Tag: Lorelei Shellist

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

 

 

Summer Travel Tote Tips

Summer Travel Tote Tips!

Hello Beautiful RunAways,

Summer is here and it’s travel time. Summer Travel Tote tips to help you pack for weekend escapes, visits to the gym, or long distance business travel.  It’s helpful and empowering to have on hand everything you need to enjoy a comfortable getaway.

As a frequent flier myself, I have often found myself in some hotel room without those little necessities I need. It may be something simple like: a cuticle cutter when a hangnail has occurred, leaving me biting instead of snipping away the problem. Or, maybe it’s a pack of matches to light a candle, a razor, aspirin or sunblock!

In my 7 part series for men and women you will learn my personal fashion, travel tote tips that show how to pack your bags – once and for all, with everything you could possibly need for those last minute emergencies and day to day necessities. Here are the first 2 videos in the series.

Travel safe my little RunAways!

Lorelei

 

Ambassadors of Style on the 4th of July!

Lorelei and Liberty Ambassadors of Style on the 4th of July! Ambassadors of Style on the 4th of July! Happy 4th of July fellow Americans and Global Citizens. What color is your flag? There are twenty countries in the world that display red, white and blue colored flags. When America adopted…

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A Wedding Dressed is a Wedding Blessed

screenshot of article A Wedding Dressed is a Wedding Blessed by Lorelei Shellist

Lorelei Shellist’s  Style Column in the April Edition of the Los Angeles FindBliss magazine. Wedding Style One of the most important and memorable times in people’s lives is their wedding day. Our response should be one of mutual respect and gratitude. How we show up for the happy couple says it all.  |…

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L’Wren Scott: Life lessons learned through love

Gossip and Pretending to know…

Lorelei, L'Wren and Gloria at runway rehearsals in Dusseldorf

Lorelei, L’Wren and Gloria at runway rehearsals in Dusseldorf

A few weeks ago upon learning about the tragic death of L’Wren Scott, a familiar heavy breath contained “itself” inside of me. We spent a very meaningful part of our lives together back in our runaway modeling days. L’Wren and I had shared the trials and tribulations of twenty-something dreamers following our hearts in a world of our own, where significance was everything, and girls like us had to prove ourselves at every turn. We were part of a kind of sorority and held each other up when the chips were down. I had to make a conscious effort to exhale upon the reality of this upsetting news, as I had not seen L’Wren in recent times.

The life of a model can be a lonely one when living out of a suitcase is de-rigueur. You never know when or from where you’ll get your next booking and meal. The competition is fierce. You are constantly being evaluated based on your looks. We ate away our own self-esteem like maggots on leftovers. In reality, we were just young women in search of love and attention at the cost of our own self worth. Yet L’Wren and I never gave up. Even when they told us “You aren’t good enough” or “blonde enough” or in L’Wren’s case…”You’re just too tall.”

Dusseldorf

Dusseldorf

As a young traveler and adventurer before the days of smart phone cameras, I was the one documenting everything! Backstage behind the scenes I was always taking pictures of my model sisters dressing and undressing, sleeping under racks of designers’ clothes, or having picnics at the make-up mirrors. Most models were just trying to nurture their most basic needs. I searched through my collection of backstage photos to find those pictures I had taken of L’Wren, this lanky, raven-haired beauty, in happier times. Every image I have of her reflected light filled, glorious smiles and laughter. There were pictures of us kicking up our legs follies style during rehearsals for fashion shows in Dusseldorf, Paris and Milan. The outfits L’Wren wore then were stylishly edgy, and ahead of their time. At only 20 years of age, she had an inner sense of fashion and was a true fashion icon in her own right.

I read the speculations appearing as authority or ‘inside scoop” in tabloids stating, “Why would a girl who seemingly had everything take her own life?” I suddenly found my own pain reignited. As the former fiancé of the late guitarist Steve Clark from Def Leppard, I had been asked that same question a thousand times about him. In my own quest to try and answer that question, it led me to write Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance & Rock ’n Roll a few years ago. My life experience in losing Steve through his own tortuous journey of self loathing, pain and consequent slow suicide led me to delve into 20 years of 12 -Step meetings, reading (or writing) multiple self-help books and ultimately earning double degrees in Spiritual Psychology and Consciousness Health & Healing from the University of Santa Monica. I currently volunteer with the Freedom to Choose Foundation, facilitating communication skills and self-forgiveness with the inmates at the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California.  I really came to terms with what was bothering me most about L’Wren Scot’s death during a session when one of the inmates practiced a technique called “perception checking” on me.

The prickly pieces of my pain were two-fold: One piece was that there was this “twenty something” part of me that needed to grieve, but I was not acknowledging the younger part of me still crying inside. I felt I had no right to grieve since I hadn’t seen L’Wren in years. Those haunting irrational beliefs of unworthiness and insignificance covered me like clouds. I had been following her glorious career path, her glamorous love life and I was so happy for her personal and professional success in the world. I’d often smile thinking, “Wow, good for her, she made it!” You see many of the girls I knew didn’t make it. They’d struggled with their own addictions or died and caused their untimely deaths as a result of those same feelings of insignificance in the fashion world. Memories came forth of L’Wren and I sharing musty hotel rooms on the road, whispering in the dark recanting stories of our childhood neglect and abandonment. L’Wren was an orphan adopted at birth and I a runaway teen. We fended for ourselves back then and now that feeling of being “alone in the world” was calling me back.

The second piece of my upset was the presumptuous press surrounding her death…what I feel is the act of pretending to know. Speculations appeared about her financial debt, possible issues with her boyfriend or cancellation of her fashion show and finally “her losing face” as the cause. No one has written about L’Wren’s inner pain as a potential cause. It was as if her outer world reality is now defining her identity. In reality, to L’Wren it was her inner world that truly mattered. How can any of us ever profess to know what it felt like to have been abandoned by birth parents and then abandoned again when her own adoptive parents died? None of us will never know her suffering or how she felt about herself. What we can express is our compassion and love for her and our own.

The tragic death of L’Wren taught me just how painful gossip can be. In pretending to know or make assumptions about another person, we are gossiping. To quote Dr. David Paul from the University of Santa Monica and Co-Founder of the Freedom to Choose Foundation who so skillfully mirrored back to me in my grief: “It is even more painful when we gossip to ourselves.” In other words, every time I say negative things to myself about myself, I am gossiping inside myself. This is where the pain of “pretending to know” begins.

Runway rehearsals- Dusseldorf

L’Wren Scott in Germany –

Me telling myself I wasn’t worthy of grieving the loss of her and that our friendship was insignificant, only hurt that younger part of me who indeed shared love, laughter, runways and whispers in the dark with the beautiful L’Wren. Here I was,  imprisoning myself from the truth of who I am as a worthy person. In that moment, standing in front of over 300 female prisoners and anchoring myself in my worthiness, I forgave myself for my own misinterpretations of who I am. I am so grateful to have shared even a piece of my life with such a strong and gentle soul such as hers. Thank you L’Wren, you made the world a more beautiful place and it is my intention to add to the sum-total of significant love and beauty in this world you left behind.

See you again up on the Runway in the Sky.

Forever and Ever,
Lorelei Shellist

Best-Selling Author, Fashion/Beauty Columnist @ Find Bliss Magazine, Model, Spokesperson, Host and Fashion Icon™ Stylist -SAG / PEN USA / FGI / FTC / USM

Pretending to know PDF

How to become a Fashion Icon™ with clothes already in your closet!

Once you discover the Fashion Icon inherent in you, you’ll understand what you really do need in your closet and why.

Become your own Fashion Icon™- armoire with clothes and shoes spilling out it

How to become a Fashion Icon™ with clothes already in your closet!

When you know your FASHION ICON PERSONALITY ARCHETYPES,™ it is much easier to make sense of the “Closet Puzzle”.

Letting go of old favorites, even when they “don’t fit,” or, are “out of style,” brings up issues that may trace back to our childhoods. Remember when you had to finally give up that blanket or stuffed toy and grow up? Many times we hold on to things that are symbols of “security” or “comfort,” even when we have grown out of them, or they have passed their shelf life. What happens is they just take up space and add to the clutter. This physical world block is like an emotional traffic jam in our closets and drawers. It is how we “stuff things” in the material world, when what we really need is to find that comfort and security inside of ourselves so we can express ourselves through the way we dress with confidence and ease. Releasing anything; clothes, ideas, irrational beliefs, even relationships, is always a process. It doesn’t have to be painful. It’s all in how we approach it.

This program will help you release items that are not really “you,” and see the clothes you do have – in a new and fashionable way.

You will…

  • Transform and up-level your self image while making sure each item in your closet really belongs there.
  • Create space and turn your closet into a sacred place.
  • Release & Let Go of thoughts and beliefs that don’t support you in feeling and looking your best.
  • Release excess clothing that you’ll never wear and make room, so your closet is easy to visualize & organize.
  • Receive Tax Breaks when you Donate to your favorite Charity.
  • Choose outfits more quickly when dressing on the fly.
  • Open up energy and space for the Fashion Icon You™ to come through.

Do the clothes in my closet really belong to me?

Bliss and Bare Beauty

Someone took the fun out of fashion and I want it back! Dear Beauties, I hope you will enjoy my column this month in FIND BLISS Magazine for more about discovering the beauty inside of you.  Does a rose judge its thorns? I don’t think so. When we begin to accept ourselves…

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