Quote for Today

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.

By somebody a lot wiser than me

Last Call for Summer

It's time to begin shopping for the fall and stores are full of in-between-season stuff... But I could not resist the last call for these summer shoes from Nine West. Thought they were so cute and thanks to the summery print they go with almost anything I would wear, like my pinstripe pants here:

The BDI and Christine Lagarde

What a surprise to have a lady of the finance world in Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List. It is of course an honor, but also a bit of a double edged sword.. In some circles it is not that great to be known for your style instead of (or even in addition to) your brains, professionality, and capability. But aside from that thought, it is great that a professional woman of the highest degree was included on the list and is celebrated for her very appropriate and tasteful business dress style.

Drool Worthy

Bottega Veneta has an iPad case that is so drool worthy I have to share it here.. It is not on my shopping list, but a girl can always drool, right?

Westbury Gardens - The Glorious Gardens

Westbury Gardens - House

The Phipps family lived in this Westbury house from 1907 to mid 1950's. The house is beautiful and preserved exactly as it was. This was one of the great estates of Long Island's hey day and although it is by no means the largest or the grandest it is a great example of a bygone era.

Oh NO - I can't make it!

To the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty show at the Met, that is, which has been there for months (why on earth I did not go there months ago??) and has been THE most popular exhibition on fashion EVER. Everybody has loved it and I am so mad at myself for not having gone.. Sunday is the last day for the show, the wait lines are hours long and the museum extended its opening hours to midnight. So that all the other laggards can see the show.

Inspiration - Butterfly

Went to visit Westbury Gardens today and was able to snap this photo. Lovely place, so inspiring.  Summer is so full of beauty... More to come on Westbury Gardens.

Early Morning Fashion Musings

So now that I've been waking up super early, I've had a chance to read my favorite newspaper, Wall Street Journal, every morning. The reason I really love WSJ is the excellent articles on fashion, designers, style and the business of fashion. This week alone there has been a number of interesting stories, including one about Divorce Sales, where divorcees shed their old designer clothes, bags, shoes and jewelry. What a great idea, I thought. It is always good to make room for the new, and especially so if you have a lot of stuff with "baggage" i.e. stuff that reminds you of a life or a person that you once had. Getting rid of the old makes you fill in the vacuum with new, both figuratively and practically, and thus helps you move on and create a new (and maybe better!) life for yourself.

Another interesting article was about the "new" designer fabric, linen. Linen is being combined with other fibers to create fabrics that work for high end design, such as silk. The paper even had a picture of a $6000 Lanvin wedding dress that had the artful wrinkled look of linen. I loved it because linen is one of my favorite fabrics for the summer. I don't mind the wrinkles, but these new fiber combinations apparently make linen a lot less wrinkly. And - my own wedding dress was a linen blend as well...my mother's old dress from 1971; that dress was a blend of linen and something else that reduced the wrinkling, probably a synthetic fiber, but it still had that linen hand touch feel.

The third article, this week alone, worth to mention, is the new designer online shopping site for Chinese high end consumers, thecorner.com.cn, by the Italian company Yoox.  The site sells luxury items, which by itself is nothing new. The news is in the shipping service they have pioneered with Fedex. The courier will wait at the doorstep of the customer while they open the package, try on whatever they ordered and make up their minds whether to keep the item or not. If only that service would be used in the U.S. I might be ordering online too! Of course this is all designed to encourage the Chinese to embrace online luxury shopping, but what a great convenience that is...

Jet Lag

Usually people hate the jet lag, and I do too when I have to fly east, but coming home to the US from Finland I don't mind the jet lag at all. I actually quite enjoy it and try to make it last as long as possible. It's nice to gain the seven extra hours. You also fall into a perfect work day routine of early to bed, early to rise. So in the past couple of days I have been getting up at around 5 am, which leaves you plenty of time to brew coffee, chat with kids, take a stroll in the garden and watch the sprinklers' early morning shift, read the Wall Sreet Journal (more about that later) and get ready for work (and actually plan an outfit!). If only I would be able to keep this up forever! But knowing myself, one week is about as much as I can stretch it and then the siren call of my favorite shows (especially True Blood) waiting in the DVR, will have me watching TV after the kids have gone to bed, erasing the ability to wake up early... But I am enjoying this as long as it lasts!