Little Missy's Etiquette Refresher
How to Behave in a Private Club

The Battery SF

After a recent tour of private clubs in San Francisco and at Stanford University, Little Missy is compelled to put forth a what I call an Etiquette Refresher. So appalling was the behaviour of some club members and their friends that this simply must be stopped.  If you are fortunate enough be be a member of The Battery, San Francisco's elite club for the primarily young and wealthy tech sector, this does not give you leave to grunt loudly at your table like an animal in the forest, to use profanity at decibels the rest of the room must hear and to ignore your fellow member at the bar because you are too busy looking at your cell phone.  I have seen countless beautiful women sitting alone while tech bros were too busy texting or just being clueless to offer to buy a drink.  Little Missy Warning: Men In Shorts

The City Club of San Francisco

Just because the City Club's architecture is Aztec Deco with murals by Diego Rivera doesn't mean that it is OK to walk in for dinner in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts or ask someone you do not know at a party if you can have your picture taken with them. For heaven's sake, stop the insanity!  And as for Little Missy's stalker, it's Chanel all right, now go away!  A private club is not a venue for whipping out a cell phone and asking a stranger to take a photograph of you with someone you don't know.  Little Missy Warning:  Men in Shorts

Villa Taverna

Even though Diego Rivera had roots in this club as well, it's clearly stated in the rules that to sit in the front room, gentlemen must wear a coat and tie and jeans are not allowed. The rules were bent for me once as a "once only" when two designers I was hosting a party for came in wearing jeans (they never wear anything else). And don't think about pulling out a cell phone here, even to text.  And don't exchange business cards here or make deals or hit people up for money if you are a fundraiser.  It is simply not done here, although Little Missy has certainly seen it attempted!

Stanford Faculty Club

Despite appearances to the contrary, Stanford Faculty Club is the most elite of the clubs I have mentioned for the simple reason that you have to be a Stanford Faculty member to join.  This however does not stop distressingly low brow behaviour such as atrocious dressing.  Little Missy Warning: Men In Shorts. e= mc  squared all right, and sometimes I think "m c" stands for morons completely!

Well that's it, Little Missy's Take on the Demise of Civilisation!  

Little Missy Palo Alto 94301 Update!

First World Problems and China Rich Girlfriend!

Where to begin?  What a first half a year this has been for Little Missy!  The kind of year where you just want to take shelter under your bed until you feel it's safe to come out, and then things keep raining down on you!  And since we are having a big, big drought in California and everyone across the state is praying for the promised El Nino (the big rains after the Santana Winds),  Little Missy is not talking about rain!  Maybe in October if we are lucky!  My beloved parents passed away earlier this year after 67 years of being married!  They have left behind a lot of stuff and some of this stuff is pretty amazing.  Mom was into Ming porcelain and big jewelry.  All this stuff is in a vault.  I took Mom's jewelry and put it onto my bed and realised it just wasn't Little Missy.  It was Mom, the Grande Dame of Carmel, the beautiful older woman with white hair and pale cashmere and serious jewelry any time of the day or night. Mom admonished Little Missy on more than one occasion to hold back on the haute couture and go for California Elegance (i.e. her style).  I couldn't: collecting beautiful clothes was as much in my blood as collecting Ming porcelain and beautiful jewels was in Mom's.  And anyway, Mom taught me all about clothes.  Clothes and Dad were the great loves of her life until she hit her 50s.  Then it was Dad, the Ming and the jewels (and of course the Afghan hounds).

Mom's Style

Mom's Style 

Mom's Style

Which brings me to my second point!  Little Missy's favourite author, Kevin Kwan, the Truman Capote of Singapore has recently published the second in what will become a trilogy.  Remember Little Missy first shared Crazy Rich Asians with you two summers ago?  And I told you it was the most important book of the year?  And that it was going to be made into a movie?  Well, all of that is true!  China Rich Girlfriend is Kevin's second in the trilogy and Little Missy could just not put it down for a second!  Except for when Kevin starts describing the food these guys are eating and then I threw down the book and looked haplessly around Palo Alto for hand pulled noodles and chicken and golden egg fried rice and xiao long bao dumplings.  In other words, I was reading this book and starving for the food he was writing about.  My favourite characters still have pride of place, front and centre, Nick Young the Columbia University professor who is really Asia's most eligible man under 30, Rachel Chu the goody goody economist from Cupertino Nick marries, who is unbeknownst until well into the book the daughter of one of China's most famous politicians, Astrid Leong Teo, who is the number one fashionista in Asia but so under the radar that Kevin has to explain to us why she's really number one and of course poor (but very rich) Charlie Wu, who continues his martyrdom in honor of Astrid, his unrequited love!  OMG.  I even am beginning to develop a soft spot in my heart for social climber Kitty Pong because Kitty is proving she has a spine and can stand up to her horrible billionaire husband Bernard and some of the nonsense that's going on with Crazy Rich Asians!  And as I love to read about makeovers and makeover lists and rules, may I say that Corinna Ko-Tung's, (Kitty's makeover coach) list is worth the price of admission!

Here's what Corinna, Astrid and Rachel share in common:  a distaste for large, ostentatious jewelry...it is good for grand dames but ridiculous on younger women.  Astrid has tons of the best of the best but feels it interferes with her haute couture look!  Rachel doesn't go for it either, and her engagement ring is a one and a half carat diamond from JAR!  (I think Nick picked out Rachel's ring because Rachel did not have a clue who "Joel" or JAR are)!!!  And Corinna, trying to bring former actress Kitty into Hong Kong high society, knows that if Kitty wears large jewelry she will look like a parvenu!  It is all very complicated about who gets to wear the jewelry in this trilogy!  Mainly the older gals, and only at the galas!  Mom, you would have been a beloved grande dame of Asian society for sure!  In your cashmere and huge rocks you were the very essence of what Kevin describes as the perfect Asian matriarch! And Mom, I will keep your jewels in the vault, because like Astrid, I think they will interfere with the look I am going with now!  China Rich Girlfriend spoke directly to me and I cannot recommend this book enough!  Go get it right now!  You won't be sorry, and if you are sorry, I'm sorry for you!