Thursday, April 27, 2023

Summer Travel Style



"He who would travel happily, must travel light." 

- Antoine de St. Exupery

There is no truer note-to-self when it comes to travel, especially international travel -- travel light. After years of experience and losing thousands in clothes and accessories, having luggage stolen or arriving weeks later, I have much to advise. I watch women consistently stuff half their closets in a myriad of suitcases, to have much of it unworn, lost and/or stolen. I now pack only enough to carry on without checking a single bag. Never anything expensive or irreplaceable. Everything I pack must have the capacity for triple duty. 

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

The Elegant Face


"Beauty is power. 
The right makeup enhances that." 

- Cassandra McClure


Young women today have few places to look for elegant role models. Perhaps striving for elegance is not even a thought or reflection. Their choices are even fewer if they do not come from the 1% of families where certain traditions, rules and principles of style are passed down. So where do they look, these young girls from around the world to find ideas on how to do their makeup in the most flattering fashion? The Kardashians, Hollywood starlets, Instagram influencers, pop stars, female rappers? With this being so, we have what we have now -- an absolute travesty. Too many overly made-up faces lacking any discipline or refinement. Some look theatrical, some too matte and brown/neutral -- very 1990s, some too discotheque shiny, and some have chosen the popular early 2000s "no-makeup makeup look" quite celebrated in Paris. There's no balance or moderation, and that is the true beauty of makeup -- to improve one's appearance and enhance le visage, not detract from it. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Properly Sexy

Cindy Bruna at the 24th amfAR Gala Cannes at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes.



"Too much intellectualism is too boring; too much sexuality is too vulgar. The good balance makes people interested." 

-Domenico Dolce


Style has become so complicated for women today; I fear we will soon look like the bourgeois characters from The Hunger Games. What has become even more complex (and terrifying) is how women are expressing their sexuality through their choice of fashion -- how they put themselves together in such a common display of truly painful desperation. This thirst for attention, validation, impersonal likes and following, has a generation or two of women conveying the appearance of sex workers. Yet, pleading publicly for the highest respect, and thankfully acknowledged for their brilliant minds.

Sunday, November 20, 2022

The Trend Guide


"I believe in style, not fashion." 

-Ralph Lauren


There are several trends this year, and season, you should absolutely avoid. The French are less taken in by trends and stick to a more classic/conservative wardrobe. American women are often slaves to trends and everything nouveau. Not only is this bad for one's finances, but the environment as well. A recent global study by Fashion United UK, noted that Americans do not wear up to 82% of the clothing in their closets. Yet we continue to purchase one trend after the next. According to the Wall Street Journal, "American shoppers snap up about five times more clothing now than they did in 1980." (Dana Thomas, The High Price of Fast Fashion, April 2019).