The other week while I was home* in Colorado I was tasked with going through some boxes that held items from my childhood with the goal of trying to cut back on what was being stored. I laughed so many times at things I came across. Photos, old diaries, postcards, notes to friends…and then particular items that reminded me of phases I went through as I grew older.

*Longtime readers will know I am originally from Chicago and grew up there but my parents retired to Colorado several years ago and it is now where my family considers our collective home and where we spend the holidays.

One phase I never quite grew out of was my love for Audrey Hepburn and her films. I would watch Roman Holiday, Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany’s repeatedly and began to find style inspiration in the various books about her that my parents gifted to me for Christmas. To this day, those films are some of my first picks on a rainy day. I can’t seem to tire of them…

One of my very favorite parts in Sabrina is when she writes home to her father and pens, “It is late at night, and someone across the way is playing “La Vie En Rose”. It is the French way of saying, “I am looking at the world through rose-colored glasses,” and it says everything I feel. I have learned so many things…I have learned how to live… how to be in the world and of the world… and not just to stand aside and watch. And I will never, never again run away from life… or from love, either.”

That particular phrase la vie en rose struck a chord for me more so than ever when I studied abroad in Paris myself. I found a deeper understanding of how my own being played a part in the world around me. I found self-confidence and a zest for adventure and curiosity.

And I think those characteristics have stayed with me over the years and they certainly play a part in my love for New York. (See: this recent post.)

Shooting this special dress at The Met felt very Audrey Hepburn meets Blair Waldorf to me which made me think of that scene in Sabrina and the thought that we can choose to see life through rose-colored glasses. I wouldn’t want to do that all the time, but I’m fairly certain it is good practice to do it on occasion.

Nowadays, each time that I return to Paris I am reminded of the sentiment of living life to the fullest and being truly present. It feeds my soul to remember myself as a young girl – age 20 – learning to get her footing in a new place. (More on my affinity for Paris can be read here.)

And sometimes in New York I really have to fight to find that presence again. There are so many days that can feel so loud that it’s good practice to seek silence, seek presence in one’s own day/week/month/journey.

(Maybe that’s just an excuse I’m giving myself to return to Paris!? ;))

Either way, I love everything that la vie en rose evokes and if it takes getting up early, putting on a fancy dress and trotting uptown to remember that…I guess that’ll have to do! (*wink*)

Shop the Post:

Kate Spade New York Dress (on sale – also comes in white! c/o) // Kate Spade New York Clutch (c/o)

More Cute Kate Spade Arrivals:

[Bekka Palmer Photography]