Street [Fair] Style

My best friend Melinda came to visit me from good ole’ Arkansas last weekend and, though we had an amazing time every day she was here, one of the weekend’s highlights was undoubtedly the Lower East Side’s Hester Street Fair on Saturday. We laughed, we ate, and we explored the awesome new and vintage vendors that rotate throughout the fair each week. Though you’re less likely to score the types of deals here that you are the Chelsea or Hell’s Kitchen fleas, the HSF is considerably smaller and thus easier and more enjoyable to navigate your way around, at least for me. I didn’t end up getting anything, but Melinda scored these cute, simple earrings for $5:

'Linda striking a pose à la Girl with the Pearl Earring. Watch out, Scarlet Jo.

More importantly, however, the HSF features FOOD. Delicious, wonderful, scrumptious food. We salivated over EVERYTHING and, since all we had had for breakfast that morning were two left-over Macaron Café macarons each because we spent the morning hung overedly and exhaustedly super energetically going to South Street Seaport to buy half-price Broadway tickets, we were definitely ready to eat. And eat we did:

Crab roll from Luke's Lobster & Fresh Ginger Ale ginger ale

Seasoned & buttered corn-on-the-cob from Brooklyn Taco Co.

On left: Shaved ice w/ strawberries, watermelon, red beans, matcha mochi, & sweetened condensed milk from The Shaved Ice Shop; On right: Mini Dutch pancakes w/ bananas, hot fudge, & powdered sugar from The Poffertjes Man

Not Pictured: Guaco Taco from Brooklyn Taco Co. & Ginger Arnold Palmer from Daisy Duke's BBQ

Yeah…did I mention we ate?

I also realized that my outfit that day was pretty much the perfect street fair get-up.

Dress: Kimchi Blue; Belt: Kimchi Blue; Platform wedges: Aldo; Bag: Marc Jacobs

Here’s why:

1. The dress is lightweight, sleeveless, open-backed, and airy- perfect for tackling the ungodly heat wave that has started to sweep over the City.
2. It’s also long, so you can sit and eat in grass, on random ledges, etc. etc. without flashing poor, unsuspecting strangers.
3. It ALSO features a dark print that can easily disguise unsightly grass or food stains. What’s that, you say? You manage not to stain or drop things on most of your clothing because you are no longer five years old? Oh, guess that’s just me.
4. The black platform wedges are super comfortable and can elevate me above 5’2” so I don’t look like my usual hobbit self elevate you a bit in crowds so you can see better.

Now, go outside. Shop. Eat. And do it in style.