We wanted to share this beautiful photo with you sent it to us by Rosemary:

"My daughter Mari (right) lives in Portland, OR and purchased all three Echo scarves from her favorite local boutique (Mink, on Hawthorne). One was a birthday gift for my other daughter Katie (left) who lives in NYC. We all got together for my 60th birthday in Arizona at the end of May and mine was also my birthday gift. We had a photo session to mark the occasion and this was just one of a number of great shots that my friend Heather Hill captured."

Thank you Rosemary, Mari and Katie for sharing this great moment in your lives! It's beautiful to see the bond between the two generations and we love how you share the same love of scarves!

Purple is an amazing color. One can't help but be in awe of nature when appreciating the deep, spectacular hue of a ripe plum, a fresh blueberry or the bold sheen of an eggplant.  Lighter tones include the beautiful lavender and lilac - both named after flowering plants.  People who like the color of a deep purple are visionaries, spiritual and passionate.  Fans of lavender are romantic and imaginative.  So choosing one of the many hues of this complex color for your home, for your wardrobe, for your table can add a special and unique twist.

From our book COLOR AT HOME: "From the palest lavender to the deepest black plum, purple is a revelation - creative, artistic. Purple is a bit more eccentric and complex than its closest relatives, fuchsia and indigo.  Throughout history, purple has been associated with royalty; today, purple in the home is still rare and refined.  Even if taking the plunge into purple demands a bit of bravery, the color creates a fabulous first - and lasting - impression.  Deep violets and plums work the same wonders for precious textiles, artwork, and the polished patina of antiques as they do for the stark drama of modern furnishings.  Not strictly for grown-ups, purple in a young girl's room feels special, unique.  Delicate lilac paired with white lace is quaint, nostalgic. Purple shutters, from grape to eggplant, are a delightful surprise, as is the jolt of a rich, Prince-purple formal living room.  Purple is always unexpected but undeniably welcome. Vivid and full of character, purple reigns."

Lavender is not only a remarkable, naturally occuring color in nature but the plant itself provides many numerous benefits.  The flowers can be dried and steeped in hot water for a calming, soothing tea.  The buds have been used for centuries to make perfumes and essential oils. Lavender also has medicinal qualities - it is naturally antiseptic and can be used to clean and soothe cuts, burns, abrasions and even dandruff.  Lavender can be used in cooking adding a wonderfully light flavor to many things from sugar cookies, to lamb to jams and jellies.

 Solid neckerchief with satin border; Painterly floral square; Color at Home- Purple

If you're a reader of the New York Times, take a moment to flip through to the magazine this Sunday and see our new spring ad, shown below. It features 3 different scarves and the overall image looks like a flower. Hope the color brightens your day and that flowers are blooming wherever you are!

Chances are you've been watching this year's winter Olympics in Vancouver.  Occasionally NBC's coverage will include some footage of the city and the culture that make Vancouver the beautiful city it is, but most of the time, a closeup of a skier or an ice skate could be anywhere in the world.   I wanted to share with you a beautiful video of Vancouver at night - from above the city and from the waterfront. In the winter months, Vancouver has only 8 hours of daylight so this time lapse video shows the city's skyline at night as clouds flow past buildings and bridges like liquid.   The cars and the people fly by in bright streams of color and you can even see the lights of the ski events on the mountains up above the city. Time is sped up so each scene spans 12+ hours and while watching it I can't help but wonder what actually occured during that time - someone completed a triple toe loop and someone else fell on the last turn of the relay. Dreams were born and dreams were broken. It's life condensed. They've trained their whole lives for that one moment, hoping their personal best becomes the best in the world.   If you sped up 12 hours of your life, what color would it be?  Would there be wild movement and bright lights? Or would it be a steady stillness of light and quiet?    Hopefully your days include a little bit of both.  You don't have to be an Olympic athlete to aspire to reach your personal best, sometimes just realizing what that is, can be your own gold metal.   Enjoy!

"L’ exactitude n’est pas la vérité." -Henri Matisse

So there's fashion on the runway - which let's admit, a lot of which is couture and is pretty much unwearable by the average civilian. (Unless of course you are Lady GaGa - how much fun is she??!) But then there is also fashion and trends that happen right out on the street, in the day-to-day culture, that may not be necessarily styled or created by a designer but by the person themselves. It's their own personal look. However, even when someone thinks they are being unique, most often someone else dressed that way already - that same day or 14 years ago. Take a look at this intriguing exhibit of photographs called "Exactitudes" (a contraction of 'exact' and 'attitude') by Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek. They compiled photos of strangers in London, Paris, Praia (Cape Verde) and other countries over the last 14 years and then put them together to show that great minds think alike - whether it's 2010 or 1996. You'll see amazingly similar looks on many different people. After looking through the collection, it seems that what we may have come to call 'trends' are actually identifiers of a movement or a genre. For example, it's not always the case, but when we see someone in head-to-toe black, we think 'goth,' or someone in tie-dye and flipflops, we think 'hippie.' Other times a similar style running through a group of people may be merely a symptom of function: suits for a job search; suspenders to hold your pants up.

Certainly the photographers reinforced the stereotypes simply by the way they titled each grouping i.e. "pin-ups" and "emo's." The point of their work was to categorize each person by the way they look and therefore illustrate their similarities. But, does the way we look give people the option to pre-judge who they think we are? So are these trends or labels? Are we really asserting our own individuality if we embrace one of these looks? Matisse's quote above roughly translates to "precision is not the truth" or "the truth is greater than the details." Maybe that really means: what you see isn't necessarily what you get. So if I want to dye my hair black (goth) and wear red lipstick (pin-up), a tie-dye shirt (hippie) and a pair of Vans (skater) that doesn't mean I'm a Goth Pin-up Hippie Skater. That just means I'm me.

What item in your wardrobe really symbolizes you and has carried you over the years and through the trends? A cable knit sweater? A pair of jeans? A scarf?

Irving Penn died on October 7, 2009.  For anyone who loves photography and art, Irving Penn’s work which is so clear, honest and elegant awakens all the senses.  Penn worked in fashion photography, most notably for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, but his portraits of famous people are what stand out.  His images are striking -  striking for their black and white composition and for their intensity.  It is as if the camera has become a mirror of the subject’s soul.  Somehow Irving Penn, through all his talents, had a way of connecting with his subjects and revealing what is so special not just about the subject but about life.  It is the power of connecting with others, of understanding each other, of taking the time to really hear each other and share in a way that gets to the essence of things: our joys, our concerns, our troubles and our passions.
A year or so ago there was a great exhibit at the JP Morgan Library called: Close Encounters.  Irving Penn Portraits of Artists and Writers.  As described the photographs were unbelievably magnetic.  What I found as engaging was the clothing worn by Penn’s subjects, such as Truman Capote, Pablo Picasso, Yves Saint Laurent and others.  Was it the times?  Was it the artist being photographed?  Was it somehow Penn’s sensitivity to fashion and design?  Everyone was so smartly dressed.  The silhouettes seemed so modern.  You could almost touch each thread of fabric and see each shade of color, all in that rich black and white image.
Today, with everyone linked to screens and devices, seeing Penn’s images is not about looking at the past.  It is much more about seeing how life can be seen.  As seen through an artist’s eyes Penn’s subjects are revealed with a sense of beauty and refinement.  What a gift he created and left to us.  - Steven

Top left: Truman Capote; Top Right: Yves Saint Laurent; Middle left: Jasper Johns; Middle Right: Georgia O'Keefe

Bottom left: Jean Costeau; Bottom Right: Truman Capote.  All photos by Irving Penn