31 May 2013

You Can't Go Home Again

Little Missy awoke with an epiphany!  Let's Go Home!  Let's leave Silicon Valley! Anything broken can be fixed if I return to where I grew up!  Nestled between my elementary school and my high school lies the house of my dreams, a "Georgian manor" from 1912.  I didn't know it was the house of my dreams until I saw it again this morning.  I have vague (vague, not Vogue) recollections of walking by it on my way to my ballet classes a long time ago.  Today it had a "For Sale" sign by the mailbox and I called my agent. Little Missy is feeling very combative about Silicon Valley, wants to return to childhood.  This Georgian manor is a stone's throw from the house where I grew up (vowing never to return). It isn't blah blah blah about Internet connectivity and it's a shorter commute to San Francisco! In other words, everything I could possibly want this morning!  Already making plans to thin out the jungle in the front to showcase the mature oaks and palms, I learn it has been sold!  99% for certain!  Someone just forgot to take the for sale sign away!  Whoever bought it cannot possibly love it more than I would love it.  But thank goodness they bought it or else I would have and that would have been a big mistake!  Maybe!  Who knows?





Point A to Point B and Somewhere In Between

 

Little Missy has a tip!  When you get down, don't think that moving back in time is going to chase away the blues!  It will probably accelerate them!  We have to live in the moment, even if it means feeling a little sad sometimes.  We have to move forward, even with all our challenges.  So I flirted a little with the past! Now it's done, and I will be having dinner on University Avenue in Palo Alto tonight with a friend and hearing blah blah blah all around us about the same old marvellous high tech that has been rocking our universe for forty years!

 





 Rock your night in Palo Alto in this little Rodarte number and watch the silicon chips slip

 

Well, that's it my friends. Live and love in the moment, forwards, not backwards! The moment!

Little Missy Gets Caught In The Wrong Side Of Town

Menlo Park, CA Is Full Of Red Cameras!

Contrite Little Missy Does an online Traffic School course

 

 

Little Missy Recommends Laugh and Learn Online Traffic School

Did you hear the one about the taxi driver who got nervous when the guy tapped his window?  "I've just started driving a taxi.  For twenty years I drove a hearse".

Not the photo shoot of Little Missy's dreams 

 

 



With jokes like this, Little Missy recommends two things: stay away from Menlo Park, California.  They've been bugging me for over thirty years.  And if you get a moving violation there, take the Laugh and Learn Online driving course.  Endure some bad jokes and get the citation off your record.

 



The enchanting town of Menlo Park, California has a wonderful claim to fame.  Traditionally it was far enough from the Stanford campus that undergrads could go there to drink beer at that quaint and deservedly famous collegiate spot, the Oasis.  Menlo Park is also home to Draeger's, just about the best grocery store ever.  And Jim Draeger is a friend of mine!  But there is no fashion there!  It is just about the most boring place on earth!  And that is why the mind wanders and these little Incidents happen!  Little Missy wishes her readers a Beautiful Weekend!  Drive safely and stay in the moment! And keep your mind on the road!

A Million Splashes!

 

 Little Missy received a compliment at The Cinderella Gala in San Francisco earlier this month.  "You look as though you have been drinking from the Fountain of Youth", an acquaintance remarked. I looked both ways before I realised she was speaking to me. Of course it is very flattering to hear that kind of thing but then of course it got me thinking about the role water has played in my regime for most of my life. In Little Missy's Health and Beauty Tips for Men and Women posted on  March 29th of this year, I suggest swimming as an exercise for fitness and health.  There is something soothing about water, as most of us know.  And swimming promotes a sense of well-being, as well as a smooth and toned body.  Just look at the Olympic swimmers.  Aren't they just about perfect looking?  What about that Missy Franklin, who captured Prince Harry's attention earlier this week?  "I just feel like a dolphin," says Missy Franklin about her swimming. Well, this Missy agrees!  Now go capture the Prince's heart, Missy Franklin, and you will be a Missy after Little Missy's own heart!
 Many years ago when I was fifteen I decided randomly to splash my face thirty times with water each morning and evening and I have not diverted  from this routine since.  Please don't do the math--I have done it for you!  It adds up to over one million splashes since I was fifteen! And no face lifts!  What does that tell you, my friends?  To continue with that trend, in my late twenties, I became sick from high levels of bad bacteria in the drinking water (documented a day after my illness in the much missed Palo Alto Times).  As a marathon trainer (yes, Little Missy was quite the athletic and sporty type for many years) I used to drink tap water by the gallons until my water poisoning.  I switched to Evian water and I have never looked back.  My favourite Evian bottle was the one Christian Lacroix designed, but Lagerfeld, Issey Miyake, Paul Smith and other fashion greats have contributed to the brand.

 

 

 

 

Christian Lacroix designed Evian bottle 



 

 

 

 

 

My wonderful friend from Istanbul, Sedef, who went to Stanford University with my daughter Lexi, introduced me to Dr. Perricone's Skin & Total Body Vitamins.  I have been faithful to them for nearly a decade now, and I can say that probably they have contributed as much as anything to my immune system staying on track during my blitzes around the world, Europe, the States and so on.  You just can't beat fish oil, and although it sounds a little repellent, it works.  I believe it is also called Omega Three, and that sounds better.  It may have even contributed to my personal "Fountain of Youth".  The key is to become dedicated to a good program.

 

 

 

Dr. Perricone Skin & Total Body Vitamins 

 

Raspberries, blueberries and blackberries

 

 

I think all of us know to eat seasonal fruit, and I am getting excited because my favourite season is fast approaching, and that means berries, plums, peaches and apricots.  Yes, berries and stone fruits!  Don't miss this season because it comes and goes in the blink of an eye, and not only is it food of the Gods it is good for you!

Peonies

 

Try to have fresh flowers around you.  It is always a lift.  Lilac season has already left us but peonies are still in the market and if you have a real green thumb, in your garden!  Little Missy is waiting for her rose tree, which is coming down from Canada next month.  Why it is coming from Canada is a mystery to me, but that is where it is coming from and I must simply be patient and wait for it.

 

Succulents

 

Succulents are great for those of us who have no patience.  They have never been more chic on the table, and you can find them in nurseries and create your own little landscape!

 

 

 

 

Finally, good quality Turkish bath towels are beyond divine.  They are a necessity! At the end of a long day, what better luxury is there in the world than a warm shower or bath and then wrapping one's self in an over sized terry cloth towel?

 



Turkish Bath Towels

 

Well, Little Missy has just shared with you her personal Fountain of Youth regimes and favourites.  Of course some of them go back quite a way.  I really do recommend the thirty splashes morning and night.  It's never too late to turn back the hands of time, and what better time to do it that than now!  Have a wonderful weekend, exercise and see art and be happy.  In the moment as always and embracing the now.



Galarama!



 

 



Kate Mulleavy, Little Missy, Laura Mulleavy, Elle and Dakota Fanning at the Met Gala

 

 

 

What a world wind week it has been! Why can't Galas happen every other month instead of three in four days in three cities on two coasts?  Galarama began for me in San Francisco on May 3rd, when I was still a blond!

 

Blond Little Missy, with Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and patron of the evening Denise Littlefield Sobel

 

 

What a pleasure to be with my old friend Denise Sobel, who brought Cinderella to San Francisco!  Christopher Wheeldon's spectacular choreography and Julian Couch's production was ethereal and I had to pinch myself several times to realise this was really happening in my city!  It was like a Haute Couture show the way I wish Haute Couture would be.  In other words, I loved it!  I have never seen anything like this!  Congratulations to Christopher, Julian, the San Francisco Ballet and especially to Denise and her family for this magical ballet in our town!  And Riccardo Benavides is certainly the events designer de jour in San Francisco with the most exquisite tented dinner in recent memory.  Topiaries like Julian's production masks!  Chandeliers like the ones on stage!  Over the top! But Little Missy did not stay for the after party!  No, she went home before her carriage turned into a pumpkin, before the stroke of midnight!  It's even OK that a server spilt something on my Rodarte gown during dinner.  Even though Kate Mulleavy once joked (not) that if you spill something on a Rodarte gown, just throw the gown away!  But we accentuate the positive in these Chronicles!  And Little Missy always has spot removal tips!  Which involve sending your gowns to Madame Paulette in New York!  Tips I picked up from Geoffrey Beene, my beloved and America's beloved late "Couturier  of Seventh Avenue", a non sequitor if I ever heard one.  I miss Mr. Beene so much.  But now there's Kate and Laura Mulleavy, so the world still spins for Little Missy.

 

Then there was the Party of the Year, the Met Gala

Rocking the brunette with Solange, Beyoncé's little sister

 

 

There is very little I can say about this event that hasn't been said, except Gwyneth,  REALLY? You are never coming to another Gala because it is such a hyped over-produced event?  Well, let's all have the pleasure of watching Anna Wintour talk Miss Paltrow into coming to another tedious Met Gala again! Never say never!  A Little Missy tenet!  You should have watched Little Missy rocking it in the front during Kanye West's  performance!  A little trick I learnt a million and a half years ago, growing up quickly during weekends at Fillmore Auditorium in my beloved City by the Bay!  Move to the front fast! Teaching Dakota and Elle Fanning how to rock it at a show and not be all serious!  Mentoring!  Little Missy style!  Plus I got to debut my new look, a dark flapper bob and a gown Vivienne Westwood created for the night.  A tribute to Punk and to The Great Gatsby, the picture of the moment!  A million different things and sensations and people.  And afterwards, a lot of envy, which produces bad feelings...  An invitation to this party is difficult to obtain. So people deride it.  Until they get invited...maybe the Met Gala is like a drug and Gwyneth wants to de-tox.  So, Little Missy wagers that even if Gwyneth, my fellow blogger, skips out next year, she'll be back the year after!  She'll have to!  It's the Party of the Year!  Even Gwyneth isn't above it! 

 

 

 

 

 Photographer Frederic Aranda was a hit with the Fanning sisters 

 

 

My companion for the Gala, Frederic Aranda and I are certainly not above the Met Gala! We had fun!  We had the opportunities to greet our idols, Freddie to greet the incomparable Bill Cunningham and I to greet the well, incomparable Vivienne Westwood. What else are you supposed to do at a Gala?  Stay home if you don't like it!  That is if you are lucky enough to get invited!  Be in the moment, my friends! Because the moments go fast...

 

 

 

 Small world---I sat with this girl at the Met Gala and then at the Hillary Gala in LA two nights later! 











 

Now we are in Los Angeles, and it is a brisk overcast afternoon, and Joni Binder and I are getting our makeup done for the Pacific Council on International Policy Gala, honoring Hillary Clinton!  Joni, my powerhouse friend, is a member!  I am her guest!  Tone it down, Little Missy!  so...I wore a Rodarte gown, to show the California colors!  And a girl I sat next to at the Met Gala sat at my table at this Gala!  How random is that?  Galas galore!  Kind of a small world!  But kind of not!  Hillary was inspiring.  She spoke graciously about Warren Christopher and his career and his impact on her.

 

This is the gown I wore, except this shot is from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Auction

 

 The Council's Warren Christopher Public Service Award went to my beloved Hillary, and who else should it have gone to?  Hello!  No pictures allowed, as it was a Secret Service kind of event.  Very special and very powerful.  I love Los Angeles political events--because LA is such an entertainment town, it makes politics feel special, imbued with a kind of crystalline glamour.  I hope Little Missy isn't rocking the precious language too much here...what I am trying to say is that Los Angeles just knows how to do events.  It's more laid back than New York because of the Weather!  And don't Los Angelenos know it!  Little Missy does not like cold weather, so let the people in LA talk all they want about their  beautiful weather.  Just as long as they keep supporting Hillary Clinton!

 

Well, that's Galarama!  Little Missy will have to work hard to come up with something to top this week!  Galarama all weekend my friends.  Rock it dressy or rock it casual!  But rock it while you can!  In the moment, my friends.  In the moment.



Happy May Day.  It's All About Desire

1 May 2013

 

 

 

Lilies of The Valley

 

 

It's May Day!  The Roman celebration of Flora! Was Botticelli's Flora pregnant?  Do we care?

 



 From Botticelli's Primavera

 

The Cruelest Month is history and now Spring is here for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  Let's talk about fashion and the stuff we want to wear this season!  To Igor, who writes in that Little Missy Chronicles are brainless and contribute nothing to society (nothing to society?  What?  Hello, Igor, what planet are you on?) let me just inform you Mr. Igor that Little Missy plans to be at the ground breaking ceremony at Stanford Hospital this afternoon with all the other brain surgeons!  But don't worry,  dear readers, we are not going to be talking about That this morning!  We are going to be talking about who and what inspires us on May Day!

 

 

Kate Moss--is she a Bad Girl?  Do we care?

 

Just keep rocking the Rodarte, Kate

 

 

 

Rock these looks and you will not have any competition.

 

Not that we're competitive. 

 

May is Gala month.  There are so many galas all over the country that Little Missy is having to go back on her health advice to stay away from airports!  But don't count on Little Missy to wear Oscar de la Renta or Marchesa or Carolina Herrera or whoever to these galas.  Having said that, Mr. de la Renta is a gentleman of the highest water, and we love the way Georgina Chapman looks when she wears her Marchesa line.  And of course Carolina is a divine and great lady who gives the best advice!  She says your waist should be the same size as your head! Is that genius or what?  I will feel very comfortable with those brain surgeons this afternoon at Stanford!

 

It is said in Chinese culture that if you save a dragonfly, you will have a long life.

                

 

Little Missy guesses you would save this JAR dragonfly.  Not that we're superficial.  We're uncompromising!

 

Wear on aura tout vu's Cosmic Beetle and you will fry the Brain Surgeons!

 

 Can you imagine wearing on aura tout vu's Cosmic Beetle Body Suit to the Ground Breaking Ceremony at Stanford this afternoon?  It would be so good for all those doctors and administrators and donors!  They could tsk tsk tsk all they wanted to and go crazy with desire!  And what is Spring about if not desire?