Tory Burch on negativity and noise

Do you have a mantra or a phrase that you live by?

"Negativity is noise."

 

I liked this bit in the Q&A with Tory Burch in the March issue of Harper's Bazaar. I personally don't own any Tory Burch things -- I just tend to shy away from wearing bold prints and bright colors, though I do like her new fragrance -- but I certainly admire Burch as a businesswoman who's built one of the most recognizable and successful new fashion brands in decades.

Reading the quote above reminded me that she's actually grown her company amidst quite a bit of negativity and noise, much of it quite personal and undoubtedly hurtful. It's kind of remarkable that despite the public turmoil, when you think of Tory Burch you never think of any type of trouble: She and her company have maintained a cool, crisp, serene, and successful image through it all. It's funny how sometimes the truest grit can be found in what looks like a pretty and peaceful package.

"Everything is possible"

"There's something about experiencing loss very young. My mom used to talk about it all the time because her dad died when she was an infant. In my case, it was my father and brother.

You never feel safe, but at the same time, you know everything is possible — both good and bad."

 -A poignant sentiment from Anderson Cooper on on the anxiety, fear, and also valuable perspective that can come from sudden or unexpected loss, in an otherwise flip joint interview he did with Kathy Griffin in the New York Times

The key commandment of writing

"...She said that she has one key commandment of writing'Ass in the chair.'"

 

I often think of this quip from the fascinating and fun to read June 2009 New Yorker profile of the prolific romance novelist Nora Roberts (who also writes mysteries under the nom de plume of J.D. Robb.) 

Disco Christmas trees

"In the disco era, we hung our Christmas tree from the upper reaches of the ceiling, its lights dazzling like a mirror ball as it worryingly spun. Another year, my mother, disinclined to go out in the snow and buy a tree, just painted one onto the wall."

Isabel Fonseca wrote an enjoyable to read article in the November 14th issue of the New York Times' T Magazine about what it was like to grow up in an apartment (pictured above) with artistic parents in Greenwich Village in the 1960s and 1970s.

My generation is in some ways more cautious than the last couple of preceding generations were. I'd argue that this is often by necessity (it's hard to be footloose when you start out your adult life with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. Or to be whimsical decorating a house that you've mortgaged for hundreds of thousands, since home prices have also risen precipitously in the past couple of decades.)

Still, I'd like to bring some of that old school freestyle spirit back into my life, especially when I have children of my own. "It's too snowy outside. Mom's just going to paint the Christmas tree on the wall this year" sounds like the start of a fun holiday season.