Despite my laptop depressions, it's onwards and upwards (no, I'm not bitter that I've lost over 4 GB worth of beloved Style Bubble pics... it's no biggie at all....).  I ventured out shopping but as I still had RAM and hard disk matters on my mind, I was in 'Super Critical Shopping Mode'.  i.e. under normal circumstances, I'd be enthusiastic and gung-ho about buying everything in sight as the prices were of course very reasonable given the exchange rate but I was in an annoyingly nit picking frame of mind and really, though the shops I went to in Soho and Nolita etc (haven't done LES yet.... so let's see what that yields!), were lovely and readers' recommendations were pretty brilliant in terms of aesthetics (my my.... New York really does excel in creating credit-card inducing shop atmospheres), nothing particularly caught my eye or I reasoned that it seemed silly to buy European labels in New York.  So my shopping attitude is now pretty much 'I'm only buying it if I can't buy it in London' (I'm sure I'll snap out of that.... doing the 'Burg today.... ho ho ho)

I came across a shop on Lafayette Street that wasn't on my list but the designs in the window intrigued me so in I went.  Excuse the British ignoramus here if Label is very much well-established (with collections spanning from 1991 and having shown at New York Fashion Week, perhaps it is!) but Laura Whitcomb who I believe is still studying art has a penchant for adding depth to her clothes, inspired by politics and philosophy which probably makes you look twice at a garment.  Pairing tradition and the future is what the website says Label is about and in the shapes that Whitcomb creates you can definitely pick out something of a historical reference, without knowing exactly what it is Whitcomb is referencing.  Philosophising and theoreticising about clothes is all very well but the main thing is that the ONE singular thing I bought was a dress by Label so as much as a designer could wax lyrical about his/her lofty intentions, in the end, consumer me bought into it because of the design.  I may have dumbed down the tone by wearing it without a slip dress here and with a tired expresison (blame lack of preparation and jet lag...) but it is beautiful.  A white velvet dress with a cape and a faded black print.  The velvet is also flocked to reveal dancing figurines on the back of the dress. 

I'm hoping I'll fare better today...