Repossi, Paris

January 02, 2021 by Deborah Ma in the inanimates

Four-generation Italian jewelry house that for the first-time has transitioned its creative reins not to a son but to a daughter, Gaia Repossi.

It’s flagship store is in the Place Vendome in Paris and was designed by Rem Koolhas

Address: 6 Place Vendôme, Paris, France — **Address**: 6 Place Vendôme, Paris, France

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*the Serti Sur Vide 18-karat white gold diamond ring*

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bookmarking this for the next time I am in Paris so I can visit and see in the flesh. Designs by OMA, Rem Koolhaas.

the place vendome boutique, paris

“The ambition was to question a lot of things in luxury. We decided to go for one concept for each floor. A very scientific and social approach. You can buy like pret-a-porter...and also with the traditional salon with custom-made pieces.”

— Gaia Repossi

there’s always a strong injection of the romantic in their designs & campaigns

past repossi ad campaigns i loved

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Sol Proano, NYC

January 02, 2021 by Deborah Ma in the inanimates

handmade jewelry and crystal mobiles

https://solproano.com/

PRISMA HANGING #8

Deko Candle, Hainaut, Belgium

January 02, 2021 by Deborah Ma in the inanimates

Mouthblown glass + Handmade candles. All made in Belgium

Address: Avenue Bois Jacquet 5 — BE 7711 Dottignies

T: +32 (0)56 48 51 91

https://www.dekocandle.be/en

that look you give that guy - angele

December 28, 2019 by Deborah Ma in sounds

Daria Strokous - autumn 2015

November 08, 2018 by Deborah Ma in style

Daria Strokous in Numero - September 2015

Daria Strokous in Numero, September 2015

Chosun Hotel - Seoul

February 21, 2018 by Deborah Ma in les hotels

There's always too much to love about this city and it brings my soul alive in new and surprising ways every time I visit. A part of me that lives dormant while in New York comes to life because I'm reminded of how I'm also part of another bigger collective people. There's nothing I love more than the opportunity to take part in the shared practices of my heritage in language, food, and community while I make the rounds of visiting family and catching up with how this city has changed. Sure in New York, there are enough Korean Americans that we can make our own breed and even own a sliver of this city to call our own (K-k-k-towwn!) but it only mirrors a small fraction of the greater energy and fast culture of Seoul.

walking through the Seoul History Museum and came across an advertisement of the Chosun Hotel dating from 1890. Slowly learning of the history of this city and its landmarks.

the best part of any vacation is the hotel breakfast

The Westin Chosun Hotel - our home away from home. This place has so much special significance to me because its context is richly saturated in the stories of my mother, who has filled my sisters and I with tales of her youth and who she was before she met my Father-- the life she lived in old Seoul, before Gangnam was the modern highlight its become today and Gangbuk was the peak of culture and sophistication.

We spend the bulk of our time in the upstairs lounge because of the endless coffee provided and the gorgeous view of the city's skyline

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located right next to historic palaces like the Deoksugong

what my mother and I love to take advantage of at the hotel is their incredible bathhouse. Perfectly moody and serene with a series of hot and cold baths

special meals @ Kwonsooksoo
masterful tastiness

the other woman →

February 10, 2018 by Deborah Ma in a diary

“Pure, intense emotions. It’s not about design. It’s about feelings.”

— Alber Elbaz

Since I was a toddling 3 year-old girl, I’ve always dreamed. I’d pack my favorite toys into my back-pack and pretend I was an adult woman traveling to different countries, going on important meetings (and dates!) I’d imagine being grown-up and dream about what that would be like, to be a woman. And the idea of womanhood - its respect, its smarts, its beauty, its sexiness, - the potential for maturity, respect, and admiration, bubbled up an excitement within me and I couldn't wait to grow up and fill into the image that I could not see of me yet.

Within me, as there are in many women, are the composite stories told to us and witnessed before us of what is womanhood. We are the product of the stories of our mothers, the ones they wanted us to believe in against all odds and the truths we witnessed unravel as fiction around us. We each look to ride our own wave and churn the ones that aren’t available to us, in the midst of the wide pulls our culture has told us we should fill and the attitude we should effect, the desire we should evoke and the submission we should settle into. Within us is the voice of a lot of different men and women, and with that we’ve formed the women are.

This is to the dream. Being a woman is a charged identity filled with privileges and pains, enjoyments and deep displeasures, beauties and confusions. This is to capturing it all. The majestic and the mundane - all the other women we are .

From left - clockwise: my favorite dream bar in Paris at Le Dokhan; a fragment of a photo shot by Billy Kidd; excerpt of diary notes and a glipmse of stars; a snapshot of birthday drinks; photo of a visit to Seoul's Museum of History; photo by … — From left - clockwise: my favorite dream bar in Paris at Le Dokhan; a fragment of a photo shot by Billy Kidd; excerpt of diary notes and a glipmse of stars; a snapshot of birthday drinks; photo of a visit to Seoul's Museum of History; photo by one of my favorites, photographer Kiyoshi Koishi

the Diary →

February 10, 2018 by Deborah Ma in of dreams and wise words, a diary

“Don’t be afraid to fail.

Be afraid of losing step with the rhythm of who you are and what feeds you — truly feeds you, makes you dream, and your spirit even tremble with delight — get to the root of that and stay there, not losing the pace.””

— Wise old me last week

Living in a city can be hard - that’s no surprise to hear. The reasons are commonly expressed by many-- heightened competition, demanding living expenses, the unresponsive nature of a cold metropolis. I’d hear these reasons and would agree, they certainly made living in New York to be challenging but while others saw them as the definitive justifications that made this great city to be nearly insufferable, I always saw the beauties of New York to far out reach its pains.

“And what creates the beauty of New York is also what draws much of its heartbreak, which is that no one comes to live in this great city without a dream.”

wonder

delight

feed

Kiyoshi Koishi

my most favorite

Kiyoshi Koishi

The city’s ever-present potential for movement and action makes you feel alive. And what creates the beauty of New York is also what draws much of its heartbreak, which is that no one comes to live in this great city without a dream.

I had always been a girl with a big imagination. Dreaming was my norm state. Being present only in one world at its present condition was the challenge. 2017 came to me with a dizzying halt when I came

to recognize that after living in New York for 9 years, I had stopped dreaming.

And I learned, living here isn't challenging just because of reasons like high monthly rent and the inconvenience of not having a car, its challenge to me is that it turns me into a hustler that gets too busy in the day-to-day hustle, I forgot what I’m hustling after.

I’ve been having a series of big and little epiphanies in the past few months. An excavating of my personal me again - the one that is outwardly useless and strange but inwardly rich, deep, and, a lot of fun. And I learned that I should never allow myself to slip into that shell of a person, of a woman again. Life is too rich with its possibilities and its potential for beauty too ripe in order to not keep churning the inner machine and feed its continuous stream of dreams or delusions.

In following up with that, I’m launching the Diary. My objective is to keep note of the things I’ve come across that feed me, place me in awe and wonder, or bring even a simple draw of delight. My diary entries will cover my personal digestions of things I’ve read, seen, heard through books, interviews, plays, music, art, and then there will be a section that is completely not that. That will be just “inside me ideas (who knows what this could mean.)"

In the meantime, I wanted to draw back to my most recent mementos of when I was most strongly inspired. I've dropped in a sprinkling of my most favorite photos, artists, places, times, and music that brought me to that place of inspiration - when your heart starts seeing with its own eyes and your spirit dizzies with befuddled awe. Hover over each item, and you'll be able to read about what each means to me in the captions.

“I walk until,
I walk on tip toes,
I feel like
I’m starting down
an endless road”

“And I have cheated myself but
I want to tell you what you see is never all
I want to feel it,
I want to know. I wanted to recall”

“This time I’m gonna be myself I’ve gotta walk somewhere far, walking back to who you really are”

— lyrics by Yael Naim

pages from my 2010 daybook

pages from my 2010 daybook alongside prayers and a list of my favorite composers

Deutsch Vogue. 2009. August

April 05, 2017 by Deborah Ma in style

Too often, I'll come across a well thought out, beautiful and imaginative editorial that I'll dog ear and revisit from time to time. If it's really good, I'll rip out the pages and paste them into a little book that I've kept since 2008.

SNAPSHOTS is a tribute to those ripped out (now fraying) editorials that I've held on to because the fashion, set and models in these photos have been able to capture more than a look but a spirit and a captivating story that melds both a realness and fantasy together - something that specifically Fashion, is well suited to do.

Vogue Deutsch August 2014
Model: Anja Rubik Photographer: Camilla Akrans