Doesn’t get any better

Allow me to start at the beginning. When the Marie Claire ship moored, Joseph Carle had just left. He was the international fashion director for years and responsible for 34 sister titles, mostly in fashion.

FOLLOW THE CIRCUS

I met him at some first row in Milan. Afterwards, we turned out to eat pasta at the same place, nothing special but really Italian. “I follow the circus,” he said when I asked him to which fashion weeks he was still going. And “too much of that,” he answered when I asked him why he’d left Marie Claire. He was busy starting Numéro in China and was located in Shanghai. Cooler than New York, he said. I believed him out of respect.

TWO KISSES AT THE FRONT ROW

Since then I always see Joseph Carl in Milan. Looking for out seat at MaxMara, sitting across each other at Marni or Missoni. And every time I’m surprised that he recognises me. Not just a nod, but he’ll come up to me and kiss me (two times, two) and ask me how I’m doing.  Often followed by a belittling remark about the silly fashion world in which he’s spent so much time (Joseph Carle isn’t the youngest of the bunch).

SHANGHAI ROCKS AND GROWLS

I bumped into a series shot by Laura Bartley of Lexi Bolling for Numéro China on Models.com. Indeed. It doesn’t get much prettier than that and Shanghai reportedly rocks and growls. I’m convinced. Go to their site and take a look at all the pretty things. You won’t understand a thing, but who cares with a series like this?