Black to Paris

Cupcakes and Cashmere jacket (c/o Shopbop)
Carven dress (similar)
Steve Madden sandals
Celine bag
Celine sunglasses
Keltie Leanne Designs earrings (c/o)

Years ago, one spring morning on our way to enjoy a breakfast we couldn’t really afford at La Favorite on rue de Rivoli in Paris, we stopped casually to snap some outfit photos on a relatively non-descript Le Marais. We didn’t give too much thought to what we were doing, which is unusual for us, but the results were surprising – and by surprising, I mean the photos turned out far better than expected. A photo of me from that day, crossing the street with my old black Furla bag in hand, appeared in Framework Magazine later that year. I’ve always wanted to recreate those photos, but it seemed silly. We don’t get that much time in Paris each year, and can’t bring ourselves to waste

I’ve always wanted to recreate those photos, but it seemed silly. We don’t get that much time in Paris each year. We have to be judicious with how we spend it. And we can’t bring ourselves to waste a chunk of it on a trip to a residential street near nothing else we want to visit just to take photos, no matter how well they might turn out.

But this year, we had time. Three months in the capital seemed like an eternity – at least until May. Suddenly, once again, we had to consider carefully how we spent our days in order to fit everything in. And I was determined to recreate that old photoshoot, so we made a trip to Le Marais a priority.

Nothing turned out as planned, of course. It never really does. It was too warm for my black leather jacket, really. The street was busy with tourists checking out of their Airbnb rentals. Construction prevented us from shooting at the same angle we did all those years ago. A diversion on rue de Rivoli meant an inordinate number of cars came rushing by while I leaped out of the way. And we planned it. Which means the shots lack the spontaneity, the carefree feeling that made the original ones so perfect.

The truth is, reshooting never works. You can never recapture a moment in time – once it’s passed, that’s it, it’s gone. And there will never be another one like it. While that means I can never recreate the old photos the way I hoped to, it also makes these ones meaningful in their own way. The morning we spent wandering Le Marais trying to find the old street was a completely different day, with its own story.