On Tuesday, I opened my email to see very sad news. My dear friend, Charla Krupp, had passed away due to breast cancer. Charla was a very special woman with great style, wit and sense of humor. Charla was an author, a fashion correspondent on television, and an editor at Glamour magazine.
My special relationship with Charla started when she worked on the Today Show as a fashion correspondent. As she was nearing 40 she was very interested in reading glasses having recently begun to need them herself. She understood my design philosophy and the need for reading glasses to be sexy, fashionable and fun. We talked about Katie Couric since Katie had already started wearing my reading glasses. Charla immediately called Katie and made sure to pick up a few extra pairs for her. Charla understood the concept of a wardrobe of reading glasses. We agreed that we have hundreds of pairs of shoes, handbags and such for different outfits– why wouldn’t we want a variety of reading glasses as well?
A few years later, Charla called to tell me about her new idea for a book. She wanted to share her secrets on how to look younger. When you met her for the first time, you knew she had lots of ideas to look and feel young. Her book, How Not to Look Old was on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks. I was as excited as she was! In one chapter, Charla talked about eyewear and how the wrong eyewear could age a person. She selected my reading glass collection as the best in the industry for keeping a woman looking young. She demonstrated how I design glasses that actually give your face an instant lift!
This book made an impact on women. At a personal appearance in Bloomingdales months later, a woman came up to me with Charla’s book. She had read it cover to cover and was implementing every one of Charla’s tips. She lost weight and was wearing sexy jeans, had whitened her teeth, and colored her hair. She came to Bloomingdales looking for help to select the right glasses for her. Her original style was plain rimless glasses that made her look matronly. I immediately selected a few new colorful reading glasses and she improved her appearance immediately! She bought our glasses and took them to an optician to put her prescription in them – so cool!
I am so sorry that this world lost a great woman like Charla. I feel compelled to share her story with you. If you have not bought her books, How Not to Look Old or How to Never Look Fat Again, do so. They are a gift to you from Charla. She wrote them with a sense of humor but also with an ability to understand and support women into being their best! I will miss you my friend.
I can’t! This year is going so fast and the weather has been unseasonably warm so this Thanksgiving is really a surprise. As you are getting ready for the holiday, I think it is important to be thankful for all that you have in your life. Look around you and appreciate the leaves turning colors, the food on the table, and the clothes in your closet. Yes, this may seem crazy, but I am so totally into fashion that I feel it is good to look in your closet and do a little inventory of all that you own. In this country, we have some many things at our disposal that we often forget how much we have and how grateful we should be.