Piece 1, S/S 2023 Collection Enchante

Enchante is the French word for “nice to meet you”. And nice it sure is. Nice to both be here, in this space, with the chance to meet others. But also, nice to be writing. Being creative. Going with my flow, as they say.

I have a small obsession. It’s quotes. Nothing gives me quite the shimmy or the shake than a sensible grouping of words that have inspirational meaning and that I can use to change the way that I am thinking about life or whatever is happening in the world. I have another small obsession. Things that rhyme. Plays on words. And so, it didn’t take long, after having lived in Paris for a few years, for the idea to bubble up in my mind that just like high fashion, Haute Couture, as they so elegantly call it en francais, there could also be a place in the world for a higher than high collection of quotes too. And so, The Haute Quoture ™ was born.

What I plan to curate is a runway worthy collection of written pieces each inspired by its muse, the Quote, for readers to try on and if it fits, allow it to adorn their consciousness. Each piece will be carefully and passionately designed by me, your personal Quoturier. Every seasonal collection, or individual release, will of course be on trend, addressing and reflecting only the needs of the particular time, the topical issues circulating the worlds air space. And, each piece will also diffuse an air of my own personal vulnerability as I create each one to reveal some of my own stories, ideas or opinions. Think of each blog piece as wisdom you can wear.

The reason I have started this blog is because in writing I have found my own personal and most effective mode of communication. I am an extreme extrovert who is a petrified pansy when I have to present or speak publicly. How does that even make sense? Every time I do it, people tell me that they would never have known. Which granted, does make me a great actress. But the personal and private torture I go through before (and after with my post presentation rumination) publicly standing up to verbalise my thoughts and ideas is silent but deadly. Yet, when I write, it is easy, enjoyable, fun, light.

I have always wondered which one is more true. That ignorance is bliss or that knowledge is power. Sure, I can think of the absence of certain knowledge being a form of utopia when the incoming information is of the kind that would unleash tears, fears or automobiles. But if you don’t ever find out what it is that is so horrible in the first place, how do you even know of, feel or experience, the rapture? That is not bliss. That is just business as usual. On the other hand, knowledge of either the good or the bad on its way, or, already on your doorstep wiping its feet, will deliver either cause for wild celebration or an invitation to a personal pity party.

But in both of these scenarios, unlike the supposed bliss born from ignorance, you get to really feeeeeeeeel the resultant power, because in a state of knowledge you are aware of the facts regardless of whether they are good, bad or ugly. In fact, that knowledge serves you up one giant platter of power. The power to alter your own future. And better yet, knowing what you are facing, you can commence down the pathway of discovering even more knowledge to either enhance and elongate the jolly jamboree or find a direct path out of pity and towards proactive productivity.

Life has been extraordinarily kind to me. I am married to a Croatian hunk of spunk. I am the mother of a six-year-old smart as a whip mini me. I have family I treasure, close friends for good measure, a career that has brought me pleasure and afforded me comfortable leisure. Told you I like rhymes. I volunteer, I always give back and in the sanctum of community I have been protected.

But life has also thrown me, at various corners, some challenge curve balls. My baseline personality to start with. Thanks for that. Three words. Anxious, oversensitive, catastrophiser. Daddy issues. Mack Daddy level Daddy issues. I.V.F. Two years, seven drug induced rounds. The C word. Of a rare kind. Engulfed in my head and neck and attached to nerves in my brain. More on those later.

But what was the one common denominator that underpinned all of my efforts to either prolong the positives or bat back the benders? Knowledge. Wisdom. And, Quotes. Glorious, Glorious Quotes. After 46 years of knowledge accumulation from quotes, books, podcasts, articles, blogs, leaders, spiritual gurus, conversations, courses, talks, retreats, documentaries, movies and just the living of life I have decided to weave together a collection of the most wearable of that wisdom and deliver to anyone with the same love of Haute Quoture as me written pieces that they can proudly hang on their own coat hangers to adorn when, and if, they need them. And if you have any friends or family who you think my pieces may look good on, please, by all means share. Sharing is caring, after all.

So come check out my closet if you like. Whatever floats your quote, of course.

PS: This is me. My pieces look better on me than you might imagine. More on this in my next blog post.

#thehautequoture #thequotesswiththemostess #whateverfloatsyourquote