<< Where has all the ex-family gone... | Apparently beggars can be choosers... >>

How I met my hero...

by admin 5. January 2009 17:25

Sometimes it’s not what you know…
Before my divorce was even final I KNEW that I would be screwed and set about trying to lay the groundwork for a plan to support myself. I knew that alligator handbag designers were not in high demand and I had no China experience so that left the rest of the handbag cosmos closed to me. Since all of my houses and apartments had been photographed by magazines like Metropolitan Homes, Elle Décor, Southern Accents etc with little but spit and a promise-Once I had 2 days to whip my daughters room into shape for new York Magazine shoot and turned my handbag interns from FIT into faux finishers and sewers to turn it into a Fairy tale Little Girls Room in a land speed record-Then I came back from a trip to Haiti with my assistant’s (Nathalie Martin-Schettini-now a famous fine jeweler) family and I hired a Haitian artist, Guy Fleury. After a torturous 3 bus trip to his gallery in outer Brooklyn I managed to cajole Guy into painting a mural for 300 bucks in my new living room of downtown Port aux Prince and I was not just in The New York Post and Harpers Bazaar but also Lifetime Television. So, when my brother and I opened an antiques store on my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama I was still writing for Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles and quickly parlayed that into another monthly column with Birmingham Homes & Gardens-now these are my favorite writing gigs because all I do is write about myself and my ridiculous life and my none-to-happy family. Yes, their every foible is writ large for the entire South’s viewing pleasure but every since my Aunt threatened to initiate a lawsuit claiming I was “portraying our FAMILY-EIGHT GENERATIONS OF DOCTORS-as white trash.” My only defense was :ok well rich, white trash.” I settled on my immediate family and my Momma, Jojo is now infamous for her shopping sprees at The Dollar Store and the Big Saver Thrift Store where I threatened to put up a poster with her portrait begging management to have pity on us and deny her entry. As I shuttled between New York and Atlanta (I have since moved the store to New York and am in business with friend at Marcia Sherrill at ROLAND ANTIQUES since my ex would not relent and do two week on two week off custody HELL NO, he liked me exhausted from travel and broke) anyway, I do digress. I discovered as a new antiques dealer and full-time interior designer - a company called 1stdibs.com and became obsessed with www.1stdibs.com and a groupie vis a vis the owner, Michael Bruno. I had never met him but I was writing for a magazine owned by the parent company of Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles. To-The-Trade, which targeted interior designers. I stayed for the pay as the New York Editor and turned in 10 stories every issue-supposed to be short and sweet they were hellishly difficult and time-consuming so despite the extra scratch (pocket money as we call it down south) I was constantly quitting. One story would involve what was new in wallpaper for instance and necessitate 3 interviews with 3 companies and the procuring of 3 images-Natch-the magazine did not want to pay for shots. (I’d produced lots of stories for Yahoo’s E-Shopper Magazine and some Atlanta Magazines but this was no budget-get it done-down and dirty work and I was exhausted so the last issue I did was done with the provision that I could interview Michael Bruno. I can’t even remember how I tracked him down but I do have some PI skills. I remember the interview like it was yesterday-it lasted for two hours and we bonded to the extent that I swore undying fealty and hoped we would soon meet-Michael mentioned to me that he was planning on adding Jewelry to his fabulous at that time ANTIQUES and MID-CENTURY ONLY website. I didn’t hear from him for 3 months. But he did call and we spoke again at length. It seems he would be back from Europe or the Hamptons or Los Angeles or wherever he was in a few weeks and I suggested we meet at a CFDA party. The Council of Fashion Designers of America is a fashion designer Invitation-Only association prone to lavish sorties and a lot of kibbutzing so we arranged to meet at the party to be held at MOMA. I dressed to impress in a vintage pailette-encrusted mini shift and dexterously added a nice long blonde fall-an I Dream of Genie ponytail and then thought why not add some false eyelashes and an air brushed canned tan. We met and talked for two hours-so concentrated on ideas that we barely came up for introductions and greetings and then I realized that I we had to go-the party was waning. But there was a monsoon outside and after 45 minutes of waiting for a taxi we both charged into the torrent sans umbrellas-neither of us minding the rain- trudging in the downpour we hailed a rickshaw and our poor pedaler traveled 40 blocks-the rain pelting us SIDEWAYS. Well as we said goodnight in a conversation that never has ended Michael commented that the hair was unattached, the lashes strewn on my cheeks and the tan pooling in my toes. His kind of girl-in other words. I found the one person that I admired and then in some sort of miracle he needed me to help launch his on-line magazine. I hadn’t the first thought about a job-what in the world did he need with a failed accessories designer turned interior designer- a writer of of ridiculous humor columns – I just found the person I admired and hoped I would learn something. I learned everything.

Be the first to rate this post

Currently 0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

Tags:

Apparently beggars can be choosers...OK, with the craziness of our early Post-divorce year, Anabelle and I had managed to lose not one bu...This is dedicated... Oh, rest assured that I will be detailing in grueling and painstaking detail my divorce so that y&...Faux-Surance... When I am in Alabama I tote around a giant 24 ounce mug compliments of The University Of Alabama i...