Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Scenes from CV HQ while I was away

While I was away, Jocelyn, Saehee, Tran, Greta, Krystle, Casey, Erica, Sophie and Jordan held down the fort! (Our little team over here is growing and it is so exciting.)
They emailed me some pics while I was away, so I thought I'd share.
We spend so much time together, I think that we start having certain tendencies in common. No, not that kind of tendency! I'm talking about the fact that we'll often wear similar outfits with one another on the same day - without planning (as I used to do with my girlfriends in 3rd grade). 
Here's Saehee and Greta wearing matching neon shorts on that kind of a Thursday.
Here's Krystle, Jocelyn and Saehee on a boy shirt kind of Tuesday. 
 Greta sent me pictures of the store because new merchandise came in while I was away.
In a dream come true, I now have a store that sells my favorite magazine! CV sells French Vogue people, come and get it!
 Our Steven Alan hats flew out of the store, with none left from them to re-order, we decided to carry the beautiful Reinhard Plank hats from Italy.
 Grace Lee colorful cord necklaces are in
 
as is the magazine I Love You.
 and Le Feu De L'Eau candles made by Wendy Polish and her partner Jo Strettell.
And we also have the amazing hard bound French magazine Self Service.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

You are my favorite moment

It's my last day in France. I head back to LA tomorrow solo, my French boys will stay for a real European vacation - no less than 4 weeks for them - while I head back to CV hq to look after Spring '13 collection and a million other things. But I wanted to share a few random favorite moments from Paris, Italy, and the French countryside of the Vivier compound.
 Oscar jet lagged with the sun in his eyes, but a walk to the Eiffel Tower never gets old.
 Me, jet lagged and lounging, at the beautiful Parisian apartment of my sister in law.
The blue on these K. Jacques sandals is divine (and matches the sky next to the eiffel tower.)
A cozy spot at Casa Cambi in Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena, Italy.

We just had to take a picture of this guy getting a ticket in his red Ferrari in Italy. I love how the polizia man is staring right at me as I take the photo out of our moving car!
This Italian woman at the Milan airport was quite enchanting: Necklace, bag, dress, hair, sandals. Check.
This is how ladies travel.
 My new boots purchased in Italy. I was happy to see this just after I bought them. I know it will be awhile before I wear them in LA, but when autumn finally rolls around, I'll be prepared.

Oscar's cute hands prepping a fishing lure.
 His lips under the stripes of his hood under the rain.
Love the hand painted signs at the local tennis club in town.
 You must pass le filet or drag the net, after each match.
 My favorite hand painted sign we pass going to tennis everyday. 
Love this facade of a building in town with the layers and layers advertising things of times gone by.
Sounds funny, but I love the wrists of my chic Parisian sister-in-law. She always has an assortment of cute baubles and strings that she'll swear are nothing at all, but somehow look so elegant on her. Le petit je ne sais quoi, if you will.
Oscar fishing in the little river next to the house with the very cute Vivier Milk bucket on hand for any live ones. Every year I think about how I could get one of those buckets into my suitcase. It just never seems like the most practical idea. 

Friday, August 3, 2012

Fonts of Italy

I found myself enamored of all the different typefaces, logos, hand writing and hand painted signs in Italy.




 (I know, it's French, but it is a hand-painted sign in Mondovi, Italy)
 I love the black and white tobacco sign all over the country.
 I snapped a picture of a mad (crazy) antique dealer's address book in a small town in Piemonte, because I loved the rant-like appearance, and I also just like handwriting from different countries. I have no idea what it says. I hope it's not offensive.
 Cute little meat sign.
Ever notice manhole covers in other countries? They're often beautiful if you like that sort of thing. I do.
 A beautiful Alfa Romeo 1750 with the clouds in the reflection.
Love the hand painted Bagni Valentino in front of the blue Mediterranean.

P.S.
Our friend Lorenzo who planned our Italian voyage for us asked us on the last night in Italy to rate the trip from 1-10. I'm showing it here because it's a good example of loving hand writing in other countries - he wrote our names and we wrote the score we gave our 5 days in Italy planned by Lorenzo. Clare and Astrid (his wife) gave the trip an 8. Boy did I regret that when I saw the other scores!! And I will never ever live it down.

Casa Cambi

We stayed at 5 different places in 5 nights in Italy and each place had it's certain charm, but the favorite of our group was Casa Cambi in Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena - a hillside, medieval town in Piemonte. 
 The streets were so skinny we couldn't even fit our little cars up them to get to the Casa so you park above it and drag your suitcases down winding cobblestone paths to this gem -
marked only with this little "hotel" sign on the exterior.
Inside a woman from Genova has created a calm paradise for her guests.
The place is filled with light and good taste - it was so incredible you were in the middle of nowhere: a town with no shops, one tiny bar and a castle on the side of a mountain.
I loved the little touches such as the yellow door, cute key ring, and 
tiny built in nooks for books.
The domed ceilings of our room.
The view from the terrace.
That's me at the top of one of the skinny streets of C d R B.
 As night fell, this was taken from my place at the dinner table outside. The food was soooo wonderful. If you ever get to Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena you know where to stay.