In The Hands of a New York City Woman: Top 8 Musts.
Hand to Mouth. Mouth to Hand. Mouth to Universe. Universe to Hand. Hello!
While Mars Candy Man was out hunting, Venus Wildcrafting Woman was gathering. Man hungrily lurching out for his needs, high on sugars, waving a spear and a prayer while his woman was wiggling her conjuring fingers aligning with the forces of Natura, whistling among the weeds to weave in what she needed to herself. We all know women are obscenely supreme in the game of procuring exactly that what is required at any moment, usually at hand and close. The Modern Day, Double Days stress of our Mars and Venus-mixed Cosmos cocktail life may induce amnesia of this Secret fact and so we all choose talismans to keep close at hand as reminders to manifest and become our dreams. This kind of attention, communication and conversation with ourselves and world is also known as the Tibetan concept of Drala, translated in part as being connected to the essential and trancendant powers of Nature. (more about Drala here..)
Hands. Became fascinated by them recently.
Hands reach out and back in and out again…swimming like sewing needles and thread upon the fabrics surrounding, they are key to the heart’s desire, choosing, pointing, grasping and getting at the end of our extended arms. In and Out. Over and Over again. Over the course of several weeks, I was fascinated by the new “things” my friends reached out to comfort, identify and express themselves with this Fall and was moved to mobile snap them. At the time, I also was foraging for the just-beneath the surface nature patterns I found around New York that expressed my own personal attraction to color, pattern and weather surprises as the season changed.
For me, the people around me and Nature speak to me in a chorus, closely echoing my dreams and I loved to be inspired as I attend events, enjoy dinners and the company of fascinating New Yorkers…each with their trademark Essential Musts…both in accessories and Life…already within their grasp!
PS…it’s all Venus this time, eight women. Les Mens Next. I am in here too thus, eight women. Voila, I am my own Best Friend;-)
Enjoy the forage, as how to get your hands on these are sprinkled in the text.
ONE. Shelley Lewis. Wrap yourself in Sacred Space aka Missoni.
vines in a New York park
Shelley Lewis is a tall glass of fresh water. Originally from London-town, she is a publisher of spiritual children’s books at Chocolate Sauce, the creator of Sacred Space New York, the bespoke Thai Massage Therapy service for high-end hotels (and on-call…super for out-of-town guests) and an interior designer, who at the time of this photo was color-obsessed with “mouse and raspberry.” Shelley is a humanitarian visionary, whose brands are about Wellness for those requiring a high dose of color -coordination, sensitivity and beauty. Sacred.
(also….here is a new post on advancedstyle, one of my favorite blogs which seemed to photograph among the same vines! Divine!)
Get your hot hands on a Missoni here.
TWO. Veronique Gautier-Vencat. A little Paris,
a lot Sustainable.
watery “trees” on a Park’s path
Veronique through her accessories…she is the US rep for luxury skin jewels from Marbella Paris. So Parisian!
Veronique’s response to being a part of this post…”Hi Madame, What an Honor!”…sums her up. A Parisian native, Veronique lives in a rotating, cedar, solar spaceship home in the woods of New Paltz, New York and also just moved back into the city with her son and her environmentalist husband, Shiva, who has a knack for discovering innovations. As an executive coach and brand building whiz to top executives, her high-tech mobile connection came encased in a soft grey, friendly felt and loamy thing from West Elm and her ring is from a tiny shop called Eden in New Paltz, New York.
This is my kind of “It Girl”…from the top of her bronzy grey curls, big smile, generous sense of humor and staunch passion for solar homes, cars that run on air and the purest water on Earth…to her “only a French woman can make this work” strappy sandals …
THREE. Tracy Stern. Express and Share Goodness.
The cuff is also worn to attract one’s Soul Mate. Which by now, everyone has heard my own new proclamations of desire for That Accessory!!!
New York City zinnias remind me of Tracy, you pay attention because she is Bright
FOUR. Kristen “Kitten” Paladino. Spin Carefully and with Passion.
“Kitten,” aka Kristen Paladino, heads up Paladino Casting, where she casts for commercials, film and TV and is one half of PLANT., our creative representation agency. A Downtown Darlin’ and an Ad World Ace…Kristen can be as buttoned up and precise a businesswoman you will ever meet and balances a quirky, curious, kind and whip smart sense about people, situations and possibility.
Her accessory when not DJing? Her gorgeous head of thick curls can be seen on no one else on the planet. Her perennial black nail polish worn with accessories that operate just like her, from her man-sized copper gold watch from Bloomingdale’s to her tiny seed bead fabric bracelet, she might have found in her travels to China. Nothing of beauty or importance escapes this girl…especially her just desserts.
FIVE. Celerie Kemble. “Relaxed Whimsy”…Invest in Art, Have Baby,
Strap On Louboutins Immediately.
The highlight for me of The Manhattan House‘s recent Open House, the white expansive, landmarked Modernist 1950’s era by the Lever House architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, were the rooms designed by Celerie Kemble, who literally just had her child …slid on the Louboutins and opened the doors to her sample rooms. Celerie’s whimsy wove Nature patterns and classic lush, like the pale pink Shagreen deco coffee table, rooms covered in tree patterns and surprising fun takes on mystical art. Her royal blue tree patterned dress and star-spangled sweater echo’d all.
“With clothing, I avoid the overtly sexy—but when it comes to shoes, just strap me in.” (more on Celerie here in ontheinside.info, a great blog….)
SIX. Stella Metzner. Tattoo Your Spacecraft.
raindrops from inside a cab
The necklace was named “Roots.” How beautiful, that as I prepare to design more, the roots of one of my collection’s designs link up with a meeting with the “mysterious” child with the soulful dark eyes. I always wondered who she was. The magic of New York and this Earth…reveals our Path. Always.
SEVEN. Jade Dressler. Become your dream.
C’est moi. At the tail end of my image foraging for this blog, (of course!) a friend showed me Slim Paley’s beautiful blog where she often rapsodises over a color, and for me this Fall, juicy, rich red is my color orgasm. This top is from Andrea Crews in Paris, an adaptive re-use of a 1980’s Sonia Rykiel velour sweatsuit top, and I did my usual Jade-thing with it…some kind of Juicy Couture, Elizabethan ruff topped with a little roughed-up, red-light district, Pigalle-ian absinthe flavor for the neighborhood from which it cometh. Then I reigned in the blossoming and bosoming up with my very tight Moschino black denim jumper with its little leather Peace sign on the back and some very tight slim jeans and black 1950’s style Edmundo Castillo pumps. (the link is from the shebreathes blog…and yes…I could.)
The past weekend, this dark grey accented with red, authentic leather motorcycle jacket literally stopped me in my path at a Housing Works shop, (the best thrift shops in NYC, after City Opera Thrift Shop, of course!) Jacket did a lil Taylor Dayne on me…”Take Me Home!” As the girl who always coveted and wore her boyfriend’s hot, hot custom Italian motorcycle jackets…I did.
and so…in honor of Slim…tiny, tiny tomato red berries in a Manhattan Park, hidden in the foliage, but bursting with the power of red!
James de la Vega‘s art always gives the love vibe when found on the street. I have a thing about street art and red couches and so this brought a big smile. It amuses me to see both Vogue and American’s airline pub doing pieces on foraging, the art of walking about and finding herbs, berries and mushrooms good enought to eat. And ye though I have walked in the shadow of frogs legs and meats at $500. per person French restaurants…I fear no meat or weed, I have walked gingerly in the valleys of Woodstock to learn foraging as a proud graduate of Susan Weed‘s Wise Woman wildcrafting workshops back about 20 years ago. I’ve been chewing on grass since I was a kid and I love that we are more engaged with our surroundings to find magic in spontaneous street art on a city street or a handy dose of daily vitamins via juicy, soft and bright green salad of chickweed leaves foraged right nearby (even in the winter!)
My mouth to the Universe’s ears. When I wasn’t eating grass, as a child, I was endlessly making art in my bedroom, which later catapulted me to foraging for meaning out in the deserts of New Mexico with author, Julia Cameron and her book The Artist’s Way to alternating being a Full-time Artist to running companies with global clients. I think I finally am understanding the Balance of Art and Commerce. For me, as a curator, Jason Horowitz‘s close-up body photos express the new Clarity, pervasive in my breathing and Life…Finally!
Red for me is also a favorite creative lovers unit, Waris of House of Waris, jewelry designer and filmmaker, Chiara Clemente. I once followed them out of an evening fashion show into the glimmering streets, where her gold shoes, much like these, captivated me as much as the electric couple vibe between them. Oh, did I mention that I am also in the market for this kind of Soul Mate thingy between Creative Forces? I am. (Wildcrafting Woman Seeks Candy Man…again)
The Doyenne of Red on her famous Red Couch. My famous living room Dream Couch, where I contemplate my own Diana-inspired Doyenne-ness, is covered in a plush velvet, tacky yet idyllic scene carpet from the Middle East with swans gliding in the Caribbean-turquoise blue waters in front of a red and white Shangri La pad surrounded by forest under a royal blue sky. Still Most Magical!
…and to finish up my little red rant…(and female Soul Mate narwhale sonar squeaking)…I had my huge navy and red bath towels monogrammed with the light pink name of God so I could wrap up my love in his own personalized towel after the shower. Ready!
EIGHT. Lucy Raubertas. Smell This.
Queen of Indie Perfumes, Expert and Blogger, Lucy…
…always accessorizes with a cache of crazy, heavenly scents with her wherever she goes. We shared a dessert of strawberries and vanilla ice cream crepes recently at Chelsea’s Le Grainne Cafe after seeing FIT’s Japan Fashion Now exhibit and she tossed these tiny delights upon the table:
I love Lucy’s etheric, unpolished fingers which shyly appeared when I asked her to please put them on the white paper table cloth to show the size of the tiny vial of scent. Aftelier is a collection of natural, artisan scents created by Mandy Aftel whom Lucy calls the “Alice Waters of American natural perfume” and Vogue calls “one of the perfumes industry’s most creative thinkers.” I like the simple tag line “Modern Natural Luxury.” I like the frontiers of scent, pure plants growing up from rich, organic soil as well as the well crafted accessory. I like Lucy’s indieperfumes blog, it takes you on that wild and sensual journey. (for more blog about Lucy…)
When I spend time with Lucy and her scents, it is like an opened cerebral experience, such as I used to get when darting into Le Jardin, another of my favorite downtown, white paper tablecloth French restaurants. On a Saturday afternoon, after intense yoga with Elena Brower at Vira Yoga, the back garden was my “un-trendy” spot to read a magazine, text, journal, Facebook, Bouillabaisse and gather Light for my blogs. Open since 1995, and back then a favorite with the likes of another fave couple of lovers, Bowie and Iman, I just learned it has now sadly closed. I hope something wonderful takes its place or I will have to hunt and gather for a new spot by next Spring. Open to suggestions for new Watering Holes, Candy Men, Wildcrafting Women and blogs, too!
My Egads. I’ve Sown All over MeSelf! Methinks a blog is the latest accessory!
btw…have you read my openly-cerebral, accessory blog written by The Alien trapped in the body of an Atlantic City pole-dancer
who writes about celebr-itis to soothe her angst?
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Tags: 72 names of God, accessories, Aftelier Perfumes, Alice Waters of Scent, Alien blog, andrea crews, architect of Lever House, Become Your Dream, blogger, Bowie and Iman, british vogue, Celerie Kemble, Celery Kemble, Chelsea French restaurant, Chiara Clemente, chickweed salad, Chocolate Sauce, City Opera Thrift Shop, craft classes in NYC, diana vreeland, Divas Shop for Opera, Drala, Eden shop, Edmundo Castillo, Elaine Lewis, Elena Brower, famous women interior decorators, FIT Japan Fashion Now, foraging, hand to mouth, hands, Hermes Birkin bag, hip Brooklyn mom, House of Waris, Housing Works, images of lovers, Indie Perfumes, interior designers, Iti Phone Home, jade dressler, Jason Horowitz, Julia Cameron, Kabbala cuff, Kabbalah, Kemble Interiors, Kristen Paladino, Le Colonial, Le Grainne Cafe, le jardin, leather motorcycle jacket, lips photo, Louboutins, LOVERS, Lucy Raubertas, mandala, mandala painting, Mandy Aftel, Marbella Paris, Mars Man, Missoni, Missoni scarf, modern natural luxury, Modernist, monogrammed towels, Moschino, New Paltz, New York accessories, new york accessories trends, New York City Woman, New York woman, new york women, NYC street artist, NYC Women, NYC women entrepreneurs, open house, owings & merrill, Paladino Casting, Plant, Rachel Brown, red berries, relaxed whimsy, ruff, Sacred Space New York, SalonTea, sample designer rooms, Shagreen coffee table, Shangri La, sheila metzner, Shelley Lewis, Shiva Vencat, skidmore, Slim Paley, Spacecraft, spiritual children's books, Stella Metzner, The Artist's Way, The Manhattan House, thrift in NYC, Tracy Stern, urban street art, urban wall art, Venus Woman, Veronique Gautier-Vencat, Waris, West Elm, wildcrafting, zinnia
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