As I have a well-deserved break from work this week (who am I kidding?), I am concentrating on what I enjoy doing, my BLOG, gym (em, not really), walking (as long as it isn’t cold or wet), sewing (if I can see to thread the needle in the machine and the material doesn’t get all caught up in it), eating,( nope, on rabbit food this week- crap), watching Making the Cut and Real Housewives of…. anywhere (hey, don’t judge, it’s entertainment, of a sort) and…………….. reading!!!!!
Started with ‘The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo‘ and read this over a few days, quite enjoyable, Hollywood glam, just imagine the life story of Elizabeth Taylor and it will give you an idea of what it’s about.
I am now on to ‘At Liberty”, one chapter in and I know I’m not going to be able to put it down. I first came across the author/biographer when he was on a show called ‘The next big thing‘ and I think, and I might be wrong (highly unlikely) that the other two stores involved, as well as Liberty of London, were Boots and Habitat. There were 3 episodes, (each store had an episode of its own), where they had an open day and invited non-established designers to pitch their ideas. I remember vividly the guy whose idea Liberty’s took on. He was a professor and he made silk scarves, the patterns he used were from inside fossils, he had some contraption that looked right into them and photographed/ copied the design inside, it was truly amazing, as each scarf had its own individual pattern, what was more amazing was the amount he was paid for each scarf, in comparison to what they were sold at. He got something like £35 for one and they sold for about £200!!! I also remember how Habitat were exceptionally ruthless and greedy, that’s maybe one of the reasons they are no longer on the High Street!!! Anyway, I digress, but following on from this series, the BBC made 2 series about Liberty’s and at the forefront of the shows was Mr Ed Burstell, who had been headhunted from New York to get the floundering store back to the top of its game.
The long and short of my tale is, I am going to enjoy this, from being as he says a ‘junkie’, to a perfume spritzer in Macy’s, vice president of Henri Bendell and Bergdorf Goodman, not to mention his rather chequered lifestyle in the seventies and eighties in New York, this is my kinda book. I have been transported to in New York and am in Fashion Heaven!!!
ValApparel 