Kamali’s Olive Oil Obsession

I’ve read an article about Norma Kamali, a New York City Fashion Designer’s olive oil obsession. She has a childhood of always having olive oil around for everything due to her mother’s use of olive oil for hair, furniture, skin, and edibles. She started to take road trips from Barcelona, coast of Spain, and into France and Italy. Her favorite place was in Provence, in the South of France. She says that it is the best olive oil in the world and she describes the place as heaven. (Isn’t it crazy? An olive oil heaven!)
She returns to Provence for the quality of the oil which is the taste of the oil. To know if it is a high quality oil, there are many factors that are implied. Such as the sun, terrain, and the neighbor. As in neighbor, the olive oils’ neighbor would be lavender!
To Kamali, olive oil is a spiritual thing. She talks about how it takes it back to the Bible and history in all. Her favorite activities for olive oil is “orchard hopping”. So they go to a vineyard and if you bring your own empty bottle, you are able to fill it up with wine or olive oil (Le Moulin Forutne Arizzi). Harvest time is in November and December, so you can actually participate in the harvesting and help out the workers.
She even eats olive oil ice cream that are sold in the local stores. (“It’s salty and sweet at the same time”, Ms. Kamali).
Her souvenir is stocking up on olive oil but also she sells these olive oils online! In her store located in Manhattan, the customers can actually try it on popcorn! This November, at her store, she is planning a free harvest-time olive-oil tasting which is interesting because she will be going through the differences in the flavor and popcorn and strawberries. I think that it is a weird combination because we aren’t used to the face that we will be eating strawberries with olive oil, powdered sugar, and mint leaves. But, I think that it would be an interesting experience! Using olive oil for a massage would sound very lovely though.
I think that it is interesting to have these certain obsessions and to actually let people know about why it is addicting and why it is something that everybody might want to consider in their lives. Ms. Kamali is actually showing her love for olive oil and is presenting them to the customers to enjoy it as well.
Maybe we can all go to her November festivity of olive oils!