Blog - Elegant Alchemy

The Very Worst Way to Do Anything Elegant

Every morning, I wake up looking fresh faced and impeccably coiffed, like I just stepped out of a salon de beauté. I float out of bed in my silk nightgown and do a series of carefully curated yoga poses before draping myself in an armchair...

7 Must-Not-Forget’s to be Elegant during the Holiday Season

The holiday season is upon us, with all the parties, concerts, theatre shows, family gatherings, end-of-the-year lunches and dinners, to say nothing of the actual celebrations. It’s a time of the year when we all want to be, feel and look our best. As an elegant lady,...

The 50 Lessons from The 50 Conversations

By definition an adventure is an enterprise where you don't know what will happen. The 50 Conversations certainly were an adventure. When I set out to talk to 50 women about what was blocking them mostly in life, I did not know if I would actually find 50 women...

Why the Best Time to be in Paris is Now

Exactly NOW is the best time to be in Paris. Of course, I can just hear people disagree… Travel blogs and rom-coms have been singing the praise of Paris in springtime since the beginning of time. Think Audrey Hepburn, the Eiffel Tower seen through a curtain of cherry...

Your Energy Drains in 3D

Every now and then I write a blog post that triggers an avalanche of emails. Last week’s list of 39 energy drains filled my inbox with: “OMG, I have everything/half of it/at least ten/at least five of the points on this list. Help!” First things first: everyone...

39 Energy Drains

Do you know this feeling? You come back from vacation, having spent some weeks in a different state, country or even continent. And as you enter your house, it looks so different or rather you look at it with new eyes: Suddenly you are aware of the beauty of the...

10 Clues for a Well-lived Summer

The official start of summer is June 21st. The REAL start of summer, here in Paris at least, is July 14th. After the parade and the fireworks people leave for the sea or for their maison de famille. Each conversation begins with “So, where do you go for the...

You can get the girl out of Paris, but you can’t get Paris out of the girl….

Our group was sitting in a café in the Marais, it was one of those warm summer evenings that make Paris achingly beautiful. It was a good-bye gathering for a Parisian, née American friend who is to to return to the States after nearly 20 years here. Our conversation...

How my mug helped me through a hard time

We first had met via the pages of a magazine. The coup de foudre was instantaneous. A tiny photo of a mug, from a china series called “Incorrigible”, that was all there was and that was all needed to get me hooked. Simplicity, elegance, fluidity and movement...

9 Tips to Carve out More Time

Inspired by one of my clients, I had decided upon my personal challenge: until midsummer I will have 50 conversations with women about what is blocking them to design their lives they way they want to (you can read the whole story here). I was really excited about...

The One Time even I Didn’t Believe it to Be Possible (And My Personal Challenge)

I want to tell you a story about Marie: a long-time client of mine and an elegant alchemist who made the impossible happen. (And the personal challenge I was inspired to set for myself as a result--more on that in second.) I have known Marie (not her real name, of...

When the Tail wags the Dog

When we feel stuck in a situation, when we struggle with the same problem over and over again, when our emotional batteries are low and elegance seems a concept from another galaxy, usually something interesting happens: we are irresistibly attracted by questions...

What’s in a Home

“To speak of home in relation to a building is simply to recognise its harmony with our own prized internal song.” Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness Our own internal song. I believe this is who we want to be and how we want to feel. So when you open the...

Five Ways to infuse Luxury into Greyish Days.

Some time ago I woke up and felt greyish. No idea why. Maybe a week of incessant rain had finally gotten the better of me. Maybe I had spent too much time at my desk. Maybe this unfriendly person on the phone the day before was still bugging me or maybe it was the...

The WORST Thing to have in Your Home

Here’s what I know: embracing your inner elegant woman will change your life. (And you don’t have to spend thousands on a designer wardrobe, sweat your way to a size 2 or quit your job to do it.) Here's what I also know: whilst our inner world shapes our outer world,...