Food Fraud Fiasco

For those of you who shop at Whole Foods and their crunchy competitors and pay a premium because you are attempting to eat organic food...pay attention to this video.

The lack of oversight in the food that ends up in our markets and on our tables is shocking.

And I wondering if it is even possible to get California grown food in California anymore.

Film - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I loved the vengeance seeking hacker heroine of this book,
and I wasn't disappointed by the sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire
But seeing the film last week made me never...ever...want to travel to Sweden

Blood In The Water And The Sharks Are Out

Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'

So blood is in the water so the sharks are circling.

Obviously it isn't only George Soros and his hedge fund who is making an opportunistic play against the euro.

But there is just something about him, that makes me just despise him. It hasn't been enough for him to bring down the dollar and the pound, now he's got to go after the euro.

For years he has used his fortune to influence US elections and public policy.

Why doesn't he use his ill gained global billions to rebuild Haiti or to help earthquake shattered Chile and the Pacific Islands that are in the path of the coming tsunami?

Wild About Retro

OK, not that you asked but I thought I'd tell you anyway, what I wore to the Neiman's event.
Since it was sponsored by the very elegant ladies of the Friends of Virginia Robinson Garden's
I just had to wear a little jewelry.
Usually I wear garden themed jewelry to these kind of events, little flower, butterfly or bee brooches.

But this time I went a little more bold. On the lapel of my Chanel jacket I wore this 1940s Retro bow brooch with gigantic citrine in yellow and rose gold. It isn't on Beladora yet because I love it so much that am contemplating keeping it for myself.

And this classic 1940s Retro tank tread bracelet.

Cool aren't they?

Around Town - Afternoon Tea With Nancy Goslee Power At Neimans

Yesterday I took a break from the office and attended a lecture and afternoon tea at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills with LA's most prominent Landscape designer, Nancy Goslee Power. In the warm drought ridden climate of Los Angeles, Nancy Power has created some of the most luscious gardens, with an emphasis not only on beauty, but water conservation and sustainability.

One of her showcase gardens is at the Moraga Vineyards.

I love this photo, not just because it is a beautiful landscape, but because it kind of blows me away that there is a wine producing vineyard in Los Angeles... in beautiful Bel Air no less! I can't think of any other major metropolitan city that has a vineyard.

Here's the detail shot of her work at Moraga.

Here's another beautiful vista that she created with a water feature and a view of the Pacific Ocean.

Her work is well known here at major showcase estates like Greystone in Beverly Hills

And important architectural residences such as Frank Gehry's house in Santa Monica

Yes, that same Frank Gehry who created the famous Bilbao structure

Not only does she do amazing landscapes for large projects, such as the Norton Simon museum in Pasadena, with its Giverny-esque lily pond, she is a master at creating intimate outdoor spaces.

Since not all of us are lucky enough to live in an old rectory in the verdant Welsh countryside, we are lucky to have artists like Nancy Goslee Power who can create green paradise right here in water challenged Los Angeles.

If you want to know more about her work she has a new book and you can buy it here.

OMG - More Oprah

My blogging schedule has been severely curtailed this week and it's all Oprah's fault.

No, really it is.

In the O, WHAT A BUY section of the March 2010 magazine

Beladora gets a mention.

Beladora.com Treat this site like your grandmother's jewelry box, and everyone else's grandmother's too! Beladora.com is an international bazaar of vintage and estate jewelry for surprisingly good prices. It also guarantees the pieces' authenticity, so you can be sure that antique Victorian brooch is actually, well, Victorian.

Friends, Aquaintances and Closets - LA Style

I have been trying to write this post for three days but little overtaxed brain doesn't seem to be able to put into words the point I am trying to make.
But here's the gist of it.
In Los Angeles, a huge city in terms of population and geographic area, certain demographic clusters exist. One of these clusters is what I call the privileged west side private school/private club demographic. My son falls on the fringe into this demographic and through some weird 'six degrees of separation' he has this huge network of friends and acquaintances, many of whom I would describe as members of LA's young and entitled.

So on with my story
Last Sunday afternoon my son and his girlfriend hosted their first family barbecue at his recently purchased townhouse in Brentwood. Here's a photo of his living room.

Here he is at the barbecue demonstrating his grilling techniques to his grandfather.

You can see from this photo that my son is pretty much a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. He has suits and some dressier clothes appropriate for his work, but in his off time he mostly dresses like a skater boy.

He is very diligent, getting up at 5:00-5:30 every morning to work New York hours. In the afternoons he goes to the gym or rides his skateboard for exercise, and at night he studies. His girlfriend, the lovely lawyer, is equally hard working and puts in 10 hour days at her family law practice.

They are a no nonsense kind of couple who do real things to get ahead in their lives.

Recently, as a result of the recession (and probably some bad behavior), one of my son's friends lost his job in high end residential real estate. This young man needed a place to stay part time and store some stuff and my son generously offered him the guest suite on the 4th floor of his townhouse.

This friend/house guest is now "working" for another friend who happens to be some guy named Spencer Pratt...and he is getting paid in clothes, specifically in Spencer Pratt's discarded wardrobe from last season.

So of course I just had to get the grand tour of the closet.

What you can not see here is that the clothes have barely been worn...most are new with the tags still on them.

The dresser not only holds shoes, the drawers are full of sweaters, ties and belts. And what these photos don't show are that the labels are Prada, Loro Piana, Alexander McQueen, Rag & Bone and more.

Here's a pair of never been worn Louis Vuitton white leather driving mocs with the golden LV logo....because you know, every 20 something year old man needs a pair or two. Amazing how they match the white parka with the 22 karat gold snaps and zipper with the $7,500 price tag hanging from it.

Then we have the suits, lots of them by Dolce & Gabanna, Armani and Gucci.

And silly me, I had like no clue who this Spencer Pratt person was.

But apparently everyone in America under the age of 30 does.

Here is Spencer 'the clotheshorse' Pratt with his wife Heidi Montag

Yes, that Heidi Montag, who is not only on 'The Hills' reality show

she is now infamous for being addicted to plastic surgery at the age of 23

Spencer, who grew up in the west side private school/private club milieu, thus is part of my son's network of acquaintances, is now married to Heidi. He "manages" her "career" which mainly consists of her showing up making public appearances here and there. Mostly, he makes money by selling her photos to the tabloids and gossip magazines.

In other words the two of them are young professional celebrities,

famous just for being famous.
Only in LA could a couple like this get paid for being themselves.

I was curious about how a young man like Pratt, who went to the chi-chi Crossroads School and later USC, ended up with this lifestyle so I asked my son. Apparently, Pratt sold a photo to the tabloids of one of the Olsen twins drinking at a party when he still in high school and then realized that it was an easy way to make a lot money. So instead of choosing to become a doctor, lawyer, portfolio manager or whatever, he chose to attach himself to the LA demi monde and feed the celebrity machine.

I wonder, how long does a career like this last?

Fashion Fatigue

Sometimes I just get bored with the whole fashion week phenomena and this little image from the Frisky.com style section sort of says it all. But if seeing yet another collection...or 20...doesn't make you yawn, check out the Trendy Fashionista. She has a great rundown on the collections and videos from Style.com.

Other weekend links,
Jill, who knows her dogs and her fashion, has found the Komondor's fashion doppelganger. Metscan, braving the frigid Finnish winter, has won an award...do go congratulate her.
We Magazine's 101 Women Bloggers to Watch in 2010, other than Amy Alkon, I have no idea who these other women bloggers are...why aren't our blogs on this list?
Privilege, with the easy recipe for a fuss free dinner.
What is James Wearing, because I have to adore a man who wears aubergine suede YSL boots.
and on the serious side
The Perfect Storm of Ignorance, because economic ignorance is not bliss.

We're Voting For The Blue Dress

It's not even March yet and already there's a lot of activity for the Oscar's red carpet.
USA Today has a reader poll to choose the red carpet look for Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart... and look what she's wearing with royal blue dress.
(There's a video on the USA Today page which doesn't seem to want to be embedded on BHB, but in it Mary hints that she wants to wear the royal blue)

So yep, we are voting for the blue.

Quel Quelymns

I'm often amused as the random letter combinations that are used on blogger for word verification for comments.
This is the word verification from the comment that I just made on Deja Pseu's blog.

Quelymns, doesn't it sound like the name of something out of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels?

That word sounds to me like a civilization of cunning Frenchmen who speak with sneering accents as they peer down their long aquiline noses?

But that's just me.

Happy Friday everybody!

Cash4Gold (finally) Gets Caught

It was only a matter of time until this would happen

From the National Jeweler Network

Florida Attorney General Probes Cash4Gold

According to the attorney general's office, the civil investigation into Cash4Gold began in November 2009 after a number of consumers filed complaints claiming they were not paid nearly enough for their gold.

Consumers also state that they contacted Cash4Gold within the allotted 10- to 12-day return period to say they were not satisfied with the amount offered for their gold, only to be told their gold was already melted.

Others allege that when they returned their checks because they were unsatisfied with the amount offered, they never get their jewelry back, according to the attorney general's office. In addition, numerous complaints charge that Cash4Gold claims it never received their envelope of gold jewelry or that the envelope was empty when it arrived.

Also under investigation by the attorney general's office are Cash4Gold refinery Albar Precious Metals Refining Inc., and executives Jeff Aronson, Howard Mofshin, Jerome Kornbluth and Jerry Kaye.

Everyone in our business has known about these issues and more for a long time. We've all just been waiting for the law to crack down on this company.

There used to be an ad for a jewelry store that said something like this "If you don't know your jewelry, know your jeweler". Well certainly this holds for gold too. If you want to actually get something close to gold value for your gold....don't, under any circumstances, sell your gold through businesses that advertise on late night TV.

In The Eye Of The Beholder

Who comes up with this nonsense?

No really, who?

Americans are the most attractive people in the world poll finds

Who did they sample for the poll, how representative was the sample?

How do you rate the attractiveness of entire nations?

Granted, here in Beverly Hills we have an above average number of attractive people, especially given the fact that the most beautiful people in the country, if not the world, come here to be actors and models. Add to that the healthy sporty and beach driven culture, men and women here tend to be good looking.

But Americans in general...they obviously haven't travelled to the places that I've been.

What about all those gorgeous Argentinians, Australians and Austrians...and I'm only at the A's.

Brits, Bahrainis, Brazilians?

Saudis, South Koreans and Swedes?

I will say this though about the US, we do have such a varied population in terms of ethnicity that not only do we have gorgeous Caucasians, we have gorgeous Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, American Indians, Arab Americans etc. and more beauty of various ethnic groups that any other country. No other country can boast such variety in beautiful but very different types.

Doggy Style at the 2010 Westminster Dog Show

Last night I was watching the Westminster Dog Show in Madison Square Garden...
OK, so I have no life, don't judge me.

I totally fell in love with the Komondor

Who wouldn't love a dog that looks like this when it jumps?

Of course I was happy when the Doberman with the perfect gait won the the Working Dogs class and I thought she would go all the way but a very cute Scottish terrier won Best in Show

Perhaps the best thing about the dog show is the formality of the event with the male judges in tuxedos and female judges and handlers, your iconic sturdy gals, dressed for success in their sparkly, shiny evening wear and sensible shoes. It always cracks me up.
Why is it that we never see such formal attire at Grand Prix horse shows?

Monetize This!

About a week ago, Make Do Style had a long post about blog writing and business and I wanted to write about the same subject but haven't had the time.
But to go on record here, I know how much time you put into writing your blog, and if you can monetize your blog through ad sales or affiliate sales, I'm all for it.

Also, if I am going to buy a particular product, I would prefer to buy that product through your blog than through a department store. And, let's face it, I read your blogs, I enjoy what I read, and I appreciate your advice and product recommendations so naturally I'd love to shop through your site.

Years ago I signed up as an affiliate for Myla, Yoox, Boden and a few other random stores...but as you can see, I rarely have time to post about these products and still get in all my ranting on BHB. (For the record, I've been turned down by Neiman Marcus as an affiliate...which kinda cracks me up given that it is pretty much the only department store that I shop at! Maybe the powers that be at Neimans just don't have the proper appreciation for my posts on politicians and sex tapes.)


But, I would really like to become an affiliate of Amazon.com because I love to read and I enjoy recommending books to you. Perhaps BHB is not too objectionable for Amazon affiliation!


I am also not an affiliate of Beladora.com....for obvious reasons. But I invite you to become a Beladora affiliate. So no, you won't be paid in gold bars but you will be paid by check or paypal a commission for any sale on any full price item that occurs from a click through from your website.

And, Beladora as part of Kazanjian & Fogarty, Inc. is serious about paying commissions to any one who refers a client. We would rather pay commissions than pay for an ad in a newspaper or magazine.


I'm so not shy when it comes to my brand so you will probably receive an email from me inviting you to become an affiliate.
But if you want to start right away here are the links:
You can sign up as an affiliate for Beladora.com here
http://www.beladora.com/affiliate_program.asp
and for Beladora2.com here
http://www.beladora2.com/affiliate_program.asp

It's easy, all you do is send your name, email, and blog url and we will send you an email with your individual affiliate number and information about what code to use when you want to link to a product.


And this holds for my blogging peeps in Canada, Australia, The UK and Europe. Beladora will ship jewelry anywhere in the world as long as the shipment can be insured....so that kind leaves out Russia, North Korea, Somalia, etc.

Washington The Worthy

Here we are with back to back holidays of Valentine's Day and President's Day and a post by our own Duchesse on repurposing V-Day which is certainly an interesting idea.

She leaves us with this excellent suggestion

Not everyone has a family where love abounds. But everyone needs love, and why not stop for a day to connect with love in all its forms, from the altruistic to sensual? Sure beats celebrating presidents, pilgrims or Queen Victoria.

But I politely disagreed in her comments section on pilgrims and here I'm going to disagree on presidents.

Way back in ancient history, otherwise known as my childhood, we had a holiday for Washington's birthday. Years later this holiday celebrating the father of our country morphed into the catch all President's Day.

Well I for one don't think that we need to celebrate Presidents in general, but George Washington is certainly an exceptional man and his life is worthy of our celebration.

Washington Crossing The Delaware by Emanuel Leutze
1776 by David McCullough

I'm not going to go into a long dissertation here but I want to point out that Washington was a brilliant commander who successfully fought the far superior British forces and won. He then ushered in the office of the Presidency and then humbly stepped aside.

Unlike Napoleon, who crowned himself Emperor and drank his own kool-aid to the detriment of France and the greater Europe, Washington remained true to the idea of American representative government and individual liberty.

He was a truly great man and a snappy dresser too! If you haven't read 1776 I recommend that you do.

How Sex Drives Spending or Happy Valentine's Day

From Smart Money via Instapundit
So Happy Together: Sex and Spending

Valentine’s Day...may be a multibillion-dollar industry. But the larger driver of economic progress is the sex drive itself.
What drives us to create and produce? What drives us to consume? Why are love and money so intimately intertwined?

...let’s look at how sex drives people’s spending.

There are obvious ways sex gets people to spend more money (flowers, presents, dates… not to mention the direct, usually illegal, purchase of sex), but a tremendous amount of economic activity also goes into what’s called “signaling” — buying things to communicate one’s status, and thus one’s desirability as a mate.

Ah, so it's all about signalling. How do women and men differ at this?

Even more revealing, however, is how men and women respond in an economic experiment when “romantically primed” — that is, when they are shown pictures of attractive people of the opposite sex and then asked to make various consumption decisions.

Romantically primed men, in a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2007, proved much more willing to splurge on things like flashy watches and expensive cars (while they showed no difference in their spending on boring, non-flashy things like tissues and headache medicine).

Women, meanwhile, didn’t adjust their consumption at all when romantically primed. Instead, romantically primed women indicated that they were more willing to spend time volunteering (such as at a children’s hospital or a homeless shelter).

So all this time I thought that women signalled through getting all gussied up with botox and blow drys and boob jobs...

But as it turns out men use stuff and women use actions to signal

What does all this tell us? It tells us that these consumption decisions are most likely about signaling: for men, of status and access to resources; for women, of altruism. Romantic priming made men no more likely to want to spend time volunteering; and romantically primed women only wanted to volunteer more when their effort would be visible, not when it would be inconspicuous.

So one way or the other, at least for women and their altruistic actions, it is all about the show.

The article goes on to discuss the evolutionary ramifications of all of this and suggests that men are at their prime, in terms of their creative output, when they are around 30 years old, because that period coincides with their greatest competition from other men for finding mates.

Personally, I'd like to leave all the analysis out of Valentine's Day...and the flowers and the chocolate....and just celebrate with caviar and champagne.

Of McQueen: Mastery, Success and Despair

My mind has been on Alexander McQueen this week
wondering about his life of extremes
from his mastery of fashion, meaning not just clothes but wearable art
to his success as the world's youngest leading designer
to his despondency and death
He could create clothes such as these
that were so immanently wearable

like this suit, perhaps without the birds nest hat

and this feather dress which we all know was copied on project runway

and this tropical bird of paradise evening gown, utterly wearable without the feathers

He could also create clothes that were pure theatrical genius

Like this "Red Queen" coat, an Orientalist - Georgian confection

and this armored warrior queen - note that the dress without the mail is dazzling in its cut

this basking butterfly headdress

and these iconic "bedlingtons" so aptly named by Miss Cavendish

and this birds of prey in flight headdress seemingly holding up this frock.

How does a 40 year old man at the height of his success succumb to such despair as to commit suicide? Granted that he grieved for the mother that he lost only days before his death, and his friend/champion Isabella Blow that he lost three years previously, but to take his grief to such extreme is for me, not understandable.

When I consider all of the people who are out of work and have families to feed or who are seriously ill from a terminal decease, who get up everyday continue with their lives, I wonder that McQueen couldn't have found the will to go on.

I friend of mine lost his daughter to cancer almost two years ago, after battling it with her for almost 8 years. His daughter was 24 years old when she died. He despaired in fact he still despairs but he goes on with his life. A woman that I work with has had cancer treatment off and on for the last 6 years and now the cancer has metastasized to her brain. She goes on knowing how fragile life is and appreciates each additional day.

I guess that in some way I'm insufficiently sensitive to the trials and travails of the talented, successful and wealthy 40 year old McQueen.

I leave you with this link to part 1 of McQueen's last show, Plato's Atlantis.

The embed code has been disabled, thus the link.

Watch and enjoy the last of his brilliant body of work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eciYA7rygsw

Alexander McQueen - RIP

OMFG
Alexander Mcqueen has commit suicide.
So very sad
Check out Wendy B's blog for an incredible video of Kate Moss on the runway
and the Townhouse Lady's blog for a beautifully written eulogy.

Marc Jacobs Brings Us The Ugliest It Bag...Ever

Words fail me when I look at this LV bag. It is so hideous that it leaves me speechless.
But the Mail Online has plenty to say about it
Yours for £26,000: The most hideous It Bag ever made

There was me thinking we'd got over It - our addiction to It bags - and then up pops Posh with her £24,740 bordeaux porosus crocodile Birkin.
Before you knew it, the fashion industry had spawned a plague of the ugliest, silliest, most outrageously priced It bags imaginable.
What drugs do you have to be on to design a bag that looks like it's made of material from a Seventies council estate sofa, fossilised witchetty grubs and more cheap leather tassels than a rodeo beauty pageant?



What is not kind and must be some kind of joke (along the lines of: let's design the most hideous bag any woman has ever carried and call it cutting-edge fashion) is the £26,000 they're charging for it.
As Marc Jacobs says, there are Louis Vuitton addicts so desperate that they'll buy any old junk they 'design', however hideous. And junk it is.
Go read the rest of the article for some other really hideous bags that also cost a bundle.

It always makes me wonder, who buys these bags? Surely more women that Posh are buying these things because you can't make a market on one client alone....even if it is Posh.

And now for something completely different.
A Valentines Day suggestion

Van Cleef and Arpels Diamond Heart Pendant from Beladora $2950

At approximately 1/10th the cost of the uglyLouis Vuitton bag....vintage Van Cleef.

My Mid-February Fantasy

Roatan Island

I know that with Valentine's Day coming up I should be thinking of about the kind of jewelry that says "I Love You" all rubies and sparkle and all things romantical,

but with the weather so cold and miserable I can't stop thinking about taking a little vacation in a sunny sandy spot like the Maldives, Reunion, Belize, Roatan or Phuket.

Since warm weather resorts make me think of turquoise water under a golden sun, my picks for what I would want to wear if I could find the time to squeeze in a little island get-away would be turquoise and yellow gold jewelry.

Turquoise Ring in 22k from Beladora2.com $595

Turquoise Earrings in 14K from Beladora2.com $395

Multi-Gemstone Bangle Bracelets in 9K from Beladora2.com $1950

Just add a bathing suit, sarong, sunglasses, flip flops and a passport and I'm ready to go.