buy a tee shirt, save japan

Mr. Dot took the day off - I cancelled the first part of a dental situation that had me in agony for months (root canal - now I need a new crown) - which means I'll be on holiday with the temporary crown - so that we could swim, outside, in Surrey today.

I love the saying, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

As I write this, there is a huge thunderstorm rumbling outside. I can't even do my little photo shoot with my new tee shirt from Uniqlo, so I'll just post these shots and tell you about it, instead. Because, while I'm being, in the scheme of things, only very mildly inconvenienced, I am no less aware - or grateful - for all I do have. When the rain threatened to come in the window next to me and the sleeping cat, I simply closed it.

For other people, that day the tsunami hit, it wasn't that easy.

And for many people, right now, in Japan, their lives will never be the same. But we can do something to help.

There is a campaign going on, right now, at Uniqlo: the Uniqlo UT Save Japan tee shirt collection: working with Conde Nast Japan, and Vogue, they've produced a limited edition set of tee shirts, designed by ten celebrities: Alber Elbaz, Charlize Theron, Cindi Lauper, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Blake Lively, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, and Nicole Kidman.

It's ironic that they chose, for me, Charlize Theron, out of the ten. I love what she wrote. It is the core of my beliefs.



This also has a very personal connection- which makes it all the more uncanny, how random it was that I got her shirt. At the most difficult time in my life, just as I was at that 'jumping off' moment, I was in a Cafe Nero, and just happened to be reading an interview with her. She had been through an unbelievable ordeal, and when asked how she did it, she modestly said something quite similar to what she wrote for the shirt. That day, Charlize Theron saved me.



Not to mention, Mr. Dot, when he saw it, remarked that it is 'very high quality.' I'm wearing it, as we speak. Warm and cosy and comfortable and safe from harm's way.

Click here: WWW.UNIQLO.COM, or go to any of the Uniqlo shops. I'll do a self style shoot with it - if it ever stops raining.

(Thank you also to Savoir Flair for inadvertently letting me steal their photo of Charlize Theron).

carine, carine

I was doing something else entirely when I happened notice that Cleide Carina, from Sketchbook, tweeted something about being upset with Grazia. I messaged her asking if she was okay. She sent back 'Carine Roitfeld has left Paris Vogue.' Turns out she was just joking about Grazia not breaking the news fast enough.





The thing is, my family name is Carin and I always wanted to be Italian so I used to tell people it was Carina. And there's something about the fact that Carine spells her name so close to mine that always made me feel like, you know, we'd be friends. And then I sat in her front row seat at fashion week when she came in late.. and became friendly with her daughter Julia.. and I've papped her twice now.. I'm just kind of in shock, I guess. Vogue says she's leaving to do personal projects and whatever they are, Carine Carine, I hope they will be even more exciting and creatively fulfilling as your ten years at Vogue clearly have been.





It is an incredible thing, in an industry as tough as the fashion industry, by all accounts, seems to be, to find one person so universally loved and admired. I hope this is not the last we'll be seeing of her professionally, and I hope these shots that I took just a few weeks ago at her son Vladimir's art launch aren't the last chance I have to personally see her.

Carine: I wish you the very best, and know that whatever you do next, you will continue to do it with joy, exuberance, class, and above all, style.