How I met Nina...
Last year, as I was mindlessly strolling through a flea market in Paris, I came across a worn, mid-century-style suitcase tucked in a dark, crowded antique shop. It was firmly closed, and from the look of it, no one had dared to force it open.
“It’s been sitting there for weeks,” the shop owner said. “People feel weird opening a stranger’s things.”
But curiosity got the best of me. I bought the suitcase (along with whatever secrets it held) for next to nothing and took it back to my hotel.
At first, I struggled with the rusty lock, half-expecting something strange to jump out. When I finally lifted the lid, I found old photographs, handwritten notes, journals, bookmarks… fragments of a life well lived.
Her name is Nina. And this is her story.
Wherever she goes, Nina keeps her camera, a book, and a journal close. Beginning in 1958, her diary captures letters she shared with her inner circle of close girlfriends: Billie, Millie, and Lizzy. Discover a space where the epistolary style meets cinematic character analysis, literary reflections, and the architectural grit of heritage sites. Nina finds inspiration in the enduring magic of the silver screen, timeless stories, and historic landmarks.
in 1958, when Nina walked away from her ad agency job on Madison Avenue to chase her dream of becoming an indie photographer, she had no idea it would lead to a life of adventure around the world.
What she loves most about her life are the friendships she forms along the way with young women from all walks of life, all of whom share her passion for capturing the world as they see it.
After completing her Vintage Paris Polaroid collection, Nina didn’t keep it all to herself. She encouraged her new friends to create their own, and together they curated snapshots of Hollywood stardust, Iconic New York, and everyday London charm.
When Nina isn’t sipping a perfect martini with friends on Fifth Avenue or strolling through Montmartre in search of a one-of-a-kind piece of street art, she’s tucked away in charming bookshops, lost in stories that spark her imagination.
Ask her about the books she reads, and she’ll tell you how she holds her breath when Jane Eyre chooses herself, how she roots for the Count of Monte Cristo’s poetic revenge, and how she feels every bit of Margaret Hale’s love for John Thornton.
Some say she’s got her head in the clouds. Others call her an escapist. Nina calls it seeing the world through the lens of imagination. And somehow, that makes everything feel a little brighter.
As I continue to unpack Nina’s suitcase, this shop simply brings her world to you... retro Polaroids collections she curated, bookmarks inspired by those she slipped into each genre she read, and notepads echoing the pages where she penned her bookish thoughts.
All created with care, all very much her.
Inass,
Chief Daydreaming Officer
Click each collage to unpack Nina's letters by theme:
Or read Nina's correspondence in the order it was written:
- The Opéra Garnier as Rarely Seen: The Untold Story of Charles Garnier
- Reflections in Kafka's "Letters to Milena"
- A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche vs. Stanley
- The Cost of Beauty: The Engineered Perfection of Monumental Paris
- When The Chrysler Building Feels Like Home
- Why You Must Read The Count of Monte Cristo
- When Nina Meets Lizzy
- Jane Eyre: Beyond The Waiting Game
- What Gaskell's North and South Taught me About Polarization