Luxury Basics

Leslie August 29th, 2008

Considering it’s still August, my life has suddenly shifted into the faster lane.  I have been keeping a few important developments under my hat, so to speak, but very shortly, next week, to be exact, I plan to break out Luxury Basics from its semi-obscure state.

As today’s title may suggest, it has to do with TV.  Let me not get ahead of myself.  First, I can tell about the fun I had last week at the filming of a pilot online celebrity show, produced by two quite talented and savvy guys - Michael Yakovchik and Marcelo Alvarez, of the up and coming production company, http://www.greytv.com/ with whom I have had the recent pleasure of working with on another project. (To be announced)  The star of this new show is Lauren Bergfeld, an adorable, infectiously happy young woman well connected in celebrity-land. 

Naturally, when I heard about the show, I offered to bring “a little something” for Lauren to wear with her debut outfit.  Actually, not knowing what she would select to wear, I brought a wide assortment (that I could barely lift!).  Once she settled on her look, her choice of jewelry was inspired.  I think she looked great! Hope you agree.

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Leslie August 13th, 2008

No, it’s not my favorite month.  Beside the overall weather issues, which I try to dodge and deny, there seems to be a malaise that sets in with just about everyone I know.  The accumulated exhaustion of the beginning of the year that combines with the knowledge that it will all crank up again the day after Labor Day?  Maybe.  The fact that half of everyone you know is vacationing somewhere and the other half has their brain on vacation?  Maybe.  August has never really been known as a month of accomplishment, so trying to get something done is challenging, at best.

I have been working on a number of different projects, in the multi-tasking model, and hopefully, they will all start to come together - though setting an August deadline seems stupid, at best.

Soon I will be working on some creative initiatives designed to enlarge the general audience for my jewelry.  Along these lines, there has been some good news - my jewelry will be featured on an upcoming HBO series called, Zane’s Sex Chronicles, based on a popular book of the same name. 

There are more things happening in the wings that I will announce in early September, when the general population awakens from the August stupor.

In the meantime, enjoy the sleepwalk through the rest of the month and stay tuned.

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Leslie June 12th, 2008

I was thrilled to get an email from Bahia, the gorgeous dark haired model on my website, informing me that she was a contestant on the new show “She’s Got the Look.”  Essentially, the show is America’s Top Model for women over 35.  It debuted last Wednesday night on TV Land channel and the second segment was last night.  Out of thousands of women who tried out, Bahia was in the first cull of 20, then blew through to the top ten.

How I met Bahia is a small story in itself.  I was meeting a photographer for the first time at a local coffee shop in Beverly Hills.  I was bringing my jewelry and we were going to talk about a photo shoot for my website.  He brought his girlfriend.  Just as I was entering the door, I noticed sitting outside, Bahia, having a cup of coffee.  I was truly captivated by her natural beauty in repose.  I told the photographer and his girlfriend that the woman outside seemed to me, to be the essence of my jewelry designs and a beautiful representative of my company.   In short order, the photographer’s girlfriend walked out, introduced herself, popped the question and soon she was at our table, looking over my things.

We have kept in loose contact since the original photo shoot, going our separate ways.  At this juncture, though, I want to offer her all of the support that I can.  She’s not only a natural beauty, but a beautiful person as well.  I believe that her inner beauty shows through, both on camera and off.

Tune in next Wednesday night and follow the saga of these women contestants.  You know who I’m cheering for!!

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Leslie April 10th, 2008

I’ve been busy lately.  Not that I”m not usually busy, (of course, I am) but lately, busier than I would like.  I have just designed a new men’s line of “neckwear” and “wristwear” which is now displayed in the London Hotel (previously the Bel Age in West Hollywood) and will be featured on the men’s side of my website by early May. (hopefully)  I have also been developing a new collection for women that I haven’t named yet.  Actually, I haven’t thought of a name for the men’s line either.  I’m working on both, even as I’m sitting here.

Still in the mode of considering my life ( and the lives of my friends and loved ones) refracted against the daily grind for the masses.  Naturally, some days, I feel like one of the masses, others I feel grateful not to be one.  The other night, walking the dog with my husband, (a nightly occurrence) I just spontaneously said, “I regret that we’re not ultra rich, but I rejoice that we’re not poor.”  Lately, that’s my perspective.  And there’s always the unexpected death of a friend”s close friend (yesterday) that concentrates ones thoughts to the essential ones.  The redundant, not so comforting anymore, counting one’s blessings.  Doesn’t work like the charm it once did.  Could be I’m getting older, or just wiser to the game of life.  If you live long enough and pay attention, at times, a person can see 20 -20.  Clearly, that is.  Hard to keep these moments of clarity uppermost in your consciousness.  But I try.

It’s time to inject my sense of humor into this un-commented-upon blog.  I promise, for next time.  

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Leslie February 1st, 2008

Change is in the news these days.  For the Democrats, change seems to be the imperative now.  Change the ruling party in Washington, change the direction of the country, change the tone of government in general.  For the Republicans, it’s a little more difficult to assess what change might mean.  Change President’s, yes.  Change policies, not so sure.  Change the direction of the country, maybe, depending on which candidate you may support.

It’s a little funny to me, (not funny ha-ha) that change has moved from a threatening and potentially negative concept to a very very positive concept in a short time, at least for the Democrats.  Of course, change can exist on many levels.

I was reading this morning on my Yahoo news about a 400 pound guy that finally decided to change the way he was living, since he was suffering badly from carrying around all of his extra weight.  He began to walk each day for an hour and adjust his diet by restricting his carbohydrates.  He literally walked off 100 pounds in seven months and utimately lost almost 200 pounds.  He was quoted as saying that he will never allow himself to ever gain the weight back.  We may tentatively conclude that he first, changed his mind about his eating and exercise habits, second, changed his behavior to be consistent with his mind change and third, changed his attitude to preclude falling back to his old condition.  Change, it seems, by it’s very nature, requires consistency over time.  To achieve true change in anything, consistent follow through is a must.

Change is challenging at best.  A rejoinder that is ringing in my ear right now is the oft-quoted, “be careful what you wish for.” I agree with the sentiment of this notion because, change, being a process, sets in motion a number of things pertaining to that change which may spin out of your control and result in unintended consequences (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse). 

The issue with a candidate that runs on a platform of change is that no matter how clearly enunciated that idea of change might be, effectuating that specific change in a dynamic environment of competing visions for that change, will almost certainly result in something altered from the original.  And that may not be a bad thing.  But we don’t know. However, many people riding on the bandwagon right now are likely setting themselves up for disappointment.

Now we come to the point of expectations.  Because with change, there are expectations of what the change will be - will the change meet expectation, exceed expectation or fall short of expectation?  I believe this is the real rub.  If you knew what the result of the change would be, then you could make some kind of mental adjustment for it during the process.  But that is not possible, since the process is dynamic and the outcome of the change can’t really be accurately predicted.  This, then, is the nature of our humanity and what confounds change and forces it to be exceedingly gradual, even when immediacy is dictated. (I’m thing about global warming here)  We want resolution, most of us don’t really like surprises, we want to know what happens next.  This is hard.

Look at the guy who decided to change his lifestyle in order to lose a vast amount of weight.  He set in motion a number of changes in his life that likely infringed on others.  He said so in this article.  He thanked his family for allowing him to be selfish.  To put his need to exercise for an hour each day or more, ahead of his children and his wife, who may have needed or wanted his company at that time.  What if his family had not gone along?  We might have thought ill of them, for not helping him to achieve better health, but they may have had their reasons, maybe even a few good reasons. They may have made the guy’s decision difficult to implement, or guilt-tripped him, who knows?  The point is, the guy set his plan in motion, and at that moment, lost control of all of the variables that would contribute to his success.  He was lucky.  He had a great outcome.  Although to read the article, which states that he now exercises 2 to 3 hours a day, you might think that he has gone overboard and may be jeapardizing his family relationships with such a substantial dedication.  Maybe his wife is now thinking, be careful what you wish for.

On the national level, change sounds good right now.  There’s a lot of frustration and suffering out there that needs hope for the future.  Whether that hope for the future can become tangible to the individual in a reasonably short period of time remains to be seen.  We still have nearly a year left of the change we picked last time, twice.  We must be careful in what we wish for.

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Leslie January 9th, 2008

I started the new year off with the news of the deaths of several wonderful people that I had the privilege of knowing and caring about for many years.  On a more mundane level, over a two day period, my kitchen sink backed up, indifferent to Drano, and my roof sprung a major leak in my kitchen during a heavy storm, just as friends were arriving for dinner.  There’s nothing like death and finality to give context to your life and your petty woes. 

Which brings me to the topic of the day, actually, the topic of my every day, which is - making each day count for something.(Not just anything)  Not so easy, this one more or less overarching goal of one’s life, boiled down to chipping away at it, bit by bit, day by day.  Yes, I do try.  Some days I do better than others.  Some days I try harder than others.  Hell, just remembering to try can be elusive. 

The daily challenges are daunting.  The detritus of a day can be wearing - kitchen sinks, roofs, running out of ink for the printer - you know the drill.  These are not activities that can readily lend themselves to being elevated to some higher plane of  philosophical meaning.  Yes, I know it’s all wrapped up in priorities - focus on the things that matter and the rest will “magically” take care of itself.  To some small extent, this may be true.  But there is still the need to eat, (not just me, but my family) to have clean clothes and a clean environment, a non leaking roof, etc.    The simple stuff of life consumes a lot of time and energy.  Yes, it does. 

Thankfully, I do have time left to dwell intermittently on the human condition.  For example, why a mirror doesn’t always reflect back accurately the image in front of it.  Or, why so many people talk loudly on their cell phone about nothing in particular (at best) in the most crowded claustrophobic places.  I try not to lose sleep over issues like these, but sometimes, it’s hard.  I can’t figure people out these days.  Somehow, looking around, I feel clueless about what I see.

Partly, I’m a bit scared by it.  Not recognizing anything inside the people I see wandering around my neighborhood mall.  They look weird.  Do I?  I don’t think I do, but then, they probably don’t think they do either.  When is the tatoo thing and the nose ring thing gonna get old, I wonder?  What’s going to replace it?  I don’t want to dwell on this subject too long. This is the part where I start realizing that I’m a grownup now and have the perspective of having “been there” myself, before.  Easy to make a judgment, from a distance.

So, I’m stuck with my life, like all of you are stuck with yours.  I am going to try hard to keep my eyes open and my head up this year - a challenge for sure.  And I will celebrate this crazy, stupid, ridiculously unfair, short term situation called life, for another year, in the absence of any better alternative.  As the song goes, I will accentuate the positive…and try my best to do things positive because…….it’s easier, and more fun, while it lasts. (Put that in your pipe and smoke it!) 

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Leslie December 6th, 2007

Really, you can turn any activity into an anniversary occasion, as long as it repeats over some period of time.  But let’s be frank, some occasions are perhaps a bit more deserving of being commemorated, for better and sometimes, since you’re counting, for not so better.

For me, this 1st anniversary of the start of my business, Luxury Basics, is today, in the deserving category, but maybe not for the reasons a casual reader might expect.  First anniversaries, you see, are way early in the game.  Early in the game of knowing what you’re doing, early in the game of being in the game, early in the game of your awareness of what the game actually is.  All of these heretofore mentioned issues related to this game, as it gets defined, change over and over again, so next year, it may be that I’m still in the game, but differently.  Who knows?  Part of it is how you play your part in the game, how you learn your part in the game and then change your part, or how you define where you are in the game.  It’s very fluid, this game.  It’s not really about jewelry, as you might guess, although it appears that’s what it’s (the game) about.  No, I would submit to you that any endeavor, whatever it is, if you’re involved in it, being part of it and allowing it to be a part of you, is then, a reflection of you.

Therefore, when anniversaries occur, (they sometimes arrive, or pass, depending on your point of view at the time), oftentimes there is an inclination or tendency to want to review, summarize, evaluate, take stock, or somehow mark the time as a stake in the ground for comparison before and after.  After all, birthdays are anniversaries, and I had one of those recently, too.

This is not the first business that I started from scratch, it’s my second.  The first one I started evolved into an investment banking business that became very successful and intermittently satisfying.  I vaguely remember the passing of the first anniversary of that business.  I was still clueless and struggling to pick my head up to see the real opportunities in front of me.  This is actually one of the key conflicts.  When you are actively engaged, your head is typically down, doing the work in front of you.  But only when you can look up, can you begin to see what might be in front of you, a bit down the road, if only you could pay attention.  I still don’t have any idea how this new business will evolve. After all that I have experienced in starting and leading companies, there is still no shortcut available for that first year or so of being “head down” in the trenches. 

So, my head is up today, looking around.  With the first year behind me, I can try to critically evaluate my progress at the same time as pushing ahead to the coming year with more and better thoughts about building my brand and my base.  I have deliberately taken it slow - this creative side is still not fully me - but I am making progress.  For example, I don’t choke as often as I used to when I identify myself as a designer.  Certainly a good and worthy sign.  And my dreams are now punctuated with periodic pictures of new designs - I do get up and draw them.

One year ago, I really couldn’t imagine that I would be sitting here with a reasonable sense of pride and accomplishment.  Fear was then the great motivator. (It usually is)  Now, I am ready to move into the next phase of the game - expansion, then greed, then game over.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. 

Hopefully, I will be stuck in the expansion phase for a good long time.  I am sure it will be the best place for me.

Thanks for visiting.  Stay tuned.

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