February 2003

February 28th 2003
New York City

My head hurts.  Last night was a charity event at new NYC hot spot Capitale for the International Neuroscience Foundation and I effectively lifted my ban on alcohol just for the occasion.  The evening started with a round of pre-party drinks at Double Happiness where I met up with one of our favorite Vogue editors Meredith Melling-Burke, her foxy younger brother Chris Melling, musician / tea mogul Moby, and my dashing date Paul Sevigny, who manages our favorite rock band A.R.E. Weapons (buy 5 copies of their CD today track #1 rules).  From drinks we headed over to the party which had all the right ingredients for success, including an open bar, hip-hop, a good cause, and HOLLYWOULDs favorite party girls Nikki Hilton, Amy Sacco, Fernanda Niven, Beth Blake, Liz Cohen, Alexandra von Furstenberg, Emilia Fanjul, Shoshanna Lonstein, Charlotte Ronson, Ali Nichols, etc, etc.   After an evening of dancing the night away we all moved the party to Bungalow Eight where the festivities continued without missing a beat.  If youve never been to Bungalow Eight, it is New Yorks ultimate jet-set crowd party spot and I dont think Ive ever been there when the place wasnt packed with people spilling drinks and dancing on chairs and tables, which is the telltale sign of any great club.  From Bungalow we headed down a few blocks to The Park to continue the fiesta, and to visit/stalk my oh-so-handsome Secret Crush. 

This is where the sadness begins: I had barely walked in the door when I ran into my Secret Crush with his . girlfriend!   Thats right, he has a girlfriend.  Months ago I had heard rumors of a girlfriend from a very unreliable source, but since I had never seen her I assumed she was a myth.  Much to my dismay she does indeed exist.  This means that I will have to find a way to fall out of crush as its never a good idea to crush on someone elses boyfriend.  I never much liked the Spice Girls (well, thats not 100% true as I did pay to see Spice World in the theater - Spice Girls, you owe me $9), but I do have to agree that a certain amount of girl power is a good idea, and we must stick together and not try to steal each others men.  As if finding out about the girlfriend wasnt bad enough, I also found out that night that my Secret Crush was not only oh-so-handsome but also smart, funny, and full of extraordinary potential (I have to admit that up until this point I had only loved him for his good looks, cute outfits and nice hands.), which will make falling out of crush even harder.  Sigh.  Who could ever replace him?  50 Cent?

Not one to let utter despair ruin an evening of fun, I headed up to the bar and luckily spotted one of my oldest and favorite friends, rock star Jorge Gonzales tearing up the dance floor with his bandmates, as well as my art star pal Hope Atherton looking fantastic in a pair white jeans tucked into our famous HOLLYWOULD legwarmer boots.  Yeah!  I managed to document the whole evening (thanks to Moby teaching me how to use my new camera!) but the party pics wont post until Monday when HOLLYWOULDs smarty-pants COO Leslie Ternes returns from vacation and teaches us morons how to do it.  What would we do without her?!

February 26th 2003
New York City

We get a little bit of fan mail here at HOLLYWOULD, most of which is directed towards my 23 year old brother Boots (yes, thats his name), who is pictured on our website (see store launch party pics) as Bar Man Boots.  He has quite a following and Im thinking it may be a good idea to set up a dating service so that he and his cute friends can meet HOLLYWOULD Girls, as they are always the cutest girls in town.

When mail isnt coming for my brother it sometimes come for me, and the note below was received just today and is one of my favorites thus far:

Dearest Holly (or her right-hand woman, whichever),

I am a man.  Please don't hold this against me; and I am lucky enough to be married to the most wonderful woman in the world.  Now, being said man, I must also point out that while doing the requisite manly things (killing cockroaches, changing oil, and watching football), I am oddly enough in touch with my feminine side.  My wife loves to have me go with her clothes shopping, I can pick out most perfumes by scent alone, and I don't find it strange that my wife owns 80+ pairs of shoes.

Which brings me to YOU, Holly!  For an uneducated man, I make decent money, support my family (we have a wonderful 3 year-old son) and am able to indulge in the finer things occasionally.  However, my wife, after having fallen in love with your shoes, and purchased 2 pairs totaling $500 or so (I passed out after glancing @ the receipt and saw a white light; my memory is fuzzy) has seriously cut into our vacation money.  What's worse, she wants another pair!!  What have you done to her?  I admit, I looked at the shoes, quality craftsmanship, and they look sexy as hell on her, but I'm dying here!  She skipped over Manolos on a recent trip to Dallas, and she wasn't impressed by Jimmy Choo....so I thought I was safe.  Here in New Orleans, we have fine clothing and accessories available, but not to the extent as New York or L.A.  Until Hollywould, that is. (Damn Magnifeet shoe store!!)

So I propose a simple plan:  Perhaps a buy 2 get the third pair 1/2 off?  Or a Donate to Robert's Wife's Shoe Fund?  We read your diary on the website; it's very cute.....I am also thirty, and have lots of single, attractive friends in New York (I was born there).  Maybe I could fix Holly up? 

Anyway, I wanted to take the time to also say thank you; my wife truly loves your shoes and the joy she gets from wearing them and the reactions her friends and people have on the street to them is more than worth the price.  You have a vocal and proud saleslady down here!

Sincerely,    Robert M.

February 25th 2003
New York City

The big news yesterday was that novelist extraordinaire, Danielle Steele, and her lovely, famous, socialite daughters came to the store to stock up on HOLLYWOULDs before heading back to their homes in San Francisco.  I was never allowed to read Danielle Steele novels as a teenager, which must mean that they are fantastic.  Am heading to the bookstore today to stock up for my next international flight and my only dilemma is whether Ill read Wanderlust or Season of Passion first.  Hmmm

And now the news youve all been waiting for The Secret Crush Update.  I was actually very content to let mentions of my Secret Crush fall by the wayside but it seems you are more interested in him than Oprah, the Grammys, and Lil Kim combined.   My inbox if full of emails from people wanting hints, wondering if Ive seen him lately, talked to him, fallen out of crush, etc., so here is your answer:

Yes, Ive seen my Secret Crush twice in the last week and the crush is still on.  The only problem is that when he is within 15 feet of me I become unable to think or speak.  This shyness is completely out of character for me as I am usually happy to dance the lambada with any gang of Puerto Rican strangers, but my Secret Crushs very presence makes me feel and act like a 6^th Grade girl.  The solution to this problem, of course, is booze, and I need to be more disciplined about consuming it when he is around.  My recent decision to detox (see Jan 26^th) has greatly impaired my socializing ability and its really not something I would recommend for anyone. 

Will keep you posted if I must . . .

February 23rd 2003
New York City

Its Grammy weekend and weve had celebrity stylists borrowing from our store all week long.  In case youre interested, the whole celebrity borrowing thing works like this:  A stylist for say, Gwen Stefani, will call and ask us to send up 8 or 9 pairs of shoes for Gwen to see early in the week.  Now, a girl like Gwen doesnt need a stylist to tell her what to wear, but since she cant do all of the shopping & schlepping herself she uses a stylist with a good eye to help her out.  They will keep the shoes all week long while Gwen tries on her outfits, and then will send back anything Gwen doesnt wear for the big night.  Im using Gwen as an example because she is one of our favorites and even wore HOLLYWOULD shoes, which she purchased in LA, on her album cover!  Love Gwen.  Anyway, if the celebrities wear the shoes on TV we let them keep them.  Often times the celebrities will want to keep the shoes they dont wear, but in this case we make them pay.  Some celebs think all shoes should be a gift (not Gwen, but some we wont mention) and these celebrities need a little lesson in capitalism.  One celeb who understands the barter system is our favorite Queen Bee, Lil Kim.

For last years Grammys Lil Kim called our store and wanted to borrow shoes.  Her stylist kindly asked us our Celebrity Lending Policy which is this:  

First, you must be a real celebrity.  B-Listers need not apply.  You keep the shoes you wear on TV.  You pay for the rest.  If you are photographed in a pair of HOLLYWOULDs in a national publication/TV you get 1 free pair as a gift.  If the photo mentions HOLLYWOULD (celebs often have to go out of their way to make sure shoes get mentioned) you get 2 free pairs as a gift.  If you are quoted specifically mentioning your love for HOLLYWOULD you get 3 free pairs as a gift.  

Well, if anyone saw last years Grammy aftershow they witnessed Miss Lil Kim workin hard for the money.  In every photo she was pointing to her HOLLYWOULD boots, she pushed every camera down to her feet, and mentioned her love for HOLLYWOULD over and over again all night long.   Kim technically earned at least 30 pairs that night if you combine all of the mentions, and luckily she is our sample size so she has HOLLYWOULDs for life.  She even wore them when she presented a grant for AIDS research to the United Nations last year.  We love Kim.

Speaking of HOLLYWOULDs in the press, I ran into the lovely Ione Skye last night who was quoted in this months W magazine expressing her love for the HOLLYWOULD ballet shoe.  She was at the pre-Grammy Blender party to see her brother Donovan Leitch perform as the evenings MC.  The Blender theme meant that the evening was a concert of rotating musicians from all different bands performing rock n rolls greatest hits.  I had been invited to the party by Moby, who at one point was rocking on stage with a line-up that included Kid Rock, Slash, Dave Navarro, and Gavin Rossdale.  Now, if you read this diary often you know that Im really more of a hip-hop girl, but I do have to admit that the Blender evening of rock ballads rekindled my love for the music of the white man, so dont be surprised if we have ACDCs Back In Black rocking on the speakers next time you visit the HOLLYWOULD store.

Tonight at the Grammys look out for the beautiful & talented Nora Jones in our shoes as she was just pictured wearing them in the New York Post this week!

February 22nd 2003
New York City

In case you are one of the five Americans who doesnt watch Oprah Winfrey, I must tell you that HOLLYWOULD was mentioned on Fridays show and our phones havent stopped ringing since.   Apparently, there was a very attractive woman sitting in the audience and when Oprah called her to the stage and demanded to know who made her boots this fabulous person, God bless her, exclaimed on national TV, Theyre by this designer HOLLYWOULD from New York City. The boots, FYI, were a pair of our famous legwarmer boots in a limited edition color of which we only made 12 pairs.   Who was this dedicated HOLLYWOULD girl?  Please give us a ring so we can reward you!  And Oprah, we love you.

February 17th 2003
Palm Beach

While it has been blizzarding in NYC, I have spent the last 3 days basking in the Florida sun.  Unfortunately I wrongfully decided to wear 15 proof sunscreen so I will depart as pale as I arrived, but the sunshine has been nice nonetheless. 

I arrived very jet-lagged and sans luggage on Valentines Day just in time for a big group dinner at Bice.  If youve never been to Bice in Palm Beach, you have been missing out on one of the most impressive plastic surgery showcases in town.  Big boobs, big lips, cat eyes, and button noses abounding, most of the crowd would make Michael Jackson feel right at home.  Our table, however, was full of New Yorks natural beauties including handbag designer Fernanda Niven, HOLLYWOULD PR pro Liz Cohen, Threads Beth Blake, movie producer Rachel Peters, Eres girl Jennifer Reinnes, Lucky magazines Ashley Kennedy, Glamour mags Ali Nichols, and Killaen von Rensselaer & Steve Clark, who I guess have some sort of boy jobs that have nothing to do with fashion thank God.  I know Im forgetting half the table but I was jet-lagged and drinking mimosas so Im thankful to remember a thing. 

Everyone was down in Palm Beach for Presidents Weekend and a Saturday lunch and fashion show hosted by Eres & HOLLYWOULD at the Brazilian Court Hotel.  For those of you who dont know, Eres is the worlds most luxury swimwear label and is owned by Chanel.  When they decided to have a show in Palm Beach and asked us to do the shoes we were thrilled, especially when we found out the weekend was to be hosted at the Brazilian Court Hotel, which is a bungalow style Five Star hotel that has just been re-vamped for the new jet-set crowd.  Saturdays fashion show was a huge success with all of my and New York Societys favorite girls in attendance, including Fabiola Beracasa, Ginny Bond, Emilia Fanjul, and Kathy Hilton.  From the show and lunch everyone headed to the beach where we swam and unsuccessfully tried to play word games including Name That Band and a vocabulary game invented by Steve Clark that was about as much fun as studying for the SAT.  The activities and alcohol consumption continued at dinner where my tablemates and I drank sake like water, and from there moved to Palm Beachs premiere nightclub 250.  Or is it 205?  520?  Who can remember?  Anyway, the drinkin & dancin continued until 3am when this jet-lagged gal finally decided to hit the hay.

Last night I headed up to Johns Island to see my beautiful grandmother Lolo and have dinner with Mrs. Forbes and her son Michael.  Dinner conversation ranged from the impending war to yachting to film and we made a few decisions on each topic.  On War:  boycotting France would be a great solution if it werent for that darn Herms.  On Yachting:  better to rent than to own as you really wont use it year-round and who needs that upkeep headache?   On Film:  Dr. Doolittle 2, which we all saw on the plane, really was a fine, under-rated film and Eddie Murphy really does deserve an Oscar for his portrayal of the Dr.

February 13th 2003
Paris, France

Word from the office is that Shania Twain is wearing our boots in this weeks Rolling Stone.  My Shania-loving younger brother will finally appreciate what I do for a living.

I have spent the last two days in Paris and it has been lovely.  Yes, the French are a difficult, pretentious, rude, unfriendly and argumentative nation of people, but after spending three years in Paris I have learned to love them.  Im here for the Premiere Vision fabric show and have found many delicious luxury trims youll be seeing in HOLLYWOULDs Spring 2004 Collections.   Have also paid visits to my favorite galleries & museums today, so you may see a bit of impressionism from me for next spring too.  Having to come up with next springs fashion so far in advance is always a challenge, especially considering I cant even decide what I want to wear tonight, let alone a year from now.

Speaking of tonight, I was counting on my trs in-the-know Parisian friends Cedric & Laurent to plan a great night on the town and all theyve managed to come up with is a rave in the banlieue (suburbs).  Its good to know people still have raves.  I guess theyre the new retro thing amongst le hyper-cool super-underground hipsters d Paris.  Despite this alluring invitation I may have to decline considering that (a) I have a 7AM flight to Palm Beach and (b) I stupidly forgot to pack my visor, glow sticks, and pacifier.  Dommage.

February 10th 2003
New York City

Have you seen the new March issue of W Magazine???  If the answer is no then you must run out today, buy 10 copies, and then subscribe for life.  That is, after all, what my mom did just this morning.  The reason for all of the ranting and raving is a full page article that appears on page 237 about HOLLYWOULD!  We have spent the whole morning screaming with delight.  As my mother reminded me, from about age 11 onward she had to fight me tooth and nail to please, please, please refrain from wallpapering my entire bedroom with the beautiful large format W editorials.  While other young girls had posters of the Culture Club, my room was a scary shrine to W Mag until I finally left home to become a fashion designer in NYC.  We love you W !!!

Am off to Paris today and then to Palm Beach for Valentines Day.  Cant decide what shoes to wear on V-day, as I am torn between our Pink Cannes & Pink Corsica.  So many choices for a girl with more shoes than Imelda.

February 9th 2003
New York City

Ooohhh, last night was a good one.  The evening started with a trip to NYCs Centro Fly to dance the night away to DJ Mark Ronsons (brother of Charlotte, boyfriend of HOLLYWOULD favorite Rashida Jones) mix of hip hop favorites.  We were delighted to run into Kelly Osbourne there, looking magnificent in a pair of Chanel logo earmuffs (indoors).  The girls here at the office do not understand my love for and fascination with the entire Osbourne family, but I think they are all fabulous.  Love Ozzy, adore Sharon, love Kelly, and dont really even mind Jack.  Bloody magicians. 

From Centro Fly we headed further downtown to an undisclosed nightclub at an undisclosed location with an undisclosed DJ, undisclosed celebrities, and my undisclosed Secret Crush.  To reveal even one of the above facts would completely blow my cover, and hence the secret part of my crush.  Following Ebony & Ambers advice (kind of), I went out of my way to raise my eyebrow from across the room numerous times (see Feb 8^th), but have yet to see the results.  Will keep you posted 

February 8th 2003
New York City

I have to apologize for the fact that this entire diary is one big name dropping adventure.  Not only do I shamelessly drop every celebrity's name in the book, but I even go so far as to bold them.  Ive thought about writing entries about my nephew Tee, my building superintendent Juan, or my doorman Antonio, but I just dont think youd find them quite as entertaining.  Speaking of Antonio...

Last night I had planned on staying home to catch up on my beauty rest and reality TV when a friend called and invited me to the Yohji Yamamoto party at Barneys New York.  Not one to pass up a fashion party, I put on a pair of skin tight jeans, tucked them into our new (Fall 2003!) suede knee-high lavender boots, and threw on my white fur bomber.  As I sauntered down to my building's lobby it never once dawned on me that I might look exactly like Donna Summer, or worse yet a working girl.  My reality was jarred when as I waited for my friend to arrive in his car, Antonio said to me in a concerned voice, 'Excuse me Miss, do you even know the name of the man coming to get you tonight?'  Hmmm... too late to change.

When we arrived at Barneys it was a mob scene outside and I wasn't going to stand in line in my hooker outfit in the freezing cold.  Luckily, our lovely and talented stylist friend Kate Ruth was working the door, so she whizzed us passed the velvet ropes and into the warmth of the party.  And warm it was.  The first person I ran into was my fabulous friend Victor Glemaud, who works for KCD doing Versace's PR.  With Victor was my other fabulous friend, who I have known since we shared a flat in Paris years ago, Hanuk Kim.  Hanuk is an incredible fashion designer (Hillary Swank is his #1 fan!) and he just launched a new website at http://www.ideapuddle.com/.  Victor, Hanuk, and I spend so much time together we are practically triplets, and since Victor is black and Hanuk is Korean and I am white as the driven snow, it makes perfect sense that we long ago decided to change our names to Ebony (Victor), Amber (Hanuk), and Ivory (me) when were together.

Ebony and Amber are fantastic at giving boy advice, and they both think this Secret Crush thing has gone on for way too long.  The boys suggested that it was high time I made the first move to let him know I adore him.  As any gay man will tell you, making the first move entails calling a boy, asking him to come over, and then answering the door naked.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) my idea of making the first move is batting my eyelashes, gazing longingly, and raising my eyebrow from across a crowded room.  The boys don't think this behavior will get me anywhere fast, but all good things take time.

From Barneys, Ebony, Amber, and Ivory decided to head down to the Sub-Mercer where our friend Sophie Dahl was having a party.  If you've ever read the diary you know how much I love Sophie, and last night she looked delightful in a black lace dress.  Also there was Sophie's pal Bay Garnett, who aside from being co-founder of thrift magazine Cheap Date, has also been styling designer Matthew Williamson's recent London collections.  Bay looked fab as usual and both of those girls have such radiant skin.   Oh to be an English Rose.  As far as boys were concerned, there was the foxy Joaquin Phoenix, who must be filming in NYC as I have been running into him everywhere, and rock star Moby. 

I met Moby a few years ago through friends in Paris and he lives near our Nolita shop and drops by to say hello every now and again.  A couple of months ago I was out of town and our sales girl happened to be playing Moby's music in the store when he came by.  She is a big fan of Moby's and was distraught and embarrassed that she had actually been rocking to his music when he walked in the door.  It took her weeks to get over it, and she vowed to only play the music of dead artists from then on.  As you can imagine, we all quickly got sick of listening to non-stop Ella Fitzgerald and had to break her vow after a week.  Today we're listening to Justin Timberlake, who we adore, and all the girls are hoping he'll stop in and show us some dance moves.  Britney, what on earth are you thinking?

February 7th 2003
New York City

What a week this has been! 

Our Monday began with a call from the lovely Reese Witherspoons publicist who wanted to give us a quote from Reese about our shoes.  We had called her last week in desperate need of a celebrity quote for an upcoming article on HOLLYWOULD, and Reese answered our call with a fantastic sound bite about how much she loves our shoes, especially the flower clips on our new spring line (see the collection).  Thank you Reese, we love you too!

Our Tuesday began with a call from Cameron Diazs publicist who said that the beautiful Miss Diaz had given her a handful of press clippings with pictures of HOLLYWOULD shoes and requested that she Please, please, please track down a pair for me!  There is nothing we love more than helping Cameron Diaz into a pair of HOLLYWOULDs, so keep an eye out for her wearing them around town this spring.  Only moments after we hung up the phone with Camerons publicist we received a call from Courtney Loves publicist, who requested a pair of HOLLYWOULDs for Courtneys upcoming London performance.  Unfortunately we had to put him on hold and lost the connection.  It seems Courtney was arrested that very same day for disorderly conduct on an airplane.  My flights are never that exciting.

On Wednesday I received a call (in person!) from Boston Publics gorgeous and talented Rashida Jones, who cant wait to get our new summer boots (coming this June) and wanted to order a pair of ballets.  She insisted on paying for them, which is a rare sign of class among todays Hollywood starlets.  We love you Rashida.  Our day was also spent fielding calls brought on by a certain rumor, printed in the New York Posts Page 6 about a certain celebrity family shopping in the HOLLYWOULD store in Nolita.  While I admit to unabashedly filling this diary with celebrity names, we never give celeb scoop to the press so we dont know where the super sleuths at the Post got their top secret and strangely timed information. 

Which brings us to Thursday . . . Thursday we had a visit from London Shoe Legend Tamara Mellon, co-owner of Jimmy Choo.  She stopped by to tell us how much she loved the line, and since the feeling is mutual we were very, very flattered.  While Tamara was here we were also paid a visit by Victoria Traina-Steele, teenage daughter of novelist Danielle Steele.  Apparently Victoria and her sister Vanessa are San Franciscos answer to Paris & Nicky, and we love meeting fashionable sisters who love looking gorgeous.  Today I also received a pretty hand written note from the exquisite Liv Tyler.  Such class. Liv, where do you get your beautiful stationary?  And as if all of the above wasnt enough for just one day, I ran into the hilarious and talented Mr. Owen Wilson.  If you remember, the last time I ran into Owen I was three sheets to the wind (see Jan 17).  Well, the fact is that Mr. Wilson looks much cuter when Im sober (isnt it supposed to be the reverse?), and for confirmation is 61 tall.  After all, he is supermodel Hansel McDonald of Zoolander fame.

Speaking of supermodels, we recieved news today (from the Jill Kohl store in Los Angeles) that supermodel-turned-starlette Amber Valetta has been buying HOLLYWOULDs for every occasion.  Amber has always been ahead of the trends, so were thrilled to be on her beautiful feet!  And most important of all is that last night I ran into, sigh, my Secret Crush looking handsome as ever.  Everything about him is simply divine.  Will keep you posted . . .