French Fashion Week
2011 Spring Summer Fashion Week
Rue Faubourg Music twitter.com Prabal Gurung is really hot right now and Alex Wang is the other new name to watch. The semi-annual New York Fashion Week, branded Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2009, is held in February and September of each year in New York City. It is one of four major fashion weeks held around the world (along with those in Paris, London, and Milan) The first New York Fashion Week, then called Press Week, was the world´s first organized fashion week. Held in 1943, the event was designed to attract attention away from French fashion during World War II, when fashion industry insiders were unable to travel to Paris to see French fashion shows.
Fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert organized an event she called ”Press Week” to showcase American designers for fashion journalists, who had previously neglected their innovations. (Buyers were not admitted to the shows and instead had to visit designers´ showrooms.
Press Week was a success, and fashion magazines like Vogue, which were normally filled with French designs, increasingly featured American fashion. At the Fall 2009 Fashion Week the public got a taste of technology as it is shaping the future of fashion. It is not only making it cheaper and easier for designers to create their collections, it is also saving them travel time as many broadcast their lines over the Internet. Many designers opted to not only market online but also sell exclusively online. Designer Norma Kamali and the Polo Ralph.
The French capital has always been a fashionable destination, while some world cities fall in and out of favor, Paris’s blend of history, art, architecture, and bohemian culture keeps it eternally in style.
Accommodation in Paris reflects centuries of changing trends. Beyond the old-fashioned opulence of the Ritz and the George V, there’s a new generation of hotels bringing fun and modernity to a Parisian trip. Historic Haussmann-era buildings sport designer refits complete with high-tech gadgets and sleek new furnishings, at a fraction the price of their elite counterparts.
In time for Paris Fashion Week 2011, Franco Files rounds up the chicest urban hotels in Paris.
Seven
This boutique four-star hotel in the fifth arrondissement has standard guest rooms in three bold styles, plus seven individually-styled suites. Neon lighting, transparent showers, and Swarovski crystals are some of the more subtle design points, with levitating beds, suspended tubs, and a bathroom chessboard covering the more whimsical end of the design spectrum.
Pershing Hall
A block from the Champs-Élysées is the four-star Pershing Hall. Though guest rooms are muted in design, an illuminated atrium brings color and drama to the dining patio. A vertical garden creates a “living wall” that changes hue throughout the day, creating an ambient space for the restaurant and a favorite night spot for locals.
Le Secret de Paris
Convenient to the Saint Lazare station, this 29-room four-star hotel offers six different themes. These include “Eiffel,” which features wall murals depicting the view from the Eiffel Tower, and “Atelier d’Artiste,” which emulates living in an artist’s Parisian loft. Mod-cons include free Internet, flatscreen TV, music system, multi-function shower, and boutique toiletries.
Le Vignon
Smart white rooms with pretty country accents feature in this four-star property next to the Church of Madeleine in central Paris. Modernized loft rooms, bespoke art, and plush beds make this a comfortable and stylish stay with excellent access to Paris’s main sights.
Hotel Élysées Mermoz
A short stroll from the Arc de Triomphe, this newly-renovated four-star boutique features contemporary classic design in warm tones. Juliette balconies give guests quaint Parisian street views, while flatscreen TVs, iPod docks, light-blocking curtains, and L’Occitane bath products ensure all modern requirements are met.
Hotel Cambon
Next to the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre Museum, this four-star property has one of the best positions in Paris for sightseeing. Paintings, vases, rich fabrics, and trompe l’oeil murals create whimsical living spaces, with some guest rooms featuring private terraces and French windows.
Best Western Opera Diamond Hotel
Close to Saint Lazare railway terminal, this is stylish monochrome property diverges from the conventional Best Western design. With only 30 rooms, guests can enjoy a boutique experience plus a long list of in-room conveniences like iPod docks, Nespresso machines, and WiFi. Guests can retreat to an immaculate French garden in the courtyard.
Pavillon Nation
This modern three-star hotel in the 11th arrondissement features sleek contemporary décor and full meeting facilities. Close to the metro, it’s one of the few budget-friendly chic hotels in Paris, offering fully renovated rooms, free WiFi, and cable channels.
Ares Eiffel
Versace tile and Bang&Olufsen sound systems feature in this elegant four-star boutique close to the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower. Baroque fabrics and rich textures create luxurious living spaces, complemented by free WiFi and flatscreen TVs with movies on demand.
Le Bellechasse
With every square inch designed by Christian Lacroix, this four-star boutique is a super stylish retreat – just a block from the Seine River and a few steps from Orsay Museum. There are three categories of room – “Discovery,” “Original,” and “Privilege” – each with a range of color and design themes.
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French Silver Fashion
Silversmithing is a sector of excellence of French craftsmanship, which has experienced a continuous development in the middle ages and a major revival in the classical era. Later, renowned companies heirs of this golden age or the industrial revolution, girls will wear at a very high level of innovation and creativity of the sector.
Silversmithing relates to the manufacture of objects made from precious metals, mainly gold and silver. The silversmith craft actually combines several specialities which are sometimes trades full: glider, Turner-repousseur, editor, Carver, polisher-brightener.
Barbarian peoples, who destroyed the Roman empire, were introduced in France and Europe taste of luxury and their masters work of precious metals. With the Christianization, this know-how benefits objects of worship – shrines, shrines, crosses and votive crowns – and continues to grow in the middle ages. The Gothic period, these pieces often take a monumental appearance.
Silversmithing knows a new golden age in the 17th century. Louis XIV command for his expensive lacquerware homes and furniture in solid silver, who come from the Gobelins Manufactory and adorn the Hall of mirrors of the castle of Versailles. In 1689 to finance the war effort, the King melted its silver furniture. In the XVIII th century under the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, silversmithing be miniaturised, leaving us snuff boxes, boxes with portraits, boxes of smell or favors… During the revolution, the corporation loses all its privileges, and countless pieces of liturgical silver is melted.
Large houses, like Odiot, were born in the 17th century. France, then Europe, courts pass command to this dynasty of goldsmiths recognized as one of the most illustrious. Napoleon will be one of the most illustrious customers of the House, who will sign the cradle of the King of Rome, huge Madam mother and Pauline Borghese services or service campaign of Emperor.
Other prestigious houses grow with the industrial revolution. The Christofle silver was born in middle of the 19th century and practice very quickly the gilding and silvering by electrolysis.
It is part of a tradition where nature and wildlife take a special place. A tea service can thus take the form of a PEAR and wear on its flanks Silver butterflies. Napoleon III instructs all the Empire table services this House also sought by the Emperor of Mexico or the Russia Tsar. It becomes the supplier of ministries, embassies, parliaments worldwide, but also the hotel of luxury, and until today, the Palace of the Elysée Palace in Paris.
Another great House, Puiforcat, created in 1820, will be a resurgence in the interwar avant-garde and stripped style that showcases the metal. Or even Ercuis, the name of a small village of Oise, including the young priest climbed in 1867 a firm religious silversmith. Ercuis specializes in arts of the table, tea and coffee services as well as massive silver cutlery. The plant is still in his home village.
In recent years, have worked for these homes of designers like Ora dayglo and Putman for Christofle, Francois Bauchet for Ercuis, Hubert Le Gall Odiot, Claude Bouchard and Patrick Puiforcat June.
Nantes silversmithing
French leather: an invitation to travel
To understand the history of leather France Deluxe and assessing developments, should be back in the 19th century. A period hinge that born two legends: Hermes and Louis Vuitton.
1837, Thierry Hermès founded a saddle and harness factory in Paris in the Madeleine district. The same year, freshly arrived from a small village of Bresse region, Louis Vuitton tries his luck in the capital as an apprentice. It is layetier wrapper malletier and deals while packing goods fortunate to travel clients. At the end of the 19th century, the industrial revolution and transportation stimulated tourism aristocrats where baggage must be both functional and aesthetic.
Click to continue reading “French leather: an invitation to travel”
Categories: Fashion, France Travel Tags: Clothing, culture, Fashion, Hermes, Hospitality/Recreation, louis vuitton, Luxury brands, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A., Malletier, Vuitton
In praise of Carine Roitfeld
Photograph: Tony Barson/FilmMagic
Carine Roitfeld, who has quit as editor of Paris Vogue.
Anyone who regularly attends fashion shows knows that the real action is off the catwalk. And for four years the undisputed star of the front row was the enigmatic Carine Roitfeld and her coterie of mini-Carines that made up Team Paris Vogue. Note that’s Paris Vogue, not French Vogue: the distinction counts.
Categories: Fashion Tags: Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, Fashion journalism, Mass media, Publishing, Vogue
Who Dares Bare?
For some it’s a token of the feminist struggle in France for others it’s sleazy postcards from the Côte d’Azur. Topless sunbathing was once the summer battleground of French post-1968 society – educated middle classes insisted that going “topless” was a women’s right, while family groups claimed exposed breasts would intimidate children.
Categories: Fashion Tags: André Geoffroy, bikini, Breast, France, French beaches, Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Les Halles public pool, mayor, Monokini, Naturism, Nudity, Paris, Public nudity, Saint-Tropez, Seine, skin cancer, swimming, Swimming pool, swimsuit designer, Swimsuits, Toplessness, United States
France May Ban the Burqa
According to a French government spokesman, France will study the small, but growing, trend to wear the burqa (or niqāb), with a view to banning the Islamic garment from being worn in public.
Speaking on France-2 television, Luc Chatel said that the government would look to set up a parliamentary commission that could propose legislation aimed at barring Muslem women from wearing the burqa and other fully covering gowns outside the home.
Categories: Fashion Tags: Burqa, Council for the Muslim Religion, Dalil Boubakeur, Dresses, Eric Besson, Fadela Amara, France, French government, Gowns, head, Hijab by country, Imigration Minister, Islam in France, LE PARISIEN, Luc Chatel, Niqāb, Paris Grand Mosque, Person Communication and Meetings, spokesman, Urban Affairs Minister, Veil
Collections Cathy Pill
Born in Belgium, Brussels based Cathy Pill completed her studies at l’E.N.S.A.V. de La Cambre and has worked for A.F. Vandervors and Vivienne Westwood.
After winning a slew of awards, including in 2003 the Collection of the Year contest It’s-Two in Trieste, in 2005 two awards of the Foundation Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint-Laurent and the fashion house Yves Saint – Laurent Andam contests in France, the price in Italy Fabio Inghirami and the Prix Modo Bruxellae Belgium, Cathy Pill launched her first collection of ready-to-wear during the Fashion Week in Paris in October 2005.
Now aged 27, recently married and with her first baby on the way, Cathy already has everything lined up for spring. She gets a jump on the season by showing her ready-to-wear ahead of her peers during Paris Couture week and what she’s up to is getting better by the season.
She belongs (in spirit, if not geographically) to the cohort of young modernist print talents that has been on the rise in Europe, like Josh Goot and Peter Pilotto.
Pill also has a mathematical brain that approaches the draping of a dress like a geometry problem. She aims to have dresses that are as easy as T-shirts to put on and says “I’ve gone through everything, thinking what I want to wear.”
Collections Cathy Pill is distinguished by the clever use of printed fabrics and shapes, to create modern feminine silhouettes.
Categories: Fashion Tags: A.F. Vandervors, Belgium, Brussels, Brussels Brussels-Capital Region, Cathy Pill, Europe, Fabio Inghirami, France, Italy, Josh Goot, Laurent Andam, Paris, Paris France, Peter Pilotto, Trieste, Trieste Province of Trieste, Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint, Yves Saint Laurent Groupe SA
Paris Couture Week
“More Dior than Dior” was the way that Christian Dior billed its spring summer haute couture collection last week. It was the leading major show of the Paris Couture Week, and proposed the first answer as to how the luxury fashion houses could provide an aesthetic response to the recession.
An profuse designer such as John Galliano was scarcely likely to present an austere, “credit crunch chic” collection, particularly as couture is about visionary, made-to-measure creations that showcase the skills of the fashion house and justify the price tag to the buyer. Instead, he returned to the essence of the Christian Dior label under its founder, then put his own exuberant historical variation on it.
Revisiting the roots of a brand is an conventional way to respond to hard times, and president and chief executive of Dior, Sidney Toledano, said that couture sales had seen “double-digit growth,” because Galliano had returned to “truly interpreting the Dior codes and the Dior cuts”. Consequently, the classic Dior profile of bar jacket of the late 1940′s, with its nipped-in waist emphasised by flared hips and a full skirt, was seen throughout the show. The amount of fabric used in Dior’s new look might have created outrage in post-war years, but the full skirts shown by Galliano last week made their iconic predecessors look almost skimpy.
The dreamy material of several of the dresses had an aristocratic feel – as if the wearer had successfully made a fairy-tale dress out of the curtains in her château … a sartorial echo for those couture clients whose finances aren’t recession proof after all.
Categories: Fashion Tags: Christian Dior, Dior, John Galliano, Sidney Toledano
Bikini – Swimsuit Tendance
Who doesn’t want to look fabulously cool in a swimsuit or bikini? When someone in incredible beach body puts on a swimsuit the beauty can be almost obscene.
Hemlines may rise during times of economic capriciousness, but this summer there will be more fabric involved in swimwear than we’ve seen for a long while. After years of the string bikini’s absolute poolside reign, the one-piece swimsuit will enjoy its moment back in the sun as a fashionable holiday wardrobe staple.
Photo: Vincent Boiteau
Categories: Fashion Tags: beautiful women, bikini, Elle Macpherson, Emilio Pucci, Kate Moss, Matthew Williamson, Melissa Odabash, Michael Kors, skimpy, swimsuit, Vincent Boiteau
Paris in Black
Paris, the city of fashion. Particularly if fashion is defined by wearing black. Parisians love to wear black; black trousers, black shoes, black coats, you name it.
Parisian women are peculiarly fond of black clothes. It is well recognized that “le noir, ça mincit”. Parisian women having a cool obsession with looking slender, black is their best friend.
But besides its superb fat-erasing skills, black is a priceless social colour in Paris. With black, you go unobserved.
Categories: Fashion, Paris France Tags: clothes, Fashion, Île-de-France, Paris, shoes, Smurf