New York City, 1976 Gernot, my boyfriend at the time, was a skilled German art photographer, Bruno Walter devotee, banjo player and a zealous beer guzzler who flirted with every girlfriend I had. The one skill he never explored, that is, until he met me, was making toe rings. With no place else to work, we constructed makeshift jeweler’s bench in my tiny studio walkup on East 52nd Street. A goose-necked lamp clamped to a plywood shelf served as illumination and soon Gernot began hammering away at a jeweler’s mandrel attempting to transform a snippet of gold wire into a...

One sunny afternoon, I decided to take my toe ring for a road test. Strutting purposefully along a busy Manhattan thoroughfare, I deftly merged into the pedestrian parade wearing short skirt and purple suede open-toed, high-heeled sandals. A gender-modified version of Stayin’ Alive streamed through my head, “Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a toe-ringed woman, no time to talk”. As I wove in and out of the crowd, I noticed that people began nudging their companions, smiling and pointing to my feet. Men winked, offered high fives and thumbs’ up. Jazzy!  Aww right!...

Get ready my darlings. This may be one of the most extraordinary chapters so far, and if I where Eve, I would say, fasten your seat belts……. The “Original Toe Ring” Boutique* held its grand opening at Fiorucci, the iconic Italian fashion brand and, in 1978, the trendiest store on the Upper Eastside. The 20-foot long storefront featured a blue-sky backdrop dotted with puffy cumulus clouds.  Dangling from the heavens, hundreds of glittering toe rings, twisting in the electric fan-produced breeze like bright morning stars. The Original Toe Ring© logo stenciled across entire window. Playing in the background was Michael...

It was summer - prime toe ring season.  Not one to miss any opportunity, I ferried off, toe rings in hand, to Fire Island’s busiest shopping village, Ocean Beach. The next day was glorious, perfect for a boat tour around the island. The wharf was abuzz with islanders, their guests, day tripping Manhattanites, the crew and a sprinkling of colorful partiers. The sailing was smooth. With all aboard soaking up the sun and sea, it was time to strike.  Flashing my ringed toes and revealing my cargo of sparkling samples, the deck was soon as frenzied as a Black Friday...

So alas, the party came to an end, but not the story. After all the hubbub and intrigue, I found myself suddenly bombarded with questions like, “So what is it with you and toe rings? Do you have a foot fetish?” Well I never actually thought of it that way. I just liked wearing toe rings because I thought my toes were cute and that toe rings were sexy. I was totally unprepared for having to explain myself – as if there was any ‘splaining to do.Still, I thought to my hopelessly business-minded self, “hey wait. Maybe there’s something to...

To my astonishment, the entire Fetiche saga did not even come close to earning me the early retirement I dreamt of, however, I did learn a lot about the beauty and fragrance business. That turned out to be enough to enable me to leave my secure job as a promotional copywriter at Sports Illustrated (card long lost and decomposed by now), to enter the beauty industry through an opening in the Charles of the Ritz/Yves St. Laurent public relations department. Leaving the world of sports, to join the world of beauty, was akin to falling asleep in the men’s locker...

Prelude to a Chapter If I ever had a true mentor in the corporate world, it was my former boss at   Sports Illustrated, James Ferris. It was he, who took a chance on a free-spirited, eager, young girl, who never made a single dollar writing, and hired her as a promotional copywriter at Time Inc., one of the biggest media companies in the world. Apparently, he saw something in me that made him believe that he could mold me into a bona fide writer, and he did it in the most patient and generous way.    The only condition...

Once Results Only Communications became an entity, I was hell-bent on getting clients. So determined was I that I even trekked, through maze-like manufacturing district of Queens mid-winter, tiptoeing over the ice in high-heeled pumps to meet with a potential. When ROC finally got a few accounts, I bought used furniture and rented an office on West 57th St., and affixed a brass nameplate to the door. My first accounts, predictably, came from the beauty industry. Iconic brands such as Lalique Parfum, La Prairie skincare, Rene Furterer haircare and Camay began signing on. Along the way, I had many memorable...

Among ROC’s other clients were prominent organizations of medical professionals specializing in cosmetic procedures. For them, my role was to coordinate conferences, report on annual meetings, manage media events and promote the newest advances in cosmetic enhancements. In time, I become fairly well educated in laser treatments, surgical procedures and all manner of techniques and technologies designed to enhance one’s physical appearance, though not necessarily, their self-esteem. My restless nature, combined with the emergence of digital communications and social media, inevitably led to the dissolution of ROC as a provider of marketing communications services in the traditional sense. By the...

In the immediate aftermath of this horrific event, the country was in collective shock. In New York, the local transportation came to a sudden halt. An eerie silence fell over the entire city.  Traumatized people, walking home from their jobs, slogged down the silent streets with zombie-like expressions.  With no place else to go, and no way to get there, it was a literal day of the living dead.  Not surprisingly, the uncertainty and upheaval at ASAPS left me, once again, unemployed and left to my own devices.  Fortunately, during my time there, I got to know many of the...

One outcome of my “adventures with plastic surgery” was a close up view of that no-man/woman’s land called “recovery” which, in my experience, is often downplayed or pooh-poohed. That, Oh, you’ll be back to work in a week may be true under certain conditions. For example, you wear a welder’s mask, a balaclava, a burka or work remotely. In my observation, that unsightly, uncomfortable and longer-than-anticipated stage of the healing process needed addressing, so naturally, I took on the task. Optimal-Outcome® Rapid Healing Skincare was formulated to help accelerate healing and minimize bruising by incorporating the most effective, proven botanical...