My friend Gabriela took most of these pictures and I thought I'd post them over here. She spent a year here in Paris and she has gone back just a few days ago to Italy, where she's from.

When you come to think of it, life is all about the people you meet, people who disappoint you, people who will simply smile at you on the street and people who will offer their help at times when you don't even realise that you need help. These accidental encounters will buid your destiny.

T-shirt: vintage
Leggings: H&M
Shoes: Bata

Metro. Boulot. Dodo?

Life in Paris is hectic! Maybe it's because I haven't been living here my entire life... but it's already been three years and I'm still not used to it.
It'll be 8 in the morning, I'll be waiting for the metro looking like I was in Eyjafjallajoekull(thank god this is not a vlog, can Icelanders even prounounce it?) when the volcano erupted and everyone around me will be looking like Rachel Zoe's picked their outfit and fixed their hair.
Sometimes it seems other people look good in such an effortless manner that actually making the effort to put decent clothes on is impossible. It's agravating and it's depresseing.

However, after spending the winter being a hermit - and looking like one - I decided that I would make the effort: I will wake up earlier and brush my hair, and I might even do my nails.

Tofu and Chilli roll around Paris

Dear people who visit my blog from time to time,

Most sincere appologies for not posting anything in a while. I do have an excuse though: my computer (his name is Hbiba -which means darling in arabic), has stoped working and consequently stoped being a darling...
To be honest, there is no excuse for my lack of involvement in this project that I was extremely passionate about in the beginning.
So why -you might ask- am I suddenly re-emerging?
I have recently spent a week with my (best) friend Zara who has been living in London for the past 8 months...
I just realised that I should probably explain the story behind the name of this blog for my story to make sence.
Zara is half Asian, that's why I call her Tofu... and I'm not Mexican at all... but somehow, Tofu calls me Chilli.
At the beginning, this blog was supposed to be a common project and we were both supposed to write posts, but unexpected things happen in life and I ended up doing the blogging thing on my own (Zara on the other hand has an amazing food blog that you should all go see).
So to make a long story short, seeing Tofu made me nostalgic of that time where I'd go out with my camera, looking for style.
I cannot promise very frequent posts (because Hbiba is still in the ER) but I will try my best.
Please try to comment, so that I know that I'm not just talking to myself!

The Halloween Spirit

I've just had the most horrific week. I've had trouble meeting deadlines for the magazine, struglled with work for uni, and watched my computer crash yet another time. I chose to blame it on the Halloween Spirit.

I made up this theory that during the week following the evil Holiday, things are bound to go wrong. I have to admit this theory is very closely linked to the fact that my landlady threatened to kick me out the morning after the Halloween Housewarming I threw at my place... Evil landlady! How could she ever think we were anything but peaceful little angels, don't we look like peaceful little angels?

Quynh, Armand, Tofuchilli, Azi

dress: h&m

Tofuchilli, Matthieu

Steph

A week has passed, and today, things seemed to have miraculously fallen into place: which thus justifies my theory. Anyone who agrees with me is free to say so, we'll write a book about it and kick Darwin's ass.

Le deuxième sexe

Yesterday I asked a girl if I could take a picture of her... she was wearing a white lace minidress and a very cool pair of massive sunglasses. She was about to say yes right before her (idiot) boyfriend hastened to refuse. The girl gave me a sorry smile and the couple trotted back home hand in hand. Anf I stood there, completely astounded. I heard feminism was out but come on ladies... pride is still in!

So today I'm listening to angry girl music and reading Simone de Beauvoir's biography. But don't worry, I'm still shaving my legs.

Bonding in daylight

Elsa

I met Elsa on a sunny afternoon in Paris. I asked if I could take a picture and she kindly agreed. As we were walking down the same road, she ended up telling me she was a photographer from Marseille, I ended up showing her two of my favorite thrift shops. In a city of 2 300 000 inhabitants and many tourists, meeting people seems to be a rather complicated enterprise.

During the day, people work, they're under a lot of stress, they're late for everything, they're gumpy, they're moody... So to relax, people go out at night, they want to meet people. So they'll order a drink to shake the stress off. They'll start talking to the tall blond on their right... but wait... they need another drink... to be funny you know? And then they'll order another one cause... well the joke was funny but now they've run out of things to say and have to do something to avoid looking too akward. And by the sixth drink, you're having the time of your life talking to the tall blond, you forgot his/her name but it's ok cause you'll call him/her "babe" for the rest of the night. The next morning, you'll go to work all stressed out because you didn't get enough sleep but good thing you're going out later that day for a relaxing drink with some friends...

All I'm saying is that in a city where healthy socialising is on the same scale as rocket science, it is quite refreshing to meet a young photographer from Marseille on a sunny Parisian afternoon.

Ooh la la Paris!

Paris is just so much nicer in the spring. People seem a lot less morose now that the sun is starting to shine. The monuments look grander, the city's full of tourists,music is playing on the streets, children are playing in the parks, pedestrians PDA anywhere they possibly can... It's so nice that even when a pigeon defecated on my shirt, I still couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

I bought these brown shoes at a vintage shop a while back. One of the heels broke the day I took this picture so I had to walk home bare feet. Zara and I counted the number of stares I got in the street... people stare a lot...