The French Journal

NYT: A face cream dynasty

This one is for the style mavens. The D'Ornano family, blue bloods all, have made their mark with some of the biggest brand names in beauty products: Orlane and Lancôme, which the family eventually sold, and Sisley, still under their management, and one of the high-end brands in this category. Daphne Merkin of The New York Times "drops in" on some members of the business dynasty at their Paris apartment, and she accepts them at "face" value (ahem), praising the family's down-to-earth demeanor while sharing a chi-chi lunch of salmon with green sauce (made of money, perhaps) before the family runs off to their place in the country. Infatuated, Merkin admires their willingness to grapple with the innards of a business and proclaims that Proust would have been proud of their products. Would he? ("I would have kissed mamam then and there, but at the moment her face was shiny from a thin cover of Sisley Radiance Anti-Aging Concentrate. Eventually, I made up my mind to kiss her luminous cheek at any cost, even a price as high as $470 a jar, available only at Bergdorf's, Saks, Neiman-Marcus, and Bloomie's in SoHo.")

Still, it's an interesting glimpse behind the heavily brocaded curtain of the French upper classes and the beauty products business, and I hope Merkin left with a big bag of free samples.

The NYer on Rick Owens in Paris

Sorta French. This week The New Yorker's "Letter from Paris" is a profile of fashion designer Rick Owens, a Californian who has relocated his business to Paris, where he is adored. Now in his mid-forties, punk, bisexual and drug-free after some wild days, Owens looks like Iggy Pop -- a conscious choice: to paraphrase, when he couldn't seduce Pop, he became him. The article follows Owens as he prepares for a Paris Fashion Week show; amusingly, his conservative, 85-year-old father hovers in the background, proud and cantankerous.

"Since the late nineties, stylish women have been wearing Owens’s long, clingy T-shirts, elegantly asymmetrical dresses, and skinny-armed leather jackets, which are constantly in demand at Barneys." His designs for furs are apparently viewed as the first original take on this garment in eons. He calls his style "glunge," that is, a mix of grunge and glamour; Courtney Love and the Olsen twins are fans. (I never thought I'd ever mention the Olsen twins in this blog.)

The article is not on-line, hélas, but the mag is still available at the newsstand. There is an abstract. You can also sample Owens's web site or read an old NYT article about him.

Fashion notes: Paris Fashion Week, Balenciaga versus Dior

Paris Fashion Week has been in session, a matter about which I'm clueless, and which usually makes my eyes glaze over when I try to read about it. Those who are more interested than I should go over to the Style Section of The International Herald Tribune, where there are videos and several articles, including a wrap-up.

Despite my lack of fashion sense, I did enjoy an article in The Atlantic (which has just open its portal to non-subscribers) on the contrasting styles of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior. The article tells how Dior re-introduced "couture" in a big way to post-war France and relates details like how a single dress could take 200 hours to make, fittings could last for three days, and Dior's output was estimated to account for 5% of France's exports in the early fifties. In contrasting the two designers, it's noted that a Dior dress "wore the woman," meaning bodies were forced to conform to the style, while the more austere Balenciaga's fashions "flattered both the svelte and those with curves and a stomach." Dior's reign was short, only ten years, surprising to me, since his name is still so well-known. The reclusive Balenciaga worked until the late sixties.

The inspiration for the article is several books, either newly published or updated, including Christian Dior; The Golden Age of Couture; Balenciaga Paris; and Balenciaga and His Legacy.

(Someone at Typepad must be a fashion maven; its spell-check, which often trips up on the most mundane words, let's "Dior" go through without a hitch. Or should I say "stitch"?)

The Guardian meets some Paris bloggers

For a new column, The Guardian (U.K.) hops onto a Eurostar for a meeting with some Paris bloggers. The focus, however, is less on getting to know them than to glean the benefits of their expertise by being led by the hand around the city, and therefore be spared the difficulty of reading text.

Thus, an interaction with Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini tells us amazingly little about Dusolier, but a lot about The Rose Bakery where they meet for a cup of coffee. Rebecca Perry-Maignant of Chic Shopping Paris (featured last week in TFJ) pokes around in hard-to-find fashion outlets. The bloggers of IVY Paris (which I've neglected, but which deserves a look) suggest a spot to hear some good bands. And lastly, David Lebowitz of Living the Good Life in Paris eats a crepe in the Marais.

To all of the wonderful Paris bloggers who weren't featured, I still love you.

Books -- The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York

I read The NY Times, so I guess I sub-consciously registered that there was such a profession as "perfume critic," but it wasn't until I read a blurb about the new book, The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, that I fully comprehended that a man named Chandler Burr actually had such a job for the newspaper. Burr has written a book which follows the creation of two new scents, one in New York that will carry the endorsement of Sarah Jessica Parker, and another in Paris for the firm of Hermès. I haven't seen any reviews yet, but you can hear an interview with Burr, and read an excerpt from the book, over at NPR. (For some reason, "Chandler Burr" is the perfect moniker for someone who's a perfume critic; as he describes perfumes in the interview, the name feels like it's about 20% natural and 80% made up of synthetic ingredients. And whenever I make a snarky comment about a writer, it usually comes back to haunt me, so Mr. Burr, forgive me. I mean no harm.)

HT French Culture Now.

Books: Style by Lanvin

If you're a fashion maven with a taste for coffee table books, Rizzoli has something for you: Lanvin, by Dean L. Merceron. The book emphasizes the early years of the famed house, when couturière Jeanne Lanvin reigned; according to a review in the NY Times, "When you think of sinuous flappers from the 1920s, their bodies lapped by smooth silk gowns, bobbed hair topped with egrets’ plumes, you may have one of Lanvin’s fashion advertisements in mind. But her signature design was less dramatic." The name had been in decline until recently. Alber Elbaz has taken over design chores to great acclaim, and word is spreading that he has brought glamour back to the label.

Elle has a slideshow of vintage Lanvin fashions. For the most recent designs, go to the Lanvin site.

Dressing like a Parisian

Having dealt with heavenly matters in my first post today about Lourdes, let's now pay attention to earthly concerns: how to develop that Parisian sense of fashion. A few articles have appeared which advise on ways that you, too, in your faraway non-French corner of the world, can dazzle everyone with your flair.

First, from The San Francisco Chronicle, a former Parisian expat offers tips to women on spiffing up their wardrobes. She's big on the idea that nothing is too outrageous; and she likes to garnish her clothing with flowers. It's a fun read, with tips like "let your jewelry move" and "your lingerie must be audacious."

Second, where to buy your bangles? An article from the Sydney Morning Herald includes Paris among its tours of the vintage stores of four major cities (the others being Tokyo, Milan, and Los Angeles). Basic strategy: get out of the tourist areas in and into the neighborhoods. Highlighted are the 9th arrondissement, the 11th, and the 3rd.

Finally, want to see some results? A slide show in the New York Times gives you informal shots of those on the sidelines who attended Fashion Week.

Paris Fashion Week, 2007

It's Paris Fashion Week, when the major designers come to town and show off their spring collections. My attention tends to wander when I try to read too many reviews of these things, and I don't have the time this morning to summarize what's happened thus far, but I can point those of you with a passion for fashion in the right direction.

• First up, remember the International Herald Tribune covers this arena extensively in its Style section. As of today, there are reviews of Balenciaga, Viktor & Rolf, and Yohji Yamamoto -- names that I had a good time typing.
• Second, the IHT's owner, The New York Times, also plays in this yard, with reviews of Balmain, Christian Dior, Maison Martin Magiela, Undercover, and Yohji Yamamoto. Today, there's also coverage of a Californian designer, Rick Owens, who has found favor with the French. And Cathy Horyn, the NYT reporter on this beat, is keeping a blog, On the Runway.
• Lastly, there's Women's Wear Daily, which is like Paris Fashion Week heaven if you must experience the week virtually. There's no particular reason for me to mention Yohji Yamamoto other than that her his name is in the last two data points and I have a thing for symmetry. Her His fashions have a lot of black, which is about as sophisticated as I get in describing collections.

Pierre Cardin's comrade: The Marquis de Sade

Architectural Digest reported recently on an unusual partnership. Designer Pierre Cardin has purchased what are essentially the ruins of a chateau in Provence once owned by the Marquis de Sade, and he has begun a renovation of the property. It's not a restoration exactly; the chateau, made up of crumbled walls, was not easily habitable, as nearby citizens had ransacked the property during the French Revolution, using its stone to build homes of their own. Cardin has started by stabilizing the walls and other structures and then creating a "relatively modest" living space for himself, although this is "modest" only if you're Pierre Cardin and live on a different scale elsewhere. The article is accompanied by a good slideshow of the chateau and Cardin's apartment, with AD's characteristic sumptuous photography.

My favorite line: "A friend, an artist, told me, ‘Pierre, you must buy the castle,' remembers Pierre Cardin..."  Ah, yes, the old "you must buy a castle," routine. How many times have I heard it myself? I get so weary of it all after awhile...

The Guardian helps out Paris fashion shoppers

The Guardian (U.K.), which never met a list it didn't love, has a new one this week on the insiders' top ten places to shop in Paris. This is not my gig, at all, but I accept the idea that Paris means different things to different people, so I'll pass along the selections for them that's got shoes on their mind. For more details, like addresses, be sure to check out the entire article.

1. Designer seconds at Mistigriff.
2. Vintage at Ding Fring.
3. Shoes at Andre.
4. Cosmetics at Viseart.
5. Bargains at Puces de Montreuil.
6. Shoes at Rue Meslay.
7. Secondhand style at Guerrisol.
8. Women's wear at Gaïa Boutique.
9. Up and coming design at Maureen.
10. Kookaï stock. (And I have no idea what that means, even after reading the description.)