6:30 A.M.I live in both New York and Los Angeles, so it depends on where I am, but I wake up between 6:30 and 8 in the morning. I've slept only six hours a night since my 60s. We require less sleep, I've read. If I'm off traveling and outside diving or trekking all day, I try to sleep more. Your body needs rejuvenation. I usually wake up without an alarm. I have this weird thing I've developed: I almost always know what time it is, night or day. I like it. It makes me feel connected with life.
7:30 A.M.After I brush my teeth and comb my hair, I take a weather check to see what the day's life can be. Also for dressing. Then I do a speed makeup, six to nine minutes. I mostly use my own makeup line, and I don't have routines of any sort. I usually wear jeans, a jacket, and a T-shirt. Right now I'm wearing Prada flat black ankle boots. They last forever. The ones I'm wearing are two years old. I buy two pairs at a time so that I can still have them when they quit making them. The jackets I wear are often Armani because they don't go in and out of fashion. For jeans, I'm from the Levi/Wrangler days. I don't really like fashion-y jeans, just good, durable jeans that fit well.
8:45 A.M. It takes me about 45 minutes to leave the house. I always eat out. I like to read the paper and have food brought to me so I can take a long, leisurely time. I tend to eat in the exact same places near where I live, either in downtown Manhattan or in Venice. I usually order a pot of English breakfast tea, but once in a while I bring my own Taifu, which is a strong old Chinese tea. Coffee and tea are a problem—I need to cut down. I may have five teas in the morning. About a year ago, I started drinking coffee for the first time in my life. I found this thing I really like called a cortado [espresso and steamed milk]. They can't make them at the place where I eat in New York, but they sure can make them in Venice, and I'll order one to have there and another to go. For breakfast, I have oatmeal and fruit salad with yogurt and honey and nuts, or huevos rancheros. In L.A., there's a place that has a great seeded bialy with harissa, a soft fried egg, and arugula. That's a weakness. I take off the thicker slice of bread. I don't want to eat too much bread. I check my weight every day, so if I find that it's going north, I try to just eat either protein and vegetables or carbohydrates and vegetables. You don't want to mix protein and carbohydrates because that's when it sticks to you. I do that for three or four days, and it changes my weight very quickly. With breakfast I like to read The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post to find out what happened, what they did to us.
10:30 A.M. My work [schedule] has been extremely irregular since I signed my contract with Revlon in 1973. Before then, all modeling was by the hour! I take subways a lot. I much prefer the subway to Uber or taxis because it's faster. I do whatever's convenient and gives me more time on my own. I haven't gotten the subway system in L.A. down yet. When I'm there I try to stay in my hood.
12:00 P.M.I don't eat lunch. I've never been a "lady who lunches." I eat a big breakfast and just go through until dinner. I'd like to get into the habit of snacking. I keep some bananas around, and I drink a ton of water. I keep water on both sides of the bed, in my car, everywhere. Sometimes I'll eat the odd pear.
2:00 P.M.I don't have a typical afternoon. I haven't had a schedule, really, for 25 years, maybe more. I spend time seeing friends, going to a movie, reading. If I'm in New York, I go to museums. I try to take care of all sorts of business, which should include e-mails, but I am quite remiss about all that. I have no social media whatsoever. Don't like it. I try to check my e-mails once a month or, at most, every couple of weeks.
7:00 P.M.I eat dinner at 7. I go out and meet friends, or I eat alone with a book. Tonight I'm going out with Anna Deavere Smith. She's an old friend, and she's usually going in one direction and I'm going in another, so we're always catching up. I'm blessed with many great old friends. They all do different things, but we keep finding one another. It's easier to cook in L.A. I don't know why; I guess it's because I have skylights everywhere. I have a little 1917 beach shack in Venice, and I have, like, seven skylights. I make pasta usually, with some sort of tomato, mint, hot pepper, and orange sauce. That's a favorite. I have a nice old kitchen with a giant 1934 Magic Chef stove, and I have friends who come over and cook for me and cook with me.
11:00 P.M.If I'm stressed, I'll try to talk myself into a bath instead of a shower; I have wonderful tubs and nice oils. If I have a night out with my friends, I am in bed around 11 or 12. Otherwise I'm in bed reading by 8. I read in bed even though they say it's bad for you. I read everywhere I am. I don't sleep easily without reading; I've read up to eight hours in a single night. It's therapy, mental travel. I read everything. I've loved Mark Twain since I was a kid. Also Pound; Cummings; Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection, by John Man; and William S. Burroughs, whom I knew. What I should not read at night is The Economist or the Times, though I do. The world's been burning up for the past 10 years, and that is very hard on your sleep.
Lauren's Must-Haves
"I'm from the Levi/Wrangler days." Levi's 501 jeans, $98, levi .com; "If I get stuck for months north of the equator, I haul these out." Comodynes Self-Tanning Natural & Uniform Color towelettes, $14 for eight, comodynes.net; "A great lipstick I just found a few weeks ago." Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, $17, clinique.com; "At night I switch around products, but my staples include Ole Henriksen." Ole Henriksen Invigorating Night Transformation Crème, $50, sephora.com; "They're really good, and they last forever." Prada boot, $750, prada.com.
