I have narrowed the winners down to the Top 117! I know, I know, but it’s SO HARD to choose. But I think I’ll just keep narrowing down until I get a Top 35.
In other news, I am still sans Birkin. Instead I’ve been workin’.
The Birkin fever has abated somewhat. (I mean who has the time to go to Beverly Hills and grovel for a handbag? Not me, right now, I’ve got deadlines I tell ya, deadlines!)
But I did do some retail therapy at the Neiman Marcus sale. I’m feeling big chunky jewelry lately. Oh man, does this mean I’m entering my Stevie Nicks phase? Some wise gay man said that the older a woman gets the bigger her jewelry becomes. That we’re all destined to be Mrs. Roper with her muu muus and ropes of turquoise. LOL! Anyway, I bought this exQUIsite necklace – three layers of chunky chunky CHUNKY turquoise, quartz and moonstone. GORGEOUS by Stephen Dweck. And on sale ($693 from $1800). And a HUGE takes-up-half—my-ring-finger carved turquoise ring ($336 from $700). Which I wore to dinner at Paperfish last night with my crisp white DVF dress and my white Escada high-heeled sandals (free! they were a gift from the designer – they sponsored my Fashionista Files book tour).
I also bought a Marni dress that looked like a sack on the rack but looked really slouchy and cool once you put it on, like super-rich-hippie chic, a steal at $400 from $1200, and a See by Chloe dress – a printed little shift dress $240 from $700.
Then my friend Minty and I went to Barneys and had a super socialite sighting—all three Miller sisters! Pia Getty, Marie-Chantal of Greece, and Alexandra Von Furstenberg. They were all blonde, tan, and TINY. Alexandra was wearing this really cool almost florescent-orange blouse with a black bow on it (Marni?) and the smallest pair of jeans I have ever seen. She was SO THIN. Pia had on a lavender shift dress, and Marie-Chantal was wearing some kind of white cashmere sweater and a skirt. They were all there with their kids and nannies and shopping all over Barneys. Minty joked that we should be European paparazzi. It was really sweet—they were just a bunch of sisters hanging out with their kids, shopping. They all have really good hair: like buttery buttery blonde with caramel low-lights. M-C’s was the most platinum I think. How do they get their hair to look so “undone” and yet look so perfect? It was very “wild, blonde mane” but also you could tell very expensive.
Anyway, I also bought several new perfumes from Jo Malone, I had run out of my staple Tuberose, which smells like happiness—just so fresh and clean but also quirky enough to keep it interesting instead of just pretty. I get so many compliments whenever I wear this. It simply smells DELICIOUS. But I thought I’d branch out a bit and buy some new scents – so I bought a bottle of the Lotus Blossom & Water Lily and a bottle of the Dark Amber and Ginger Lily. The Lotus Blossom smells like sunshine and the Dark Amber is really sexy and smells like a woman who knows her way around nightclubs and chilled martinis and money.
The other day at Fred Segal I also bought some new perfumes – Rose de The from France, which is what I’m wearing all the time now – it smells like summer in Provence and from Serge Lutens I bought Datura Noir, which smells like St. Barth’s at sunset-kind of loamy and sultry and mysterious and rich, like you just stepped off a hundred-foot yacht.
I’m a bit on a perfume kick right now as you can see.
It’s so funny how you can trace your life in the scents you wear -in junior high there was this French baby perfume we all adored, I can’t remember the name of it-ugh-but I begged and begged my mom for it to buy it for me at Rustan’s in Manila. Then in high school I was an Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche girl, then in college: sophomore year was all about Fendi (the signature scent: very woodsy), then junior year was all about Chanel No. 19 and senior year Chanel Cristalle. Chanel No. 19 and Cristalle always reminds me of being young in New York—lots of good memories.
I can even remember the scents my friends used to wear: Fendi reminds me of Molly, a fabulous sophisticate who introduced me to nights at Au Bar, dancing in velvet cocktail dresses with piles of fake pearls, and her now-gay ex-boyfriend Constantine, the two of them had this jet-set lifestyle of standing table at nightclubs and their own apartments in Manhattan—they were very the movie “Metropolitan” – the UHBs – Urban Haute Bourgeoisie (all that at nineteen! And I wore Fendi because Molly did and I wanted to be just like her.) My BFF Jennie used to wear Issey Miyake (the signature one) and Carolina Herrera after college. Mmmm. Those girls smelled good.
When I first started dating Mike I used to wear Barneys Route du The, which is still his favorite perfume of mine. (Very light and girly and pretty.) So that perfume always reminds me of us when we first met.
I don’t like cologne on guys too much, I really think it has to smell subtle and almost like nothing at all—just a hint of clean-smelling manliness. My dad used to wear Paco Rabbanne and I still think that smells great-like security and home. I heard about this fabulous Creed cologne that I must get for Mike. He used to wear this Emporio Armani cologne we got from a swag bag, which smelled fabulous, but it’s gone now. 🙂
Now the smell I love most is the baby after her bath. She smells so good you could just eat her right up. Maybe it’s the California Baby lavender scent, but I think it’s because she smells like love.
xoxo
Mel