The Moleskine is the official heir to the legendary notebook used by artists, thinkers and revolutionaries over the past two centuries. Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemmingway, for example, kept these handy dandy notebooks to hold invaluable sketches, notes and ideas that would eventually chart the course of history.

The simple black book with rounded edges, an elastic page-holder and an internal expandable pocket bound by oil-cloth covered cardboard was produced by a small time French bookbinder until 1986. 

In 1997, it was relaunched, and has since been synonymous with culture, imagination, memories, travel and personal identity.

Currently in production, there are several variants to the standard notebook, including diaries, reporter notebooks, city journals, pocket notebooks and large notebooks available in ruled, squared and plain pages.

I'm a big fan of the Moleskine. I think this personal perception might be a result of impeccable marketing, but I had never been able to record my daily ventures, thoughts, views and sketches before I bought a Moleskine two years ago. For some reason, I always want to and enjoy turning a new page to fill everyday with my Moleskine and I feel it retains my memories best. 

I also love the Moleskine because it universally caters to just about everyone without discrimination. And somehow or rather, filled pages of any Moleskine become deeply personal, even if it's merely used as an organizer.

Don't laugh; I don't think I'm the only one who feels as such. In fact, Detour can prove my point. Detour is a Moleskine project that archives the pages from internationally recognized artists, designers, writers and illustrators in a united Moleskine journey. Some of the Moleskine Detour exhibition alumni include Christian Lacroix, Cynthia Rowley, Eric Bergere, Spike Jonze and Sigur Ros.

Next month, Kinokuniya Book Stores Malaysia will showcase pages of works in progress of artists from France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Portugal and Philippines as they journey to Japan with the Moleskine as their canvas. For more information, click here. But for now, I want to know, do you have a Moleskine? What do you fill its pages with? 

Joyce relies on her Moleskine to maintain her incredibly busy schedule. There was this one time she left it in her car, and couldn't function until she retrieved it!

Adrian, our bigshot boss at Freeform uses his to copy stock charts off the internet.

Maybritt, Editorial Assistant from KLue, kind of lost the plot, and reads hers instead of writing into it!

I use mine for work. Or pretend like I'm working when I'm actually doodling, or writing extremely short prose. :) P.S. Do you like my office desk? Everyone makes fun of me for it!

Angelina Jolie has been pictured with her Moleskine during her publicized UN travels.

While the Moleskine might not exactly relate to fashion, it's a necessary accessory we at Tongue in Chic need to function. And undoubtedly, two centuries of providing pages for artists and designers have more than made it an icon in my books. How do you feel about your Moleskine?

[Picture credits: Wikipedia, Flickr, Invisibleman, Unplggd, 1.bp,Geeksugar, Moleskinerie]