Part 2 of my Chanel skirt series is about a floor-length heavy tweed skirt from the 08A season that’s more about Carolina Herrera than Coco Chanel. When I was fifteen or so I saw a photo of one very elegant Ms. H sitting in a floor-length skirt and a chair, on a tree-lined dirt road next to her very dashing husband. The photo was, I believe, black and white, and the way they looked…the way they were dressed, so effortlessly, so classically chic…in that photo struck me like a 600-page September issue of Vogue. I was stunned that a photograph capturing a quiet moment of an understated couple could resonate so loudly in my head. I believe that was when I first fell in love with photography. And the art of class.

One photograph can inspire you to do extraordinary things with your life. It can console you in your darkest hours. And sometimes it is simply an outlet for the human imagination when we don’t have the words to describe what our minds can see. Mostly for me, photography captures moments in life that pass us by. I savor all these moments in my poorly taken photos–those of my parents on their emotional first trip back to Saigon after some 25 years, out of focus with poor lighting–as well as in my incredibly lucky shots of a spectacular sunrise over Sydney that helped me find confidence in the anxieties of leaving my 20s behind.

And here at my blog, when I’m not on the road photographing lives that are not mine, I find inspiration in beautiful fabrics and buttons and trims– little, unimportant things that I hope you nevertheless enjoy sharing with me through my lenses.

In today’s Skirt #2’s look, given that it’s a rather formal length, I’m pairing it with a crispy silk Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt and ornate flat sandals. The skirt hits the floor just at the right length on me when worn without heels, but I think a fancy pair of flats may do the occasion justice. I hope Carolina Herrera would approve this look.