The First Designer

For whatever reason, I'm blessed with many amazing people in my life, in various forms and fashions. One such person is David Masello, my former editor at Town & Country. He was meant to be in my life, for some reason, and the universe has attempted to put him there more than once. Way back in March of 2007, I was corresponding with an editor at Arts & Antiques magazine in Atlanta, and after I told her I got my internship at Condé Nast Portfolio in New York, she told me to look up an old friend of hers: David Masello. I never did, but a little more than a year later, I was sitting in his office, one of the six out of the 400 applicants for the Town & Country editorial assistant position, and a week later I got the job.

Now, a year after my last day at Town & Country, David and I are still in touch. We grab dinner or have long conversations at his apartment near the U.N. in Midtown once every few months. One such occasion occurred last Thursday, and being the great and thoughtful man he is, David got me a birthday gift. He handed it to me very casually as we were saying goodbye after an amazing dinner at Ze Cafe, an upscale cafe on First Avenue, and told me to open it later. As I caught the bus a few minutes later, I opened it, and inside was a beautiful dark red box with green ribbon labeled with two words in a script font: Salvatore Ferragamo.

I promise those magazines were already sitting there...

Inside the box was a beautiful tie, and my first piece of designer clothing ever. It seems fitting that David was the man to give it to me, and that it was Ferragamo—one of the projects I worked on was David's interview with Ferragamo himself, and I've loved the designer ever since.

I firmly believe people come in and out of our lives for a reason, even if you never find out what that reason is. In David's case, he is a mentor, a friend, and the reason a poor 23 year old owns a tie by Ferragamo.