Cheers to the second half of 2013

With Alchimie being sold on Fab.com and a lot of interesting projects at work, needless to say, we have been pretty busy lately. Here we are in the middle of 2013 not even knowing when the last 6 months flew. It's been a first half of the year blessed with many beautiful and unforgettable moments. Unfortunately, also with heartbreaking losses. Looking back in time, though it seems nothing changed, the fact is, nothing is the same.

One thing is certain: the Earth has not yet stopped spinning and friends are here to stay. Therefore, we dedicate this post to Friendship, and to the next 6 months of this year, may they bring up only good things in our lives.

We have a lot of interesting projects involving the blog, interesting people that we want to acquaint you with and hopefully they will all soon start to materialize. In the meantime, we leave you with these photos. We had so much fun shooting them, nearly got run by a couple of cars, starred at by random people on the street but still they turned out quite nice.

Have a nice Sunday a best beginning of the next half of the year!

Love,

Laura&Elena

Postcards from Paris

Bonjour les filles! With La Boheme still echoing in our minds we left rainy Paris to return home. Our rainy home. Not before collecting some souvenirs, not only from the material ones, but most important, from the non-material ones: memories. You will find in this post a random collection of photos from the streets of Paris, Sacre-Coeur, Louvre museum and the Versailles palace. It was hard to select just a couple of them, since the beauty of everything we saw was undeniable and we wish to introduce you as best as possible in the fairy-tale atmosphere.
For art lovers, the Louvre museum is a prelude to heaven. With the greatest collection of art-works in the world, over 1 million, it mesmerized us at every step. Tiziano, DaVinci, Goya, Rubens, Delacroix, Vermeer and many others at one glance, along with unsurpassed Greco-Roman, Egyptian and Islamic art collections for archeology passionates (we know at least one on this blog:).
We arrived at Versailles on a cold rainy morning and waited around one hour in a chinese dragon shaped queue along with other frozen tourists before being able to enter the palace. The luxurious setting instantly caught our eye and at one point we were almost expecting to see Marie Antoinette in one of her magnificent dresses to glance at one of the windows.
While strolling around Moulin Rouge, Franziska, from The Fashion ID Blog asked to take a couple of photos of us and made a nice post about streetstyle in Paris. Check out her blog, she and her collaborators are doing a really good job.
Until the next time, we are wishing you a calm week and a lovely beginning of summer!

Love,

Laura&Elena

Bloggers, clothes, dj, drinks and cupcakes at Vide-dressing du Café de la Presse

On Friday we went to Vide-dressing du Café de la Presse, an event which involved bloggers, clothes, a dj, drinks and, of course, cupcakes. The perfect combination to gather up a cool young crowd from Brussels enjoying the much awaited warmth of a May evening. While enjoying an Aperol and coveting  the blogger's wardrobes we met the super cute girls from My boy is not a hipster and discussed about a collaboration between our blogs. Hopefully you'll see it soon on The Girls with the Rose Colored Glasses.
Laura took out for a spin the coolest leather pants in town, of course, from Alchimie. We improvised a quick photoshoot on our way home and now, reviewing the photos, we noticed it seems almost as if the city was deserted. That's part of the magic, I guess.
A full weekend sounds like a good plan for us, so that's what we're doing, in case someone's wondering. Have a nice one you all, wherever you might be while reading this post.

Love,

Laura&Elena

Spoiled kids&magnolia trees

When was the last time you went out to grab a coffee in a lazy Saturday afternoon and you suddenly saw an amazingly quiet oasis with the most beautiful magnolia trees and you knew you HAD to stop and take a couple of photos? Well, it happens to us all the time:)). And just like spoiled kids, we didn't miss the opportunity to play a bit in front of the camera. The truth is that, what we love most when spending time with each other, is the genuine fun and laughters that brighten up our days. After all, isn't this what friendship is all about?
Meanwhile, May is lining up as a busy month for the two of us. It's gonna be packed up with new beginnings (especially for the brunette half of the blog), with traveling and nonetheless with a lot of work. Soon you'll be able to see us in a blog post dedicated to Alchimie, in which we'll be wearing pieces from the collection. So stay tuned!

Love,

Laura&Elena

PS: Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway! by Earl Nightingale

Introduction to ALCHIMIE

A few posts ago, when making our big "entrance" after the break, we mentioned we had some news but didn't disclose much at the time. The time has come to let you know about the little project that the blonde half of the blog, with the help of the brunette half, of course, has put in place. It's called Alchimie, and it's a clothing line using genuine leather as main material for creating fashionable, timeless pieces. You know how best ideas arise from a lack of something that determines you to find your own solution? Well, Laura was searching for quite some time for a perfectly fitted pair of genuine leather pants with a decent price, when the idea to design them herself arose.
A trip to Istanbul and a couple of months later (and a serious amount of work) and you can finally see the result. Of course, there are many things to add, like for example that each piece is named after a famous street in Paris and the name of the line itself, Alchimie, is the french word for the philosophical tradition who's practitioners claimed to have found the elixir of youth. Or the fact that all garments are designed with utmost care and adapted to current bodyshapes so that they fit impeccable.
The Alchimie line is available to shop online here, via the Facebook Shop, and here.
We would be more than happy to hear what you think about the line so don't hesitate to write us!

Love,

Laura&Elena

Inspired by …Elsa Peretti, Jewelry Designer for Tiffany&Co!

Elsa Peretti Editorial Image by Kacper Kasprzyk for CR Fashion Book

Photo by Jill Krementz

When we started this blog we wanted to write about people who made an impression on us either because they achieved great things in their lives either because they are simply unique, speak their minds and live each day doing what they love the most. And so we came up with a series called Inspired by… We would like to continue this series with another remarkable women, a true legend of our times in the person of Elsa Peretti, jewelry designer for Tiffany&Co .

Elsa Peretti is such a source of inspiration that we had to write about her lifestory. She has been working as a designer for Tiffany&Co since 1974 and since then she revolutionized the jewelry design and enchanted the whole world with her timeless masterpieces.

Photo by Tiffany&Co

She designed the famous "bottle necklace" as she, herself recalls walking around the magnificent allies of Portofino, Italy with a single gardenia in her hands and wearing a small bottle on a string around her neck just to       keep her flower alive.

She created the well known "Sevillana", a motive inspired by the earring of a Flamenco dancer that delighted her in Spain, the magnificent "bone cuff", inspired by the shape and form of the human bone, the "empty heart" inspired by the void in a sculpture of Henry Moore and the stunning "mesh", an idea that crossed her mind while traveling in India. She even designed a necklace in the shape of a snake and of a scorpion which soon became iconic jewelry. By far, one of her best creations was the diamond necklace, named " Diamonds by the yard", worn by Elsa in the second photo above, when she genuinely reinvented the diamond jewelry.

In one of her recent interviews Elsa Peretti Essentials of Style she says she takes her inspiration from traveling which is why she spent most of her lifetime discovering new places that keep her mind full of joy and passion for beauty. She has several homes, in Italy, in Spain, in New York but she admits that one of her favorite places is Spain, where she gathers her thoughts.

All her life she was surrounded by talented and inspiring people like Salvador Dali, Liza Mineli, Andy Warhol, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, Helmut Newton, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo and many others. She has been a model, a muse and ultimately a designer.

Her story is meant to remind us but also to remind you how important is to keep our mind full of beautiful thoughts, love that can fuel our imagination and that can make us dream. Nevertheless, being in the right place with the right people has an important role in our self-development. We hope we will always be surrounded by talented people, that inspire us to be nice and kind, that teach us and guide us on our chosen path. We wish to have always close to us people who are happy to share their knowledge and to give a chance to a young dreamer. And above all we wish to be always surrounded by our friends, the old ones and the new ones and of course by our beloved families.

During all her lifetime Elsa received several awards: Coty Award for Jewelry in 1971, Rhode Island School of Design President's Fellow Award in 1981 and in 1996 she was named Accessory Designer of the year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

In December 2012 Peretti signed a new 20-years contract with Tiffany therefore she will continue to design and delight the world with her priceless creations under the label of Tiffany. And we are so looking forward to see her next pieces of jewelry because as Elisabeth Taylor said, "diamonds are a girl's best friend".

Love,

Laura & Elena

The smell of Spring

We've been absent lately, but it's not without a reason. You've probably noticed the Facebook Box on the right side of the page and you're wondering who and what is it for. More about it in a further post, but if you decide to enter the Facebook page and you like what you see, don't hesitate to press the Like button!
While busy with our projects we almost missed the return of Spring in our city. So while heading this Saturday to the Yves Saint Laurent Visionnaire expo (more details in a further post, of course) and crossing our favorite park, it suddenly struck us: it's here!!! The grass is green, the swans are back on the lake, (almost) no clouds in the sky....it must be HER. So we took a moment to enjoy our coffees and breathe in the grass & soft soil spring-ish aroma before continuing our passage.
Stay tuned for a couple of exciting posts about two iconic names in fashion the following days!

Love,

Laura&Elena