Labels We Love: Ace&Jig

Jenna Wilson and Cary Vaughan, the textile-obsessed team behind Brooklyn-based Ace & Jig™, started their breezy, laid-back label to create summery clothes they could wear through all seasons.

All of their fabrics are custom-designed directly with weavers in India, built around a stripe of some sort (so really, how could we not love them) and constructed into the kind of clothes you want to live in. We asked the design duo—who met as design interns and whose kids are now best friends—to tell us about their ideal warm-weather days, favorite local spots and where they go to hide out in their hood. 

DREAM BROOKLYN DAY:

Margaritas and lobster rolls at the Red Hook Lobster Pound in Red Hook; strolling Brooklyn Flea with close friends

FAVORITE SUMMER IN THE CITY ACTIVITIES:

MoMA PS1 Warm Up, the Prospect Park drum circle, Coney Island

WEEKEND GETAWAYS:

Brimfield Antique Market (in Brimfield, Massachusetts) in May, July and September for amazing antiques, collectibles and vintage

SOMETHING YOU’VE NEVER DONE BUT ARE DYING TO:

Visit Storm King sculpture park an hour north of the city in the lower Hudson Valley 

FAVORITE BAKERY:

Trois Pommes Patisserie in Park Slope

GO-TO LUNCH SPOT:

Mile End in Boerum Hill. (It’s very close to our studio.)

TRUSTED FLORIST:

Boerum Hill’s Opalia Flowers

MUSIC VENUE:

Prospect Park Bandshell

LOCAL BEAUTY PRODUCT:

Saipua handmade peppermint soap, from their shop in Red Hook

SECRET SPOT:

Sycamore Bar & Flowershop in Ditmas Park

Travel Dispatch: Jessica’s Berlin

A chat with Jessica Taylor, a performance maker and curator, confirmed a travel fact we had long suspected: Berlin just may be one of the coolest European capitals, period. Expat Taylor, whose next project is conceptualizing the menu for a weekend pop-up eatery at Sing Blackbird, a spot local to Berlin, shared some of her favorite places in the city she now calls home.

Avant-Garde Haven: Volksbühne, Linienstraße 227, +49 30 24065 ext. 5

What I love about the Berlin theater scene is that even the state-run theater is experimental and innovative. I’ve seen incredible productions at Volksbühne, from the great Laurie Anderson to an epic 11-hour marathon adaptation of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman.

Artsy Haunt: Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50, +49 30 3987 3411

A former railway station, Hamburger Bahnhof houses permanent pieces by Cy Twombly and Joseph Beuys along with a fantastic rotation of exhibitions. My favorite: a Carsten Höller exhibition with twelve live reindeer in which (a few lucky) visitors were invited to spend the night on an elevated mushroom above the reindeer pen and wake up to breakfast in bed!

Locavore Gem: Little Otik, Graefestrasse 71, +49 30 5036 2301

I used to live around the corner from this gem that specializes in farm-to-table fare.

Fashionable Café: Sing Blackbird, Sanderstraße 11, +49 30 5484 5051

My girls Tasha and Diana run this sweet little cafe/vintage shop. In the three years it has been open it’s quickly turned into a Berlin institution, serving delicious treats and hosting the most fly vintage-clothing flea market in town.

Daily Destination: Hudson’s Cakes, Boppstraße 1, +49 157 7682 7829

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. Many a late morning have been spent here enjoying a fine English breakfast that languidly eases into afternoon scones, and suddenly it’s half past six and you’re ordering a pitcher of Pimms.

Indie Movie House: Babylon Kino, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, +49 30 242 5969 

A great place for film buffs! My favorite Babylon moment was watching a live orchestra perform during a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

Vintage Treasure Trove: Das Neue Schwarz, Mulackstrasse 38, +49 30 2787 4467 

A superstore of beautiful fashion! Sometimes I get dizzy just thinking about the impeccable selection of accessories.

Singular Bookshop: Dialogue Books, Schönleinstraße 31, +49 30 6273 5111 

A haven for expats looking for great literature. Dialogue’s expert team of book geeks will actually sit down with you to recommend their favorite reads and take special orders. I always leave with something unexpected.

Round-the-clock Hangout: Tempelhof Feld, Künnekeweg 1, +49 30 9170 0700

When the city of Berlin decided to turn one of Europe’s most iconic airports into the city’s largest public park, Berliners went berserk. And rightfully so. Now you can spend the day barbecuing, gardening in your vegetable plot, going to trade shows or dancing in the hangar to Diplo.

Palatial Escape: Sanssouci, Schloss Sanssouci - Potsdam, +03 3 1969 4202

Germany’s very own Versailles! If you’re looking to escape the DDR architecture of the city, take the train 30 minutes outside of the city and explore Sanssouci’s verdant gardens and majestic palaces.

Buzzy Boutique Hotel: Michelberger Hotel, Warschauer Straße 39/40, +49 30  2977 ext. 8590

Hotel Michelberger knows how to throw a shindig. For their opening party three years ago, they invited guests to party all night and stay the entire weekend in their rooms to party some more. Classic Berlin!

A Band Tour of Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Photos by Olivia Malone.

From the Go-Go’s to Bikini Kill, The Pointer Sisters to Sleater-Kinney (and, in turn, Wild Flag), we love us an all-girl band. Add to our already healthy roster of women-only bands who rock the Brooklyn-based group Bad Girlfriend. Besides their name, which we think, it should be said, is pretty awesome, we can also get behind the cheery garage-punk tunes they are churning out. Not to mention they happen to be big fans of, well, us—check out how killer they all look on stage in our Veda x Madewell leather jackets.

Yup, these are Veda x Madewell denim and leather jackets—they drop Jan. 29, so keep a lookout. 

Since the girls spend the majority of their time working (and playing) in their Williamsburg neighborhood, we asked them to share some of their favorite local haunts.

Favorite Tattoo Parlor: 
Flyrite Tattoo
492 Metropolitan Ave.

Favorite Music Venue:
Glasslands
289 Kent Ave.

Favorite Vintage Store:
Stella Dallas
285 N. 6th St.
 
Favorite Diner:
Champs (vegan diner)
176 Ainslie St.
 
Favorite Record Store:
Academy Record Annex
96 N. 6th St.
 
Favorite Bookstore:
Spoonbill & Sugartown
218 Bedford Ave.

Favorite Juice Bar:
Lodge General Store
318 Grand St.
 
Favorite Sweet Treat Spot:
Momofuku Milk Bar
382 Metropolitan Ave.

Favorite Restaurant:
La Superior
295 Berry St.
 
Favorite Brunch Spot:
Cafe Mogador
133 Wythe Ave.

Travel Dispatch: Amsterdam

Notice a worldly feel at madewell.com lately? It’s probably because we’re currently featuring Dutch style blogger extraordinaire Sabrina Meijer. Click here to see the gorgeous shoot—photographed on a houseboat by The Selby.

P.S. Headed to Amsterdam anytime soon? Sabrina maps out her must-visit spots below.

MUSEUM: Foam International Photography Museum (Psst: Foam magazine is an absolute favorite among us Madewell ladies. If you can’t make it across the pond, order a copy here.)

RESTAURANT: Café Toussaint

NIGHTSPOT: Chicago Social Club

COFFEE SHOP: Screaming Beans

VINTAGE STORE: Episode

GO-TO BOUTIQUE: Friday Next

Dutch blogger Sabrina Meijer’s go-to boutique in Amsterdam, Friday Next.

Travel Dispatch: Folegandros, Greece

When our stylist extraordinaire Christina revealed to us her lifelong goal—to visit all 200+ habitable Greek islands—we knew she’d be an amazing resource for travel tips (hey, we’re practical ladies!). So on her most recent trip to Greece, this time to the tiny island of Folegandros, she made sure to take notes. Here are her top three tips for a rich weekend on the island:

1. Rent a scooter: It’s the best way to discover the coves and beaches (where cars are prohibited!).

2. Take a long walk up the main hill to look across the Aegean Sea. On a clear day, you can see several neighboring islands, like the famous Santorini.

3. Be sure to enjoy the fresh fish, vegetables and local cheese. (And a handy restaurant tip: “Cheers” in Greek is sthn ygia sou [pronounced stin-eeyah-su].)

118 miles to Montauk, NY (by bike!)

by Lauren Romo (Madewell)

When a friend of mine suggested we bike from New York City to Montauk for her birthday, my jaw basically dropped to the floor. Bike? For 118 miles? In 12 hours or less? Never one to pass on an adventure though, I agreed to join the birthday bike gang.

Besides our wheels, we could only lug what fit in a backpack (which was difficult for girls like us who like many clothing options). We cut the trip into 25-mile legs, stopping to stretch, rest, hydrate and, of course, lunch at roadside lobster shacks.

There was definitely a lot of laughing and singing to pass the time, but also five flat tires, two dead cell phones, two road kill encounters and five sore bodies (those hills!). But at the end, there was one very important thing we all did: Scrawl a big ol’ check off our bucket lists.

Food adventure: 24 hours in Portland, OR

by Brittany Weinstein (LA)

If you’ve got 24 hours to spare, you might want to spend them in Portland, Oregon. I hopped a short Friday flight from LA, arrived in Portland around midnight and woke up Saturday ready to hit the culinary scene.

Parking lots overflow with food carts serving some of the best and most creative food you can imagine. First, we hit up The Big Egg for gourmet egg sandwiches. I settled on the PDX, an over-medium egg with Tillamook vintage white Cheddar cheese, fresh chives and stone-ground mustard on grilled brioche.

All fueled up, I was off to Rejuvenation, an über-cool houseware emporium. Its focus is lighting, but it houses everything from trinkets for your bathroom to antique kilim rugs. The f & b café at the back of the store, serving homemade soups, salads and sandwiches with a foodie Portland spin, was a delicious find too.

Next we headed to what the locals call “NoPo” (North Portland) for a visit to EaT: an oyster bar where the Deep South meets the great Northwest. We ordered mint juleps and crawfish as we watched the Kentucky Derby. Delish!

Later we took a walk through one of Portland’s many parks before heading to dinner at Biwa (which already had a line out the door at 6:30pm!). The homestyle Japanese food was divine, as was the homemade Shochu, a Japanese liquor, pictured above. Highly, highly recommended.

Ah, Portland—you served up so much more than granola.

Adventures in Australia

by Suzi Lai (Madewell)

Winter in NYC can be a bummer. And even though it was pretty mild this year, I still felt the itch to escape the city for a stint. My destination? Melbourne, Australia. The second I arrived, I instantly fell in love with the city—it’s full of wonderful, friendly people, amazing food and beautiful landscapes. It also didn’t hurt that the weather was rad (days were pleasantly warm and nights stayed nice and cool). Check out some snaps from my adventure down under.

Biking is a wonderful way to see the city and familiarize yourself with different neighborhoods. I couldn’t believe how extensive the bike trails and lanes were. (Tip: Make sure to pack your helmet—they have a zero-tolerance policy on safety in this city!)

Australians are serious about their coffee—every morning seemed to start with a flat white (which is two shots of espresso topped with deliciously foamy milk).


My friend who owns a few local record shops (or “polyesters,” as Australians say) was putting on his annual music festival, Marimingo, in a beach town about an hour out of Melbourne called Mount Martha. We packed the car and headed out for some dancing, sandy camping and jamming.

Here’s a blooper photo from Mount Martha. Doesn’t it look like the sea is caving in? (This is also where I saw ocean phosphorescence for the first time—it looks like teeny water-fireflies).

On the way home from Mount Martha, we grabbed some iconic Australian snacks: chips and savory pies.

My Aussie friends heckled me for weeks trying to scare me about all the supposedly poisonous snakes and insects they have in Australia, so I thought this sign was amazing! There you have it: there are scary snakes in Melbourne.

My friend and I biked to the city center and went to an amazing exhibition called Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television & Digital Culture at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. This is my “reflection”—with wings and flying objects floating around me—in front of a projector that animates your movements.

So I left my heart in Australia (but I did bring back some Vegemite). Have you ever been down under? Share some pics on our Facebook wall!

A Motel Grows in Joshua Tree

by Fiorella Valdesolo (Brooklyn)

I know only a little about the desert. I grew up in the suburbs of New England, so there were no desert-bound weekend escapes on the agenda. That means the only visual references I had to those wide, sandy expanses came from old issues of National Geographic and, well, music videos. (I pictured Christine McVie walking a white stallion through the dunes in Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me” or brawny, shirtless men cartwheeling around Janet Jackson in “Love Will Never Do Without You.”) The desert looked, in a word, awesome.

So on my last trip to L.A., I factored in a jaunt to Joshua Tree. And thanks to Texas-born sculptor/photographer Blake Simpson, there was a new place to stay in the high desert: Mojave Sands Motel. Having bought the shuttered property on a whim nine years ago, Simpson knew the moment he saw the “For Sale” sign that he had to revive it. Now a five-room oasis on Joshua Tree’s main drag, the former flophouse is a vision of artful, eco-minded design (note the solar paneling, reclaimed wood, native flora and fauna and recycled denim insulation).

Each of the thoughtfully designed rooms has its own private patio, plus a record player and a stack of vinyl for your perusal. And there is more goodness in the works, Simpson tells me: “The communal kitchen/dining space behind the motel is almost finished and I’ve got some good chef friends who are going to be coming out to make food. There’ll also be a garden, greenhouse, chicken coop and a couple of cool vintage trailers on-site for people to stay in.”

P.S. When you do tear yourself away from this relaxing enclave, there’s an entrance to the Joshua Tree National Park just a few blocks away.

Mojave Sands Motel, 62121 29 Palms Hwy. 760-799-1603

Marfa, TX, with Mom: A Photo Diary

by Kate Lauterbach (Madewell)

Having grown up in west Texas (and having visited the amazing art hub that is Marfa only once as a child), I’ve always had a return trip on my radar—especially now that I live in NYC. So over the holidays, my mom and I took a quick vacation to the high desert for some gallery-hopping, sightseeing and spicy eats. Check out what we saw.

1. WORLD-CLASS ART (ALL IN ONE PLACE)

You must, must, must make an appointment to have a guided tour of the Chinati Foundation. I spent a blissful four hours taking it all in, including works by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and John Chamberlain. The contrast of their dynamic pieces against the sparse and desolate west Texas landscape makes for an incredibly reflective experience.

2. GALLERIES GALORE

Spend a few hours gallery-hopping through Marfa’s downtown, namely North Highland Avenue and San Antonio Street. My favorites are Eugene Binder (I particularly loved the sign on the door) and the inde/jacobs gallery, which currently has a chilling but powerful show with large-scale paintings called September Eleven by artist Maria Zerres.

3. BIG TEXAS SKY

Living in New York, I’ve come to miss and appreciate things like stars, open roads and space. Make it a point to drive east on Highway 67 to see the Marfa Lights at dusk—it’s unlike anything you will ever experience. One of my favorite parts of the trip was stopping in all the sleepy towns along the road. Most have dried up and are deserted by now, but you get a strong sense of a bygone era.

4. SERIOUS EATS

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t at least mention the incredible food Marfa has to offer. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop photographing my food, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures to share, but I’ll at least list my favorites here. Because truly, what’s a trip to Texas without some spicy grub?

Breakfast: Squeeze Marfa
Lunch: Food Shark (get the Marfalafel!)
Dinner: Cochineal