Lorenz Baumer - The Making Of Princess Charlene's Tiara

I am a huge fan of Lorenz Baumer.
Not only is he an extraordinary jewelry designer,
who can produce beautiful pieces with engineered precision,
he knows how to create true mystique.
And what is fine jewelry without mystique...

Back to Business and BHB and Beladora

Well, the much dreaded Carmageddon turned out to be really nothing at all
no 20 mile traffic jams, no wild west road rage shoot outs.
People stayed home, traffic was nil and
Los Angeles turned out to be lovely place over the weekend.
Maybe Caltrans should shut down the 405 freeway every once in a while.

Have I mentioned that I'm happy to be home
and especially excited to be back in Beverly Hills at the Beladora HQ
doing my estate jewelry thing
because I just love the accessory that keeps on giving
as these things happen
when gold reaches a new high of $1600.

Yes, I know you love your Jimmy Choo shoes and your Hermes belts
but I prefer an accessory that goes up in value while I wear it!


Being tan, rested and jewelry-less in Mexico was great
but now it's back to business.
Take a basic white shirt, a Michael Kors pin stripped pencil skirt, a deep tan
and add estate jewelry....gold estate jewelry to be exact.

I'm totally loving this Carlo Weingrill choker necklace

I love super comfortable flexible jewelry that doesn't have clasps or hinges,
don't you?

And I love to wear ancient coin jewelry
because it lets me channel my inner 1960's jet set socialite babe alter ego.

This necklace makes me imagine a life of lolling on the yacht

on the shores of Sardinia, Santorini or St Tropez.

And then there's the basic bracelet

This solid gold link bracelet by the French jewelry house Fred

is the type of piece that I would love to wear everyday.

Do you have one signature piece of jewelry that you wear everyday?

Leaving La Playa and Coming Back To Carmageddon

I would love to tell you that this is what my vacation looked like

 all sunshine, clear blue water and deserted white sand beaches along the Playa de la Ropa

But down in the tropical paradise of Zihautanejo - Ixtapa it was the rainy season
so while hot and humid, the sun only peaked out from the storm clouds intermittently.

The sky wasn't blue and the beaches weren't deserted...yet I endured
When not swimming
most of my time was spent with a book on this chaise under a palapa
hoping that it wouldn't rain...
and that if it did rain, at least the ever present viciously biting bugs would go away.

Rainy season on the Mexican Riviera isn't for the faint hearted or the fair weather traveller.
But it is for the thrifty since the rates at The Tides hotel go down significantly between June and October.  Even given the low rates. there were only about 30 guests in total at the hotel. Imagine that.

In terms of the overall quality of service, accommodations and cuisine, The Tides was not up there with the Palmilla in Cabo San Lucas.  I didn't expect it to be...after all, the Palmilla isn't a called The One and Only for nothing. But I wasn't in any way disappointed with The Tides. 

The suite was clean and comfortable, the grounds were lovely and lush, the food was good and the service was caring. For the adventurous sporty types, surfing, diving, snorkeling, jet skiing, sport fishing etc. could be arranged for.  I wasn't that adventurous.

A couple of highlights.
A charming young man, Juan Landeros, became something akin to my personal concierge, bringing me delicious margaritas at cocktail hour and filling me in on the ins and outs of the hotel and the local area.  The Tides needs to give that guy a raise!
Also, one evening's dinner on the beach was accompanied by lovely music by a local duo, Daleth & Antares. Daleth's soft soprano voice singing Bossa Nova and Mexican standards was such a upgrade from the typical Mariachi music that you hear at every resort.

Would I go back to The Tides, most definitely...but not in mid summer.

Happily I am home where the temperature is a mild 75 degrees without bugs and where I can occupy myself in the neighborhood all weekend and avoid Carmageddon, which you might or might not know is the two day closing of the 405 freeway, the carotid artery if you will, controlling the life blood of Los Angeles traffic.  A lot of hype has been made about our Carpocalypse, but I'm ignoring it.

What are you up to this weekend?

Zihuatanejo - The Report From the Field

It's hot and humid here
which is hardly a surprise since it is rainy season
and I'm not going to even discuss the bug bites...
what was I thinking coming to this location in the middle of summer?
Still, the sun manages to come out for a few hours a day
the ocean is warm
and this is what it looks like from the terrace of my room

it could be worse....

Voloptuous Vixens in Italian Vogue and Gilded Greecian Goddeesses in French Vogue

Did you know about the new issue of  Italian Vogue?
I didn't but I read about it on The Sartorialist today.

I'm not so hot about the way the model was posed on the right side of the cover

But I do think that these girls are beautiful

What do you think about the magazine using voluptuous models?


Have you see this month's French Vogue?
I thought that homage to Linda Evagelista photographed by Mert and Marcus was rather clever.

I also liked the fact that the entire issue was devoted to Greece

especially now that the country could benefit by some increased tourism.

There were lots of shots like with models in bathing suits and major gold bracelets.

I don't know anyone who actually wears such big bling on the beach

but it makes for a beautiful image.

And then in perusing the magazine, imagine my surprise when I saw this exact image on one of the accessories pages featuring Greek Jewelry.

I was thrilled to see our image in print in French Vogue...

but it would have been nice for Beladora to have been credited.

Admittedly, I snag images for BHB all the time and I rarely credit the photographer or the source

so I guess turnaround is fair play.