A “New Normal” Isn’t the Goal
Two years ago, a doctor said to me: “The good news is, you will survive this. But life as you know it will be different. It won’t ever go back to exactly as it was. You will just have to get used to a new normal.”
This was my introduction to the phrase “new normal.”
Clearance
There is not much you can control once you are diagnosed with cancer. You are told what your situation is, how your doctors plan to tackle it, then you are sent home numb, a stack of papers about side effects under your arm. You are told there are certain things you must let go of, control being the main one.
Alexandra Wolfe on Overcoming Tricky Interviewees
Alexandra Wolfe writes profiles for the Wall Street Journal. She also pens books and cover stories for Vanity Fair. A personal favorite of mine? She wrote about sitting in on Silicon Valley’s “Cougar Night” for Vanity Fair a few years ago. Wolfe reports about her night out at a hotel bar where a collection of women-of-a-certain-age congregate and attract younger men who, ultimately, indulge them.
Show Reviews
Published in British Vogue, 2009-2010
A sample of fashion show reviews published on Vogue.co.uk.
One Home Shopping Network That’s Really at Home
Published in The Boston Globe, November 2007
Wellesley — Lots of women sneak out of the office to shopping on their lunch break. But how many speed off to someone’s home in Wellesley to buy a $798 sweater or an $1,800 cashmere wrap?
More than you think.
Anatomy of a Trend
Published in The Boston Globe, June 2007
Last year was the year of the skull.
Skull-print scarves — a trend started by designer Paula Thomas for her collection, Thomas Wylde — were wrapped around swan-like necks everywhere, from stylish actress Sienna Miller to the more taste-challenged Paris Hilton. Designer Alexander McQueen, always a lover of the dark side, also put out a scarf that ended up being perhaps the most knocked-off item of 2006. Urban Outfitters carried one, H&M another, even the street vendors in New York’s Chinatown had a version.
It didn’t stop there. Once reserved for Hell’s Angels, rock stars, and pallid teenagers, the skull became something you buy encrusted in diamonds from Dior Fine Jewelry or printed on the soft cotton of a baby’s onesie…
Indigo Girl
Published in The Boston Globe, May 2007
When Michelle Siwy was 13, she took her birthday money and bought a Bonanza bus ticket to Boston. She told her parents she was of to a friend’s house for the day.
Truth was, the Rhode Island teen was heading to Harvard Square to go shopping and comb vintage shops for old denim. Siwy had a habit of modifying her jeans to fit her adolescent taste and sensibility.
The Guru ‘Makes It Work’ This Spring
Published in The Boston Globe, April 2007
If you’re a fan of “Project Runway,” the enormously popular Bravo show that has made public the inner workings of fashion design, you know all about Tim Gunn: white-haired style guro, oh-so-slightly irreverent diplomat, cultured cheerleader.
Gunn — who, on-camera, mentors and shepherds contestants through weekly competitions — is know for his academic approach and indisputable aesthetic expertise. Both are the result of 23 years at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, where, for the past six years, he served as chairman of the fashion design department. But last month, Gunn left his scholarly post to become chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne Inc. Now, when he not on call for “Runway,” he’s mentoring the designers who work for the apparel company’s 45 brands…
Big Bang Theory
Published in The Boston Globe, April 2007
Bangs are back. But if you think about it, they never really went anywhere. They’ve been in and out of vogue since the days of Cleopatra — or at least since Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra in the 1963 film.
The most copied set of bangs actually stems back to a an earlier part of the 20th century, when Louise Brooks and her black helmet of a bob made their debut in the silent flapper films of the 1920s. Since then there have been many takes on her legendary fringe. In the 1950s , super-short bangs were all the rage. Think of Audrey Hepburn’s rebellious haircut in “Roman Holiday”…
Making Its Mark
Published in The Boston Globe, December 2006
Boston has long leaned toward the more conservative side of fashion. Not that it was ever considered an unfashionable city, just home to more wholesome, no-nonsense, New England kind of aesthetic. So it’s hard to imagine why Tuleh (pronounced “Too-la”), an extraordinarily high-end, relatively obscure fashion label created by Bryand Bradley, and New York-based designer who hails from the Midwest, has a solid client base in such a modest city.
The Skinny on Cellulite
Despite having heard a million times that 90% of women - even models - have cellulite, it doesn’t make any woman more proud of the “orange peel” skin plaguing our bums and thighs. And the majority of women understand that the fear of cellulite is the unfortunate reason bathing suit companies had to start making swimsuits with those terrifying, frilly spandex skirts attached to them.