This coming week will see the opening of a new show, “Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: Impossible Conversations”, at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum.…until last year, with it’s now legendary Alexander McQueen show, it seemed the opening party, with it’s incredible guest list of fashion makers from all over the fashion world and their latest muses creating the most incredible fashion moments of the year, would at times overshadow the actual show……..a shame really since the Costume Institute has consistently created the best curated shows since Richard Martin and Harold Koda took over in the early 1990′s…..for the uninitiated or the obsessed, a walk through any random show could be one of the best fashion educations you could get, my all time favourite was the show dedicated to the Floral Dress………but the latest one will soon be one of it’s best…….it’s been many years since a major Elsa Schiaparelli show has been held and the first one with Prada……..many times a Prada collection will remind me of a Schiaparelli….for they are both modernists of their time, who are disinterested in trends or the the rules of good taste… they have created their own language…..Elsa Schiaparelli created one with her surrealist and Dada artists friends as major influences, having Cocteau and Christian Berard contribute art work to some of her best pieces……..you can see her avant garde influences on such varied labels as Bless, Jeremy Scott and Issey Miyake……but it’s Prada’s love of the female form and elegance as well as her very modern take on fashion that makes them a great pair…..they both have loved using highly unusual materials such as monkey fur, celophane, nylon, plastics, wood……but it’s the attention to the execution that makes them strictly high fashion, and it is this that takes to a level beyond novelty and into art…..But all this is best explained in last weeks New Yorker article on the show…..’Radical Chic’ by Judith Thurman…..
Photos: Prada – Resort 2012, Fall 2007, Fall 2000, BecauseLondon, Victoria & Albert Museum, Kyoto Museum, Schaiparelli by Palmer White
Sometimes you really can’t believe your luck………I will be seeing the amazingly talented Charlotte Gainsbourg in May……..if her live performance is anything like her ethereal rock records, it should be an incredible show……..Charlotte only came to making her own music a few years ago, having made a brief debut at 14 ………she has also been acting since she was a young teen, and whilst she is a fashion darling of the highest caliber, muse to Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere, her public persona and identity remains completely her own, without compromise……….all collaborations on her past 3 records have been strokes of genius, Jarvis Cocker, Beck and Air among them…….her lyrics are left of center and her delivery while soft and at times melancholic, they are in fact quite uplifting, which makes her music a non stop playlist for me…………her musical style is all her own..and as a result make comparisons to her famous parents, void………..here’s a Gainsbourg of our times….
Swedish label Acne opened their second store in Paris a few months ago…..and have once more created a new way to shop……a favourite label with many friends of mine……their jeans fit are the best around…..the store is at once very modern if not a little futuristic but also the easiest to navigate…..their collections have never looked better than here……new leather biker jackets, great pink sweatshirts, new jean washes…..printed dresses…..and great boots……….these colours radiate summer, need I say more?
Ahhh, with no spring time yet in sight…..I am left to day dream about last summer in London, where the formerly maligned food scene has come of age and with so many wonderful places opening, it is hard to choose only a few favourites……my close by regular was Ottolenghi in Islington, which was always a pleasure no matter what time of day……but Caravan in Clerkenwell, Flat White and Lantana in Soho, were also favourites……the New Zealand/Australian coffee culture in London, is something quite amazing and the standard so exceptional, it was only a matter of time before it took off in Paris……but my most loved of all is Leila’s in Shoreditch, tucked away in a cozy spot, more reminiscent of an English country cafe…with the perfect brunch of baked eggs with sage, delicious coffee and lemonade and a fresh food store next door with veggies, treats and great breads, it’s one of the most relaxed places outside Hyde Park……next visit….brunch will be there….
Last summer in London, I had the pleasure of meeting this remarkable and modest lady, Julie Verhoeven, at a Test Mag film night, where she shared one of her favourites, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant……(the most chilling and devastating film ever)…..she rates as one of my top 5 all time favourite English eccentrics and is my vision of the modern day Vanessa Bell….and this was confirmed by the new issue of UK Elle…..upon seeing this beyond incredible peek at her beyond incredible home….which proves the Vreeland adage that style is something lived not just worn….I first saw her work in 2002 in The Face magazine, and was bowled over by her talent, imagination and her really……and I am not alone there, even at the film night there were a few Julie clones from different years, quite amazing too and all together unexpected! But there is something about her and her talent that makes you want to work a little better and give yourself over to what you love a little more…..I never stop getting excited every time she releases new work in every medium, film being one her best yet, I am still to see an installation, but to see what comes out of this imagination, is the art happening of the year……..for she is a true original in every way…..
Right now I am so jealous of Clare’s H&M sunglasses…..having just visited from Melbourne, she took Paris in her stride and did things her way……and in these gems…..for the price of a cup of coffee….perfect…..
A collaboration with Jean Claude Vannier and Yves Saint Laurent, created this short fashion film, showing one his most notorious collections of the seventies…..’L'Enfant La Mouche et les Allumettes’ is the equivalent of opening a French Vogue of the time, dramatic and exotic, devastatingly beautiful……
Look at the time already…………once again those blog post entries are adding up…..but even with so much excitement going right now, I can barely think of not writing…..I am sad to say a few exciting things have gone on in my Paris adventure that I am not allowed to blog, but many others I can share…..beginning with the amazing show on at the Musée Les Arts Decoratifs…….15 years of Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, what began as a very sober, modernist start….and at the time a little unthinkable, after all here was the most downtown of New York designers taking over as the Creative Director of a company, so established and set in their culture and history, that it seemed impossible he could even changed it, let alone lead the revolution and add a clothing collection for the first time, which is the LV we see today……I remember seeing just a fraction of that first collection….so exquisite and simple, not unlike the love of minimalism that is the strong hold of fashion right now……but of course a man who can put Minnie Mouse ears on the catwalk wasn’t going to remain a shy type for too long…..Marc Jacobs brought the East and West Village to Paris and something you experience as you enter the second floor of this exhibition……it’s impossible to say what is more amazing in this show….to see the history and values of LV, is breathtaking….their early innovations were modern and luxurious, much like today……but walking into Marc Jacobs live visual reference room, was like walking into one of the rooms in my own head….for he had added not just photographs of style icons, but segments from classic films new and old, and anyone who put’s Bob Fosses’s, All That Jazz and Cabaret in prominent display has a fan in me……there was the little orphan Annie mixed with a 1960′s Barbara Streisand mixed with a dance scene of Studio 54 mixed with Sponge Bob Square Pants, of course………it was simply intoxicating….and having been working on my own visual references this last month, seeing this, made we wish, we could all present it in such a way…….this was followed by the hall of fame of handbags, which now seem so normal but each caused it’s own stir at the time of release, my all time favourite is Julie Verhoeven’s animal patchwork bag….still gold! But then came the clothes, and for once a fashion exhibition lived up to it’s original presentation……with little golden plaques to guide you the way, not unlike his other favourite, Wizard of Oz, the selection on display seemed small, simply because you were left wanting more……the rotating mechanical legs doing a sort of post modern Busby Berkeley dance, was the greatest display of shoes I have ever seen……more than pictures I wish I could show you video footage, perhaps on a return visit!
Les Arts Decoratifs, 107-111, rue de Rivoli, Paris, 75001
This year, the beloved label Chloé is turning 50…..she doesn’t look older than 21 though….. there is a planned exhibition on later this year in Paris to showcase it’s history with lace, shades of nude silk and romantic leanings that this label’s reputation has been built on…..started as a small boutique on the Left Bank, by a prêt-à-porter visionaire Egyptian Gaby Aghion, who simply wanted couture quality pieces for her store…….soon she enlisted a team of freelance designers, which included Maxime de La Falaise and of course soon the group of freelancers were gone, when Karl Lagerfeld became it’s sole designer….and that is where it really began….the Chloé we know today…..I fell in love with the brand all over again when Stella MacCartney took over, convincing me to set aside my vintage loving ways for her type of lady…..I still miss my original Chloé jeans…..but it’s Karl’s collections that open my eyes like the romantic paintings of Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabeleta…..I thought it would be fun to blog a few vintage ads from the archives over the next few weeks…..enjoy the nostalgia….
Karl & Grace at Chloé Studios in the seventies……Karl’s early eighties Chloé…..Stella’s late 1990′s Chloé…….Phoebe’s debut Chloé…….
Walking into the newly re designed Kenzo store on rue Rennes on the Left Bank of Paris last week, on the suggestion of my dear friend Ben, who has just started working with the company, brought the Jackson 5 song “Can You Feel It?” into my head……because it really was an exciting moment happening right before my eyes…..with every season nowadays seems to bring yet another creative director to a company in need of reinvention….some labels brought back have been so obscure, they may have fared better left in the history books and others have brought a whole new life to the meaning of the brand, like Celine & Carven……..but with the re launch of Kenzo by New York’s Opening Ceremony owners, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, they have shown a match made in heaven, their story is well known and their experience in fashion is a long one, with this they have brought a certain Kenzo seventies energy, with a touch of Fiorucci colour craze, and a whole new sense of modern dressing going on……this is very good stuff indeed…….so a little New York know how is living in here…..and soon everywhere but with such distinctive pieces, these wont be for the shy…..right now, I am contemplating the trench with removable collar and sleeves, sounds so modern, because it is!
Kenzo Fall 2012…..the collection just shown brought back those high cheek bones and casual glamour Kenzo was also known for back in the day……this collection out did the last…..more everything….the knitwear was a standout and so were the prints…..the suiting looked so perfect and no one else has touched hot pink quite like this, also loved the comeback of the silk lamé, (good timing since I just scored a seventies Sonia Rykiel silk lamé dress at the flea market!) …..shown in the incredible setting of the atrium of Université Pierre et Marie Curie, these modernists are taking it from strength to strength…..
