before the weather here turned to the dead of winter I managed enjoy some sunshine at the Jardin des Plantes. This was 2 weeks ago and I don't think I have seen the sun since then. I had no idea that Paris can keep such beautiful flowers growing even in October, it was like it was the middle of summer. The colours were just beautiful and it made me think of my grandma and when she took me to Kew gardens when I was younger. Seeing these beautiful flowers a tiny bit made up for the fact that I didn't get to see the gorgeous flower structure at the Dior show. By the way, Raf Simons has left Dior !! Can we just discuss that for a second? I was shocked. He has been at Dior a little over three years and given the universal praise he received for all his collections and for making the house up-to-date and relevant for today I was really surprised and a little sad to hear him leaving already. He had spoken in interviews about the immense pressures of the fashion week calendar and of having turn out a stupid number of collections every year with no real time to creatively develop the process or reflect on concepts or ideas and so I wonder if perhaps that was his personal reason for leaving. When Galliano was fired from Dior following what happened I remember thinking what an idiot he was for having thrown away the opportunity of being at the head of Dior and holding so much creative power. But actually now I can't help but wonder if the very nature of modern fashion is putting a strain on the creative roots of fashion. Now that designers have to churn out as many collections a year as possible to increase revenues, maybe the surpression of their innate and intelligent creativity is driving them all a little mad and so fair enough if Raf wanted out before it all got too much. I have often wandered how Karl Lagerfeld manages Chanel, Fendi, his own label, his cat's modelling career, amongst other things, and somehow remains sane. We'll never know.
I guess maybe that Raf's departure explains the extravagant floral structure created for the Dior show. It turns out it was Raf's last. I am intrigued to see who takes the helm post-Raf and will no doubt be eagerly awaiting their first collection come February. Thanks to Raf for helping me to fall in love with a fashion house founded by someone who walked these very same halls as me at Sciences Po.
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Every year in October, Montmartre celebrates the Fête des Vendages. When I attended the firework display taking place on the Saturday evening I actually didn't know what the Fête was for but I have since done some research (thanks Google!). It turns out there is a vineyard on the hills of Montmartre and every year there is a festival to celebrate the grape and the wine that it produces. There is apparently wine and artisan foods on offer during the day as well as talks, concerts and other merriments. We didn't know any of this so just attended the fireworks in the evening which in hind-sight is a bit of a shame. Although a few days before hand I had walked past one of the men who roasts chesnuts over a trolley (yes, only in Paris) and the smell had reminded me of bonfire night which is on November the 5th in England. I was kind of sad that this isn't a thing in Paris and that I wouldn't get to see any fireworks so the Fête des Vendages came as a nice surprise! The fireworks were pretty good although they kept starting and then stopping so you were never really sure whether they had actually ended and it was completely packed so that you could barely move. Not as good as the Bastille Day fireworks but a nice alternative to Bonfire Night which i'll miss in the UK. I'll have to make sure to try some of the wine at one point this year!
Before the madness of fashion week kicked in I made sure to visit the Hermès pop-up exhibition on the Berges de Seine before it finished. It was a completely mad but completely cool exhibition and journey into the mind of a "flâneur". Flâneur - a man who saunters around observing society The exhibition itself literally encouraged you to wander and observe. It started in a white room with light projections all around and then you go through a giant wardrobe, whilst secretly reliving your childhood dream and hoping Narnia is on the other side. Then you wander along dark corridors with plastic horse heads in glass cabinets displays, sticking their tongues out whilst surrounded by gorgeous Hermès bags. You encounter solitary lamposts, a mix of dark silhouettes and light accents causing you to question the way you see and perceive even everyday objects. The whole way round the exhibition offers your mind the chance to explore and form its own paths of thought of what you are seeing, and where it is taking you, all whilst giving an insight into the mind of Hermès, their strong heritage and history and the very essence of the maison. You round a corner and encouter a brasserie/bar (which I think should have served actual drinks), but its not just a "bar". It showcases jewellery so that they look like captured and preserved specimens in scientific experiments. It utilises tiny digital screens within ordinary, everyday objects such as the paint palette to really give the scene another dimension and a kind of 'out-of-this-world' feeling whilst being completely rooted in an 'everyday' surrouding. You leave the brasserie and round the corner and find you've wandered into downtown Manhattan, and all the walls have been emblazoned with bright graffiti and colour, with a real raw and undone edge, before following the next corner and finding yourself in an Alice in Wonderland enchanted, victorian/edwardian living room where the tea set lifts itself off the table and the chandelier makes you thirsty. I kind of want to describe the whole exhibition as bonkers but brilliant. It made use of modern digital technology to really encapsulate your mind and senses and to transport you a own little journey through not only your own mind but the mind of Hermès, through different places and periods, be they artistic, fashion, everyday life. Hermès has always retained a strong sense of its heritage and roots, and a particular 'savoir-faire' in terms of the quality of its products and I think this was a really great opportunity to not only see this displayed up close but to also have a better insight in to the more abstract side of how Hermès thinks and the notions of really exploring, wandering and discovering.
I would thoroughly have recommended you check this exhibition out but since it has already finished I hope that this post can give you some insight or inspire some of your own thinking and i'll be looking out for any other Hermès popups in the near future. http://lesailes.hermes.com/fr/fr/dansloeilduflaneur So this week was Paris Fashion Week. This was hugely exciting for me because I have never had the chance to be in a city when fashion week is happening, let alone Paris which hosts all my favourite french fashion houses. I've been working with the fashion society at Sciences Po and I created a short teaser video to promote fashion week before it got started: I have spent the week fan-girling outside some of the biggest shows, trying to snap a few pictures of my favourite bloggers/celebrity attendees/industry legends. At times I felt like a complete idiot but I absolutely love the madness of the whole thing and it has been an amazing experience to be able to be so close to it all. I would obviously love to be able to attend and see the shows for myself but for now just being outside, seeing people entering and exciting, hearing the music, etc. will have to do. Check out my different blog posts about the shows I "attended" by clicking below: I also found this cool new feature I can add to my blog so here is my summary of Paris Fashion week in numbers: DAYS
FASHION SHOWS
TWEETS FEATURING PARIS FASHION WEEK IN THE PAST 7 DAYS
TWEETS FEATURING KENDALL (JENNER) IN THE PAST 7 DAYS
We made the final show of the week Valentino, held in the Jardins des Tuileries. I would loved to have gone to Louis Vuitton this morning but alas, I had classes all day. It was actually really nice that it was held in the Tuileries because there was so much open space outside and there wasn't the same rigidness of all these barriers and huge security men as at the other shows. All the guests were walking to the venue on a kind of white carpet which was lined with photographers, general public, fashion week groupies etc. So it meant you had the chance to be really close to people and the looks people were wearing which were just gorgeous. Valentino clothing is so stunning and so wearable. Kristina Bazan was there and this time I asked her for a selfie and she was so nice and stopped to take one with me. I massively fangirled. She's beautiful and was super smiley and friendly, just like she is in her snapchat stories which I watch religiously. I was a little over excited at the selfie that I basically didn't take any other photos of any of the gorgeous 'street style' that was happening. Elena took these photos below and it just gives you an idea of the stunning clothing people were wearing. Below is a picture of backstage at Valentino and front of the venue so you can appreciate the crazy mass of people and also glimpse the behind the scenes that goes into a show. The show music was stunning and when I could hear it I thought it reminded me of some kind of journey, or film soundtrack. The tribal, explorational theme to the collection fitted this perfectly although I am intrigued what people will make of it because Kylie Jenner was given a lot of grief for the time she braided her hair and its "cultural appropriation", and all the models in Valentino had braided hair. P.S. The Tuileries are beautiful at the moment because all the trees are different shades of Autumn. Just watch out for conkers falling if you're walking under them!
Tuesday morning, 10am, Le Grand Palais, Paris. The Chanel fashion show has to be one of the most highly anticipated shows of the week and with a sneak preview of their invite promising an airline theme (I totally called airport lounge by the way, ask my friends) my excitement was real. Chanel also promised a seriously high-end front row and it did not disappoint. We were situated by a side entrance, behind a hilarious group of British paparazzi guys who you could tell could not care about fashion, joking about some of the more eccentric looks ("She must of not had a mirror when she did her makeup this morning" or "She looks like she was out drinking with me last night"), and being generally entertaining. I had the chance to see and snap some great celebrities though, and I saw Anna Wintour again (*swoons*) I managed to catch Cara Delevigne and Kendall Jenner in a photo exiting the Chanel show (below left) which I think is a pretty big achievement and I got a selfie with the male face of Chanel, Baptiste Giabiconi (below right). A pretty successful morning, even if I couldn't see the show itself (which I have since watched and wow, the set. There is such an incredible mundaneness to these Chanel sets of situations people encounter everyday but they bring such fantasy to it by combining it with Chanel clothes and making it such a spectacle). On Monday evening I attended the Saint Laurent show which was held at Carreau du Temple. We wanted to get there early before the show started at 8pm so that we could get a good view of who was arriving. We had dinner before hand in a place just round the corner which had this really cool, healthy(ish) vibe. It was very fashion week but not very french I would say. I loved the worn-out, white washed interior and the "pizzette" was really tasty. After we'd fuelled on food we installed ourselves outside the entrance to the venue with cameras at the ready. All the guests were very much dressed in the Saint Laurent style, a kind of unique glam grunge, effortless chic, but also a toughness. The venue (below) actually also fits this aesthetic because there's something very raw and tough about a warehouse/marketplace building. (Yes, it was pouring with rain. I am that keen) Lily Donaldson's was my absolute favourite look entering the show. The dress was completely gorgeous and it was full on glittery without looking like a 5 years old's princess dressup costume. She is obviously gorgeous too. By the end of the show and at this point in the week we had started to learn that the "big" names often enter and exit from a side or back entrance to avoid the crazy paparazzi and fans. So once the show had finished we stationed ourself at the side hoping to spot someone leaving (you can laugh, we are losers).
Imagine our excitement when we see Anna Wintour leaving through a side door - her hair is really as amazing in real life as it always looks in photos! She was just so poised. She didn't stop for photos though, that woman means business. We also saw Selma Hayek leave. She walked over to her car, posed for a few photos and then turned to a body guard and said "I can't open the car door myself" ... I was stunned. Do celebrities really think that much of themselves that they won't even open doors themselves? But then someone pointed out she is married to the richest man in France so I guess she doesn't need to open her own doors. We saw an old man leave the side door and we didn't recognise who it was and didn't want to disturb him with our flashes because he looked kind of old. After he'd walked away and was receiving quite a bit of press attention I realised it was only Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's partner! So it was pretty cool to see him. I would love to have asked him what he thought of the collection because he would know Yves better than anyone and understand his vision. Managed to also get a selfie (below right) with the super friendly Thomas Brodie-Sangster who played the kid in Love Actually. His airport scene is one of my absolute favourites and just brings me so much happiness so seeing him was unexpectedly cool. On Sunday morning we attended mass at Notre Dame. Well actually we happened to be in Notre Dame when mass was happening on Sunday. I am not really religious but I have to say the priest's voice was very soothing and now that I have sent off my Chanel internship application I am regretting not having made more of an effort to connect with Jesus. I said in one of my earlier posts that going into Notre Dame was on my list of things to do. It is honestly absolutely stunning inside, as it is outside. It really is incredible how these huge, intricate stone structures were built so many years ago using no machinery, just simple skill, hard work and time. I don't think our modern generation would have the patience for it anymore. It also seems that in our modern World with all its war and distress, people seem to be attempting to tear down religions, not build huge, magnificent buildings in their honour. I love the stained glass windows in Notre Dame, they are just beautiful. I love the way the different panes and images form these gorgeous patterns which reminded me of Kaleidoscopes. Perhaps because I am not religious and don't appreciate the importance of the image in a stained glass window I was drawn to the patterns and the bold colours which completely contrast the stone interior. The windows really are a thing of beauty in themselves.
This weekend Tom was here visiting which was so nice. I feel like I’ve been completely spoiled for visitors recently with Dad here last weekend and Tom this weekend. It also means I’ve done a lot of exploring (and eating) which I wouldn’t have done on my own so its been really great. On Saturday night we went up the Tour Montparnasse because they have a viewing deck and I absolutely love panoramic views. We also timed it to be up there so we could see Paris in the day, Paris at sunset, and Paris at night. The views are beyond stunning and I really wish I had a better camera than just my iphone to capture and share with you how beautiful Paris is. It only costs 15€ to go up there and they have a bar where you can get drinks that aren’t any more expensive than your average Parisian brasserie. It was honestly absolutely beautiful and I would more than recommend on a clear day. We waited until it was dark and the Eiffel Tower lights were on and sparkling, because this is absolutely magical and cannot be missed if you are visiting Paris. The video I filmed of this is below. It was a perfect end to this gorgeous weather which has now turned into grey drizzle. On Friday I went to the Dior fashion show. Ok this isn't technically true, but it's also not a lie. I did go to where the Dior show was being held. I just didn't go in to the venue and I didn't see the show, but not for lack of wanting to. I was hoping to be able to at least see the stunning venue Dior had constructed for the show, covered in thousands of flowers, but even this was virtually hidden out of view, through a mighty stone archway, the inaccessible gateway to fashion heaven, only for those dressed in Dior and carrying invitations. It really is becoming more and more incredible to me the lengths that fashion houses go to for their shows, which in fact last no more than 15 minutes. There is also such a huge element of celebrity that goes with these shoes. I was hoping to see Rihanna at the Dior show but was a not best pleased that she entered and exited from a different place to where most of the guests did. Although I can't say I blame here with the absolute crazy mass of people outside the main entrance. Watching Emilia Clarke leave the venue, completely swarmed by people, even when surrounded by a circle of huge body guards made me considerably less envious of her. Regardless of not being able to attend the show, most of the guests attending where actually wearing Dior so it was a great opportunity to see the clothing up close and to experience the madness of the photographers shouting for attention up close. I was also within touching distance of the legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino which was incredibly exciting, although it seems he prefers to be behind the camera and not in front of it! And finally, for anyone who thinks I am living the glamorous Parisian fashion dream at the moment, here is me squashed up against a wall and a random stranger loving life. Saint Laurent show tonight at 8pm.
Chanel show tomorrow at 10am. Bring it on, Fashion Week. |