In my early adulthood, whenever I was sick and had to stay home from work or school or whatever generally occupied my time, I would obsessively watch the movie Fargo.  I don’t particularly like that movie but that is a fact that would inevitably escape me when felled by food poisoning or a sinus infection.  Go figure.  Usually around the third or fourth viewing, I would remember that it was a good movie but it wasn’t that good but, by then, my eyes would be blurry and the remote long since lost and I’d just let it play.  Later, it would all seem like a bad dream.

These days I have moved on to another a sick-day entertainment obsession — Jennifer Saunder’s comedic genius in the form of Absolutely Fabulous.  I have always been one for British comedy — Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, etc.  I was once told by an Englishman that I was an honorary English person based on my taste in comedy.  (On the other hand, that same Englishman also called me white trash.)

In any case, it would only make sense that I would also love the cult classic, Absolutely Fabulous, too.  But, for years, it didn’t speak to me.  For good or for bad, the characters have now come into focus for me.  Actually, now that I am older, I find that all of the women of the show — Patsy, Eddy, Saffy, and even Gran — live in my head.  Most days, it’s an all out brawl in there among them.  In any case, I get it now and I’ve recently had a sinus infection so I’ve watched a lot of it lately.

For those of you who don’t know, Ab Fab, as it is known, is a show about two drunken women who live on the fringes of the fashion and style industries.  To uninitiated, it might not sound like much but it is fun-house mirror reflection what obsesses most of us — whether we’d care to admit it or not.  (I write a blog about jewelry for crying out-loud.  I’m as guilty as anyone.)  The show started in the 90’s and has been resurrected more than once but even the older episodes are all the more relevant for the rise of the Kardashians et al.

It is for all these reasons that this is genius.

Alexis Bittar is the maker of jewelry that is both stylish and wacky — it is grown up exuberance.