Lauren A. Taylor

It’s All My Fault

laurenataylor — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:41:06 +0000

Women who wear pants are the ones to blame for all the earthquakes. Possibly the whole volcano thing, too.

Sorry ’bout that. I just haven’t had time to shave my legs lately. You know how it is. Run out of razors and take down the free world.

It’s Almost Like Getting Paid

laurenataylor — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:25:03 +0000

Apparently, I am not qualified to intern at Fashionista.com. Granted, I know some of those things, but not nearly all of them. Frankly, anyone who commands that kind of walking-encylopedia-type knowledge deserves to, oh I don’t know, GET PAID?!?!

Crazy talk, I know. The thought that interns don’t come pre-trained, and are actually supposed to learn things on the job. WACKY.

LAFW 2.0h!

laurenataylor — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:06:27 +0000

Last night was a kick-off of sorts to LA Fashion Week–a blogger party! By bloggers, for bloggers, about bloggers, blah blah blah. With, get this: gift bags! While I wasn’t actually expecting to get one, I was totally shocked when 1) I did, and 2) it had really, REALLY cool stuff in it. Like, actual clothes and accessories and beauty products. (As the economy wanes, so does the freebie love.) So hats off to Dedicated Follower of Fashion for pulling off what I thought was impossible: getting a bunch of fashion people in the same room without crazy drama involved. Nice people were met, business cards were exchanged, and hopefully some cool partnerships will rise to the surface. Plus, the bar had Blue Moon on tap.

All in all, a good night.

9021Oh Really?

laurenataylor — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:17:18 +0000

On my way to meet with a Cole Haan PR rep in Beverly Hills, sporting my Cole Haan slingbacks, an H&M dress, a Gap denim blazer, and jewelry from Bloomingdale’s Aqua, James Avery, and Confection.

I may as well just change my name to Brenda and move to 1993.

A Ripping Good Time

laurenataylor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:15:49 +0000

Last week, Anastasia in Brentwood had a pre-Oscar bash to help industry-types prepare for the Academy Awards. There was delicious sushi, wine, and free beauty treatments like makeup touch-ups, blowouts and the famous brow waxing. I’m not sure how makeup and blowouts helped anyone prep for the Oscars which was still five days away, but the brow shaping was great. Anastasia didn’t personally do any shaping (we’re not worthy!), but I was taken care of by a lovely lady with an accent and fabulous glasses. And this is the result.

by Anastasia

Okay, so the cell phone pic is a little grainy, but there’s the general idea. Best moment of the night was when I sat down for the wax and the poor beautician (what is the name for a professional brow waxer?) said, “Wow, you’ve been growing these for me for a while.” LOLUNIBROW.

Gulp

laurenataylor — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:02:58 +0000

So it looks like Yelp is getting sued in Los Angeles for extortionist practices regarding negative reviews on their site. Apparently, someone received a negative review on the site and requested that Yelp remove it, to which Yelp responded, “Sure, for $300 a month we’ll totally keep that hidden away in our system.” Which is shady and wrong, sure.

But what no one is going to point out in this case is that people shouldn’t be calling web sites to have negative reviews removed in the first place. If your business is so shaky that you can’t handle ONE negative review, you need to be rethinking the industry you’re in. And if your business is so bad that your Yelp page is slammed with negative reviews, again, maybe you should rethink your business strategy. If you’re under the impression that people are leaving happy and quiet, and it’s only the unsatisfied people who get nasty and take to the internet to spew their venom far and wide, suggest to your regularly satisfied customers that hey, a good review on Yelp would be beneficial.

When I worked for a major department store, the company rewarded employees when a customer wrote a positive letter to the store about that sales associate and their help in providing outstanding service to said customer. The reward was something pretty sweet, like a $75 American express gift card or something. So the intelligent thing to do if you wanted a reward was to point out to your happy customers that, you know, this company rewards good behavior just as well as it punishes bad behavior, and if you have time to do this one little thing… It worked out pretty well.

A lot of customers don’t think about contacting management unless there’s a problem. However, people do recommend businesses to their friends when they have a good experience. Which is where the internet comes in, with sites like Yelp. Which is why, a lot of times, Yelp can be a valuable resource in finding a good local place for… well, anything. I’ve found restaurants, mechanics, and more on Yelp. They even allow business owners to personally respond to negative reviews on their site (although perhaps they also make the owners pay for that service???). Which brings me back to my original conclusion: If you’re worried that your business is going to suffer from one bad review on Yelp, maybe there’s a chance that you actually do suck that bad.

Wait, what?

laurenataylor — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:26:47 +0000

I missed National Margarita Day?!

Oh, and I have been so craving one, too.

Unfortunately, I have zero ingredients for one. I used to have a well-stocked bar in New Jersey that I had to keep hidden in my closet so that my admittedly-alcoholic-but-now-in-rehab roommate wouldn’t know about it. Now that I live in an apartment with an actual wet bar, all I have is some peppermint schnapps and a mini-bottle of tequila that I got for free at an event a couple of months ago but I have nothing good to mix it with. I’m so sad about this lack of margarita-ness that I’m not even going to try to edit that last sentence.

Chicken Fried Rice

laurenataylor — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:25:41 +0000

It’s so delicious, especially homemade. I just wish it didn’t require like two pots and three skillets and four hours of prep and cleanup to do it right.

But ohhhh, so good.

Old Habits…

laurenataylor — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:45:50 +0000

One day when I was in first grade, a boy sitting near me in class began insisting that he was not actually a little boy, but actually a robot. Some of the kids listening around us were skeptical, but listened to his claims intently, anyway. See, he was always kind of a strange kid, with constantly droopy eyes and a very morose, deadpan attitude considering he was six years old, meaning that most of the other rambunctious boys in the class didn’t want to have much to do with him. Plus, when he colors his pictures in class, he pressed so hard with his crayons that the colors came out bold and shiny, and the paper wrinkled under the weight of all the wax.

So when he started saying he was really a robot who had escaped from a factory, we all thought, Ya know, that would explain a lot.

For some reason, this story stuck with me for years, even though I don’t think I ever had a class with that kid again. Periodically throughout my childhood I would stop and think, “Was that kid really a robot? Is it crazy talk? Or is it possible?” And then when I was in high school, I finally snapped out of it and said to myself, “OF COURSE NOT, YOU IDIOT. SIX-YEAR-OLDS SAY DUMB THINGS.”

But why did I entertain the possibility for so long? Did I want to believe that the kid had a reason for being different? Did I want to believe that fantastic things like the magical stuff I had read in books might be true? Or was I just gullible enough to believe anything somebody told me at that age? (The latter one is most likely the case.)

I never did find out what happened to that kid–I think his name was Josh? Did he grow up to be less serious? Did he turn into a Ted Bundy-type?

Or maybe he’s Skynet after all.

Throwing on my Louboutins

laurenataylor — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:11:34 +0000

Well, one pair of them, anyway. What great shoes. I got them at the DecadesTwo shoe blowout back in November at Post26. Kind of a strange color, but a challenge to style! Also: to cuff or not to cuff?