Author: Louis Dell'Olio

………………..I’m watching the US OPEN!!!!……It’s the first time since 2006 that an AMERICAN MAN is in the finals……TAYLOR FRITZ, the American will have a challenge playing against the number 1 seed, ITALIAN, JANNIK SINNER who’s 23 or 24…..It’s not a very Italian name, but an Italian to be sure…….I’m a little torn….do I root for the home team….for the AMERICAN…or being Italian myself….do I root for the Italian……..sorry Jannik, even though I think you will win…..I WILL ALWAYS STAND BEHIND THE AMERICAN and cheer him on!!!………..I hope Taylor wins!…………….GO TAYLOR!!!!!

…………….In the circle, at the end of my driveway where the flag pole is…..I used to have rose bushes…..They were there for years and years, but never did well. In the spring when they started to grow, and the rose buds would form, the deer came and ate them!!!!…..I had enough!! It really looked bad, so I decided to remove them, and put eight Hydrangea plants which the deer and rabbits leave alone……..I had a cinder block path put in so it was easy to put the flag up and take down…….There was a rogue pumpkin plant growing there??? I have no idea how it got there. I can only assume an animal somehow dropped the seed there…..Teresa wanted the ONE pumpkin that was growing, and as soon as it turned orange we cut it, and I had the rest of the huge vine taken out………..Now it looks exactly how I planned………..I LOVE Hydrangeas, and they do very well on my property……..I guess they like the sea air….and the view……I always talk to my plants and trees…..”Good Morning to all”, I say….It’s a good thing there is no one around to hear me!

…………………I LOVE FIGS!……….I remember as a child when we went to visit my father’s father….my grand father, in Brooklyn…..he had an enormous fig tree in his large backyard…….He used to take us to the tree, and pick the ripe ones and give them to us to eat. I loved them!….This was my favorite way to eat them…..fresh, warm right off the tree!…….I have a fig tree up on the side of my garage which is a distance from my house. Honestly, I forgot all about the tree, because I never go there….but….today I took a walk, and was amazed at how BIG the tree grew…..I don’t do anything to take care of it! I don’t cover it when it gets cold, or do anything you’re supposed to do to protect it during the winter……Lo and behold there it was twice the size I remembered. I told Teresa, who takes care of my home, about the tree, and she said….”come with me I want to show you something”….so off we went up the drive to visit the tree. Teresa brought with her a small glass with olive oil in it and a Q-tip…..She said what I’m showing you is what we used to do in ITALY to help them grow and ripen…..She took the Q-tip and dipped it in the olive oil…..She then dabbed the bottom of each fig with a little oil……….There was ONE FIG that was ripe, soft and ready to be picked, which I did. I brought it to the kitchen, gave it a rinse, cut it in half to make sure it was good and bug free……………and ate it!!! It was delicious!!!………Now I have to be very patient, and let them grow and ripen…..and hope the birds don’t start nipping at them!!!!…….I wonder if the olive oil will work????!!!!

…………………YASMEEN GHAURI……..was a SUPER MODEL…..and in a class by herself!…..I booked Yasmeen for ALL of my runway shows….and often used her for National Ad Campaigns……and many of my Look Books……These photos are from a Spring campaign………It can be argued that she created the “WALK”…..the “Yasmeen Walk”, that many models emulated….She was unique, and her ethnic heritage gave her a very exotic look….She had the perfect body, and could wear anything…..and those LEGS!!!! I always found Yasmeen very quiet and very professional…..Some may have found her standoffish, but I always appreciated her work ethic, and her down to business attitude……She was there to do a job…….and she did it MAGNIFICENTLY!!!……I remember the jewelry photo on the right, which was from a Spring campaign, being criticized for not being “the Anne Klein image”…..but I was always trying to push the envelope, and escape the box I was put into…It’s a crippling way to create when you are restricted on how to design because of what was the past and what was expected of you to do….never being allowed to go beyond what is known and expected….I never payed attention, because creatively I couldn’t…..I didn’t care….I did what I liked….I had to…..I always gave the photographers, the models, the makeup artists, and the stylists a free hand to come up with something wonderful without restrictions….Without realizing it I grew creatively from just being around these geniuses!…..I remember at the time, when I saw the photos, I thought the combination of that jewelry and Yasmeen’s look was perfect………It certainly worked for my twenty years at Anne Klein!