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I almost didn't go yesterday to gawp outside the CHANEL show (online here). The finale of PFW/Paris Fashion week is always at Grand Palais and the sun always comes out for Chanel. The better to see the head-to-toe OTT Chanel outfits.
Even if the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I want that basket❤️
Watching the invitées, I kept hearing in my head, "She works hard for the money" It ain't easy being rich, beautiful and perfect. A lotta hard work goes into it. I am finished with ice cream. I mean it.
The music on the Instagram Chanel video btw is: Pan & Polo-Canopee. I'm in love❤️
Their skirts looks like kitchen foil. Must a cost a mint.
Clean simple all-black chic not screaming Chanel 👍🏻
The no makeup look. She's French.
Bear 🐻 Loved the stripes.
Sorry about the ciggie. She's French.
Those split white pants were in the show.
Mary Poppins? Ooops No its GiGi/Leslie Caron
Love the boots. As for the looks (lewks is the word) on the runway...See VIDEO, IMHO there's a lotta of LITTLE WOMEN influence. i.e. white-lace collar/cuffs, puffy sleeves, fitted long coatdresses. What do you think? Thanks for reading PB. Please share. Keep safe everyone 🙏🏻 Make chicken soup and enjoy Paris letters 💌and watercolors in your own mailbox 📬Xxx❤️Carolg🐻Bear
This time we go to the mediterranean. Good timing for much-needed Riviera sun shine.
Paris is having non-stop drenching weather. Rain, rain and more rain, including the day of the preview showing. I wouldn't mind jumping on a train this minute and heading south to Nice or Cannes even if it is pitch dark out.
What a nice change to be transported to Dufy's Riviera palm trees, Matisse's open French windows and girls boating on the Seine (now a muddy mess and flooded) by Monet.
Masterpieces by 20 artists, including Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Matisse, Signac, Derain, Vlaminck, Dufy, and Chagall, moving through Impressionism to Modernism.
So many artists flocked to the Mediterranean coast to restore and paint the brilliant sunlight.
Seeing the artworks blown up to such a scale that dwarfs you is a terrific experience. More than 500 works from collections round the globe set out in 7 sequences. Watching time is around 40 minutes.
You'll be transported from Impressionism, with Monet and Renoir, to pointillism with Signac and Cross, and Fauvism with Camion, Derain, Vlaminck, and Marquet.
With a focus on one of the greatest colourists of modernism, Chagall. The accompanying glorious music of Debussy, Ravel and Ella Fitzgerald lifts you up and carrys you way.
How is all it done? It was created by MELT, scanning the Impressionists paintins in very high resoluition. These close-ups become pigments, fine particles and colored suspended components of the painting. Using an algorithm, the captured images desolve and begin to move, (almost dance really) creating a unique immersive digital work of art.
You can download the free app, MONET, RENOIR...CHAGALL to have the experience if you can't make it to Paris. Thanks for reading PB. Please share with friends.Take care everyone out there🙏🏻 Enjoy Paris letters 💌and watercolors in your own mailbox 📬Xxx❤️Carolg🐻Bear
Yesterday I ran to my pool🏊♀️ in the Marais almost making it. But the pool was fermé/closed for 'incident technique' as they say.
Instead I went to the Azzedine Alaia Collector exhibit (entry 5€) a few blocks away. His boutique, atelier, bookstore and now plus an outdoor cafe are at 18, rue de la Verriere just behind BHV.
First you watch a 20-minute video (in English 🎉) which clarifies how hands-on Alaia was in producing every single step of a garment.
And what a generous friend he was to his models, workers, everyone. Alaia (1935-2017) seems to have been a kind and dedicated human being different from the elegant, aloof (and beautiful) Balenciaga. Plus he adored dogs.
Then you walk through the labyrinthine exhibit to view the double pairs of Alaia/Balenciaga. I've seen a number of Balenciaga exhibits and thought I understood him. Maybe not.
The back story is Balenciaga's Vice General-Director (an aunt of one of Alaia's assistants) was concerned with the future heritage of his garments.
She offered them to Alaia at reasonable prices. He could not resist and bought garbage bags full of them.
So began his collection of thousands of fashion garments.
He was deeply influenced by Balenciaga's structure, cut, architectural shapes.
Seeing suit jackets, dresses, gowns side by side makes crystal clear how much he was influenced and how similar both their approach was to fashion. Both were sculptors and architects. Yet Alaia had his own particular take on the female body. Early days he designed costumes for les girls at Crazy Horse.
Go. Definitely a worthy exhibit to experience if you love fashion and set in a more intimate environment than the big museums.
Get your scissors ✂️ out for the October accordion Marie-Antoinette Paris letter💌. Paperdoll time. Staying with French women of note theme, I discovered Herstoricalmonuments on Instagram. Ta Da.
True I wasn't keen on the statue of Edith Piaf in the 20th arr. Using poetic license I included her more colorful wax effigy from Musée Grevin.
What's your vote - oui or non?The Paris letters hit la poste 📮on Thursday🎉
On Friday I took Dubliner Rebecca Devaney's delightful Textile Tour of Paris (60€). We were in 'the Sentier', long established site of French haut couture ateliers.
First stop - haberdashery Ultramod mercerie, a shop I've wanted to explore for ages. The colors, the colors 🎨 Rebecca gave us the deets on their vintage satins and silks.
Film industry costumiers come here for the 'Real' thing. The supply is limited so what you see today may not be here tomorrow. Ultramode is a museum.
Have you been in La Droguerie? Another pandora's box of exploding color, beads and buttons. The deal is you pick out a knitting designs.
Then go to the waiting bench. They run around finding the exact amount of yarn/thread for your design. No measuring required on your part. Their specialty is selling small quantities and a vast range of colors.
Every purveyor in Paris has a vast range of exquisite colors like Japanese lace and ribbon company Mokuba nearby. They have a beautiful shop also in the NYC garment district I gazed into when I worked on 7th Avenue eons ago.
What a thrill to go inside and look with an expert guide. The harmonious colors placed side by side are are not left to chance.
Next stop, Au Ver À Soie, home of authentic silk thread in a multitude of colors. Since 1820, their factory in Blois is one of the few still in France to produce the finest grade silk thread from Chinese silkworm cocoons. Open to the public the 1st Monday afternoon of the month.
And they will be at the Aiguille en Fete/ in March 12-15 and so will I, to report back. Lastly we went to Maison Sajou near Passage de Caire for tea and more browsing. Did you ever do cross-stitch embroidery as a kid? The sets here are a tad more advanced. They have collaborations with les Bayeux tapistries and Versailles. Their biggest shop is near the castle with many designs based on patterns M-A actually wore. Sajou's site is in English. They ship all over. I forgot to tell you about the statue of St. Catherine, the seemstress's saint ( see red circle). You'll just have to take Rebecca's tour. Do share with a friend. Get a taste of Paris letters 💌and watercolors in your own mailbox 📬Xxx❤️Carolg🐻Bear
