Hey party people,
We are closin up the shop for the weekend! We will re-open on Tuesday.
Enjoy the fireworks and have fun!
See you soon.

Omoi

Local designer, Stephanie Cao, makes earrings full of light fluffy lace and ribbon, perfect for the sweet loli crowd, those young women that enjoy dressing up like elaborately clothed, porcelain-faced dolls from a bygone era. Liz tells me that once a group of lolitas stopped in the store, on their way from a picnic (probably some elegant, confection-filled tea party in Rittenhouse park). She got a group photo with them, but it apparently came out blurry.

Anyway, these earrings are too pretty to stay in the store. They’re not just for frilly or gothic lolita types, but they’re definitely right up that alley. And if you are reading this, asking yourself what the heck a sweet lolita is, watch this video clip below of Shimotsuma Story (Kamikaze Girls is the awful English title), a movie about a friendship between two small town subculture girls, one loli and one bike gang chick. It’s cute.

Mark the date, peoples!

We WILL have some items for home, but the majority of stuff up for grabs will be apparel. Are you excited? Think of all the old stuff you didn’t buy that you wished you did. Now may be your second chance!

Quit complaining about drinking water from your reused plastic bottles and stop smoking instead!

Er, sorry, am I being too mean? I’m being too mean. But seriously, if you quit smoking you’ll probably stop coughing so much. How about you just buy one of these sweet little cigarette pencils to help you? Chew some strong gum and hold one of these, and you’ll trick yourself so easily!

June and July magazines are in. Once again, JJ is really bringin it, and as always, Men’s Non-No

JJ’s New summer accessories spread. Featuring … a drop-bar track bike!?

More summer accessories from JJ, featuring lots of stuff you CAN get in the States.

A Zipper spread on Osaka vs Tokyo style.

This month’s CUTiE with Before and After! Everyone’s favorite thing!

Men’s Non-No does a weekly wardrobe in several different cities. Here’s Paris.

A shop feature in this month’s SMART.

Stop by and grab some magazines to inspire your summer look. Plus, most of our titles come with freebie gifts like tote bags, hand towels, and compact mirrors.

We had a small assortment of very cute blank greeting cards by a company called pinecone+chickadee not too long ago. Adorable stuff without being girly cute. I think that’s the key to their charm… We recently received some of their apparel for children - onesies galore!

We also received some three-pack socks for baby by the reigning Japanese company of cute, Cram Cream. Cram Cream fans are hardcore! Just check out their flickr group or this blog explaining what’s so compelling about all the cute stuff.

The socks say “you’d better hurry” and “go on safari.” Cute!

Kevin
22, from Graduate Hospital area.

Current obsession: The Barbary. Cause I like it a lot. They do punk on Sundays, sometimes, which is pretty cool. The crowd, it’s approaching unpleasantly hipster. It’s not usually quite there [being unpleasant, that is], and it’s in a really shitty neighborhood so you don’t get many commuter people…You have to go under a big underpass, so like, daytrippers don’t go there.

Fave thing on: My boots, but I think the braces are a close second. I’m trying this whole rude boy thing…

Shirt: This is a fake Ben Sherman. It doesn’t have the side buttons, hence being fake. Cause I can’t afford eighty dollar Ben Shermans.

Suspenders: These, I think these are from Crash Bang Boom, I wanna say.

Boots: I got online. I got the laces from the same website. If you notice, they have little bitty English flags on them.

Where are you headed? Home. (laughs) Sorry, that isn’t very interesting.

What Omoi ♥s: A gentle demeanor and smart-alec wit.

I remember when Urban started selling the Tokidoki Le Sport Sac bags, people went wild, and all sorts of conservative girls were using Tokidoki’s wild all-over patterned bags to express their inner cuteness. The bags are long gone, but guess what! Omoi is the new Tokidoki apparel and toy jump off. OHhh!

We’ve got the store window full of a menagerie of cactus pups and kitties, and SANDy and Sabo-chan (saboten in Japanese means cactus!), the two cactus-covered ladies. We’ve also got the Moofia guys that Tokidoki artist, Simone Legno, also designed. Oh, AND the new Tokidoki Be@rbrick, who is, perhaps in celebration of the ongoing Euro 2008 soccer cup, decked out in soccer field designs.

Obviously, we have a bunch of other collectible toys (I’m trying to be responsible and only buy one a week). As per usual with toys, there’s always a compelling story to make you want to buy them. Here’s what’s on the back of SANDy’s box:

The cactus is a sign of protection. Kids are naive and vulnerable and need protection. A monster in a cactus suit would not have made much sense in my vision of things. SANDy and her friends zip themselves into cactus suits because they think the world is a cold and scary place, and they need some armor to face it.

The cactus is the conserver of water, and water means life. The Cactus Friends for me are the representation of life, of being fragile and strong at the same time … and pure like water.

So good!

Toys aside, here’s just a few choice pieces from our clothing selection. We just got in a bunch of new women’s apparel the other day, too, not even on the site yet!

Tokidoki’s gear wouldn’t be so exciting if it weren’t for the eccentric little details - back cutouts (hey there, girls with tatttoos), patterns on the inside of the hoodies, smiley faces on the buttons… Stuff that most people probably wouldn’t notice right away, but that makes you feel pretty cool wearing.

Check us out. Support local business! Buy Tokidoki from Omoi!

So Liz went to the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center in Manhattan this past May, and apparently the new hot thing from all the Japanese companies was erasers. Can you believe it? Erasers were SO big back when I was in third and fourth grade! Lisa Frank jelly erasers in a little coin purse. Someone stole them from me once after recess…

But now I can buy these!

Even the box they came in looks good…

Larry

Current obsession: No humidity. Clear skies and no humidity. I just got back from Los Angeles, so you know how I’m feeling right now. That and ice cream. I’m really into ice cream. I just had pumpkin pie ice cream, which was amazing. Also, coconut ice cream I like a lot.

Fave thing on: Definitely my shoes. But I love this t-shirt.

Shirt: I got it at this store, right here!

Shoes: from some store in London. I don’t remember.

Glasses: I got these at Modern Eye. I like them. They’re like (zippy flash sound effect), like little lightning bolts.

Jeans: Nudie. I got them in DC, at Denim Bar, I think it was called.

Bag: This was like five dollars at Guacamole.

Where are you headed? We’re headed to buy some earrings and to go look at apartments for Kate (friend standing nearby) cause she’s moving to Philly!

What Omoi ♥: A simple outfit with smart little details.

So two.one.five magazine is really into getting Philly out there as a place to be reckoned with. Matt from the magazine stopped in on Wednesday to see how we were doing (we have an ad in the upcoming issue!). He mentioned that 215 was making an effort to really take things to a hype kinda level, as far as specific events were concerned. Ubiq at 15th and Walnut was throwing a grand opening party for the Stussy store that recently opened up on the 2nd floor, and 215 decided to make it a little more special. Like let’s throw a crazy VIP party in Center City and have stretch limos and complimentary drinks special.

Omoi, being another local Philly business, was invited, and so us ladies decided to roll deep to the party and enjoy ourselves. two.one.five magazine has a ton of pictures (which you have to register to view), and Ubiq took a lot themselves.

Here’s ours!

Grace, Janessa, Erin, and Liz in front of the store, about to head over.

The 8 o’clock crowd outside Ubiq.

1st floor crowd.

The brothers Pinguel.

Bloodbath on the turntables.

Crispy sneakers all around.

The backdrop for a great many picture.

One of the two covers of the most recent two.one.fives.

Some of the much anticipated merch on the 2nd floor.

The line for the free booze. O_o; Psyche, it moved pretty fast.

Stuart is mad tall yo.

I don’t know these two girls, but I was pretty happy they were trying to have a good time. Dancefloor mavens for sure.

There was also this chicken dude.

He was a good dancer. Dude could wutang pretty nice.

Good times. Apparently, once I got there I didn’t stop dancing, but I guess that’s just how I do (and my friends know this). We all saw some familiar faces, drank and got a little tipsy, and laughed a lot. Of course, I’m one of few people to show up to a party at a sneaker store in some mildly-busted Chuck Taylors, but it’s cool. Or at least people tell me it’s cool…

Thanks Ubiq! And thanks two.one.five!

Momiji Shop’s dolls are cute, cute, cute. Like Gwen Stefani/Harajuku Lovers and Tokidoki cute. Japanese cute but not from Japan, but still extremely cute. Like buy one for your daughter or best friend and give it to them as a little gift because you care and it makes them feel special awww cute.

Hidden inside every doll, there’s a tiny folded card for your own secret message. Momiji can keep a secret!

The Momiji Dolls all come with a little note inside of them that you can write on - make it super mushy. They also have all their own specific personalities and favorite things. They have crazy names. We have a bunch of them from the 2nd through 4th generations.

Shitajiki may be better known to some nerds in the States here as pencil boards. Whichever name one uses, these slim plastic jammies serve the same purpose. Stick them under one sheet of paper to protect the rest underneath, or use it as a placeholder in a notebook. Perfect! And in B5 size too.

Right now we just have these very handy hiragana/katakana pencil boards, which are perfect for all you beginner Japanese language students! Get on it and がんばって！