I spy with my little eye... a reflection on mirrors and image.

I love when my coffee comes with a side of art! Lots of restaurants and cafes in Dubai work with artists or galleries to decorate their walls, and La Serre is one of my favourite places in town, so I'm always happy to meet with their artists. These days, they have a collection of mirrors by Karma Mirrors, and I have a big crush on the plain copper and golden pieces. 

But apart from the fact that they are pretty to look at, I thought bringing mirrors in Dubai as art was a very relevant choice, so well done to the management team at La Serre! Dubai is a city where the obsession of looks goes beyond my parisian love for fashion and aesthetics. I admire this city, I love the diversity and opportunities, but I am sometimes overwhelmed by the energy, time, money and attention some people are willing to put into their image. I'm all for making efforts, being fit, healthy, using makeup and enhancing your best features, but I cannot deal with long-term technologically induced physical change. This is where I personally draw the line. I don't deal very well with hair or eyelashes extensions, fake nails, breasts, fillers, plastic surgery in general... Of course I understand that a complex can ruin your quality of life, and if you can correct it and make your life better, than of course you should go for it, and I'm not even going to get into reconstructive plastic surgery, these are completely justified. But there is a pretty clear line between one complex and changing the very nature of your DNA. I am not judging or pointing, I am just observing the fact that we forget how props and plastic surgery affect the mind as much as the body. It can make you feel better, it can help you reinvent yourself, it can also make your children wonder why they don't look like you. I think that working on the mind a little bit more could help deal with body issues, instead of doing it the other way around.

It is so easy to throw money at the problem... I would rather learn how to grow my hair and eyelashes naturally than get extensions that might ruin my actual hair. Cherry on the cake? It teaches you patience and forces you to understand how your body works. Same applies to breasts, lips, noses... There is always something to tweak, but I would rather learn to play it with clothes, fabrics, makeup, a bit of research and a lot of patience, rather than get into surgery or long term modification. I would hate for my children one day to look at me and fail to see the resemblance. I would like to feel confident when it comes to teaching them to love themselves just the way they are, and I do believe in teaching through example. I get worried when a 20-something young woman in Dubai vlogs her "first fillers"... I admire the ambition though, these are the first batch people, stay tuned for the next one!

That was a bit of a long post, but that's what Karma Mirrors inspired me, and after all, isn't it what art is supposed to do: start a conversation, open a subject and a reflection? Again, a big bravo to the La Serre team for this selection, I think it is brilliant and very relevant for Dubai!