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!

Wherever I Swirl I'll Always Be Your California Girl

Take That, J.Lo!  Little Missy at the V&A world launch of  Electric Fashion

Little Missy has been busy!  Yes, Frederic Aranda and I finally got our book, Electric Fashion www.electricfashionthebook.com out into the world!  It was like giving birth in practically every country!  I can't wait to tell you about our debut, but first I want to show you what I wore to the Met Gala:

It was  the Rodarte Ming dress that was in the exhibition, China:Through the Looking Glass!

But guess what?  Freddie and I shot "China through the looking glass" in London back in 2011!

Here's half the picture.  If you want to see the whole thing, it's in the book!  You have to admit it was prescient on Freddie's part!  He is so genius that way!
We had so much fun at the V&A launch!  400 people came to see Little Missy's clothes and Freddie's photographs and drink Champagne with us in the Raphael Gallery!


The Raphael Gallery with Little Missy's clothes!

We were so happy that night, and then we got to do it all over again in the beautiful Rotunda Room at Neiman Marcus!

Ken Downing, Frederic Aranda and Little Missy

Ken Downing, the fashion director of Neiman Marcus wrote our foreward!  How awesome is that?

So many friends and well-wishers came to the Rotunda and Little Missy was misty eyed.  We drank champagne again and had a fashion chat with the famous Carolyne Zinko of the San Francisco Chronicle!  And she said she wasn't an investigative reporter but she asked some tough questions!  Like did I ever have some problems wearing couture clothes places?  Margaret Pluvinage, who wrote the Post Script answers that question very well!  Yes  I did!  Not everyone likes couture and some people think you are lame and evil if you wear it because it seems on the outset superficial, so you have to win them over!  But I don't have to win you over, because you are my dear readers and you wouldn't be reading this if you thought couture was lame!  And neither does Carolyne!  But she had to play the Devil's Advocate to provoke and promote to a higher dialogue!  And it was a very high end evening!  Thank you, Neiman Marcus!

Then we took our book tour down to LA!  Not just any old LA, we took it to Cameron Silver's Decades!  The best vintage store in the world!  Right on Melrose Avenue!  Thank you, Cameron!

We had another book signing at the world famous Decades!

It was been such a whirlwind, but so much fun!  It was worth all those years we worked on our book, and we hope you love it as much as we loved putting it together!

Little Missy Makes It Into The Daily Mail

or

Fashion Royalty and The Holy Grail!

Little Missy does not need anyone telling her she's fashion royalty.  But the thought of that particular phrase in conjunction with my name on the pages of my favourite addiction, The Daily Mail gives a peculiar and not exactly un-delicious sensation.

Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Ken Downing doesn't need to hear he's Fashion Royalty, either.

Still it's nice, coming from the wonderfully witty Daily Mail, Little Missy's online love affair.  Where else can I know I will find out in less than a second whatever happened to Demi Moore? (Hollywood Royalty)   The new betting odds on the gender of next Royal child? (Royal Royalty)  Diana Ross's birthday bash? (Rock Royalty) I have long since stopped apologising for my loyalty to this publication.  I understand Princess Diana enjoyed it.  Royalty has loyalty.  And what do I owe my inclusion into my favourite and beloved Daily Mail?  Let Little Missy tell you how:  a Hollywood starlet showed up to a lovely San Francisco gala I attended this weekend in a gown with a plunging neckline, analysed by the DM (that's what we aficionados call the Daily Mail) as an attempt to win back her husband, who has abandoned her. If the husband has any feeling for this poor girl, the DM certainly aided and abetted what they believe to be her cause.  There are a dozen pictures of her!  It was the story.  Don't you love publications that figure everything out for you so that you don't have to think so hard? Hand it to me on a silver platter, for goodness sake!  Little Missy confesses, she did not even SEE the starlet in the plunging neckline, so I am happy to be caught up to speed on the details of the gala.

Now I want to show you a couple of French fashion directions shown this past month in Paris that I'm crazy about

 Blue Velvet at Givenchy

Fringe at Lanvin
Get some fringe and some velvet and you are set!

Now for Little Missy's hand bag pick of the season---Spring and Summer that is:

The Saint Laurent fringed bucket bag in black calf.
Don't buy into that suede stuff.  Get it in black calf.  You'll be a lot happier in the end and this bag will go with everything you have and say Boho without saying hippie (the worst)!
Happy Spring, dear readers! Revel in the glory of the more gentle breeze.

To Pat On What Would Have Been His 93rd Birthday

Patrick Suppes 

March 17th, 1922-November 17th, 2014

Not enough was published about you darling Pat, after you died. Most people could never comprehend exactly how much you had achieved in your lifetime.  Your genius was discovered by your home state of Oklahoma and you were put into accelerated classes.  You were the student body president of your huge school, Tulsa Central High, graduating a year early. You continued on at the University of Chicago, where its president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, another early proponent of gifted students, took notice of you.  His daughter fell in love with you as well. You were the youngest captain in the US Air Force during WWII and were in an elite weather group which forecast  the most important assignments in the South Seas.  You came home from the war, finished up in Chicago and moved on to Columbia University.  You had married the gifted and charming architect, Joanne Farmer, and you studied physics, for which you received a Ph.D. 

Then you really started to really make history.  Your first job was at Stanford University as a lecturer in philosophy.  Here you were, this lanky, young, brash Oklahoman, shaking the very foundations of this relatively new institution, which had its beginnings rooted in conservative, liberal arts, East Coast style education.  Your champion was none other than Fred Terman, father of Silicon Valley.

"When we set out to create a community of technical scholars in Silicon Valley, there wasn't much here and the rest of the world looked awfully big.  Now a lot of the rest of the world is here"

Frederick Terman

This meant the beginning of the computer age.  You designed and implemented the first computer programs in elementary school classrooms in disadvantaged East Palo Alto. You also designed a computer logic course at Stanford which became a standard bearer for undergraduates...i.e., students took it if they wanted to really have their mettle tested.  Yet you were a brilliant lecturer, and took it upon yourself to memorise the name and face of every student who took your class.  To the students in the early 50's who thought you were another servant in their family (believe it or not, Stanford had students like this at the time) you disabused these kids of the notion very quickly:  apologise or flunk out.  Yes, Stanford was changing.  You and Joanne had two daughters and a son, and you began Computer Curriculum Corporation, selling hardware (in the beginning) and software to schools across the country.  On your 45th birthday, RCA took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal to congratulate "Computer Pioneer Dr. Patrick Suppes" I married you at the end of the 70's as CCC was getting into full swing and you were beginning to earn international accolades  and honorary degrees all over Europe. You were inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1978.  What others might not know is exactly how much you did for the poor and under served---you were able to get electricity to towns like Paintville, KY, (home to Loretta Lynn and her sister Crystal Gale) to implement your computers.  You were honoured by the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis because these kids found a new way to learn.  You brought computer education to every corner of the earth, and if that corner was dark, you made sure it got lit. We had two children and travelled all over the world with them.  You sold CCC in 1990, took a forced retirement from Stanford in 1992, and were recalled back to "active duty" immediately. After endowing several chairs in the humanities, you then started Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY). which hearkened back to your early love and respect for gifted learning programs.  You,first under the wing of Fred Terman and then on your own, changed the landscape of Stanford University, most likely more than any other before or since. 

You were a human being as well.  We all wanted to believe you would stay healthy and alive forever.  A brain like yours is one in a lifetime.  It burned furiously and passionately until you came ill after 2007.  As your wife of 33 years, I love you and always will for the good days and for our beautiful children and for the legacy of humanity and education for all which cannot ever be diminished.  There is only one Patrick Suppes, and I am proud to have called you my husband.

Spring Fling

Bohemia Looks Better Than They Say?

Here is a screen shot from Net-a-Porter.  For under 5000 dollars you can own this Punjab inspired Saint Laurent black velvet vest, embroidered with "hundreds" of gold beads and lined "for your comfort" in silk.  You can wear it with a Saint Laurent hippie dress /granny gown. For your sake, Little Missy says don't do that combo. Wear it with a tee shirt and a long skirt or jeans.

How about this one, from Dolce and Gabana?  Not exactly Bohemia, but what Net-a-Porter calls a "scene stealer" looks like it was stolen from the eighties and nineties ateliers of Lacroix and Yves Saint Laurent.  Yves Saint Laurent was an early proponent of Bohemian chic.

How Yves used to roll in Morocco

Loulou de la Falaise, Yves' muse

Joni Mitchell, Saint Laurent muse for 2015

Saint Laurent poncho

Whether you are a guy or a girl, don't do this poncho look.  It was done definitively by Clint Eastwood years ago and I don't think it's ever going to look that good again.  In fact, Little Missy predicts there will be a lot of fashion ships sunk this spring as style aficionados try to recall the golden era of Bohemia which for many of us was the mid Sixties--- when Little Missy was flipping through magazines and saying, "golly, what could be cooler than Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull"?

Nothing was cooler.

Clockwork Fashion 

and

Who was the Best Dressed at the Academy Awards?

Mary Katrantzou Winter 2014-15

Little Missy must begin with a disclaimer:  not normally a fan of designer Mary Katrantzou, I "discovered" the above dress at the Strand Hotel in Rangoon last November.  The Burmese gallerist and fashion connoisseur Ivan Pun was having a trunk show, and this was one of Mary's pieces he was showing.  He called it the "clock dress" .  I had just seen about five thousand Buddhas over a two week period and was fascinated by the clocks I sometimes saw at Buddhist sites. I would have loved to have collected this piece, given the provenance and it was just not meant to be.  The fabulousness of the clock dress and the clock Buddhas still amaze me.

Buddha with clocks

Rodarte Fall 2015

Here is a beautiful embellished dress from the new Rodarte collection which was shown in New York last week--a little less literal and perhaps more to my taste.  In fact it was for me the best piece I saw from the season's collections.

Mary Katrantzou Fall 2015 makeup

Rodarte Fall 2015 makeup

Little Missy is loving these looks--simple and complex at the same time!  Kind of like life!

Zendaya in Westwood at the Academy Awards!

And the winner for best dressed at the 2015 Academy Awards this week goes to 18 year old Zendaya, the Disney star who gets my vote for being outrageously beautiful and elegant.  Her hair was truly a spectacular Hollywood moment!  Here's to more moments like this one!

Letter From London

Frieze Art Fair October 2014

But We'll Be Discussing What They Wore!

Frieze London is one of the world's leading contemporary art fairs, occurring each October and turning the city into a frenzy with 30,000 fervid devotees descending into town.  That doesn't mean you'll see great art, although you also just might--the fact is, if you have enough money for a booth, you can buy your way into the fair, and as we all know, taste is often not indicated by money.  So let's talk about what they wore!  The young man in the first picture is quintessentially British looking whether he is or not.  I think he probably is.  The two girls in the second shot look like they may be visiting.  They look cute and happy.  The man in the third image is very dashing.  He could be from anywhere, perhaps from New York?  I love his style.

Now for these three.  I love the guy with the Afro. It shows he has heart and respect for the Old School. The girl in the next picture looks like she's taken posing lessons from Gwyneth Paltrow.  So not good.  The third guy looks handsome, but shell shocked. A lot of men wore those scarves like that but confidentially it really wasn't that cold. It's more like that was the Frieze look for guys.

Now for this last batch  Who doesn't like couple who look happy together except a misanthrope?  Some of the art truly sucked, and it was uplifting to see beautiful people smiling and happy.  The second guy here is a serious fashionista.  I don't know what he knows about art, but he knows how to put a navy blazer together with pink and gray geometric print trousers and for this he gets my seal of approval.  This third couple next to the bronze Yayoi Kusama pumpkins at Victoria Miro Gallery look familar...why yes, it's Little Missy and Vladimir Adamovic!  Right in there with the right groove for Frieze!  Well that's it!  Frieze frames of fashion!

Eyebrow Trends Again!

Rodarte Spring Summer 2015
It truly is all about the brow!
Created by Kate and Laura Mulleavy and Makeup Artist James Kaliardos

Little Missy Dares You!

Little Missy's Guide To Fall Beauty

It can be summed up in one word:

Eyebrows

Chola Barbie

Chola has gone mainstream.  Most of  Little Missy's readers know that Cholas are Hispanic girls, usually of Mexican descent, who are often associated with a Southwestern style of dress, notably a bandanna wrapped around bouffant hair, a flannel shirt, loose khaki pants or shorts and trademark makeup.  The makeup is what has gone mainstream, and for those non-Chola women who do not want to line their lips outside their natural lip line or wear heavy blue or purple eye shadow, you can still adopt a Chola-influence that is the toast of Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo.  I am talking about the heavier, well-defined eyebrow.  Think Cara Delevinge, a young British fashion icon in the making, and her heavy bushy eyebrows.  This is what Little Missy is talking about.  But wait!  This has been on the Paris runways for years.  

Little Missy's Test

What is Paris Runway and What is Chola Runway?  

Look One

Look Two

Look Three

Look Four

OK readers, two of these looks are genuine runway looks from 2007.  Pick the runway looks!  And remember to make your brows fuller for fall!  You don't even need to buy new clothes if you thicken the eyebrows.  Hola, Chola!

Makeovers and What Is A Stylist?

Little Missy's First Assignment  A Treasured Memory

My dear friend Cameron Silver, the King of Vintage has a site called Candid Cameron and a spirited Instagram account where he and his friends, colleagues and clients weigh in on style topics of the day. Yesterday we weighed in on the recent  Emmys Red Carpet. I called out a look I did not like, noting that it was the fault of the stylist, not the star.  The star was Robin Wright, a beautiful and talented actor.  The look was beyond bad, an ivory jumpsuit ill-fitted, trousers too long,  slicked back hair and minimal makeup.  No one on the planet could have gotten away with all three of these things worn together.  Robin looked washed out and severe---and as if she would trip any moment in her overly long jumpsuit.  I felt her stylist had done her an injustice.  Many disagreed with me, and applauded Robin for going for the shock value.  I can only shrug my shoulders.  Que sera, sera.

Robin Wright at the Emmys

Emma Stone at the Venice Film Festival

As Cameron wrote of Emma Stone, sometimes just looking pretty on the red carpet is enough!  Anyway, it got Little Missy thinking...what is a stylist, anyway?  This is one of the most important persons on any fashion project. You can have the best model and the best photographer, but without a good stylist, you will not have fashion.  My favourite stylist is Cissy Chong, who has worked with my friend the photographer Frederic Aranda.  She puts the wow factor into the fashion picture with her futuristic-retro vision.  I hope I can work with Cissy one day!

Cutler and Gross Spring 2014 styled by Cissy Chong and shot by Frederic Aranda

You can bet Cissy hand picked every macaron and tea cup!

Again, what is a stylist?  The stylist is the artist in fashion who brings the clothes and accessories and props to create the dream of the client.  Sometimes a stylist is brought in to change a star's perceived persona...especially important if the star has had bad press, been arrested and so on. Stylists have done wonders with reality stars like Kim Kardashian.  Kim's April Vogue cover was jaw dropping.  But then she was working with the best stylist in the world, the one and only Grace Coddington.

Now for Little Missy's story.  My first assignment as a stylist was truly unexpected and random.  My mother was spending the day with her friend Georgette and Georgette's younger daughter was going to spend the day with me.  Kathy was a bit younger than I, and a bit of a "tomboy".   I could see she was almost always uncomfortable at events, socially awkward and shy.  In fact I had already concluded that Kathy did not feel comfortable as a girl.  So Georgette and Kathy came over, and Kathy was dressed to the nines in a yellow and white floral two piece blouse and skirt ensemble.  I could see that she was miserable.  At least she was wearing comfortable sandals.  She had just been to one of those teenage fat farms rich people used to send their overweight children to, and had come back feeling like a failure.  Little Missy knew she had a job to do! As soon as Georgette and my mother left, I asked Kathy if she would like to change into my brother's jeans and t shirt.  The biggest smile I think I ever saw radiated YES!  This mordantly funny, wickedly intelligent fourteen year old wasted no time changing clothes and we spent the day walking downtown to lunch and to visit a friend in the hospital.   I never thought twice about not suggesting she change her clothes. It was so obvious that she was never meant to dress like a girly girl.  Of course Kathy put her yellow and white ensemble back on before our mothers returned, and we laughed at each other.  I lost touch with Kathy soon after that as her mother shipped her off to a school in Switzerland that was supposed to make her more feminine and refined!  OMG!  I am thinking about Kathy and all human beings who have been in a similar place, and sending love.  If I had helped Kathy in my first stint of being a stylist, I was forever grateful to the impulse that is in us all to want to look comfortable when we see ourselves in the mirror.