Le Chanel No 5 Ad

Chanel No 5 Ad featuring Estella Warren

This is one of my favorite ads ever made. I saw it for the first time in Paris in the late '90s early '00s and I just found it on youtube. Enjoy.

Le Return of the '90s

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If babydoll dresses, heroin-chic, short hair and the rise of drugs-use weren't enough proof that the '90s are coming back, check out Louis Vuitton's latest ad campaign (above). It features almost as many supermodels as a George Michael video, including Claudia Schiffer, Stefanie Seymour, Eva Herzigova and Naomi Campbell. The only person missing is Cindy Crawford. I wonder why they didn't ask her to be in the shoot as well. 

My favorite supermodel in fashion today is Natalia Vodianova and I love what they did with her hair in the February issue of Vogue. 

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Le Homeless Penny Shelter

Unemployed and Homeless Penny

Most people I meet in New York are involved in some sort of charity organization. Since I am not working right now, I have also decided to devote my time to philanthropic causes. I chose something very close to my unemployed and homeless heart.

When I first came to this city, I was appalled to see how many people would throw pennies onto the street or leave them in supermarkets. Sure, they do not have a high monetary value, however they are still part of the country and deserve as much respect as the flag or national monuments. I couldn't bare to see this anymore, and therefore opened the country's first Homeless Penny Shelter.


Homeless Penny Shelter

It is an attractive milk jar kept in a warm spot next to a photograph of Toscan hills, so that the pennies have something nice to look at while they rest from their weary journey. All pennies are welcome as long as there is space. Once the jar is full, the pennies will be enrolled in math, microeconomics, stock market, and living with other loose change seminars to prepare them for the real world. Then, they will be taken to the bank where they will be put back into the circulation.

Love,
Sabrina

The Homeless Penny Shelter does not accept donations. Please contact this blog for more information or if you know the whereabouts of a penny that needs help.

Le Memory Lane

a happy gathering by artist Marisa Haedike. Source


My past caught up with me this week in three independent incidents.

On Monday I was woken up by a call from an old family friend I haven't seen in 11 years. Our parents used to work together and he has known me since I was a baby. We went out to lunch where he told me stories about my parents, and then he took me home with home with him to Queens to meet his children. He told his eight year old daughter that for him, I too would always be eight years old. Looking at him was like looking at my childhood.

On Wednesday, I e-stalked my best friend from sixth grade. I not only found her, but she happens to be living right outside NYC. Not only that, but she was in Paris for a year while I was in Paris, only we had lost touch by then. I haven't seen her in almost 16 years and we made plans to see each other soon. I can't wait to see how she's grown up.

Thanks to Facebook, I found three people from my high school class (and the class before me) in New York. We met up for coffee last night and it was fun to see how one of them have changed while the others still retained the person they were when I knew them. There is something about meeting your old high school friends as adults. In school, everyone is so stuck in their cliques and images. But once you see each other in the real world, none of that matters and you find a connection with people who you thought you would never even see again.

Pieces of my life scattered over various countries are coming together here in New York. I don't know if I knew those people for a reason, and that reason is going to reveal itself in some sort of second coming experience at some point, or it's just because New York is one of those places that draws people from all over the place. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Until then, I am going to enjoy the city with my new old friends.

Le 12-Year Itch

Tony on Are you Smarter Than a Ten-Year Old


My former classmate Tony was on a game show recently (see clip above). The last time I saw him, in tenth grade, his voice was cracking and he was shorter than me. We used to sit next to each other in history class and I feel strangely proud that I was able to witness him learn facts that he just used on this game show. What makes me even more proud, however, is hearing that he is currently studying marine biology and I specifically remember the moment 12 years ago when he told me that that was his dream job. There is nothing like than seeing the people you care pursue their dreams.