New house!

We are meeting with our chosen architect today to discuss preliminaries, and of course costs, as it does need some renovating. A lot actually. It’s full of damp and the interiors just don’t flow as we’d like. Current owners have been in the place for 25 years, so that figures. It’s just such a great opportunity to make the home just right for our family.
Interviewed three different architects, have been given two more names since we decided on the one to use… how many does one have to meet in order to make an informed choice?
Armed with clippings, off I go to see if this is the one. With my husband, of course. Will keep you posted.

From this post on, I’m veering toward talking about all things that affect the fashion business in South Africa, but not only the depressing Clothing and Textile Workers Union news that peppers our newspapers, or the closure of factories. I want to integrate world fashion business news into our frame of reference, as we are merely a small part of a larger set-up, and it’s time we realised that.

Jimmy Choo sold

I recently read The Jimmy Choo Story which tracked the rise and rise of the brand through clever marketing and product placement – Sex and the City is often cited as the vehicle that ‘made’ the brand – so was interested to read that the luxury goods group Labelux bought the company from Towerbrook Capital for $812 million last week. Jimmy Choo’s co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Tamara Mellon has said that the private equity model does not fit with the business of fashion and luxury. Do you agree?

Tamara Mellon

Personally I’m impressed by the task Mellon undertook, personal life details aside. She had a vision for the brand and she took it to where she saw it, which right now looks like the Asian market. And why not? Just the other day I saw a book lamenting the hold brands have over many fashion followers, and questioning the value of the brand as opposed to the quality and affordability of the things we choose to wear. This move may bring Jimmy Choo to many more consumers at a better price. <Intend getting the book and will review>

I wonder what Mr Jimmy Choo thinks of all this.

Love my Kindle, love my books

An update on my inner turmoil re succumbing to the wily ways of the Kindle. See, I still love my books, still love browsing in bookstores, but I find I’m BUYING the content on my Kindle, sometimes late at night, in fact, whenever I want to. It’s just so damn convenient.
There’s also the clutter factor, or should I say, the lack-of-clutter factor. It’s all so neat. Sure, there’s no musty smell, no textured page to flip and flutter… but I may have been romanticizing that all along.
I see a review on television or online – fire up the Kindle, and get the sample. See if I like. If I do, download, and spend some R80 compared to a book store price of upwards of R150, often R200.
I’m also leaning towards the notion of sexying up libraries… they’ve been the solution all along to high book prices and we’re just too lazy or unenlightened to actually get out there and use them.
Kindle at home, library for the musty smell and the flip and flutter. It’s win-win I tell ya!

Tanya ( her real name) confessed that she will always chase the high of her first taste of cocaine. But, she adds, she knows it’s not attainable, and every attempt after that one to feel euphorically great only made her sadder and more desperate.

Why did she use cocaine? After giving birth at 24 she developed colitis and started to rely on pethadine to dull the pain. She was also suffering from acute post-natal depression, and says she had a hole in her she couldn’t fill. She didn’t know how to look after her child. She became selfish by her own admission, and just looked for ways to make herself feel okay.

The Pethadine helped. But then it was taken away. So she found her own supply and started to administer the drug herself in her bathroom.

After seeking help for this particular addiction, she had the misfortune of meeting a recovering cocaine addict… who introduced her to his drug of choice.

Her reliance to cocaine eventually cost her R3000 and at one time resulted in her leaving her baby daughter locked in a hot car while she went to the supermarket… for 45 minutes.

She was dragged to rehab and something clicked. She’s been clean for around three years, but also admits that she could relapse any time.

That unsettled me. How could she say that? Isn’t she resolved to leave her addiction behind, especially now that she is in touch with her emotions, and can see what it was, how futile an effort it was to make her feel okay? The reality is, though, that we are only human, and of course she can use drugs any day.

Her point though was not to preach against drugs or to shout out loud how good she is to have gone into recovery. Her message is one of authenticity. Drugs won’t make you better, more fun, more interesting. You are who you are. Work with that. Be the best you can be, and if that’s not good enough for other people, that is their issue to deal with.

Give this message to your children. Tell them that drugs will, ultimately, leave them desperately unhappy, maybe dead.

And if they do, still, try them, tell them it’s okay to seek help. No-one is above addiction. It is a disease and not an embarrassment. It’s okay to go for counseling. It’s okay to seek rehabilitation. For whatever your addiction. And it doesn’t have to be hard drugs: food, exercise, alcohol – all potential addictions.

What’s yours, or that of your husband, dad, mom or child. Are you willing to seek help for it? According to Tanya, it’s not an option not to.

First, let me say it is not always “cool” to be Jewish. We Jews/Jewish people/people of the Jewish faith are not always well received owing to years and years of prejudices held by people who are not Jewish.

Whether it’s a snide remark in the office about something being a “Jewish” thing to do, or someone being so “Jewish” when they declined to spend more money than was due, the jibes continue, and many of us let them slide, because, well, it’s a bit embarrassing really to go into the whole anti-semitism thing when you’re the only Jew in the room.

So often we just smile and get on with it. But when John Galliano, celebrated designer for the House of Dior, vented so publicly his disdain for Jews on YouTube (in a video he didn’t know was being recorded), actress and ‘face’ of Miss Dior Cherie fragrance Natalie Portman spoke out against his views.

It was a bit like having Charlize Theron lend South Africa some credibility. Natalie is proud to be Jewish. She is not ashamed, or embarrassed to go public with this fact. Often you will find our family speculating if this or that celebrity is or could be Jewish, because few people in the public eye make a point of mentioning being Jewish. Not that it matters when it doesn’t matter, but when someone publicly attacks all Jews, well, it’s nice to know who they’re talking about.

What made me smile was that Natalie Portman made it okay for Jewish people to reject Galliano’s behaviour by virtue of the fact that she exudes a certain edgy ‘cool’, she seems unaffected by her celebrity, and she’s just so well-liked. Who is going to shout Natalie down for being ‘hot-headed’ and ‘over-sensitive’, which are accusations often leveled at Jewish letter-writers to newspapers who give the situation in the Middle East much coverage.

For the first time I saw Mia Freedman write that she is Jewish, something I’d wondered about, and she pulled Vanessa in there with her, stating that they’re both Jewish.

Not that it REALLY matters, as I said before. It’s just nice to see that in times that call for it, certain Jewish people will step up and be counted, which is what will ultimately, if ever, quell generalized anti-semitism. Because not all Jews are the same, and blanket prejudices are so 20th century.

So via Mia’s blog, my take on the sorry Galliano story, where he claimed to love Hitler and for reasons of his own despise all Jews, becomes a glimmer of triumph. All the talent and fame in the world means nothing if prejudice rots your core, and sadly this is what looks to be the case with the erstwhile Dior designer.

How the rot was revealed to the world is another story and subject for discussion, because what gets to be private is questionable anymore, with all our little gadgets and devices intruding in the most unlikely places. You don’t get to give permission to have your public behaviour published on YouTube. But this is what I believe: if you would be ashamed to behave in any way that would make your grandma, or even mother, cringe, don’t do it in public. Then again, depends what sort of family you come from.

First, let me say it is not always “cool” to be Jewish. We Jews/Jewish people/people of the Jewish faith are not always well received owing to years and years of prejudices held by people who are not Jewish.

Whether it’s a snide remark in the office about something being a “Jewish” thing to do, or someone being so “Jewish” when they declined to spend more money than was due, the jibes continue, and many of us let them slide, because, well, it’s a bit embarrassing really to go into the whole anti-semitism thing when you’re the only Jew in the room.

So often we just smile and get on with it. But when John Galliano, celebrated designer for the House of Dior, vented so publicly his disdain for Jews on YouTube (in a video he didn’t know was being recorded), actress and Dior ‘face’ for something Natalie Portman spoke out against his views.

It was a bit like having Charlize Theron lend South Africa some credibility. Natalie is proud to be Jewish. She is not ashamed, or embarrassed to go public with this fact. Often you will find our family speculating if this or that celebrity is or could be Jewish, because so few people in the public eye make a point of mentioning being Jewish, perhaps because of the sensitivities in the Middle East, which is understandable. Not that it matters when it doesn’t matter, but when someone publicly attacks all Jews, well, it’s nice to know who they’re talking about.

What made me smile was that Natalie Portman made it okay for Jewish people to reject Galliano’s behaviour by virtue of the fact that she is so ‘cool’, so unaffected (seemingly) by her celebrity, and so well-liked. Who is going to shout Natalie down for being ‘hot-headed’ and ‘over-sensitive’, accusations often leveled at Jewish letter-writers to newspapers who give the situation in the Middle East much coverage.

For the first time I saw Mia Freedman write that she is Jewish, something I’d wondered about, and she pulled Vanessa in there with her, stating that they’re both Jewish.

Not that it REALLY matters, as I said before. Really. It’s just nice to see that in times that call for it, certain Jewish people will step up and be counted, which is what will ultimately, if ever, quell generalized anti-semitism. Because not all Jews are the same, and blanket prejudices are so 20th century.

So via Mia’s blog, my take on the sorry Galliano story, where he claimed to love Hitler and for reasons of his own despise all Jews, becomes a glimmer of triumph. It is one of those times when we say enough is enough. How dare he?

All the talent and fame in the world means nothing if prejudice rots your core, and sadly this is what looks like the case with the erstwhile Dior designer. How the rot was revealed to the world is another story and subject for discussion, because what’s left to be private anymore with all our little gadgets and devices remains to be seen. You don’t get to give permission to have your public behaviour published on YouTube. But this is what I believe: if you would be ashamed to behave in any way that would make your grandma, or even mother, cringe, don’t do it in public. Then again, depends what sort of family you come from.