nyc street art tour with vogue & longchamp

Dress: Longchamp: Pants: St. John; Bag: Longchamp; Sunglasses: YSL; Bracelets: Vita Fede

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably noticed I've been doing a lot of hopping around Soho, the Lower East Side and Nolita areas lately. And as much as I love living on the West Side, there's something undeniably "gritty New York" about these more eastern neighborhoods, and I mean gritty in the best way possible. The vibe is palpably different. It's a little rough around the edges. It's raw. It's unapologetic. Rowdy bars next to tattoo parlors. Even the bookstores stay open late, welcoming slightly tipsy patrons to come in and browse after last call. And I love escaping to this part of town, especially in search of new street art murals that seem to pop up on a daily basis.

A few weeks back, Lydia and I were searching for one particular mural, the Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld portrait by Bradley Theodore at Kenmare and Elizabeth Streets, right at the border of Soho and Little Italy. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were both pretty disappointed to find out it had been painted over a few months prior. We made do with a different mural (one that I actually fell in love with as well, seen here), but in a way, the Anna and Karl mural haunted me since then -- essentially, it was the one that got away.

Fast forward a few weeks, when I received an invite to join the Vogue and Longchamp teams for a mini street art tour of their own, with an exclusive invite to Bradley Theordore's home studio in DUMBO. I practically had to pinch myself when I read that. I then had to pinch myself again when I walked into his studio to see Anna and Karl hanging ever so neatly facing each other, in that same almost lovestruck pose. To say I was awestruck would likely be a sore understatement, but then we got to know Bradley, which pretty much was the icing on the cake. In short: he's the ultimate host and refreshingly easy to just hang out with. We snacked on cheesecake, sipped champagne and toasted his amazing view with homemade tequila cocktails he whipped up himself. He then walked us through his work space, played a few EDM songs he's really into lately and joined us for a late night dinner at Gali.

I know it's said plenty of times to the point of being cliche, but it's nights like that one that really prove New York is magic. Pure magic.

Huge thanks to the Vogue and Longchamp teams for inviting me!

Outfit photos by Christine Cameron // All studio shots by Krystal Bick and Rachel Martino

This post was in collaboration with Vogue and Longchamp. As always, all opinions and styling are my own. Thank you for supporting all This Time Tomorrow collaborations!