Van Cleef & Arpels, known for leg­endary jew­els of mythic pro­por­tions, is throw­ing a Fash­ion Week party that equals in stature. Nearly 8000 hand addressed (in some of the most hand­some cal­lig­ra­phy I’ve ever seen) invi­ta­tions were sent out. VCA’s “Une journée à Paris” (trans­la­tion: A day in Paris) is a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of rare gems and jew­elry that the com­pany cre­ated to cel­e­brate its one hun­dredth anniver­sary. I will be in atten­dance (and yes, I am still in delib­er­a­tion about to wear. It calls for “fes­tive attire” which means my tried-and-true black won’t fly. Maybe I’ll give gray a go—the “it” color for fall. Or brown with cit­rine and smoky topaz accents, which is a bit more like party fare. In any case, I’ll report back and let you know all the sparkling details.

In Octo­ber, Sotheby’s will host an exhi­bi­tion cel­e­brat­ing the life and per­sonal style of Princess Grace of Monaco, who, before she mar­ried the Prince, was the beau­ti­ful actress Grace Kelly. As a avid fan, I am look­ing for­ward to view­ing her col­lec­tion of jew­elry, dresses, pho­tographs, and let­ters. There will also be video high­light­ing the spe­cial events she attended as well as a few pri­vate moments she shared. It should be an inspi­ra­tional show and I under­stand that it will be open to the public.

And last, if you would like to see some great con­tem­po­rary jew­elry, please visit www.Luprocks.com. The two women who run the site have worked behind the scenes sup­ply­ing Hol­ly­wood (includ­ing our favorite ladies from Sex and the City) with oh-so-fab pieces that we admire while munch­ing on pop­corn. The site is brand new (as in up and run­ning just last week) and fun to browse.

I’m away all of next week and so there will be no new posts until Sep­tem­ber. Haven’t had much of a sum­mer try­ing to meet my ever-pressing book dead­lines, so I am look­ing for­ward to a lot of r & r with my family.

If you would like to see my book, Brooches: Time­less Adorn­ment, please go to Amazon.com and type in the title. You can also pre-order it. I’m very proud of the cover because I styled it myself and David Behl, our bril­liant pho­tog­ra­pher, did an amaz­ing job of shoot­ing it. He sent me the image and I’ve kept it on my desk ever since.

Well, anyway…have a great week and I’ll see you when I return!