One of the obvious perks of working in the fashion industry is that every now and then you get to go to a party! Yesterday I went with E to a party for Dries Van Noten. Although we didn't really know what was the reason for the event, and we still don't!, we drank the champagne and toasted to Dries. It's very difficult to describe the people that usually attend these parties...Yesterday night was a mix between probably faithful clients, women on their 40's or 50's all very chic and with the plastic surgeon's number on speed dial; the journalists, always so different from each other; some buyers of course; PR people, like my future boss; friends and friends of friends, and us! In between two glasses of champagne E and I learned that it was the 4th anniversary of a very hot club in Paris, Le Baron. Armed with a phone number to use in case of emergency, we left the party to attend the other party!

One more bottle of champagne and we're on our way, not really knowing what to expect (and to be honest, nothing could have prepared us for what was coming!) Le Baron is known for being a very small venue where people fight every weekend to get in. We didn't know that much about the place, but as we got closer to the door and to the line to get in we started to wonder where were we exactly. Either we had walk into a mirror to Wonderland and I didn't notice or Halloween had come to Paris early! Let me try to describe some of the people in line...There was an asian guy with a huge red mohawk; there was a small girl with a huge black and acid green punk wig; there was the sweet girl wearing a long fur coat and a flower crown... To cut things short, there were a lot of strange people there...and, once again, us! Very properly dressed we could clearly see we wouldn't get in! I mean we certainly didn't fit in! Waiting and wondering we started talking with two girls. One of them, let's call her CR, made our night! She is fun, loud, full of "joi de vivre" and very, very nice! She immediately gave us her phone number so we could all go out together and when the bouncer screamed to the crowd that only the ones that were dress up would get in, she started looking for hair pins on her bag so we could do something different with our hair. Oh, because the dress up he meant wasn't exactly my dress up. It was more the kind of "the craziest will come in!" After a phone call to our emergency number and after realizing there wasn't that much more we could do, since it was obvious we wouldn't get in, E and I decided to go home and drink the last bottle of champagne. We ended up watching old music videos on youtube, eating cheese and having the best time singing and reminiscing!

Parties are great fun and I love going to them...but sometimes nothing beats being with a friend having fun with simple things :)

"It's all happening..!"

Until next time,

Papillon

The cold and rain arrived at Paris and made me miss my sunny country even more :) How I miss those glorious sunny days!

Even though the weather is not the best I try to keep my weekend routines that include, always, some hours spent on the cafe by the canal near my house. Usually, I take some magazines and spend my hours reading, drinking cappucinos and people watching. This was always one of my favorite hobbies in Portugal. Just sitting in a cafe, observing and wondering about people. Although in Portugal this may sound strange, in Paris I'm just one among many. People watching is a national pastime in here and I love it! Everywhere you go there's cafes right on the sidewalks providing the perfect view of Paris's life and its inhabitants. Depending on the hour you can watch all kinds of people. For instances, on sunday mornings by the canal there's the mothers with their young kids than run and scream oblivious to their mothers' warnings; there's the runners from all ages and genders; there's the elder women with their dogs; there's the occasional tourist group; there's young men with books and newspapers under their arms...It's a feast for the observers that sit, drink their coffees and watch. One thing I've noticed immediately is that teenagers are all very different. In Portugal you normally see the same kind of kids: they all dress in the same way, have the same hair styles and almost seem like copies of each other. Here it's different. There's so much variety, there's a little thing called individuality. Of course they also group themselves according to a specific style, but in a group of 5 kids they look, surprisingly, all different in their coherence. Style is a big thing in Paris and people make that extra effort to look stylish and fashionable every day. But, at the same time, it looks so effortless. Even on weekends most women wear make up and high heels. It's not an obligation, is part of their identity. One effect this had on me was that I started to feel "pressure" to do the same, to not rely on my faithful baggy jeans and sneakers on weekends. And now it's becoming more and more natural, also a part of my identity. This doesn't mean I don't have my days when the only thing I want to wear is a large sweater and sunglasses, but even on those days I now wear a necklace or earrings just to make it a little bit more "special". Living is paris, at first, was like dressing up every day. Now it's just part of who I am and I love it! One of the perks of people watching is the ideas and inspirations that come with it...Every day I see something new, something that i adopt and transform to my own style. When people say Paris is the fashion capital they usually mean that the most important designers are based here; that fashion week is one of the most important, if not the most, in the world and so on. To me it was the same, but now i see it differently. Paris is the fashion capital because it is a trend setter. Trends are born here and people follow them and adapt them to their own sense of style. It's not just the designers, it's the Parisians! It's the fact that fashion is everywhere you look, on everyone around you and you are influence by them, as they are by you, every single minute. This is, in my opinion, what makes this city so special, so fashionable! And I am every day more happy and grateful to be a part of it :)

"It's all happening...!"

Until next time...

Papillon

Bonjour,

(This is not a post like the others. This is just me sharing my feelings with you...)

There are a lot of things that scare me. Being away from the safeness of my own home and country makes me that much neurotic and scared. My fears could be of tangible things, like being robbed or assaulted or something undoubtedly scary like that; but my fears grow on that dark place inside myself I try to avoid. My main fear is to feel/be lonely. That is a scary thought! The fact that I don't have five of my dearest and oldest friends as close to me as a 10 minute ride helps to nurture this monster. The fact that I don't have my dear mom on the other room is just food for the beast!

The fear of being alone is common to most human beings. We are first of all social beings. To survive we have to exist and live in society; it is vital for our existence to have a network of people around us. So my fear is not un-logical, but a very rational one even(if you think fears are logical). In many ways, however, I am blessed and lucky. I don't have to wait a month to receive a letter from a friend or relative, I don't have to travel for days to get home... Thank God for technology! On our modern age, technology is like a safe blanket you can rely on to keep you warm and safe and never lonely. Thanks to the internet I get news from my friends every day and I talk to my mother every night and I can even see her! It's a wonderful thing! But despite all these great wonders I still have that little thing inside of me that hides in the deep shadows of my being...There are some bad days and then there are the horrible days: the ones I wake up feeling homesick and just plain sad. Missing home and the people you love is a great feeling when you're on vacation, because you know you'll be home soon. But in my case, not so great!

During my adolescence years I was a teenager with a lot of friends! That is until I've learnt, the hard way, what being a friend really means. When I got into college my friendships changed a lot and I went from having a million best friends to have only 5. Those are the ones I know, for sure as I know the sun will rise tomorrow, will always be there for me and will do everything to help me or make me happy. I have nourished these relationships since then very carefully, because (here comes the cliche!) no man is an island! The popular wisdom tells us long distance relationships don't usually survive. The physical connection is as, if not more, important as the emotional one. Friendships have it easier because there's no need for...well sex! The physical part is not That important, although I do like my friends' hugs! So friendships have a better chance to survive the distance, but an effort has to be made. This is what I fear the most...what if, one of these days, my friends feel I am not worth that effort? The little beast inside of me is growing stronger and stronger as I imagine this situation...How would I survive? How would I get by?

So, my dear, dear friends please know how much I love you all and how much I really, undisputedly, need you to live and breath and walk and chase my dreams in this far far away land! Please make that effort as I do mine. We all have busy lives and personal crisis and that's the main reason we need friends and people who loves us around :)

All my love,

Papillon

Bonjour,

Weekends are always eventful around here.

6 pm on Thursday arrived and our meeting was postponed. Great to know I was here until this late just to go home. Well, shit happens, right? So P, R and I met around 8 and went to Ephemere. The place is extraordinary! Is right by the canal and right next door to a fire station, which is a plus because every now and then some cute firemen come by. The thing about French firemen is that they are actually hot. Unlike Portugal, here their uniforms are designed to show us what a great body they have and they're all young and brave, or at least they seem so. Anyway, the place is divided in 4 different areas. You have the café/bar area, the restaurant, the art gallery and next door the club. It's a very lively place, full of different people and with a great music selection that goes from 80's classics to the latest house beats. We had a good time, drinking our wine on a plastic cup and talking about trivial things like religion and politics. Politics, or to be accurate, American politics is a very common subject between us. E and I are liberals, totally democrats and Obama's fans. But P, our little baby, is a republican. For us this is, In many ways, incomprehensible. P justifies it by saying her family is republican and so she was brought up with those values. When facing some questions about, for example, abortion or guns, she tries to defend her views, but it's increasingly difficult because E and I are passionate enough to start raising our voices and losing our temper. This is so unfair to poor P. She's always the target! But recently she became more and more open to our ideas and has even asked me to send her some information so she could read and think about it. One small victory!

So, we liked the place so much that we've decided to go back there on Saturday for brunch. Friday I didn't go to work, I didn't have anything to do so there was really no point. So I spent my day doing laundry and watching TV shows. Feeling a little depressed, I mean it was friday night and I was home alone, I decided to get some dinner and a bottle of wine. Don't worry, I'm not on the verge of alcoholism! Since I don't have a bottle opener, I went to restaurant next door and asked for help. This is one of my favorite places to eat on my street, the best turkish food you can ever have! The owner, a middle aged man that is always smiling, asked me if I was going to drink with friends or alone. As he heard my answer he looked at me surprised, almost sad. Well, I guess it is kind of sad and pathetic! Anyhow, he gave me a red rose for company and with a smile, always a smile, said goodbye. I was touched, really. He didn't have any agenda with that, it was a really genuine and kind gesture and it made me feel really happy.

Saturday came with a full schedule ahead of us. We met around noon for brunch...

Oh, I have to stop for a minute to write something really important! The thing about P I didn't explain yet is that although she's the only American she is, in fact, the least American of us. There are so many things about the American culture she doesn't know that E and I are constantly shocked! For example, this is a classic P moment: I don't remember why but James Bond came up. P, always so naïve, told us she didn't like George Bond because he was so cheesy. "George Bond?!" E and I yelled. And then P replies: "Oh yes, James Bond. I'll be back! So cheesy!" Ok, E and I were ready to throw ourselves into the canal. I mean, who can relate James Bond with The Terminator? Well, that's our P!

Anyhow, after brunch we left the café and started our planned tour of vintage stores. The first three were a little bit of a disappoitement, but all my faith was on the last one called Star. After the first three our energy level was considerably low and so we decided to stop for coffee. Of course that after looking at the menu and all their yamhy cocktails we've decided to have a drink also. Don't you love drinking on a Saturday afternoon? Specially when you're on this great café, drinking strawberry margaritas in the sun. It was perfect! After two cocktails we went to Star which was a battle field. It was packed with people, all in combat mode, looking for that perfect dress or bag. It was mental! And I loved it! I love this kind of things, I love to dig and find something special buried in a pile of stuff. We spent almost 2hours on that store and I feel I didn't even see a quarter of their selection. With a shopping bag full of new/old things and our wallets considerably lighter, we went home to get ready for our evening.

Champagne and pizza, the true fashionista's dinner. R met us at E's house and we all went out to meet some of her friends. I want to spare you the details of the hour we spent looking for the apartment and then the hour we actually spent there. There's really no point! So after a brief stop at this bar that really looked like a brothel we went to a club called Fleche D'Or. It is a very cool place, with nice music and a cool ambiance. We sat in this room with different, strange couches with our drinks and soon enough we were talking with the group next to us. Of course the people next to us were all boys and E had already a favorite. It turns out he was married! Anyway, we made small talk, or I made small talk, until I needed another drink. That's when I met JM. So me and JM started, don't ask me for the details, on this dance competition which was a lot of fun. I mean serious fun! Well at least until he grabbed my face and asked me if he could kiss me. I looked at him and said "Can you...? Noooooo!" And left him on the dance floor. This was hilarious! I got back to the room and sat with my drink, relaxing. 10 minutes later he comes in and I sent him away. 30 min after he comes again, and I sent him away again. At his third try, after one hour, I thought to myself, "well at least he doesn't give up easily", and so I gave him a chance. We laughed the whole time and talked a lot. It was a lot of fun. With my number safe on his cell we left the club, after the necessary drama and went home.

Well I guess it was just one more weekend in Paris...

"It's all happening...!"

Until next time,

Papillon