Bohemians, forget Berlin; Mexico City is the place for you now. I booked my trip with Maricarmen at International Travel Group in Mexico City, who helped me with my flights and where to stay. I started at the Camino Real Hotel. A mysterious Noguchi fountain spouts endless streams of water in front of pink and yellow buildings designed by Ricardo Legorreta for a soothing dose of vitality after a...

I first saw beading when I started going to India as a beaded dress mule many years ago. I would smuggle over dress patterns and beads from Paris for runway dresses for some of the large fashion brands. Now that those dark days are behind me, I have tried my own hand at beading since it’s such an incredible technique and has always intrigued me. Traditionally Muslim men always do...

  The Tree of Life It was fun to re-visit the city where my career first began. Twenty years ago, I attended the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. I met three lovely students, remarkably cool in the March heat, which was rising daily. They were amused that a foreigner would come to Ahmedabad at such a time. I told them of my interest in Indian textiles. They offered...

Hop off the plane and Uber straight to the Taj Hotel. If you have the dough, go for the old wing; if not, the new tower is not so bad, but make sure to request an ocean view.  Right outside the hotel, in pomp and failed circumstance, sits The Gateway of India-—lovely to walk around morning, noon and night, as the light dramatically shifts. Just around the corner you’ll spot the...

Makki Indigo Duvet I met Jami at her parent’s house in La where I sometimes crash in their lovely guest villa. I of course would bring (or rather ship) hostess gifts to thank the Belushis, and over time I slowly took over bedrooms with my bedding!Initials and Lights are Jami's Own Himpata Bolster - Sold Out Jami got the bedding and the look right away as a fashionable LA lady....

“We are all of us pilgrims that struggle along different paths towards the same destination.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Years ago, I wandered the streets and back alleys of Varanasi, not sure where I had landed and not really old enough to process it all. I warn people not to go there on their first trip to India- it’s too raw, too intense. Having turned fifty, I feel ready to...

Video by Rachel Schwarz I've always loved the depths of indigo vats in India, with their metallic glimmer. On one excursion, I learned about Dabu rug printing, a hand block printing process that uses a clay resist, which dries on the rugs in the sun.  Once the clay is dry, the rugs are dipped into the natural indigo vat. I met a jolly indigo vat wallah outside of Jaipur, named Ram, and his...

One does not travel any more than one falls in love, to collect material. It is simply part of one's life. - Evelyn Waugh   My Kenyan safari starts in Nairobi. Don’t miss the house of Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame, a modest bungalow surrounded by unruly gardens. Some of the clothes worn in the movie are on display and will help you get into the spirit of...

“No refusal” is written on all the egg yolk-colored cabs of Kolkata, a pledge sometimes kept by the cabdrivers, but always fulfilled by the city itself. From the first time I had a chance to wander the decaying colonial city, Kolkata's been a mysterious yet open city for me, its wide sidewalks like something out of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities.” I’ve always wanted to come back to dig deeper, not...

This season I went down to Mysore via Bangalore with my trusted travel companion Gavin, a local expat and professional collector. Just as we were heading down South from Delhi we learned the two states we were travelling through were having water disputes; roads were shut down, trucks were being set on fire. In India one never knows how bad these situations really are—there is always something going on—so we...