Nancy Gonzalez & L.A. Fashion Week

Nancy Gonzalez at Neiman Marcus beverly Hills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.A. Fashion Week just ended with a number of private shows and parties going on… of course… my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. However, all is not lost, we did manage to drop in on a few goings on… Neiman Marcus of Beverly Hills had a number of special showings… particularly with the visit of famed designer Nancy Gonzalez.

Nancy was kind enough to show me her line of bags, totes, hobos, and clutch creations and a bit on how they were constructed and where. She gathers her material from all over the world and puts them together in Columbia. Buying one of Nancy’s wonderful bags is not for the faint hearted (crocs) or budget minded… but they are unparalleled.

I did offer a minor suggestion… I hope she considers putting up a web page… her story is fascinating and her products extraordinary.

I had a great time,

Roger Freberg

What WE Do for Love….

what we do for loveI am always fascinated by articles preaching to women on what a bad situation they have in life IF they get married.

Certainly, some women will find this article oddly compelling and in a way help rationalize their own decisions & current situation:

“Might I suggest that women have more of a “taste” for housework because they are shamed into it when they are even quite small.They are taught it is their responsibility. As a friend of mine once said, “Where in the marriage vows does it say, ‘The wife shall clean the toilets?’ I have as much “taste for hou(S)ework” as I have for rancid porridge. –  Julienne”

The author and Julienne seemed to be surprised that being married is more ‘work.’ Choose to have a family and the ‘work’ increases logarithmically…. for everyone.

Another outdated argument… and allow me to paraphrase: ‘women are victims of our environment and of men… blah blah’. I found it amusing that the post was on an evolutionary psychology site… which would  — by it’s ‘nature’ — be less sympatheic.. Besides, it goes without saying , Julienne is single.

Here are a few thoughts on love and marriage:

1) MARRIAGE COMES WITH STRINGS ATTACHED

Please forgive me if I don’t shed a few tears that a few ‘strings’ may be attached when anyone gets married. Marriage is all about ‘strings.’ Everyone walks into any relationship with hopes and expectations. However, obtaining ‘full disclosure’ is usually discovered only AFTER we are married… for better or worse. Strangely enough, ‘living together’ is less revealing for most couples…. 

2) FAMILIES (2 or more) FUNCTION BEST COMMUNALLY

Marriages and families are best as a communal system…. ‘from each according to their abilities and to each according to their needs.’ Mother goes back to school, we all pitch in to pick up the slack. Children go to college, resources are mustered to get them through. If dad comes home from a tough physical job, leave him be and hand him a beer.  By the way, Communism works best ONLY in a family.

3) WORK IS GOOD FOR YOU…

 If you think you are giving your partner 80%, chances are that the ‘other’ person is making most of the concessions. Does this surprise you? To make this work… in any business, marriage or family… we must recognized that it is in our ‘enightened self-interest’ to help, support and comfort those who will give us pride and happiness in the future. The effort and time placed into your relationships… is what increases it’s chance of continuing survival… and mutual satisfaction into those far off ‘golden years.’.

 By the way, ‘keeping score’ in any relationship is key to conflict without resolution. Men and women have needed each other for thousands of years…. and accepting the fact that any relationship increases the number of tasks and ‘duties as assigned’ by all parties is just a fact of life. Concequently, there is a price for playing this game… but it also has it’s rewards.

Finding your partner in marriage makes one’s life richer, happier and fuller… but it does mean more inconvenience and work for all.

 

Roger Freberg

 

There’s a Prize for marrying a Smarter Woman!

My Laura... always with a smile!“In fact, educated women nationwide now have a better chance of marrying,especially at an older age, than other women. In a historic reversal of past trends … college graduates and high-earning women are now more likely to marry than women with less education and lower earnings… Even women with PhDs no longer face a “success penalty” in their nuptial prospects… But by their 30s, women with advanced degrees catch up, marrying at a higher rate than their same-aged counterparts with less education.”
 

In our globally competitive world, couples and families will succeed best if each strives to be all they can be and lends a helping hand to each other.

Roger Freberg

…. don’t marry your brother!

Yuo're like kising my..... brother! yuck!

We’ve known for a while now that folks that have similar immune systems tend to find each other… well unattractive. The reason is the couple is relatively similar… genetically.

On a site for making science ‘understandable’, an Evolutionary Neuroscientist explains the reasons behind fniding a partner with a different immune system. It’s a hybrid vigor type of thing… better for the offspring. There are a couple of videos on the site you might find interesting… besides, Neuroscientists are not hard on the eyes… they tend to be attractive people.

Roger Freberg

What is it about her ‘smell’ that draws me to her?

aaaahhhh.... so, what is that wonderful smell?It is certainly true that one will notice an attractive and enticing smell long before we become aware of it’s origin?

As a young boy, I certainly was warned shortly before elderly female relatives grabbed my cheeks and planted an unwanted kiss apon me! Their ‘flowery’ essence spoke to me… run!… only my legs were a little bit too slow!

We know what we like … but how do folks find and put together those wonderful variations found in perfumes that tickle our memories so that we remember who we were with and where we were when we first enjoyed it?

A book came out last year and maybe you saw it… but I doubt it, unless you were combing the biology section of your local book store. It is the story of Perfume.  It is entitled:

“the Secret of Scent” by Luca Turin

Michael Kors I won’t promise you that it will answer every question… but the author has a wonderful sense of humor that will make the technical and artistic aspects of perfume development understandable in an appreciably short time.

So, what do I like?

Michael Kors “Hawaii”review

Caron’s Infini
Caron’s Bellodgia
Estee Lauder Intuition
Estee Lauder Pleasures
YSL Opium

Chanel No. 5

I do recommend the book… it may not help you pick the ‘perfect’ gift… or maybe it will… but at least you will actually enjoy the process  So instead of handing a bottle to your hun and saying…’ ah… it smells nice’… maybe you might say like the author:

“What ‘Nombre Noir’ said was ‘flower.’ But the way it said it was an epipthany. The flower at the core of the ‘Nombre Noir’ was halfway between a rose and a violet…(with) almost saintly background of cigar box cedar notes…”

Enjoy your discoveries.

Roger Freberg