Little Missy's Trip Across the World!

NYC-London-Marrakech-Abu Dhabi-London-Scotland

It started in New York City, although this photo of Kate and Laura Mulleavy and me is at the Brooklyn Museum after the CFDA Awards Dinner (Council of Fashion Designers of America).  They should have won in their category, Best Women's Wear, but never mind, they have so much going on right now, and their shows are always voted number one by Vogue Magazine.

Then I flew to London for the day and discovered this Mecca for Instagrammers called Peggy Porschen Cakes.  After spending a forgettable night at Gatwick Airport I flew to Marrakech for JC and Brent's wedding!

There are dozens of photos I could post of this beautiful city and the beautiful wedding I attended, but we'll leave it here for now with the fountain of the beautiful Riad El Fenn.  Madonna had just checked out and our wedding party checked in!  Orange groves, lavender, hammams, a beautiful wedding, perfect weather.  But I had to tear myself away in less then 48 hours because I had to catch a flight to Casablanca to fly on to Abu Dhabi where my kids and grandchildren live!

Travelers' Alert:  Casablanca is kind of sketchy if you are a single woman.  Like they asked why I was travelling alone and that kind of thing!  Airport officials took my passport away for about 15 minutes for reasons I didn't understand. But I made it to Abu Dhabi!

All the perfumes of Arabia, and here is a selection from my favourite store in Abu Dhabi, Villa 515.  The Arabs love their perfumes, and as it is generally "105 degrees Fahrenheit but feels like 123 degrees", perfume is certainly refreshing.  None of this California "I'm allergic to scent" in Abu Dhabi.  Men and women alike adore their colognes.

Here is the beautiful skyline of Abu Dhabi as seen from The Emirates Palace Hotel.  A brilliant trans activist in San Francisco likened it to phallic symbols and said, "This is the moment for women".  I agree with her.  I also think this is a gorgeous skyline, And I'm sorry for my old fashioned friends who think it's awful and that San Francisco is headed in this direction.  San Francisco has a lot of catching up to do to even imitate a small part of this genius skyline.  So don't worry, old school San Franciscans!  This won't happen in your lifetimes!  Sadly!!!

Here's me at a Philippines seafood restaurant in Abu Dhabi having an Anthony Bourdain moment in his honor, eating rice and seafood without benefit of plates or cutlery!

Moving back to London, here is my favourite dress from the V&A exhibition, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams.  It's by Galliano (1999) and up there with the Junon dress from 1949.

Then I found myself in Scotland and fell madly in love with the entire country.  I will show only two images. The first is Hopetoun House, where Adrian Hope, fourth Marquess of Linlithgow gave a very personal tour of his childhood home.

Lastly, I want to show the rustic appeal of Hospitalfield, an arts institute in on ancient site with a view of the North Sea.  I could go on and on with images from artists, collectors and artisans I visited, but this gives you an idea of the varied itinerary I had this past month!

Just stay organized and keep to your schedule and you can do it too!  You might get a little tired sometimes...that is the only drawback.  Four continents in 22 days!  Not bad!  Not bad at all.

Hoping your summers are off to a roaring start!  HAPPY PRIDE WEEKEND!

Love, Little Missy

Jumping Continents

Four Continents in Three Weeks!

It's not for everyone!  I wasn't planning to exactly jump four continents in three weeks, but things just kept coming up!

I'm going to New York because in early June The CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) are having their annual awards dinner and my girls Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte are once again up for Women's Wear Designer of the Year.  If they don't get it this time I may not be responsible for my response!

I'm wearing their Rainbow Ensemble from their famous cemetery show in New York last September in the pouring rain. I asked for an extra layer under the rainbow lace, and I'm hoping for the best for Kate and Laura, who are the best designers working in this country!

Then I'm going on to London, where I will leave one of my suitcases with my usual hotel, and then on to Gatwick Airport, where I will spend the night because the following morning at an ungodly hour I am flying to Marrakesh, where my friends JC and Brent are getting married!  It's hard to believe I've known JC since she was not even 20 and now she's getting married!  And even though she has planned an exquisite wedding thousands of miles from where she lives (in Berkeley), she took the time to bring me an Intention Candle just before she left, which I burned for 72 hours (never unattended, mind you), only to find three crystals at the bottom when the candle was finished burning!  My intention is to find out what exactly my intentions are!  At my age, I think I ought to be focused on that!

Here is the Ungaro 2008 caftan I plan to wear to the wedding.  I first wore it in Marrakesh 11 years ago!  You can imagine, for a fashionista , this is heaven!  I'll have spa treatments between the festivities and hope I can book a hammam.  Aftr the wedding, I'm leaving at the crack of dawn (just two days after arriving in Marrakesh) to fly to Casablanca, to catch a flight to Abu Dhabi where my kids live!  I thought it was a hop, skip and a jump from Morocco to Abu Dhabi.  It's an eight hour flight! From Africa to the Middle East!  It's really far!

I'll probably be so exhausted by the time I get to Abu Dhabi that it's a good thing I bought these Dries Van Noten pajamas in two colours, orange and blue!  I can put on heels and jewelry and pretend I'm awake!  But my five year old granddaughter Isold doesn't allow any nonsense! On my last visit in January, I decided to teach Isold my beauty routine. As I used my cleansers and splashed my face thirty times like Erno Laszlo (remember him) taught us in the eighties, Isold blurted out, "Oh Granny, that's so old fashioned!  Mommy uses a sonic brush!"  I was so taken aback and ashamed you can bet I bought a sonic brush as soon as I could, and my California makeup artist who works with me when I go out to important (at least in some minds') galas or events told me my skin felt smoother  (and not even prompted by me)!  And if I can't get a hamman in Marrakesh, I can get one at the Emirates Palace Hotel, probably the most beautiful hammam in the world. Just being with my kids will be heaven.

Then I'm fairly crazy!  NOOOOOO!  The American Friends of the V&A are offering a "best of Scotland" trip and I thought it would be fun for my friend Kate Dixey and me to go, as we both have Scottish blood flowing in our veins!  I'm no fan of Prince Charles per se but I'm looking forward to seeing his renovation of Dumfries house.  We can't deny he has taste.

Looks very beautiful to me. And as you can see it was featured in Architectural Digest. 

And here's my fantasy of how it will all be!  Did you know that Scottish doctors are now prescribing Vitamin D supplements to Scottish kids because there is so little sun?  So you see, I'm going from a New York fashion party to Marrakesh to the true heat of Abu Dhabi to the coldest country in a given European country during the summer.  No one twisted my arm!  I signed up for this adventure! Eight hours back to London from Abu Dhabi, the divine V&A Summer Party where I will reprise the Rodarte Rainbow ensemble and probably scandalise the American Friends of the V&A, who tend to play it down, to put it mildly. And then a Scottish escapade!

Well, that's Little Missy's Continent skipping!  I'm wishing all my  readers a wonderful summer, filled with adventures and books and some down time!  This year it's all about self-love.  Self-love is the biggest buzz word except for the color chartreuse!  So find a chartreuse swim suit or trunks and dive into the season!

With love, Little Missy