As a young girl, I grew up playing with my mom's perfume bottles, which she collected on her vanity and took interesting shapes and glittering forms with even more evocative scents inside them. She had perfumes that she wore to work, others for cocktail parties, fragrances that were strictly for the most special of occasions, and shiny, crystal bottles that mostly just sat on the vanity looking pretty. I was fascinated by the ritual of wearing perfumes, and as I grew up, I developed my own taste for perfumes - trying out a new fragrance each season to mix into my repertoire. Of course, while my observation certainly helped shape me, this was long before I had developed my own identity, my own tastes, and defined my own sense of style.
I first moved to New York City when I was 17-years-old, prior to my senior year of high school, living in a university dorm room for the duration of the summer and finally feeling like I had the space and environment to find myself, (and I cannot emphasize enough what an enormous privilege that was). New York's fast pace, open-mindedness, and raw authenticity was exactly what I needed: there are few places in the world that demand that you be exactly your own person as much as New York City does - especially in the creative world. The following summer, I packed my bags for real and relocated my life to Manhattan - where the sky-high buildings and bustle were a constant exercise in personal growth and humility. Not to mention, going to school at Parsons, an institution for so many of our great designers and artists, was a constant motivator.
I moved from the East Village, to the Financial District, to a teeny-tiny West Village (Bleecker Street, no less!), 5th-floor-walk-up that would be my home for four years, to finally, finding my place in an exposed-brick corner of Brooklyn. Like the people of New York, each neighborhood has it's distinct personality, and much like the company we keep, each has inspired my own personal history in different ways. I've seen friends come and go and settled into a group that has surpassed friendship and become my family. I've fallen in love multiple times, had my heart broken, broken hearts, and finally met the person with whom I'm shaping my future. I've gone from student to intern (to intern, to intern, to intern...) to design professional to freelancer to pursuing my dreams. By every account, New York City has made me the woman I am today.
I was excited to try out DKNY's new MYNY fragrance, inspired by New York City, which is a little sweet and a little spicy - just like the place I've called home for the last 11-years, while the gorgeous pixelated heart bottle reminds me of my childhood of fawning after fragrances in beautiful vessels. The scent truly feels like a celebration of all of the possibilities and the passion that NYC has to offer. Now that I'm on vacation, I've brought the perfume with me - it was like tucking away a little piece of New York into my luggage.
You can create your own pixelated heart on the DKNY MYNY hub starting tomorrow, using photos from your social channels, like Facebook and Instagram, that you can share with your friends and family using the hashtag #MYNY!
You can pick up the fragrance by heading over to DKNY.com. Now that I have the perfume, I can't wait to check out the shower gel when I get back to NYC!
This post was sponsored by DKNY
All content and opinions are my own.
