I Must Have It...Must I? Really?

Who would have thought that this could turn into

this?

The famous, sexy, ferocious Cartier panther turned into this little pup in the new Les Must collection.

The Panther was there since 1914, but it was personified in 1933 when Jeanne Toussaint became the director of high jewellery at Cartier. She was admired for her unique sense of creativity and unforgiving criticism, which led to her being nicknamed as "The Panther" by Louis Cartier himself.

Till now each piece from the Panther collection was a successful reflection of this ferocious, sexy and alluring world.

Now I look at the Les Must collection but don't feel that excitement, neither feels like a Must.

Here, the power of advertising begins. Because when I see the same designs not by themselves but in the ads with this little cutie the scenario changes. I feel like saying "I want to have everything you touched" but I'm ashamed to say it since there is no sense of reason in that.

Actually I'd like to say that I find the idea pretty lame. As all the other aging brands, Cartier felt like connecting with young people and found the solution in creating an adolescent collection. The fact that the symbol of such a collection - of a brand with a panther as its symbol - is a baby panther is simply boring, although the little fella is real cute and all. I'm afraid that there is a creative team somewhere out there that literally formed the sentence "Wouldn't it be the greatest idea to use a baby panther for our collection for the young people? If it's the panther for the brand, than a baby panther fits perfectly. Right?"

The thing is Cartier is freaking out for nothing. It is actually not one of those aging brands. Cartier doesn't have to get young for us, we gladly grow older for a Cartier, we can hardly wait to get or pretend to be old or to own a Tank or a Love or a Trinity piece. Which all brings us to the fact that there is actually a marketing/strategy team somewhere out there, that actually formed the sentence "Young people buy other brands. How can we attract them to Cartier? Look, this is what they are attracted to in other brands, let's have an infantile collection ourselves or we'll lose them forever."

All I Want for Christmas is...

Every year I post what I want for Xmas right here. But since none of my family members read my blog, I never get the present :))) I guess I should go back to the old style of leaving the magazine around with the right page, where the present is encircled.

Or I could just leave the laptop laying around with my blog on.

For all that to work, I need to know what I want.

Well, I do.

A key necklace! When I first wrote about the Tiffany&Co. necklaces, it was spring and in between my birthday passed and no necklace in sight yet. OK, it doesn't have to be a Tiffany&Co., but no other brand had them. Well, there were some at places like Accessorize but those do not count.

So key necklaces were not for us mere mortals. We could only take our morning coffee and window shop in front of Tiffany&Co., right?

No! Not anymore! You just need to take your coffee and go to Zen Diamond. Well, actually whoever is going to get me those keys should go to Zen Diamond.

Then I saw alternatives at So Chic for extremely reasonable prices, which proved nothing about them was "real", but they still looked as chic as I aimed for. However, they are a lot smaller than what I hoped for, half my pinkie!

So Chic keys promise more than they can handle I thought. Because they had a key for everything you could wish for this Xmas. Luck, love, peace, health, happiness, prosperity, loyalty, power, balance.

I'll take a trois!

Peace. Luck. Health.

Squeezing the Juice out of a Day-3

Two Words:

Cihangir Demeti (that's a long "i" and pronounced "eeee").

If you are ever in Istanbul and want to try one of its famous "meyhane"s try Demeti.

As you can tell it's in Cihangir.

Food is not excellent but the ambiance and especially the view is great.

For a local experience, where you can not run into other tourists at all, keep the name in mind.

A day in Galata during Galata Fashion Days

So I went to Galata Fashion today.

Remember the plan I told you about? That's done with minor changes.

First breakfast with my friend Can Soylu, the owner of Lastik Pabuç, The Sneaker.

Then Galata Fashion tents...As always there were young designers and no Umit Unal :( My favorites were, as always, Zeynep Erdoğan with her Catzcabaret brand - and that's where I got a t-shirt and a collar like the ones in the below pic -

and IKON's owner Ozlem Ahiakin. I made an order on the below two pieces. A jumpsuit and a self-caped dress!

And I bought a pair of oxidized silver earrings with pearls from Ümit Aybek vardı.

Then off to Laundromat, but nothing exciting. So headed right of to Building Idea Engineering to find these great shoes, which kinda reminded me of this season's D&G concept.

And then right there on a table I saw ICE magazine. Turned to the fashion shoot, which I did the styling of and left it open on the table, as I fled the premises :)))

On my way back, went into Bahar Korcan to take a few pics.

Lastly, found 2.Hand to have a chat and a piece of cake with the owner and left Galata happily ever after. Anything new or extraordinary? No. But to feel and breath the air, do visit.

Being a Video Director at 13

I know, I know there are those of you who don't approve of Tavi but I do to the very end and I have been an admirer of this little, bright kid from the very beginning and I don't think she is destroying her life at all. Her sense of style, knowledge of fashion and comprehension of trends is a gift of God and goes way beyond ours. This is why I wanted to share this video with you. I liked her even more. Her relaxed manner is a result of her dominance over the subject matter, I suppose.

Squeezing the Juice out of a Day-2

There are two things I thought worth sharing with you today.

• There is a great Turkish aromatic brand called Aisha. They have a store in Bebek and you should visit them if you are ever around. And if you want to have a look their website is right here. Anyways, they have a 70% discount!!! The discount was primarily on baby and mommy stuff but that worked just fine for me, because I was looking for a present for a pregnant friend of mine. Thanks to the discount I bought 3! 1 for the stretch marks, 1 for sore nipples from nurturing, 1 for supporting lactate production. And I got a nice tonic that will help me sleep like a baby at nights.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a movie not only for kids but for us!!! But of course you should keep in mind that I'm an animation junkie with a 300 figurines of 100 animation movies in my house. There was this scene in the film where everyone wakes up one morning and everywhere is covered in ice cream. Just like our dreams when we were kids. Mmmm...I should go and heat some coco for myself now.

Yesterday it was salep, today it's hot chocolate. Welcome new pounds!

Christmas Gift Guide