NECK FLAIR

One of my favorite ways to add flair to any outfit at the moment: NECK FLAIR. From collars to neckerchiefs to chokers to bow ties, there are so many great options!

THE ULTIMATE MIX TAPE- A LOVE STORY SENT TO THE UNIVERSE

I recently read a piece in Violet Magazine Issue # 2 where Ann Druyan was interviewed by Kirsten Dunst about several topics, most notably her famous love story with Carl Sagan. It's not groundbreaking news to those who are familiar, but it was the first time I'd heard the story in-depth and was incredibly moved. Like I said in my last post about Valentine’s Day, sometimes the love stuff can be a bit much and gives me the icks, but there are times that it shoots me straight through the heart. This was one of those times.

Carl and Ann first met at a dinner party hosted by Nora Ephron in NYC. At the time both were in relationships - Ann with a boyfriend, and Carl married. Enamored by his infectious and outrageous laugh, Ann recalls them hitting it off with long, deep conversations throughout the night. The night sparked a creative pairing and the two collaborated on multiple projects thereafter. Sometime later, Carl brought up the idea of the Voyager Golden Record - an unprecedented sound recording that would hold universal messages that could potentially be decoded and understood by extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them - kind of like the Ultimate Earth Mixtape. Carl asked Ann to be the Creative Director of the project. They both spent their time searching far and wide for iconic music across the world. Ann came across a moving piece from ancient China, ”Flowing Streams," and immediately felt the urge to call Carl and let him know. She left a message, he called back and asked her to marry him. They knew they had been suppressing their feelings for each other for years and it suddenly came out. They made secret plans to marry and a dramatic pact of how they would tell their significant others (they simultaneously turned to their partners at 1pm on the same day and broke the news). Ann was so ecstatic and uncontrollably in love that she recorded her brain waves to add to the Golden Record, in hopes that someday extraterrestrials would interpret it and be able to understand the consciousness of love. These recordings are out there in the universe, after 37 years, lightyears away and still traveling. After working on many other projects together, 2 kids and 20 years of blissful marriage, Carl unfortunately passed. 

"We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind . . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful." -Ann Druyan, The Skeptical Inquirer, 2003

I recommend picking up a copy of Violet and reading the story yourself, as Ann goes way more into detail with their love story in her conversational interview with Kirsten. I just gave you a little recap :)

Quick fun fact: I have met Ann, and spent an afternoon with her but unfortunately at the time I was not familiar with who she was or what she did. Had I known, I would have had so many questions for her! #regrets

I know all of this is deep and out of character for my standard blog fare , but I’ve been considering starting a "STORIES" section to share these kinds of anecdotes for when I feel like diving deeper into backstories in the fashion world, the world of love and beyond.