NY-Paris-NY

A week in Paris...

What can I tell you... Family, friends, small dinners, shopping and more shopping, Paris, amazing Paris...

Sandro, Maje, Isabel, Vanessa, Iro, Manoush, Zadig, Noir Kennedy, Gas, Almost Famous, 58M, AB33, Swildens, Bash, etc... Yes I saw all of them.


A real pilgrimage, but let me reassure you (and especially my banker who follows this blog on a daily basis) there were some I just admired, as the dollars is slowly and surely still collapsing!

For the fashion summary, you will have to wait, but Paris it is also all this...

Its roofs...


Its fab areas, so different, St Germain, Le Marais are among my favourites...




And there are all the little extra things... The ones you cannot find in NY (yes yes there are some!)

No? You don't think so, well let me show you...

The Velibs, or how you can rent bicycles by the hour everywhere in Paris.


The patisseries, and they are so good, people are even queuing for them!


And in no specific order...
The tube, so much cleaner, the buildings which, because they are smaller let us see more of the sky, the museums, the Eiffel tower which shines like a diamond at night, to have a real expresso, the brasseries and small cafes, and above all the feeling that people are taking the time to enjoy life, un je-ne-sais-quoi...



Oh I know... I am so French!!

And what about you?

This week end I saw this article in a US magazine and I asked myself the same question.

"What would you be if you were not what you are?" Yes what would I do if I wasn't in my current job? Hmmm... Deep thinking... Yes I am frowning...



I have to look for the celebrities' answers to find some inspiration and I end up a little bit disappointed.

The only few I find amusing are, first of all, Sir Paul McCartney as an English teacher. I would have been at his class every day!! Then there is Courtney Love as a designer, help us!! I think fate did a good deed, I love Hole but I can't stand her outfits!
And the winner is... Karl! Ah Karl! He always has the right answer, he was born to be who he is, Karl! Such an evidence! What did you expect, that he was going to say he wanted to have his own bakery?

What about you, what would you be if you were not what you are?


PS: next week I will ask you another deep question (seen on a mug) "How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?" No? Ok I won't!

I hate mornings

There are some mornings...
You would be better off staying in bed!!
Those are the mornings when...
You get up and you are already tired
You take a few minutes for breakfast and surfing the net (yes your mails, some blogs...) and without even noticing it (where does time go?) 30 minutes are gone and you are still not under the shower
You look for something to wear for about 10 minutes and end up wearing ballerinas and jeans
You cannot do your hair, it just won't look right
You look for your keys, you leave running out, you miss the elevator and then you realise you left your mobile phone inside so you hesitate, then go back and get it... That's when you are officially really late!!
You decide to avoid the tube and go for a taxi as it will be quicker, and of course this is the morning you cannot find any until 10 minutes later
Finally you find one, you still think you took the right decision... And you sit forever in traffic, even on foot you could already be at work
That's when you start getting angry at yourself, you wonder why every morning you are running, why you have to fight for not being late...
Mornings like that you would like to avoid them but you seem to run into them a lot!!
In fact those mornings are your everyday routine!!

Please reassure me, I am not the only one like that... Or am I?

To buy boots... or not to buy... That is my problem!!

Help!! The boots saga continues and it is still not solved! To be honest I have not seen anything amazing and I am hoping an amazing pair is waiting for me in Paris. I might be difficult to please as some will say so I have to justify myself and give you a detailed summary of my latest shopping trip.
After having looked at boots (and all the rest) in Barneys and Bergdorf, I went downtown -needless to say that if you want to shop, downtown is the place to go, and Soho, Nolita, East Village & Meatpacking are my addresses. I first went to my favourite shoe shop Sigerson Morrison and there I looked at every single pair of shoes desesperately seeking the object of my desire...

Here are the choices for boots... Sorry the lookbook is showing a lot of them in white leather but before you start worrying, let me reassure you I will buy black ones!! So I am not convinced, but they are the ones with the best choice, many boutiques are showing either the rider boots or the high heel pointed toe ones, very lady and very not me!!
So after that I thought go and check APC site and you will get lucky, but I was astounded to see they only had one pair of low boots in suede...

When it comes to MJ, the boots collection is not that interesting, and Loeffler Randall is not worth mentionning either -those are the two very well known US brands, and yet nothing there for me. But it is only the beginning, I am very motivated, on the look out, full of enthusiasme!! I have just seen Punky B and her amazing vintage boots from CDC, Sandie also confirmed Isabel Marant had fab ones, so you can easily imagine I will check all that out... Going to Paris this week end so if you are looking for me you know where to find me!!
To be continued!!

A grey winter in HM

Finally the week end is here and as I have seen all the exhibitions, been to all the museums, tidied up my wardrobe, been through my mail, looked at my friends' blogs, what can I do with myself? How can I find things to do on a Saturday afternoon?... Some shopping? Well ok then but really because I have nothing else to do!!!
The problem is (yes a girl's life is very complicated) that NY is very big so one has to start somewhere. So you have to first tackle the classics, Zara, Uniqlo and HM.
Planning a trip to HM, you must go before 2pm, after that you have to face a human wave of American girls who will destroy everything on their path, you will also have to queue for about 15-20 min for the fitting rooms and the same to pay, and needless to say you will have by then said "excuse me" and "sorry " about 50 times in order to make your way through the aisles. Basically for HM either you get up early or you might aswell forget about it!!
On my trip today I had to face a trend that all the mags have been talking about for a few weeks, winter will be grey, all grey! No I am not talking about the weather even though for those who know me this is a topic which I am obsess with.

So there you are, I am showing you a few of their peices... You will have a broad choice, and it should please every style, every taste, between the jumper-dress, the little dress from the 60s, the pinafore type of dress, the grunge one, the long cardigan, the tunic, the coats and even the footless tights and the patent shoes with a bow... And I am not even getting into all the details!! So what about you, did you get grey-ed up by the Swedish?

Girls have real problems

Here we go again...
I can't believe it... I guess I can. You just get back from holidays and already you are under pressure... Ready? Steady! Go!! Yes the new collections are out and you must decide on the few big winter purchases such as the Coat, the Boots, etc... But let's tackle the boots issue -I hear you, two pairs are necessary (at least!!) because with one pair well you might not like them anymore after a while... Or you might bring them back, take another pair and of course wish you had never returned the first pair in the first place... Or you will yearn for a pair that only exists in your head, visit 10 shops and finish empty handed, wearing ballerinas on 20th November... Or you will find some, love them so much that you will wear them all the time and one day it will snow and they will get ruined...
It is 15th January, no more boots in the shops and you are so closed to being forever depressed and have lost sleep over this!! And it will be a real drama!! All those things have happened to me, when it comes to boots I have been though a lot, I mean a lot!!
So this year I say "No", no to my dilemnas, no to bringing back the boots, no to my hesitations and delays, no to a fantasy pair which is nowhere to be found except in my imagination, this year I will be strong, this year I will buy two pairs and I swear not to go back on my decisions... At least I will try!!
So first I go through my closet and look at what I already possess, yes come on, I have to avoid buying the same stuff, that would be stupid, right? Don't tell me that has never happened to you?!
I also have to see if I will wear them again, I mean if everything fits... You know my feet might have got bigger... I know my excuses are lame!! But come on, when my man says to me talking about my 4 year-old riding boots, from Un Dimanche a Venise "I like those ones, they look like Hermes riding boots" I have to find excuses, and the excuse is that they really are uncomfortable... And they look nothing like the Hermes ones, but really nothing like them!! I'd rather not talk about it with him, he wouldn't understand.
And when it comes to trying to explain to him the urge to buy, I won't even get there. Some conversations are a waste of time. It is so obvious one should not have to justify herself! Everybody is talking about boots, Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, Isabel Marant, Vanessa Bruno, Sigerson Morrison, in the street some girls are already wearing their latest purchase with a pair of short or a summer dress and I am still wearing my flip flops and cried when I was putting my swimming suit away!! But I will rise to the challenge and I have given myself until 1st October to buy my two pairs of boots...
First stop in NY, Barneys and Bergdorf. It is a bit like Bon Marche in Paris, more expensive and with less cheaper designers, so I will check the collections there first. I will go at lunch time and will look at all the boots, yes all of them... Wish me luck!