I got a chance to step out of the hustle and bustle and go to Puerto Rico for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

There is something to be said for having the sun beat me into submission to the point that I am catatonic. It’s a feeling I live for after a heavy workload.

Now I won’t go on about my love for Puerto Rico since I’ve already done that in past posts over the years but, I will discuss the amazing fascination Puerto Rican men have with tweezing their eye brows.

I am dying to do a short documentary on why men tweeze or over tweeze their eyebrows. I’m fascinated. Some of these eyebrows are pencil thin and at the same time the guys look like macho gangsters. I don’t get it! Not that I need to get it, it is just my opinion, but it does seem like a riddle that’s dying to be solved.

How did it start? Who perpetuates it? Is it their girlfriends making suggestions? How is it decided that a pencil thin eyebrow is desirable? Do they think it looks feminine or masculine?

Maybe someone can explain the origin to me. If so, that person and I could do a quick documentary and submit it to Sundance Film Festival. What do you think?

Every year I design a quick capsule collection of jewelry that we sell to our customers online for a true bargain. This year we called it our Online Sample Sale.  It’s our way of giving back to our customers and only last for 5 days.

The design team gets to use components that we no longer work with and we design something completely new from them. Its kind of a mini Project Runway. This year it includes faceted tourmaline, hand cut amethyst in shades of light and dark purple, custom hand made Baroque flowers, hand carved lucite links, onyx that’s been hand cut in geometric shapes, nuggets of Rose Quartz and much more. The values are amazing and I think this selection is better than ever. I hope you enjoy them.

Hope you and your families are enjoying the Thanksgiving day weekend. We all have a lot to be grateful for. I for one am thankful that I escaped to Puerto Rico… Not very traditional, but very warm!

After Nicolas Ghesquiere has announced that he is leaving Balenciaga, it gave me time to think about the ever changing landscape of the fashion industry.

There were a lot of comments that Nicolas leaving was the “end of an era”. In some ways I would agree. With the passing of McQueen, Galliano being booted and now Nicolas resigning, it does appear that the few creative minds that have shaped creativity in fashion are dwindling quickly.

There are still a few pillars (like Rei from Comme Des Garcon, Raf Simmons and Marc Jacobs who are known for understanding the theatrics of fashion as well as the artistry) working today, but there does seem to be a dramatic lack of talent at the moment. There is always the new young crop of designers that the industry pushes forward, but these days, they seem to follow the heavies listed above. It has definitely left a huge vacuum for creative designers to come forth. Let’s hope some do and put creativity first before being sucked into the aspects of business and making money in the industry.

Here are few pics of Nicolas’ work:

Nicole and I met first in Scottsdale at another personal appearance I was doing. Her husband was stationed in Japan at the time, and she came to do a little shopping and say hi. At the time she struck me as one of those amazing examples of a perfectly balanced and beautiful person that is SO hard to find. She has 4 gorgeous children and her heart radiates.

Apparently Nicole has started a business designing tee shirts. Her business is called Cotton Candy Playground and you can visit her website here (www.cottoncandyplayground.com). This is an image of her latest, very chic indeed.

I heard that the Pope is starting to tweet. As much as I love technology, I found that a bit too progressive… The imagery seems strange, imagining him tweeting after mass.

I’m obsessed with the Sunset Tower Hotel in LA. I stay there when I’m in LA for its old Deco charm and boutique feel. It doesn’t feel like a club and there are only 8 suites on each floor.  If you want a low key hotel this is the joint.

The First Lady on the road, wearing another Flower Pin!

Today is Election Day, GO VOTE!!!!

My friend Todd had a family vacation and discovered that his 14 year old nephew, Zak, is a budding designer who lives in Southern California.

Apparently, he has been studying Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, taking in all the nuances.

Todd asked me if I could look at his work and give him some pointers. At first I thought, he’s probably going to be super young and really rough around the edges… Which at 14 years old, what more could you expect?!

After I looked at Zak’s work, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This kid has got some crazy talent! He designs and edits his own magazine. He styles the hair, does the art direction and meticulously designs the dresses which he sews himself and uses Barbie as a model.

Some of the shots would give FIT students a run for their money, and since I have designed 2 Barbie’s myself, I felt not only competitive looking at Zak’s work, but intimidated!

I think we will see a lot more of Zak in the future so I wanted to be the first to introduce this talented kid to the world… World meet Zak.

You can check out Zak’s blog here http://www.behance.net/zp

Here’s a look at some of his work: