A Week In My Life
The lighter parts of living in L.A. and running a business
First off, welcome to La Vie de Clare V.! So happy you’re here.
Time to dive back into Substack. I’ll be sharing more here, with the help of Nora B., our creative strategist & copywriter at Clare V. Today, a little look at my week (2/17-2/22)—something about my days and something about my nights (jour/soir). This week it was Frieze in L.A., so if there’s a theme, I’d say… creative excursions in this city.
MONDAY
Jour: Closed for President’s Day, but still had an early board meeting at 8:30am. Then a 10am appointment at the new house with California Closets to go over plans for my closets here—very exciting. After that, an interview with a writer from Business of Fashion about fobs (yes, fobs!). You can read it here.
Soir: Dinner at Bar Siesta in Silverlake to celebrate my niece Sophie’s birthday with her fiancé, Alex, my sister Ann, and her husband, Thom. Our last night all together before Ann and Thom headed back to Minnesota.
Pictured below: Sophie making her birthday wish. // Our Lips Shortie Strap (which I’ve been obsessed with) on my black Wallet Clutch. // A lamp I loved at Bar Siesta, backdropped by a wall of Siesta Co. tinned fish.
TUESDAY
Jour: Marlien Rentmeester—friend, collaborator, and the author of one of my favorite Substacks,
—came by to chat about our next project together. We previously collaborated on our Kenya bag in 2016…nine years ago now! (Pictured below). Later, a meeting at home with Nathan Turner from Wallshoppe to discuss an upcoming wallpaper collaboration.
Soir: A girlfriends’ dinner at Catherine McCord’s house. Came home to find an advanced copy of Early Thirties from Josh Duboff. Excited to read.
Pictured below: A beautiful spread at Catherine’s // Josh’s Early Thirties.
WEDNESDAY
Jour: Weekly design team meeting–always a highlight of the week. Greta and I filmed Le Cute Show today instead of Friday, which gave the day a misleadingly Friday feeling.
Soir: Drove to the opening of our pop-up at +COOP on Beverly Boulevard for their We Love L.A. pop-up event. Our friends at Jamie Haller, The Only Jane, Hortense, and Milk Teeth were all part of the event, and everything was so cute. I got new jeans and shoes (pictured below).
Pictured below: Clare V. at +COOP pop-up // Jane—founder of The Only Jane & author of
and —co-founder of Who What Where and author of .
THURSDAY
Jour: Frieze week kicks off in L.A. Katie (our Chief Brand Officer) and I start the day at the LACMA Lounge to visit our pop-up before heading to the Santa Monica Airport for Frieze. We toured the fair and saw so much incredible work—some favorites featured below. We amused ourselves on the 1.5-hour drive back to our office in Frogtown in Santa Monica rush-hour traffic by taking pictures of hand-painted signs (also featured below).
Soir: End an art-filled day with a trip to Jessica Alba’s house for Culture Makers, an evening celebrating Latines in creative fields in Los Angeles. Here’s a selfie I took happily sandwiched between Angelique Cabral and Edward James Olmos.
FRIDAY
Jour: A few meetings, ordered lunch to the office and got food poisoning. Left early.
Soir: Skipping fun event plans due to said food poisoning. Bedtime.
SATURDAY
Soir: Bounced back and went to a joint birthday party on Saturday for my neighbor, James Trussart (who makes custom guitars for famous rock stars), and Mario Caldato Jr. (music producer for the Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson, Beck, etc.). Each room in the house was a different recording studio, and an amazing reggae singer performed with musicians jumping in to join. It looked so fun to be able to do that. I was reminded of the “would you rather speak many languages or play many instruments” question–languages still win for me, although this night tempted me to the other side.
What a fun filled week, minus the food poisoning. Loved working with your team at the +Coop trunk show.
Please share where you that incredible leather jacket is from! 🙏