Stahl: A Fall Break getaway inspires fashion choices

You know those weeks when absolutely everything goes wrong? Rejection, failure and overall… You know those weeks when absolutely everything goes wrong? Rejection, failure and overall suckdom set in at once, and you’re left feeling existentially depleted?

It’s an unspoken rule that when life goes poorly, the best remedy comes from advice in the form of metaphors and clichés.

“When it rains, it pours,” my mother said to me the other day when I was in the middle of a particularly brutal series of blows to my ego. “Don’t move off your course just because a bird crapped on your windshield.”

As encouraging as my mother’s fecal words of wisdom were, I needed an escape.

Luckily, fall break couldn’t have come at a better time, so I jumped on a train to New York. There are a few things in life that never fail to put me in a good mood. They are as follows:

1. Reading magazines — My nine-hour train ride left plenty of time for me to get reacquainted with the growing stack of glossies I’ve neglected for weeks.

2. Good friends — I’m fortunate enough to have two best friends in New York, both of whom encourage me to live nights full of good decisions before crashing in their apartments.

3. Retail therapy — When life gives you lemons, I say shove them in the fridge, grab your purse and go shopping.

4. New York — there’s nothing quite as inspiring as the pace and culture of one of the world’s best cities, especially in the fashion sense.

This past weekend, I got to indulge in all of the above. It was absolute bliss.

Just as New York can revive a broken spirit, certain articles of clothing can revive a broken outfit.

Each season, I try to find one or two pieces on which I rely to increase my cool factor.

Last year, I fostered a rather ridiculous passion for leather. I bought a leather jacket, leather leggings and over-the-knee leather boots.

I swear I’m not some kind of bondage freak. I just like to pretend I’m edgier than I really am. I wore one of my leather treasures almost every day from October through March.

This year, I’m harboring a love affair with anything studded.

Over the summer, I bought a gold studded purse in London for less than $10 — suck on that, exchange rate. Then, I got a pair of black booties with a stud-covered heel.

I’m currently lusting over a pair of studded black leather gloves I discovered at an Upper East Side H&M over the weekend. Unfortunately, I had to pass when I saw the $50 price tag.

But if anyone wants to get a head start on my birthday present — it’s next month — feel free to scoop them up for me. I think they’d be the perfect thing to pull me together, both mentally and fashionably.