These Two Elegant Women

 I may have mentioned that I had a store for about 11 years. I loved the store it gave me a place to go and meet people : it made me a lot of money too. There was a tiny showroom in the front, overflowing with a collection of My Favorite Things. In fact, that was the name of the store but no one ever referred to it that way it was JAK’s…that’s OK. In the back was an office that was fairly nice in the beginning. It even had a small kitchen with a dishwasher etc. and a hell of a big desk that got even bigger 11 feet long in the final incarnation. I stood behind on a platform that put me a bit up and sort of held court. I LOVED IT. I didn’t even realize how much I did until it was all over. Eleven years flew by. I met many wonderful people (mostly women of course) in those years. There was Angelina, a woman of YEARS, KNOWLEDGE and STYLE and yes ELEGANCE. She had traveled all over the world. In fact I believe she lived in Europe in the days when beautiful people did so. She has a great big rambling house with a pool. I kind of helped her a bit when she needed a lift, just a spruce up, not a redo. We had a terrific time together. She In turn brought me Louise Rayburn, a Loretta Young (remember her) kind of woman. With a style about her, her former decorator just couldn’t figure out. I remember this  big no, HUGE chair in the living room that was actually a curve piece from a sectional. In my own way I had to discreetly tell her “What the HELL is this doing just sitting here , IT’S NOT A CHAIR” she was so refined she said” well, then I guess we’ll just have to do something about it” and we did and a lot more too. She lived in a town house on kind of a snappy street with a big garden with lots of flowers. and best of all a curved staircase: WOW you don’t get many of those in a town house . I hired David Husick, the most wonderful decorative painter to do the foyer. I had it done with Loretta Young right by my side. On a smaller scale of course, it’s fun to work with people I see eye to eye with and like to boot … and she and I kind of felt like the simple glamour of Loretta would be just perfect for her.