Shipwrecked! Kao Pao Shu Designer Lost at Sea

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L.A.-based designer Naida Begeta, the woman behind Beverly Boulevard boutique Kao Pao Shu, spends her free time sailing around the world with her husband Marco Schillaci in a sailboat named Butch. Pretty standard, right? But this Christmas, as Begeta and Schillaci were sailing across the Atlantic from the Cape Verde Islands to Trinidad, Butch's mast came loose. With seven or eight days of sailing left between them and land, the couple radioed for help until they were rescued by a German research ship. Where they promptly—because what else are you going to do while lost at sea in the 21st century—started a blog.

How does one blog at sea? Well, the ship has an Intranet system that allows Begeta to email her publicist and friends in Italy and Los Angeles four times a day, and they post on the site (which, you'll notice, is in Italian and English.) The ship that rescued them has no plans to return to dry land until February 13th, so for another two weeks, they're living aboard as Begeta tries to work on her new collection.

We know, this whole story sounds like the product of a fevered night spent watching alternating reruns of Lost and Project Runway on a heavy dosage of NyQuil. And we suppose Begeta could be making this up, especially as she mentions (via her publicist, via the ship's Intranet) that her collections have always been inspired by the sea. But even if this is all an elaborate publicity stunt, it is by far the strangest tale from the briny deep that's ever crossed our inbox.
· Now Open: Kao Pao Shu on Beverly Boulevard [Racked]
· Crossing [Begeta and Schillaci's Blog]