No Rest for the Weary... meaning "Something's Cooking"

So I was supposed to take it a bit slower this week... but "NO"... there are forces in the universe that have other plans for me.

I was supposed to be in NY for the WWD summit in 2 weeks, with the Gala event at Christie's October 2nd.( My shoes for my outfit for the party- 5" red satin slingback pumps arrived today. They are so pretty you want to eat them !!) WWD Magazine let us know this afternoon, that my gift proposal- with my book- will be included in the gift bags for all the 250 attendees of the event.These are the top 250 people in the fashion industry.....world wide ( don't ask how I [ & Mahlia Collection] got in...long story) .... and they need to be done and delivered in NY by the 20th. Today, at 3:30...that gave me 4 working days to assemble and ship, 250 gift packages of about 1 lb each across the country. The freight alone to get everything there on time was was going to kill me.

I had quick fire decisions to make... and the only way to get it done...was to go to NY on Monday, finish the bags there and deliver them on Tuesday myself. This was an amazing opportunity that was not to be missed!

I am still on Paris time...you know? Trying to get all my Paris leads, stories and return shipments organized.. and yet I will do what I need to do... and head east...AGAIN...in a few days , to help build my name and my brand.

( Do I sound like a cowgirl? Maybe the southwest is finally rubbing off on me;)))

Ticket bought, hotel just booked...I'm planning my strategy to package then 250 gifts in my hotel room.

I don't want an ordinary life.....yet, maybe never. I am living my dream every day and I know that I am extraordinarily lucky. REALLY tired... and lucky.

Last Day in Paris...

Too many days have passed again without word from me..My apologies..but my plate is a bit full being the in-house designer, marketeer, courier, negotiator, salesperson and model/stylist .

My last day in Paris was a bit poignant. October the 6th...Edward James confirmed our photo shoot for that evening in the Tuilleries.....we were to meet in the bar at the Westin across the street. He also let me know that he had an invitation for me to attend on of the last fashion shows to be held in the ballroom at the Intercontinental, near the Opera. That meant I needed to be there at 9 am, and since my hotel was not close by, also have my things with me for the shoot at the end of the day.

The Intercontinental is beautiful old hotel with ornate gilded plasterwork and an old money crowd. I met Edward in the lobby where the house was hosting a continental breakfast for the attendees. .. and then into the show. I have been to my share of fashion shows, but it was great to see one during fashion Week in Paris. Edward was a wealth of information, being the owner of FASHION WATCH.com... and a runway photographer for years. He said that the Channel show in the Grand Palais was the best he had ever seen ; an amazing, magical spectacle. I was green that I couldn't have access and see it for myself, but happy to have a first hand account.

The show was pretty brief....about 40 minutes beginning to end, and in my opinion the clothes were unpectacular...then I was off to Le Printemps to have my makeup done for the day... and hoping it would look half decent by 6 pm when Edward and I were supposed to shoot. This was Fashion Week...so did I mention...no cabs, no restaurant reservations... and no stylists or makeup artists with any free time. Hence my appointment at Le Printemps at the Dior counter. In the States, you may be obliged to buy some makeup or the service, but in Paris, this sets you back 95 euro.

I had worn high heel booties to the fashion show, and now had those in my bag, and lace up flat boots to walk through Le Marais a bit before lunch with Yohan to say goodbye.

It was rainy and overcast, but I love that neighborhood, because it isn't a s touristy and I got to feel like a Parisian for a few hours. We met at this concept store called MERCY. It is owned by the family that has Bonpoint children's clothes ( wonderful, beautiful fine baby clothes)All of the proceeds from the store go directly to needy children in Madagascar. Every penny. I don't know why Paris is ground zero for concept stores( think Colette, L'Eclaireur) but I think that it is the way to go.. and that this family sees it as an opportunity to do good around the world with retail revenue is awesome.

There are more men's fashion lines, shows and accessories than ever before, but it seems like fashion week and the core of stylists, models, designers, photographers... are all geared towards one thing- celebrating and enhancing women's beauty. Now.....who am I to point fingers, being that in -house-model for my company, and also someone who loves fashion and the self expression it brings. I do see it as self-expression though- not status. One of the reasons I started to design my own things was one...I loved the ability to make my own creations.But number two was, since I did always get attention for my style, I wasn't going to be a walking billboard for anyone...except myself. I knew that my company had a value system, a code of honor, that was intrinsic and intentional to the DNA of my brand.; embedded in the designs. The others I see create pretty, and beautiful things that are more about superficial ornament, than about an extension of self with the outer shell.

Lunch was great. Yohan and I got along so well, and I know will stay connected for life. One of those wonderful and rare, special friendships that come along once in a while.So sitting outside, at a sidewalk cafe on a cloudy, rainy Paris afternoon in the Marais, eating lovely, real bistro fare food with good company was my last meal in Paris. It doesn't get more French than that.

Then I had to get back to the Westin to meet Edward for our shoot. I got there and sat in the bar to watch reruns of the fashion shows on the bar television and wait for him. He was running late, because the shows were running late. He had shot Louis Vuitton after our morning fashion show and this was his second to last day of shooting. He had fit me in , after NY, London, Milan and now Paris. I don't know how the photographers do it. It is a brutal pace to keep up for over a month, twice a year. I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure he missed the Miu Miu show to do my shoot for me. A very good guy.

When he arrived we talked over what I wanted, I went to change, and we walked across the street to the gardens. The first shots we still had daylight... and I was worried that we would be shooting at night.Looking at the images during and after the shoot,I'm so, so glad that we did shoot as the sun was setting because the cloudy skies and brooding clouds added an element of magic and drama that daylight just could not have.

By now it was 8 pm, I hadn't eaten since lunch, ( I don't know about Edward) my cold was going full force and my feet were aching from walking all day and walking through the gardens for two hours in high heels. My cold was not helped by walking around in the cold and rain for two hours in a little low cut dress either. But I look at those images...the magic of those images and I count myself so fortunate to have this incredible, beautiful imagery to go back to for the rest of my life - of this very special time in Paris.

I just needed a day at home...home , home...home. It sounds so exotic and wonderful to travel the places I go...but ask anyone with this kind of schedule and they will tell you what a toll it takes. I just wanted to put my things in their place, talk on the phone without interruption with people I care about, make tea, have an apple, listen to my music, make my bed, do laundry...you know...just ordinary good stuff.

There are still vivid memories of Paris, of my first Fashion week in Paris that are quickly fading to background that I want to share because everyone should have some of those moments in their lives. Those moments of joy... because the worry and the stress had to come first to make them that sweet.

• Seeing the tent from the Rue de Rivoli...just where I knew it would be...but prettier...the gardens, the Seine, the Louvre in the background
• Having my first fresh chocolate croissant for breakfast... sinking my teeth into the soft, flaky, buttery dough and firm chocolate
• Waking up with that rush of adrenaline....knowing that you are late as soon as you wake up .Bolting to get ready, rush out the door, run down the street in the rain to stand in the rain trying to stop a cab for 20 minutes as the clock ticks in your head and makes your heart pound even as you're thinking that you didn't have enough time to get ready to be on display to hundreds of people.
• Handing out cards, matches, cards, matches...no sales...just lookers. Feet aching, stomach empty, discouraged, frustrated.
• That woman that came directly to the booth with a specific message- that I had produced the best, most beautiful press kits in the press room -but that I should have had more pictures in them. No card, but a mention that she was an editor from a top Parisian magazine
• The well dressed gentelman who looked the collection over carefully, told me that it was, " Wonderful- great design" spoke with Yohan in French and then turned away to come back, leave a card and in passing say that he was the owner of 25 magazines in Paris and that he would be in touch. Yohan lifted me off my feet with a bear hug at that moment.
• Walking in the rain with achingly tired feet to find a cafe , sit down and watch the fashion crowd chattering at tables around me while I had perfectly grilled fish and pommes frites.
• FRUSTRATION that getting business cards from anyone was like pulling hen's teeth. What was with that ?!!
• Teen Vogue...taking pictures of the collection for the NY editors back home
• The buyer from Hong Kong who came in at 6:30 ( the show closed at 7) asked for a chair to sit in front of the case and pick out a very well chosen selection for his stores. We stayed late for him.
• The look on people's faces when we handed them the match boxes; surprise, and then gratitude at getting anything for free. Then they would look at the logo, then at the logo on the booth walls. My lions....in 2,500 hands from around the world. Nice; very nice.
• The compliments...every day... for my personal style and designs in a gathering of some of the most discerning eyes on the planet. SUPER nice.
• The suspicion, then surity that I...who NEVER get sick...was going to get sick in Paris. Super sucked. No sleep that night because I couldn't breathe, and a long day to look forward to in front of me. No 24 hour Walgreens around the corner.Only one 24 hour pharmacy in all of Paris.... and it was not nearby.
• The hug from an American woman who was stopped with the match box handout and then found out that I was from Tucson. Since she had lived here...I got a big hug from a stranger:)
• SOOO many pretty women...OMG...a non stop parade all day of so many attractive girls and well dressed ones too...sooo much fun to watch. And the guys... it was like WOW... all day, every day. Eye candy.
• The smiles and conversations with the friends we made in the booths near us...fellow Americans, Italians, English...we were all there to work, but we all had stories to share. On the 3rd day I was wearing thigh high boots and velvet shorts with a matching jacket, feeling miserable from my head cold. My friends gave me a banana and as I ate it, started to mimmic me, lounging in my chair, with my legs stretched out, slowly eating my banana. We all got a good laugh out of their imitation of my 'elegant' style.
• Matthew, across from us.... was a former drag queen .He wore the big jewelry from their collection with confident panache every day... while I had Yohan, who looked like a Gucci model, and had great style, to wear my men's jewelry.

I'll post the last three days tomorrow...happy thoughts to take to sleep with me tonight of my Paris days ...

Back home as of seven hours ago. SOO tired, but by body clock is off...so I'm up.... and finally filling in some of the missing stories on my Paris blog.

Paris has a very special place in my heart... and the Tuileries in particular. I had signed up for the show before I even knew where they were being held... and when I found out that the venue was a tent in the Tuileries... I knew that I had made the right choice. That garden, that place in the city, feels like I was there many, many times before. To top it off, the photos I will post, were taken there as well on the last night. It was just meant to be.

I heard that the weather was cold before I arrived...but it was fairly mild while I was there except for rain most days. I don't know if I mentioned it.... but it took me three weeks to find a hotel in Paris that was not 500 euro a night ,or a complete flea bag. I found my hotel the week before I left; a charming small place in Montmartre, which was very cozy and in a quiet, quaint neighbourhood, but not at all convenient for the show. The commute at rush hour every morning and night was not fun.I often walked for an hour or more in the rain before I could flag a cab.

Paris had at the same time: The Car Show, Fashion Week, The Accessories Show and three other shows which I don't remember.....which is why there were NO hotel rooms, no cabs, no restaurants and masses of people everywhere.Well dressed of course.

I had the MOST fun just people watching every day at the show. I think that 1/3 of the attendees were from Asia... and they LOVE fashion and the vehicle of self expression that it is like no others. Amazing, great, original and interesting fashion compositions... all day long. And I mean FLOODS of people. I had the idea of making match boxes with my logo and brand on them...chocolate brown with silver lettering and my lions. We gave out 2,500 of them, 500 postcards with the image of "The Seduction"( from my album), about 100 business cards, 250 fold outs with jewelry images on them and 50 press kits to the press room. I had NOTHING left to come home. Not one solitary card. Out. One of the magazine editors came by to congratulate me; that I had the best press kits of the show and I can guarantee that no one had the marketing materials I did. Everyone LOVED the matches.( I had thought," Paris= smokers paradise = matches.")

The show was pretty well set up... but from my perspective....the United States is the capitalist center of the universe because it has been built to make doing business easy. France has not. Everything was an ordeal... and I mean everything.

My trunk with my display materials was confiscated by customs. I didn't get it until the second day if the show. Another FB friend, whom i hadn't met before, Dimitris Koubourlis, drove down from Dusseldorf to meet me. He picked me up from the airport and was a godsend in helping me get all of this stuff done. I had to go and turn in papers, go back and forth to FEDEX, go to the show, back to the hotel... go back to Charles de Gaulle and pick up the trunk from customs, take it to the show...etc, etc. His girlfriend arrived the second day and then his time was tied up...but it was an enormous help to have him and a car for the first 2 days.

I hired a guy, Yohan Bismuth ( you can look him up in my friends) to help me with the show and I could not have been luckier. Handsome, nice, helpful, smart... we spent 12 hours a day together to get through the show, and we still liked each other at the end;) I don't think that anyone who has not done a trade show understands just how exhausting they are.It sounds glamorous, and there is that too, but they are VERY long days, on your feet with tons and tons of people that need your attention and very little time to eat or even look around. It was a group of exhibitors with THE BEST though, and it was an honor to have been included. Another woman from the States had been trying to get in for 3 years before she was accepted this year to show... and her things were great.So... yes...super cool to be in that group.

The view outside of the tent of the gardens was so beautiful. Even now in the fall the gardens have the most beautiful flowers; magenta with indigo blue and pinks. So, so, pretty. The show had a place with sit down lunch with tables, chairs, china, glasses, napkins...Americans don' do that. Everything stateside is disposable. There was wonderful food all day , every day; croissants, sandwiches in baguettes, original, salads, . What can I say...but... "sigh"....Paris.

I went to an art gallery opening in St. Germain de Pres the second night, the first night to Pershing Street Hotel Bar; which was very hip and cool... another night there were a couple of parties- one after another; a third night the bar at the Hotel Costes. I thought that it would have been easier to find out about parties and get in... but I was also exhausted. I mean I have the constitution of an ox... but EXHAUSTED..'Gay' Paris was just not manageable on a few hours of sleep a night with work all day. The fashion photographers say the same thing. They have to be lined up to get a spot at the shows at 7:30 a.m. and they are running around town all day to shoot...then at night they have to upload the images...so when is there time for anything else?! It's just not possible.

I finally got my Paris photo shoot on the last day of my trip, and saw a fashion show that morning.We did the shoot in the Tuileries, so we got some daylight shots, then a magical, amazing sunset because of the clouds and then some shots around the Louvre in the rain.That ended at 7:30, then to the photographer's hotel to download the pictures etc... so back to my hotel after 8:30 pm on the night before I left. That was my last day and my day off.

My head is still flooded with images of this trip with every word that I write. The view inside the tents, the gardens, the Rue de Rivoli, walking down the Faubourg, the charming little bistro in my neighborhood lit up, with welcoming warm lights in the rain at night- the laughing faces of friends I have made this week that I will keep for life; the 'knowing' that I have what it takes to make it in this group, in this venue. The acceptance and security and self confidence that all of this brings... the 'belonging' of knowing that I have found what I do well, and that I am doing it.