Archives for May 2011

May 2011

Back to the roots of the Vivienne Files – part 4

the following is a direct quote from the original Je Ne Sais Quoi discussion group postings I made regarding my friend Vivienne:

Someone asked me what Vivienne thinks of my wardrobe - to put it mildly she thinks I'm crazy! Admittedly, she has never actually been in my apartment and seen the beautiful arrangement (by color) of my bounty, and I HAVE seen her apartment (but not her closet) but she assures me that she has about 4 linear feet of hanging space. (Well okay, slightly more than a meter) But she thinks that I'm a genius packer - the last 2 trips I've made to Paris on business, she has come over to my hotel with me and hung out while I unpacked, pressed and otherwise got my act together. She ... View the Post

Cool Jewels: Charlotte Santa Fe

May 31, 2011

If you've got a yen to purchase a unique piece of jewelry, it could be worth your while to go to Santa Fe. I've never been to any city except Paris where there were more one of a kind items available. And Santa Fe is not limited to just sterling and turquoise - crafts-persons there work with all metals and stones.

My personal coup de coeur was the above - a heat-treated stainless steel band (pitch black with an indescribable luster), and a pearl. The most interesting thing about this jewelry is that it's interchangeable; the pin that holds the pearl in place is spring-loaded (think toilet paper holder) and can be removed and a different stone put in place of the pearl. I also have a mother of pearl and onyx yin and ... View the Post

When image consultants collide

May 30, 2011

Way back in the early years of image consulting, circa 1981 or so, I had my colors "done". I was working in a large department store as a department manager, and it was felt that management staff should all be exposed to the services of our personal shopper and consultant group, in order to help their business. To nobody's surprise (except maybe my mother), I am a Winter:

This was reassuring, as I was already building a wardrobe of gray suits, white blouses, and brightly colored scarf accents. (does anybody else remember Dress for Success?) One of the coolest lingering pieces of advice, which I'm going to discuss at more length some day, was the advice to buy tee ... View the Post

my favorite artist: Marie Laurencin

Every time I go to Paris, I force whomever is traveling with me to go to Musee de L'Orangerie, near the Louvre. This is the home of the oval rooms which house the Monet water lily series, but also where I get to visit some of my favorite paintings, those of Marie Laurencin.

I could give you a biography of Laurencin, but you can Google all those things. Suffice to say that she was divorced long before it was acceptable to do so, the lover of the poet Guillaume Appolinaire, and a friend to just about every cool and influential artist and performer in Paris from World War I through World War II. So in additional to being talented and innovative, she lived the life of a pioneer of art and feminism.

I'm in love with the world ... View the Post

An interesting exercise in priorities

May 26, 2011

One of the things I love about the internet is the serendipitous nature of finding interesting new ideas and information. Recently, I stumbled across the blog The Burning House, which is now defunct.

The premise of Burning House is to photograph what you would grab to save from your home if it were on fire. Now a big disclaimer here - I don't for a New York minute believe that the things photographed are what most respondents would REALLY grab in a pitched emergency. But taken in a larger sense, I look at the choices the participants have made as more a "what would you grab if you had 10 or 20 minutes, and a carry-on bag?" i.e. what do you own that means the most to you? The responses are ... View the Post

Decoding the mysterious “weave knot”

This scarf knot has been receiving a lot of attention in the blog world recently; I saw a NINE step instruction diagram/hieroglyphic on how to tie it! Rest assured, it's not at all complicated - it's really just a clove-hitch knot, which any self-respecting boy scout could tie blindfolded. So in the interest of beautifying the scarf world, I'm going to tell you how to tie this knot, in five steps, in less than one minute, without a mirror.1. Arrange the scarf with the two ends hanging down in the front - the left side reaching to about your waist, and the right end (now fondly called the long end) to your right.

2. Cross the long end under the short end across your chest. You are now finished with the ... View the Post

Vivienne Veto: posterior prose

Tourist season in Paris is in full swing, and Vivienne is seeing some truly unattractive looks walking into the lobby of her hotel. Top of her list of vetoes for today is any garment with writing across the... backside.

As she points out, if you have a really unattractive tush, the LAST thing you want to do is call attention to that fact. And if you have earned (or been blessed with) buns of steel, the LAST thing you want to do is detract from your... assets.

On a related rant, Vivienne questions if anybody in the English-speaking world knows what couture means. And she's right - the word couture used to describe a ready-to-wear brand is an oxymoron, as well as an insult to the craftsmanship and artistry ... View the Post

Did you put on your sunscreen this morning?

My dear mother has a divot on her forehead the size of a small ravioli (or maybe a cocktail-sized crab cake - I'm really hungry!). She had a malignant skin cancer removed a few weeks ago, and she is going to have a pretty severe scar for the rest of her life. Happily, they are confident that the entire cancer was removed, and they don't at this time believe that she has any other "spots" that will become a problem. But from now on, she has to be checked head to toe every six months.

She never was a sun-bather, but she worked in our yard and garden throughout the year. I never saw her wear a hat, and I don't remember her ever putting what we used to call suntan lotion on her face. She never seemed to be ... View the Post

Things Europeans would know about: the Heineken Cup

Rugby is a BIG spectator sport in Europe - there are two professional rugby teams in Paris, in a league of 14 teams nation-wide. Their matches draw tens of thousands of fans; I recently attended a match at the Stade de France with an attendance of over 70,000.

Within the last hour, a team from the Dublin province, Leinster, won the European championship, which is formally called the Heineken Cup (because of obvious sponsorship), but which has to be called the "H" Cup in France because of the prohibitions they have on alcoholic beverage advertising in sports venues. An amazing project, separating alcohol and sport...

The Leinster team beat an English team, Northampton, who were winning with a commanding lead at ... View the Post

Well, this has been interesting….

I've had pneumonia. Well, for all I know, I might still have it - when it actually goes away isn't a clear concept in my mind right now.

More doctor appointments tomorrow, and as soon as I'm back among the (relatively) healthy, more news and thoughts from all things French.

Sorry for the unanticipated interruption - I have been thinking of you all every day! ... View the Post

Things Europeans own: Hot water bottles

The first time I met Vivienne, I was unpacking my suitcase, and she was opening a bottle of wine and torturing the room service staff to find us some food. (she works for the hotel, so it wasn't really torture, more like good-natured teasing to challenge them to feed us on the sly...)

It was November, I think, and the room I was going to be staying in for the week had not been occupied for some time. So Vivienne, very helpfully, tells me that I should get out my hot water bottle (La bouillotte, as she would say) and tuck it into the bed now to take the chill off the sheets.

Well, I was NOT travelling with une bouillotte at the time, which didn't terribly surprise her, and so it passed from my mind.

Fast forward to living in ... View the Post

Vivienne Veto: long toenails

I could easily have found a photograph to go with this post (just Google long toenails and you will be enormously creeped-out), but I thought I'd just share a beautiful night photograph of Notre Dame to accompany Vivienne's latest rant.

She works in a hotel in Paris that is very large, and she sees both tourists and business travelers from around the world. Thus, she is... lucky.... enough to see all sorts of fashion statements, both good and bad.

But this morning, I heard from her, and she was pretty inflammatory in her criticism of a guest who was checking in, who had toenails which extended at least an inch beyond the ends of her toes. The guest of course was wearing sandals, which Vivienne pointed out ALSO extended ... View the Post