage duds and hip-hop influenced streetwear (from the latest limited-edition dunks to the hottest graphic tees). The site is geared towards multicultural, stylish women who were reared in hip-hop culture and who therefore have an aesthetic sense that’s heavily influenced (but not limited) by it. It’s a product-driven site, so audiences can look forward to going to SickaThanAverage.com every day and finding something cool for their homes or a great beauty find or a hot dress or handbag. I try to mix it up so that there’s high-end and low-end items in there, instead of keeping everything within one price range (after all, some things make you feel like splurging and, other times, you just want a great bargain). Another distinguishing factor is the lack of celebrity-centered content (pictures of celebs wearing something, etc.). I feel that if a garment, beauty product or gadget is cool enough, it should automatically appeal to people. I want to encourage people to lead, not to follow, by highlighting different fun finds and letting them formulate their own opinions and by always encouraging my readers to nurture their own individual styles. If they think something featured is positively hideous, they’re open to say so in the comments section. I actually encourage them to share their opinions, whether good or bad. It’s the dialogue and the sense of community that I want to provide. If anything, I’m just saving them the effort of hunting down unique items in every store, website and blog imaginable! Getting started was easy enough. I’d been doing a lot of market work through the years (whether at In Style, Complex, The New York Post, VIBE or GIANT), and I just applied that, plus my shopaholic skills, to the web. The trickiest part was probably coming up with the name –once I had that, I was good to go!!

What brought you to New York?

I’m originally from Puerto Rico, but while attending prep school in New Hampshire (Phillips Exeter) and, later, college in Cambridge, MA (Harvard University), I kept traveling back to NYC for holidays and school breaks (the airfare to PR was a lot of money and most of my friends lived in New York, so it was way easier and more affordable to come and stay with them in the Bronx). Over time, it became a second home to me so that, once I graduated from college, I already felt like I was acclimated to the city and its culture.

What do you love about living in New York?

So much to love about New York. I love the beautiful graffiti murals in the Bronx, the music festivals in Central Park (Summerstage rules), shopping for vintage duds in the LES, rummaging through cool flea markets, the lights on the George Washington bridge at night time, walking past Rockefeller Center around Christmas time, eating at outdoor cafes in the summertime, watching a foreign flick at the Angelicka and stopping by obscure bookstores for a good read.

What do you think makes a New Yorker?

New York is all about having heart and being fearless when it comes to self-expression. Whether it’s through your language, your walk, your choice of music or your personal style, New Yorkers tend to be unafraid of veering from the norm. I think there’s also a do-or-die attitude that’s prevalent here; a true New Yorker knows how to bounce back after being knocked down.

What surprises you about New York or New Yorkers?

I’m always surprised at how much an area or neighborhood can change in just a couple of blocks. Take 34th street for example — if you walk in one direction, you’re in a central shopping area with Macy’s, H&M, Old Navy, etc, and then you have Madison Square Garden right there. Walk east and south for just a few blocks and you’re in Korea Town. Or, walk west and a few blocks up and you’re in the garment district. Walk south enough and you’re in Chelsea! And each placehas such a distinct flavor and vibe.

When you leave New York, what do you miss the most?

The fast pace is definitely addictive. We may complain about how non-stop our schedules are, but when we go outside of New York, it seems like everyone is moving too slow! It’s the funniest thing. And, as crazy as this sounds, I actually miss the noise. I went to stay at my dad’s house in Aguas Buenas, PR, one time and I was completely freaked out because I couldn’t hear cars and trains going by. You’d think the silence would’ve granted me some good rest but, instead, it kept me up at night. Go figure.

Do you know any tricks or insider info, in terms of spotting a trend?

I don’t know if there’s necessarily any tricks to spotting a trend. Sure, it helps if you’re going to 7th on Sixth and observing any commonalities between different designers’ collections but, in terms of more streetwear-based trends, those tend to grow organically among niche groups or neighborhoods. My main thing is this: pay attention to what the kids are doing — especially when it comes to hip-hop fashions — because they really do set the trends as much as they follow them.

Best corny tourist attraction that you secretly love?

Hmmm…Corny tourist attraction? I’d probably have to say the Empire State building, when they switch up the light scheme, I’m always a little mesmerized.

Best neighborhood bar?

I like this spot called the Den in Harlem. One of my homeboys spins there, and it’s got a nice vibe, plus the drinks are good and not too pricey.

Best late night joint?

I don’t go out too often but, when I do, it tends to be to the same few spots: Apt, La Linea, Lotus, Nikki Midtown and 40/40.

Last cultural thing that you did (movie, museum, theatre, etc…)?

I saw this really great movie, Elite Squad. It was actually an advance screening of the flick, which is a wonderful, albeit violent and graphic, film about Brazil’s police force directed by JosePadilha.

Best fancy schmancy restaurant?

For brunch, it’s got to be Serendipity 3, which is right by Bloomingdale’s. It’s small and the line is usually going out the front door, but it’s well worth the wait. If it has chocolate in it, order it.For lunch or dinner, I absolutely adore Blue Fin and Asia de Cuba.

Best place to meet members of the opposite sex?

I think you can meet anyone pretty much anywhere. Whether it’s at a nightclub or at a poetry reading or an outdoor concert, NYC is just that kind of place.

Best live entertainment venue?

S.O.B.’s and Joe’s Pub tend to have a lot of great R&B acts coming through to perform. I don’t particularly love the venues themselves, but as far as hearing great music, they’ve definitely got good lineups.

Best place to find fun clothes or styles, on the cheap?I love the consignment store Tokio 7. You can get great designer shoes and clothing for a fraction of the original price. Also, there’s a flea market every weekend on 25th street where you can often score great jewelry and accessories.

Get well soon at sickathanaverage.com.

See what else is stylish in Dress Code.

How do you keep up on the trends?

Post a comment below and let us know what’s hot.