I remember when I was young hearing my grandfather tell me how things “were” when he was a boy and how different the world had become.
I also remember thinking how old he seemed and how the world, as it felt to me, was actually pretty great, and how I did not really understand why he was telling me this.

Now it is my turn to talk about how the world once was, but my hope is to inspire and not seem cynical.

The world has become homogenized.

Fashion, individual style, daring creativity is a rarity these days and it makes me sad. Only on a rare occasion does a celebrity, yes those same
ladies who adorn the covers of “Voque”, “Bazaar”, “In Style”…, step foot into a shop and pick out the clothes and accessories that will create her own individual style. Did Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley, Greta Garbo or Katherine Hepburn have their “Celebrity Stylists” to
dress them and create their look. I don’t think so.

Back in the early 70′s, when I was twenty, there was color and flair, style and sophistication and individuality around every corner.
If you were lucky enough to be in New York, Paris, Rome and London, as I was, people had so much individual style and originality that one was easily inspired. It was a wonderful challenge to put together a look that would be fresh and different and make heads turn…

There were always the great flea markets in Paris and London and the fabulous vintage shops in New York to explore. There was Penelope Tree
and Marisa Berenson and Georgio St’Angelo and Stephen Burrows. There was Gerry Stutz and Henri Bendel, Fiorucci and Berry Berenson and BiGi….

However, the big difference was that when you were in New York City, you could go shopping on Madison Avenue and find unique pieces and then to Bendel’s and Bergdorf’s and find even
more amazing things.
Then you could go downtown, to the Village and discover completely new looks and then on to Soho . The people on the streets, on the train, in the clubs, they all looked fantastic and unique. There was
an explosion of colors, textures and fantasy.

The same was true for all the great cities, London, Paris, Rome. There were always the special little hidden secrets, the treasures of shops, where you would go to find things that were not to be found anywhere else. Even Los Angeles and San Francisco had their special places.

Now, each of these magnificent cities, each neighborhood, each arrondisement, harbors the same names and brands that were exclusive or elusive. Which city does not have at least four Polo stores,
three Prada stores, two Marc Jacobs stores, Louis Vuiton, Gucci and on and on and on. And then you have, of course, the Gap, H&M, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie et al… I believe this is one of the principal reasons there so little individual style out there today. Fashion has become Fast Food. “Voque” and the likes have become “People” and “Us”.

I believe that what I do, with Clothespin, is in my own way, an attempt to bring back that individual and creative sensibility to dressing while remaining organic.
Each piece I design is unique and one of a kind. My clients can also create their own vision through the custom design that I offer.
I am really not trying to toot my own horn here. I am simply asking the world to inspire a bit more.

It seems that with the longest of days upon us, we are able to breathe more deeply, see more clearly and perhaps find that
extra time to renew. Why, then, is everything on SALE????? Just as the air warms so that you can wear a sheer blowy dress and sandals
and really feel like a girl again, the windows of the designer stores are showing the newest fall cashmeres and coats in the colors of fallen leaves. Just as our gardens are radiant with butterflies and bougainvillea, passion fruit and peonies, why does retail force us to step out of the present and into the chill of November?

Back in the days of B. Altman and Gerry Stutz, Diana Vreeland and Hiro, seasons were shown as they were worn.
I remember shopping in East Hampton and Southampton for my summer clothes in June and July and perhaps finding that great
sale at the end of August or on Labor Day weekend.

Now, in my own shoppe, I am forced, by virtue of demand, to put my beautiful summer frocks which are perfect for now and the Indian summer days that lie ahead,
on sale. Retail is suffering and everyone is looking for a bargain. However, bargain or not, please do not let fashion dictate yet another senseless notion.
They have already made it difficult for women to be voluptuous, to have undyed hair or faces that are natural and beautiful.

Let us live and breathe and live in the present, regardless of what fashion dictates.

My birthday is coming soon.
I will be 58 years old on September 10th.
During the past few months I have been experiencing anxiety attacks, in all shapes and forms, about my new age, as it is right around the bend from the BIG one, 60.
I have dreams in which I am 62, and have woken up believing that I was 62 years old and completely disoriented as I tried desperately to understand
where all the years had gone and how this had happened. It took me well over an hour to realize that I was in fact not 62, but 57. However, the feeling of being old and in the way
remained with me and I clearly believed that all the good things in life were behind me, all the mad crazy adventures over and done with, all the places in the world I wanted to go would never be seen.
For some unknown reason, I felt that my time was really over. I stopped doing yoga, I stopped hiking, I started sleeping in ( something I have never done ). I started to eat massive amounts of Ben and Jerry’s Cake Batter ice cream. I would literally go to Ralph’s after dinner, in my pajamas tucked into my sweats and buy 2 or 3 pints and a box of sugar cones and come home and eat until I couldn’t anymore.
I was miserable and it wasn’t going away, this feeling of dread this feeling of fear.

One morning I awoke to The Great Awakening. I realised that my life and the way I lived it it had nothing to do with numbers.
I understood for the first time that I am finally at a time in my life where I am better than ever. A time where I can own all the different variations of myself I have been.
I can own the messy divorces and not feel (finally!) that they were all entirely my fault.
New York, Paris, Jamaica, Africa Los Angeles, Inverness, they were all part of who I am now.

I have worked very hard to support myself and my children and I take great pride in this.
And now I am recreating myself in my new business Clothespin. It is very hard work but so is everything that you are passionate about.
I can appreciate the incredible life I have had and the incredible life I am having right now-

Most importantly, I truly feel that we, as women, can embrace, forgive, and love ourselves for who we really are, no exceptions.
I will be 58 soon, without botox, or lifts. Instead, I will embrace the woman that I am and practice a lot of meditation, yoga, hike and continue to be passionate about life.

So ladies, whatever age, you are lovable beautiful people…
let the fear go, for you never know what tomorrow brings.

I moved back to New York from Paris when I was twenty-one with a baby in tow and not a dime.

I was lucky, my best friend, Berry Berenson, was best friend’s with Halston and promptly  set up a meeting for me with him. He hired me right away as an in-house muse/design-assistant/do whatever needed to be done assistant  He was truly an amazing designer who really captured American simplicity at its most glamorous- and the thing that I learnt from Halston, that has always stayed with me, is that if a woman looks “pretty”, then that is enough- you have done enough.

Today, in my shoppe, a young beautiful red- haired stylist came in and tried on two of my dress styles, the Amelie and the Guccia.

She looked amazing in them and felt that way too.

She said she felt feminine and comfortable and pretty.

I was so happy. So happy to be able to give that to someone. I have learnt from all the greats, Yves St Laurent, Valentino, Mrs. Vreeland,  Halston, Ralph Lauren and now I am learning from my customers and that is the best.

I thought I would continue with the last blog I wrote, comfort vs. style.  Instead, I decided to google myself, something I have never done, only to find that there were 39,600 matches for Clothespin and Gale Parker. As I scrolled from page to page, I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and humility and a realization that this place called Los Angeles, a place that as a former New Yorker and Northern Californian was not by any means a place I was “happy” to be living in,  had embraced me and my clothes and my shoppe. And what an incredibly amazing and wonderful and gracious gift that was.
Today is Thanksgiving- a day a lot of us dread as it might mean too much food, too much family, or just too much much….

Instead, perhaps we should take a step back, as I did when I sat down and googled myself, and individually google ourselves inside and check in with what really matters and how much we have to be thankful for. It could be the simplest of things, a butterfly, a tree, a smile. It could be reaching out to someone who has less than.

Today, I am thankful to be here, at this time in my life, with all the new friends and people I have made and met through Clothespin.

Thank you Los Angeles.

I grew up New York City, the daughter of a woman who spent two hours every morning “putting on her face”, after two hours of sit ups and kicks to Elisabeth Arden’s exercise cassette, and who continuously reminded me, when I was two and once a day every day thereafter, that women had “to suffer in order to be beautiful”.  I actually remember how excrutiatingly itchy my starched white organdy pinafores were that I had to wear every Thursday to Mrs. De Rham’s ballroom dancing lessons at the Colony Club. Then there was the issue of my unruly curly hair which had be tamed. In order to accomplish that I slept with pink spongey rollers that were tightly rolled into my hair by my governess which in turn gave me of a life of migraines, not to mention a dreadful fear of unruly hair.

Now this is only a droplet in my Mother’s world of what measures needed to be taken “in order to be beautiful”.  It has taken me many years to discover how it is indeed very possible to feel beautiful and look beautiful without all that suffering.

I have done it all, been very thin and quite chubby, gone fresh faced and pinned on my eyelashes one by one after three coats of mascara. Worn jeans so tight I had to lay down on the floor to zip them up and then ask for help in order to stand up, and baggy sweats from morning through night- and now, in the lovely early evening light of my life, I have discovered that if you feel good, inside, no matter what you are wearing, it works.

Sadly, our society has replaced my Mother. The media and most of our fashion designers have decided that you have to be a size 6 or less, permanent press (another term for wrinkle free), and please be sure to wear shoes that are least 4″ high in a skirt so tight that heaven forbid you actually  might have to lift up a grocery bag- maybe a good reason not to eat….

We need to be liberated from our society and the limitations it has exerted on woman of all ages and size-

Beautiful, comfortable clothing is an answer. Clothing that makes you feel as good inside as you look on the outside.

Welcome to the new Clothespin | Gale Parker website. Feel free to take a look around and check back soon for new blog posts.