Although I’d been a big fan of Sex and the City when it was on HBO, I didn’t see the movie until it got on pay-per-view. After the second or third viewing I decided that I needed to give in to my love of clothing and just be as fabulous as I could be all the time. I mean, why save certain clothes, like the good china, for special occasions? Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte (along with the clothes horses in the film, The Devil Wears Prada) have inspired me to overdress whenever I want. When I wear fantastic colors, luscious textures, rich natural fabrics and distinctive designs I feel like the woman I was born to be. Even when I suspect I have not achieved her yet, when I am dressed well I know that I am I on my way. 

Since then I have been on the lookout for the women of my tribe. The funky fashionistas. The cute-as-she-wanna-be divas. One walked into my life at the M3 RACE event we held at Sam’s Club in Secaucus in February.  Stacey Schieffelin was tall, blond, and dressed to the nines. She was workin’ the brown tones, from coffee to toasted almond, and positively rocked a long, chocolate, crinkled patent leather duster overcoat that every other woman there wanted to snatch right off her back. Her hair was coiffed, not a strand out of place except for the ones that casually draped across her forehead from time to time. A former fashion model, and the owner of the cosmetics and apparel company YBF (Your Best Friend), you just know her face was, as the models say, beat.  Make-up laid to perfection.  

What I really liked about Stacey (besides that coat that still makes my mouth water) was the fact that she was a healthy-looking woman. Not rail thin. She had some meat on her bones. That and a beaming smile lighting the way for her warm and approachable personality  and some  “down home Southern charm” made her a walking testimonial for her company name. You could see she was willing to be your best friend. Isn’t it true that when you’re around happy people you get happy, too? That’s Stacey. 

Looking at her, I imagine that Stacey has found a way to like herself, and she wants women to like themselves, too. She understands that make-up and clothing should be the outward expression of a healthy self-image, a way for the wearer to put their best foot forward as she struts down the catwalk of her day.  Not covering up, but enhancing what is already within. But behind the make-up and hair, the smile and charm is a mind like a steel trap wrapped in a feather boa.  Stacey has built a $150 million company by knowing every aspect o f her business. During her 20 years as a Ford model, stomping down miles of runways in Milan, Paris, Rome and New York, she studied the masters in the pantheon of fashion—Valentino, Versace and Armani, Chanel, St. Laurent and Dior. 

When, like an athlete, she aged out of modeling, she parlayed her knowledge of the industry into a television retailing empire, becoming the highest-selling brand on HSN-TV for several years running, and making her telegenic presence known in Canada and the UK as well. It’s not fluff, its high finance.

I’m not going to be a fashion model, but I can play one any time I want right where I am. I’m grateful to women like Stacey, and Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder, and back-in-the-day Flori Roberts for taking colors, creams, oils and scents, and turning them into jars, bottles and tubes of hope. As the hip haute couture insiders say, ladies you better work!

If you haven't already, join us in the M3 RACE. We're going far.

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