A collection of articles, interviews, fashionable musings, and photos from the adventures of sci-fi author, interviewer and fashionista Kendra L. Saunders.
This blog celebrates body positivity and body diversity!
First of all, here at KendryBird I try not to pick favorites, because I have the opportunity to talk to countless talented, lovely, exciting and creative people. That being said, I can't help admitting a special excitement to hear that my personal fashion favorite, Dmitry Sholokhov, will be back on TV in October!
Dmitry, along with a group of incredibly talented PR alum, will be part of the Project Runway All Stars S4. Some other KendryBird favorites among the group are Michelle Lesniak, Fabio Costa, Gunnar Deatherage and Alexandria Von Bromssen.
Also, I'm incredibly honored to announce some upcoming guests here at the blog- Fade Zu Grau, to talk about his time on the show, his decoy collection and how you can purchase his pieces; Melissa Fleis, a favorite here at the KendryBird blog and IPMNation studios, talking about her Defiant Collection, and the lovely Dom Streater, to talk about fall fashion, tumblr and what she'd design for Tom Hiddleston.
Here's a great new song for you to rock out to, fashionistas, and let the posts begin!
GoBank was kind enough to offer a shopping trip for 2 to NYC
as a contest prize, following Project Runway Season 12. I won! Seeing as I
never win anything and want to move to NYC in September, AND love Project
Runway, this was a perfect contest to win.
We arrived at JFK airport and were taken to our hotel in
true celebrity style by way of a Boston Coach car. The Ace Hotel, situated in
Midtown, was hip and fun from the very beginning, thanks to a huge lobby,
music-related flourishes, a fun staff and spacious, comfortable rooms. (And the
pillows? Heavenly!)
My sister Brittany was my companion on the trip. We left our
bags with the hotel staff and breezed directly out into the city with Dom
Streater (Project Runway S12 winner) and her lovely publicist Courtney. We
visited a fancy boutique in SoHo just to look at the pretty designer clothes,
and then hit up H&M for some serious (reasonably-priced) shopping. Dom and
I eyeballed a crazy sparkly sequin skirt and ended up both buying one!
#sequinskirtsisters forever.
That night, Dom and I hung out at our wonderful hotel with
Karen Batts and Alexander Pope, talking Alexander McQueen, fashion and New York
City. So much fun!
In the morning, we journeyed into the city once again to
OKTV studios so Dom could tape an interview. It was amazing, since I’m working
on a book right now called Dating an
Alien Pop Star, a sexy rom-com about Griffin and Dev, two aliens from a
politically and environmentally troubled planet who come to our world with very
little knowledge about our ways other than what they learned from a wayward E!
News signal. Their mission is to pretend to be the most influential people on
our planet— English pop stars, of course!—and gain the help of a powerful
secret society.
Getting to attend a real TV taping and see the behind the
scenes action was very cool and helpful and I found that I’d described it very
accurately in Dating an Alien Pop Star! And to add to that unexpected research,
the paparazzi showed up outside our hotel the next day while we were waiting
for our car, and I got to see first-hand what they’re like. (They were waiting
for Taylor Swift to leave our hotel).
After a yummy and impromptu lunch, Dom and Courtney and I
had to say goodbye, and I headed off for a bit more shopping and a night in the
city with my sister. We visited Organika, home of the most delicious gnocchi
ever, and Big Gay Ice Cream, both places I’ve visited multiple times for their
delicious offerings, then hit up Chelsea Market and walked part of the High
Line in the dark. So beautiful! After all that, we headed back to Times Square
and, finally, back to our hotel. I was happy to put on my robe and snuggle in
the comfy hotel bed to watch some bad TV and get some sleep!
In the morning I visited Ann Taylor in hopes of snagging one
of Kate Hudson’s LBD capsule collection dresses. Success! Everyone at the store
was super nice and let me buy my dress early, even though they weren’t officially
going on sale until that night. It’s such a gorgeous dress, but I’ll save news
of that for another post!
All in all, it was an incredible time. Thank you so much to
GoBank, to Project Runway, to Dom Streater and to the Ace Hotel for making it
such a great trip. I’m including the mini documentary I filmed during the trip,
so enjoy!