I’ve been on vacation for the last couple of weeks, taking my son to visit sites of the American Revolution and the Civil War (with a stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania thrown in as a sort of recess).  Gettysburg was probably the most inspirational part of our trip.  As a sixth-generation Texan, it’s a strange feeling to go to a place like Gettysburg … I couldn’t help but feel at least some kinship with the Confederate soldiers who came from my part of the country, even though ideologically (and obviously) I stand with what the Union was fighting for.  I would like to think that if I had been around at the time of the Civil War, I would have seen what was right and stood against secession, but there were plenty of folks, Robert E. Lee included, who chose to follow their home states into war, even though they opposed slavery and wanted the country to remain intact.

When you’re living through current events, it can sometimes be difficult not to get swept up in the moment and, as a result, lose sight of the larger picture.  As I’ve said before in other posts (see The right stuff from February 7, 2017), I think we should all strive to be on the right side of history … especially in times like this, when a Tweet from the President can threaten the civil rights of an entire group of people (and I was happy to see that top Republicans like Orrin Hatch, John McCain and Lindsey Graham all expressed disapproval of today’s proposed ban on transgender people serving in the military).  Even though some people may view me as naïve, I DO think that the right side will eventually prevail.  The question is how long will it take and how much suffering will be experienced in the interim.

Abraham Lincoln may have presided over the greatest amount of suffering that has occurred on U.S. soil.  In response to the deaths that occurred at the Battle of Gettysburg, in a Civil War that pitted brother against brother, over a practice that denied so many of our countrymen and women freedom and other basic human rights, he delivered the Gettysburg Address.  It is very short … Lincoln only spoke for a few minutes … but it is perhaps the most succinct and moving reminder of the values that we stand for as a nation and that we must, every day, no matter what the encroachment or the justification provided, take steps to preserve:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

It is a sad day when the people who offer their lives to protect our country are declared by their own Commander in Chief to be unfit to serve for no reason other than their gender. We owe all of the brave souls who defend our values our utmost respect and gratitude. For those transgender persons who have fought and died (or are willing to die) for our nation, let us take a lesson from history and resolve ourselves that they shall not have died in vain.

I gotta say … it’s been hard to find the time to blog recently given all of the amazing content that’s been released for the summer.  I’m hopeful that this blog will be the first of many about all the “must-see” movies, TV shows and podcasts that I’ve seen or heard, but to kick it all off, the series that I just finished … and that TOTALLY sucked me in … was The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

I read the 1986 book by Margaret Atwood in high school (which, in retrospect, was unbelievably cool of my English teacher because I went to a high school in small-town Texas where I needed my parents’ permission to check out Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which appears as #67 on the American Library Association’s “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990 to 1999” (when I went to high school), while The Handmaid’s Tale appears as #37).  Margaret Atwood is the master of dystopian fiction … 2004’s Oryx and Crake being, I think, her best … so I was predisposed to like the book because I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic-inspired everything.  There was a 1990 movie with Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway that wasn’t great, so I was a little skeptical of the series.   But boy, was I wrong.  With the changes they’ve made to flesh out the back story, they’ve enhanced Margaret Atwood’s tale to make it topical and even more thought-provoking.

I’ll be honest, when I first read the book, I thought it was an interesting thought exercise, but entirely unrealistic.  Why wouldn’t there just be in vitro fertilization with surrogates?  Rape cast as a religious ceremony …what woman (and how many men) would really go for that?!?  But then I thought of “Comfort Women” in Japan during WWII, who were basically conscripted to be concubines.  Or a woman like Phyllis Schlafly, who started her own “alternative feminism” by opposing the Equal Rights Amendment and arguing that a woman’s purpose is to serve her husband.  O‎r right-wing politicians that look to a group of men to legislate what women can and cannot do with their own bodies.

Reproduction should not be used as a form of control.  Bearing a child is an amazing experience, but women should not be locked in to that path solely because of their gender.  And if women have other goals … to travel, to build a career, to have a life outside of their children … then allowing them to achieve those goals will make them better, more effective mothers.  It’s a win-win, in my opinion.

So to get back to The Handmaid’s Tale … I really thought I should wear red for this post, but it’s those pristine white wings that stick in my mind.  As Offred says, “They are to keep us from seeing, but also from being seen.”  But white can be eye-catching as well … as with this awesome jacket from Yigal Azrouel that I paired with a sequined Blumarine t-shirt and MiH jeans.  Being a badass in white leather is the kind of future I want …

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and unlike Mother’s Day, which has certain “recognized” gifts (breakfast in bed, flowers, maybe some sort of “treat yourself” gift certificate or homemade coupon), there really isn’t anything quite as “one size fits all” for Dad.  Based on a brief search on the Internet, golf balls, ties and mugs seem to pop up on at least a couple of lists, but as a retiree whose golf clubs were last used as a coat rack circa 1992 and who could never drink enough coffee for all the mugs he already has, my dad is NOT the universal recipient for these gifts.

I know lots of people who wrack their brains trying to come up with something for their dads that expresses how amazing, wonderful and awesome they think their dads are.  My dad, for one, deserves the world for everything he’s done for me.  There’s the superficial stuff, of course … for example, my car always has a full tank of gas when I get back from a business trip, and I don’t think I’ve done my own grocery shopping since my dad moved out here in 2013 (and not just idle grocery shopping, mind you … based on how much he saves with coupons, he could go competitive).  But there’s also the deeper stuff that I don’t always thank him for in the moment.  You should see him with my son.  While I’m at work, he designs and builds gigantic box forts for Blake.  I discover Nerf guns hidden all around my house so that Blake can find them and ambush Granddaddy (unless Granddaddy gets to them first).  He planted a garden so Blake could grow and pick his own favorite vegetables.  In short, he offers my little boy the same kind of enthusiasm and fun and creativity and laughter that he gave me when I was a little girl and that contributed so much to who I am today.  I will never be able to express to him how grateful I am that Blake can have that same upbringing and how awesome it is that I can experience it again from a different perspective.

BUT unlike a lot of people, it’s not hard for me to come up with that perfect gift for Dad.  We all get something from each of our parents, and I get my love of fashion from my dad.  He’s always had a “style,” and when online shopping became a thing, I think he embraced it just as quickly as I did.  Much like me, he puts things in his shopping cart or on his wish list and checks them periodically to see if they’ve gone on sale.  He’s better at waiting than I am, so to give him some optionality, I got him a little shopping spree at Nordstrom (www.Nordstrom.com) in case he finds waiting as hard as I do after the Memorial Day sales have been picked through.

So cheers to you, Dad!  Have a great time shopping!  I hope you get a terrific score like this tomato red Givenchy dress I got from Farfetch (www.farfetch.com) for 50% off!  I love you so much and so does Blake.  xoxo

Today I took my son to see the movie Wonder Woman.  When I first suggested it, he told me that he didn’t really want to see a “girl movie.”  Given that I think my job as the mother of a little boy ‎is, in part, to make sure he is an ardent feminist, I made it very clear that this was the absolutely WRONG answer.  Needless to say, when movie time rolled around, he was super-excited to see it!

Wonder Woman is a great movie.  I think the DC Comics movies have suffered behind the Marvel Comics movies for being a little too serious, but this movie added some much-needed humor.  And, most importantly, its feminist message is VERY topical.  What I loved most is Wonder Woman’s clear motivation of doing what’s right.  She is driven solely by her moral compass, disregarding any utilitarian / ends-justify-the-means calculus.  At one point, she chastises the English generals that they should be ashamed (“ASHAMED!”) of themselves, sitting in their offices and letting so many die without fighting on the fronts and sacrificing themselves with their men, and lets herself be dragged out of the room, finger still pointed, by (a very hot) Chris Pine.

I see this in myself in the workplace (absent Chris Pine, of course).  Every decision I make is motivated by intellectual honesty.  I am in finance, which has gotten a very bad rap (the Wall Street vs. Main Street debate being the most painful of all because it casts Wall Street as the bad guy, which is not necessarily the case).  I truly want to do what I think is right, not just because it’s nice to be able to sleep with myself at night, but because after 17 years, I’m positive that nice guys and gals do finish first.  Call it what you want, but when all’s said and done, karma’s a bitch.

I think most people get there in the end, but if I had to generalize, I think women feel it in their gut in a way that is different than men.  Sometimes that can be hard for me … I find myself having to explain my rationale for something that I think is so clearly “right,” which (much like Wonder Woman) initially leads me to label someone as “bad” if they don’t quickly get what I’m saying.  Morality is sometimes hard to explain without value judgments that can alienate those who we are trying to inspire.  But doing so is an important component of success … just like Wonder Woman could not have saved the world if Steve had not continued to believe.  I have a male co-worker who I bounce my knee-jerk reactions off of to make sure others will understand where I’m coming from, and this combination … his respect for my gut response and my respect for his guidance on how to communicate effectively … is a potent combination that I think is at the heart of building equal male/female representation in the workplace.

And in appreciation of the running sartorial joke in Wonder Woman, I thought I’d also wear something that would be considered quite edgy in WWII England … in this case, an Esteban Cortazar dress I got from MatchesFashion (http://www.matchesfashion.com), which I paired with Aquazarra sandals I got from Net-a-Porter (http://www.net-a-porter.com).  Now if I could just get myself one of those golden lassos …

During last night’s U2 concert at the Rose Bowl, Bono dedicated the song “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” to all of the women everywhere who persist.  As I listened to that song and watched images of amazing women who contributed to equal rights for all flash across the screen, it was impossible not to feel inspired to speak up myself …

Women are woefully underrepresented in my industry.  In most of my meetings, I am the only woman in the room.  Same thing on phone calls.  As part of my job, I am on the board of directors of ten companies, and I’m the only woman on NINE of them.  And it’s not like I have a highly physically demanding or dangerous job like a police officer or Navy SEAL.  I sit in an office all day drinking unlimited Diet Dr. Peppers from the workplace fridge and eating miniature Special Darks from the candy jar in my co-worker’s office.  In two words, not tough.

So it’s crazy to me that I see so few women on a daily basis even though women make up approximately 51% of the population in the United States.  And it’s even crazier to me that when I’ve participated in discussions about remedying this imbalance, some men have asked for “hard data” to prove that boosting the number of women would be good for business.  What?!?  It seems like common sense to me that having the input of a group that makes up over half of the population would be key to gaining market share. And to be honest, asking for “hard data” seems to assume that more women aren’t around because they just can’t (or don’t want to) do these jobs as well as men, which is underestimating what could otherwise be a vast talent pool, with skills a company needs to round out its work force.

And that brings me to the $64,000 question that always comes up in these conversations … between an equally qualified man and an equally qualified woman, would you ‎hire the woman for the job simply because she’s a woman?  Frankly, I’ve been surprised by the number of women who, when faced with this question, are reluctant to say they would.  I get that women want to be hired for a job based on their merit and not their gender, but to me, women have unique skills that are not measured in the existing interview process, and to get them, you have to make the affirmative decision to hire the woman.  For example, I think women contribute emotional intelligence, which helps in everything from negotiations with counterparties to managing customers and clients to understanding that markets (and companies and people) are not always going to behave rationally.

So give women the opportunity to show what badasses they can be and how they can enhance an organization.  After all, who else but a woman could wear this leather, faux snakeskin dress from Alexander McQueen?  Women can be hard-core and risk-takers and trail blazers … assets to any endeavor.

I have to admit, I did not have a great week.  There were a bunch of issues at work, and all of the Trump-related drama got me fairly depressed.  But don’t worry … that’s pretty much it for my complaining because whenever I find myself getting sad, I have a surefire pick-me-up.  You’d think, based on this blog, that it’s retail therapy, but I shop waaaaaay too regularly for that to serve as any kind of “special occasion” treat for me.  No … true to certain stereotypes, I go straight to the sugar to cheer myself up.  I know lots of people go for ice cream, and while I love pralines and cream ice cream from Baskin Robbins, what really cheers me up is birthday cake …

To which some people reply … what about a pralines and cream ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins?  Isn’t that the best of both worlds?!?

To which I reply … NOT AT ALL!!!

Because when I say birthday cake, I mean those white sheet cakes with the sticky sweet buttercream frosting that they sell at the grocery store (and not at some fancy cake shop like those on that TV show Ace of Cakes).  The grocery store usually has a few with roses or balloons sitting in the refrigerator already made, but you can also flip through that book with the laminated pages in the bakery to order a licensed cake that comes with cool toys on the top.  I’ve been picking out one of those licensed cakes for nearly every birthday I can remember.  Right before I had my son, I think I went with Hello Kitty, but now that he wants the toys on top for himself, I’ve been going with Transformers or Marvel/DC superheroes or Construction Scene (which is way cool):

Of course, there’s no opportunity to plan ahead when you need some cheering up, so that’s when the generic flower or balloon version comes in handy.  In fact, those ready-made cakes were absolutly essential when I was pregnant.  Women sometimes compare their pregnancy cravings, and mine were (i) that onion dip you make with Lipton soup mix and Ruffles potato chips and (ii) birthday cake ((i) and (ii) never being served together, of course).  Standing in the kitchen, I would eat the birthday cake straight off the sheet, not even bothering to put it on a plate.  One night, I ate something like an eighth of a sheet before my husband at the time got home from work and then had a surprise gestational diabetes screen at the doctor the next day.  Needless to say, my blood sugar was off the charts, so we had to re-do the test under less … shall we say “extreme” … circumstances.

I think it’s important that everyone indulge in the foods they love from time to time, so long as it’s a treat and not a crutch.  And whenever I do so, it’s always nice to wear something a little more forgiving so I don’t have to walk around sucking in my stomach.  This Rossella Jardini dress I got from Shopbop (www.shopbop.com), with its full pleated skirt and bodice, is perfect since the extra space just adds to its floaty, ethereal feel.  Whenever I wear it, I can have a huge steak dinner (or, like today, eat birthday cake for breakfast) and still feel like I’m dancing in air a la LA LA Land …

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, which is the one day out of the year when sons and daughters everywhere are asked to express their love and appreciation to their mothers.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit, but when I was younger, I didn’t really get the whole concept of a day for mothers.  Wasn’t it just expected that mothers would make all these sacrifices for their children?  And where was a quid pro quo Kid’s Day?  (To which my parents responded, rightly so, that EVERY DAY is pretty much Kid’s Day.)

It’s not like mothers ask for a lot on Mother’s Day.  Now that I’m a mother myself, I can honestly say that all I want is time with my son.  Flowers, hand-made cards, breakfast in bed … all that is totally nice, but it’s just whipped cream to the sundae that is one-on-one time with Blake.  I get a lot of his time now since he’s young and still thinks I’m totally cool, but I know that will change as he gets older.  And that’s when having the trump card that is Mother’s Day will be supremely important.  I’ll be that mom who just wants a phone call to hear his voice, and I can count on a national holiday to help him remember.

But now that I’m a mother myself, I also recognize how amazing mothers are for what they do for their children. We all talk about the sacrifices that mothers make, but I don’t think mothers think of them as sacrifices. Rather than focusing on what they’re giving up, I think mothers think about what they’re enabling their kids to have.   There’s no other relationship that is motivated by such a pure selflessness … or maybe it’s another concept entirely because it’s almost like your child is a part of you that you protect most fiercely.

And no mother is a better example of that than my mom (okay, I’m sure everyone’s mom is a good example of that, but I needed a good transition).   When I got divorced, my mom left her parents/sister and her own home behind in Texas to move all the way to California to help me with my son. Whenever I try (ineffectively) to thank her for that particular “sacrifice,” she just looks at me quizzically and tells me it wasn’t even a question in her mind.

And three years later, she’s still here, helping me day in and day out so I can balance being a working mom. I’m so happy I’lll be able to spend time with her this Mother’s Day and perhaps shower her with a few gifts to boot, even though she’s not expecting them.  And since nothing says Mother’s Day like tulips, I thought this beautiful Dolce & Gabbana tulle dress I got from Moda Operandi (www.modaoperandi.com) was perfect for the occasion.

Cheers to all you amazing mothers!  You are the best.

Back in the day, this time of year would bring nothing but reruns on TV until new episodes returned in September.  It seemed pretty awful at the time, although in retrospect, it had the advantage of getting me off the couch and playing outside or else into a book.  But no longer is there any impediment to being a TV couch potato all year long!   When the September/October shows end in March/April, a whole new set of shows starts in May.  Total score for those of us everywhere who like to sit!  And one of the shows that just started back up is Veep, which on a consistent episode-for-episode basis, may be the best comedy show EVER.  This year in particular is poised for greatness with thinly veiled references to the current state of American politics (and we’ve all seen what this has done to revive Saturday Night Live, which has been on life support with a frayed electric cord for quite some time).

Veep is a show where you really have to watch each episode two or three times to get all the witty insults that are flying around.  But for all the amazing wordplay, the visual comedy has become truly outstanding and is something that also merits a second or third (or fourth) watch.  Tony Hale, who made his mark as Buster from Arrested Development, is unbelievable as Gary, Selina’s personal aide (or, in DC parlance, a “body man” … someone who carries the handbag and personal supplies and fetches refreshments).  He can steal almost any scene with his facial expressions alone.  His character takes his job so seriously (caring about the right lipstick color, which I’d love to find in a man) and is so loyal to Selina, even if his face betrays what he’s actually thinking about some of her questionable decisions or her romances.  There’s this fantastic article in The New York Times Magazine that highlights the relationship between Selina and Gary (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/magazine/julia-louis-dreyfus-and-tony-hales-demented-double-act-on-veep.html?_r=0), and it really does provide the core chemistry for the show.

And that brings us to Julia Louis-Dreyfus.  She had her visual comedy historic moment in Seinfeld with the Elaine Dance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY_DF2Af3LM), but she’s really upped her game in Veep.  The episode where she walks through the glass door gets to me every time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxC8w-vPGTM), as does the episode where she wears a cowboy hat at a pig roast all afternoon long and finally takes it off to have the worst case of helmet hair I’ve ever seen:

But perhaps what I love most about Julia Louis-Dreyfus is that she does all this comedy while looking AMAZING.  Sometimes it seems that women can’t be polished and also down-to-earth and funny and accessible, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus proves this wrong.  And her clothes and shoes are to-die-for … so tailored and ladylike  … with designs by Victoria Beckham, Carolina Herrera, Alexander McQueen and Jason Wu.

So … in appreciation of all things Veep, I had to break out my best ladylike look in a printed Dolce & Gabbana dress I got from Saks Fifth Avenue (www.saks.com) and a yellow structured handbag from Mansur Gavriel I got from MatchesFashion (www.matchesfashion.com).  I’m only missing my Gary.  Now to catch up on the episode I missed last night!

The brilliant filmmaker Jonathan Demme passed away this past week at the age of 73.  His films included Married to the Mob and Philadelphia, but it was The Silence of the Lambs that won him an Academy Award for Best Director.  The movie also won Best Picture, Best Actor (for Anthony Hopkins) and Best Actress (for Jodie Foster).   Hannibal Lecter’s story has been fleshed out (pun intended) a lot since his original appearance in 1981’s novel Red Dragon through books, additional movies, television and stage, and while I’m largely immune to the character himself at this point (and, frankly, have not liked any other parts of his story … it’s Clarice Starling’s growth and self-discovery enabled by this madman that I think is most compelling), Jonathan Demme’s movie still draws me in and keeps me sitting on the edge of my seat.  It’s nothing short of a masterpiece.

There are a lot of memorable lines from The Silence of the Lambs, but one that has always stuck with me is when Hannibal Lecter comments on what he sees in Clarice Starling when he looks at her with her “good bag [and] cheap shoes.”  Now, for me it’s just the opposite … I like me some nice shoes, but when I go to work or on a business trip, there’s an epic fail by me with the good bag.  It’s pretty obvious people find it totally incongruous, but thankfully they’re not reading my whole upbringing into it a la Hannibal Lecter.

I’ll admit that when I travel on a business trip, I don’t even try.  I carry a canvas backpack like I’m still back in college.  It’s easy to carry; it zips securely so I know nothing will fall out; it has plenty of space for a computer and legal pads; it offers good organization with interior and exterior pockets; and it scrunches up really well under seats or next to windows.  Friends tell me that I could probably find a tote that meets most of these requirements, but I have yet to find one that is as functional as a backpack.  (But if you know of one, I’m all ears.)

For work, I did at least try by getting this super-cool 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli PVC Satchel from Barney’s Co-Op a few years back.  I thought it was perfect because it was translucent, so instead of digging around in my bag constantly, worrying I had lost my keys or my office badge (an almost daily occurrence), I could just hold up my bag and glance through it quickly:

But along with advantages to translucency come disadvantages.  (There is an interior pocket, so it’s not the one you may be thinking.)  After some time, all of that stuff that falls to the bottom of your bag … wrappers and loose Tylenol (which get all ground up) and change and stray pen caps and God knows what else … is on display for everyone to see, along with all the papers and receipts and bills that collect from day to day.  Perhaps if I made an effort to clean it out every week it wouldn’t be so bad, but that’s never been too high on the priority scale.

AND YET … I do have some amazing bags, like this unbelievable tweed Chanel handbag I got second-hand from Gilt (http://www.gilt.com) that I’m wearing with a Monse striped dress I got from Net-a-Porter (http://www.net-a-porter.com).  Too bad I only tend to break them out on the weekends.  So while I never hope to run into Hannibal Lecter, on the off-chance I do so, it better be a Saturday or Sunday.

I’ve been to China three times since 2008, and every time I go, I am astonished by the amount of development that has occurred since the last time I was there.  Shanghai now seems to stretch on and on, with clusters of ten or so massive high-rise residences every few miles or so.  Within biking distance of Tiananmen Square are two high-end shopping malls that look awesome and one of the biggest Louis Vuitton stores I’ve ever seen (opened in 2013).  Even small (Tier 3) cities can have one million people (in comparison, a city like Boston, Massachusetts, which I don’t consider “small,” has less than 700,000 people).  And the amount of infrastructure that has been developed in the last ten years to connect all 665 Chinese cities, including new highways and bullet trains that go around 200 miles per hour, is mindboggling.

But perhaps even more mindboggling is that we here in the United States weren’t able to witness the development of modern China until 1972, when Richard Nixon made his historic visit that re-opened relations between the two countries after 25 years of separation (a visit that itself was triggered a year earlier by a table tennis match between U.S. and Chinese players that, in a stroke of naming genius, came to be known as “Ping-Pong Diplomacy”).  Nixon is more often remembered for Watergate and his resulting resignation as President, which (rightly or wrongly, and to be honest, I move closer towards wrongly as I see what more current Presidents are able to get away with) obscures an incredibly important achievement.  Nixon met with Chairman Mao only for an hour, but that meeting, as well as the remainder of Nixon’s visit, laid the groundwork for the ever increasing exchanges between the two countries.  (Parenthetically, the visit also gave us pandas, raising the cuteness factor at American zoos exponentially.  As recounted in the fantastic book Nixon and Mao:  The Week That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan, “Chao En-lai, who was smoking Chinese cigarettes, turned to Mrs. Nixon and gestured to the picture of two pandas on the package.  ‘We will give you two,’ he said.  According to Chinese sources, Mrs. Nixon screamed with joy.”)

Personally, I can’t imagine a world where East hasn’t met West … where on a daily basis I don’t use something that is made in China, and someone in China doesn’t use something that was developed in the United States.  Chinese culture has had an impact on our own, and vice versa … from philosophy to economics to technology to food and even to fashion.  Some of my prettiest dresses are influenced by classic Chinese designs, like this Burberry Prorsum dress I got from MatchesFashion (www.matchesfashion.com) with floral panels and a Mandarin-style collar.  In a similar vein, when I was in Beijing, I was able to get a Drybar-quality blowout with as much beachy volume as if I was in California.

The United States and China have had a complex history, but that is to be expected.  As the Chinese proverb says, “A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.”