Wannabe A French Girl?

Wanna be a French girl?
Silly question. Who doesn't?? Well now you can!
Send me a nice CLEAR head shot of YOU. And I'll put you on a French body. More details of the cost $$ here: The February $100 Deal ends Sunday Feb 28th...well it was going to, until I paid AirFrance for their horribly $$$ ticket.
.  The deal is I put your head on a French body, wearing French clothes, carrying a high-end Designer shopping bag.Here is Parisienne Anne. She's holding a designer bag.
. Shopping at Guerlain.
.
 Alex's gift for her Mom's birthday

I put Alex and her mom in a French trench, jeans, ballerinas.

You can wear a Burberry raincoat, a Hermes scarf too.

.

 Your pet wants to go shopping at Guerlain too.

 BONJOUR FRENCH GIRLS out there!

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue

Are you enthralled with l'heure bleue in Paris too?

Wiki says "The blue hour" refers to the period of twilight in Paris that is neither full daylight nor complete darkness...

Mlle Paradis said...J'adore Guerlain l'Heure Bleue! referring to the perfume... Intense blue is soooo French is it not?
How clever of Guerlain to allude to the most gorgeous time of day in Paris.Photo from Guerlain

In fact, when Jacques Guerlain was creating the perfume in 1912, he was referencing the Impressionists painters he collected... Who captures l'heure bleue better than Monet? Standing in Place Vendome at l'heure bleue is the perfect time of day... Why is Paris so damn poetic?

Hoop la...l'heure bleue est finiBonjour L'heure Bleue!

Guerlain

Are you a fan of Shalimar?

Or Guerlain perfumes?

Over at Peter's Paris I spotted a story on the 68 Champs Elysées flagship store and I had to share with you. (These are Peter's photos of the facades by the way...)
The Champs Elysées is a natural home to what was a family owned business for 5 generations from 1828. Only in 1994 did Guerlain become a subsidiary of the luxury group LVMH. The founder, Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain, initially studied chemistry in London. And in many ways the uniform apothecary-style presentations stayed true to the foundation of the business as a perfumeur vinaigrier (perfume and vinegar maker).
(The text is Peter's too)
I got a mad urge to paint Guerlain's facade...
Elfie at Guerlain, original watercolor, 9" x 11"
And Peter's daughter has a pup, Elfie, in dire need of a portrait at Guerlain. She's a frequent shopper...
By the way Peter stole this lovely shot inside Guerlain...shhhh
After breaking the bank at Sonia, I headed over to Bloomies to take a look at their Guerlains. No one seemed to mind my shooting or testing a few out.

I'm still deep in Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent and there's quite a bit about this perfume house. This is a "touche" - those white paper strips salesgirls aggressively wave at you, as you try to mind your own business. It's a way to sample the perf, but is it the same effect as spritzing your wrist? Qui sait. Still there has to be some way you can test these things without smelling yourself up like a floral hothouse!

Getting back to The Perfect Scent, I shall quote Chandler ver batim because there's not a snowball's chance in hell I can say it as well except to mention that people are obsessed with anything natural and organic these days. Yet,

~

"The natural creates a much greater allergy potential...and naturals (we're talking perfume ingredients here) pose a sourcing challange. What all-natural people don't realize is that synthetics are better ecologically.

The sandalwood forests of India are being destroyed at a terrible rate, literally disappearing (!) and the price of sandalwood is skyrocketing. Most perfumers I know...refuse to support them and it's a purely eco question...

...The idea that synthetics (in perfumes) are "modern" and "American" and naturals are "classic" and "French" IS COMPLETELY WRONG (my caps) There's no Frenchier house than Guerlain, no more classic collection of perfumes, and not only were Guerlain perfumers at the forefront of the synthetic revolution with the 1889 Jicky...

Guerlain's classic L'Heure Bleue (1912) derives its beauty from methyl anthranilate, its elegant Mitsouko (1919) uses the very elegant synthetic aldehyde C-14 (which smells deliciously of delicate, ripe peach) and the immortal Shalimar (1925) has quinolines...

~
If you really want to understand about perfume and The French (because the French and perfume are synonymous are they not?)

read this book.

And if you're wondering what l'heure bleue is...?

This is it!

BONJOUR GUERLAIN!

And thanks to Laura for these excellent perfume links:

Bois de Jasmin
The Perfume Court

Sonia Rykiel Regime

So how does one begin the Sonia Rykiel Regime (SRR)? How can one eventually fit into all of one's HM fab SR booty? With lips sealed, that's how.
 

The spare tire has to go!

I have on occasion mentioned various diets at PB
"THE EURO DIET"

THE PARIS BREAKFASTS DIET !
The End of Overeating Diet.

 For Sonia take a different approach. Think design, think color. For example, if you eat stripey food or striated food like aspargus, you can depend on losing 10 pounds in a week.

 Sonia's signature colors are essential. Eat lots of red foods.

And black foods (aubergine par example).

Red and black/rouge et noir is a Sonia standard.

Trying to attain the Frenchie XS figure by eating tons of leek soup? Forgetaboutit. Not a "Sonia" food, though chocolate is.
 

I have it on good authority that most French girls stay thin with the aid of romantic stress + Xanax.

I'll have to change my one-a-day brand.Where did I get the adorable red/black T-shirt with the lips? Is it from H&M? Yesterday, I tripped up to Bloomie's Sonia department for a quality check. This litte T was only $90. It will go with all the red peppers and eggplant I have to down to fit into the %$#@ SR things.

Back to the thin French girl - ciggies, sadly are a big factor in the pursuit of weight loss.
 

Chanel made the ciggie look so chic

I assumed wrongly that Sonia was holding a ciggie here. SR definitely carries on the Chanel tradition of marine stripes, skinny sweater dresses, bla bla bla, so why not smoking too?

 A closer look reveals a PENCIL. I will not have to take up smoking for the SR Regime.
 

You asked to see what I bought at H&M.

I am embarrassed to tell.Where you see a check mark= I bought it.Where you see an X mark-I didn't buy it, maybe not in that color.More to come.
I put my toe back into Sonia, et voila, I've been bitten again. The Sonia obsession continues as does the regime.
Yesterday I finally bought my ticket to Paris.

YIKES la prix! Next up The AirFrance Regime.
BONJOUR REGIME!

Success at Sonia

BINGO!

I hit pay dirt!! I am the FIRST person on line at one of the H&Ms that have the affordable Sonia Rykiels Saturday morning! I got there at 7:45 and the store opens at 9 am. 10 minutes later 2 Russian pros from Brooklyn arrive. They're gabbing away excitedly in Russian. I implore them, how does this work? Have you done this before?

Ya, ya, we did Jimmy Choos, Comme des Garcons, all of the H&M designer sales.

WOW!

First you have to figure out what you want.

There can be fighting, they warn me.

What? I study the merch in the windows carefully...

And my knitwear expert friend tells me these sweaters/pull are "intarsia" so they would normally run around $450 a sweater!!

YAHOO By the way, Sonia was the 1st designer to have smiling, dancing, talking models prance down her runways and she still does. Her clothes are witty, fun, interchangeable and wearable like FOREVER! The prices at H&M are RIDICULOUS! Eeek The Russkies tell me to map out a floor plan. Be prepared when they open the doors at 9 am and grab, grab, grab.

And I do!

They give us gigantic plastic bags to throw our booty into. I saw a guy in a mink shorty with THREE bags packed to the brim - he was either gonna resell on Ebay or send it off to China to knock it off.

It happens/il arrive..

Decisions, decisions...

It's like Jour du Macaron in Paris ...

Which flavors/colors to get?

Sonia, these shorts are gorgeous, but Hey we're Americans not Frenchies! An obvious non-non so the decision is easy here...

This very long all-cotton scarf is oui oui! I got 2 of them - Ya never know...moths, stuff gets lost etc. etc.

One thing at a free-for-all like this is (well practically free), if you're undecided, GET IT!

No questions asked.

You can ask later and return it if you must.

You have 30 days.

Going home on the metro I feel like someone who has robbed a bank. I did. I worry about terrorists stealing my 2 fat bags of Sonia booty and warily look around for potential thieves.

Who's paranoid? Who's feeling a guilty?

Not me!

Ice cream is definitely off the menu for a while...forever?

So did YOU go?

Did you get good stuff?

Tell all!!!

BONJOUR MY NEW SONIA RYKIELS!

I love you H&M xxx