The Search for La Dolce Vita
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The Search for La Dolce Vita
I never met my grandmother. She died of cancer before I was born when my mother was in her early twenties. Though I never had the chance to meet the woman who's impact looms large in my family, her image is vivid with color in my mind. Growing up, I loved stories about princesses just as much as any girl - but the stories I longed for most were stories about my grandmother. I hung on every word my mother was willing to share with me about her, and I constantly found myself tracing the framed photos of her that my mom had on her bedroom dresser. There was one photo in particular that I came across one day in an old pile of family photos that stopped me dead. I made a copy of it and pasted it into my journal, returning to it often. It is a picture of my grandmother wearing a cotton candy pink polka dot dress with matching heels. She's sitting on her heels in the driveway with her hands cupping the face of happy puppy and she's looking at the camera laughing, joy written all over her face. Her life was not short of pain and heartache, but in that photo and all of the pictures I've ever seen of her, she's laughing.
In Italian, there is a famous phrase - la dolce vita. Its literal translation is "the sweet life" but what it really means is the good life, a life so full that it brims over. Isn't that what we're all looking for? Isn't that the underlying motive and drive beneath every decision and action we take? I think we can all agree that the desire to grasp the good life is something every one of us wants. But the good life realized? That's a harder spot to find common ground. If we took a minute to imagine ourselves living la dolce vita like a movie playing in our minds, I think we'd all have very different scenes. In my dolce vita scene, I'm imagining myself lounging by a fire on the back deck of one of my gorgeous homes (I have three around the world!) with the Tyrrhenian Sea serving as a back drop. I'm sipping on a glass of Veuve Clicquot and I look like a model (I just don't get wrinkles!); I'm with the ones I love and all is well in the world. Maybe yours is about nailing that dream job, having a family of your own, creating a successful business, or changing the world.
The details of our imaginations may be different, but I'm sure in all of our dolce vita scenes, we have the same main characters at play: joy, freedom, success, beauty, peace, pride, love, happiness. It's not the beautiful home with a view nor the expensive champagne that give me my dolce vita. There are plenty of people that have those and don't have fullness of life. I think it's also important to note that having a problem-free life doesn't give me my la dolce vita either. That would be a very one-dimensional kind of life. Sorrow, pain, and heartache are often misunderstood as the opposites of love and joy when they are their sisters. You cannot have one without the other. They serve to deepen the well inside of us so that our souls can hold even greater joy. My grandmother's face comes to my mind - a face that knew great pain, but shined with so much joy.
La dolce vita isn't about the money, the stuff, or having a problem free life, it's a life infused with joy and contentment. The best thing about it is that's something we don't have to wait on. We can invite those characters to be at play in the scenes of our story even in the midst of hardships. I think if we began to practice gratitude even if we're not feeling very grateful, we will begin start to see how full our lives truly are.
This was the inspiration behind our 2017 Spring Collection. We wanted to encapsulate the spirit of a woman who has found la dolce vita. Fun, free and full of spirit, these high impact styles reflect a contemporary spin on classic styles. An exquisite collection with intricate details and vivacity, shop the spring collection here.
If you liked this blog, check out our other blogs like: " What is the Difference Between Yoga Pants & Leggings?," or "6 Essential Outfits to Up your Summer Style," "6 Summer Dresses to Wear Now & Forever," and " 6 things I wear when I work from home."
