I adore this movie because I identify with it so much–from the perspective of a young California woman in Paris. The first time I was in Paris was when I was 17 and I will never forget the moment I fell in love with the city. After a hard night and morning of clubbing I had to walk with my group from Champs-Élysées to our hotel in Bastille. It was Sunday, I think, and the Metro was not yet running and we just started strolling. The almost empty city was just stunning at dawn. I didn’t care how my tired I was or how much my feet hurt. I was just so enchanted by the beauty of every building and monument.

The Hermes Kelly bag and scarf are motifs which remind the idea of luxury and power. The character Edgar Cosset begins his seduction with a Kelly and ends the affair with a scarf. It’s symbolic the heroine, Isabel, tosses the Kelly bag from the Eiffel Tower at the end. The act reflects her integrity—she didn’t become Edgar’s mistress because he was rich. She had found him to be sexy and sophisticated.

What Olivia Pace (Glenn Close) says about French women and scarf is on point. They know how to do scarves.

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I donned my usual clubbing getup. The only Hermès scarf I could afford tied into an asymmetric top and skin-tight jeans. As soon as I came to Paris, I had to go to the address where the saddle had come from, 24, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. There was no doubt I was at the right place as I saw the statue of the rider, l’artificier, at the corner edge of the rooftop balcony. The most opulent flags were waving from the poles he held in each hand—silk scarves.

-“Pearl’s Labyrinth,” unpublished novel