Chapter One: In Which She Packs Only the Essentials

—Dior, Chanel, and a Few Daydreams

or how to say...the hopeless romantic's summer wishlist

She was the sort of girl who planned her escapes in colours—terracotta for Tuscan rooftops, sapphire for the Mediterranean, lemon yellow for the Amalfi afternoons. Summer wasn’t a season to her; it was a moodboard. And this year, she intended to live inside it.

Her suitcase lays open like a blank page, and she, with a passport and a playlist of vintage Italian love songs, begins her story.

First, the Hermès Oran sandals in gold—sleek, soft leather that whispers of market strolls and marble piazzas. They were not shoes, but a promise of steps taken slowly, flirtations exchanged boldly, and never once tripping over cobblestones.

Next, time for her Dioriviera Medium Book Tote in white and blue, large enough to carry sun-drenched novels, a bottle of rosé wrapped in linen, and the kind of secrets only shared in foreign words.

She tucks in her new pair of Celine sunglasses— not the oversized, the oval-framed, dangerously chic and mysterious. With those on and her Dolce & Gabbana floral-print silk scarf protecting her hair, she could be anyone: a writer on retreat, a runaway heiress, or simply a girl madly in love on the back of a pistachio green Vespa snaking along Côte d’Azur.

And then, carefully goes in, like a treasure, the Chanel one-piece. Black and white, classic, with a gold CC clasp that gleamed like a wink under the hot sun. The kind that wasn’t made for swimming, but for being adored in.

She was already wandering through vineyards in sundresses, catching strangers' eye across sunlit cafés, and beach susnets, diving into secret coves off Capri, with a heart wide open and a wardrobe perfectly curated to match every place, every moment, every feeling. She was good at that.

She didn't want directions. She wished for detours. Mispronounced towns. Gelato before noon. And fashion that made her feel like the heroine of a story only she could write.

Summer was calling, and impeccable style was the answer.