When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Based on a survey of the kids in my son’s kindergarten class, I’d ‎guess it was something like an astronaut, a ballerina, a police officer or the President of the United States … a job that was exciting or glamorous, usually involving bold adventures, daring rescues or being the boss of everyone.

I’m sure one of those jobs was my first answer … I don’t really remember … but what I do remember is that my second or third answer, at least the one I gave when I was old enough to beg my parents for a subscription to Vogue, was fashion (editor, designer, writer … I wasn’t specific).   I would stack all those back issues in my closet and then pour over them on the weekends, wishing I could live in a world with all that style.

And today, I think I got the closest I ever have gotten to my childhood dream job!  I woke up in Milan during Fashion Week after having had dinner with the entire design team behind the new collection from Karen Ruimy called Kalmar. It was fascinating to hear about everything that is required to take a line from sketches to market.  I stopped by Kalmar’s presentation at Palazzo Castiglioni in the morning (where I saw some of the best beach cover-ups EVER):

Then I headed to Luisa Beccaria’s show at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia. It was an amazing show with dreamy, pastel pieces:

After a quick lunch of pasta (I’m in Italy, after all), I checked out the showroom of a top designer representative. Finally, it was back to Kalmar’s presentation to meet two of the top fashion bloggers … Marta Pozzan and Negin Mirsalehi … and talk about the Kalmar line, as well as get some tips from the experts for MY blog:

And I did it all in the unbelievable Christopher Kane dress with lace and faux leather panels pictured above that I got from Nordstrom (www.nordstrom.com).  If I was going to live a day like this, I knew I wanted it to be in something edgy and different that would make me feel super-cool.

Look, I’m not quitting my day job, but today (and, frankly, the four weeks that have passed since I started this blog) have shown me that it’s never too late to try to make your dreams come true … even if in a slightly different form than originally imagined.