THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE

Paris, Place Colette, in front of the Comédie Française. Although the square is named after one of my favorite writers, that morning, I hated it. It was simply freezing outside. And that was only the beginning of a somewhat strange day.

Imagine. You are a lawyer. You have also chosen to launch a fashion website. All in all, between a demanding job and three children you’ve just got bucket fulls of time on your arms.

Well.

You start the day off at 6:30 a.m. to wake your teenager, who has class at 8 a.m. Between the existential questions of the said teen and preparing breakfast, you (uselessly) try to get ready. Not to get ready for some shooting of any kind, God no, how trivial, at 6:30 a.m. I’m quite a short-term minded person at 6.30 a.m. You’re getting ready for the fateful, dreaded school run (waking, feeding, dressing the kids, realizing on your way to school that their hair is a mess, actually your hair isn’t any better and that a more accurate term for “dressing” would be “wrapping”).

Anyway.

Once you’re back from the school run, you start painting your face. Because a photo shoot requires a lot of painting (or at least in my standards, as I barely wear make up in my… let’s call it “everyday”… life).

That’s the moment when you find yourself Place Colette, freezing to death because it’s -15°C (That’s an exaggeration. Kind of. Ok, it was 5°C but still…), it’s raining cats and dogs and that tights, I quote:  “don’t look good on the pictures” (according to a friend).

But still , that was the best moment!

After that, I had to practice another kind of sport, one I like to call the “work run”. Run towards your emails, solve emergencies, manage three absolutely humorless lawyer meetings that a) are unending and b) really unpleasant because everyone is pissed to some degree.

But still , that was the best moment!

After that, I had to bring my five year old son to the Center for International Vaccinations to have him vaccinated against yellow fever. Indeed, the young man is going off to Rwanda with his father for Christmas (yeah, I know, it’s… original). All that whilst still wearing a ton of makeup. And tightless.

But sill, that was the best moment!

After that, everyone starts arriving home. The evening is like any other evening, spent between the children’s bath (no worries, the oldest one takes care of herself), dinner, the dozens of unavoidable questions that always start with “Mummy?” and range from Hello Kitty, to Pokemon, to all the kinds of existential question that make this cruel, cruel world so restless. At that point, you’re still wearing a thick layer of paint on your face, but thanks to some strange misunderstanding you were given 30 seconds to change into a pair of jeans. Made up but freezing no longer.

But still, that was the best part!

Once the children are asleep, after having been madly (yes madly is the word) comforted by the madly (yep) intelligent answers that their mother gives to all of there questions (Mummy, where does the wind come from? »), I still have a mad (still mad) amount of work to get done.

Strange life that I chose… Honestly though: I wouldn’t trade it for all the gold in the world.

October 5, 2015

Fendi coat and heels – Dior handbag – Vintage hat