Winter Wonderland

Can I tell you...about my weekend in Moscow. I've always wanted to check out the scene ever since we started selling there a few years ago. I believe it's crucial to see the stores, the people and maybe gain an understanding of this new luxury market.
Fortunately for me, I have a friend in Moscow, super talented celebrity photographer Vladimir Byazrov. He had signed on to be my tour guide( sort of), interpreter and chaperone du weekend.Just to make things extra special, mother nature decided to throw a major snow storm into the mix. Needless to say, it was freezing! Minus 20 Celcius is no joke for a tropcial bird like me. How many ways can you describe ...NUMB!But I had stores to see and people to meet, no icy weather was going to hold me down.

On my first day I had interviews with Russian Instyle and Russian Elle. I'm happy to report that both of them read my blog. Who knew? After lunch, the buyers of Parad showed me a couple of their stores and took me on a walking tour ending at the Red Square and at the famous Gum state department store. Built between 1890 and 1893 by Alexander Pomerantsev, the building features an interesting combination of elements of Russian medieval ecclesiastical architecture and an elegant steel framework and glass roof, reminiscent of the great turn of the century train stations of Paris and London. Now it has been turned into a mall and they have luxury brands like Hermes, Etro, Ferragamo and specialty stores like Parad selling high fashion merchandise.The next day I went to visit Podium Concept store. They just started buying my collection this season. They are the 'Barneys' of Moscow. Five floors of fashion, fine jewelry and home furnishings. They carry an impressive list of who's who and upcoming labels as well. I was blown away. Tatiana gave me a tour of the store.I was famished after all that fabulosity so I headed over to Vogue Cafe. I know , it sounds cheesy but it's actually licensed by Condenast. There's also a GQ bar. Don't ask. They had famous photos from past issues line the wall and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the food. It was tasty and delicious. The crowd is exactly what you'd expect in a fashion hotspot so I was happy to 'people watch' a bit.Speaking of food, Vlad took me on a gastronomic journey. He made me try Ukranian, Georgian and Russian cuisine all within a few days. I was ecstatic. At Taras Bulba, his favorite Ukranian restaurant, I managed to down shots of perzovka and nastoyka. 3 shots over dinner is apparently the minimum. To my surprise I didn't get drunk at all. I had green borsch soup which was really savory and tried some aspic and white sturgeon.I also enjoyed our meal at the famous Pushkin Cafe. Unfortunately it was too dark to take photos so I came back the next day to take a photo of the facade for your viewing pleasure. We managed to squeeze in a night at the Bolshoi, another dream come true for me. We saw Cinderella and it was simply divine.On my last day, I sneaked into Vlad's photo shoot. He's working on a exhibition involving famous Russian celebrities doing all sorts of riske' and scandalous activity. MTV was there and a bunch of other paparazzi documenting the shoot and doing interviews. It was all too glam for words.That night we met up with his PR diva Olga and Russian Pop star Sergey Lazarev at Mon Cafe, Vlad's favorite late night hang out and a favorite among celebrities. He was sweet enough to give me his latest sold out album on DVD. Interestingly enough, he has a huge following in Japan, Korea and the Philippines. The world is truly small especially when it comes to music.

I'm definitely coming back in the Spring to see more of Moscow and now I have more friends to show me around.

In the meantime, I'm off to India for the holidays for some more inspiration and warm weather. See you all in 08. Stay tuned.

Water World

Can I tell you...about the water village of Zhouzhuang. Dating back 900 years old, this Venice of the East is surprisingly still in tact, albeit a tourist trap nowadays. It's about an hour away or 25 miles outside central Shanghai. People still live in the village and make their living either as gondoliers or shop keepers selling typical tourist paraphernalia. This is China's first water town and some of the homes date back to Ming and Qing dynasties. I've always been fascinated with the movies about ancient China so I had to see the real thing up close and personal.

The village is very picturesque, resembling a scene from a Chinoiserie toile de Jouy, complete with canals, arched stone bridges, narrow lanes, and tile-roofed wooden houses. It's quaint and unfortunately takes a few hours of strolling along the canal banks, exploring the tiny shops, touring several of the courtyard mansions, stopping for lunch, and lastly taking a gondola ride. But we didn't do any of that. Douglas and I did the fast forward version and avoided the crowded streets and alleys as much as we could, much to the surprise of our tour guide.



The village is constantly mobbed by tour groups from Korea, Japan and other mainland Chinese. You can barely walk through the narrow streets. We snaked through the crowds and wandered into empty side alleys looking for some relief from the madness. It was claustrophobic and not at all pleasant with several tour guides screaming at the top of their lungs and shop keepers hawking their wares simultaneously. I managed to get some fabulous photos without the tourists and looking at them again well after the trip, you can almost imagine what it looked like in the old days. I know, I know, it's romanticizing the past. But doesn't everybody?


Even today the town depends on canal traffic, although there's as much traffic in throngs of tourists as in sacks of rice. In ancient times, these waterways (fed by the Baixian River and linked to the Grand Canal) were the only means of moving rice, silk, handicrafts, and pottery to the port of Shanghai. Zhouzhuang is one of thousands of water villages that once dotted the delta and it's one of the very few that still preserves its original landscape and canal system.



While the whole village is like a living-history museum of country life in rural China, and overflowing now with tour groups, it retains its rustic charms, making for a fascinating break from the modern urban jungle of frenetic Shanghai.