Inside Vanity Fair Social Club: Day 2 Recap

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter Saturday’s fun filled day of catching up on juicy bits about Mad Men with Matthew Weiner, sighing over Tony Goldwyn, becoming an even bigger fan of Sarah Paulson, and laughing until we cried with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, we were more than ready for VFSC on Sunday.

With our badges on toll, we breezed right into VFSC at 10:30am to try to explore a bit before it got too busy. We might have even taken a few sneaky snapshots along the way. The main sitting area is absolutely gorgeous with October issues of Vanity Fair and Brooks Brothers at the ready for our enjoyment. Now another one of our favorite hubs is on the far left corner of the floor where the workstations are located. If you’ve ever been or worked in a media room, you know how amazing it is to see writers, freelancers, bloggers and social media experts at work. What can we say? We just love the hustle and bustle of brainstorming features and on the crunch editing.

Revisiting the VFSC Social Shop

One of the great things about arriving early at VFSC is that we got the chance to see all the things we rushed by or overlooked completely like the Social Shop. While we had so much last VFSC trying out the twitter gifting machine, we love how we could touch and play with the different special gifts offered. The special gifts and sweepstakes included: Flowerbomb Eau De Parfum, Bonbon Eau De Parfum, Spicebom Eau De Toilette, Brooks Brothers Gift Card, Absolut Elyx Perfect Pineapple Post Sweepstakes, and Chloe Wine Collection Corkscrew. To grab these special gifts we were encouraged to take a photo with the twitter handle and hashtags pertaining to each gift and posting them on Twitter or Instagram. Once we showed our photos to the Vanity Fair ambassador, we could then pick up our special gifts. We could see this fun interaction being a big success at parties during the holidays.

The Road to Acceptance: Emmy Awards Prediction Panel

This might just be us, but we love predicting who will be nominated and who will win be crowned the winner every award show. So when Vanity Fair’s West Coast editor, Krista Smith sat down to talk Emmy Award predictions with Joanna Robinson (Vanity Fair), Sam Lansky (Time), and Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby), we got very excited. We definitely learned more about the politics, social media impact and trends that go about deciding which actor or actress and tv show will take the Emmy. Loved all the varying opinions on which shows would take a gold statue (i.e Game of Thrones over Mad Men), but without a doubt the consensus among the panel was that Jon Hamm would take an Emmy for best actor. We like their thinking!

How Social Influences Beauty and Fashion Now

As heavy consumers of all Youtube, it was great to see Shira Lazar sit down with Youtube stars Amanda Steele (MakeupbyMandy24) and Lauren Elizabeth (LoLuFullyLoaded) to talk about transitioning their hobby into a full pledge career on Youtube, how brands should interact with Youtubers and how to stay true to your style and voice. It was an incredibly candid conversation on how Youtube and the digital space has allowed them to create content they love. Really inspirational and helpful tips for those aspiring Youtubers wanting to carve out a space online.

The 6-second Soltuon? The Future of Vine

While we are not avid users of Vine, we have seen enough viral vine videos to have us intrigued. So with this in mind, we sat back on the couch and got some insight from popular Viners Aaron Carpenter, Wesley Stromberg, Brent Rivera, Christian Collins and Crawford Collins  about this new video platform. Three important things we learned: all Viners must be young and have great hair, making “great” 6 second videos are harder than it looks, and being nice is the “new” cool. No, but in all seriousness, hearing that these five young Viners are using their thriving platforms for social change fills us with hope for the future generations. In fact, they have been named UN ambassadors for the #ForgiveForPeace movement, which is based on the concept that forgiveness must be the first step toward achieving a harmonious unity among the nations.

Lunch Break Oh My!

Having plenty of time before we had to head to the martini class we signed up for earlier, we lined up for a quick lunch at the cafe. We have to give a round of applause to Red Ink Catering for some of the most incredible food we’ve tasted. On the menu was gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches (bacon and veggie options), Asian rice bowl with Tofu or Tuna and a cold pesto pasta salad. All delicious, but our favorite was the warm Asian bamboo rice bowl with chopped green onions, bean sprouts and seaweed flakes. Every spoonful was an explosion of delicious flavors melting in our mouth.

Absolut Elyx Perfect Martini Class with Cocktail Academy

We figured James Bond loves a martini why not try our hand at learning to make one. The great guys from Cocktail Academy gave us a martini 101 education as we found out why a good martini should be stirred, not shaken. Why? When a Martini is shaken, the alcohol becomes bruised and therefore diluting the drink and desired flavor.  And there we were about to get our shakers ready. We loved how different additions can really flavor the martini such as lemons for zest and olives for a savory taste. We can’t wait to stir a few martinis at our next party.

VFSC Emmys AWards Viewing Party

Now we usually watch the Emmys in our pjs  and with a plate of our favorite Chinese food on our lap, but not this year as we chose to experience the uproars, predictable wins and OMG moments right from the VFSC. Hosting the VFSC Emmy viewing party was Youtube star Maiah Ocando. We couldn’t get enough of her bubbly personality, and gorgeous hair and gown. Love her! Without a doubt, everyone was having a great time rooting for their favorite actors and Tv shows throughout the night. We may have cried during Viola Davis speech and gave a happy yell when Game of Thrones won best tv show.

And like any great viewing party,  culinary delights like creamy Lobster rolls, pulled pork on a puff pastry and tasty cocktails were aplenty. We may have lost count on the scrumptious horedehors d’oeuvres tempting us throughout the night, including a tempting dessert spread of cakettes, brownies and cookies. Good entertainment, great food, and excellent company. What more could we ask for?

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Vanity Fair and Bloggerbabes for giving Modern Chic the opporunity to experience the Emmys in a simply magical way. We have cherished the time we have connected and been inspired by all the amazing influencers we met at VFSC. Until next year!