Category: Style

Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit

Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit

Have you ever been on a plane, train or in a hotel and chipped your fingernail polish only to discover you don’t have any polish remover? Out of frustration you begin to try to scratch it off just because it looks worse half on – than completely off. Or, you get a run in your stocking, just down at the toes and you wish you had polish to stop the run. Or maybe you catch a cold on the flight and you can’t sleep at night because you are in some strange place and you are all alone. You ring the hotel concierge and they direct you to the pharmacy just a few blocks or miles away, but it’s late, you are tired – or worse you are in a hurry to get to that special event you flew there for. At times like this, you wish you had a valet, a nurse, a personal assistant, or even your mom!

Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit will take care of you when you least expect it.

If you have been following my tote tips all along here then you already know I was a runway model who traveled constantly, following the collections around Europe and North America. We mannequins had it made backstage once we arrived at the shows because the hair and make-up team came with their rolling carts and plastic bags full of everything a girl could possibly need to transform themselves into living dolls. We were prepped, patted and perfected in every way possible and so we didn’t need to bring anything at all!

Fast forward to my life “on the road” with my fiancé Steve Clark. Steve was the lead guitarist, song-meister, and riff master of the band Def Leppard whose album Hysteria instigated a two year, international world tour. Because both of our careers took us far and wide, Steve and I created a pact: we would never go more than two weeks without seeing each other.  This required one of us to pack a bag and travel to the other one’s working location. We were blessed to be able to do that and sometimes we found ourselves in very far away, foreign places. Nonetheless, Steve and I experienced the term, “living out of a suitcase” to the extreme.

But again, rock stars are pampered to the max and Def Leppard was no exception. Backstage the band had Robin Lemon, the adorable nurturing wardrobe mistress for the entire “Hysteria Tour.” Robin had also worked on the band’s previous “Pyromania Tour,” so she already knew what the band wanted and needed. Robin had road cases filled with the necessities to take care of any situation. From muscle aches to hangovers – from split jeans to big hair 80’s style hair products, to a washing machine, a dryer and even a sewing machine that prompted Steve to give her the pet name “Bobbin!”

I learned a lot from Bobbin those days on the road –especially on how to take care of Steve…but back in our hotel rooms there was something that our beloved Bobbin could not deliver; a place that felt like our own – which led me to this idea: Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit

Many of you who travel for business may already know the adrenaline that comes with all the unexpected surprises that may come to be. It can be hard to relax in a generic, sometimes cold environment, no matter how “boutique” your hotel may be. Steve and I both had problems calming down after our shows. A day literally “on the run” getting from runway to runway…that would be a private plane or a fashion show in our world, could put our nervous systems into over drive. Hence, the drinking, the sleepless nights, even the loneliness caused by being away from home for months on end. So I began to decorate our rooms. I traveled with candles, incense, matches, scarves, flowers and love.

Steve used to tell me I was a goddess when I would recreate the ambience in our room to make it feel more like home. I’ll never forget the night Steve proposed to me in our hotel room at the Milford Plaza in New York City… I wrote about that night in my book “Runway RunAway: A Backstage pass to Fashion, Romance & Rock ’n Roll. Looking back, I guess you could say that Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit was a welcomed gift.

If you think you could use a few tricks of the trade check out the video called: Travel Tote Tip #4 Goddess Survival Kit, and “Don’t let your dreams runaway from you!”

Travel Safe and Bring YOUR Style to Life!

Lorelei

 

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival or HSN? by Lorelei Shellist

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival or HSN?

Where do people find their style,  at the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival or HSN? The world is changing at a rapid speed. Anything that crosses our palm pilots can grab our attention and steal away with our most private moments. Our attention spans are limited and so we work fast, eat fast, dress fast and even sleep fast. The Millennial generation today spends much of their time looking down into their phones for everything from music, to food, to fashion. Parents are worried that their kids are missing the beauty of a natural life. Network television is worried that they are not watching their TV shows, while name brands are worried they won’t wear their labels as they gobble up fashion like fast food. The only people who are not worried are the advertisers. With everyone staring at their phones – advertising is literally in their faces!

The greatest quality of life is love. The next best thing is beauty. Beauty represents love in a more physical form. We see love when we see beautiful things. That is why Eckhart Tolle, best known as the author of “The Power of Now,” encourages us to stop and smell the flowers; to be present with ourselves and find the beauty within. That is an experience no one, not even a millennial’ can find in their phones, tablets, or iPads.

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival aka: LJFFF is the largest gathering of fashion filmmakers in the world. It is so exclusive that you have to be invited to attend and you won’t find “in your face” advertising there either. Why? Because Fashion Films were born out of beauty. Fashion for the sake of style. These films represent the beauty of subtlety, and the impact these films have on the viewers subconscious is far more potent than the advertising industry could have ever dreamed of. The founder and producer of LJFFF Fred Sweet knows this, and so do I.

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival or HSN?

When I was a young model living as “an American in Paris,” one of my favorite past times was to go to the cinemas on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. As I struggled with the French language and my American accent, the cinema was my safe place. I could go there to watch movies in English with French subtitles and see images of home. But, they had something more, something different, something special at the movies there…. something we did not have at home. They didn’t show advertising before the films. They didn’t try to sell you coke, cars or candy. They showed beautiful, stunning, glamorous short films made for the fashion houses and perfumeries like Cache, Lolita Lempicka, Cacharel, Guerlin, and other brands that have long since disappeared. They were slow, romantic, and almost dreamlike. They told stories without words and they took the audience on a journey to a place inside themselves. It was an experience to have – but not to hold. Those vignettes drifted away in front of my eyes but remained in my consciousness to this day. What the French did was connect the viewers with their brands through beauty. It was elegant, sophisticated and priceless.

After ten years of living in Europe I became more refined. The American edge I had gone there morphed into a more graceful and sophisticated sense of style. Working as a couture muse in front of the iconic designers Yves St. Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian LaCroix and others, taught me to be more conscious of what goes into fashion and what separated the men from the boys. As far as image and branding was concerned it was all about beauty.

I learned so much standing there behind the scenes in those ateliers in Paris, Rome and Milan being pinched and pinned into those glamorous gowns. I lapped up everything I saw from the” tailleurs,” (tailors) to “le petite mains, ” (the one’s hand stitching fine fabrics) to the ones who did the embroideries, the shoes, the hats the accessories…like a thirsty little kitten. I was enthralled at how everyone paid such attention to every detail of beauty and magnificence. It was no wonder these garments were selling for thousands of dollars a piece. Everyone who touched them – blessed them with their presence. There was dignity, dedication, and life, sewn into every single creation. I left Europe completely nourished by the art of fashion and style, as if I had been to the grandest banquet of all.

The nutrition guru David “Avocado” Wolfe is quoted saying, “The subtle energy of your food becomes your mind. The ultimate conclusion of “you are what you eat” is that everything you put into your mouth is going to affect your mind, body & spirit.” Well I say the same thing about fashion: “You are what you wear. The way you show up in the world expresses who you are on the inside – and sends that message to the world outside.”

So what are you feeding yourself and what are you buying into? Is it fast food and fast fashion?

In this blog you will see my own review of LJFFF. I share this with you because it is special to me. One year I was honored to be asked to host and emcee the three-day festival. There I met directors, producers, stylists and make-up artists from around the globe. I enjoyed hearing their personal stories of what brought them to this unique métier. This year I interviewed Linda Comer, director of San Diego Model Management and right hand to Fred Sweet the founder of LJFFF. Linda is a hard working, dedicated, and beautiful woman who started her career in fashion as a perfume model. Comer knows the sweet and sensual scent of the the sweaty fashion industry inside out.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Simone Cipriani, CEO of the Ethical Fashion Initiative which is the operational arm of the International Trade Centre and the Poor Communities Trade Program (PCTP). EFI’s mission is to empower the women who live in third world countries earn fair wages in safe, dignified working environments’. Brands like Stella McCartney, and Vivienne Westwood, are partnering with EFI and having their designs manufactured in this more caring way. It is the only answer to the global problems created by fashions made in sweat shops. When a shopper marvels at a soft cotton T-shirt selling for $3.95 – I hope they ask themselves how a company can they make and sell something for that low a price? You will be surprised at what the answer to that question is. What is the cost to all of us…really?

I love fashion and I love to express myself through the way I dress in the best way I can. I also love to design minimal items that encompass all one needs to live a life of luxury sparingly. The luxurious life I lived meant traveling to the “collections” in runway of fashion. Literally living out of a suitcase jumping from taxis to metros, and from trains to planes. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds – carrying those bags yourself -so I learned all I really needed to be presentable was a few select items. That is why I have created the Runway RunAway Collection (®) and The Dream Dress (®) for the entrepreneurial woman on the go! The Dream Dress (®) will take you anywhere. With your RRC(®) Travel Totes in tow, you’ll have all you need. The unfortunate thing is here in America we don’t have the cinematic Champs-Élysées subtle style of selling fashion. So, my intention is to launch my Runway RunAway Collection (®) at LJFFF in full fashion film form next year. Next, I will air it on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) where you’ll find it on your phone!

From the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival to HSN …in this day and age, that is where fashion seems to be!

From fashion to film to you!

Love, Lorelei

 

 

 

 

Travel Tote Tips #3 – Hair Essentials

Travel Tote Tips #3 Hair Essentials

How is your hair behaving this summer? If it’s anything like mine – curly, frizzy, untamed, it goes wicked in the humidity – the ocean dampness, and even under the hot lights of the world of glamour I sometimes travel in. That’s why I have narrowed down what I actually need to have on hand….simple products to sooth and smooth my hair! I have created this video Travel Tote tips #3 Hair Essentials to help you simplify what you need too!

How many of you actually like your hair? It seems we all wish we had some other type of hair. When I was a teenager, all the “popular girls” at the beach had long blonde, stick straight, smooth hair. It was Christy Brinkley hair here, and Christy Brinkley hair there 🙁  Here I was with this frizzy, auburn, wavy hair. My best friend Cindy Cowsill had even curlier hair than I did and we used to wine about it all the time. We didn’t have hair straightening wands or flat irons back then. So, what did we do? Before going out to the summer parties I would call over the backyard fence to Cindy’s….”Turn on the iron Cin!” Then I’d climb up the ladder I’d placed at the back of her tiki room roof, walk across it… and then climb the pulldown stairs up to the attic to  Cindy’s bedroom. We’d then take turns laying our heads down sideways on top of the ironing board, carefully smoothing our hair on top of  it, and cover it with a towel so as not to singe it. We would then iron each others hair as flat as we could get it!

Looking back at pictures of the two of us then, I still giggle and roar. I had this wave at the top of my forehead that I could not get rid of – and the rest of my hair was flattened as straight as straw! Cindy had it on both sides of her middle part too! And the worst part of it was… living here by the ocean, it didn’t last!!! As soon as we’d start dancing the heat and moisture would trickle down from our scalps and the frizzy curls would return to our dismay. Oh Cindy, how did we ever survive?

So, here I am today with Travel Tote tips #3 Hair Essentials you can add or subtract whatever works for you. Flat irons, curling irons, round brushes…and PRODUCTS! Whatever it takes to work it to your own liking 🙂

I wish I’d known then what I know now. I hope you will enjoy my Travel Tote tips #3 Hair Essentials video to help you make sure you have the basic ingredients to look natural and beautiful at any given time. It’s all you’ll need to get up and go girl!

Travel smart!

Lorelei

 

 

Travel Tote Tips #2 Makeup Essentials

Travel Tote Tips #2 Makeup Essentials

Hot summer days and too much make-up don’t mix well. In order to blend with nature, hot weather, summer swims, and breezy winds, I like to keep my make-up very simple. Especially if I want getaway at a moments notice. Here’s why I created this video Travel Tote tips #2 Makeup Essentials.

I recall a time in my career as a model when I was just 19 years old. Before I even thought of writing Travel Tote tips #2 Makeup Essentials. I had just arrived in Milan and my very first booking was in Verona Italy. I had to find my way to Milan’s Stazioni Centrale, buy a ticket and board the train with some other models. I was very nervous. I didn’t speak Italian, and I hadn’t even met my agents. Here I was already on my way to work and I had to travel across Italy to get there! Luckily I was able to find the other models in line at the ticket booth. Even in a crowded train station, American models stood out in the crowd.

These girls were a bit older than I was at the time; more seasoned and professional. So, I followed them onto the train and into the 6 seat compartment like a little lamb. As we pulled out of the station and into the grey mist of the early morning I watched the most industrial buildings of Milan pass by through the window. In the quiet of my reverie I was thinking Milan looked more like Pittsburgh than New York. When all of a sudden one of the models jolted me out of my inner mind and announced. “Uh oh, I forgot to pack my make-up bag! Do you think there will be a makeup artist there?” Another model replied, “I don’t think so, we’ll have to do our own.” The first girl then said, “oh well I do have a lipstick and an eyebrow pencil in my purse. I can use the lipstick for my lips and cheeks, the brow pencil to line my eyes and brows … what else do I really need?” And everyone agreed. What more do we really need? We all assured her that she could borrow makeup from each of us and she felt confident that she could do the job with out a makeup artist or even her own makeup bag. I will never forget that experience on that train. Ever since when I go to do my makeup I stop and think…“What do I really need to look natural and beautiful?”

I wish I’d known then what I know now. That’s why I am offering this to you. Please enjoy my Travel Tote tips #2 Makeup Essentials video to help you make sure you have the basic ingredients to look natural and beautiful at any given time. It’s all you’ll need to get up and go girl!

Travel smart!

Lorelei