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City Chic: The Modern Girl's Guide to Living Large on Less
City Chic: The Modern Girl's Guide to Living Large on Less
City Chic: The Modern Girl's Guide to Living Large on Less
Ebook362 pages3 hours

City Chic: The Modern Girl's Guide to Living Large on Less

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Live the luxe life on less

You're a Modern Girl embarking on a fabulous life in the city, working hard and playing even harder. Money may be an object, but you refuse to let it be an obstacle. That's because what you may lack in funds you make up for in daring and desire. Completely revised with more tips and tricks than ever, City Chic is your practical insiders' primer on how to creatively cheat at being chic. From food and drink to personal maintenance, and from fashion to home décor, City Chic covers everything a Modern Girl needs to know.

  • Big idea decoratingfor small spaces
  • Cash-saving culinary tips
  • The best websites for scoringdeals
  • Go green: save the environment and your checking account
  • Maximize your iPod for fullparty potential
  • Establish your perfectsignature cocktail

PRAISE FOR CITY CHIC

'City Chic is constantly inventive, amazingly granular, and a blast to read.'
Dany Levy, founder/chairman | Daily Candy, Inc.

'I love the book. If only I'd had it for the past ten yearsit would've saved me lots of heartache, bad furniture, and most importantly, money It gives you license to scrimp and pinchand makes you feel more empowered to do so.'
Gigi Guerra, brand marketing director of Madewell | former editor of Lucky magazine

'City chicks no longer need to turn tricks or sell dope in order to have a glamorous lifestyle just read Nina's brilliant book.'
Simon Doonan, creative director for Barneys New York | author of Confessions of a Window Dresser

'Being an ‘it' girl has never been about how much cash you had in the bank, and now is the time to embrace your inner recessionista. Willdorf's book proves that being frugal and being fabulous are not mutually exclusive.'
Lara Cohen, news director | Us Weekly

LanguageEnglish
PublisherSourcebooks
Release dateMar 1, 2009
ISBN9781402247835
City Chic: The Modern Girl's Guide to Living Large on Less
Author

Nina Willdorf

Nina Willdorf is the editor in chief of Budget Travel magazine. She has worked at Travel + Leisure and Worth, and has served as an on-air expert on E!, CNN, and Inside Edition. In addition to City Chic, Nina is the author of Wedding Chic: The Savvy Bride's Guide to Getting More while Spending Less (Penguin, 2005). She lives with her husband, Michael Endelman, in New York. Her website is www.ninawilldorf.com.

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Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Has sections on clothing, decorating, eating, and working out, this book contains similar advice to most beginning home decorating books, but it's nice to have simple summaries of a variety of topics in one place. However, her clothing budget is obscene and she does not advice readers to save at all, which since she provides a sample of her own budget, is a little disturbing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Like all advice books, this has some hits and misses. While there are some very dubious tips and anecdotes (the author talks about a friend of hers who spent hundreds of dollars on pillows for her apartment), Willdorf also includes some surprisingly helpful information. In addition to not including the seemingly pre-requisite chapter on relationships that is found in many single girl advice tomes, City Chic offers some great advice on decorating and shopping (even though I'd still skip the pricey pillows).

Book preview

City Chic - Nina Willdorf

author

introduction

Here you are, getting started on your career in the big city.

With a brain full of big ideas, you dropped down with a sparkling vision of your future. There will be fancy fetes, fresh flowers throughout a light, airy apartment, gourmet dinners prepared on an industrial range, a closet full of chic, clean garments, time to spare, and corporate ladders to climb. Ah, the good life.

But, you soon realize, it’s not quite that rosy in the real world.

You may be bursting with ideas, but you’re short on cash. Your taste buds are primed for four stars, but your cupboards echo when you open them. You eagerly pore over stylized glossy pages in Vogue and then peer down at your dragging, frayed hemlines. You longingly flip through Elle Decor and then glance around at your peeling wallpaper and chipped paint. You devoutly read page after page of Yoga Journal and then take stock of your soft, fleshy body.

Welcome to your fiscally challenged twenties and thirties. You know you’re a member of the Fiscally Challenged Club when, despite a healthy dose of pride in your work, the accompanying paycheck can be described only as, well, slim. You avoid peeking at the monthly balance in your bank statement. You mentally clock how much you’ll have left over after devoting 50 percent of your income to rent. And you dream of the day when picking up mail won’t be a matter of dread (cable bill, credit card bill, nasty note from landlord, cell phone bill—yikes!), when dinner out with friends won’t be an obstacle course of mental calculations (should you order another drink? Add $6. Who wants dessert? Add $10), and when an afternoon of shopping will include more than peering longingly at the window displays.

You have desires for certain hemlines, bedspreads, and glassware—big ones! But whether or not you can afford it all now, you don’t give up hope. Money may be an object, but you refuse to let it be an obstacle. That’s because what you may lack in funds you make up for in daring and desire.

While your budget may be more Nordstrom than Neiman, more Banana Republic than Barneys, more Gap than Gucci, you’re intent on looking as snazzy as money-dropping Madonna. You’re the kind of girl who knows that all it takes to make cubic zirconia come off as D-grade diamonds is a certain amount of conviction. And, fortunately, conviction and poise come cheap.

Think of it as your big secret, your way to creatively cheat at looking chic. Call it the new thrift. And unlike the Salvation Army clothing you fancied as edgy in high school, this thrift is more glam than grunge, more good looking than Goodwill.

It sure sounds good, right? But how do you look like a million bucks for more like $150? Learning how to live just as well for less money is a lifelong project, one that requires equal measures of inventiveness, skill, and savvy. Instead of wallowing in what you can’t have, you take pride in the get, the deals, and the accompanying stories. Your closet is a picture book of finds, your kitchen a scrapbook-to-be of fun meals with your friends, your bathroom a laboratory of dime-store fare dressed up in shiny bottles.

Allow me to chart the Modern Girl’s cost-conscious course. This is a subject I’ve been immersed in over the course of five cities and a roller coaster of salaries. I am a magazine editor who covers style, design, and lifestyle issues. It is my job to inform readers of deals, strategies, and inspiring ways other women have lived well—whatever they make. In the process of writing about stylish savings, I’ve lived it as well.

Soon enough, you too will save money on haircuts, be able to recite the essential kitchen ingredients to throw a last-minute, low-budget soiree, know instinctively how to remove that splash of wine from your favorite pair of pants, and be able to toss off the secret words to get a deal on your gym membership.

Consider City Chic your low-budget, high-style bible, your point of inspiration, your guide to the good life at low cost. It is the assistant’s right-hand cheat sheet, the artist’s secret weapon, the student’s primer—a Modern Girl’s best friend.

MODERN GIRL NOW

When I wrote the first edition of City Chic in 2003, I had a hunch that there were legions of girls just like me. I was right out of college, with big ideas and a small budget. I couldn’t bear the thought of having my meager income cramp my style.

So I spent six months interviewing like mad, asking everyone from famous hairstylists to my favorite magazine editors what their secrets were to living the good life on a less-than-meaty monthly income. I polled hundreds of friends and acquaintances across the country and came up with the ultimate primer on pulling off the seemingly impossible with grace and style.

The result? City Chic seemed to speak to America, and it was an immediate hit. When the book came out, I spent months touring the country—New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh—giving talks and appearing on television. I always got lots of great questions: How often do you wash your jeans? How can you tell if an avocado is ripe? How can I get a raise at work? But the one I got, and still get, the most is this: How did you come to write this book? My response is always the same, and it couldn’t be more honest: I needed it! City Chic was—and still is—the most comprehensive collection of tips, tools, and secret sources for scoring the life that I aspired to have. It’s the book I wish I’d had for myself, and I am certain that it helped me, and countless others, make achieving the dream—living the luxe life for less—a reality.

As for that hunch about the growing community of girls like me, well, you spoke up and introduced yourselves. The country, indeed the world (City Chic has been published in three languages—Korean, Chinese, and Japanese), is full of Modern Girls just like us—those girls who thrive on the get, on scoring deals, and on earning bragging rights in the process; girls who don’t have trust funds but still lust for luxury goods.

I received scores of emails from readers who just wanted to reach out, share personal anecdotes, and tell me how much they connected with the book. The City Chic lifestyle has spawned a movement. You, the City Chic nation, have let me know all that this has inspired you to do. I never tire of hearing—and responding—to people like Jessica: "City Chic has made me rethink my budget and I just figured out when all the good neighborhoods here in Ottawa have trash day so I can loot the night before! Or girls like Kate: It’s saved me a lot of money and energy. I used your advice to cut down on things I don’t need, like a haircut every six weeks! Thanks so much for writing this book—it has truly changed my life!"

In true City Chic collaborative spirit, many readers also pitched in with advice of their own. Susan, from New Jersey, offered one of her favorite tips: I’ve been a hard-and-fast thrift chick for many years and just love bargains I’ve gotten. Hot movies come out in DVD quickly after they run in the theaters and I’m able to get them free or at minimal reservation fee at the library. My library system is on a website so I can type in what I’m looking for and my request will be honored by any library in the system. It’s great! Liann shared a way to fill your walls in a creative way: Student art shows are a great place to get all kinds of wonderful pieces at amazing prices. Check at your local art school or even your local community college for showings. Not only do you get an original painting or sculpture but you are also encouraging a new artist to continue creating beautiful pieces.

Being a Modern Girl is a way of life, a source of pride. From the outside, we walk down the street with the cutest shoes, the snazziest bag, the perfect manicure, the edgy do. We look just like any other cool girl on the street. On the inside, though, we are a proud tribe. We look out for one another, and we want to see one another thrive. We’re a sisterhood of thrifters, a clique of crafters. Shira, from Phoenix, summed it up perfectly in a letter she wrote me: "City Chic is delightfully diva-esque, and you make no apologies or excuses for your suggestions, which gives me—and all of my downtown City Chic sisters—some ammo when we cross paths with the Scottsdale trophy wives here in Arizona."

It’s inevitable that, as the years have passed, City Chic has also evolved. For one thing, in this new edition you’ll find celebs to look up to other than, er, Britney Spears, who was, embarrassingly, in the first edition. But beyond that, there are a host of significant changes and updates: new recipes, advice on how to make the most of your iPod, today’s fashion tips and trends, and dozens of fresh anecdotes. There are nods to the fact that the Modern Girl is now a Green Girl, so you’ll find new information on things like energy-efficient lightbulbs and green markets, added to complement the older information that’s still relevant—Dumpster-diving techniques, thrifting, and vintage shopping (all very green!). And as the big-box stores have given chic boutiques a run for their stylish money by importing low-cost designer duds, I’ve made much more of the ways Modern Girls can take advantage of their local superstores (emphasis on the super) to score everything from Vera Wang to Loeffler Randall. Most important, the Web has become an integral tool in the Modern Girl’s world, for ideas, for inspiration, and for deals. So each chapter now concludes with a list of online resources that relate to the material covered.

As Modern Girls grow up, do better for themselves, and graduate into their late twenties or early thirties, there’s still plenty in here to hold on to. I know that on a personal level. When I first wrote this book several years ago, I lived paycheck to paycheck—when I even had a paycheck. Flash forward to 2008, as I’m writing this new introduction, and a lot has changed. Michael (then my boyfriend, now my husband) and I are no longer covered in newsprint from our work at the Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper. We’re editors at glossy lifestyle magazines in New York.

But being a Modern Girl is still part of my DNA. I still care about value. At the moment, I’m currently waiting on the delivery of dining room chairs from CB2, and I just negotiated for them to eliminate the delivery fee because the time got messed up. Nice! I still have clothing-swap parties and dinner parties, and I generally prefer to party at home instead of at a pricy table-service bar (yuck!). I still use drugstore-bought Cetaphil to wash my face, dress up my living room with lucky bamboo, head straight to the clearance tables when shopping, and roast chicken myself at home. I belong to the local YMCA ($72 a month for both of us!), buy yoga classes in bulk, and monitor my monthly budget like a champ. I still keep receipts in my wallet to snag price adjustments on items I’ve recently bought. And I still research a purchase within an inch of my life before taking the plunge. Now I just do a lot of that work on the Internet, not on foot.

I still cringe at the notion of paying full price for a pair of shoes and can’t remember the last time I did so. I still subscribe to email newsletters letting me know about the sample sale du jour—and I happily duck out at lunch to line up with Modern Girls with the same one-track mind. I will wait thirty minutes in the freezing rain to get 30 percent off a Tory Burch tunic. And yes! When someone notices the next day, as I’m proudly sporting my spoils, the first thing I say is, Thirty. Percent. Off! Their eyes glimmer, and I crow. And we both know that we are of the same camp: Modern Girls with our eyes on the low-cost prize. There’s no shame in this game.

Just as the City Chic lifestyle worked in 2003, it works now—even better, thanks to message boards where girls can swap up-to-the-second tips on which sales are worth going to right now, email newsletters with easy-to-make recipes, and countless sites that heavily discount covetable designer duds. The life is within your grasp, and it’s easier than ever to attain.

You can grow up, you can graduate, and you can gain a whole new financial security, but you can’t shake the fun spirit of the City Chic life. And besides, who would even want to?

There is no such thing as an ugly color. There is such a thing as an ugly color combination.

— Douglas Fitch, artist

I went to college in New York City, where a shoe-box-sized room is considered ample space. Housing in college anywhere in the country is already a less-than-luxurious affair, with twin beds and utilitarian design. But in converted New York apartment buildings, dusty and musty and crumbling and full of—ahem—character, the dorms I lived in required some seriously savvy decorating skills. Each year, as I crossed the threshold into my new space, depositing boxes of books and bedding, I surveyed the design challenges, the many limitations, and the even more bountiful options to make things fabulous. New year, new apartment, new creative challenges.

First was a modernist cube cinderblock room I shared with my roommate, Adrianne. We had two twin beds, an elaborate shelving unit occupying one wall, and a floor of cold linoleum. We lay down rugs, placed disguising wall hangings over the oppressively drab cinderblock, used soft lamps, and formed an ahhh…nest.

Later, I shared a studio apartment with Julia. It was also dorm housing but in a converted prewar apartment building. When I moved in, there was a bunk bed hugging one wall, two dressers in the middle of the room, and a kitchen that could fit one person (as long as she sucked in and angled in sideways). Things looked bleak. But we went to work. The first thing we did was separate the bunk bed—I mean, really, how old were we? Then we pushed a worn-out couch below the windows at the head of the room, which we covered in a beautiful, purple-hued Indian spread. Candles and lighting touches clinched the transition from drab dorm to cozy casa.

Over the course of the next few years, I cultivated essential skills, such as sprucing up a room with a perfectly placed plant, devising slipcovers for well-worn furniture, and hanging just the right number of pictures on the wall to create cozy without getting claustrophobic.

I saw: a crevice of a foyer. It became: an office.

I saw: a blank wall. It became: a shelving unit for kitchenwares that didn’t fit in the two cabinets.

I saw: a window that faced something more than a brick wall. It became: a focal point of the apartment, enhanced by a hanging plant.

I saw: a doorframe. It became: the ideal spot to hang hooks for coats.

Everything has multiple functions, and anything that’s not a problem becomes a potential asset.

As a Modern Girl, you find yourself in similar decorating predicaments. Small apartments and shares are bursting with creative challenges; you rise to them with gusto, rubbing your hands in anticipation, your eyes darting around to scope out all the ins and outs of your space. Everything—everything—has potential. A folding screen becomes a door between a convertible two bedroom. Stacks of books act as a makeshift coffee table. A step stool doubles as a pedestal for a droopy plant. You can make something out of anything. Hit the ground running.

COLOR

First and foremost in your apartment transformation is painting. There’s no better way to transform your space, to make it yours, than to throw some color on the walls. And as far as apartment renovations go, painting is an affordable way to make your space better—especially if you do it yourself. You’re not ripping out walls (please), you’re not installing appliances (1–800-HELP-MOI), but be completely comfortable taking on a good paint job. All you have to invest in are a few cans of paint, some brushes and rollers, and a six-pack of beer to lure your friends over to make a day of it.

Word to the wise: If your landlord doesn’t allow painting, don’t worry. Every apartment I’ve ever lived in has a clause in the lease that you’re not allowed to paint. Ignore it. It’s likely that the next tenant will be stunned by your impeccable taste and choose to keep the color anyway. And if not, in many states, your landlord is required to slap on another coat of white before the new tenant moves in anyway. The worst-case scenario is that you have to paint over your color. In that case, meet Kilz, a primer that covers up even the brightest bordello red. Consider your color dead.

Chances are, when you first move in, your apartment will be white. If you’re lucky, you may have started off with something a little spicier, like eggshell or a very pale cream. But none of those will do as the sole color for your entire home. All-white walls, like an all-white wardrobe, are too easy, and they waste precious creative space. You should leave no more than one room in your home in plain old white. That room will act as a pause between your other rooms. While wild color combinations (yellow and green and red, all at once!) may be a bad idea, having every single room in white does nothing for you. At the very least, brush on an eggshell white or a pale gray.

Identify your room needs

Before you go slapping up a shocking shade of orange in your bedroom, you need to figure out exactly what you require from each room. Does your bedroom double as a study? Do you enjoy reading the newspaper at your kitchen table in the mornings? Is your bathroom a beautifying space? All of the colors you choose will help make your home well suited to your exact housing needs.

Separating space

Most Modern Girls are still in situations that are, generously speaking, a little humble: sharing apartments or living in cramped studios or one bedrooms. Paint can work wonderfully in small starter apartments by clearly delineating space and creating the illusion of vastness.

My husband, Michael, and I moved into a very small railroad-style onebedroom in Cambridge several years ago; one room led to another, without a hallway. There were no doors between the rooms, and, well, even using the word room could be considered generous. A very tall person lying down could probably have a limb in three rooms at once. Needless to say, we had to find a way to make the space seem larger. It was the first time that we had lived together, and it was the first time either of us had shacked up with a significant other. We were both nervous about having enough personal space and personal time. So making our small apartment seem larger was key.

To that end, we painted the bedroom and the living room a pale blue gray, keeping the door frames white, and we painted the kitchen and bathroom a sunny shade of yellow, leaving the study white. Walking from room to room after we’d painted really felt like transitioning from one space to another, just because of the color. We could be in different rooms, and even though there weren’t doors, we could still feel like we were in another part of the house.

In a small apartment, use different colors in different rooms to make each its own space and to make the apartment seem more spacious.

Haven homes

If you live in any city, from New York to Chicago, San Francisco to Boston, Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., your apartment must provide a space of respite, of soothing calm. Coming home is your chance to get away from car alarms, smelly curbside trash, and whistling construction workers. Again, the perfectly suited wall color can make your apartment into a blissful Zen-like space that envelops you in a warm hug as you cross the threshold. Ahhh…

Bright lights, big city

You’re a lucky girl if you

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