Life Lately | Dior, Bookstores + Ice Cream

Alexa and I met up in Brooklyn this past Saturday for a fun-filled day of fashion, books, and food -- three of our favorite things! We got breakfast at Ciao, Gloria, which I cannot recommend enough if you're in the area. We both got ricotta toast (I added a poached egg to mine), a raspberry filled donut to share plus coffee (latte for me, cappuccino for A) and we devoured it all. So good! 

Then we walked to the Brooklyn Museum, which was our first time visiting, for the Dior Exhibit. There was already a line when we got there so I was glad we decided to get there early and that we chose our exhibit entry time to be right when it opened. 

The exhibit was gorgeous! If you're interested in reading about Dior's life, there's plenty of photographs, snippets of articles and letters, and more. But if you mostly just care about the fashion, like the two of us, you will absolutely love this exhibit because that was truly the focus. It was just room after room of beautiful dresses starting from the beginning of his career until the present, when other designers took over to continue his brand. The attention to detail and how the museum chose to lay out his work was super impressive. 

After the exhibit, it was all about the bookstores since we decided to stop by three! First stop was The Center of Fiction, which neither of us had visited before. We had seen pictures of their wall of books and wanted to see it for ourselves. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint! We fell in love with the display, as you can probably see from the multiple pictures we took. Next stop was Greenlight Bookstore. What I appreciated about this location is that they limit the number of shoppers that can go inside. They also had a great selection and for the second bookstore in a row, we walked out with books. And lastly, we went to Books are Magic. The store was packed! I was really surprised by that to be honest. We ended up not lingering too long but we walked out with books (of course) and merch (I couldn't resist their branded Baggu bag or mug, while A bought a very cute hat). 

And after all that walking and shopping, we took a short break to enjoy ice cream at Malai. I had been wanting to try this place and wow, I wanted to taste every single one of their unique flavors. I ended up with sweet milk and rose with almonds while Alexa got sweet milk and mango; both in pink vanilla cones, and we loved it! 

From there, we probably could've gone home but we decided to actually try for a 4th bookstore, except when we got to Kinokuniya Books, there was huge line out the door and it looked packed. We didn't feel comfortable so instead we went across the street to see the Winter Shops at Bryant Park. It was still packed but at least it was outdoors. Plus I can't complain because I totally walked out with a couple things. I'm so ready to shop for myself and for others for the holidays! 

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What have you been up to lately?